scholarly journals Self-employment, start-up incentives and political ideology

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 250-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Horst Baruffaldi ◽  
Marianna Marino ◽  
Pierpaolo Parrotta
2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil McHugh ◽  
Morag Gillespie ◽  
Jana Loew ◽  
Cam Donaldson

While lending for small businesses and business start-up is a long-standing feature of economic policy in the UK and Scotland, little is known about the support available for those taking the first steps into self-employment, particularly people from poorer communities. This paper presents the results of a project that aimed to address this gap. It mapped provision of support for enterprise, including microcredit (small loans for enterprise of £5,000 or less) and grants available to people in deprived communities. It found more programmes offering grants than loans. Grants programmes, although more likely to be time limited and often linked to European funding, were generally better targeted to poor communities than loan programmes that were more financially sustainable. The introduction of the Grameen Bank to Scotland will increase access to microcredit, but this paper argues that there is a place – and a need – for both loans and grants to support enterprise development across Scotland. A Scottish economic strategy should take account of all levels of enterprise development and, in striving towards a fairer Scotland, should ensure that the poorest people and communities are not excluded from self-employment because of the lack of small amounts of support necessary to take the first steps.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-51
Author(s):  
Muhammad Adamu ◽  
Mahani Bint Mohammad Abdu Shakur

Today, the problem of unemployment has been a global issue, even among the developed nations, and especially the developing nations. For this reason, the need for employment generation becomes desirably indispensable. The aim of this research work is to examine the essential roles that entrepreneurial traits and economic incentive factors would play with the mediation of entrepreneurial motivation for an effective self-employment start-up accomplishment. Self-employment has long been recognized as an alternative for individuals to become self-reliant. Thus, this is expected brings about a reduction in poverty level,  improved living standard as well as to earn more income and have a better career as a means of sustenance for potential entrepreneurs.  For this purpose, it is essentially important to make an examination of certain vital factors, which may constitute the basics necessary to effect self-employment particularly from the context of entrepreneurial traits and economic incentive factors that would motivate the potential entrepreneurs to achieve success in self-employment start-up.


Author(s):  
Raquel Valdez-Guerrero ◽  
Isela Margarita Robles-Arias ◽  
Ivana María Real-Miranda

Strategies for the development of an Environmental Intervention Plan in the formation of the alternative tourism cluster for regional development applied in El Triunfo, Baja California Sur are addressed to allow poverty reduction through the generation of self-employment in the region, increasing the quality of life and without compromising the natural environment. The objective is to identify strategic activities and processes that are integrated into the start-up of companies that conglomerate together and form an alternative tourism cluster. To carry out the same, the Planned Change Model Intervention methodology is used, where information is collected, data is processed, the intervention plan is analyzed and designed. For the purpose of this investigation they have been designed; a questionnaire to identify the knowledge and application of the regulations of the Law of Ecological Balance and Protection of the Environment, applied to the companies that conglomerates make up the cluster and an observation matrix to collect the information, for the processing comparative matrices have been designed with in order to identify opportunities for improvement and include them in the intervention process.


Author(s):  
Aron Perenyi ◽  
Roxanne Zolin ◽  
Alex Maritz

Purpose Why is self-employment an attractive option for certain seniors and what drives seniors into business start-ups? In this study, the motivations and preferences of senior entrepreneurs in Australia, to become self-employed, by means of business start-ups, are explored. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical basis for policy implications. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods study is conducted. Members of the National Senior’s Association in Australia were interviewed and surveyed. The semi-structured interviews identified the key factors influencing senior entrepreneurs in relation to self-employment and entrepreneurial choices at a later career stage. The survey collected information on intentionality, motivation, skills, opportunities, success, satisfaction, participation, barriers, benefits, education and training, and perceptions of policy support for senior entrepreneurs. Findings Respondents gave an account of the prevalence of pull factors motivating their choice of an entrepreneurial career. Multivariate statistical analysis of survey responses showed that senior entrepreneurs are more driven by opportunity than necessity and are primarily internally motivated. Research limitations/implications Results of this study suggest a weak link between motivation by others and the act of start-up, but this may also imply that those seniors who are more likely to become entrepreneurs are more likely to ignore the impulses from their social context. This requires further investigation to ensure a robust identification of drivers and an elimination of contextual effects. Further research is suggested to compose a relevant model structure in different contexts and a representative sample to confirm the model outcomes. Originality/value This is the first mixed methods study of the antecedents of senior entrepreneurs’ start-up intentions in Australia. The study also uses entrepreneurial activity as opposed to intention as its dependent variable, which allows for a more accurate evaluation of antecedents to the senior entrepreneurship phenomenon.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Liñán ◽  
Francesco Ceresia ◽  
Antonio Bernal

Entrepreneurial self-identity is attracting increasing attention as a potentially relevant variable in explaining the entrepreneurial process. So far, most research treats entrepreneurial self-identity as a consequence of, or, at the most, as being developed through the start-up process. In this article, in contrast, we analyze its role as a previous element that helps determine the entrepreneurial intention of individuals, the perceived usefulness of entrepreneurship education, and, indirectly, their interest in participating in entrepreneurship education courses. Our hypotheses are tested on a sample of Italian university students and graduates ( N = 88) with no previous participation in entrepreneurship education or self-employment experience. The results clearly support the proposed model. The implications of these results, if further confirmed, are highly relevant. They indicate that there is a strong risk of self-selection bias in most entrepreneurship education evaluation studies. This is due to an element of reversed causation in which participants who already exhibit a higher entrepreneurial self-identity are more interested in entrepreneurship. At the same time, these results also suggest that professionals and public decision-makers involved in fostering entrepreneurship should pay attention to the development of this entrepreneurial self-identity in childhood and adolescence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-162
Author(s):  
Armel Irankunda ◽  
Gregory N. Price ◽  
Norense E. Uzamere ◽  
Miesha J. Williams

This article considers whether ex-incarceree/convict status favorably conditions the decision to be self-employed—a proxy for entrepreneurship. With data from the U.S. General Social Survey, we estimate the parameters of simple Probit and Bivariate Probit treatment specifications of individual self-employment outcomes as a function of ex-incarceree/convict status, and several measures of individual risk-taking propensities. Parameter estimates reveal that ex-incarceree/convict status has a positive and significant treatment effect on self-employment, particularly for Black Americans, after controlling for various measures of individual risk propensities. Our results suggest that the expansion of entrepreneurship training programs and the elimination of any barriers that restrict access to start-up capital for ex-incarcerees/convicts would reduce crime and recidivism, ameliorate mass incarceration, and complement pro-growth economic policies that induce more self-employment and entrepreneurship. JEL Classification: J01, J24, L26, Z13


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Urban

Building on previous research relating to entrepreneurship, empowerment and self-employment, this article investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial empowerment, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and self-employment. These constructs are formulated into distinct factors and a sample of undergraduate students (N = 112) early in their careers surveyed to establish the structure formed by these factors. These instruments are tested and shown to provide robust scales able to ensure construct validity and reliability. Multiple correlational and multiple regression analysis are then conducted to test the relationships between the specified variables, with results indicating almost unequivocal support for the hypothesised associations between entrepreneurial empowerment and reasons for business start-up. In particular the “risk-taking” factor is found to have great predictive power on various reasons provided for business start-up is analysed. Several practical and theoretical implications are drawn from the empirical results and integrated with established conceptual findings.


2013 ◽  
Vol 129 (2) ◽  
pp. 697-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Blattman ◽  
Nathan Fiala ◽  
Sebastian Martinez

Abstract We study a government program in Uganda designed to help the poor and unemployed become self-employed artisans, increase incomes, and thus promote social stability. Young adults in Uganda’s conflict-affected north were invited to form groups and submit grant proposals for vocational training and business start-up. Funding was randomly assigned among screened and eligible groups. Treatment groups received unsupervised grants of $382 per member. Grant recipients invest some in skills training but most in tools and materials. After four years, half practice a skilled trade. Relative to the control group, the program increases business assets by 57%, work hours by 17%, and earnings by 38%. Many also formalize their enterprises and hire labor. We see no effect, however, on social cohesion, antisocial behavior, or protest. Effects are similar by gender but are qualitatively different for women because they begin poorer (meaning the impact is larger relative to their starting point) and because women’s work and earnings stagnate without the program but take off with it. The patterns we observe are consistent with credit constraints.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 584-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm J. Beynon ◽  
Paul Jones ◽  
Gary Packham ◽  
David Pickernell

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate student motivation for undertaking an entrepreneurship education programme and their ultimate employment aspirations through a novel data mining technique. The study considered what relationship certain motivation characteristics have to students’ aspirations, specifically in terms of their intention to be self-employed or employed. Design/methodology/approach – The study examined enrolment data of 720 students on an entrepreneurial education programme, with work statuses of full-time, part-time or unemployed and have known aspirations to either employment or self-employment. The Classification and Ranking Belief Simplex (CaRBS) technique is employed in the classification analyses undertaken, which offers an uncertain reasoning based visual approach to the exposition of findings. Findings – The classification findings demonstrate the level of contribution of the different motivations to the discernment of students with self-employed and employed aspirations. The most contributing aspirations were Start-Up, Interests and Qualifications. For these aspirations, further understanding is provided with respect to gender and student age (in terms of the association with aspirations towards self-employed or employed). For example, with respect to Start-Up, the older the unemployed student, the increasing association with employment rather than self-employment career aspirations. Research limitations/implications – The study identifies candidate motivation and the demographic profile for student's undertaking an entrepreneurial education programme. Knowing applicant aspirations should inform course design, pedagogy and its inherent flexibility and recognise the specific needs of certain student groups. Originality/value – The study contributes to the literature examining motivations for undertaking entrepreneurship education and categorising motivating factors. These findings will be of value to both education providers and researchers.


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