Entrepreneurship Literature Research Articles

Measure Twice, Cut Once: Unit Profitability, Scalability, and the Exceptional Growth of New Firms

By studying three promising venture pairs with different business models in different nascent markets, we explore how some new firms grow into mature firms and some promising peers do not. The successful firms first use a learning process that begins with (1) focused attention on unit profitability (not growth), then broad (not narrow) learning, and finally active delay (not acceleration) of growth. They then use a capability-building process that (2) shifts to focused attention on unit-profitable growth, then makes long-term investments in profit-oriented capabilities, and finally leverages these capabilities into new products. In contrast, peers with focused attention on growth ironically fail to achieve it. Broadly, we contribute a process theory of exceptional growth that fills the gap between the growth of new firms in the entrepreneurship literature and the growth of mature firms in the strategy and organization theory literatures. Further, we add the importance of learning content—not just learning processes—to the entrepreneurship literature on new firm growth and a rare, novel, and grounded account of the origin of capabilities to the strategy literature on the resource-based view and mature firm growth. Finally, we add to practice the significance of product–market–profit fit and a precise definition of premature scaling. Funding: This work was supported by the Strategy Research Foundation [Grant SRF-2018-DP-9167].

Borrower discouragement: Explaining under-represented racial minority entrepreneur’s relationship with debt financing

This study examines the factors influencing borrower discouragement among underrepresented racial minority entrepreneurs (URMs) in the United States, focusing on their engagement with debt financing. Despite their significant economic contributions, URMs face systemic challenges in accessing financial resources essential for growth. The research explores how experiences in racialised environments lead to feelings of stereotype threat, which in turn result in borrower discouragement. An experiment involving 186 entrepreneurs revealed that stereotype threat fosters a prevention focus while diminishing a promotion focus. Interestingly, stereotype reactance can mitigate the impact of stereotype threat on prevention focus. These findings enhance our understanding of the micro-processes in debt acquisition for URMs, contributing to URM entrepreneurship literature and resource acquisition research. They also have practical implications, highlighting the need for strategies to counteract borrower discouragement and support URMs in their entrepreneurial endeavours.

Enacting Resilience in Small and Medium Enterprises Following the Sustainability Path: A Systematic Literature Review

ABSTRACTThis article investigates entrepreneurship literature insights into whether and how changing organizational strategies and processes toward more sustainable ones can allow small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to gain resilience. We deepen the relationship between reorienting SMEs' strategies and processes toward sustainability and gaining resilience by providing a framework and suggesting avenues for future research. Specifically, we cluster the content of 53 articles in five thematic areas using qualitative thematic analysis. These areas are “barriers, contextual factors, and government help,” “entrepreneurial orientation or attitude,” “capabilities and lean thinking,” “means and processes,” and “supply chains, synergies, and collaborations.” The findings suggest that reorienting businesses to more sustainable strategies and processes can also facilitate the shift toward more resilient business models and ecosystems. The article contributes to the literature on SMEs' resilience, binding such literature with the one on sustainable business and SMEs' sustainability, providing a theoretical framework useful for researchers, managers, and policymakers. The novelty of the work consists of emphasizing consciousness of this relationship and suggesting unexplored lines of research.

Is home where the heart is? Investigating the relationship between hometown and entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT The importance of home and hometown for entrepreneurs has significant implications for entrepreneurial identities, venture success, and broader contextual dynamics. Traditionally, the concept of home in entrepreneurship literature is viewed instrumentally, largely focusing on the unit of dwelling (i.e. premises/house/apartment), the implications of location choices, and their effects on performance. We employ a mobilities lens, broadening the concept of home to the city/town scale of ‘hometown’, offering a more holistic understanding of what it means for entrepreneurs from various origins and returns. Our qualitative case study in Norwich, UK, provides nuanced theoretical advancements into understanding home beyond materiality and mere location, highlighting how this is inextricably linked to dynamic renewal within peripheral urban places and different migration pathways (i.e. local, migrant, returnee). Our contributions are threefold: 1) we reveal that varying degrees of localness complicate the local versus non-local binary, impacting entrepreneurial dynamics; 2) our relational model of hometown entrepreneurship challenges the rigid leave-learn-return narrative, demonstrating return migration as a complex detach-experience-revalue socio-cultural reconnection which feeds into the local entrepreneurial ecosystem; 3) exploring the interactions of diverse actors in peripheral urban hometowns provides insights into regional development moving us beyond instrumental views in existing literature.

Insights for sustainable business practices: Comparative impact of independent and corporate venture capital funding on financial and environmental performance

This study aims to analyze the effects of venture capital (VC) financing schemes on the financial and environmental performance of their VC-backed companies. This research leverages a dataset including 325 U.S. firms between 2002 and 2022 and examines two issues of interest: independent venture capital (IVC) and corporate venture capital (CVC) funding. The results show that IVC-backed companies have significantly better environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings and emit fewer greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions when compared to companies backed by CVC. This highlights that the function of IVC is to improve the environmental sustainability of businesses. Together this helps provide a valuable perspective about which VC models (CVC, IVC) does have an impact on how businesses pursue sustainability practices alongside financial performance. This paper contributes to the sustainable entrepreneurship literature by focusing on the importance of funding types with performing sustainable practices.

Entrepreneurial alertness, international performance, and the role of effectuation in SME internationalization

ABSTRACT By shedding light on the often-overlooked early stages of opportunity development initiated by entrepreneurial alertness and its performance outcomes in an international setting, this study examines the interplay between alertness and two decision-making logics, effectual flexibility and causal prediction, in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalization. Leveraging structural equation modeling on a data set of 680 manufacturing SMEs across five countries, this study uncovers distinct effects: effectual flexibility moderates, while causal prediction mediates, the positive relationship between alertness and the international performance of SMEs. The research makes noteworthy contributions to international entrepreneurship literature by linking alertness with performance in the international context and disentangling the nuanced pathways through which SMEs can achieve success in the global arena.

Spirituality in social entrepreneurship: an ethical approach to sustainability

Purpose This study aims to present a sustainability framework that advances the conceptual understanding of the role of spirituality in the context of social entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach Through a systematic literature review of spirituality at both the individual and organisational levels, the triple bottom line framework of sustainability, and business ethics, this study offers a sustainability framework for social entrepreneurship. It explains how spirituality at these levels influences various dimensions of social entrepreneurship and helps achieve social, economic, environmental and ethical outcomes. Findings The study proposed that individuals with spiritual practices are more likely to engage in entrepreneurial, social, ethical and environmental orientations, while organisations with spiritual practices are more likely to engage in employee, market and ethical orientations. Spiritual capability can serve as a strategic advantage and contribute to the sustainable development of social enterprises. Originality/value This study makes three significant contributions. First, it presents an emergent framework for integrating spirituality (at both individual and organisational levels) and sustainability within the social entrepreneurship literature, offering implications for both social entrepreneurs and social enterprises. Second, this study proposes incorporating ethics as the fourth dimension of sustainability and argues that spirituality can act as a catalyst for achieving sustainability in social entrepreneurship. Third, this study identifies seven critical dimensions of social entrepreneurship: spiritual capabilities, entrepreneurial orientation, social orientation, environmental orientation, market orientation, ethical orientation and employee orientation, all of which contribute to ethical and sustainable development.

Social media and entrepreneurial competence: the impact of Linkedin on boosting entrepreneurial engagement of Gen-Z

Research Objective: This study examines the impact of LinkedIn usage on entrepreneurial competence and engagement of Gen-Z aged between 18-27. Motivation: This study is motivated by the increased dependence young entrepreneurs have on social media as a channel for professional development and networking. The study builds on works of Banerji & Reimer, (2019) on start-up founders and their LinkedIn connections, Franc, Stampfl, & Geyer, (2024) worked-related learning on LinkedIn, and Vitelar (2019) on Gen-Z and the use of social media. Idea: This research tests the direct effect of the usage of LinkedIn on Gen-Z individuals' entrepreneurial competence and engagement. It assumes that high engagement in learning and networking activities on LinkedIn will be followed by an equivalent improvement in their entrepreneurial outcomes. In this research, the independent variables are the patterns of usage on LinkedIn, while the dependent variables are entrepreneurial competence and engagement. Data: The quantitative research methodology was adopted, and the survey was conducted through Google Forms among 350 Gen-Z users on the professional networking site LinkedIn. Tools: Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and multiple regression analyses were used for the collected data. Findings: The results indicated that the different usage patterns—such as the frequency of login and engagement on LinkedIn Learning—had a significantly positive correlation with both entrepreneurial competence and engagement. Regression analysis pointed out entrepreneurial competence as one of the chief predictors for entrepreneurial engagement. Therefore, it is concluded that LinkedIn is quite instrumental in enhancing the entrepreneurial capacity of Gen-Z; it therefore gives relevant insights to entrepreneurs and the developers of this particular platform. Contribution: The paper thereby provides empirical evidence on the specific impact of LinkedIn on Gen-Z entrepreneurs, which enriches the literature of social media and entrepreneurship. Keywords: LinkedIn, Gen-Z, Entrepreneurial Competence, Social Media, Professional Networking.

The social entrepreneurship value cycle: generation, appropriation, devolution and transformation of sustainable value

Purpose Social entrepreneurship literature emphasizes the creation of social value for society from three main concepts – generation, appropriation and devolution - that form a value cycle. This paper aims to analyse how social enterprises operationalize this cycle to create positive social impact. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a multi-case approach, conducting semi-structured interviews with founders of Brazilian social enterprises. Findings This study empirically supports the existence of the value cycle and identifies an additional stage –value transformation – emerging from the data. While the initial three stages occur within social enterprises, value transformation unfolds within served communities. This stage not only facilitates the conversion of value types (e.g. social to economic or environmental) but also stimulates the formation of new social enterprises. Consequently, this paper proposes a comprehensive social entrepreneurship value cycle encompassing generation, appropriation, devolution and transformation of value. Originality/value This paper contributes to clarifying concepts and mitigating theoretical ambiguities surrounding social value creation in the context of social entrepreneurship. It provides a framework for understanding the underlying principles of each stage in the value cycle, thereby empowering scholars and practitioners to enhance the innovative mission of social enterprises and drive social change within underserved communities.

The collectivist and statist vocational training innovative institutions and self-employment earnings gaps

The entrepreneurship literature has long recognized the importance of education in fostering successful self-employment, yet a significant gap exists in our understanding of how the political economy of vocational education systems influences the financial success of self-employed graduates. We focus on vocational education systems that are collectivist—namely, collective decision making and stakeholder collaboration to align training with labor market needs and to promote social cohesion—and statist—a centrally controlled vocational education system directed by the state, aiming to align training with national development goals and to prioritize economic needs. Our study analyzed 6924 participants who received vocational education from collectivist systems (Czech Republic and Denmark) and statist systems (Finland and Norway). The findings show a significant earnings gap between employed and self-employed receiving vocational education in statist systems, and a non-significant difference in earnings between employed and self-employed in collectivist systems. The findings have implications for how the type of vocational training affects the earnings gaps among the employed and self-employed.

Accelerating decarbonized economic growth through net-zero entrepreneurship: Low-carbon economic development perspective

Net-zero entrepreneurship is a novel concept introduced in the context of carbon neutrality, and exploring whether it can catalyze decarbonized economic growth is a worthy pursuit. This study constructs a comprehensive, low-carbon endogenous economic growth model to scrutinize the intricate nexus between net-zero entrepreneurship and decarbonized economic growth. Empirical validation employs a series of multiple regression models to rigorously test the hypotheses derived from the theoretical framework using an extensive dataset spanning Chinese provinces. The results reveal a nuanced landscape. (i) Net-zero entrepreneurship plays a remarkable role in promoting decarbonization growth, with considerable regional heterogeneity. (ii) Green technology progress exhibits a notable mediating effect. (iii) Environmental regulation and industrial structure optimization have positive moderating effects. (iv) The results passed alternative dependent variable and one-phase lag regression robustness tests. In a distinct contribution to entrepreneurship literature, this study augments the discourse on strategies to steer low-carbon transitions. The research findings indicate that net-zero entrepreneurship can accelerate the global decarbonization process, and green technology progress is a significant driving mechanism in this process. Additionally, it is essential to strengthen environmental agencies’ regulatory oversight and optimize industrial structures to pave the way for transformative sustainable growth. In the future, more entrepreneurs should be encouraged to engage in green technology and business model innovation to contribute to global decarbonization efforts.

From Bonds to Bridges: Exploring Social Capital's Role on Migrant Entrepreneurs' Identity Construction

This paper contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by illustrating the significance of social capital in shaping the identity of migrant entrepreneurs throughout various stages of the entrepreneurial process. The novelty of this research lies in highlighting the adaptability of the social capital role in constructing the migrant entrepreneurs’ identities, enabling them to overcome challenges encountered in emerging contexts. By employing a thematic-content analysis method strengthened by narratives, we gain a comprehensive understanding of how migrant entrepreneurs interpret and enact their social capital in constructing their entrepreneurial identities. Our results reveal that EI construction is a dynamic process that ME navigate through the strategic use of SC. This involves the cultivation of both bonding and bridging social networks that provide crucial resources, emotional support, and access to diverse opportunities. Our results highlight that ME are engaged in a complex process of identity negotiation, where they must balance the preservation of their origin's cultural identity with the necessity to adapt to the entrepreneurial identity valued in the host country. This process involves a sophisticated interplay of adopting, adapting, and sometimes resisting the norms and expectations that define the entrepreneurial landscape they are operating within.

A listening model of venture growth: entrepreneurs' listening abilities and ventures' listening capabilities

While we understand the importance of entrepreneurs listening to stakeholders, we lack a sufficient theory-driven understanding of why some entrepreneurs and their ventures can listen to their stakeholders more effectively than others. We offer a listening model of venture growth based on listening theories and the literatures on new ventures and capability development. Listening is initially facilitated by entrepreneurs' cognitive and behavioral processes, but continued venture growth creates a paradox for entrepreneurs. Listening to stakeholders may also deplete entrepreneurs' personal resources, diminishing their listening capacity. This paradox can be overcome by generating their ventures' listening capability—behavioral routines and attention structures for listening—enabling them to acquire and interpret quality information from stakeholders more effectively to build or adapt the capabilities necessary for venture growth. The ventures' listening capability acts as a dynamic capability, which itself can be dynamic. This listening model of venture growth contributes to the entrepreneurship literature on stakeholders, entrepreneurs' abilities, and ventures' capabilities and dynamic capabilities. Executive summaryEntrepreneurs need to acquire resources from stakeholders to create and grow their ventures. Therefore, stakeholder enrollment is a critical task for entrepreneurs. The predominant research on stakeholder enrollment has been on entrepreneurs' overt behaviors to secure the support of stakeholders—a unidirectional communication pattern in which entrepreneurs communicate to audiences and stakeholders listen to and decide whether to commit their resources to ventures. However, entrepreneurs need to communicate and listen to their stakeholders. Although scholars recognize the importance of entrepreneurs listening to stakeholders, we lack sufficient understanding of why some entrepreneurs and their ventures can listen to their stakeholders more effectively than others and thus acquire and use stakeholder support critical for venture growth. Therefore, we ask, Why are some entrepreneurial actors more effective at listening to stakeholders than others?To address this question, we integrate theories of listening and the literatures on new ventures and the creation of organizational capabilities to develop a listening model of venture growth. This model explains the importance and the limitations of entrepreneurs' listening ability in acquiring and interpreting stakeholder information for venture growth. Venture members can learn from and formalize entrepreneurs' listening ability to build ventures' listening capability, which overcomes the entrepreneurs' listening limitations. Ventures' listening capability includes acquiring and interpreting stakeholder information to inform and/or change additional capabilities critical for venture growth.Specifically, the model begins with communication from stakeholders to an entrepreneur and their venture. The entrepreneur engages cognitively in listening to the stakeholders' communication and acquiring and interpreting this stakeholder information. The entrepreneur also listens behaviorally, providing back-channeling that encourages the stakeholders to share more high-quality information. The entrepreneur's listening ability can enhance and change the venture's capabilities. However, the entrepreneur's ability to notice and interpret stakeholder information is limited. Other venture members can learn the entrepreneur's cognitive and behavioral listening to represent an organizational-level listening capability. This listening capability is reflected in the venture's routines and attention structures.The venture's listening capability can build and adapt the venture's nonlistening capabilities. The venture's capabilities drive venture growth. Because the listening capability generates and enables the interpretation of more high-quality stakeholder information, the venture can use this information to change its capabilities to obtain or maintain a tight fit with a changing environment. In doing so, the venture's listening capability represents a dynamic capability—listening can change the venture's capabilities.As the venture grows, the strain on the entrepreneur's listening ability further constrains the entrepreneur as a source of information for building and adapting the venture's capabilities. Venture growth also stretches the venture's listening capability, leading to changes in this listening capability and thus building and adapting the venture's nonlistening capabilities for subsequent venture growth. Venture growth can also lead to an increase in stakeholders and, thus, more stakeholder information to be noticed and interpreted by the venture's listening capability and to adapt the venture's nonlistening capabilities if necessary.With this work, we make three primary contributions to the entrepreneurship literature: We provide theoretical insights into (1) the workings of entrepreneurs' listening ability for promoting venture growth; (2) entrepreneurs' learning from their listening ability and formalizing this ability into organizational capabilities, which is critical for information to enact nonlistening capabilities for venture growth; and (3) a venture's listening capability as a dynamic capability.

The role of non-economic goals in academic spin-offs

AbstractActing as a crucial link between academia and the business world, Academic Spin-Offs (ASOs) play a key role in translating innovative technologies from academic discoveries into commercial applications. Despite their potential for technological advancements, ASOs often struggle with challenges in financial performance and growth. Traditional explanations attribute these challenges to a lack of commercial resources and competencies. However, since ASOs often demonstrate prolonged survival, such explanations may not fully explain the paradox in ASOs’ outcomes. This paper offers a novel perspective, highlighting how non-economic goals, deeply ingrained in the academic context in which ASOs originate, shape their behavior and outcomes. These goals, related to the dimensions of control, identity, and emotions, go beyond financial gains, reflecting concerns that are specific to the academic environment. Integrating the organizational goals literature with insights from academic entrepreneurship research, we present a conceptual model describing the origins and nature of these goals and explain how they can help shedding light on some paradoxes in ASOs’ development, growth, and performance events. Our model bears significant implications for the academic entrepreneurship literature and related public policy.

Human Resource Management Practices and Firm Innovation: An Empirical Study in Sri Lankan SMEs

In the modern business world, organisations are confronting a severe competitive and unceasingly changing condition. In this context, innovation has gained significant popularity in management and entrepreneurship literature as vital in reaping competitive advantage. Thus, organisational practitioners are in the quest to better encourage and organise innovation within their firms to warrant sustainable competitive advantage. However, how to promote innovation within organisations remains obscure and paradoxical. The past literature shows that human resource management practices are the antecedents of firm innovation. Therefore, studies are investigating the role of human resource management in facilitating firm innovation. Nevertheless, empirical evidence remains inconsistent, and theory is fragmented. Notably, the link between human resource management and innovation in Sri Lanka echoes several unresolved aspects. Since scant empirical research has addressed those relationships in developing country contexts, this study explicitly investigates the relationship between human resource management practices and firm innovation in Sri Lankan SMEs. Data were marshalled through a self-reported questionnaire with 214 Sri Lankan SMEs. As a caveat, the reliability and validity of the variables were confirmed. The hypotheses were tested with statistical software, PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling). The study revealed that recruitment and selection, training and development, and performance appraisal significantly impact firm innovation. However, compensation and reward systems positively impact product innovation, not process innovation, and this study found a negative impact of compensation and reward systems on administrative innovation. The study contributed to the extant human resource management and innovation literature in many ways discussed at the end of the paper. On an equal footing, practical implications for HR managers, practitioners and employees were lucidly discussed. The present becomes a springboard for future scholarly works.

Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Europe: Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis

Immigrant entrepreneurs and their activities have received constantly increasing attention from academics and policymakers. While immigrant entrepreneurship is not new as an activity, with the globalization and development of technology, this field is at a different level, becoming one of the most popular avenues in entrepreneurship literature and playing a significant role in the economy, especially in a context like Europe. However, among emerging research attention, this field is becoming more diverse, complex, and confusing. Thus, literature reviews in this field are becoming critical to the overview of the field.Our study aims to provide an overview of academic research on Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Europe. An extensive bibliometric analysis was conducted to complete this, including bibliometric performance and graphic mapping of academic contribution in this field. A comprehensive performance analysis was carried out to pinpoint key authors, institutions, journals, and countries that are leading in shaping the landscape of research and development in this field. Furthermore, we use VOS viewer and R Biblioshiny software to graphically map the field. We do this by applying author co-citation and co-word analysis. Our research contributes to immigrant entrepreneurship literature by providing a better understanding of the phenomena in Europe and, based on the outcomes, directions for future research in the field.

Entrepreneurs’ network bricolage: Reconfiguring social ties for resource creation

The entrepreneurship literature demonstrates the positive impact of network bricolage on resource-seeking. We extend this work by examining why and how entrepreneurs reconfigure ties within the social architecture of their networks. Building on the network bricolage literature and an in-depth analysis of 55 dyadic relationships embedded in four networks, we provide evidence of network bricolage behavior indicating that entrepreneur bricoleurs are, in fact, resource-creators as well as resource-seekers. Our data cover a series of preliminary and in-depth interviews, member checks, site visits, direct observations, and archival sources. We find support for our theoretical arguments that more resources and re-deployment opportunities for developing new products, new markets, and operation efficiencies emerge during bricolage processes when bricoleurs use their networks in ways that differ from their originally intended utility. While the strength of network ties is important in its own right, our findings further suggest that heterogeneity of relationship type is a key factor in pursuing network bricolage. A mix of relationship roles provides opportunities to repurpose network resources to achieve new valued outcomes.

“Oh no! all my money is gone”: the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy.Design/methodology/approachThe research used the Gioia methodology, involving the implementation of a qualitative inquiry with an inductive approach. Semi-structured interviews served as the primary method for data collection. The study had a sample comprising 20 women entrepreneurs located in Johannesburg, South Africa.FindingsNarratives on the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy included fraudsters, misunderstanding and dishonesty among stokvel partners, year-end robbery and theft, stokvels being dominated by men, operating outside of formal regulatory frameworks, exclusion and limited funding.Research limitations/implicationsSample size challenges feature as a notable limitation, including the research being conducted in only one province of South Africa. Caution should be exercised when seeking to generalize the findings in other contexts.Originality/valueWhile there is an array of literature on the impact of stokvels on entrepreneurship, there are deficiencies in studies that have looked at the detrimental consequences of stokvels on women entrepreneurs. As a result, the goal of this research is to add to the present corpus of African entrepreneurship literature, specifically in the context of South Africa.

Navigating gendered spaces: a feminist phenomenological exploration of women entrepreneurs lived experiences within government support agencies

PurposeThis article explores women entrepreneurs' lived experiences in their interactions with government enterprise support agencies. It investigates the relationship between gendering and Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), as a normative orientation adopted at the institutional level and justified by an economic rationale. It also explores how women entrepreneurs articulate their experiences through embodied metaphors and image schemas, shedding light on how they navigate the institutional entrepreneurial space.Design/methodology/approachThis study is framed within the concept of Phenomenological Orientation as conceptualised in feminist phenomenology. It applies Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a qualitative methodology focused on interpreting accounts of first-person lived experiences of a phenomenon. It combines IPA with Conceptual Metaphor Theory to understand women's articulation of their embodied relationship within the entrepreneurial space.FindingsFindings reveal that the entrepreneurial orientation functions as a gendering process within entrepreneurial institutions, reinforcing masculine hegemonic ideals and marginalising women entrepreneurs. Women's phenomenological orientations often diverge from the normative entrepreneurial orientation, highlighting the need for a more inclusive framework in institutional entrepreneurial spaces.Research limitations/implicationsThis article contributes to women's entrepreneurship literature by underlining the temporal dimension of entrepreneurship and the tension that underpins their interactions with government support bodies. It calls for inclusive policies and procedures to match the heterogeneity of orientations. While highlighting its limitations, it also suggests future research directions to deepen the understanding of entrepreneurship and inform more suitable support structures for all entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by shedding light on the nuanced interplay between gendering, entrepreneurial orientation, and women entrepreneurs' lived experiences. It extends previous research by framing “orientation” within a temporality framework, offering a novel perspective on the gendering of entrepreneurial spaces.

Entrepreneurial alertness: A mechanism for innovation and growth in an emerging economy

AbstractIn this study, we draw from the conservation of resources theory to develop and test a model on the processes through which resiliency influences two entrepreneurial strategies, product differentiation and international diversification. Results from 226 entrepreneurs in Pakistan demonstrate that psychological resiliency predicts product diversification and international diversification through entrepreneurial alertness. Also, we find that institutional voids moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness, product diversification, and international diversification. Our theorizing advances entrepreneurial alertness as a lynchpin variable for operationalizing founders’ characteristics to affect innovation and expansion efforts. Furthermore, by demonstrating the complementary effect of institutional voids on the entrepreneurial alertness–product differentiation and entrepreneurial alertness–international diversification relationships, we draw the attention of entrepreneurs to the brighter side of institutional voids. This is an important addition to international entrepreneurship literature and a critical contextual contribution to entrepreneurial alertness theory development because limited attention is devoted to examining how resiliency promotes entrepreneurial alertness for facilitating product differentiation and international diversification strategies in the Asia Pacific region.