Everyday social support processes: Household members’ instrumental and emotional support of entrepreneurs

While it is well-established that entrepreneurs benefit from social support, little is known about how and when instrumental and emotional support from household members facilitate entrepreneurial action and persistence. Through a longitudinal, qualitative study, we develop a conceptual framework that shows how social support from the household becomes an integral part of the everyday activities of entrepreneurs. In contrast to the perception of social support as static, our findings illustrate it as a dynamic, ongoing process which is core to business start-up and growth over time. We also challenge the perspectives that households are simply repositories of resources and entrepreneurs passive recipients of support by demonstrating that social support is necessarily interactive, whereby entrepreneurs and households play a collaborative role in entrepreneurship. Finally, we join the debate concerning mechanisms of social support by suggesting that the main effect model and buffering hypothesis are not contradictory, but are instead interdependent.

Entrepreneurial action and unprecedented uncertainty: The cases of New South Wales regional hospitality and tourism firms

The purpose of this study is to deepen emerging knowledge concerning the experiences of hospitality and tourism businesses operating in a regional setting in dealing with the uncertain environment caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Considering the conceptual pillars of entrepreneurial action, the study proposes a theoretical framework that extends the understanding of this unsettling and fluidly emerging phenomenon from a firm perspective. On-site, face-to-face interviews with ten owners and managers in regional New South Wales, Australia, contributed to the development of four different conceptual dimensions. First, the non-action-driven opportunity dimension underscores unintended positive outcomes from the crisis, while a second, action-driven opportunity illustrates initiatives business owners/managers implement to anticipate, minimise or exploit emerging opportunities. Third, the non-action-driven threat dimension is associated with negative outcomes from the crisis, and the last, strategy-driven opportunity, suggests changes, for instance, in firms’ business model with the goal of creating future opportunities.

AI Startup Business Models

We currently observe the rapid emergence of startups that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) as part of their business model. While recent research suggests that AI startups employ novel or different business models, one could argue that AI technology has been used in business models for a long time already—questioning the novelty of those business models. Therefore, this study investigates how AI startup business models potentially differ from common IT-related business models. First, a business model taxonomy of AI startups is developed from a sample of 100 AI startups and four archetypal business model patterns are derived: AI-charged Product/Service Provider, AI Development Facilitator, Data Analytics Provider, and Deep Tech Researcher. Second, drawing on this descriptive analysis, three distinctive aspects of AI startup business models are discussed: (1) new value propositions through AI capabilities, (2) different roles of data for value creation, and (3) the impact of AI technology on the overall business logic. This study contributes to our fundamental understanding of AI startup business models by identifying their key characteristics, common instantiations, and distinctive aspects. Furthermore, this study proposes promising directions for future entrepreneurship research. For practice, the taxonomy and patterns serve as structured tools to support entrepreneurial action.

Is There Opportunity Without Stakeholders? A Stakeholder Theory Critique and Development of Opportunity-Actualization

How can stakeholder theory contribute to opportunity theory? We suggest that stakeholder theory affords appropriate theoretical lenses for grounding the opportunity-actualization perspective more firmly within the real-world constraints of business venturing. Actualization departs from a strong focus on entrepreneurial agency to conceptualize how pre-existing environmental conditions determine what entrepreneurial action can achieve. We explain that stakeholder theory can strengthen the outward-looking orientation of actualization by (1) bringing the entirety of stakeholders centre-stage, beyond a narrow focus on market stakeholders, and (2) stressing the importance of noneconomic considerations for the actualization of economic opportunities. Our theorization culminates in the concept of ‘strategic opportunity thinking’ (SOT). We conceptualize SOT as a way of protecting entrepreneurs from the blind-to-stakeholders mindset that either sleepwalks them into the territory of non-opportunity or prevents them from the actualization of real yet difficult-to-actualize opportunities in the absence of stakeholder-centric thinking.

The Conceptual Framework Modelling the Causality Effect Between Instafamous Credibility and Entrepreneur Action

This paper aims to present a conceptual framework of causal effect between instafamous credibility on the entrepreneurial action among the university’s students who are an Instagram user. The conceptual framework was developed by a literature review of the social media influencer’s credibility construct i.e., the trustworthiness, expertise, and attractiveness and the entrepreneurial behavior (action). The understanding and predicting entrepreneur action are vital because it is understandable that becoming an entrepreneur is quite a complex process of planned behavior to endure by the student. It is, therefore, an opportunity for the stakeholders to explore the benefit of the advancement of social media platform, specifically the Instagram to develop an Instapreneur. The entrepreneur action and source credibility framework will allow us to better understand the impact of various business emergence and identifying what and how it emerges.