Culture deeply infuses entrepreneurs' psychology, and ultimately the performance of their firms. Drawing on cultural-tightness looseness theory and emergent entrepreneurship research on intercultural ...cognition, we introduce the concept of cultural tightness emancipation. We examine how culturally tight home contexts can be especially psychologically restrictive for underdog entrepreneurs, with what we term ‘layers of tightness’, such as gender role and family expectations, compounding these dynamics. Drawing on multi-wave data in Nicaragua, we theorize that culturally loosening experiences can aid entrepreneurs in gaining broader perspectives and skills that bolster the profitability of their ventures. Specifically, we probe how time spent living overseas can yield enduring positive effects on founders years later when running their businesses back home. In line with our theorizing, we find support that female entrepreneurs running family businesses in culturally tight Nicaragua benefit considerably more from such cultural tightness emancipation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Purpose
Drawing on the “shocks to the system” concept in image theory, a mid-range theoretical model is developed to illuminate understanding on why cross-cultural experience is so conducive to ...stimulating entrepreneurship yet has remained largely unexplained at the individual level.
Design/methodology/approach
The novel idea is put forth that experience of foreignness, in itself, can be harnessed as a powerful cognitive resource for entrepreneurship – particularly the nascent stages of new venture development. Providing cross-cultural exposures arouse “self-image shocks”, they manifest over time as skill clusters that reflect the sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities at the heart of entrepreneurship. This paper's pivot helps delineate a common mechanism to explain how a diverse range of seemingly disparate cross-cultural experiences can be processed in a way that enhances entrepreneurial pursuits.
Findings
The insights of this paper reinforce the need for educators and policymakers to encourage and provide opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs to engage in cross-cultural and overseas exposures as they are influential for stimulating each of the core sets of entrepreneurial capabilities. The model and synthesis table also help to practically unpack how to design and plan such cultural experiences to optimize the enduring entrepreneurial advantages.
Originality/value
The author turns a long-standing assumption surrounding cultural differences in entrepreneurship on its head. The shocks and tensions arising from intercultural interactions are not always inevitable liabilities to be “managed away” or attenuated. Rather, cross-cultural experience can be explicitly leveraged as an asset for nascent venturing as the juxtapositions they evoke provide both proximal and distal enhancements to ways in which entrepreneurs think and develop skills at the core of venturing.
PurposeDrawing on image theory, the authors investigate how and when cross-cultural experience cultivates two core entrepreneurial sensing capabilities: opportunity recognition and creative ...behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop and test a second-stage moderated mediation model across two studies. Study 1 consists of a sample of prospective entrepreneurs from the UK using perceptual scale measures (n = 153). Building on this, core findings are replicated using task-based measures on a sample of US participants (n = 342).FindingsResults show that cross-cultural experience is positively related to both entrepreneurial sensing capabilities through the mediating role of self-image fluidity. No support is found for the moderating role of regulatory focus orientations.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings contribute to the burgeoning literature on multicultural experience and initiating skills in nascent venturing by providing insight on the mechanisms and boundary conditions relevant for entrepreneurial capabilities to emerge.Practical implicationsThe results reinforce the need for educators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs to facilitate and encourage opportunities for cross-cultural and overseas experiences as they are influential for stimulating entrepreneurial skills.Originality/valuePositive linkages between international mobility and entrepreneurial activity are of continued interest, yet individual-level mechanisms that explain this have been limited. The authors find that exposure to foreign cultures is potent for entrepreneurship as it can stimulate flexibility and exploration of the self-image and break frames of reference. This fosters greater tendencies for opportunity recognition and creative behaviors.
Social entrepreneurship (SE) research has advanced understanding of the dynamics and processes underlying positive social change. Yet only scant attention has been paid to where that change happens. ...We suggest that a community level of analysis is essential for understanding the extra-organizational settings implied by the "social" in "social entrepreneurship." We adopt a UNESCO-inspired community typology including geographical communities, communities of interest or solidarity, communities of identity, and intentional communities as an organizing framework. Relying on a wealth creation perspective, we evaluate the social change that takes place by assessing four different types of capital created within communities-physical capital, financial capital, human capital, and social capital. Based on a review of 57 peer-reviewed journals and 8 leading case study outlets, we find that examples of all four community types and all four capital types are evident in the SE literature. We discuss the implications of the community as a locus of SE activity and capital as an indicator of social impact in future research.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is an important construct in the fields of management and entrepreneurship research. Interest in EO knowledge continues to thrive with a burgeoning research agenda in ...multiple contexts and with diverse implications. However, a subset of this research, which endeavors to apply the EO construct to explain or predict individuals’ entrepreneurial beliefs and behaviors, has met with resistance. This paper examines the case for EO at the individual level (Ind.EO). We consider the EO legacy concerns, and the various theoretical implications and benefits of doing so. Drawing upon an “EO as a family of constructs” framework, we propose paths forward for studying Ind.EO credibly, consistent with, but distinct from, traditional firm-level EO. Finally, we outline a research agenda and discuss the contributions and potential implications for Ind.EO research across the wider entrepreneurship discipline.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
PurposeThe authors probe the relationships between country institutional support for entrepreneurship and new venture survival. Specifically, the authors unpack the nuanced influences of ...entrepreneurs' perceived environmental uncertainty and their subsequent entrepreneurial behavioral profiles and how this particularly bolsters venture survival in contexts with underdeveloped institutions for entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachColeman (1990) ‘bathtub’ framework is applied to develop a model and propositions surrounding how and when emerging market entrepreneur's perceptions of their countries institutional support toward entrepreneurship can ultimately enhance new venture survival.FindingsEntrepreneurs' interpretations of regulatory, cognitive and normative institutional support for private enterprise helps them embrace uncertainties more accurately reflective of “on the ground” realities and stimulates constructive entrepreneurial behaviors. These are critical for increasing survival prospects in characteristically turbulent, emerging market contexts that typically lack reliable formal resources for cultivating nascent ventures.Practical implicationsThis paper has implications for international policymakers seeking to stimulate and sustain entrepreneurial ventures in emerging markets. The authors shed light on the practical importance of understanding the social realities and interpretations of entrepreneurs in a given country relating to their actual perceptions of support for venturing—cautioning a tendency for outsiders to over-rely on aggregated econometric indices and various national ‘doing business' rankings.Originality/valueThis study is the first to create a conceptual framework on the mechanisms of how entrepreneurs in emerging economies affect new venture survival. Drawing on Coleman's bathtub (1990), the authors develop propositional arguments for a multilevel sequential framework that considers how developing economies' country institutional profiles (CIP) influence entrepreneurs' perceptions of environmental uncertainty. Subsequently, this cultivates associated entrepreneurial behavior profiles, which ultimately enhance (inhibit) venture survival rates. Further, the authors discuss the boundary conditions of this regarding how the national culture serves to moderate each of these key relationships in both positive and negative ways.
Research on entrepreneurial mindset (EM) has proliferated in recent years. Its importance rests on a key assumption: EM matters for entrepreneurial behavior. However, to date, EM conceptualizations ...remain fragmented, and theories delineating the relationship between EM and the behaviors underpinning entrepreneurship are limited. In this article, we conceptualize EM as a goal orientation formed through dispositional beliefs about entrepreneurship and opportunity beliefs, which results in entrepreneurial behaviors. We draw upon recent advances in entrepreneurial orientation (EO) research at the individual level as a model for dispositional beliefs. Further, we theorize the origins, mechanisms, manifestations, and effect of EM. Finally, we discuss important implications for stakeholders interested in leveraging EM to stimulate entrepreneurial activity and lay out a research agenda for future development of our disposition-based framework.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
PurposeThe authors investigate the durability of international entrepreneurial cognitions. Specifically, they examine how advanced business education and the Covid-19 pandemic influence international ...entrepreneurial orientation disposition (IEOD), and subsequently entrepreneurial intentions (EIs), to better understand the psychological dynamics underpinning the drivers of international entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachAgainst the backdrop of emerging entrepreneurial cognition and international entrepreneurial orientation research, the authors theorize that both a planned business education intervention (voluntary) and an unforeseeable radical environmental (involuntary) change constitute cognitive shocks impacting the disposition and intention to engage in entrepreneurial efforts. The authors use pre- and post-Covid-19 panel data (n = 233) and uniquely identify the idiosyncratic cognitive effects of Covid-19 through changes in the OCEAN personality assessment.FindingsFindings demonstrate that when individuals' perceived psychological impact of Covid-19 is low, business education increases IEOD. Conversely, the effects of a strongly perceived Covid-19 impact reduce the risk-taking and proactiveness components of the IEOD scale. The authors trace the same effects forward to EIs.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to a greater understanding of the resilience of entrepreneurial dispositions through an empirical test of the IEOD scale and shows its boundary conditions under planned intervention as well as unplanned externally induced shock.Practical implicationsThe study offers a first benchmark to practitioners of the malleability of international entrepreneurial dispositions and discusses the potential to encourage international entrepreneurial behaviour and the individual-level dispositional risk posed by exogenous shocks.Originality/valueThe study uniquely employs a baseline measure of all our constructs pre-Covid-19 to discern and isolate the pandemic impact on entrepreneurial dispositions and intentions, responding to recent calls for more experimental designs in entrepreneurship research.
Socially, institutionally, culturally, or resourcefully marginalized entrepreneurial actors pursuing new ventures to achieve positional advancement hold valuable theory development potential. We ...refer to this emerging conceptual domain as Transitional Entrepreneurship (TE). In this thematic issue, we present seven articles united under the umbrella of TE, to introduce the domain and its conceptual boundaries. These articles, individually, study different marginalized groups but collectively provide a platform to explore TE, distinguish it from related but distinct topics, and illuminate its numerous implications for research and practice moving forward. These articles about transitional entrepreneurs differ in geography, social class, culture, race, and gender. However, the adversity faced by TEs is not unique to any one group; by considering them collectively we seek to advance knowledge about venturing in the face of social, economic, cultural, and institutional adversity.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
International entrepreneurship-the field dedicated to the discovery, enactment, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities across national borders to create future goods and services-is as ...inextricably linked to firm activity as entrepreneurship, strategy, or international business. However, for much of the past 30 years the field has been hampered by confusion and inconsistency over definitions and existential questions such as, "What is a born global?"; "what is an international new venture?"; and "how does one distinguish emerging firm types?" While many of these questions have been previously answered in isolation, confusion remains, as the field lacks a coherent unified perspective of firm activity. In this introduction to our thematic issue on international entrepreneurship, we address this need, present a unified model of international new ventures drawn from the latest definitions and distinctions, and call for future research that fully integrates form into the conversations of opportunity, technology, liability, and the unique network and value-chain alignments that exist across borders. We also discuss how we can better integrate and add value to nascent trends more broadly from neuroscience, deglobalization, intercultural arbitrage, and other areas.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
