Volume 9, Issue 4 -

Social enterprises viewed as viable from societal perspectives are often regarded differently from traditional business perspectives. To examine this difference, we undertook two empirical studies of risk tolerance and legitimacy perceptions among observers of social enterprise and for-profit ventures. In Study 1, participants ( n = 115) drawn randomly from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing marketplace for human intelligence tasks, examined two hypothetical cases and completed the risk tolerance scale of the Jackson Personality Inventory . Results show that social enterprises were seen as having lower industry legitimacy, especially by individuals with lower risk tolerance. Here, industry legitimacy mediated the effect of venture purpose on cognitive legitimacy. In Study 2, practicing entrepreneurs ( n = 23) narratively interpreted Study 1 results from social enterprise and traditional business perspectives. Both studies demonstrate that social enterprise legitimacy evaluations vary based on risk tolerance and the type of legitimacy in question. Overall findings show that explicit observations of risk tolerance effects, and multidimensional conceptualizations of legitimacy, are important to accurate evaluations of social enterprises.

We examine the relationship between unit-level entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and unit-level corporate entrepreneurship (CE), which has been typically neglected in entrepreneurship research. Building on the conservation of resource theory (COR), we argue that the relationship between unit-level EO and unit-level CE will be stronger when unit-level social capital is higher. Further, we posit that unit-level social capital becomes more effective when firm-level leaders are viewed as less (and not more) transformational by unit members. Data were collected from 186 managers, 372 employees, and 62 senior managers from 93 units of 31 firms. We find that unit-level EO is positively related to unit-level CE and this relationship strengthens when unit-level social capital is high. This moderating effect of social capital is itself moderated by firm-level transformational leadership, and strengthens as firm-level transformational leadership behaviors decrease (supporting “dark side” views of transformational leadership). Implications of our findings for organizational entrepreneurship research and practice are discussed.

Entrepreneurial growth intention, as an outcome of the entrepreneur’s cognition, has been found to be influenced by the institutional context. However, the cognitive rationale for the institutional impact on entrepreneurial growth intention is still unknown. This article builds upon the framework of institutional theory to reveal how the perceptions of institutional environment foster entrepreneurial growth intention via the entrepreneur’s specific cognitive process. Based on an extended model of the theory of planned behavior, we find that perceptions of different institutional dimensions exert important but distinct influence on the way in which entrepreneurs view and perceive venture growth and then indirectly inspire their ambitions in the post-entry stage of entrepreneurship. The entrepreneur’s perception of behavioral control plays a key role in this process. The implications for entrepreneurial practice and future research are then discussed.

The relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance has been the focus of numerous empirical studies over the past decade. The conclusions and findings reported are diverse and often conflicting. One possible explanation for mixed findings is that past studies do not take into account the dynamic nature of the industry environment. Using a sample of 192 Swiss firms from several different industries, this study examines the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation on financial firm performance along with the moderating effect of a dynamic environment on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and performance. Results of this study suggest that for firms competing in a highly dynamic environment, the positive effect of an entrepreneurial orientation on financial performance is enhanced.

The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of a variety of factors on the total entrepreneurial activity rate (TEA). A panel data approach of 26 developed countries was used to evaluate the simultaneous influence of the factors on TEA (2004–2011). Our findings show an inverse relationship between TEA and the initial capital effort; a direct relation between TEA, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial market development and education; and a nonlinear concave relationship between TEA and the GDP per capita. The dynamic estimation approach shows a high speed of adjustment between the actual and desired rate of entrepreneurship. Overall, the main findings clarify which potential determinants have a real impact on entrepreneurial activity. Our contribution aims to help economic policymakers in developed countries to gain awareness of the main determinants of entrepreneurial activity at country level and thus to enable better decisions.