Book review: Mohammad Mustafa. Demystifying Venture Capital: How it Works and How to Get It

Mohammad Mustafa. Demystifying Venture Capital: How it Works and How to Get It, Simon & Schuster India, 2020, 400 pp.

Book review: John Chambers and Diane Brady. Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Start-up World

John Chambers and Diane Brady. Connecting the Dots: Lessons for Leadership in a Start-up World, Harper Collins Publishers, 2018, 320 pp.

Do Entrepreneurship Skills Improve Project Performance? A Project-Based Learning Perspective

This study examines the effect of entrepreneurship skillsets on project performance. Building upon the theory of planned behaviour, we examine the impact of individual entrepreneurship orientation (IEO) and entrepreneurship self-efficacy (ESE) on project performance, using a sample of 243 observations from students’ projects in areas of science, engineering and technology. We examine our research questions using a combination of multivariate regression analysis and robust regression. The results show that the survey is valid and reliable in measuring IEO and ESE, and the survey can be used to assess the relationship between IEO, ESE and project performance. In addition, the findings indicate that appearance self-efficacy is the variable that most significantly contributes to project performance, followed by social skills, then management skills. The study provides insights into how entrepreneurship skills can be viewed as important skillsets for success in projects and how operations and project managers can emphasise certain entrepreneurship skills to enhance project performance. At the individual level, entrepreneurship skills can be viewed as skillsets that improve project performance even in projects that are less entrepreneurial in nature. The improvement in performance is primarily in projects that are more structured, have a specific timeline and have defined objectives.

Entrepreneurial Finance in the Twenty-first Century, a Review of Factors Influencing Venture Capitalist’s Decision

Investments in new ventures are risky due to lack of conventional form of quantitative information and untested products. Venture capitalists (VCs) are seen to target such new ventures for high-risk premium but with little success. Existing research has investigated and identified a variety of qualitative factors that impact VCs’ investment decisions; however, many research gaps still exist. Works published in the last two decades show the evolution in the preference of factors with the focus shifting from venture’s team and product to factors such as intellectual property rights, economic crisis and social capital. It was found that the factor’s role was limited to the binary scale (positive and negative), which undermines its effect. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive framework of factors that influence VCs’ investment decisions and show theoretical research gaps. Accordingly, we have segmented factors into two macro-categories: ‘internal’ and ‘external environment’, and presented a detailed framework of the factors that influence VCs’ investment decisions. Further, we argue to consider the subjectivity of qualitative factors and to explore the role of a factor in the decision-making.

Making Entrepreneurs? Makerspaces and Entrepreneurial Intent Among High School Students

Makerspaces have grown over the last two decades and provide a potentially important resource to entrepreneurs. One area where the expansion of makerspaces has been the largest is in educational settings, at both K-12 schools and colleges. However, scant research to date has analysed whether students visiting a makerspace have any relationship with their professional goals or intentions. This study uses a survey conducted in New Orleans to analyse the predictors of what students use a makerspace, and the potential relationship visiting may have with entrepreneurial intent. The analysis finds that students with a higher socio-economic status appear to use makerspaces more often, and that students who visited makerspaces are more likely to express interest in starting their own businesses.

Attitude and Alertness in Personality Traits: A Pathway to Building Entrepreneurial Intentions Among University Students

The entrepreneurial intentions of individuals play a phenomenal role in establishment of new ventures, which in turn facilitates economic development. The study aims to identify the various dimensions of personality traits along with several other precursors of entrepreneurial intentions and investigates impact of the identified factors on entrepreneurial intentions of top five university students in India. The data for research were collected through a structured questionnaire employing a 7-point Likert scale based on purposive sampling technique. The identified constructs considered to be determinants of entrepreneurial intentions were need for achievement, locus of control, risk-taking propensity, innovativeness, self-efficacy, proactiveness, perseverance, entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial attitude. The findings of the study reveal that ‘need for achievement’ was the most significant precursor of entrepreneurial intentions; whereas, ‘entrepreneurial alertness’ and ‘entrepreneurial attitude’ dimensions of personality traits were also found to have a positive correlation with entrepreneurial intentions of university students. Moreover, entrepreneurial alertness partially mediates the relationship between self-efficacy and proactiveness on the one hand and entrepreneurial intentions on the other.

The Role of Entrepreneurial Finance in Corporate Social Responsibility and New Venture Performance in an Emerging Market

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has over the past decades transformed from a philanthropic attribute to something compulsory. It has become the imperative duty of organisations, irrespective of their size, nature of business and age. However, because of poor financial capabilities and lack of support, newly established ventures too often fail to voluntarily participate in social and environmental activities. This is one reason why national governments have initiated various programs and policies to encourage CSR and environmental activities in new ventures. However, previous studies have yet to fully reveal the effects of entrepreneurial finance on CSR and the environmental, financial and innovative performance of newly established ventures. To fill this gap, we used a survey to gather empirical evidence from 255 newly established ventures. The results indicate that entrepreneurial finance directly contributes to financial performance, while indirectly contributing to environmental and innovative performance through CSR. Our research recommends that new ventures efficiently utilise entrepreneurial finance to configure CSR activities that achieve high profitability, and environmental and innovative performance. Moreover, our research encourages governments to make financial loans to ventures engaged in social and environmental activities to help them reach their sustainable development goals.

When the Quest for the Best Pays Off: How Maximising Entrepreneurs Improve Performance by Creating Entrepreneurial and Market Oriented Businesses

New research in the behavioural sciences has identified that some individuals consistently strive to make the best choice through extensive information search (maximisers), while others are inclined to select options that are good enough (satisficers). The purpose of this study is to investigate how these decision-making styles impact the entrepreneurial process. It is predicted that maximising entrepreneurs will perform better in their entrepreneurial ventures than satisficing entrepreneurs. In order to achieve improved outcomes, it is expected that maximisers will apply their preference for information search to develop more entrepreneurially oriented and market-oriented businesses. Data gathered from a sample of 172 entrepreneurs in the United States indicate that entrepreneurs who maximise outperformed their satisficing counterparts. This relationship was mediated by both entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation, suggesting that maximising entrepreneurs are more likely than satisficers to adopt innovative and market driven approaches to improve entrepreneurial performance.

Gender Diversity Effects in Investment Decisions

This study examines the gender gap in investment decisions in a prominent setting: the American TV show Shark Tank. Our study is based on a sample of 895 pitches from 10 seasons comprising 222 episodes from 2009 to 2019. Contradicting prior research, our findings suggest that female entrepreneurs are not discriminated against in pitch success rates, independent of their respective industrial settings. We find that the valuations from the entrepreneurs themselves (males overvalued their ventures by 57.19%) and final deal valuations (male deals were overvalued by 50.50%) are significantly lower for females, hinting towards a self-imposed gender gap in entrepreneurship and angel investing. As the gender gap in entrepreneurship and angel investment seems to result from a lower rate of entrepreneurial intentions by women, we suggest fostering female entrepreneurship by raising the number of female entrepreneurs and business angels who may serve as role models among those potential female entrepreneurs and business angels at the brink of becoming actual entrepreneurs, as demonstrated in Shark Tank. Particularly, in teams, mixed founder teams consisting of males and females may support the creation of promising start-ups with viable business models.

Book review Stuart Cunningham and Terry Flew (Eds.), A Research Agenda for Creative Industries

Stuart Cunningham and Terry Flew (Eds.), A Research Agenda for Creative Industries (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019). pp. 184, HB £72.00. ISBN: 9781788118566.