The same but different: Understanding entrepreneurial behaviour in disadvantaged communities

While entrepreneurship is widely viewed as being equally accessible in all contexts, it could be questioned if potential or nascent entrepreneurs from minority and disadvantaged communities experience entrepreneurship in a similar manner to the mainstream population. This chapter examines immigrant, people with disability, youth, gay and unemployed communities to explore how their entrepreneurial behaviour might differ from the practices of mainstream entrepreneurs. What emerges is that marginalised communities can frequently find it difficult to divorce business from social living. This can have both positive and negative connotations for an entrepreneur, plus they face additional and distinctive challenges that mainstream entrepreneurs do not experience. The chapter concludes by proposing a novel ‘funnel approach’ that policymakers might adopt when seeking to introduce initiatives targeted at these disadvantaged communities

Money’s importance from the religious perspective

Operational research and finance have natural connections. However, operational research represents a device to be used for catching financial phenomena, and such a device is usually mediated by social norms and corresponding relevant parameters. This paper contributes to this debate by focusing on a particular social norm—namely, religiosity- and its importance to the role of money. Such relationship is here treated under a quantitative perspective. In particular, we provide an econometric-statistic comparison between religion and money importance. The methodological toolkit is tested on high quality empirical data coming from a recent survey of Romanian population involving 842 persons, from the many faiths in the considered country. Specifically, statistical techniques include best fit curves analysis and data cross tabulations are checked using Chi squared test. The distinctions between different religious people beliefs relating to money are discussed. Insights regarding perceptions of different religious denominations are provided. Subsequent effects on entrepreneurship behavior are tested using Logit regression models. Results state that each religion-based segment of population has its own way to understand the importance of money, to promote and to evaluate the power of money, and finally to manage important inter-connections around the money

What start-up firms are more likely to obtain public funding support? A systematic analysis of the funding program promoted by the Abruzzo Region in Italy

The chapter aims to investigate the profile of start-up firms, in terms of features of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial project, with regard to their likelihoods of obtaining support through public funding. Using data of 214 start-ups applied to the public call for the funding program implemented with the 2013-2016 "Start-Up Start-Hope” program promoted by the Abruzzo Region in Italy and funded by the European Social Fund, the main result from the estimated logistic model is that, generally, the key factor determining the probability of receiving public funding support is the entrepreneurs’ age. Specifically, older entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams have a lower probability to be awarded by the public program compared to younger ones. Nevertheless, the other project and firm selected variables for the analysis (firm size, project value and type of financing based on the stage development of the firm) are not significant factors determining the probability of receiving public funding support