Because current conceptualizations are insufficient with respect to explaining the termination subprocess of nascent entrepreneurship, little is known regarding the liminal space in which the decision between termination and persistence is made. To solve this problem, we apply the Theory of Action Phases, extend it using the notion of an action crisis, and propose that (i) the extent to which nascent entrepreneurs experience action crises informs the decision between persistence and termination and (ii) the odds of experiencing an action crisis and the temporal length of an action crisis phase depend largely on the goal-directed actions that have previously been taken. We test and find empirical support for our main hypotheses by reference to a harmonized dataset drawn from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED). These findings contribute to both theoretical and practical advancements in the field of nascent entrepreneurship and research on entrepreneurial action. With respect to research, the inclusion of the notion of action crisis allows us to conceptualize termination as a subprocess of nascent entrepreneurship and to explain decisions between termination and persistence in the context of new venture creation. By taking the time-saving and time-delaying effects of actions into consideration, our study also offers a more nuanced view of entrepreneurial action given that the length of an action crisis is informed by the actions of planning and implementation that have previously been taken. In practical terms, we address some lasting problems that arise in the context of entrepreneurship-focused public policies and provide practical advice for nascent entrepreneurs.

While there have been some attempts at investigating and theorizing social entrepreneurial action at the base of the economic pyramid, our understanding of the processes contributing to the formation of social entrepreneurial intention in contexts of extreme poverty remain limited. In this study, we aim to address this gap by providing a better understanding of the formation of social entrepreneurial intentions of youths at the base of the economic pyramid. Drawing on a qualitative grounded approach, we highlight the role of self-confidence, perceived self-efficacy and social ascension beliefs as important drivers in understanding the formation of social entrepreneurial intention of youths at the base of the pyramid. At a practical level, our study suggests that besides developing entrepreneurship-specific knowledge, support mechanisms should also pay attention to the development of different self-related beliefs of youths to enable the formation of social entrepreneurial intention at the base of the pyramid.

PurposeThis study investigates a mediational model between legitimated elements, financial resource mobilisation and subsequent early firm growth among New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) using conformity and control perspectives of legitimacy.Design/methodology/approachTo test the hypotheses, a longitudinal database of 303 NTBFs from Sweden, Finland and France is used. The ordinary least square regression analysis method is applied, and the proposed mediation relationships are studied by employing the four-step approach developed by Baron and Kenny (1986).FindingsThis study finds that based on the conformity principle, two out of three legitimated elements (business plan and incubator relationship, but not start-up experience) have an impact on financial resource mobilisation, which in turn, is associated with early growth in NTBFs based on the control principle. Thus, financial resource mobilisation positively mediates the relationships among the two legitimated elements and early growth in NTBFs.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has several limitations, which also generate promising pathways for future research. Future research should study the relationship between the three legitimacy elements and financial resource mobilisation and early growth across a wider range of firms and settings. The questionnaire was also based on a single point in time and could not capture the evolving nature of the legitimacy elements and fundraising. Hence, future research can examine the multidimensionality of these processes; longitudinal qualitative studies can be a complement, allowing for a better understanding of the impact of legitimacy on NTBFs.Practical implicationsThe findings offer implications for managers of NTBFs because developing legitimacy is critical to NTBFs early growth and development. The findings indicate that NTBFs' founders must systematically develop business plans and that incubators help enhance legitimacy through a signalling.Social implicationsIt is believed that the study meaningfully contributes to the collective understanding of the role of legitimacy in driving the development of NTBFs. Given the importance of NTBFs in our economies, coupled with the lack of attention given to the role of mobilisation of external resources in explaining NTBF early growth, it is believed that the study is both timely and important.Originality/valueThe findings meaningfully contribute to the collective understanding of NTBF growth. While there are studies that have examined the antecedents of growth and finance separately, this study proposes a novel mediational model that integrates both and tests it empirically.

Environmental intention is a key predictor of environmental behavior but there is little theoretical and empirical evidence on environmental intention, especially in developing countries. To address this gap, we study the environmental intention of industrial owner-managers in Tunisia. Based on Tunisia’s participation in sustainable development programs of the United Nations, it seems to be representative of developing countries. We study the environmental intention of owner-managers through a multidimensional concept rarely mobilized in the environmental field, namely, entrepreneurial orientation. We test our hypotheses in the textile-clothing industry, which is the source of significant amounts of water and air pollution and is among the priority industries designated by the Tunisian state as part of an environmental improvement program in 2014.Based on a survey of 226 owner-managers, the results show that the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation, namely, innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking, are robust to predict the environmental intention of Tunisian owner-managers.

In this study, drawing on effectuation theory, we combine analytical strategies for process data to examine inductively and theorize how founder teams' perceptions of uncertainty and behavioral logics develop during new venture creation processes. The results reveal four phases and suggest a possible evolution from a causal conditional relationship between perceived uncertainty and behavioral logics to an integrative relationship. We bring to light the notion of temporality and unanticipated consequences, discuss their central roles in perceived uncertainty, effectuation, and causation, and offer revelatory insights into why and when effectuation is used in relation to uncertainty and entrepreneurial action.

Purpose: the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, using the case of Finnish small business advisors (SBAs), it aims to clarify a controversy in entrepreneurship policy about using public funds to foster solo and micro entrepreneurship. The study reveals the SBAs’ belief systems to facilitate policy-relevant conclusions about their advisory competence, counseling tendencies and probable impact on nascent entrepreneurs and macro consequences like firm displacement. Second, methodologically, the study’s cognitive perspective and method enable researchers to assess the approach and its potential. Design/methodology/approach: the SBAs’ (n=15) belief systems were elicited by interview-based causal mapping. They are summarized using aggregated causal maps and analyzed to understand the SBAs’ dominant mindset and to draw conditional inferences about their professional competence and impacts. Findings: the SBAs have convergent belief systems about the causes and consequences of micro entrepreneurship. They are generally competent to detect and foster viable solo and small micro firms. From a policy viewpoint, however, they ignore indirect effects like firm replication and appear risk aversive, less inclined to promote their clients’ growth intentions and plans. Originality/value: for entrepreneurship policy makers, the study clarifies a controversial issue. It finds clear grounds for public funding of SBA type services, but this may depend on policy goals and local conditions. For the SBAs, the study suggests proactive, income-generating services for improved financing and legitimacy. For entrepreneurship researchers, it demonstrates the potential and limits of the cognitive approach and causal mapping.

© 2018, SAGE Publications. We have little empirical evidence about the environmentally friendly, intention of owner-managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging country context despite recent developments of proenvironmental, practices. The main objective of our study is to address this gap by exploring the antecedents of environmentally friendly intentions among SME owner managers in, emerging market context. To achieve this objective, we test our, hypotheses in the textile–clothing industry in Tunisia. The textile–clothing industry represents high ecological risk due to the waste discharged into the environment. Our empirical observations confirm that the reasoned action approach is particularly robust to predict environmentally friendly intentions of SME owner-managers in an emerging market context.

We explore the factors that contribute to the technological distinctiveness of young entrepreneurial firms. We claim that a young firm's technological distinctiveness is partly the result of entrepreneurs and their orientations toward uncertainty. In certain locations, however, young firms have more means to invest in their technology base. We integrate these two perspectives together, and provide an original explanation and understanding of the technological distinctiveness of young entrepreneurial firms. Our empirical observations among Finnish firms give support to our main hypotheses and therefore highlight the factors that contribute to technology-based competitive advantage of young firms.

Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how entrepreneurial potential is developed among young people. Changes in individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions and the antecedents of intentions are investigated, as well as the impact of entrepreneurship education on the changes. Design/methodology/approach – Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is applied. Longitudinal data from 197 HE students, in their first and third year of studies, is examined using path analysis. Findings – Overall the entrepreneurial intentions of HE students decreased over time. Intentions decreased particularly for those with high initial level of intentions, whereas the group with increasing intentions rose from low to neutral level of intentions. Changes in attitudes and perceived behavioral control have a significant positive impact. Versatile entrepreneurship courses have direct effect on changes in attitudes. Changes in attitudes have a dual role, as they influence change in both intentions and perceived behavioral control. The developed model explains 19 percent of the variance among women and 28 percent among men, suggesting gender differences in development of intentions. Research limitations/implications – Only one way of developing entrepreneurial potential in young people (i.e. education) is covered. The empirical sample is limited to one university. Practical implications – the results suggest versatile methods of entrepreneurship education are more effective in developing intentions than perhaps purely active modes. Gender differences should be considered when designing interventions to foster entrepreneurial potential. Originality/value – the research confirms with longitudinal individual-level data the applicability of TPB on entrepreneurial intentions and demonstrates the mediated impact of versatile entrepreneurship courses on changes in intentions.

In an attempt to explain why some new organizations are established faster than others, we have adopted the perspective that the timely emergence of an organization can be understood and predicted if it is viewed as being conditioned by the initial decisions of its entrepreneurs regarding their opportunities. Using a large dataset of individuals who are in the process of building their ventures in the United States, and who have been followed up on an annual basis as they go through this process, we have found empirical evidence to conclude that the characteristics of an initial opportunity have an effect on the time taken to create new organizations. Given the novelty of the relationships investigated in this study, coupled with the empirical support for some of our hypotheses, we believe our findings can shed new light on the understanding of imprinting forces for timely organization creation.

Purpose: the objectives of this study are threefold: first, to analyze the development of intentions of individuals over time; second, to explore potential gender differences in intention development; and third, to analyze the relatedness of the initial level and development of the antecedents of intentions to the initial level and the development of intentions. Design/methodology/approach: Ajzen's Theory of Planned behavior is applied. Longitudinal data were collected in the fall of 2010, 2011 and 2012 in seven different universities of applied sciences, with students representing seven different study fields. In our data, there are 192 individuals with all three measurement waves and 104 individuals with two measurement waves. The analysis of change on multi-wave panel data is done using latent growth curve analysis with structural equation modeling. Findings: Our empirical results are threefold. First, entrepreneurial intentions of higher education seem to decrease during their studies. Second, there is a gender difference in the initial level of entrepreneurial intentions and how intentions develop over time. Third, the initial level of intentions does not affect the future development of intentions. Practical implications: in sum, the authors believe that the paper makes an important contribution to the field of entrepreneurial education by concluding that intention development in higher educational context is not a simple matter, but a rather complicated process during which young people can realize their true potential vis-à-vis entrepreneurial opportunities. From an educators' point of view, such realization generally means a decrease in an individual's entrepreneurial intentions, which is a phenomenon that does not provide much encouragement for educators. On the other hand, one of the aims of any entrepreneurship education is to give younger people a more realistic picture about entrepreneurship. When someone is willing to start a new business in this kind of context, the authors, as educators, can be a degree more confident that such an individual is not launching his/her venture because of idealistic dreams. Originality/value: By using a longitudinal design, the paper is one of the first to provide empirical evidence about the intention development over time. Ultimately, the paper hopes to have added richness to the ongoing discussion among academics and educators alike regarding the importance of intention development in entrepreneurship education. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

The purpose of this article is to present the results of a pilot study in which the new instrument was developed and tested to measure the formation of entrepreneurial intentions in multi-country context. The developed instrument was largely based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen (1991). In the pilot study, the authors were also paying attention to two issues, namely (i) whether the level of entrepreneurial intentions varies as a function of country of origin, (ii) whether the relative importance of the three antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions varies as a function of country of origin, and (iii) whether the background variables exercise similar effects on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions in different countries. The empirical context of the pilot study is made of two higher education institutions (one in Finland, one in Spain) and concerns their first-year students at undergraduate programs. In the end of this paper, the authors will discuss the implications of the empirical observations of their pilot study. © 2013, IGI Global.

Networks are important to entrepreneurial success. However, most research in this area to date has merely addressed the what; namely, what types of networks enable success. We seek to extend this stream of research by answering the how and the why. In so doing, we elaborate on how entrepreneurs can develop their networks, arguing that in order to create new organizations, nascent entrepreneurs must acquire resources from an increasingly diverse set of relatively stronger and weaker ties throughout the emergence phase. We then hypothesize why this evolutionary path is effective across the various dimensions of tie strength. Analyzing data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics I (PSED I) with multilevel random coefficient growth curve modeling, we find strong support for our hypotheses. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for both academics and practitioners. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

This article contributes to the occupational choice literature pertaining to entrepreneurship by applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to predict entrepreneurial behaviour. Originating from social psychology, the TPB posits that intention, a function of behavioural beliefs, is a significant predictor of subsequent behaviour. In spite of an established stream of scholarship explaining the formation of entrepreneurial intentions, empirical research has not yet employed longitudinal data to examine whether the intention to start a business measured at one point of time translates into subsequent entrepreneurial behaviour. This article provides a full test of the TPB in the prediction of business start-up intentions and subsequent behaviour based on two-wave survey data (2006 and 2009) from the working-age population in Finland. The econometric results support the predictions outlined in the TPB: attitude, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms are significant predictors of entrepreneurial intention; and intention and perceived behavioural control are significant predictors of subsequent behaviour. This research thus provides support to the application of the TPB and the concept of behavioural intention to understand the emergence of complex economic behaviour such as entrepreneurship prior to the onset of any observable action. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Despite evidence that embedded ties are important to entrepreneurs seeking low-cost resources, no research to date has explored how this relationship unfolds in the context of emerging organizations, how the inevitable dependence on ties might drive up resource acquisition costs, or how the manner in which ties are embedded might affect the specificity of these resources. We develop a conceptual model that examines these relationships and, analyzing data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics I, find support for the majority of our hypotheses. We then discuss the implications of our findings for scholars and practitioners. © 2011 Baylor University.

Despite the belief that networks are essential to entrepreneurial success, very few studies consider the role of networks in the founding of new organizations. In response, we test the direct and interactive effects of the characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs' supporter networks and network growth on organizational emergence. We find that (1) the governance and content of the supporter network, along with network growth, are important in predicting organizational emergence, and (2) the structure and content of the supporter network may inform the need for network growth. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for academics and practitioners. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

This article investigates the impact of perceived age norms on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions in the third age. Age norms refer to those social norms that determine whether establishing and running a business are considered appropriate behavior for a mature individual. An empirical analysis of Finnish individuals finds that norms perceived as permissive of enterprising activity in the third age exert a significant positive influence on entrepreneurial intentions in this segment, even when controlling for the general level of entrepreneurship in the municipalities. This influence is partially mediated by whether the individual has a positive attitude toward entrepreneurship, by how the individual perceives their own ability to start and run a business, by the extent of support from their family and friends they perceive and by the importance of that support to them. Thus, if policy aims to increase enterprising activity in the third-age segment, the portfolio of instruments should include measures that address people's general awareness of third-age entrepreneurship as a viable, positive and attractive late-career option. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

This exploratory study investigates the relationship between an individual's socialization into different professional and organizational cultures and their subsequent entrepreneurial intentions. Using age cohorts as a proxy for the duration of work-related socialization processes and changes in the business environment over time, the study proposes that the impact of work history is stronger in 'third age' (50-64 years) than in 'prime age' (20-49 years). The principal finding is that older individuals, those aged 50-plus, who have spent the majority of their career in 'blue-collar' industrial work are less inclined towards entrepreneurship than the working-age population in Western Finland generally. One reason is the perceived lack of support from important social contacts. Contrary to expectations, a work history in the public sector or small businesses does not seem to affect subsequent entrepreneurial intentions. Further research is required to provide a more fine-grained understanding of the impact of work history on entrepreneurial intentions. © the Author(s) 2010.

The contribution of our study is twofold. Firstly, it responds to the great need for the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to examine entrepreneurial intentions in other demographic segments than students. Secondly, we address the topical policy issue of explaining the entrepreneurial intentions of the ageing population (individuals aged 50 or over). We found support for the TPB model in our sample of 531 older individuals in Finland. The most important predictor of entrepreneurial intentions was Perceived Behavioural Control, which is in keeping with earlier studies of students' entrepreneurial intentions. As such, the entrepreneurial intentions of older individuals are mostly influenced by their perception as to how easy or difficult they think starting up a business would be - an issue that policy planners are well advised to keep in mind. Copyright © 2009, Inderscience Publishers.

Previous research has established a connection between initial conditions and new firm performance. Research on the gestation activities of nascent entrepreneurs, on the other hand, has demonstrated the potential importance of active behaviours on firm emergence. Since no research has addressed the effects of these two constructs on firm emergence in an empirical fashion, we frame this paper as an exploratory study designed to answer the following research question: to what extent do initial conditions and/or active behaviours explain firm emergence? We use a French national business plan competition to identify nascent firms. As a result, it seems that only active behaviours make a statistically significant impact on firm emergence, while initial conditions do not. Therefore, our preliminary finding is that a firm emerges merely through the active behaviours of entrepreneurs rather than as an outcome of initial conditions. © 2009, Inderscience Publishers.

This study makes an attempt to understand some of the reasons why some nascent firms make the transition to new operational firms (a process called "firm emergence") while others do not. Because of liabilities-of- newness, nascent firms face the daunting task of acquiring legitimacy from their immediate audience in order to emerge as new operational firm. This study claims and finds empirical evidence that through certain legitimating behaviors nascent firms can acquire legitimacy from their immediate audience and thus succeed in becoming new operational firms. The study will put forward more general propositions for future testing, and will draw implications for practitioners and entrepreneurship scholars. © 2007 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.

This study focuses on the firm's strategy process and especially on the firm's strategic management competence. Strategic management competence is defined as a firm's ability to involve different actors in the strategy process, characterised by the formalisation and use of different strategic tools. This study focuses on the small and medium-sized growth firms. With respect to the main findings, we believe that several important conclusions can be drawn. First, the results seem to suggest that while managerial experience is not important for strategic management competence, the CEO's relationship with a firm does. Second, the results also seem to suggest that a CEO's educational level is important for strategic management competence. Third, the results seem to suggest that the entrepreneurial orientation of a firm is important for strategic management competence. © 2009, Inderscience Publishers.

In an attempt to explain why some nascent organizations become new organizations while others do not, we contend that the process of organizational emergence can be understood and predicted by viewing it as a quest for legitimacy. We subsequently find empirical evidence to suggest that the actions a nascent organization takes (or strategic legitimacy) may be more important than its characteristics (or conforming legitimacy) in explaining organizational emergence. Such a conclusion is important in that it provides a theoretical framework with which to understand organizational emergence and in so doing advances our knowledge of this important process. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.