This study explores the relationships between mental recovery dimensions and entrepreneurs' well-being. Extending recovery research to the entrepreneurial context, it draws on the job demands-resources model (JD-R) arguing that different job recovery dimensions impact entrepreneurs' well-being distinctively. Employing a quantitative approach, this research examines how the four recovery dimensions - detachment, relaxation, mastery and control - influence the mental well-being of 360 Moroccan entrepreneurs. Utilising structural equation modelling, the study tests the proposed research model and finds that mastery and control positively impact entrepreneurs' well-being, while detachment and relaxation do not exhibit significant effects. The findings suggest that, unlike employees, entrepreneurs' well-being is more strongly supported by recovery experiences that enhance competence and autonomy rather than passive detachment from work. The study contributes to the entrepreneurship and well-being literature by highlighting the context-specific nature of recovery mechanisms and offers practical implications for the entrepreneur, entrepreneurship support organisations and entrepreneurship educators.
Drawing on identity theory, we investigate the relationship between harmonious and obsessive entrepreneurial passion and risk propensity, moderated by illusion of control. We argue that illusion of control, as a cognitive bias, interacts in this relationship because it relates to entrepreneurs' decision-making in risky environments. We examine our model based on a sample of 445 German entrepreneurs. We find both harmonious and obsessive entrepreneurial passion positively relates to risk propensity. Illusion of control strengthens the relationship between obsessive passion and risk propensity, while it weakens the relationship between harmonious passion and risk propensity. We contribute to theory and practice by providing evidence that entrepreneurs' risk propensity depends on their identification as 'being an entrepreneur', which is influenced by both entrepreneurial obsessive and harmonious passion and that this relationship is further shaped by the illusion of control bias.
Entrepreneurial failure is common among small businesses, yet guidance on post-failure recovery is fragmented. We develop and validate a six-domain framework for recovery - economic, professional, entrepreneurial, social, emotional and physical - using a sequential mixed-methods design. We first synthesise indicators via content analysis and expert interviews, then survey 246 small-business entrepreneurs who recovered from failure. Exploratory factor analysis corroborates the six-domain structure. Using the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), we map perceived directional influences among domains: economic conditions and professional and entrepreneurial capabilities exert higher net influence, while social and emotional resources are more dependent, and physical factors operate mainly as downstream outcomes. The results inform sequencing considerations: first, secure economic runway and capabilities; then, leverage social and emotional supports. The study informs policy, education and practice by indicating where to prioritise resources to shorten time to re-entry, while noting age and gender skew in the sample and single-country limits on generalisability.
The objective of this study is to explore factors or predictors of start-up survival, particularly in emerging economies, from the perspectives of human capital, initial firm characteristics, and network resources. Using data from 61 Indian start-ups during 2012 and 2020 from different sectors, a non-parametric approach of the Cox proportional hazard model is used to study the association between start-up survival and eight relevant determinants. Our findings suggest that human capital and initial financial capital are positively associated with start-up survival. However, other predictor covariates like founders' entrepreneurial experience, firm size, and network resources are found to be not significantly associated with start-up survival. With the limited availability of data, the study contributes to the existing knowledge of the entrepreneurial phenomenon of start-up survival in emerging economies by exploring the roles of different factors.
While digital platform technologies enable generic offerings with immediate global outreach, it remains unclear why many digital sharing economy companies rarely realise these opportunities. This raises questions as to whether their geographic expansion may be affected by an inadequate engagement with stakeholders, potentially stifling successful growth and upscaling. By applying a digital business ecosystem perspective for examining geographic expansion of 27 sharing economy platforms, we identify three ideal expansion types that capture the specificities of the business ecosystem of platforms. We label them I am the ecosystem; I am my complex relationships with the ecosystem; I am my direct relationships with the ecosystem. We link these to the underlying critical distinctions related to the platform configuration, level of standardisation and dependency on place. We show how these define the kind of relationships which sharing economy companies seek with different ecosystem stakeholders and the activities they need to undertake to thrive in new geographies.
We investigate the link between management's willingness for transparent information disclosures and financial performance. The study employs data from 61 banks of 16 emerging economies covering a period of 2007-2022. Using the system GMM, the results align with the obfuscation hypothesis, which suggests that the management of the banks complicates the textual information to disclose bad future performance. Our results are robust as we use multiple complexity indexes to verify the results. In addition, we also deal with endogeneity problems that are inherent in the panel data. The study demonstrates that the predictive models should not be based on only financial data. In addition, the textual disclosures provide additional sources of information to be incorporated into the model for more accurate predictions. The primary contribution of the study is that it may benefit shareholders by helping reduce asymmetric information between them and the management (agency problem). This study provides guidelines to regulators and other stakeholders for understanding the textual complexity in banks' annual reports as early warnings of bad performance and mitigating the severity of the problem.
This article examines the manifestation of strategic entrepreneurship during the COVIDisation of the economy, viewed as the ultimate expression of the VUCA environment. It conceptualises strategic entrepreneurship as the intersection between strategy (advantage-seeking management) and entrepreneurship (opportunity-seeking actions). The term 'COVIDisation of the economy' captures the challenges firms faced due to COVID-19, encompassing both short-term impacts and long-term transformations. Using a mixed-method approach that combined quantitative and qualitative research conducted during the first and third waves of COVID-19, the study identifies how companies exhibited strategic entrepreneurial behaviour to adapt to uncertainty. Four manifestations of strategic entrepreneurship are analysed - organisational rejuvenation, sustained regeneration, strategic renewal, and domain redefinition - each reflecting different degrees of transformation. The paper presents a model outlining these forms and their specific characteristics, concluding that strategic entrepreneurship plays a central role in enabling firms to navigate and thrive amid turbulent, post-COVID business environments.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report, 2022-2023, thus, reinstates entrepreneurship as a driving force behind economic growth and societal well-being and encourages scholars to explore the nexus between them. However, existing studies have primarily investigated the relationship between entrepreneurship and well-being, paying scant attention to how entrepreneurial well-being affects entrepreneurship. To fill this crucial research gap, this study investigated the impact of entrepreneurial well-being on entrepreneurial intensity among micro, small, and medium enterprises in Jammu and Kashmir, using data collected from 385 entrepreneurs. The results provided robust evidence that increasing entrepreneurial well-being contributes to bolstering entrepreneurial intensity. This relationship was unaffected by age; however, educational qualification moderated the positive relationship. This study contributes substantially to the existing literature by providing solid empirical based evidence and novel insights on the role well-being can play in fostering entrepreneurial dynamism, especially in a conflict-affected area such as Jammu and Kashmir.
The purpose of this research is to explore emerging businesses in consumer IoT using the three core business dimensions: customer groups, value propositions, and combinatorial innovation. The research used qualitative data of 942 emerging companies registered in the Crunchbase. A combined deductive-inductive analysis was employed. It was found that emerging businesses targeted eight customer groups giving emphasis to smart home device users. Functional value aspects are more proposed for such customer groups than emotional and social values. These businesses also failed to address some value proposition factors. Recently, combinatorial innovation has been practiced as means to better value proposition by emerging businesses. Analysing business definition similarities, 24 groups of emerging companies competing in the market were identified. Our study illustrates that defining businesses carefully is important for a long-term growth and, these companies are using the three core business dimensions with different level of deployment to define their businesses. Practically, the research can help companies map their position from the perspective of customer groups, value propositions, and combinatorial innovation. Examining value in the actual value creation process, and the introduction of combinatorial innovation would be an important theoretical basis for future research.
Three decades after Baumol's (1990) seminal paper, 'Entrepreneurship: productive, unproductive, and destructive', we still know little about the last type. However, the growing number of value-destroying activities in the business world has prompted scholars in recent years to bring this topic to the forefront and ask why, how, and to what extent entrepreneurs act against others. As an essential tool for further theorisation, we conducted a mechanism-based thematic analysis of the existing literature, investigating micro-level reasons that motivate entrepreneurs to act intentionally against others, the behaviours they employ, and the resulting outcomes. This analysis identified egoism and a control-freak mindset as the most discussed personality dispositions driving entrepreneurs to act destructively, with tyrannical management and corrupt practices as the most frequent damaging behaviours, and a wide range of organisational and social damages as their consequences.
Research emphasises the crucial role of the entrepreneur's personality in terms of success, economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness. Despite the known importance of the role of the individual, entrepreneurial research still overlooks key personality traits of individuals with strong entrepreneurial tendencies. Not only is the focus still on so called 'bright side' traits but even the in popularity growing research of so called 'dark side' traits is still using very narrow models that do not encompass a wide enough framework and misses out on crucial maladaptive traits. The central question is, what role do maladaptive personality traits play on entrepreneurial orientation? We surveyed 420 participants, using a new-maladaptive trait model to explore their impact. Furthermore, we further used Goldberg's big-five factor markers IPIP questionnaire to control for adaptive personality traits, as well as Holland's RIASEC and Schein's career anchors to measure individual entrepreneurial orientation. Our study reveals psychoticism to be the primary predictor of entrepreneurial orientation among maladaptive traits, antagonism and disinhibition were further maladaptive factors. These insights enhance our grasp of entrepreneurial orientation and raise awareness of the importance to not only include bright side traits or measure the dark triad (machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) but also measure maladaptive traits in entrepreneurial research. Beyond this, our paper delivers practical implications for recruitment and developing entrepreneurial talent by demonstrating that, for example, a more in-depth assessment and understanding of a candidate's personality profile can reveal insights into individual strengths and motivations.
The Schumpeterian 'creative destruction' is a well-known concept, yet there is a tendency to emphasise either its bright side - entrepreneurs as great contributors to economic development - or its dark side - entrepreneurs' activities contributing to various damages. In this paper, we aim to move beyond this dichotomy to fully grasp the dialectic. To do so, we pose the following question: How does the 'creative destruction' dialectic support the fabric of heroic entrepreneurs? To answer this question, we analyse a 19th-century narrative of an entrepreneurial journey as depicted in the famous novel The Ladies' Paradise by the naturalist writer & Eacute;mile Zola. Based on our analysis, we detail how four themes of narrative dialectic - economic, socio-political, cognitive, and artifactual - support the fabric of an entrepreneurial hero in the novel. This new framework helps to reconceptualise 'creative destruction' and offers new perspectives for discussing the heroisation of entrepreneurs, bringing new possibilities for teaching entrepreneurship through fiction.
Environmental entrepreneurship can play a key role in facilitating sustainable development. To achieve this potential of environmental entrepreneurship, it is crucial to gain knowledge about the characteristics of individuals pursuing environmentally oriented entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, this study systematically reviews the literature on the influence of socio-demographic variables on environmentally oriented entrepreneurial activity. Inter alia, the paper identifies that environmental entrepreneurs are usually highly educated. Furthermore, the authors show that gender bias in conventional entrepreneurship is reversed in environmental entrepreneurship, as most of the reviewed studies found females to be more active in environmental entrepreneurship than males. Based on these findings, the authors advise entrepreneurship education, as well as political interventions, to concentrate on the identified target groups and highlight the importance of including socio-demographic variables in a potential theory of environmental entrepreneurship.
Disaster events, such as the COVID-19, have the potential to threaten lives and economies. Some people and ventures are disrupted while others react. This paper focuses on the response of such individuals and ventures to this unexpected pandemic. This research is specifically based on a detailed exploration of a large set of initiatives that have emerged in the face of the pandemic. These initiatives are either the result of the adaptation of existing ventures or have been newly created in response to the pandemic's consequences. The findings suggest that the conditions of COVID-19 prompted individuals and ventures to show resilience. This study shows that they adapt and develop initiatives that create value which differ in terms of: 1) magnitude; 2) timeline; 3) kind and describes the process that enables the quick response of these initiatives.
Understanding the reasons of entrepreneurial exit remains one of the critical problems in entrepreneurship research. This study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial capitals (human, social and financial) and probability of business discontinuation due to voluntary or failure-based reasons, accounting for the moderating role of opportunity recognition. We test our hypotheses based on 2019 GEM APS data covering 28,192 respondents from 48 countries. The results revealed that different elements of entrepreneurial capital lead to a higher probability of both voluntary and failure-based exit as compared to non-exit. Moreover, the positive perception of business opportunities strengthens the link between financial capital availability and the likelihood of entrepreneurial exit. The findings show the important role of all types of entrepreneurial capital in perceiving higher opportunity costs of continuing current business rather than closing it as well as context-specific nature of the exit decision. Implications are discussed.
While failed ventures are reported as the most likely outcome of an attempt to create a new venture, there is a relative lack of research examining the failure experience from the entrepreneur's perspective. Using narrative analysis to examine entrepreneurs' first-person accounts of past failures, we find entrepreneurs attend to gains and losses within and across financial, operational, psychological, social, and environmental dimensions of performance when reflecting on a venture experience. In addition, structural analysis of entrepreneurial failure narratives reveals narrative arc differences in information disclosure (staging), story advancement (plot progression), and emergence and resolution of conflict (cognitive tension) that vary by type of failure an entrepreneur experiences. The present study contributes to the entrepreneurial failure and cognition literatures by identifying the content of entrepreneurs' personal frameworks for performance assessment and showing patterns in the psychological processing of varied forms of entrepreneurial failure. The study concludes with suggestions for future research.
This study investigates the connection between the big five personality model (BFPM) attributes and entrepreneurial intentions (EPI) among higher education students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Additionally, it explores the mediating roles of innovation and creativity, as well as the moderating effect of leadership capabilities. Data were collected from students at various higher education institutions and incubation centres, and analysed using stepwise regression in line with Baron and Kenny's procedures. Results reveal that openness to experience, extraversion, and agreeableness significantly correlate with students' EPI. Conversely, neuroticism and openness to experience relate significantly to creativity and innovative behaviour. Moreover, creativity and innovation mediate the relationship between BFPM and EPI. Interestingly, leadership abilities show a partial moderating effect. This research uniquely contributes to understanding EPI in a developing country context and highlights the importance of fostering innovative thinking and entrepreneurial leadership among students, offering valuable insights for educational policymakers.
Entrepreneurship has the potential to aid refugees in integrating into the host country and adapting to mainstream life. The purpose of this study was to explore the entrepreneurship journey of refugees and its impact on their integration process in the USA. Findings of the study derived from semi-structured, individual interviews conducted with entrepreneurs from refugee backgrounds. The emergent overarching themes indicated that despite encountering language, culture, regulatory, and system-related barriers, as well as limited access to business funds and mainstream business resources, the entrepreneurship experiences of refugees gave them a sense of autonomy, freedom, and hope for a brighter future.
