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Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2018) | Viewed by 127517

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Dr. Ondřej Dvouletý

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Department of Entrepreneurship, University of Economics, W. Churchill Sq. 1938/4, 130 67 Prague 3, Czech Republic
Interests: entrepreneurial economics; entrepreneurial activity; determinants of entrepreneurship and self-employment; entrepreneurship policies; entrepreneurship policy evaluation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Almost two decades have passed since Shane and Venkataraman (2000) united scholars from a variety of research disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, management, and economics in the field of entrepreneurship. For these two decades, we have been witnessing considerable progress in research, both from the theoretical and empirical perspectives. One of the most important questions for the policymakers and stakeholders is related to the relationship between entrepreneurship and regional development.

As we know from the literature (Bjørnskov and Foss, 2016), this relationship may vary over time, across regions, and even with respect to different kinds of entrepreneurial activity (high-growth entrepreneurship/business companies vs. solo-entrepreneurs/freelancers). We are missing up-to-date empirical studies, and especially those focusing on emerging, developing, and transition economies.

Once we understand this crucial link, we need to dive deeper and study determinants and drivers of entrepreneurship and self-employment at different levels of analysis in order to provide stakeholders with information on factors that encourage and discourage entrepreneurship. Davidsson and Wiklund (2007) encouraged scholars to study determinants of entrepreneurial activity and self-employment at the micro (firm or individual), meso (industry or region), and macro (country or group of countries) levels. Studies related to the investigation of effects and outcomes of different start-up, entrepreneurship, and innovation policies are also very important (Acs et al., 2016).

This Special Issue on “Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso, and Macro” encourages a diverse set of submissions, and we will welcome papers that, inter alia, refer to (but are not limited to) themes such as:

Entrepreneurship, innovation, and regional development
Sustainable entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial activity
Determinants of entrepreneurship and self-employment
Entrepreneurial economics
Entrepreneurial finance
Entrepreneurship policies and their evaluation
Entrepreneurship in emerging, developing, and transition economies

Therefore, we invite your inputs into this ongoing debate, and we kindly ask you to take this Special Issue as an opportunity to contribute to this research gap, especially from an empirical point of view.

Literature

Acs, Z.; Åstebro, T.; Audretsch, D.; Robinson, D.T. Public policy to promote entrepreneurship: A call to arms. Small Bus. Econ. 2016, 47, 35-51.

Bjørnskov, C.;Foss, N. J. Institutions, entrepreneurship, and economic growth: what do we know and what do we still need to know? Acad. Manag. Perspect. 2016, 30, 292-315.

Block, J. H.; Fisch, C. O.; Van Praag, M. The Schumpeterian entrepreneur: a review of the empirical evidence on the antecedents, behaviour and consequences of innovative entrepreneurship. Ind. Innov. 2017, 24, 61-95.

Davidsson, P.; Wiklund, J. Levels of analysis in entrepreneurship research: Current research practice and suggestions for the future. In Entrepreneurship. Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007; pp. 245-265.

Evans, D. S.; Leighton, L. S. Some empirical aspects of entrepreneurship. Am. Econ. Rev. 1989, 79, 519-535.

Leitch, C. M., & Harrison, R. T. (2016). Identity, identity formation and identity work in entrepreneurship: conceptual developments and empirical applications. Entrep. Reg. Dev. 2016, 28, 177-190.

Shane, S.; Venkataraman, S. The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Acad. Manag. Rev. 2000, 25, 217-226.

Dr. Ondřej Dvouletý
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Entrepreneurship, innovation, and regional development
Sustainable entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial activity
Determinants of entrepreneurship and self-employment
Entrepreneurial economics
Entrepreneurial finance
Entrepreneurship policies and their evaluation
Entrepreneurship in emerging, developing, and transition economies

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Published Papers (14 papers)

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Research

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34 pages, 1383 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Personality Traits and Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intentions of Business and Engineering Students

by Ana Iolanda Vodă and Nelu Florea

Sustainability 2019, 11(4), 1192; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041192 - 23 Feb 2019

Cited by 183 | Viewed by 26403

Abstract

Entrepreneurs bring an enormous contribution to a country’s economic growth. Developing individual’s interest into new venture creation represents an important asset, especially for less developed countries where entrepreneurial activities are fundamental in enhancing economic growth. The recent economic crisis turned the attention of European policymakers towards entrepreneurship as a driving force for the creation of new job opportunities, regional/national competitiveness and growth. The aim of this article is to verify what relations are between locus of control, need for achievement and entrepreneurial intention of youth, following a cognitive approach and how much entrepreneurial education consolidates entrepreneurial skills and informs the young that entrepreneurship is a career option. To analyse entrepreneurial intentions, locus of control, need for achievement and entrepreneurial education in the context of Romania, this research used a quantitative design based on the answers to the questionnaire conducted during March 2017 to October 2017 on a sample of 270 students from two important Romanian universities. From the methodological point of view, several hypotheses have been developed and tested using multivariate logistic regression estimates, frequency analysis, internal consistency reliability of the constructs and moderating effects. The results illustrate that locus of control, need for achievement and entrepreneurial education proved to be important determinants for venture creation among young students, both independently and under the action of control variables. Also, respondents’ gender had a significant influence on one’s intention of opening a business in the future, with males being more inclined to become entrepreneurs than females. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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16 pages, 293 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Paving the Way for Self-Employment: Does Society Matter?

by Zulaicha Parastuty and Dieter Bögenhold

Sustainability 2019, 11(3), 747; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030747 - 31 Jan 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3331

Abstract

This paper empirically investigates the extent to which institutional and individual factors predict the level of intention relating to self-employment. Arriving at a better understanding of intentions will assist to provide answers as to why ratios of self-employment are as they are and how public and economic policy may respond to an often perceived requirement to increase the level of self-employment. Using the dataset of 2017 Amway Global Entrepreneurship Research (AGER) for Austria, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, and Brazil this study finds that all variables predicting the intention to enter self-employment are significant at varying degree. The research explores the interplay between age, risk, gender, and education, on the one hand, and unemployment (OECD Labour Force Statistics) and political constitution as measured by the EFW index, on the other hand. Distinguishing between “no intention”, an “indifferent intention,” and a “strong intention” towards self-employment, the findings show that all variables can predict a willingness for self-employment in different, but significant, ways to comparable measures (an indifferent intention relative to no intention, and a strong intention to no intention). The paper concludes with an outlook to some more general perspectives of institutional economics and needs for further research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

24 pages, 873 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Public Grants on Firm-Level Productivity: Findings from the Czech Food Industry

by Ondřej Dvouletý and Ivana Blažková

Sustainability 2019, 11(2), 552; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020552 - 21 Jan 2019

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 6251

Abstract

Studying the effects of public entrepreneurship and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policies on productivity (i.e., technological efficiency) is important, because the investment policies primarily aim to reduce allocation inefficiencies, enable usage of economies of scale, promote new production methods and technological development. We reviewed the recently published studies, and we show that they often lack fundamental information, such as a sample description and numbers of supported and non-supported firms. Keeping in mind the importance of transparent and rigorous empirical evaluations, we evaluated the effects of investment support from the European Regional and Development Fund (ERDF) on the productivity of the firms operating in the Czech food processing industry two years after the end of the programme. Methodologically, we apply the propensity score matching approach (PSM) combined with a difference in differences approach (DID) based on the firm-level data accounting for 157 firms (i.e., 77.3% of all beneficiaries within the industry) and a control sample of 1224 firms that have not been supported by the intervention. We use three measures of productivity—production efficiency, labour productivity and total factor productivity (TFP). The obtained findings showed that investment subsidy had a positive impact on labour productivity of supported firms. However, the effects on TFP were negative. The impact on production efficiency indicator was proven to be inconclusive. It follows from the results that the productivity of subsidised firms did not improve through an internal increase in efficiency (efficiency of the use of inputs), which indicates no significant technological change. The subsidy decision-making processes should be more careful and transparent to ensure allocating resources only to the projects with growth potential. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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17 pages, 1486 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On the Substitutability between Paid-employment and Self-employment: Evidence from the Period 1969–2014 in the United States

by Emilio Congregado, Antonio A. Golpe and Vicente Esteve

Sustainability 2019, 11(2), 507; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020507 - 18 Jan 2019

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3784

Abstract

This paper provides estimates of the elasticity of substitution between operational and managerial jobs in the US economy during the years 1969–2014, derived from an aggregate CES production function. Estimating the long-term relationship between (the log of) the aggregate employment/self-employment ratio and (the log of) the returns from paid-employment relative to self-employment and testing for structural breaks, we report different estimates of the elasticity of substitution in each of the two regimes identified. To this end we apply the methodology on instability tests proposed in Kejriwal and Perron (2008, 2010) as well as the cointegration tests developed in Arai and Kurozumi (2007) and Kejriwal (2008). Our results help to understand and interpret one of the most intriguing aspects in the evolution of self-employment rates in developed countries: the reversal of the trend in self-employment rates. Our estimates show that a higher level of development is associated with a greater number of entrepreneurs and smaller firms. Some rationales for understanding the growth of the elasticity between paid-employment and self-employment, including the recent trends in the digital economy, are also suggested. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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17 pages, 488 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drivers and Outcomes of Business Model Innovation—Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Perspective

by Andreja Pucihar, Gregor Lenart, Mirjana Kljajić Borštnar, Doroteja Vidmar and Marjeta Marolt

Sustainability 2019, 11(2), 344; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11020344 - 11 Jan 2019

Cited by 73 | Viewed by 10700

Abstract

Business model innovation (BMI) is one of the key activities, which has to be continuously undertaken in every enterprise to sustain competitiveness in today’s digital economy. Although the interest in business models (BM) has risen significantly since the late 1990s, little is known about BMI practices in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), representing a majority of enterprises in the European market. Our study addresses this research gap and focuses on the investigation of drivers and outcomes of BMI in SMEs. A partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) method was used to empirically test the model using data collected in 2017 from 71 SMEs in Slovenia. Results have shown that the innovativeness of enterprises and their business environment has a positive impact on the level of BMI activities in the enterprises. However, this is not the case of fast developing and rapidly changing information technology. In addition, the results show that the level of BMI has a positive impact on BMI outcomes and further on overall business performance. The results contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of BMI activities in SMEs and offer useful insights to SMEs that intend to innovate their business model(s) and government to create a supportive environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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20 pages, 591 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Value Co-Creation on Social Enterprise Growth: Moderating Mechanism of Environment Dynamics

by Jianxin Ge, Hongjia Xu and Massimiliano M. Pellegrini

Sustainability 2019, 11(1), 250; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010250 - 7 Jan 2019

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 7281

Abstract

The traditional approach to demonstrate the growth processes of social enterprise still relies heavily on an internal perspective of resource and capability accumulation. However, it is insufficient to explain why some social enterprises grow quickly while other social enterprises do not. Based on the theory of value co-creation, this paper proposes a theoretical framework of the effect of value co-creation on social enterprise growth. A survey was conducted in China across 29 provinces and municipalities from October 2015 to March 2016, through the efforts of a market research group. The final number of usable questionnaires was 172. Specifically, by employing hierarchical regression models, this paper partially confirms the positive impact of value co-creation on social enterprise growth, while environment dynamics have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between value creation and the growth of social enterprises. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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19 pages, 357 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Entrepreneurial Business Ties and New Venture Growth: The Mediating Role of Resource Acquiring, Bundling and Leveraging

by Gang Wang, Linwei Li and Xu Jiang

Sustainability 2019, 11(1), 244; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010244 - 6 Jan 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4638

Abstract

Adopting insights from a resource management perspective, this study investigates how entrepreneurs utilize their business ties to promote new venture growth. We propose a multiple mediator model in which different resource management processes (i.e., resource acquiring, resource bundling, and resource leveraging) act as critical mediating mechanisms. We undertook a two-stage survey design, and collected data during the period from 2013 to 2016. Drawing on a longitudinal sample of 229 new ventures in China, we tested the hypotheses through the optimal scaling regression (OSR) analysis. We find empirical support for the mediated effects of entrepreneurial business ties via resource bundling and resource leveraging to promote new venture growth. However, our results find the mediating effect of resource acquiring non-significant. These findings will deepen understanding of the role of entrepreneurial business ties in the new venture growth process and expand resource management perspective into the entrepreneurial field. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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23 pages, 1005 KiB

Open AccessArticle

What Determinants Influence Students to Start Their Own Business? Empirical Evidence from United Arab Emirates Universities

by Alexandrina Maria Pauceanu, Onise Alpenidze, Tudor Edu and Rodica Milena Zaharia

Sustainability 2019, 11(1), 92; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010092 - 24 Dec 2018

Cited by 43 | Viewed by 14024

Abstract

What factors influence students to start their own business? What are the implications at the university level? This paper aims to answer to these questions and investigates, at a micro level (university), the motivation for entrepreneurial intentions among students in 10 universities from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). An online inquiry has been conducted among 500 students between April and June 2018, and 157 fully completed questionnaires were retained. Factor Analysis with Varimax (with Kaizer Normalization) rotation and logistic regression were used to identify what factors motivate students to start their own business and, from those factors, which one is determinant in this decision. Also, age and parental self-employment status were used to determine the influence of these factors. Four factors have been identified as determinants for students to start their own business: entrepreneurial confidence, entrepreneurial orientation, university support for entrepreneurship, and cultural support for entrepreneurship. Surprisingly, the only factor significantly correlated with the intention in starting a business is entrepreneurial confidence. This factor becomes even stronger when it is associated with age (20–25 years old) and parents’ self-employment status. These conclusions involve specific challenges on the university level, related to the role of entrepreneurial education and on country level, in link with the effectiveness of governmental programs to enhance entrepreneurial endeavours. Further research can explore and test these findings on a representative sample for the UAE, and for other countries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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20 pages, 589 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enablers and Constraints of Female Entrepreneurship in Khyber Pukhtunkhawa, Pakistan: Institutional and Feminist Perspectives

by Mohammad Sohail Yunis, Hina Hashim and Alistair R. Anderson

Sustainability 2019, 11(1), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010027 - 21 Dec 2018

Cited by 48 | Viewed by 11535

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is often considered a male-gendered concept, and carries masculine connotations. However, the importance of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the economy has recently been realized. Nonetheless, there is limited research about female entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship in the developing countries context. This paper challenges the implicit masculinism of the traditional entrepreneurship research, and aims to explore the enablers and constraints of female social entrepreneurship within the context of a developing country. Our theoretical focus is based on institutional and feminist perspectives, thus developing logic through reconciling predictions from these two competing theories. This integration contributes by offering novel insights about social entrepreneurship. Utilising an interpretive qualitative research approach, data from in-depth interviews with ten female social entrepreneurs of KP, Pakistan were analyzed using thematic analysis. Empirically, we identify and discuss a number of interesting and explanatory themes affecting female entrepreneurship such as “women empowerment, patriarchal culture, role of culture and societal norms, religious extremism and terrorism, forced entrepreneurs, change creators, unique institutional constraints, institutional corruption and security issues”. The findings highlight female entrepreneurs’ struggle for sustainability, and explain how this occurs. The paper also provides an interesting insight into how context determines social entrepreneurship in KP, Pakistan. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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23 pages, 761 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Entrepreneurial Orientation, Knowledge Utilization and Internationalization of Firms

by Krzysztof Wach, Agnieszka Głodowska and Marek Maciejewski

Sustainability 2018, 10(12), 4711; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124711 - 11 Dec 2018

Cited by 37 | Viewed by 6164

Abstract

The aim of this article is to verify what the relations are between entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge utilization in the internationalization of Polish firms. The article distinguishes four types of knowledge: market knowledge, network knowledge, sociocultural knowledge, and entrepreneurial knowledge. The research uses quantitative design and is based on a survey conducted in 2015 on a sample of 355 businesses from Poland (the response rate was 10.7%), following which statistical techniques (t-tests and regression analyses) were applied to verify the hypotheses. An overview of prior studies enabled us to identify the research gap in the literature regarding the combination of three elements that link to form one picture of reality, namely, (i) entrepreneurial orientation and (ii) knowledge utilization in (iii) the internationalization process of firms. The case of Polish firms confirms that entrepreneurial orientation is substantial in the use of knowledge in the internationalization process. Firms characterized by higher entrepreneurial orientation use particular types of knowledge much more intensely at various stages of the internationalization process. Entrepreneurial orientation, and especially risk-taking, has significant positive effects on the scope of internationalization. Greater entrepreneurial orientation increases the number of foreign markets in which a given firm operates. Not only market knowledge in the traditional approach, but especially network and entrepreneurial knowledge have significant positive effects on the intensification of the internationalization scale. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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14 pages, 1033 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Public Support of Private R&D–Effects on Economic Sustainability

by Jan Cadil, Karel Mirosnik, Ludmila Petkovova and Michal Mirvald

Sustainability 2018, 10(12), 4612; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124612 - 5 Dec 2018

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6283

Abstract

A substantial part of contemporary R&D policy in developed countries is focused on the support of R&D in the private sector. Such intervention is theoretically justified by a higher propensity to innovation and consequently to higher competitiveness, which promotes sustainable economic growth. Most of the empirical research done so far focuses mainly on the leverage effect, the effect on innovation activity or on estimating the crowding out effect of public support. Although the outcomes of this research are quite contradictory, only a few studies focus on the effect of public support of private R&D on the private bodies’ performance indicators, which are naturally connected with a company’s economic sustainability. In this article we use counterfactual design and show that the R&D policy of supporting the private sector leads to higher innovation activity, but it does not lead to higher value added and productivity for supported subjects, at least in the short run. Such a finding suggests a possible flaw in R&D policy implementation—it is questionable if higher innovation activity is truly effective if it is not followed by a positive effect on production (value added) and productivity, and if it does not have a positive effect on competitiveness or lead to sustainable economic growth. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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14 pages, 269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Overconfidence, Optimism and Entrepreneurship

by Indy Bernoster, Cornelius A. Rietveld, A. Roy Thurik and Olivier Torrès

Sustainability 2018, 10(7), 2233; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072233 - 28 Jun 2018

Cited by 53 | Viewed by 9615

Abstract

Overconfidence is one of the alleged drivers for market entry. However, establishing its effect is challenging and much of the existing entrepreneurship literature confusingly conflates overconfidence with optimism. In the present study, we use validated scales to analyze the relationship between overconfidence and two important aspects of entrepreneurship, while explicitly controlling for optimism. Specifically, we study the role of overconfidence in developing intentions about entering entrepreneurship as well as how overconfidence relates to entrepreneurial orientation. Our findings show that overconfidence is related to intended market entry but not to the market position (entrepreneurial orientation) of the business. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

19 pages, 863 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Does Thinking Style Make a Difference in Environmental Perception and Orientation? Evidence from Entrepreneurs in Post-Sanction Iran

by Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi, Alexander Brem and Mohammad Shahabinezhad

Sustainability 2018, 10(5), 1546; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051546 - 13 May 2018

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 6254

Abstract

Styles of thinking set different paths for an entrepreneur’s perception and strategic action. In order to understand the environmental consequences of a thinking style, we investigated the relations between entrepreneurs’ linear and nonlinear styles of thinking with their perception of environmental uncertainty in their businesses. Furthermore, we tested the effect of the entrepreneurs’ linear and nonlinear style of thinking on their newly established firms’ orientation towards preserving the surrounding internal and external environment. Entrepreneurs with linear or rational thinking styles prefer more tangible data, information, facts, and analytical tools, and entrepreneurs with nonlinear or non-rational thinking styles rely more on internal feelings, impressions, imagination, creativity, and sensations when making important organizational decisions. By using cross-sectional survey data from 144 entrepreneurs in post-sanction Iran (2016–2017), we found that entrepreneurs with a linear style of thinking, in comparison to entrepreneurs with a nonlinear style of thinking, perceive a higher level of environmental state, effect, and response uncertainty in their business context. Furthermore, our survey results reveal that newly established firms by entrepreneurs with nonlinear styles of thinking have a more external environmental orientation, while newly established firms by entrepreneurs with a linear style of thinking have a more internal environmental orientation. Recognizing this contingency advances our understanding of how entrepreneurs perceive and enact their environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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Review

Jump to: Research

26 pages, 2035 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Systematic Review of International Entrepreneurship Special Issue Articles

by Áron Perényi and Miklós Losoncz

Sustainability 2018, 10(10), 3476; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10103476 - 28 Sep 2018

Cited by 38 | Viewed by 8454

Abstract

This paper investigates the body of international entrepreneurship knowledge to identify key trends, research directions and emerging research topics. First, 21 systematic and 6 non-systematic review articles published between 1998 and 2018 are reviewed. The analysis of these 27 review articles explores the trends and directions of development in the field, and provides a set of dimensions for evaluating the body of literature. A systematic review of 126 special issue articles using these dimensions proceeds with an assessment of the breadth and depth of international entrepreneurship special issue literature, and provides validation for the key areas and directions of development for international entrepreneurship research. Trends identified include the convergence between international business and entrepreneurship literatures, the focus on SME internationalization and various forms of international new ventures and born globals. Later years show the emergence of comparative international entrepreneurship and comparative entrepreneurial internationalization as research topics, emphasizing the importance of integrating empirical evidence between countries and contexts. There is a gap in the body of knowledge regarding emerging and transitional country contexts. There is also more room for comparative research that could also support the adaptation and development of context specific theories, providing a future direction for international entrepreneurship researchers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Researching Entrepreneurship at Different Levels: Micro, Meso and Macro)

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