Entrepreneurial Agency Research Articles

A little less structuration, a little more action: Examining entrepreneurial agency in two marginal ecosystems

Entrepreneurs form and grow businesses in relation to the localised context around them (structure) and also through their own choices and actions (agency). In this way, structure and agency intersect in the lived experiences of entrepreneurs. The purpose of this work is to explore entrepreneurial agency in two ecosystems that, as structures, constrain entrepreneurship within them: Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK) and Perth (Australia). We add to extant analysis that empirically looks at the active agency entrepreneurs participate in, as they attempt to overcome the structural level constraints they encounter. Methodologically, we draw on phenomenological data, arriving at a highly detailed insight, drawing attention to the strong local entrepreneurial communities and distinctive cognitive mindsets that entrepreneurs in the ecosystems we study have agentically developed and cultivated. We suggest how future analysis of entrepreneurial agency may unfold and consider the implications of our insight from a policy implementation perspective.

Microentrepreneurs in the gig economy: who they are, what they do, and why they do it

PurposeGig microentrepreneurs are individuals who have embraced short-term gigs as an entrepreneurial agency for both financial and social livelihood. Based on surveys in 2020 and 2023, the research reported here presents a comprehensive, empirical portrait of two cohorts of gig microentrepreneurs. This portrait captures the similarities and differences of gig microentrepreneurs in terms of offline and online business models and the nature of gig work. Recognizing that there is not a “typical” gig microentrepreneur will help ensure that this gig business model continues to evolve without boundaries in terms of demographics, motivations and behavior and will enable marketing and entrepreneurship scholars to better assist in entrepreneurial growth and development. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the gig microentrepreneur regardless of the nature of the gig work.Design/methodology/approachThe research involved two separate surveys in the USA. The first survey took place in July 2020, and the second survey took place in April 2023 after major changes had taken place in the economy and in society (e.g. the COVID pandemic). Both surveys used samples generated by Dynata, an online consumer panel company with access to more than 70 million consumers worldwide who have agreed to participate as panel members.FindingsThe surveys provided answers to questions about the demographic and behavioral aspects of gig microentrepreneurs, including who they are, the number and type of gig activities in which they participate, the financial livelihood generated from gig income, the social livelihood inherent in gig work and dissatisfaction with being a microentrepreneur in the gig economy. These findings produced insights into why individuals engage in gig activities and the positive and negative impacts of that engagement. Based on the findings, nuances and trends within the gig economy and among gig microentrepreneurs are identified and discussed.Research limitations/implicationsThe research limitations include lack of generalizability outside of the USA, use of panel data and survivor bias.Practical implicationsConsumers, gig microentrepreneurs, companies and government agencies can benefit from the growth in the gig economy. The vast array of gig activities in which gig microentrepreneurs engage clearly shows the need for an on-demand workforce. There are both economic and societal benefits to having a labor-force that can meet a breadth of demands with varying timeframes.Social implicationsWhether gig microentrepreneurs are engaging in gig work to augment their income because of economic insecurity or for intrinsic reasons, the motivations and behaviors of the gig microentrepreneurs are indicative of the talent and resources needed to keep the US economy moving forward positively.Originality/valueAs noted by several scholars conducting research on the gig economy, little is known about gig microentrepreneurs – who they are, what they do and why they do it. Current research on the gig economy tends to focus on online platform companies. This research offers an exploratory look at microentrepreneurs who engage in gig activities both online and offline without geographic or technological boundaries.

Local Contexts and Entrepreneurial Agency within a Fragile State

Local Contexts and Entrepreneurial Agency within a Fragile State

A Practice-Based Taxonomy of Corporate Entrepreneurial Agents

A Practice-Based Taxonomy of Corporate Entrepreneurial Agents

Optopreneurship for a competitive and sustainable optometry practice in South Africa

Background: Optopreneurship entails the entrepreneurial activities within the optometry industry. The term is new and derived from optometry and entrepreneurship. Optometrists are professionals who are responsible for screening, examining, diagnosing, treating and managing vision and eye health problems through the provision of optical devices and therapies. Optometry business and entrepreneurship have been poorly studied.Aim: To provide an overview of optopreneurship and optopreneurial activities for competitiveness and sustainability in optometry practice from a South African perspective.Method: Literature was reviewed from Google Scholar, PubMed and ScienceDirect databases using key terms such as entrepreneurship, health entrepreneurship, optometry entrepreneurship and optometry business used.Results: Thirty-four scholarly articles were found to be relevant for the review. Fourteen articles were on entrepreneurship, 13 on eyecare and optometry, 2 on optometry business and 5 on healthcare entrepreneurship. Additionally, 24 websites were reviewed to provide evidence on entrepreneurship and optometry business. Though optometry business has higher revenue turnover potential, conglomerates exhibit superior business acumen over individual practitioners. Optometrists should enhance their business acumen and entrepreneurial agency by identifying underserviced areas such as to stay competitive.Conclusion: Engaging in optopreneurial activities will help optometrists to develop competitive advantage. There is a need to develop and collate optometrists’ business acumen and clinical skills. More research is required in optopreneurship.Contribution: This article seeks to highlight the overview of entrepreneurial activities and opportunities for optometrists in South Africa, and the need to develop a business acumen and entrepreneurial mindset to gain a competitive advantage.

Distributed bricolage – The affordances of digital technologies towards a collaborative entrepreneurial agency response to COVID-19

This study explores the human and social dynamics of entrepreneurship in the context of disruptive crises, specifically COVID-19. It reveals how digital technologies enable a form of collaborative agency, which we term distributed bricolage, characterized by the emergent, voluntary collaboration of heterogeneous actors across global networks. These actors, motivated by a shared goal to address urgent needs, engage in designing, hacking, and producing necessary items through agile and responsive collective structures. Analysing the initiatives of six diverse and impactful groups, our research highlights the transition from individual to collective entrepreneurial agency, underscoring the ability of distributed networks to self-organize and implement innovative solutions with available resources. We contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by delving into the ‘make do’ attitude across initiatives, shifting the spotlight from individual agency to a network of distributed actors, who are capable of self-organizing and operating effectively. This study extends the bricolage concept by showcasing the networked, socialized nature of entrepreneurial action, moving beyond the traditional focus on individual agency to a more inclusive understanding of distributed and collaborative efforts afforded by digital technologies.

Mitigating flash flooding in the city: Drain or harvest?

Abstract Rainwater harvesting (RWH) is principally based on collecting, storing, and using rainfall which would otherwise be lost as surface runoff. Runoff threatens in several ways: accelerating erosion, intensifying flooding, and reducing groundwater recharge. Therefore, purposely retaining rainfall in the urban water cycle rather than draining has several positive impacts on designing sustainable cities. This work presents a proposal on how to avoid flooding in cities by systematically harvesting, storing rainwater, and using it for multiple purposes. The concept of RWH presented here has the potential to be a radical innovation to solve the social, economic, and environmental challenges associated with flash flooding. Each residence is regarded as a water production unit. Depending on the climatic conditions, people can meet their water needs on a local household basis, or alternatively use piped water as a complement. By infiltrating rainwater, groundwater is locally recharged and downstream wells are more productive. The implementation of this idea involves entrepreneurial agency that challenges existing structures, rather than adapting to them. Clearly, social entrepreneurship and social innovation are expected to catalyse the realization of this social innovation, also in rural areas. It is about mobilizing ideas, capacities, and resources to create a sustainable social transformation.

Business in the backwaters: how ‘distance from the core’ impacts entrepreneurs’ lived experiences

ABSTRACT Using a phenomenological approach, we analyse the voices of entrepreneurs living in the peripheral ecosystems of Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK), Palermo (Italy) and Perth (Australia). These ecosystems are defined by the considerable physical distance between their geographical location and the location of a larger, more established ‘core’ ecosystem in their nation. The purpose of our paper is to examine how distance from the core is perceived to both enable and constrain entrepreneurship in peripheral contexts. We introduce ‘distance from the core’ as a significant hitherto unexplored theme to consider when exploring the lived experiences of entrepreneurs in peripheral contexts. Empirically, we present data that affirms and expands extant findings revealing how entrepreneurs rooted in peripheral contexts react to the structural conditions around them. Methodologically, we demonstrate the value of phenomenological research in revealing the subjective ways entrepreneurial agency, structure and distance intersect. We highlight that policymakers must take the voices of entrepreneurs in a peripheral ecosystem into account when designing and implementing enterprise policies that aim to develop entrepreneurship in peripheral contexts.

Entrepreneurship as collective action: The next frontier

Analyses of collective action in entrepreneurship are lacking in the extant literature. Despite entrepreneurship research progressively moving away from a focus on the lone heroic entrepreneur, scholars have yet to absorb the full potential of entrepreneurship as collective action. Also missing is a collective stance on key entrepreneurship concepts such as opportunity discovery or construction and entrepreneurial agency. Accordingly, this article reviews and critiques five articles that constitute this Special Issue seeking to establish ‘entrepreneurship as collective action’ as the next frontier of entrepreneurship theory development. The articles in this Special Issue each investigate a specific instance of collective action in entrepreneurship. This article contributes to extant scholarship by highlighting transversal themes and offering further research avenues.

Queen Ndlovu: opening the throttle on her drone business

Learning outcomes After completion of the case study, students will be able to evaluate the journey of launching a business in an emerging market context and judge how opportunities and challenges can be navigated to build sustainable enterprises; assess the relevance of individual attributes and process skills that are necessary for entrepreneurial agency to transform social structures through entrepreneurial action; formulate an argument highlighting the role of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in growing a competitive business in an emerging market context; make an informed decision and critique how accelerators and incubators affect the development of ideas and access to finance in South Africa; and propose various strategic options available for technology entrepreneurs, considering the challenges they face in emerging economies. Case overview/synopsis In April 2023, Queen Ndlovu, CEO and founder of QP Drone Tech, a provider of drone business solutions, was considering options to fulfil her original dream of manufacturing drones in South Africa. She had encountered obstacles to achieving the same in 2019, and had decided to focus on providing commercial drone consulting services. However, her dream had not extinguished, and in 2022, she decided to restart her efforts. She found practical support from The Innovation Hub, an incubator that was supporting her business, which enabled her to enhance the prototype of her drone. She then had to think about how she would manufacture drones locally by ensuring she had access to production infrastructure, funding, partners and customers. Would she be able to gain a competitive advantage that would differentiate her from competitors? Or should she reconsider whether she should be manufacturing in the first place, as there are risks and benefits for smaller businesses in this regard. Complexity academic level This case is intended for discussion in postgraduate diploma in business and Master of Business Administration courses. Supplementary material Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Supporting innovation and growth through entrepreneurship: reflections on the German Federal Government's “startup strategy”

PurposeAll over the world, countries are searching for ways to foster innovation and growth through startups. This viewpoint paper presents the aims, development procedure and contents of Germany's “Startup Strategy,” published for the first time in 2022, along with a fundamental assessment of its potential usefulness.Design/methodology/approachIn this opinionated viewpoint paper, the authors provide an overview of the strategy's contents and discuss it against established policy frameworks focusing on the determinants of innovative entrepreneurial activity and the potential consequences of the strategy on the micro-, meso- and macro levels of the German economy. Additionally, the authors evaluate and analyze the strategy's proposed fields of action to illustrate its potential impact on innovative entrepreneurial activity.FindingsThe strategy's development avoids considering an evidence-based, fundamental framework to structure its fields of action and instead relies on diverse input from various entrepreneurial agents. As a result, it emphasizes access to finance for startups and building entrepreneurial capabilities as its main fields of action. On the one hand, the authors show how the contents of the German “Startup Strategy” can be matched with the OECD (2017) framework. On the other hand, the authors offer detailed insights into how the “Startup Strategy's” fields of action might influence the German economy's micro, meso and macro levels.Research limitations/implicationsTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this article is the first one commenting on the German government's first-ever published startup strategy. Hence, this might offer several starting points for other researchers to analyze future startup strategies. Also, comparing such strategic approaches in other European countries and beyond might be a starting point for developing public policies in this field. Also, researchers on entrepreneurial ecosystems and innovation ecosystems will find concrete anchor points for these subject areas.Practical implicationsPolicymakers can use this viewpoint paper to devise future actions. The paper provides concrete fields of action on the individual and company levels, as well as on a national economic and regional ecosystem level, to derive such recommendations.Originality/valueGermany is one of the strongest economic nations in the world and by far in Europe. Hence, this startup strategy comes with the potential for substantial impact. This viewpoint paper may inspire the development of other national strategies to create a positive economic and societal environment supporting the emergence of more innovative startups. In particular, the strategy's focus on diversity and social entrepreneurship seems promising.

Leftist ad-persons and their creative craft: the formation of the advertising field in Turkey from the 1960s to 1980s

ABSTRACT A socialist advertiser/ adperson sounds very much like a contradiction. However, Turkish advertising was formed as a “field” from the 1960s to late 1980s by left leaning intellectuals and literary figures associated with the dominant socialist political party of the time. While entrepreneurial and profit-oriented agents were significant initiators, the field was essentially shaped by leftist/ socialist adpersons along with established/ entrepreneurial agents and entered into competition with such profit-oriented actors. Such competition, combined at times with cooperation, led to the creation of a field in the Bourdieusian sense. Thus, analysing the formation of the field, we can go beyond conceptualizing adpersons as mere cultural intermediaries and understand advertising as a social space in which multiple capitals operate. This allows us to reflect on the un(der)theorized work of left(ists) in the making of consumer capitalism during the post war period in Turkey.

The Multidimensional Role of Social Entrepreneurship: A Case Study Approach Within an International Project Context

Social entrepreneurship creates social value and has a multidimensional impact (e.g. economic, environmental, cultural). This is related to the complexity and multidimensional approaches to current societal problems such as climatic changes and socioeconomic crises. The paper explores this multidimensionality by presenting three Portuguese case studies of social entrepreneurship operating in diverse domains. The study is based on primary and secondary data on the selected social enterprises. The analysis explores the motivations and constraints in forming a social enterprise and the impact of entrepreneurial activity. There is evidence of multiple roles played by these entrepreneurial agents, and, therefore, their critical role in the response to the problems that current societies face.

Psychological Capital, Entrepreneurial Efficacy, Alertness and Agency Among Refugees in Uganda: Perceived Behavioural Control as a Moderator

Integrating refugees into the economic set-up is a daunting task for host countries. The dilemma is even bigger in low-income countries with many economic challenges; hence, refugees need help to obtain meaningful paid employment. However, entrepreneurship is emerging as an avenue for refugees to flourish in the economic space. Extant research suggests that personal agency is essential for utilising such opportunities. The current study examines the interactive effects of psychological capital and perceived behavioural control on refugees’ entrepreneurial agency (entrepreneurial intentions) of refugees in low-income settings and the underlying mediating effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and alertness. Using data collected from a sample of 212 refugees in Uganda, our findings supported the moderated mediation model, involving a double mediation through entrepreneurial self-efficacy and alertness. We also found moderation effects of perceived behavioural control, suggesting that psychological capital is more likely to boost personal entrepreneurial agency when a refugee has a strong perceived behavioural control.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems, agency and regional development: Emergence and new path creation in the Cardiff city region

This paper addresses the process of entrepreneurial ecosystem emergence in regions and the mechanisms through which new industrial paths are created. It focuses on the context of a relatively weak economic region and develops a mode of analysis that considers the role of human agency within the emergence of entrepreneurial ecosystems. This analysis addresses the case study of the Cardiff city region in the United Kingdom. It indicates that the revitalisation of lagging regions through an entrepreneurial ecosystem approach is likely to be contingent upon a number of important components: (1) access to potential entrepreneurial agency, (2) the engagement of ‘enlightened’ local political agency and (3) the formation of a collective agency across entrepreneurial and political agents as well as other relevant stakeholders. The emergence of collective agency in the city region is found to have led to new policies, networks and entrepreneurial support within the high-tech industry, coupled with the development of new industrial paths and improved economic conditions. The paper argues that adopting an agency-based approach to analysing entrepreneurial emergence highlights the importance of key human actors in such emergence. It is concluded that lagging regions can trigger a process of development through new path creation stemming from the emergence of an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

COVID-19 and Rapid Response in Healthcare: Enacting Bricolage to Overcome Resource Constraints

In resource-poor emerging economies, the COVID-19 pandemic has inspired governments and various organisations to develop innovative solutions to help combat the pandemic. We conducted a qualitative evidence synthesis of 19 cases drawn from a sample of emerging countries to understand how varied actors rapidly forged healthcare solutions. We uncover the entrepreneurial agency of bricolage as an intrinsic, unconscious and cooperative process of entrepreneurial action in crisis management. Our study contributes to the theory of bricolage as we propose the concept of ‘crisis-driven bricolage’ in healthcare. By highlighting the capacity of multiple actors to collaborate and create effective healthcare solutions within a very short timeframe, our study holds strong practical implications for regional responses. It encourages bricolage as a viable solution when resources are tight and responses need to be rapid. Our study proposes greater consideration of bricolage as a way to provide low-cost and efficacious solutions, and as a complement to society’s innovation repertoire.

Editor's note

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Environmental change, strategic entrepreneurial action, and success: Introduction to a special issue on an important, neglected topic

AbstractResearch SummaryThe two premises that underpin this SEJ Special Issue on Environmental Change, Strategic Entrepreneurial Action, and Success are that all environmental changes provide positive potentials for some ventures, and that this has been under‐emphasized in past theory and research. After stating these premises and illustrating how present research treats the environment, we proceed to explain how the five articles selected for the special issue advance our thinking in this domain. We then broaden our discussion to how future entrepreneurship research can make further progress by studying interaction among environmental changes as well as their links to entrepreneurial agents, contexts (sectoral, spatial, organizational, etc.) and the entrepreneurial artifact (emerging venture). Throughout, the focus is on the enabling rather than constraining role of environmental changes.Managerial SummaryThe COVID‐19 pandemic, the digital revolution, and the sustainability transition forced by climate change demonstrate significant business impact of environmental changes, including potentials for new business initiatives. This editorial and the five vanguard articles included in this SEJ Special Issue on Environmental Change, Strategic Entrepreneurial Action, and Success outline how future research can develop better theory and evidence on this important topic. The articles address matters ranging from how COVID‐19 facilitated some technology firms' recruiting and reignited media firms' dormant initiatives to how environmental degradations sparked entrepreneurial ecosystem development in Kenya, how the level of environmental dynamism at a venture's birth impact its current ability to benefit from change, and the consequences of passing on potentials provided by environmental change.

Social relations in megaproject planning: exploring the roles of local government in the development of Indonesia’s special economic zones

As a manifestation of current approaches to global planning, megaproject planning is an openended process that unfolds through the contestation, negotiation and contradiction of social (power) relations. However, recent studies still perceive local government authorities as elusive actors in shaping megaproject planning and development processes. This article uses two case studies to investigate the multifaceted roles that local government played in dealing with actors’ overlapping interests in two Indonesian special economic zone (SEZ) megaprojects. The qualitative content analysis of the two cases relies on interviews, archival research and field observation conducted between 2019 and 2021. This article shows that rather than acting as entrepreneurial agencies that serve state or private actors, local government authorities can articulate and negotiate community interests in developing megaprojects. Moreover, the ‘social relation’ framework explains the conditions under which local government units can engage in political negotiations and demand equitable planning processes.

Jockeying for position: university students’ employability constructions

ABSTRACT As governments and international organisations have pressured universities to demonstrate the value and effectiveness of tertiary education, universities have started to highlight graduate employability as a key driver and measure of university outcomes. This paper contributes to the underutilised processual employability studies by applying the framework of critical discursive psychology to analyse university students’ employability construction. Following this framework, employability is something students do rather than something they have. The empirical study was based on interviews of Finnish students of social science. Analysis of the interviews demonstrated notable variation in the ways in which university students talk about their employability. While some students constructed their employability by positioning themselves as traditional bureaucrats, others constructed their employability by positioning themselves as entrepreneurial agents. Nevertheless, the central point is that some students related ambiguously to both positions and tried to manage the ideological dilemma between stability and security of the bureaucrat position, and variability and risk of the entrepreneurial position. The study calls for better understanding of ways in which students and graduates deal with the dilemmatic nature and requirements of the labour market.