PurposeThis study investigates how early entrepreneurial challenges affect the firm performance of new ventures and explores the moderating role of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) in mitigating these effects. The research is conducted within the context of an emerging economy, Ecuador, where institutional voids and limited resources heighten entrepreneurial vulnerability. Design/methodology/approachUsing a path dependence and cumulative disadvantage framework, the study applies ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models with heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors to a dataset of 417 entrepreneurs. Psychological Capital is measured across its four dimensions: self-efficacy, optimism, resilience, and hope. Control variables include gender, age, and family support. FindingsResults show that early-stage challenges are negatively associated with business performance. However, elevated levels of Psychological Capital significantly buffer these effects, attenuating the magnitude of the negative association between early challenges and performance. Self-efficacy and resilience emerge as particularly strong moderators. Research limitations/implicationsThe cross-sectional nature of the data and the self-reported design limit causal inference and generalizability. Future longitudinal studies could explore how psychological resources and entrepreneurial challenges interact over time and across institutional contexts. Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that developing entrepreneurs' psychological capacities can enhance resilience and performance in volatile environments. This has implications for entrepreneurship training programs, especially in emerging markets. Originality/valueThis study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by integrating Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and Resource-Based View (RBV) theory to conceptualize Psychological Capital as both a buffering mechanism and an intangible resource associated with firm performance. The study expands upon recent research on resilience by providing evidence from a large sample in an emerging market like Ecuador.
Purpose This micro-level study investigates how early career researchers (ECRs) in science disciplines navigate the institutional push toward commercialisation and entrepreneurial identity adoption. While entrepreneurial university institutional discourse encourages a seamless transition from scientist to entrepreneur, ECRs may experience this process as an ongoing negotiation marked by identity ambiguity and oscillation. The study addresses a gap in the literature by theorising the temporal and relational complexity of entrepreneurial identity formation in academic settings by key actors within entrepreneurial universities. Design/methodology/approach The research employs a longitudinal narrative inquiry focused on ECRs participating in a UK university's commercialisation programme. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, the study captures how participants construct, contest, and reconfigure their identities over time in response to intersecting legitimacy demands. Findings The study introduces the concept of Oscillatory Entrepreneurial Identity Formation, theorising identity work as a multi-phase, recursive process. Rather than progressing linearly toward a stable entrepreneurial identity, participants move through three recursive overlapping phases: (1) legitimacy disruption and identity tension, (2) threshold activation and agency assertion, and (3) long-term reconciliation of plural identity futures. Identity formation is enacted provisionally, relationally and contextually, shaped by socio-institutional, collective, and internal legitimacy dynamics. Originality/value This study advances a processual model of entrepreneurial identity that challenges linear transition frameworks by recognising oscillation as a legitimate developmental trajectory. It introduces the concept of legitimacy architectures, showing how institutional, relational, and disciplinary factors shape the credibility of entrepreneurial identity claims. The findings suggest that universities can better support ECRs by reshaping socialisation processes and recognising commercial activities, enabling researchers to pursue societal impact and value creation without relinquishing their disciplinary identities.
Purpose This study examines how faith influences the coping mechanisms of family business CEOs managing anxiety during times of war and adversity. Design/methodology/approach Using an interpretive, qualitative and longitudinal multiple-case design, the research draws on 30 interviews with leaders of five Lebanese family firms that have endured decades of conflict, economic crises and social upheaval. Findings The findings indicate that faith operates in these cases not only as an individual psychological resource, but also as a family-embedded and organizationally transmitted source of meaning. The study traces how faith informs meaning-making, emotional regulation, moral decision-making and organizational resilience in times of collective uncertainty. Faith helped leaders not only regulate their own anxiety but also frame the business as something to be preserved, transmitted and protected on behalf of both the family and the wider employee community. Originality/value The results extend existing theories by introducing the concept of faith-based legacy stewardship and by positioning faith as a systemic organizational resource that sustains continuity, resilience and meaning across generations and crises.
Purpose In developing countries, women's entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in poverty alleviation, economic development and social empowerment, yet it remains constrained by structural and gendered barriers. This study analyzes empirical insights to provide an integrated, dynamic understanding of the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs (WEs) in developing contexts and the strategies they employ to overcome them. Design/methodology/approach Through a systematic review of 84 peer-reviewed papers on WEs in developing countries, we map key theoretical approaches, methodological trends, contextual features and main findings. Findings The review reveals that the challenges span across three levels: micro (e.g. psychological insecurities and family expectations), meso (e.g. limited networks and market volatility), and macro (e.g. institutional bottlenecks and policy mismatches). In response, WEs exhibit evolving forms of agency and resilience, conceptualized through four archetypes: the Constrained-Resilience Entrepreneur, who copes with restrictive norms through psychological endurance; the Adaptive-Networking Entrepreneur, who leverages informal cooperation and social learning; the Legitimization-Oriented Entrepreneur, who strategically seeks institutional validation and formal recognition; and the Transformative-Influence Entrepreneur, who channels entrepreneurial success into collective empowerment and structural change. Originality/value The study offers a novel analytical lens by introducing a dynamic, multi-level framework linking structural challenges to evolving forms of entrepreneurial agency. By framing resilience as an iterative process embodied in evolving entrepreneurial postures, it advances beyond static classifications. The four archetypes not only mirror and counteract structural challenges but also illuminate pathways through which WEs transition from coping within limitations to reshaping them, and providing deeper insight into the temporal, relational and transformative dimensions of women's entrepreneurship under adversity.
PurposeDrawing upon theories of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial firms, we analyze how knowledge specialization within public incubators in terms of industries and founder backgrounds relates to firm performance after incubation. Special attention is given to the direct and indirect contributions of university researchers, who may be well-positioned to apply and recombine advanced knowledge. Design/methodology/approachWe analyze a longitudinal sample of 852 start-up firms over a period of 15 years which have completed incubation period at one of 37 Swedish public incubators. We categorize knowledge specialization both in terms of founder backgrounds and in terms of the incubators' relative emphasis on an industry-technology. With 80% of firms in the dataset surviving for more than 10 years, our empirical focus is on factors associated with the growth of firms, during the post-incubation period. FindingsWe find that successful firms are founded by individuals from a variety of backgrounds and operate in diverse industries. Firms originating from incubators with more industry specialization have higher growth rates, but this advantage is time limited. Our findings highlight the importance of diverse knowledge specialization in entrepreneurial backgrounds and industries, suggesting that public policy should promote entrepreneurship across various settings and support diverse entrepreneurs. Originality/valueBy covering two dimensions of diversity, including founder backgrounds and integrating registration data from three sources we aim to enhance understanding of how these factors interact within the incubator and if and how these affect firms that have left incubation.
Purpose Research on how quickly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) source and integrate new technology during crises is scant, despite an assumption that speed is important for an SME's ability to cope. Rapid technology transfer may be subject to time compression diseconomies, where accelerating the process becomes less efficient. This study examines how the speed of technology transfer during a crisis impacts two components of SME resilience: response and recovery. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey comprising established scales for speed of technology transfer, response and recovery was administered in France during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample was made up of 229 SMEs operating in a variety of sectors and industries. Findings The effect of the speed of technology transfer on resilience depends on the similarity between the source and the SME, as reflected in (1) other firms vs. universities and (2) technology sources located in the same country as the SME vs. those located in other countries. Results reveal differentiated effects in terms of the relationship between speed of technology transfer and an SME's capability to respond vs. recover. Research limitations/implications Research into resilience of small firms needs to consider how they seek outside help in the form of new technology during a crisis. Researchers need to pay more attention to the speed at which this happens, as there are absorptive capacity constraints in small firms that can hinder the process of new technology adoption during a crisis. Practical implications SMEs should be prepared to use the speed of technology transfer during crises, drawing on relationships with firms and universities as technology providers differently, depending on resilience goals. SMEs should be aware that rapid technology transfer from sources in the same country may be more beneficial for resilience capabilities during a global crisis compared to rapid technology transfer from foreign sources. Originality/value This research is among the first to examine the effects of the speed of technology transfer on two components of resilience – response and recovery – with a focus on SMEs. It contributes by showing the differential impact of technology transfer speed from various sources on SME resilience.
Purpose This study investigates how women technology entrepreneurs build the resilience to navigate and persist within hyper-masculinised business incubator environments. It focuses on how formative experiences contribute to the development of resilience, and how these psychological and developmental factors interact to shape women's decisions to pursue entrepreneurship and their ability to overcome gendered challenges within entrepreneurial ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach Based on 25 life story interviews with women technology entrepreneurs, we show how experiences of early adversity can function as an emotional and psychological “training ground” for navigating later adversity. These experiences enable women withstand and negotiate the layered gendered challenges embedded in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Findings We reconceptualize resilience as a dynamic, developmental process shaped by trauma, biography, and meaning-making, rather than as a fixed trait or reactive response. Our analysis makes four key contributions. First, to entrepreneurship theory, by extending understandings of women's entrepreneurial pathways to include early formative experiences. Second, to resilience theory, by conceptualising sexism as a form of gendered trauma. Third, to entrepreneurial ecosystem research by showing that biographically developed resilience is relationally activated, tested and reshaped within ecosystems. Finally, to qualitative methodology, by demonstrating how life story interviews can uncover hidden developmental trajectories that underpin entrepreneurial persistence. Research limitations/implications Theoretically, our study extends understandings of resilience as a processual phenomenon by identifying trauma and sexism as formative experiences and showing how adversity, negotiation and identity reconstruction interact over time. Divergent pathways to resilience underscore the need for more nuanced, contextualised understandings of its development. Methodologically, we demonstrate how life story interviews can uncover hidden developmental trajectories underpinning entrepreneurial persistence. While retrospective interpretive data cannot claim statistical generalizability, they offer rich insight enabling theoretical and analytical generalization. Practical implications Rather than trying to “fix” the women by offering more training, incubator and accelerator managers should focus on redesigning these environments to reduce the need for resilience in the first place. Managers should attend to the quality and content of relations rather than merely providing more access to mentors, role models and networks. Policymakers should move beyond participation targets to embed inclusion in ecosystem governance, evaluation, and accountability. Originality/value This paper makes visible how women technology entrepreneurs develop the emotional and psychological capacities that allow them to persist through ongoing gendered adversity in male-dominated environments.
PurposeThis paper investigates how business partners shape university behaviour within funded multistakeholder project consortia, addressing a gap in Academic Engagement and Entrepreneurial University literature on relational and systemic dimensions of partner influence. Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts an abductive longitudinal case study of a project consortium (13 partners) within a European funding programme, over 30 months. It applies a systems thinking framework using causal loop diagrams to trace nonlinear feedback processes influencing university behaviour. FindingsInfluence operates through indirect, implicit mechanisms rather than formal authority. Symbolic and relational resources such as legitimacy, credibility and coalition alignment, emerge as the primary sources of power. Three sequential balancing feedback loops progressively marginalise the university, shifting its role from proactive innovation to defencive survival. Research limitations/implicationsThe single-case design limits generalisability but enables in-depth theorisation of relational power and feedback dynamics in multistakeholder settings. Practical implicationsUniversities should invest in coalition-building capabilities and institutional support structures to prevent marginalisation and mission drift. Originality/valueThe paper reconceptualises academic engagement as an emergent system property and extends stakeholder theory by incorporating informal, relational power dynamics.
PurposeDrawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study investigates the relationship between medical doctors' (MDs) entrepreneurial attitude (EA) and their entrepreneurial intentions (EI). By integrating considerations from Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) and the Social Capital (SC) theory, this paper aims to understand whether and how MDs' perceived organizational support for innovation (POSI) and individual collaboration propensity (CP) influence the relationship in a non-traditional and highly institutionalized setting, such as a research-led hospital. Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data were collected from a sample of MDs participating in the science and technology park initiative within the research hospital “Agostino Gemelli” in Rome (Italy). The initiative was officially known as the G-STeP project. Quantitative analyses were conducted to test the direct and indirect effects of EA, POSI and CP on EI. FindingsResults explain that MDs' EA positively influences their EI. This relationship is mediated by the POSI and, importantly, moderated – magnified – by individual CP. Notably, the effect of POSI becomes more pronounced for MDs with high CP. Conversely, for those with low CP, the impact of POSI on EI is negative, highlighting the importance of the interplay between individual and organizational factors to enable EI among MDs. Practical implicationsResearch-led hospitals aiming to foster entrepreneurship among medical professionals, MDs in this paper, should not only cultivate an organizational culture that supports innovation initiatives, but also invest in enhancing individuals' collaborative orientation. Tailored strategies may be needed to stimulate EI among MDs with lower CP. Originality/valueThis study extends entrepreneurial research to the healthcare domain, offering an original view of how individual and organizational factors may interact. It contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurial behavior among professionals in non-traditional settings and it suggests that fostering collaboration is crucial for promoting entrepreneurship among MDs in research-led hospitals.
Purpose This study aims to advance the understanding of immigrant entrepreneurial trajectories by examining how rural–urban spatial contexts interact with necessity–opportunity motivations to shape opportunities, resource access, and integration processes. Design/methodology/approach We adopt a mixed methods design that integrates a systematic literature review with a qualitative study. In the first study, we conduct a literature review on immigrant entrepreneurship to identify key themes, methodological patterns, and empirical gaps. In the second study, we complement this with in-depth interviews with 20 immigrant entrepreneurs in both rural and urban spatial contexts, supported by two focus groups and secondary data. This sequential, theory-building design allows the literature review to inform the qualitative inquiry and the empirical findings to refine and extend the conceptual framework. Findings The literature review reveals the main thematic groups in immigrant entrepreneurship, while the qualitative study highlights how motivations, challenges, and adaptive strategies vary across rural and urban contexts. Together, the findings show that geographic context is associated with distinct opportunity structures, resource constraints, and integration pathways. The study proposes a framework for investigating immigrant entrepreneurs' trajectories across rural–urban settings and along the necessity–opportunity spectrum, clarifying how these dimensions interact in shaping entrepreneurial behaviour. Practical implications The empirical findings offer fundamental practical contributions for organisations that support immigrant entrepreneurship, demanding stratified and context-sensitive interventions. Originality/value Immigrant entrepreneurship is a growing field of research; however, there remains a limited integrated understanding of how rural and urban spatial contexts intersect with necessity–opportunity motivations to shape immigrant trajectories. This study contributes to the literature by developing a contextualised framework that bridges spatial embeddedness and motivational theories, offering a typology and propositions to help scholars further theorise immigrant entrepreneurial pathways and to provide more targeted policy support for immigrant entrepreneurs across diverse territorial and motivational settings.
Purpose This narrative entrepreneurship research examines how late-life entrepreneurs engage in identity work to demonstrate that they are legitimate entrepreneurs by mobilising and resisting master narratives of entrepreneurship and age. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on the narrative practice approach to identity work and carries out a positioning analysis based on interviews with a group of Finnish late-life entrepreneurs (N = 18). Findings Three key age-related counter-narratives to negative stereotypes of ageing were identified: sustained superiority, leaving a legacy, and productive ageing citizenship. In addition, the interviewees negotiated the potentially devalued identity of late-life entrepreneurship by providing justifying and excusing accounts. Research limitations/implications Further research is needed to explore how the type of entrepreneurship is connected to the identity work of late-life entrepreneurs as well as age discrimination in different contexts of late-life entrepreneurship. Social implications Understanding the identity work of late-life entrepreneurs may help develop more inclusive support systems and policies for this group and the ageing workforce more generally. The findings highlight the need for empowering narratives to strengthen late-life entrepreneurs’ identity and legitimacy and for greater awareness in national and local organisations and media of underlying age-based assumptions that may undermine such entrepreneurship. Originality/value The study contributes to narrative entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial identity research by enhancing understanding of how late-life entrepreneurs negotiate ascribed positions within the constraining discourses of cultural master narratives. It also contributes to research on the identity work of minority entrepreneurs, with a particular focus on discursive barriers to late-life entrepreneurship.
Purpose Entrepreneurship research has traditionally underrepresented both gender and ethnicity, privileging the experiences of men from dominant cultural and social groups. Drawing on intersectionality and translocational positionality (TP) theories, this study examines the experiences of women immigrant entrepreneurs (WIEs) in Sweden, a country celebrated for its gender equality and inclusive entrepreneurship policies yet marked by persistent structural inequalities.Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research design was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with WIEs in Stockholm to explore the role of context in influencing their perceptions and experiences.Findings Findings illuminate inclusive entrepreneurship as a process of situated negotiation rather than a stable policy outcome. Inclusion is not simply achieved through access or visibility; it is continuously produced - and contested - through women's everyday efforts to perform legitimacy, cope with exclusion and build alternative infrastructures of belonging.Originality/value Our study advances inclusive entrepreneurship research by capturing the fluid interplay between structure and agency in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Theoretically, we make two contributions. Firstly, by integrating intersectionality's structural critique with TP's attention to mobility, temporarity and context, we reframe inclusion as an ongoing process of negotiation among actors, institutions and shifting identity positions. Secondly, we show how marginalized actors simultaneously reproduce, resist and reconfigure the systems that constrain them, thereby offering a more dynamic, context-aware account of agency. Our findings have implications for designing policy interventions that move beyond access-oriented approaches towards more structural, relational forms of support in Sweden and comparable contexts.
Purpose This study investigates how startup support organizations (SSOs) build resilience when triggered by entrepreneurial failure (EF). While prior research on EF and resilience has largely centered on entrepreneurs and startups, little is known about how intermediaries process EF among supported ventures and convert these experiences into resilience capabilities. We address this gap because of the centrality of SSOs in entrepreneurial ecosystems, where individual EFs can be transformed into resilience.Design/methodology/approach We employ a flexible pattern matching approach, combining theory-driven expectations with inductive analysis. Data stem from 77 semi-structured interviews with professionals across European SSOs (Nov 2024-Oct 2025). The study followed the Gioia approach augmented with grounded theory techniques, investigator triangulation, and theoretical memoing to saturation.Findings EF triggers three resilience-building stages in SSOs: (1) proactive support (sensing, preparing, scanning) before EF; (2) acute safety net (orchestrating, improvising, operationalizing) during EF; and (3) continuous encouragement (reflecting, transforming, capturing) after EF. Social capital (SC) enables its mechanisms through relational ties.Research limitations/implications This study uses a cross-sectional European sample, limiting causal inference. Future longitudinal, multilevel studies should examine how SSO mechanisms and SC ties translate into tenant resilience.Practical implications Our findings suggest that SSOs can build resilience by deliberately managing EF and SC across all three stages, providing practical evidence for SSOs, tenant startups, and entrepreneurial networks.Originality/value We shift the lens from preventing EF to working through it, offering a mechanism-level, capability-based account of SSO resilience.
Purpose This study investigates how backlash mechanisms operate to delegitimise digital feminist activism that contests dominant entrepreneurial narratives within the French start-up ecosystem. It analyses the challenges faced by the #BalanceTaStartUp ("Expose your start-up") movement, the first feminist activist movement to explicitly denounce systemic gendered and racialised inequalities within this ecosystem.Design/methodology/approach This study employs a netnographic approach (Kozinets, 2010, 2015) to analyse the exchanges and interactions of the #BalanceTaStartUp Instagram community between 2020 and 2024. Netnography is particularly appropriate for the study of online communities that support marginalised or at-risk groups, where anonymity is crucial.Findings This study illustrates how digital feminist activism, backlash and myth maintenance intersect within entrepreneurial ecosystems. It identifies three backlash mechanisms - othering, silencing and trivialising - aimed at delegitimising the activist movement and limiting its reach. It shows that the constitution of an activist movement and the social imaginary it defends is a shifting, uncertain phenomenon with no predefined trajectory.Originality/value The study highlights the delegitimising mechanisms that appear when deviant forms of management in the entrepreneurial world are contested. It thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the intersectional power relations that shape working conditions in start-ups and sustain the entrepreneurial myth, and how they hinder transformation towards more inclusive practices.
Purpose This study investigates how regulatory, normative and cognitive systems intertwine and influence women's entrepreneurial activities in Pakistan. It employs a gender-sensitive lens to examine this complex interplay, focusing on women entrepreneurs who are clients of microfinance institutions (MFIs).Design/methodology/approach The research methodology combined document analysis and semi-structured interviews with 50 women entrepreneurs associated with MFIs. A multi-perspective approach contextualised gender and entrepreneurship within Pakistan's institutional environment.Findings The findings show that despite gender equality efforts, disparities persist in property rights, workforce participation and political representation. While regulatory initiatives, such as microfinance schemes, support women entrepreneurs, their effectiveness depends on concurrent shifts in cognitive and normative institutions. MFIs emerge not just as credit providers but as institutional mediators that engage families, address normative barriers and build cognitive capacity through community outreach and education. This demonstrates how regulatory, normative and cognitive pillars function interdependently rather than separately in shaping women's entrepreneurial experiences.Practical implications Policymakers should design inclusive policies that address regulatory, normative and cognitive dimensions simultaneously, incorporating education, skills development and societal norms. This multi-dimensional approach can support women entrepreneurs in navigating institutional barriers and accessing entrepreneurial opportunities.Originality/value The study extends Scott's institutional framework by specifying the mechanisms through which institutional pillars interact in patriarchal contexts, demonstrating that regulatory access requires simultaneous normative alignment and cognitive development. It reconceptualises MFIs as institutional mediators operating across all three pillars and advances gendered entrepreneurship theory by showing women's agency as adaptive negotiation within existing institutional structures.
Purpose To understand how small and micro businesses experience benefits from regulation, and to explain why benefits are experienced unevenly.Design/methodology/approach Adopting an inductive, interpretive methodology, a sample of 23 UK-based business owners was interviewed about their responses to regulation, data being analysed thematically.Findings Despite the challenges experienced responding to dynamic change represented by Covid-related regulations, businesses experienced three forms of benefits: operational, strategic and re-evaluative. These findings were analysed through the dynamic capabilities framework, specifically sensing (operational), seizing (strategic) and reconfiguring (re-evaluative). Further, analysis identified that business attributes of spatial fixity and business model elasticity mediated the experience of benefits within a context of greater regulatory control.Originality/value The benefits of regulation experienced have not been theorised in detail previously, and the empirical evidence and analysis presented contribute to an ongoing conversation about the responses of smaller businesses. The article shows that benefits emerged not despite the regulation that often posed difficulties to businesses, but through it. This article's theoretical contribution connects the micro experience of business response to regulation with the macro regulatory context and offers a mechanism for understanding the contexts and attributes of why some businesses benefit and others do not, showing how regulatory constraints can enable benefits. The analysis extends dynamic capability theory by identifying increased regulatory control through a shift in governance paradigm as a mechanism for new sensing, seizing and reconfiguring responses, with businesses' capabilities being mediated and constrained by the two attributes.
Purpose The global business environment faces ongoing disruption from numerous unprecedented crises. These crises - including the aftermath of COVID-19, Mpox, Brexit, climate change, American trade tariffs and war in Europe and the Middle East - have created complex challenges for business, where the development of resilience has become essential. Existing research identifies bricolage as a key behaviour for supporting business resilience; however, enablers of bricolage are poorly understood. Thus, the purpose of this research is to evaluate the enablers of bricolage behaviour as a form of resilience to unprecedented crises.Design/methodology/approach This research deploys a qualitative methodology where semi-structured interviews form the research instrument. Maximum variation sampling achieved a response rate of 20 interviews from retail micro small and medium-sized enterprise (micro-SME) owner-managers. The data collected were analysed using Braun and Clarke's (2006, 2021) reflexive thematic analysis method, where a thematic map was subsequently developed.Findings This research identified three outcomes of bricolage across the retail micro-SMEs that participated in this study. These outcomes are presented as businesses that failed, survived or thrived as a result of the crisis. It was identified that the most resilient were able to enable bricolage by leveraging business support, business experience and business age.Originality/value This study contributes to existing bricolage research by extending understandings of how bricolage can be successfully deployed in practice. While previous research has simply identified resource bricolage behaviour as a form of resilience, this research presents three bricolage enablers which support its deployment under crisis conditions.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the satisfaction of entrepreneurs' psychological needs affects venture growth beliefs and perceived financial performance under conditions of harmonious and obsessive passion. Design/methodology/approach Through the integration of self-determination theory and the dualistic model of passion, a research framework is developed and quantitatively tested among 255 Latvian small- and medium-sized enterprise entrepreneurs, as well as replicated among 205 Russian entrepreneurs, with the utilization of EQS and SPSS software. Findings We reveal that satisfaction of entrepreneurial psychological needs facilitates the emergence of positive venture growth beliefs, which in turn improves financial performance. Additionally, harmonious passion positively moderates the link between entrepreneurial need satisfaction and venture growth beliefs, while obsessive passion negatively conditions the relationship of entrepreneurial need satisfaction with perceived financial performance. Research limitations/implications This research is limited by the cross-sectional design of the study and the self-reported nature of the construct measurements. Practical implications The results can help entrepreneurs reflect on whether their need satisfaction at work is high enough to productively make venture-related decisions, act upon identified opportunities and expand their business horizons, as well as encourage them to be more passionate yet balanced in their entrepreneurial efforts. Originality/value Scant research attention has been given to the examination of how satisfaction of psychological needs affects entrepreneurial attitudes, beliefs and actions, and in turn, firm performance. This research responds to a call for more studies on cognitive and behavioral entrepreneurship.
Purpose This study examines the linkages between the institutional forces of regulatory efficiency and entrepreneurial motivations. We investigate whether the dimensions of regulatory efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom and monetary freedom) differentially influence the opportunity and necessity-based motivations of entrepreneurship, and the degree to which formal education moderates these linkages.Design/methodology/approach We review the literature and develop hypotheses, which we examine via large-scale data from multiple sources. We employ multilevel logistic regression using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data (2006-2017) from over 125,000 entrepreneurs across 86 countries, integrate those data with country-year regulatory efficiency data from the Heritage Foundation and examine the robustness of our empirical results in a replication study using data from the Fraser Institute.Findings We find that formal education level moderates the effects of regulatory efficiency on entrepreneurial motivation type. In particular, business freedom associates negatively with opportunity-motivated entrepreneurship, particularly among entrepreneurs with low formal education. In contrast, labor freedom and monetary freedom associate positively with opportunity-motivated entrepreneurship, especially among entrepreneurs with high formal education. We also report the results of robustness tests and replicability analyses.Originality/value This study disaggregates regulatory efficiency into distinct dimensions and demonstrates their differential effects on opportunity-motivated and necessity-motivated entrepreneurship. It sheds new light on institutional influences by showing how formal education moderates these relationships, revealing stronger effects among more highly educated entrepreneurs. These implications extend prior research that has largely relied on aggregate institutional indices and treated formal education as a control variable.
