Book review: Francis J. Greene, Entrepreneurship theory and practice, London: Macmillan Education Limited, 2020, 392 pp., ISBN: 9781137589552, £49.99 (Paperback).

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Understanding the Emergence of Entrepreneurial Passion: The Influence of Perceived Emotional Support and Competences

Recent research acknowledges entrepreneurial passion’s outcomes, but far less is known about how entrepreneurial passion comes about. In this study, the authors are interested in the emergence of entrepreneurial passion, and how competences and social network are associated with entrepreneurial passion. The paper aims to discuss these issues. The authors investigate whether entrepreneurial passion emerges out of socialisation, entrepreneurial experience or various combinations thereof. The authors tested the hypotheses on a data set of entrepreneurs who started their businesses with government financial support (n=1150). The findings show that within a social environment, perceived emotional support is positively associated with entrepreneurial passion. Moreover, entrepreneurs’ task-related competence moderates this relationship positively. By investigating the emergence of entrepreneurial passion, the authors contribute to prior passion literature, which has mainly focused on its consequences.</div

Passionate bricoleurs and new venture survival

The impression of entrepreneurship as an intentionally orchestrated activity has been challenged by more creative approaches. In this study we investigate the previously unexplored relationships between entrepreneurial passion, bricolage, and entrepreneurial survival. In a sample of 2489 Finnish entrepreneurs who started new businesses between 2005–2010, we find higher levels of bricolage among those, whose businesses were still surviving in the end of 2011. Further, our analyses reveal that entrepreneurs who are passionate about inventing and developing their ventures are more likely to engage in bricolage and, combined, the affective state of passion and the “make-do” behaviors of bricolage help entrepreneurs keep their businesses going.</p

Attracting the entrepreneurial potential: A multilevel institutional approach

The research on institutions’ role in entrepreneurship acknowledges that formal and informal institutions matter. However, previous research has stressed less the co-existence and interaction between individual- and country-level factors that shape entrepreneurial potential, population of skillful individuals with no entrepreneurial intentions, across countries. In this study, we investigate the multilevel influence of informal institutions on entrepreneurial potential. Drawing from institutional theory and multilevel approach in a sample of 880,576 individuals for the period 2006–2016, we find that the informal country-level institutional forces compensate the lack of individual-level factors among those with low entrepreneurial potential. For instance, media coverage on entrepreneurship or education can enhance the entrepreneurial potential in its lower end. Hence, our findings provide novel evidence on the relevance and interaction of the informal institutions, and how they increase the entrepreneurial potential across countries. Our findings suggest policy implications regarding educational programs to close the gap between entrepreneurially skilled non-potential and skilled potential individuals.</p

The influence of the quality of government institutions on entrepreneurial motivation : exploring the variance across countries

Despite the increasing understanding of the relationships between institutions and entrepreneurship, the influence of the quality of government institutions on entrepreneurship is less addressed. This paper focuses on this critical determinant of entrepreneurship in developing and developed countries. Drawing from institutional theory we hypothesize and empirically assess the role of the quality of institutions in entrepreneurial activity. We examine how the quality of government institutions influences the rate of necessity-based entrepreneurial activity across countries and over time by using a cross-sectional time-series approach on data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database covering the years 2001-2011. Our results suggest that higher economic development associated with better quality of institutions reduces the prevalence of necessity-based entrepreneurship. Our findings imply that developing countries must rationally organize their functions, and seek to remove unnecessary barriers, decrease political instability, and controls that hamper entrepreneurial activit

Paikallisten ja kotimarkkinayritysten kasvu. Arviointiraportti.

Tekes on tukenut paikallisten ja kotimarkkinoilla toimivien yritysten uudistumista vuosittain 40–60 miljoonalla eurolla, mikä on noin kymmenes kaikesta Tekesin yrityksille myöntämästä rahoituksesta. Tässä tutkimuksesta tarkastellaan, millainen vaikutus Tekesin myöntämillä lainoilla ja avustuksilla on ollut ko. asiakassegmentin kasvuun ja uudistumiseen. Tuettuja yrityksiä verrataan ominaisuuksiltaan vastaaviin yrityksiin, jotka eivät ole olleet tuen piirissä.</p

Firm Growth in Family Businesses—The Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation and the Entrepreneurial Activity

Previous studies show that growth is an important goal for businesses, but little is known of how the entrepreneurial orientation&ndash;performance relationship works in family businesses and how this differs from their nonfamily peers. We examine that and how entrepreneurial activity mediates the relationship in family and nonfamily businesses. Our results on 532 firms show that family businesses benefit from innovative orientation, which is both directly and indirectly associated with firm growth via entrepreneurial activity. This association does not exist in nonfamily businesses. Furthermore, risk taking does not influence family business growth even if it does in nonfamily businesses.</p

Unintentional teaching of entrepreneurial competences

Research on entrepreneurship education (EE) emphasizes the role of learning environments, contexts and pedagogical choices in developing students’ entrepreneurial competences. EE has assumed that it solely carries the task of improving entrepreneurial competences. Yet, the objectives, content and methods of teaching vary, and hence non-entrepreneurship teachers’ classrooms can also provide a learning environment for entrepreneurial competences. However, whether or not this kind of unintentional teaching of entrepreneurial competences takes place has not been widely addressed. In this study, the authors investigate how business school non-entrepreneurship teachers’ teaching methods unintentionally match the known framework of entrepreneurial competences. The findings indicate that non-entrepreneurship teachers do unintentionally expose their students to entrepreneurial competences such as creativity, learning from experience and financial literacy. However, competences such as opportunity recognition, perseverance and mobilizing resources do not receive similar attention. The findings indicate that some entrepreneurial competences are not solely owned by EE, but can be embedded in non-entrepreneurship education. Accordingly, the study extends the current understanding of EE and which “niche” competences should be emphasized in it, but also demonstrates how non-entrepreneurship teachers can expose students to entrepreneurial competences while teaching in their own subject areas.</p