A Cognitive Measure of Entrepreneurial Alertness

Alertness is a foundational concept in current understandings of the spotting and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. Yet, despite being identified as a key theoretical construct of individual entrepreneurs, its cognitive features are not fully described in the literature. And as a result, the existing instruments for measuring this cognitive feature of entrepreneurs do not fully reflect the broad nature of this concept. In this study, the cognitive theoretical basis of alertness is reviewed and a new scale, which better reflects the broader cognitive features of entrepreneurial alertness, is presented. This may assist the validity of future empirical studies that involve entrepreneurial alertness.

The Psychological Profile of Tunisian SMEs Founders Amid the COVID-19 Crisis

The purpose of this paper is to determine the psychological profile of the Tunisian SMEs founder amid the COVID-19 crisis. The results of this research demonstrated that their psychological profile in times of COVID-19 crisis is quadridimensional and that each of these four dimensions (tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, attitude towards risk, self-confidence and locus of control) are unidimensional. This research was conducted in three Tunisian industries (textiles and clothing industries, agro-food industries and industries of ceramic and glass building materials) via the administration of a questionnaire via LinkedIn (between March, 15 and May, 15 2020) to more than 400 SMEs’ founders. The critical contributions of this research are the clarification of the role of psychological factors in the field of entrepreneurship, which remains unclear, by enriching previous research on entrepreneurial personality. The main findings of this study: (1) the four key psychological traits correspond to the “specific traits” of an entrepreneur; (2) these “specific traits” are more suitable to study the profile of the SME’s founder profile at the time of crisis than the more “stable traits” — the Big Five traits; (3) the psychological profile of the SME’s founder in a hyper-turbulent environment (namely the COVID-19 crisis) correspond to the psychological entrepreneurial profile.

Networks Around Potential and Nascent Entrepreneurs: Examining the Mediating Role of Risk-Taking and Self-Confidence

The importance of social network comes not only from the resources to which networks facilitate access but also from the capacity of the network to develop entrepreneurial characteristics in a person. This research focuses on the importance of the entrepreneur’s social network in the pre-start-up phase. It also examines the mediating role of risk-taking and self-confidence as important psychological variables for future entrepreneurs. We undertake this study to better understand the failure at the network level of the future Tunisian entrepreneur while offering solutions to decision-makers in Tunisia. Among the 2,000 adults surveyed by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, interest is focused on potential and emerging entrepreneurs. The results of logistic regression modelling show that future Tunisian entrepreneurs often use their emotional support network and neglect other networks which offer practical support at an earlier stage of business creation. Unlike to expectations, risk-taking and self-confidence have not mediated the relationship between the social network and the pre-start-up phase.

New Ventures Competitiveness and Success; Do Intellectual Capital, IT Capabilities, Entrepreneurial and Market Orientation Really Matter?

The failure ratio of new ventures across the globe pushes researchers towards finding solutions, but the response is not effective. This research project surveyed 297 new manufacturing enterprises from China to find factors that significantly contribute to the success of new ventures. The results indicated that intellectual capital significantly sustains performance and sustainable competitive advantage in new ventures. The relationship between intellectual capital and new venture performance is partially mediated by a sustainable competitive advantage. Information technology capabilities do not positively impact new venture performance and competitiveness. Entrepreneurial orientation has a significant influence on differentiation strategy and new venture performance. Sustainable competitive advantage does not mediate the path between entrepreneurial orientation and new venture performance, but it fully mediates the association between market orientation and new venture performance. This study recommends that new enterprises focus on intellectual capital, entrepreneurial orientation, and market orientation to acquire a sustainable position in the competitive market. New ventures should also evaluate their technological capabilities to understand why they do not play a vital role. Further implications have been stated.

Service Innovation Capability in Social and Health Care SMEs: The Impact of Market Orientation and Technology Orientation

Developing new services is vital for a service-based company to succeed in the long run. This requires both innovation capability and understanding customer needs. Previous research has shown that if a firm wishes to develop an innovation superior to the competition, it must have both a strong technology orientation and a strong market orientation. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of market orientation and technology orientation on service innovation capability in SMEs operating in the field of social and health care. In addition, this study examined the obstacles to using digitalization and new technologies in service innovations. Mixed methods design was applied so both quantitative and qualitative data was used. The results from the quantitative part of this study show that both technology orientation and market orientation have a positive and statistically significant effect on service innovation capability in SMEs operating in the field of social and health care. Furthermore, market orientation is the most important variable in the model. The results from the qualitative element again show that some of the hindering factors of using digitalization and new technologies arise from practices and attitudes of social and health care actors but others arise from the digitalization and new technologies themselves.

Financial Self-Efficacy in Family Business Environments

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy can have positive effects on entrepreneurship, company start-ups, and business growth. The family business environment has not yet been studied in relation to financial-self efficacy, a dimension of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In order to address this research gap, this paper focuses on financial self-efficacy and how it relates to its antecedent — the family business environment. This study contributes to a better understanding of how financial self-efficacy has developed in the family business environment by building and checking a normative model. A hypothesis about family business environment experience and the financial self-efficacy relationship was developed and empirically tested using survey data from two countries. The findings of this research reveal the family business environment can make a difference in financial self-efficacy in certain economic contexts.

What Are the Main Questions, Approaches and Interpretations on Minority Entrepreneurship Literature? A Systematic Review

Based on a systematic review of the literature, this article seeks to analyse the main questions, interpretations, and typologies for minority entrepreneurship over recent decades. To this end, we made recourse to the Scopus database for our article collection process that returned 220 articles for analysis. The results enable the identification of seven congruent research units (categories), with their own respective approaches and contributions: i) attitudes and motivations; ii) barriers and challenges; iii) interventionist policies and cultures; iv) comparisons between minorities and non-minorities; v) networks and resources; vi) impact on the local economy; vii) autonomous employment or entrepreneurship through need. This study further contributes by enabling future researchers to target their efforts on the still poorly explored shortcomings in the literature and providing a temporal overview of this theme.

Business Creation Among Participants in Entrepreneurship Education Programs: A Case Study Among University-Level Participants in a Context of Adverse Business Environment

There is a scarcity of studies that investigate the underlying factors that boost aspiring entrepreneurs to effectively start a business after attending entrepreneurship education (EE) programs, particularly in an adverse business environment. To fill out this gap, this exploratory research answers the following question: What differentiates business creators from non-creators among participants after entrepreneurship education? To answer this question, we compare a group of 64 business creators to a group of 50 non-business creators, both groups selected randomly among 912 participants to an EE program in Haiti three years after the end of the program. Based on an institutional perspective, our results show that, in the context of an adverse business environment, participants who came from a family with an entrepreneurial background, have a useful network of contacts, and showed adaptive institutional reaction were more likely to create their business, in comparison to the others. Based on these results suggestions for EE training and future studies are provided.

Dynamics of Conflicts in Family Firms: Towards a Non-Linear Approach to the Succession Process

The succession process can be a traumatic event in the life cycle of a family firm and is usually characterised by an increased interest towards the firm of the successor accompanied by a progressive disengagement of the predecessor. Drawing on five longitudinal case studies of Tunisian family firms examined from 2016 to 2019, we investigated the sequential and dynamic nature of this process, focusing on the conflicts among family members involved in the process. The main findings suggest that professional and family-related conflicts can lead to excessive tensions between the involved parties, which can result in failure of the succession process. Moreover, specific contingency factors, such as tragic events, can positively or negatively trigger deviation from the succession process path.

Access to Government Support for Innovation — Empirical Evidence From the Ruhr Area in Germany

Governments all over the world support innovation activities in private companies with several different programs. Typical measures are R&D subsidies, consulting services, incubator facilities, opportunities for networking, and subsidized loans. From an economic perspective, public support for innovations may help to compensate for market failure. But government support encounters the risk of being neither effective nor efficient. Furthermore, the ability of a company to successfully apply for public innovation support programs depends on the amount of administrative resources it already is equipped with, i.e. its size and its existing relationships with research institutions. In this paper, we look at public support for private companies in one specific German region, the Ruhr area. We use a sample of 74 companies, all of which engage in R&D activities and have already filed patents. Our findings show that firms need a minimum company size to be able to successfully apply for public innovation support. Furthermore, we show that an existing cooperation with research institutions makes access to public support measures easier. We also find that public innovation support indeed improves the patent position of companies.