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The purpose of this paper is to reassess whether individuals choose to become self‐employed for “pull” or “push” reasons, to discuss and describe ambiguities in this distinction, with focus on differences between men and women, and draw conclusions for further conceptual work.

The paper reviews current literature, from which specific hypotheses are developed. For illustration and evaluation secondary analysis is undertaken of an existing large‐scale data source available in UK Quarterly Labour Force Surveys over the period 1999‐2001.

It was found that 86 per cent state only a single reason for self‐employment. Response patterns differ significantly between men and women. Independence is the most commonly cited motivation but 22 per cent of women cite family commitments. “Push” motivations may account for as much as 48 per cent depending on interpretation. Men who report two or more factors tend to combine “pull” factors, but women tend to combine “push” with “pull”.

Respondents may display recall bias. Potential ambiguity in the way in which respondents may interpret particular motivations points to the need for future detailed qualitative research, and questionnaire item development. Further work is recommended to assess whether conclusions hold in recent recessionary economic conditions.

Clarity between “push” and “pull” factors is important in the design of entrepreneurship policy, especially during a recession. Further work is needed to provide this clarity to inform policy design.

Few previous studies investigate reasons for choosing entrepreneurship using large, population‐generalisable data, and do not consider the conceptual ambiguities inherent in categorising motivations as either “pull” or “push”.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative levels of multiple individual and environmental factors that influence self‐employment motivation in China, Mexico, and the USA and the effect of each factor on motivation for self‐employment in each country.

A survey was administered to 987 students at universities in the USA (n=535), Mexico (n=195), and China (n=257). Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to assure measurement model fit. Hypotheses were tested using ANOVA tests and regression analyses.

Results indicate that: the USA has the individual and environmental factors most favorable to self‐employment; Mexico has the highest level of motivation for self‐employment; independence and risk taking are the best predictors of motivation for self‐employment in all three countries; the predictive capability of independence, risk taking, and social networks appears similar for China and the USA; and the predictive capability of informal institutions, government support, and legal support appears similar for China and Mexico.

In spite of abundant research on factors involving motivation for self‐employment, little research has tested relationships among sizable sets of these factors in different countries. This paper examines the effects of multiple individual and environmental factors on self‐employment motivation in China, Mexico, and the USA.

Family business successors have three career options. They may find a job, start their own business or join their family business and eventually take it over. This broadens the scope of a common entrepreneurial dilemma of whether to start a new venture or seek hired employment. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the problem from multiple angles in two different socio-political environments.

A survey was conducted among senior students in 34 countries with 109,000 participants. Several influencing variables such as family business background, motivation for self-employment, university environment and family business performance were defined. The used multinomial logistic regression with categorical three-dimensional independent variable allows to capture the complexity of an individual’s approach to career choice intention taking into consideration family business performance, personal motives for self-employment and university support for entrepreneurship.

All hypotheses include succession intention as a central category. There is significant correlation between friendly and supportive environment for entrepreneurship at university and the successor’s career choice. Performing family business is positively connected with the succession preference compared to the other two career alternatives. In the market economy group, students, who attended at least one entrepreneurial course, exhibit a significant preference for succession compared to employment. Male students are more likely to choose succession career than employment and founding a new own venture than succession. Students with family business background exhibit significant preference towards succession.

Some EU countries have a common denominator of almost 50 years of communist regime experience, which broke the entrepreneurial tradition and for a couple of decades prolonged the development the market economy. The value of the study is in the model comparison of transition and market based economies in the EU.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the entrepreneurial learning and support needs of older unemployed, highlighting the barriers that need to be addressed, and to explore the impact of a tailored entrepreneurship training programme.

An interpretivist philosophical standpoint is adopted with an action research approach to engage key informants to design, implement and evaluate the programme. Focus groups and interviews with 132 older unemployed individuals and 50 stakeholders across six countries were conducted as well as pre- and post-programme evaluations and surveys with 55 programme participants across three countries.

This research provides a deeper understanding of the entrepreneurial learning and support needs of older unemployed.

The small sample size of participants measured using a hybrid measure of ESE is a limitation.

For entrepreneurship educators, the components of designing and delivering an entrepreneurship programme for older unemployed are identified. For enterprise and unemployment support agencies, it provides evidence of the initial and ongoing support needs for starting and running a business in later life.

A framework specific to older unemployed individuals turning towards self-employment or entrepreneurship is proposed and tested in this paper. The framework proposes that individual and contextual antecedents influence the decision to become self-employed in later life and that the training, support and entrepreneurial experience helps to overcome barriers and shapes individual and societal outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the experiences of work–family conflict (WFC) and health- and sleep-related outcomes differ among traditionally employed and two forms of self-employment (SE): incorporated and unincorporated workers. Moreover, to explore whether the rationale in one’s decision to enter SE might influence these experiences, the authors additionally examined work-family (WF)- and non-WF-related reasons behind an individual’s decision to pursue incorporated vs unincorporated SE status.

Using anonymous Mechanical Turk survey data from a high-quality US adult worker sample (n=711; 62 percent male, age M=33.94) consisting of traditionally (78 percent) and self-employed individuals, the authors conducted an analysis of covariance to test hypotheses regarding the relationships between employment status, reasons for pursuing SE, WFC, sleep disturbance, sleep hours and physical health complaints.

Results showed WFC was positively related to sleep disturbances and physical health complaints and this relationship was exacerbated for self-employed workers, particularly those who were incorporated. Unincorporated self-employed individuals indicated more WF-balance-related reasons for pursuing SE compared to incorporated workers. Moreover, individuals who pursued SE for WF-balance reasons tended to report fewer negative reactions to WFC.

SE is associated with more negative sleep and health-related outcomes in response to WFC. This is particularly true for incorporated workers. Individuals should bear in mind these outcomes when considering whether to pursue SE. Moreover, governmental policies, and calls for change in such policies, should not only address financially related detriments (e.g. higher taxes, fewer benefits and protections) but also increasing support and providing resources (e.g. health insurance, family leave and entrepreneurial workplace initiatives) regarding the work/family and health-related impairments common for this growing, independent portion of the workforce.

This is the first study to examine WF-related rationales for pursuing SE and differing sleep and health outcomes in response to WFC as a function of SE status and type.

As part of the European Social Fund‐supported Retail Enterprise Network project, which aims to strengthen and support the work of independent retailers and service providers, this paper explores gender‐based differences related to entrepreneurial activities in the UK. The paper looks at differences in motivating factors, personal variables in the make‐up and background of entrepreneurs, as well as in business and structural variables related to the small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises run by men and women. Findings show clear gender‐related differences in terms of educational background, family support and attitudes and ambitions, as well as related to the availability of start‐up capital, networking opportunities and the related maturational variables of turnover, return on investment and growth rates. Discusses current opportunities particular to female entrepreneurs and evaluates the advice and support services specifically targeted at female business owners. This sets the context for developing an agenda for further research and additional demand‐based support measures aimed at this sector in the context of the Retail Enterprise Network.

The purpose of this paper is to understand gender differences in entrepreneurial intentions as measured by perceived feasibility and perceived desirability, and to explore gender differences in perceptions of entrepreneurship education needs – in terms of programmes, activities or projects – to succeed in an entrepreneurial career from the university student's point of view.

Using data gathered from 3,420 university students in more than ten countries, and applying the Mann‐Whitney non‐parametric test, differences between genders and different intention groups were examined. To reduce the items regarding educational needs, factor analysis was used. Gender differences in educational needs were also examined via Mann‐Whitney Test.

The results confirm that compared to males, female students are less willing to start their own businesses. There are significant gender differences in terms of perceived feasibility and perceived desirability such that although they feel more supported by their families, females are less self‐confident, more tense, reluctant and concerned about entrepreneurship. In terms of entrepreneurial intention, there are fewer gender differences among students; however, differences relating to self‐confidence and family support still exist. Furthermore, students cited establishing entrepreneurial mentoring and an appropriate tutoring structure as the most needed entrepreneurial educational activity/program/project at an academic institution; this was rated higher by females compared to males.

The findings of this paper could help guide educators and policy makers in designing effective entrepreneurship programmes that are customized to respond to gender specific needs to increase entrepreneurial participation.

This study reveals the gender differences in perceived desirability and perceived feasibility which impact entrepreneurial intentions. Gender differences in the entrepreneurial programmes/activities/projects required at an academic institution to promote entrepreneurial participation among university students is also explored.

This study generates an aggregated overview of the literature on national culture and entrepreneurship (NC&E). The aim is to map the NC&E field via a systematic literature review of 130 articles published in refereed academic journals up to the end of 2022

Two different citation analysis methods are used: bibliographic coupling and co-citation

The results include the most influential studies, top-cited references and journals, and five major thematic clusters. The latter are (1) cultural models, frameworks and case studies; (2) social entrepreneurship, perceived barriers and entrepreneurial intentions; (3) institutions and sociocultural environments; (4) entrepreneurial orientation, cognition and networks; and (5) economic growth, entrepreneurial activity and firm performance

In contrast to previous NC&E literature reviews, this research employs a combination of bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis. The findings offer a clearer understanding of the intellectual structure of this field and suggest new avenues for future investigations, including several relationship links with the resource-based view

In the last decade, the Chinese Government enacted two rule-based policy changes related to property rights, namely, a constitutional amendment to protect the lawful rights of the private sector in 2004 and a property rights law in 2007. Using property rights theory, the purpose of this paper is to hypothesize the contingent effect that these property rights changes have on the investment of individual human and financial capital toward entrepreneurship. In addition, this study also explores whether property rights changes have a differential effect on the two forms of entrepreneurship, namely, opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship.

This research uses logit regression analysis on a two-period model using the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database to test these effects.

Contrary to existing evidence from western contexts, this study finds that property rights changes have a significant influence on the investment of both forms of capital toward necessity entrepreneurship in China.

The use of a secondary database like GEM has certain limitations, such as the non-availability of data on a longitudinal basis, and the need to operationalize certain constructs like social and financial capital as non-continuous variables.

There has been limited research on the phenomena of necessity entrepreneurship in economies such as that of China. The findings of this study highlight that property rights protection is equally important for necessity entrepreneurship in institutional contexts like China.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate student motivation for undertaking an entrepreneurship education programme and their ultimate employment aspirations through a novel data mining technique. The study considered what relationship certain motivation characteristics have to students’ aspirations, specifically in terms of their intention to be self-employed or employed.

The study examined enrolment data of 720 students on an entrepreneurial education programme, with work statuses of full-time, part-time or unemployed and have known aspirations to either employment or self-employment. The Classification and Ranking Belief Simplex (CaRBS) technique is employed in the classification analyses undertaken, which offers an uncertain reasoning based visual approach to the exposition of findings.

The classification findings demonstrate the level of contribution of the different motivations to the discernment of students with self-employed and employed aspirations. The most contributing aspirations were Start-Up, Interests and Qualifications. For these aspirations, further understanding is provided with respect to gender and student age (in terms of the association with aspirations towards self-employed or employed). For example, with respect to Start-Up, the older the unemployed student, the increasing association with employment rather than self-employment career aspirations.

The study identifies candidate motivation and the demographic profile for student's undertaking an entrepreneurial education programme. Knowing applicant aspirations should inform course design, pedagogy and its inherent flexibility and recognise the specific needs of certain student groups.

The study contributes to the literature examining motivations for undertaking entrepreneurship education and categorising motivating factors. These findings will be of value to both education providers and researchers.