Seeing What Others Miss: A Study of Women Entrepreneurs in High-Growth Startups

The COVID-19 captured entrepreneurs by surprise, and shocked in the first months of the pandemic, especially women entrepreneurs; yet, the initial stages of the 'shock' that crises induce, are still underexplored in the entrepreneurial research, though critical for the further venture creation act. The genders' perceptions of opportunity, fear of failure and motivations before and during the pandemic, are employed to predict propensity to start a business during this crisis. Results comparing the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) datasets between 2019 and 2020 suggest that while pandemic has been found to affect women more severely than men, women's perceived availability of opportunities during COVID-19 emerged more tightly related to financial motivations, as their main impetus to start a business. These findings reinforce the relevance of the theory of planned behaviour and bricolage to the contexts of gender and crises. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The COVID-19 captured entrepreneurs by surprise, and shocked in the first months of the pandemic, especially women entrepreneurs; yet, the initial stages of the 'shock' that crises induce, are still underexplored in the entrepreneurial research, though critical for the further venture creation act. The genders' perceptions of opportunity, fear of failure and motivations before and during the pandemic, are employed to predict propensity to start a business during this crisis. Results comparing the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) datasets between 2019 and 2020 suggest that while pandemic has been found to affect women more severely than men, women's perceived availability of opportunities during COVID-19 emerged more tightly related to financial motivations, as their main impetus to start a business. These findings reinforce the relevance of the theory of planned behaviour and bricolage to the contexts of gender and crises. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Purpose Teaching models in higher education entrepreneurship programs affect students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Yet evidence related to their effects on long-term venture creation remains limited. Past research on the effects of teaching models on entrepreneurship has focused narrowly on entrepreneurship education programs. The present study moves beyond this past narrow focus to study teaching model effects on new venture creation across a broad array of higher education programs. Design/methodology/approach We assess the effects of teaching models on new venture creation across 35 educational programs (entrepreneurship and other business programs) at a large Danish business school, tracing venture creation data for 5 years after graduation (N = 4,717). Findings Competence-based teaching models positively impact graduates’ long-term new venture creation across all programs, with no differences between entrepreneurship vs other types of programs. Research limitations/implications These findings carry implications for both education and entrepreneurship research, as well as policymakers and educators, by pointing toward ways of impacting postgraduate business venturing through teaching model reforms extending beyond entrepreneurship education. Originality/value For the first time, we find effects of competence teaching models on postgraduation new venture creation across a broad array of business administration programs. The results are novel in documenting that teaching models generally impact venture creation in the long term, and that this occurs regardless of whether the program content centers on entrepreneurship or on other business administration content.

PurposeWhether opportunities are discovered or created by entrepreneurs is a foundational question in entrepreneurship research. The purpose of this paper is to examine women entrepreneurs in high-growth new ventures and explore the cognitive resources that distinguish between three approaches to opportunity perception: opportunity discovery; opportunity creation; and a combined discover-create (ambidextrous) approach.Design/methodology/approachUsing questionnaire responses from 165 women entrepreneurs in high-growth new ventures, K-means clustering was used to determine three approaches to opportunity perception. The cognitive resources associated with each approach were then identified using multiple discriminant analysis. Finally, multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to examine the relationship between opportunity perception and growth expectations.FindingsThese results demonstrate different approaches to opportunity perception among entrepreneurs in high-growth new ventures, the cognitive resources that reinforce each approach, and the expected new venture growth outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings offer insight on the cognitive origins of opportunity perception by empirically identifying distinct approaches to opportunity perception and the cognitive resources that underlie each. The study relies on a unique sample of entrepreneurs to understand complex cognitive phenomenon.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the effects that cognitive factors have on opportunity perception provides direction for current and aspiring entrepreneurs. The findings and instrument may be used for professional development and to inform educational strategies.Originality/valueThe findings offer important contributions to entrepreneurial theory and practice by addressing repeated calls for research that examines the cognitive antecedents enabling opportunity formation (discovery, creation or both). This manuscript empirically does so, while opening up possibilities for future research.

This comprehensive Handbook provides an essential analysis of new venture creation research. The eminent contributors critically discuss and explore the current literature as well as suggest improvements to the field. They reveal a strong sense of both the ‘state-of-the-art’ (what has and has not been done in new venture creation research) and the ‘state-of-the-could-be’ (future directions the field should take to improve knowledge). The Handbook comprises nineteen chapters divided into four main sections: setting the agenda; theoretical perspectives; data and measurements; and new venture creation through contextual lenses.

Scott A. Shane is a professor of economics and entrepreneurial studies in Case Western Reserve University of the United States, and has published significant works that display superior conceptual acumen as well as empirical and methodological sophistication. His research covers virtually all major aspects of the entrepreneurship phenomenon: individuals, opportunity, organizational context, environment, and entrepreneurial process. Scott A. Shane has made outstanding contributions to entrepreneurial research and won the 2009 Global Entrepreneurship Research Award. In this paper, we introduce Scott A. Shane’s main academic ideas and academic contributions to Chinese entrepreneurial researchers based on English literature. The content of the paper is showed as follows. First, we introduce Scott A. Shane’s research paradigm of entrepreneurial process. Using ideas of Austrian economics school, Scott A. Shane defined the field of entrepreneurship research as the scholarly examination of how, by whom, and with what effects opportunities to create future goods and services are discovered, evaluated, and exploited. Consequently, this field involves process research of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities. Scott A. Shane creatively proposed the entrepreneurial process research paradigm of individual-opportunity nexus for entrepreneurial opportunity discovery, evaluation and development. Second, in terms of theory foundation, Scott A. Shane laid the foundation of process research paradigm of the individual opportunity nexus on market process and divided private knowledge of Austrian school. The entrepreneur discovery theory of market process in modern Austrian school consists of three key interrelated analytical concepts: （a）the entrepreneur role; （b）the role of discovery; （c）adversarial competition. According to Hayek’s divided knowledge theory, an entrepreneur’s knowledge is individual, situational and implicit, and such rich personal knowledge means potential creativity, helping the entrepreneur discover and exploit opportunities. So based on Austrian school’s ideas, Scott A. Shane created a conceptual framework of entrepreneurial research, induced scholars to concern with three sets of research questions about entrepreneurship: （1）why, when, and how opportunities for the creation of goods and services come into existence; （2）why, when, and how some people but not others discover and exploit these opportunities; （3）why, when, and how different modes of action are used to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. Third, Scott A. Shane is a uniquely complete entrepreneurship scholar. He has made substantial contributions to the field of entrepreneurship. They can be summarized as follows: （a）he has strongly influenced what we view as central aspects of entrepreneurship, and has been a leading figure in redirecting the focus on entrepreneurship research itself; （b）he has influenced how we view entrepreneurship phenomenon by making full arguments and presenting theoretical insights; （c）in particular, he has emphasized the need to consider variation in the opportunities alongside the characteristics of those individuals who pursue them, as well as the matching of individuals and opportunities; （d）he has contributed to how we conduct entrepreneurship research; Scott A. Shane has been a forerunner of examining relevant units of analysis that are difficult to sample, designing entrepreneurial process research, processing data, and introducing sophisticated analytical methods; （e）he has laid the theory foundation of entrepreneurship and promoted the development of entrepreneurship.

PurposeThere is a dearth of studies exploring the intersection of gender and disability within entrepreneurship research. This is despite women’s entrepreneurship research encouraging an expansion of the research questions asked and approaches taken. As a contribution to this debate, the purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of gender and disability as social categorizations which can shape entrepreneurial opportunities and experiences for disabled women entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachThe paper offers an intersectional conceptual lens for the study of disabled women entrepreneurs to explore a concern for a particular social group – women – at a neglected point of intersection – disability – within the social setting of entrepreneurship. Guided by the research question (how can gender and feminist disability theory contribute to the development of an intersectional theoretical lens for future entrepreneurship research?), the potential for new theoretical insights to emerge in the entrepreneurship field is identified.FindingsThrough a gender and disability intersectional lens for entrepreneurship research, four theoretical synergies between gender and disability research are identified: the economic rationale; flexibility, individualism and meritocracy; and social and human capital. In addition to the theoretical synergies, the paper highlights three theoretical variances: the anomalous body and bodily variation; sexuality, beauty and appearance; and multiple experiences of care as potentially generative areas for women’s entrepreneurship research. The paper identifies new directions for future gender, disability and entrepreneurship research by outlining research questions for each synergy and variance which draw attention to disabled women entrepreneurs’ experiences of choice and control within and across different spaces and processes of entrepreneuring.Originality/valueThe conceptual intersectional lens offered to study disabled women’s entrepreneurship highlights new directions for exploring experiences of entrepreneuring at the intersection of disability and gender. The paper brings disability into view as a social category that should be of concern to feminist entrepreneurship researchers by surfacing different dimensions of experience to those currently explored. Through the new directions outlined, future research can further disrupt the prevailing discourse of individualism and meritocracy that perpetuates success as an individual’s responsibility, and instead offer the potential for richer understandings of entrepreneuring which has a gender and disability consciousness.

Entrepreneurship is an emerging and evolving field of inquiry. Entrepreneurship research has been expanding its boundaries by exploring and developing explanations and predictions of entrepreneurship phenomena in terms of events such as innovation, new venture creation and growth as well as characteristics of individual entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial organizations. The largest institutionalized community of entrepreneurship scholars – the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management – has developed an entrepreneurship specific domain that incorporates the creation and management of new businesses, small businesses and family businesses, and the characteristics and special problems of entrepreneurs; it has further identified major topics such as new venture ideas and strategies, ecological influences on venture creation and demise, the acquisition and management of venture capital and venture teams, self-employment, the owner-manager, management succession, corporate venturing, and the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development. One growing entrepreneurship research sub-field is corporate entrepreneurship (intrapreneurship), i.e. entrepreneurship in existing organizations. Emerging in the past two decades, the initial research in corporate entrepreneurship focused on new business venturing, i.e. the formation of new ventures by existing organizations, mostly corporations, and the focus on the entrepreneurial individual inside a corporation – this focus was then extended to include entrepreneurial characteristics at the organizational level. Corporate entrepreneurship research has evolved into three focal areas. The first area of focus is on the individual intrapreneur (Jennings, Cox & Cooper, 1994; Jones & Butler, 1992; Knight, 1989; Lessem, 1988; Luchsinger & Bagby, 1987; McKinney & McKinney, 1989; Pinchot, 1985; Ross, 1987; Souder, 1981), mainly emphasizing the intrapreneur's individual characteristics. The recognition and support of entrepreneurs in organizations is also a part of this focal area. The second area of focus has been on the formation of new corporate ventures (Burgelman, 1985; Carrier, 1994; Cooper, 1981; Fast & Pratt, 1981; Hisrich & Peters, 1984; Hlavacek & Thompson, 1973; Krueger & Brazeal, 1994; MacMillan, Block & Narasimha, 1984; Szypersky & Klandt, 1984; Vesper, 1990); this area's primary emphasis is on the different of types of new ventures, their fit with the corporation, and their enabling corporate internal environment. The third area of focus is on the entrepreneurial organization (Burgelman, 1983; Drucker, 1985; Duncan et al., 1988; Hanan, 1976; Kanter, 1984; Kuratko et al., 1993; Merrifield, 1993; Muzyka, de Konning & Churchill, 1995; Pinchot, 1985; Quinn, 1979; Rule & Irwin, 1988; Schollhammer, 1981; Stevenson & Jarillo, 1990; Stopford & Baden-Fuller, 1994), which mainly emphasizes the characteristics of these organizations.

While researches and commercialization of the results have been considered to a greater extent at entrepreneurial universities, the distinction between academic and entrepreneurial researches has not been addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the concept of entrepreneurial research which presents a more comprehensive and complete view of the entrepreneurial university and then to provide a framework that helps to comprehend this concept in universities. This study has been conducted using a constructionist grounded theory. The methodology of a structuralist grounded theory is an attempt to collect multiple but heavily focused data to identify and develop concepts. In this study, theoretical sampling and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. In this framework, the extracted main categories including governance in universities, communication with industry, entrepreneurial training, entrepreneurial research functions, cultural and social requirements, entrepreneurial research and commercialization are the results of the research. Entrepreneurial research functions are summarized in value creation, innovation and technique creation. The value of this research is firstly to identify the gap between academic and entrepreneurial researches, and secondly to formulate and provide a framework for the concept of entrepreneurial research in universities. The results of this research provide a framework for higher education policymakers and planners to develop an entrepreneurial approach in academic researches. Applying this framework will also reduce the unemployment rate of alumni in the society, and the employment of alumni will increase the economic growth of the societies.

Prior research in entrepreneurship suggests a relationship between the experience and personal history of the entrepreneur and the identification of opportunities. However, the task of an entrepren...

Purpose – This study explores the processes underlying the founding and growth of GOONJ, a social venture devoted to the cause of clothing in India, and examines the role of the founder in reconciling the trade-offs between market-based and socially motivated criteria in the venture creation process.Methodology/approach – A case study was used to discern the relevant processes and the reasons for the founder's choices. Primary insights were combined with material from secondary sources such as GOONJ's website, press releases and video clips.Findings – The founder has ethically and effectively mobilized resources for mass social impact; however, he may adopt a more entrepreneurial approach based on long-term financial planning and professional management for sustained growth.Research limitations/implications – The research is based on a single case study that precludes generalization; a survey-based approach may be adopted in the future.Practical implications – Individual entrepreneurs with an overriding social mission can successfully resolve social problems; however, there is the need to combine the social motive with an entrepreneurial approach for sustained growth.Social implications – Social entrepreneurship (SE) plays a potentially significant role in alleviating pressing social problems in emerging economies mired in institutional constraints; however, it needs support mechanisms to enable an entrepreneurial approach to social venture creation.Originality/value of chapter – The study contributes to the literature on SE in emerging economies, in particular India, a unique cultural context compared to North America or Europe, yet significantly under-represented in entrepreneurship research. Also novel is an entrepreneurial process-based model to investigate the chosen case.

Social relationships play an important role in organizational entrepreneurship. They are crucial to entrepreneurs' decisions because, despite the bleeding-edge technological advancements observed nowadays, entrepreneurs as human beings will always strive to be social. During the COVID-19 pandemic many companies moved activities into the virtual world and as a result offline Social relationships became rarer, but as it turns out, even more valuable, likewise, the inter-organizational cooperation enabling many companies to survive. This chapter aims to develop knowledge about entrepreneurs' SR and their links with inter-organizational cooperation. The results of an integrative systematic literature review show that the concept of Social relationships, although often investigated, lacks a clear definition, conceptualization, and operationalization. This chapter revealed a great diversity of definitions for Social relationships, including different scopes of meaning and levels of analysis. The authors

This study investigates how entrepreneurial personality traits, specifically achievement motivation and self-efficacy, interact with contextual factors in venture creation. Drawing on data from the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, it examines the influence of market competition and environmental support. The findings show that achievement motivation contributes positively to venture creation when market competition is low. However, entrepreneurial self-efficacy does not mediate the relationship between environmental support and venture creation. These results underscore the importance of considering both personality traits and external conditions in entrepreneurship research. They offer valuable insights for advancing theory and guiding practical approaches to venture development.

Much of the previous research attempting to relate traits of the entrepreneur to new venture creation has failed to demonstrate a definitive linkage. This failure should not impugn the importance of the individual as the most cogent unit of analysis In entrepreneurship research and theory. On the contrary, since most new organizations are Initiated and created by individuals operating alone or in small teams, it should motivate new ways of modeling and testing the human phenomena involved In venture creation. Accordingly, this paper presents a structural model of the initiation of new venture creation which links psychological and behavioral concepts with those of organization theory to explain the initiation of launch activities for new business enterprises.

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and self-efficacy on the positive effects of new firm creation are well developed in past research. However, marketing self-efficacy has not received enough attention on the prediction of entrepreneurial intention despite marketing and entrepreneurship are crucial when creating a new firm. Moreover, resilience has a central role in entrepreneurship research while present study aims to explore the impact of psychological factors on new venture creation but scholars have not begun to uncover specific mechanism through which marketing self-efficacy, resilience and entrepreneurial intention. The purpose of this study then was to examine resilience as mediator in the marketing self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention relationship. Questionnaires were employed to collect data from major universities of future entrepreneurs in Korea. A total of 315 completed questionnaires were returned. Results showed that marketing self-efficacy and resilience had a positive effect on entrepreneurial intention. Further, resilience had a significant mediating effect on the marketing self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention relationship. These results suggest theoretical and practical implications as an important factor to stimulate entrepreneurial intention.