Volume 14, Issue 4

This study uses entrepreneurial competencies as a mediating element to explore the scope and pattern of influence of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on micro, small and medium entrepreneur (MSME) business success. The study’s target population was small-scale business owners and employees from Rajasthan, India. A sample of 339 small companies was selected through the purposive sampling method. Data were gathered through a survey instrument designed given an appropriate theoretical context. The survey instrument was tested for its proper validity and reliability. Further, we used the structural equation modeling approach to test the hypotheses. Derived findings indicated that the direct impact of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on firm performance was significant. Additionally, the relationship between EO and MSME performance was partially mediated by entrepreneurial competencies. The conceptual framework and findings offer the MSME sector entrepreneur new directions for positioning their product in customers’ minds and supporting the growth of an innovative and opportunistic mindset. The current research findings help to outperform the competition and take advantage of market opportunities. The organization must be able to correctly match what it delivers to the consumer with the needs and demands of the customer.

How do emerging economy SMEs develop Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE)? Emerging economies represent different institutional contexts to those found in developed economies. Currently our understanding of CE and its emergence is rooted in Western-based assumptions. Consequently, our understanding of the inter-relationship between the emerging economy institutional environments and the SME environment and how they shape corporate entrepreneurial process remains lacking. In response to such gaps in our understanding, this study draws on both Institutional and Contingency theories to explore how CE is developed among African SMEs. Drawing on evidence from four indepth case studies of Kenyan SMEs, our findings reveal a complex process wherein elements of the Kenyan institutional environment shape the internal organization and CE related activities of Kenyan SMEs. Our study extends and enriches previous models of CE and deepen our understanding of how and why context matters for CE.

This study explores how start-ups manage high-turbulent markets during the first six-months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how dynamic capabilities are operationalized in that situation. A multiple-case study approach was employed to investigate eight start-up cases in Indonesia. Indonesia was chosen to represent an emerging economy with a tremendous growing number of start-ups. The data are presented based on the evolving circumstances of the COVID-19 crisis. The research findings illustrate how dynamic capabilities are operationalized simultaneously with the validation of adjusted business models through simple-experiential routines, iterative executions, and action-oriented processes amidst the high-turbulent markets. Dynamic capabilities that operate in full combination by sensing, seizing, and transforming capabilities potentially can facilitate the creation of values for firms faster than otherwise. This study also identifies specific elements and alignment mechanisms incorporated in the dynamic capabilities.

The resource curse hypothesis supposes that rents generated by resource booms create opportunities for rent-seeking activities, which weaken innovation and economic development due to the potentially adverse effects in competitive markets. The quality of institutions is an important channel to transform society from a rent-seeking economy to an entrepreneurial economy. We address in this paper these channels by examining necessity, opportunity, productive and innovative measures of entrepreneurship. Using annual data from 2002 to 2017, we estimate the relationship between entrepreneurship and natural resource rents for 60 countries. Allowing for measures of institutions (corruption, government policies, and cultural and social norms) and real GDP growth, we find that natural resource rents have negative effects on productive and innovative entrepreneurship, especially in high-income countries. In threshold dynamic panels, entrepreneurial activities grow with higher levels of corruption (weaker institutions), with an interpretation provided based on the higher corruption in developing economies.

It is a significant challenge for social enterprises (SEs) to scale up their social impact, especially for those in transforming societies such as China, where the ecosystem of SEs remains at a nascent stage of development. Although previous studies have devoted attention to scaling strategies and scaling performance, none of them has examined the relationship between scaling strategies and scaling performance through empirical quantitative analysis. To address this gap, this study utilizes a hypothesis-testing quantitative method, for the first time, to investigate the divergent impact of different scaling strategies on scaling performance and the moderating role of organizational resources. Our results demonstrate that three types of scaling strategies are positively associated with scaling performance, and the magnitude of the linkages descends from knowledge dissemination through organizational growth to contractual partnerships. Additionally, our results reveal that the adequacy of financial and human resources perform as positive moderators, significantly magnifying the contribution of the scaling strategy of organizational growth to scaling performance. The findings provide important implications for SE managers and practitioners, helping them make informed decisions regarding how to choose and implement suitable scaling strategies in Chinese or other similar contexts, while considering the SEs’ organizational resources.

The majority of research on corporate entrepreneurship focuses on developed countries and overlooks that various cultural and economic contexts may lead to different intensities and behaviors in entrepreneurial activities. This omission could challenge extant theoretical models and assumptions. Accordingly, this article intends to analyze the literature on corporate entrepreneurship in developing countries. The paper adopts a two-step research approach, a systematic literature review, and a bibliometric (co-word analysis) analysis of 85 articles published between 1999 and 2021. We identify the major articles, journals, and scholars that made significant contributions to the field within the context by summarizing and describing indicators, such as number of publications, citations, theoretical and methodological perspectives, topic trends, and thematic maps. Analysis enables the study to establish that research on corporate entrepreneurship in developing countries comprises three major thematic classifications, namely, determinants and effects of corporate entrepreneurship; determinants of intrapreneurship and performance, and dynamic capabilities and corporate entrepreneurship. In summary, this article contributes to an enhanced understanding of the concepts and dimensions of corporate entrepreneurship within developing countries. In addition, it provides a research agenda; hence, we propose future directions that shape the dynamics of the field and that provide relevant insights for researchers and managers interested in corporate entrepreneurship in the context of developing countries.

We analyze the initial intellectual property (IP) decisions of 336 start-ups in IP-intensive industries in China, distinguishing among patents, trademarks, and IP portfolios. Our empirical results show that the initial IP decisions of start-ups have an impact on their innovation performance. Compared with start-ups that choose trademarks or patents, start-ups that choose IP portfolios have higher financial and non-financial innovation performance. Furthermore, venture capital positively moderates the relationship between initial IP decisions and non-financial innovation performance. VC-backed start-ups that choose IP portfolios are more likely than other start-ups to achieve higher non-financial innovation performance. Finally, strategic planning also plays a role in the relationship. Among the start-ups that choose IP portfolios, those with high strategic planning gain higher non-financial innovation performance. This paper contributes to research on initial IP decisions in entrepreneurial contexts by incorporating IP portfolios to initial IP decisions and uncovering the role of initial IP decisions in innovation performance.

Entrepreneurship is increasingly acknowledged as a critical economic and growth driver. As a result, practitioners’ and scholars’ inquiry into the link between the entrepreneurial social network and its pursuit of innovation have gained momentum in developed economies. However, it remains scarce in the context of emergent economies. Drawing upon social network theory, this qualitative study explores this knowledge gap by examining how Romanian software as a service (SaaS) entrepreneurs enable innovative performance by using social capital in national and international entrepreneurial networks. This qualitative interpretative study relies on the experiences and practices shared by 24 Romanian SaaS entrepreneurs interviewed to expand our understanding of how these entrepreneurs use social capital-driven networks to achieve innovative performance in international markets. Feeling unsupported by a weak institutional entrepreneurial context, Romanian SaaS entrepreneurs build their international entrepreneurial journeys and achieve innovative performance extensively by relying on social capital-driven networks. This paper contributes to the emergent economies stream on entrepreneurship literature and regional entrepreneurship policies. These findings show that motivated to overcome the challenges of a weak institutional context and pursue their entrepreneurial path, these Romanian SaaS entrepreneurs’ international presence and innovative performance are relational manifestations of bonding and bridging social capital-based networks.

Previous research has pointed to differences in the use of social capital between male and female entrepreneurs that may explain, in part, the different outcomes they obtain. Adopting a gender perspective, this study analyses whether these differences depend on the contextual configurations in which their businesses operate, specifically the degree of hostility of the context and their household structure. Thirty male and female entrepreneurs who set up their businesses in poor neighbourhoods in and around the city of Guayaquil (Ecuador) were interviewed. Data was analysed using content analysis and comparative qualitative fuzzy set analysis. The results show that women rely on bridging and bonding social capital for favourable entrepreneurial outcomes, while men rely mainly on bonding social capital, with the structure of the household being one of the influences that condition whether or not they go outside their immediate environment to mobilise resources. This work contributes to a better understanding of how the relational behaviour of male and female entrepreneurs is conditioned by gender and context. These results differ from those obtained in previous research focusing more on developed countries and suggest that gender differences in social capital are at least partly explained by the contextual configurations in which entrepreneurs find themselves, and especially by the needs and agency space available to them, rather than by the faithful reproduction of gender roles and the behavioural patterns derived from them.

This research examines how commitment, long-term orientation, and distinctive family business traits resulting from family ownership affect internationalization by studying two unique and long-lasting firms with family and non-family ownership structures. Drawing upon arguments from international business studies and family business research, we have identified various entrepreneurial motivations and derived a framework that expands our knowledge on how commitment, long-term orientation and specific differences between family and non-family firms impact their international expansion. Our results indicate that family firms generate social capital, experience, and knowledge in an international context to sustain and maximize their advantages better than non-family firms.

The increase in national-level innovation driven by corporate innovation is an inherent requirement for the current shift from high-speed growth to high-quality development in China’s economy. In this study, we empirically analysed the influence of the institutional environment on corporate innovation and its underlying mechanism based on panel data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2016. The empirical results demonstrated that the institutional environment is conducive to the improvement of corporate innovation, and this result is validated by further robustness tests. The analysis of the companies’ subsamples showed that the stimulation effect of the institutional environment on corporate innovation is more significant in Central and Western China than in Eastern China. The role of the institutional environment is also more evident in non-state-owned small and medium-sized enterprises. Further analysis demonstrated that investment in R&D plays a mediator role in the context where the institutional environment promotes corporate innovation, and the executive equity incentives in this process have a moderating effect.

Literature shows that entrepreneurial employee activity is positively related to organisational growth and competitiveness. A significant number of studies have focused on the determinants of entrepreneurial employee activity. However, there are aspects of these determinants that remain unexplored; in particular, the role of factors at the environmental level and their moderating effect has rarely been tested. Based on Human Capital Theory and Institutional Theory, this paper aims to analyse the direct and moderating effects of the determinants of entrepreneurial employee activity. Data were obtained from the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for the context of Saudi Arabia (1499 observations). By applying a logistic regression model, we found that intrapreneurial skills, education and social status have significant and direct effects on entrepreneurial employee activity. In addition, ease of business and social status moderate and reinforce the effect of intrapreneurial skills on entrepreneurial employee activity. The results suggest that context plays a major role in the antecedents of entrepreneurial employee activity and that its effect may be different in the case of Saudi Arabia as compared to Western countries. Theoretical and practical implications are derived from these findings.

The influence of entrepreneurial role models on individuals could be regarded as a social learning process. However, we still lack an in-depth understanding of under what conditions the impacts of entrepreneurial role models are stronger or weaker. This paper draws on social learning theory and construal level theory to explore how entrepreneurial role models relate to individuals’ entrepreneurial perceptions under different psychological distance dimensions. A representative sample of 322 final-year students from nine universities in China was analyzed. The results demonstrated that entrepreneurial role model was positively associated with feasibility and desirability perceptions. Further, we found that the spatial distance and social distance as boundary conditions, respectively, moderated the main effects. This study extends prior research on the functions of entrepreneurial role model by providing a psychological distance perspective.

This study examines whether, and how, top management influences middle management’s support of corporate entrepreneurship activities. Specifically, the study explores the influence of top management characteristics, i.e. strategic planning capacity and entrepreneurial orientation, on manager’s decision to support innovation adoption. We report on the findings from a vignette study. Research participants included a group of 259 experienced business professionals: 148 from the United States and 111 from China. The results suggest that the alignment of strategic planning capacity and entrepreneurial orientation influences middle management’s support for corporate entrepreneurship in both cultural settings.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the moderating effects of motivating and contextual factors on the relationship of innovation ambidexterity and firm performance. A theoretical framework was developed and tested using survey data from a sample of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS). The results suggest a positive effect of ambidexterity on firm performance, which is positively moderated by motivating factors, the number of co-owners and normative and cognitive institutions, such as power distance and university environment and program learning, respectively. The study provides important insights for policymakers to promote entrepreneurial education and clues for future research, as well as extends existing theory by offering insights on the moderator effects of individual and contextual factors on the relationship between ambidexterity and firm performance, assuming the benefits of the synergic effects of exploration and exploitation.