Beyond Pioneers and Followers: a Typology of Entrepreneurial Behaviors for Hostile Environments

This paper deals with the identification of effective entrepreneurial behaviors in hostile environments. Extant contributions argue that entrepreneurship is a complex phenomenon, which needs to be addressed in a multidimensional perspective (i.e. strategic posture, behavioral attitudes, economic performance, and so forth). Drawing from fifteen streams of research in the entrepreneurship domain, this paper aims at identifying a typology rooted in the entrepreneurship field of research, by means of which observing a pattern of entrepreneurial behavior in a hostile environment. The concept of hostile environment has been operationalized through the Index of Economic Freedom of the Fraser Institute. After performing an exploratory factor analysis, a typology emerged from data collected in hostile environment-based firms. A confirmatory factor analysis has been carried out through structural equations modeling technique, supported by LISLREL. This typology resulted constituted by four behaviors: relational, arbitraging, self-referential and imitative. Drawing from research findings, a model of entrepreneurial behavior for hostile environments is proposed.