Entrepreneurship Literature (entrepreneurship + literature)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


How Opportunities Develop in Social Entrepreneurship

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2010
Patricia Doyle Corner
The purpose of this article was to extend existing research on opportunity identification in the social entrepreneurship literature through empirically examining this phenomenon. We used an inductive, theory-building design that surfaced patterns in social value creation across multiple case studies. The patterns showed actors seeing a social need and prospecting ideas that could address it. Data also revealed multiple, not individual, actors, dynamically engaged in interactions that nudged an opportunity into manifestation. Also, data suggested complementarities to effectuation and rational/economic processes that are divergent theoretical approaches to the study of entrepreneurship to date. [source]


Institutional Theory and Entrepreneurship: Where Are We Now and Where Do We Need to Move in the Future?

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 3 2010
Garry D. Bruton
Institutional theory is an increasingly utilized theoretical lens for entrepreneurship research. However, while institutional theory has proven highly useful, its use has reached a point that there is a need to establish a clearer understanding of its wide-ranging application to entrepreneurship research. Therefore, we will initially review the existing entrepreneurship literature that employs institutional theory to both understand the current status of the field, its current shortcomings, and where we need to move in the future. We then summarize and discuss the articles in this special issue and how they contribute to this process of advancing institutional theory and its application in entrepreneurship research. [source]


Entrepreneurship Research on Network Processes: A Review and Ways Forward

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2010
Susanna Slotte-Kock
Although entrepreneurship research on networks has studied issues pertaining to network content, governance and structure, we believe it requires a greater understanding of network processes. In this paper, we review how the entrepreneurship literature interprets and applies the concept of process to the study of networks. This allows us to identify areas for future investigation. Our work is also informed by social network theory and research on dyadic interactions in business networks. The paper concludes by presenting a theoretical framework for conceptualizing and studying the various processes associated with network development. [source]


A Contingent Model of Network Utilization in Early Financing of Technology Ventures

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 4 2008
Jing Zhang
Most of the entrepreneurship literature has addressed the benefits and necessity of using social network ties as opposed to market methods in early venture finance, but it has largely understated the potential limitations and costs of doing so. Specifically, very sparse research has examined the factors that influence entrepreneurs' choice between using networks versus market methods. In this study, we propose a contingent model of network utilization when approaching initial investors, based on the dimensions of human capital of the entrepreneurs. We test this model with primary field survey data from 226 new high-tech ventures in Singapore and Beijing. The results show that high occupational status and relevant industrial work experience are positively associated with the entrepreneurs' propensity to utilize existing networks by enhancing the resourcefulness of their network ties (social capital); however, such influences are alleviated by entrepreneurs' marketing or managerial experience, which increases the entrepreneurs' ability to interact with strangers (an aspect of social competence). [source]


Which Tangible and Intangible Assets Matter for Innovation Speed in Start-Ups?,

THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2007
Ans Heirman
The launch of the first product is an important event for start-ups, because it takes the new venture closer to growth, profitability, and financial independence. The new product development (NPD) literature mainly focuses its attention on NPD processes in large firms. In this article insights on the antecedents on innovation speed in large firms are combined with resource-based theory and insights from the entrepreneurship literature to develop hypotheses concerning the antecedents of innovation speed in start-ups. In particular, tangible assets such as starting capital and the stage of product development at founding and intangible assets such as team tenure, experience of founders, and collaborations with third parties are considered as important antecedents for innovation speed in start-ups. A unique data set on research-based start-ups (RBSUs) was collected, and event-history analyses were used to test the hypotheses. The rich qualitative data on the individual companies are used to explain the statistical findings. This article shows that RBSUs differ significantly in their starting conditions. The impact of starting conditions on innovation speed differs between software and other companies. Although intuition suggests that start-ups that are further in the product development cycle at founding launch their first product faster, our data indicate that software firms starting with a beta version experience slower product launch. The amount of initial financing has no significant effect on innovation speed. Next, it is shown that team tenure and experience of founders leads to faster product launch. Contrary to expectations, alliances with other firms do not significantly affect innovation speed, and collaborations with universities are associated with longer development times. [source]


Work and Employment in Small Businesses: Perpetuating and Challenging Gender Traditions

GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2000
Susan Baines
More and more women and men are becoming dependent on some form of small business activity for all or part of their livelihoods but there is little research offering insight into gender and working practices in small businesses. In this article we assess some theoretical approaches and discuss these against an empirical investigation of micro-firms run by women, men and mixed sex partnerships. In the ,entrepreneurship' literature, with its emphasis on the individual business owner, we find little guidance. We argue that in the ,modern' micro-business, family and work are brought into proximity as in the ,in between' organizational form described by Weber. The celebrated ,flexibility' of small firms often involves the reproduction within modernity of seemingly pre-modern practices in household organization and gender divisions of labour. This is true in the Britain of the 1990s in a growing business sector normally associated neither with tradition nor with the family. Tradition, however, is never automatic or uncontested in a ,post-traditional society'. A minority of women and men in micro-enterprises actively resist traditional solutions and even traditional imagery of male and female behaviour. For this small group alone new economic conditions seem to bring new freedom. [source]