The pervasiveness of the entrepreneurial phenomenon attracts the attention on the determinants of the decision of becoming entrepreneur. As the entrepreneurial decision can be additionally conceived as firm entry, as a real business investment in the creation of a new business and as a career choice in favour of self-employment, the literature about entrepreneurship is integrated with industria...

W examine whether the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity is related to the prior career experiences of an individual’s coworkers, using a unique matched employer–employee panel data set. We argue that coworkers can increase the likelihood that an individual will perceive entrepreneurial opportunities as well as increase his or her motivation to pursue those opportunities. We find that an in...

Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, this study tests the effect of entrepreneurship programmes on the entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions of science and engineering students. This is necessary in order to confirm (or disconfirm) conventional wisdom that entrepreneurship education increases the intention to start a business. The results show that the programmes raise some attitudes ...

We develop a dynamic incomplete-markets model of entrepreneurial firms, and demonstrate the implications of nondiversifiable risks for entrepreneurs’ interdependent consumption, portfolio allocation, financing, investment, and business exit decisions. We characterize the optimal capital structure via a generalized tradeoff model where risky debt provides significant diversification benefits. No...

Previous research on age and entrepreneurship assumed homogeneity and downplayed age-related differences in the motives and aims underlying enterprising behaviour. We argue that the heterogeneity of entrepreneurship influences how the level of entrepreneurial activity varies with age. Using a sample of 2566 respondents from 27 European countries we show that entrepreneurial activity increases a...

The phenomenon of the entrepreneurial university has received considerable attention in recent decades, since the entrepreneurial orientation of academia could put regions and nations at an advantage in areas of economic activity where the focus is on emerging knowledge. Empirical research on entrepreneurial initiative incentives within universities and involving students and lecturers is scarc...

In order to explain the success of entrepreneurial firms, it is necessary to identify the conditions that generate new business opportunities. Emerging economies such as China are perceived as high risk environments due to fundamental institutional transformations. Yet, there’s no conclusive evidence how the contextual nature of emerging economies impact the conditions for entrepreneurial firms...

The purpose of this paper is to document the fundamental shift that is taking place in OECD countries. This shift is from the managed economy to the entrepreneurial economy. While politicians and policy makers have made a plea for guidance in the era of entrepreneurship, scholars have been slow to respond. This paper attempts to make a first step identifying and articulating these differences. ...

Individuals may perceive themselves as independent and distinct from others or as interdependent and connected to others. Do these differences in self-construal influence entrepreneurial preferences and intentions to start a new business in university students? Few studies have examined the influence of cultural orientations on entrepreneurial intentions at the individual level of analysis. Two...

The twentieth century United States provides a natural experiment to measure the strength and persistence of entrepreneurial cultures. Assuming immigrants bear the cultures of their birth place, comparison of revealed entrepreneurial propensities of US immigrant groups in 1910 and 2000 reflected these backgrounds. Two measures of entrepreneurial culture are employed; the first is simply the cha...