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All entrepreneurs interact simultaneously with multiple entrepreneurial contexts throughout their entrepreneurial journey. This conceptual paper has two central aims: (1) it synthesises the current literature on gender and entrepreneurship, and (2) it increases our understanding of how gender norms, contextual embeddedness and (in)equality mechanisms interact within contexts. Illustrative contexts that are discussed include entrepreneurship education, business networks and finance.

This conceptual paper draws upon extant literature to develop its proposed conceptual framework. It provides suggestions for systemic policy interventions as well as pointing to promising paths for future research.

A literature-generated conceptual framework is developed to explain and address the systemic barriers faced by opportunity-driven women as they engage in entrepreneurial contexts. This conceptual framework visualises the interplay between gender norms, contextual embeddedness and inequality mechanisms to explain systemic disparities. An extra dimension is integrated in the framework to account for the power of agency within women and with others, whereby agency, either individually or collectively, may disrupt and subvert the current interplay with inequality mechanisms.

This work advances understanding of the underrepresentation of women entrepreneurs. The paper offers a conceptual framework that provides policymakers with a useful tool to understand how to intervene and increase contextual embeddedness for all entrepreneurs. Additionally, this paper suggests moving beyond “fixing” women entrepreneurs and points towards disrupting systemic disparities to accomplish this contextual embeddedness for all entrepreneurs. By doing so, this research adds to academic knowledge on the construction and reconstruction of gender in the field of entrepreneurship.

Adopting an institutional view of entrepreneurship, this study aims to explore the potential mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) in the relationship between subjective norms and the entrepreneurial intentions of Malaysian students. Additionally, social role theory (SRT) was used to examine whether gender acts as a boundary condition in the proposed relationship.

Empirical evidence was based on responses from 220 final-year students registered from a final-year entrepreneurship module at a private university in Malaysia. The hypothesised relationships were tested using Model 7 of the PROCESS macro.

The findings indicated that subjective norms had a weak but positive effect on the entrepreneurial intentions of Malaysian students. Moreover, ESE was found to mediate the relationship between subjective norms and entrepreneurial intentions. However, contrary to theoretical expectations, gender did not act as a boundary condition in the proposed mediation relationship.

By incorporating SRT with institutional theory, this study sought to address a knowledge gap in the existing literature by investigating and empirically exploring the moderating influence of gender on the mediating effect of ESE in the relationship between subjective norms and entrepreneurial intentions.

The purpose of this study is to make an exploratory analysis of the impact of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) as defined by Acs et al. (2014) on opportunity-driven senior entrepreneurial activity in Latin America.

The research uses data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute of five Latin America countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico), providing a total of 15,019 observations of people that are 50+ years old, between the years 2013 and 2017. A multi-level logistic regression model was used to estimate the relation between the total entrepreneurial activity by opportunity of seniors and some EE indicators. A total of three equations were estimated on the data set described.

This research confirms the relevance of some elements of EE on senior entrepreneurship in Latin America. Entrepreneurial attitudes have a positive relationship with senior entrepreneurs, generating higher levels of entrepreneurial ventures. The combination of institutions that support these attitudes on the EE enhances senior entrepreneurial activity. It also demonstrates that a higher level of entrepreneurial education at postschool stages is relevant to increasing senior entrepreneurial activity.

This research makes some interesting contributions in the field of measuring the impact of EE on senior entrepreneurship by opportunity in developing countries, filling a literature gap. It allows us to glimpse some measures that policymakers could take to improve the entrepreneurial activity of this segment in the region, such as implementing programs that facilitate networking opportunities and mentorship, along with providing training in business and financial literacy.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial passion for founding firms (EPFF) and persistence in venture start-ups and to examine the mediating role of searching and scanning alertness, association and connection alertness and evaluation and judgment alertness (i.e. entrepreneurial alertness).

Using a three-way parallel mediation involving searching and scanning alertness, association and connection alertness and evaluation and judgment alertness, on data from 342 serial entrepreneurs from Nigeria, the authors examined the influence of EPFF on persistence in venture start-ups, through a parallel mediation involving searching and scanning alertness, association and connection alertness and evaluation and judgment alertness.

The authors find that EPFF was not significantly related (positive) to persistence in venture start-ups, but that searching and scanning alertness, association and connection alertness and evaluation and judgment alertness mediated the path through which EPFF impacts persistence in venture start-ups. Thus, entrepreneurial alertness is relevant in explaining the relationship between EPFF and persistence in venture start-ups in Nigeria.

The findings of this study highlight the relevance of EPFF and alertness in explaining persistence in venture start-ups in Nigeria.

To increase the understanding of how entrepreneurship education impacts entrepreneurial careers, the purpose of the paper is to investigate the role that a venture creation program (VCP) might have in mitigating or surpassing a lack of other antecedents of entrepreneurial careers. In particular, the authors focus on entrepreneurial pedigree and prior entrepreneurial experience.

Data from graduates of VCPs at three universities in Northern Europe were collected through an online survey. Questions addressed graduate background prior to education, yearly occupational employment subsequent to graduation and graduates' own perceptions of entrepreneurial activity in employment positions. The survey was sent to 1,326 graduates and received 692 responses (52.2% response rate).

The type of VCP, either independent (Ind-VCP) or corporate venture creation (Corp-VCP), influenced the mitigation of prior entrepreneurial experience. Prior entrepreneurial experience, together with Ind-VCP, made a career as self-employed more likely. However, this was not the case for Corp-VCP in subsequently choosing intrapreneurial careers. Entrepreneurial pedigree had no significant effect on career choice other than for hybrid careers.

Entrepreneurial experience gained from VCPs seems to influence graduates toward future entrepreneurial careers. Evidence supports the conclusion that many VCP graduates who lack prior entrepreneurial experience or entrepreneurial pedigree can develop sufficient entrepreneurial competencies through the program.

This study offers novel evidence that entrepreneurship education can compensate for a lack of prior entrepreneurial experience and exposure for students preparing for entrepreneurial careers.

Recognizing novel entrepreneurial opportunities arising from a crisis is of paramount importance for firms. Hence, understanding the pivotal factors that facilitate firms in this endeavor holds significant value. This study delves into such factors within a representative empirical context impacted by a crisis, drawing insights from existing literature on opportunity recognition during such tumultuous periods.

The authors conducted a qualitative inspection of 14 Italian firms during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The authors collected a rich body of multi-source qualitative data, including 34 interviews (with senior managers and entrepreneurs) and secondary data (press releases, videos, web interviews, newspapers, reports and academic articles) in two phases (March–August 2020 and September–December 2020).

The results suggest the existence of a process model of opportunity recognition during crises based on five entrepreneurial influencing factors (entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial proclivity, entrepreneurial personality and entrepreneurial purpose).

Various scholars have highlighted that, in times of crises, it is not easy and indeed very challenging for entrepreneurs to identify novel entrepreneurial opportunities. However, recent research has shown that crises can also positively impact entrepreneurs and their capacity to identify new entrepreneurial opportunities. Given these findings, not much research has analyzed the process by which entrepreneurs identify novel entrepreneurial opportunities during crises. This study shows that some entrepreneurial influencing factors are very important to identify new entrepreneurial opportunities during crises.

Entrepreneurial trait and behaviour approaches are used to identify differing entrepreneurial profiles. Specifically, this study aims to determine which entrepreneurial competencies (ECs) can predict entrepreneurial action (EA) for distinct profiles, such as male versus female, start-up versus established and for entrepreneurs within different age groups and educational levels.

The research was conducted using a survey method on a large sample of 1,150 South African entrepreneurs. Chi-squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID) algorithms were used to build decision trees to illustrate distinct entrepreneurial profiles.

Each profile has a different set of ECs that predict EA, with a growth mindset being the most significant predictor of action. Therefore, this study confirms that a “one-size-fits-all” approach cannot be applied when profiling entrepreneurs.

From a pedagogical standpoint, different combinations of these ECs for each profile provide priority information for identification of appropriate candidates (e.g. the highest potential for success) and training initiatives, effective pedagogies and programme design (e.g. which individual ECs should be trained and how should they be trained).

Previous work has mostly focused on demographic variables and included a single sample to profile entrepreneurs. This study maintains much wider applicability in terms of examining profiles in a systematic way. The large sample size supports quantitative analysis of the comparisons between different entrepreneurial profiles using unconventional analyses. Furthermore, as far as can be determined, this represents the first CHAID conducted in a developing country context, especially South Africa, focusing on individual ECs predicting EA.

The goal of this study is to identify and validate some selected determinants of early-stage entrepreneurial activity (ESEA) by assessing the impact of entrepreneurial knowledge and skills (EK&S), fear of failure (FoF), the social status of entrepreneurs (SSE) and entrepreneurial intentions (EI) on ESEA.

The study utilised cross-sectional data gathered by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) team from 49 countries, with a total of 162,077 respondents. The data analyses involved correlation, simple regression and path analyses, with a specific focus on testing for mediated and moderated effects. To complement the statistical analyses, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis was also employed.

The path analysis revealed EK&S as primary drivers of EI and ESEA. Also, EK&S moderated the effects of FoF on EI, and the inclusion of EI improved the model significantly. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis result showed that the presence of EI, EK&S, FoF and SSE were sufficient but not necessary conditions for ESEA.

The tested model demonstrates the importance of EK&S and EI, as well as the need to mitigate the effects of the fear factor in promoting entrepreneurial activity. As such, the support of EK&S programmes seems justifiable.

The findings of this study provide a deeper insight into the intricate relationships that underlie entrepreneurial activity by utilising a combination of data analysis techniques.

The purpose of this study is to answer the following questions. What kind of entrepreneurial identities do students have that motivate them to choose either of the entrepreneurship course and university-based incubator? How do students involve in the entrepreneurship ecosystem at university based on their entrepreneurial identity?

For this study, the author began to gather information using previous knowledge and any aspect of a work, namely, from the literature review to represent interpretive syntheses of the meaning-making literature review addressing the research question.

This study suggests what happens to entrepreneur students from academia and the reason that they end up in one of the two aforementioned paradigms. This paper aims to underpin the issue of how various entrepreneurial identities of students cause substantial contributing factors in forming such entrepreneurial activities at university and throughout the entire innovation ecosystem.

Almost all of the content of the entrepreneurship education (EE) courses and incubator training is oriented towards consensual entrepreneurship methods, in accordance with entrepreneurship education. Although the core contents of the EE courses and university-based incubators’ training are the same, the outcomes are quite different.

This study considers the students’ entrepreneurial identities with a focus on their point of view that led them to end up in one of the two common entrepreneurship resources at universities: the EE course and entrepreneurial activities related to university-based incubators.

Drawing on an intersectional perspective on racial, migrant and entrepreneurial identities, this paper investigates the identity work of racial minority entrepreneurs with native-born and migrant backgrounds, confronted to experiences of othering in a White entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The study takes a qualitative-interpretivist approach and builds on six cases of racial minority entrepreneurs in nascent stages of venture development within the Dutch technology sector. The dataset comprises 24 in-depth interviews conducted over the course of one and a half year, extensive case descriptions and online sources. The data is thematically and inductively analysed.

Despite strongly self-identifying as entrepreneurs, the research participants feel marginalised and excluded from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, which results in ongoing threats to their existential authenticity as they build a legitimate entrepreneurial identity. Minority entrepreneurs navigate these threats by either downplaying or embracing their marginalised racial and/or migrant identities.

The study contributes to the literature on the identity work of minority entrepreneurs. The paper reveals that, rather than “strategising away” the discrimination and exclusion resulting from othering, racial minority entrepreneurs seek to preserve their sense of existential authenticity and self-worth, irrespective of entrepreneurial outcomes. In so doing, the study challenges the dominant perspective of entrepreneurial identity work among minority entrepreneurs as overly instrumental and market-driven. Moreover, the study also contributes to the literature on authenticity in entrepreneurship by highlighting how racial minority entrepreneurs navigate authenticity threats while building legitimacy in a White ecosystem.