Volume 11, Issue 1

We empirically explore the process of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) through the conceptual lens of effectuation, a theory describing how entrepreneurs innovate. In particular, we investigate how endogenous innovations emerge and evolve into new products or services. The study thus provides an alternative perspective to most CE research that assumes a causation or rational-analytic approach to innovation. We implement a qualitative, multi-case study research design with corporate innovation projects as the level of analysis. Data are from interviews as well as secondary sources and were analyzed using within and cross case analysis. Findings reveal organic stages through which ideas are shaped into viable products. Findings show important effectuation principles at work including stakeholder commitments, affordable loss thinking, and a focus on control instead of prediction. Interestingly, findings illustrate how effectuation may differ in the corporate as compared to the new venture context. Implications for the wider literature are discussed along with limitations of the research design.

This paper explores the relationship between corporate entrepreneurship and performance by developing a comprehensive theoretical model based on Schumpeterian understanding of entrepreneurship supported with the Theory of Planned Behavior from social psychology. The model shows how organizational culture (value) triggers a chain effect through its influence on entrepreneurial orientation (attitude) and managerial support (intentions) that ultimately generate impact on corporate entrepreneurship (behavior). We test our model in an emerging economy context and present our results with implications to theory and practice.

This paper investigates the influence of culture on the level of entrepreneurship and the possible moderating role of the level of economic development upon this relationship. For our purpose, an initial sample of 125 countries (43 high-income and 82 low-income countries) is used, over the 2006–2016 time period. At first, we use a panel analysis of the reduced sample which is furthermore completed by a hierarchical regression analysis. Our main results provide clear evidence that culture represents an important predictor of the level of entrepreneurship. Among the dimensions of culture, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence versus restraint are found to have the highest influence upon the level of entrepreneurship. Moreover, our empirical findings reveal that the relationship between culture and entrepreneurship is moderated differently by economic development. Thus, high-income countries face a three times higher rate of entrepreneurship than low-income countries. Our findings suggest that culture is more valued in high-income countries offering a higher social support in entrepreneurial activities than in low-income countries. We also find that some cultural patterns such as individualism, femininity, low uncertainly avoidance, short-term orientation or restrain may stimulate entrepreneurship in high-income countries but may be very dysfunctional in low-income countries. Our findings are also useful for policy makers to acknowledge the relationship between the cultural values of a country and its entrepreneurial activities, in order to adjust their policy measures for a better stimulation of the business environment.

Upon graduation, students make the decision to either become an entrepreneur or an employee. Numerous studies have thus investigated personal and environmental factors that impact this decision. As cognitive styles have become more and more important in determining individual and organisational behaviour, and as they are presumed to provide new valuable insights over and above other personal factors, they provide the ideal focus to further explore this career choice. In this article, we aim to explore how creating, planning, and knowing cognitive style relate to entrepreneurial attitudes, intentions, and career choices. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour, in a first sample, we investigate the direct and indirect impact that cognitive styles have on entrepreneurial intention through attitudes. In our second sample, we look at how career preferences for entrepreneurship or a more traditional career as an employee are affected by cognitive styles. Using structural equation modelling analysis, this study finds evidence for the importance of creating cognitive style on entrepreneurial outcomes. Additionally, we find evidence for the relationship between planning cognitive style and wanting to be an employee. Knowing style does not lead to either preference. This paper extends the current knowledge on cognitive styles and entrepreneurship by analysing the impact of other cognitive styles than the predominantly used innovative styles and by also exploring its impact on important antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions, such as entrepreneurial attitude and career preferences.

This study explores questions around the abilities of social enterprises (SEs) to obtain market-based revenues in the context of a middle-income country with significant institutional and economic constraints (Egypt). Our main research question focuses on analyzing the reasons why SEs in this context are unable to obtain their desired level of market-based revenues. Through the analysis of 22 SEs with some degree of a mixed revenue model, we draw three major conclusions that contribute to both academic theory and SE practice: (a) the importance of investing in new cohorts of SE employees, (b) ways to increase SEs’ ability to respond to institutional barriers, and (c) the promotion of adaptive organizational models able to respond to changing external conditions. The study makes several contributions to the literature. Most importantly, it seeks to add findings to discussion around how SEs operate within constraints by providing real-life empirical data from a context that faces significant institutional and resource barriers. It adds to the current literature by offering insights on organizational capacity, institutions, legitimacy, and adaptability that can be applied to other countries with similar socio-economic contexts. Methodologically, it also makes an effort to move beyond biases of studying only successful SEs, to offer micro-level qualitative analysis of SEs, and to hear unique and potentially alternative perspectives to academic narratives rooted in concept and theory by better understanding how social entrepreneurs themselves perceive their own work and practices.

Unlike physical science, entrepreneurship lacks measurement units through which to quantify constructs properly. This study explores the viability of logarithmically transformed Guttman scaling (GS). Need for Achievement (nAch), a quintessential entrepreneurial feature, illustrates the technique’s application. A valid and reliable 10-item Guttman nAch scale is developed, its unidimensionality psychometrically confirmed. Compliant with measurement theory, the scale offers concatenatable units that quantify nAch intensity. GS is a viable complement to psychometric methods, a useful addition to entrepreneurship’s methodological repertoire. Researchers are encouraged to expand their view of entrepreneurial constructs. Also approaching them from an intensity perspective offers fertile ground for future inquiry.