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The need to develop a greater understanding about the creation of social capital and how this might impact on entrepreneurship and the development of the small‐ to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) sector requires further research. This paper aims to consider to what extent engagement with higher education institutions (HEIs) by SMEs creates social capital and network benefits.

This paper follows the experiences of five SME owners who participated in the Lancaster University LEAD programme (a leadership programme for owner/managers who want to develop their leadership capabilities and grow their business) between 2004 and 2006. Qualitative techniques are used to consider networking activities, use and development of social capital and experiences. A framework for data collection and analysis was developed from the literature review.

Results show that the experience of engaging with the HEI sector was beneficial. Networks provided the opportunity to create social capital and had a positive impact on the development of the SME and the individual. A number of key elements supported this process namely trust in the individuals running the programme, the creation of a supportive environment where individuals were able to share experiences and social events.

This paper has implications for practitioners and the designers of SME engagement programmes at HEIs. For practitioners, this paper demonstrates that by engaging with the HEI sector, entrepreneurial networks can be extended. For designers, this paper demonstrates that the creation of trust and sociability are key aspects for the success of the experience of engaging. However, this must be coupled with content that is rich in reflection.

This paper investigates the importance of team formation in entrepreneurship education, and the authors ask: how do different team formation strategies influence teamwork in higher education experiential learning-based entrepreneurship courses?

Employing a multiple case study design, the authors examine 38 student teams from three different entrepreneurship courses with different team formation paths to uncover potential links between team formation and learning outcomes.

The authors find that team formation mode matters. Randomly assigned teams, while diverse, struggle with handling uncertainty and feedback from potential stakeholders. In contrast, student self-selected teams are less diverse but more robust in handling this pressure. Results suggest that in randomly assigned teams, the entrepreneurial project becomes the team's sole reference point for well-being. Seeking to protect the project, the team's ability to deal with uncertainty and external feedback is limited, stifling development. In student self-select teams, team well-being becomes a discrete reference point. This enables these teams to respond effectively to external project feedback while nurturing team well-being independently.

Education theories' implications about the benefit of team diversity may not apply to experiential learning-based entrepreneurship education's typical level of ambiguity and uncertainty. Therefore, educators may have to reconsider the unique dynamics of team formation strategies to ensure strong teamwork and teamwork outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a homeschool education influences entrepreneurial characteristics and activity.

A collective case study design was used to investigate how a homeschool education influences entrepreneurial characteristics and activity.

From the participant interviews, surveys, and document analysis, three salient themes emerged. First, participants noted that their home education, at least in later years, was largely self-directed and that this independent, self-motivated type of learning impacted their subsequent entrepreneurial activities. Next, participants also related that they believed the alternative nature of their homeschooling education and its emphasis on being comfortable with being different influenced their entrepreneurial pathway. Finally, the third theme to surface was the idea that homeschooling helped develop an internal locus of control, a belief that is helpful in entrepreneurial undertakings.

Research limitations included a lack of generalizability due to a small sample size and possible selection bias.

Despite these shortcomings, however, several implications exist. For example, the findings from this study show that homeschooling may be a viable alternative education method for parents looking to encourage entrepreneurial traits and activities in their children.

Future areas of research were also identified, including a call to research the role locus of control plays in homeschooled students.

This study addresses an area that, to the knowledge of this researcher, is completely lacking from the research literature.

This paper aims to explore the extent to which women’s entrepreneurship in conflict zones is an influential catalyst for liberalising traditionally conservative gender norms. This purpose is achieved by focussing on women entrepreneurs in Gaza and how they actively renegotiate their multiple gender roles and navigate the social order through entrepreneurship.

This paper adopts the interpretivist approach where individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 Palestinian women entrepreneurs operating in Gaza.

The findings demonstrate that the context of conflict itself and its impact on gender norms is a prime motivator for women to engage in entrepreneurial ventures. Some gender roles were constraining and other enabling women to initiate and sustain their ventures to contribute to their families’ well-being. In spite of the fact that the conflict context and entrepreneurship have contributed to enhancing the agency of women and their ability to navigate the conflict and its consequences, the gendered practices and assumptions are still used as guidance for legitimising women’s entrepreneurship.

This paper contributes to the gender and entrepreneurship literature by giving greater visibility to women entrepreneurs operating in conflict zones, which remain under researched. This paper also demonstrates how prolonged conflict instigates social and economic changes that can empower women entrepreneurs while simultaneously reinforcing gendered norms.

This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and becoming of entrepreneurial phenomena in business families and family firms.

Because of the novelty of this research stream, the authors asked 20 scholars in entrepreneurship and family business to reflect on topics, methods and issues that should be addressed to move this field forward.

Authors highlight key challenges and point to new research directions for understanding family entrepreneuring in relation to issues such as agency, processualism and context.

This study offers a compilation of multiple perspectives and leverage recent developments in the fields of entrepreneurship and family business to advance research on family entrepreneuring.

Despite recognition of the value of networking, there has been little research into the networks of female entrepreneurial practitioners, particularly in the science, engineering and technology (SET) sectors, viewed traditionally as male‐dominated. This paper aims to provide greater insights into the dynamics and quality of female entrepreneurial networks.

Insights were derived through a qualitative, in‐depth, interview‐based study of 18 female entrepreneurs operating SET‐based ventures in Northern Ireland. The use of Nvivo as the data analysis tool imposed a discipline and structure which facilitated the extraction of core insights.

Aspects investigated include network type and composition; nature and frequency of engagement; and changes in network composition and networking activities through the business lifecycle. The results focus on implications of the findings for issues of quality in networks and their impact on the value of female networks.

An understanding of these issues offers opportunities to shape government interventions to assist female entrepreneurs embarking on a venturing pathway in SET‐based ventures, or those already operating in business, to be more effective in building, utilising and enhancing the quality of their networking activities.

In exploring networking and issues of quality for female entrepreneurs operating in SET‐based sectors, traditionally viewed as male‐dominated, the paper considers an under‐researched area of the female entrepreneurship literature.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution of “Matriarchy” to the entrepreneurship and family business literature. The literature on gendered aspects of entrepreneurship is expanding and maturing in its level of theoretical sophistication and subject coverage. At the same time, our nuanced understanding of how gender influences entrepreneurial action also expands, as does our appreciation of how men and women do entrepreneurship. It is widely acknowledged that although the theories of entrepreneurship and small business are cognate literature, entrepreneurship has primacy. The heroic male entrepreneur is the master narrative against which we measure other forms of entrepreneurship. The role played by wives, partners, family and employees is often left unstated. In our eternal quest to theorise and explain entrepreneurial action in its entirety, we seldom consider the explanatory power of the sociological theory of “Matriarchy”. Consequentially, in this theoretical paper, we present and discuss several important aspects of the theory which are applicable to our understanding of the diverse nature of gendered enactment within entrepreneurship and small business in which entrepreneurship provides the action to be measured and small business, the setting in which it is encountered. The work primarily concentrates on the theoretical aspects of Matriarchy as well as building upon the extant literature of entrepreneurship, gender and small and family business.

The literature on Matriarchy is presented and analysed in conjunction with appropriate texts from the above literature. The readings help construct a theoretical framework which is tested against narratives of Matriarchial figures encountered via research and written up using retrospective ethnography. This unusual qualitative methodology allows the author to test and develop the utility of the theoretical framework. The resultant narratives and vignettes are both illuminating and enlightening.

The stories of the Matriarchs illustrate how gender differences impact upon entrepreneurial identities and the everyday practicalities of doing business. While the male head of the family may be the titular business owner, many privately defer to the Matriarchal voice which acts as a positive driving force in business, binding a family together.

The theory of Matriarchy offers another powerful explanatory variable in how gendered relationships influence entrepreneurial identities and in making the theory the focal point, we can avoid some of the common assumptions we make when we concentrate on entrepreneurship as the key variable. In perpetuating heroic entrepreneurial narrative as success stories, we as the ultimate consumers of such socially constructed fiction are also complicit. This article, therefore, has the potential to influence how we as authors of such narratives narrate stories of women in family business.

The paper challenges the universality of traditional renditions of family businesses as entrepreneur stories. It re-examines and challenges accepted wisdom building up a discussion, which confronts accepted theories of entrepreneurship and family business.

The purpose of this paper is to address the research questions: which methodologies and data gathering methods are employed by researchers publishing in top entrepreneurship journals, and how has this changed over time?

The data gathering methods of research published in five top entrepreneurship journals between 1985 and 2013, a period of nearly three decades, were recorded.

The data demonstrate that entrepreneurship research is dominated by positivist approaches and data gathering methods, but that this picture is changing over time. The data also reveal differences in methods used in research published in North American and European journals.

It is argued that increased discussion of the limitations, benefits and implications of research methods is needed across the field as a whole. It is concluded that although there is some methodological reflexivity in the field of a macro, abstract nature, there is little at the micro level of individual research designs.

There is a number of existing reviews of methods in the field but none over such a long time period that include such a large corpus of papers. Of particular value to scholars engaged in debates about the proportions and merits of different research methods is the identification of long-term trends away from primary data gathering in general and survey approaches in particular. Debates surrounding the existence of different regional “schools” of entrepreneurship will be informed by the differing patterns of methods found in the five outlets included in the study.

The purpose of this paper is to extend understanding of marketing in MENA by investigating how women entrepreneurs use social networking sites (SNS) in marketing their businesses in Lebanon.

To address contextual issues arising from research in this region, this study consists of a two-phase research design of, first, a panel of specialised business commentators and, second, digital qualitative data collection that enabled access to hard to reach informants.

The study reveals that the activities of women entrepreneurs are fundamentally enabled by SNS as it allows them to optimise their networks in prospecting, communicating and developing relationships with stakeholders. It also allows them to support the social fabric of the family unit by providing an extra source of income and facilitating connections.

This study draws on a single country within the MENA region; nonetheless, the analysis offers new and nuanced understanding to marketing of small businesses in uncovering how Lebanese women entrepreneurs are able to build and run their businesses using SNS.

This research demonstrates how women entrepreneurs can set up and run businesses using SNS to reach and extend their networks in a culturally diverse and growing economy. SNS provides an inclusive platform through which women build and run a small business.

This research responds to a World Development aim of studying the relationships between gender and trade such as women entrepreneurs using social technologies.

This research responds to a World Development aim of studying the relationships between gender and trade, here by investigating how women entrepreneurs set up and run small businesses enabled by SNS.