Entrepreneurial Pathways Research Articles

Entrepreneurial Pathways to Sustainability: A Theoretical Paper on Green Human Resource Management, Green Supply Chain Management, and Entrepreneurial Orientation

Entrepreneurial Pathways to Sustainability: A Theoretical Paper on Green Human Resource Management, Green Supply Chain Management, and Entrepreneurial Orientation

Deciphering Entrepreneurial Pathways: Understanding Entrepreneurship Education, Self-Efficacy, and Intentions

This conceptual study explores the critical relationships among entrepreneurship education (EE), entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), and entrepreneurial intentions (EI). It examines how advancements in entrepreneurship education, influenced by global trends and technological advancements, enhance ESE and shape entrepreneurial intentions. The analysis is supported by several theoretical frameworks, including the Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Theory, providing a comprehensive understanding of how educational practices influence entrepreneurial outcomes.

Gender, entrepreneurship and social policy in tourism: tying the knot

This article, and the special issue, seek to unpack the gendered nature of entrepreneurial pathways, specifically in relation to the role of social policies. We achieve this aim by first conceptualising gender, entrepreneurship, and social policy, to highlight the need to generate a stronger research agenda on the role of social policy within gender and tourism entrepreneurship research. We next outline an overarching framework for delineating the intersection of gender, entrepreneurship, and social policy, based on a critical review of existing studies, as well as by situating the papers in this special issue. We present this discussion through three thematic framings: (1) gender and entrepreneurship, (2) gender and social policy and (3) entrepreneurship and social policy. In conclusion, we discuss the implications for social policy and practice, and in doing so call for a research agenda that situates social policy more centrally within considerations of gender and tourism entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurial Pathways for Emerging Creatives

Our paper advances the understanding of entrepreneurship theory and practice from the perspective of an entrepreneurial training intervention for emerging creatives. Previous studies identify a need to provide entrepreneurial training to assist emerging creatives while highlighting the limited support available in higher education curricula which influences their career development. Based on a case study of a creative innovator program which facilitated emerging creatives in their new venture creation, we identify best practices in achieving a balance between generic to personalized entrepreneurship training and enabling access to first-hand advice from industry experts through mentorship and networking. The program enabled emerging creatives to build confidence, legitimized their new venture creation and consequently helped them to develop their professional identities.

Entrepreneurial Pathways to Peacemaking

Abstract Violent conflict is a global phenomenon with devastating costs to individuals and their communities. Government experts and policymakers have responded with efforts to reduce violence and make peace. Such efforts are often implemented from the top-down, however, and are consequently limited in their peacemaking capacities. Top-down peacemaking is limited because it is typically done by community outsiders who simply lack the knowledge and capabilities to systematically plan and make peace in diverse societies throughout the world. We discuss a bottom-up alternative to peacemaking grounded in entrepreneurship. We argue that entrepreneurs make peace by (a) offering individuals a peaceful means to acquire the things they desire, (b) establishing commercial links across (social and geographic) distances, and, in so doing, (c) helping to cultivate habits of peacefulness.

Entrepreneurship Out of Shame: Entrepreneurial Pathways at the Intersection of Necessity, Emancipation, and Social Change

Shame has been identified as a debilitating emotion that impedes entrepreneurial action. Yet, there are many examples of people who experience shame and go on to create entrepreneurial ventures. How then is entrepreneurship possible in the face of such shame? To address this question, we develop a theoretical process model that highlights the connection between individual and collective experiences of shame and elaborates when and how such experiences may lead to entrepreneurship. We suggest that third-person experiences of shame can transform first-person experiences and trigger identification with a community of similarly stigmatized others. We argue that the distinct narratives provided by these communities can reduce or enhance entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and therefore lead to different entrepreneurial pathways: some individuals may create ventures out of necessity, while others will create ventures that act as shame-free havens for themselves and others, and become a source of emancipation and social change. By outlining distinct entrepreneurial pathways out of shame, we extend current research at the intersection of entrepreneurship, necessity, emancipation, and social change.

Entrepreneurial Pathways to Peacemaking

Entrepreneurial Pathways to Peacemaking

Gender differences in the determinants of mature entrepreneurship? The case of Germany.

Mature female entrepreneurs represent a non-traditional model of self-employed workers in both ways: in terms of gender and age. The transition into self-employment for women aged 45 years and older represents a topic of aging research that still tends to be overlooked. Previous studies found ambivalent results for the issue regarding motives and entrepreneurial pathways between former employmen or unemployment-and starting one's own business and the ways in which these entrepreneurial activities are shaped by social differences (such as gender) and biographically accumulated resources and restrictions. This article studies biographical-related factors and motivations that determine what is variously referred to as mature entrepreneurship for men and women aged 45 and above. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), the descriptive analysis explains the main gender differences among people within the target age group who have taken the step into self-employment. The multivariate analysis interrogates the main determinants that govern any increase in the probability of becoming self-employed after the age of 45 and seeks to identify the main differences between women and men in relation to such determinants. The results show substantial gender-based occupational segregation in entrepreneurship patterns in this age group, with men working longer hours on average than women and enjoying higher average earnings. However, the multivariate analysis shows that the main drivers for mature entrepreneurship are similar for both men and women and that necessity represents an important factor for everyone for starting a business.

Job satisfaction dynamics: how do they impact employment mode choice for people with a disability?

BackgroundTo enhance economic participation for people with a disability in the labor market, a better understanding of how job satisfaction influences employment mode decisions is needed. MethodsThis study uses data collected from 8,345 People with Disability(PWD) workers from waves 3 to 19 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to investigate the relationship between six domains of job satisfaction and employment mode (employee, solo self-employed, and employer) and covariates related to personal, health, socio-economic and employment-related attributes. ResultsAnalysis of 25,169 individual-level observations show important differences in the level of job satisfaction across the different employment modes and for different covariates. PWD entrepreneurs reported higher levels of satisfaction with their work, flexibility, and overall satisfaction, whereas employees report higher levels of contentment with salary, job security, and work hours. The findings also highlight interesting differences due to personal, health, socio-economic and employment related attributes. ConclusionsCollectively, these insights can guide policymakers to enhance entrepreneurial pathways for people with a disability.

Lessons Learned from Mena’s Biggest Exit the Case of Talabat and Formation of Entrepreneurial Model to Spot the Barrier to Growth and out of Valley of Death

Successful entrepreneurial start-ups follow somewhat similar pathways towards an entrepreneurial/corporate development and eventually an exit, where investors as well as founders are handsomely rewarded for their contribution by investors who purchase the company or float it in an Initial Public Offering at the financial markets. In this paper, we will explore and combine three different pathways for entrepreneurial companies towards corporation growth: 12 steps in value creation and corporate development, 6 steps in financing and 4 stages in knowledge creation. An attempt is made to combine and simplify the existing models with the purpose of identifying entrepreneurial barriers to growth and suggesting solutions. Furthermore, these models are tested and validated by so called “deep” qualitative interviews of 6 Kuwaiti entrepreneurs who are operating their own startups in Kuwait. The result is a Kuwaiti model for entrepreneurial pathways, pinpointing barriers to growth and ways out of the “Valley of Death” towards rapid corporate growth and entrepreneurial succession.

Innovation against gender inequalities in agri-food industry

In recent years, industrialization and globalization have prompted small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to implement a significant technological and managerial innovation process. In Italy, it leads to new entrepreneurial pathways, such as innovative start-ups. The new solutions' implementation becomes even more crucial for a company's sustainability during crises since it improves the organization's flexibility and encourages the development of new tools and techniques. Previous research recognized the intangible assets' relevance in the innovation's creation process, mainly referring to Intellectual Capital (IC) and its components. In particular, Relational Capital (RC) fosters reactive firms' resilience, whereas Structural Capital (SC) helps SMEs respond to challenges proactively. Focusing on the agri-food sector, it has recently reached considerable results in terms of innovation, but it still appears insufficient to stimulate female entrepreneurship. Recent data confirm a remarkable gender gap: for 107 innovative agri-food start-ups in Italy, only 14 are led by women.
 Given all this, the paper aims to answer the following Research Questions (RQ).
 RQ1: How could RC and SC promote women innovative start-ups in agri-food?
 RQ2: How did these factors foster proactive and reactive firms' resilience during the pandemic?
 The work uses an exploratory, descriptive qualitative analysis performed during the pandemic emergency and applies the CAOS model, an interpretative model widely used in SMEs' studies since it allows a deep analysis of relational capital. Moreover, the CAOS model can be helpful to observe the SC's innovation.
 From a theoretical point of view, the research contributes to gender studies, identifying critical, innovative elements that similar women start-ups could implement. From a managerial perspective, findings could increase the firms' competitiveness in the current crisis period and reduce gender inequality.
 The application of a single case study could represent a research's limit. Thus, in the future, the authors aim at replicating the analysis considering a more comprehensive sample.

Entrepreneurial Pathways in Art

Art programs at the university level are often designed in a studio-based model where the curriculum objective is “high-levels of disciplinary expertise” (Hong, Essig, & Bridgstock, 2012). These programs graduate artists who, while highly proficient in creation and performance, must navigate a career market which is limited and highly competitive. This studio model is shifting. Many arts programs at the university level are now beginning to incorporate courses which help artists as they navigate the business of the art world, but these types of interventions still neglect opportunities to fully harness artistic skillsets of art students. 
 Arts Entrepreneurship is an emerging discipline in post-secondary education. This discipline aims address the needs of the artist while also recognizing the unique habits of mind the artist might bring into enterprise. The scope of this discipline extends beyond studio practices by considering and measuring the impact of an artists’ work. “The unique mission of arts programs and therefore a unique of arts entrepreneurship education and a defining aspect of its signature pedagogy is the practice of making art work in and for the real world” (Hong, Essig, & Bridgstock, 2012). In this discipline, artists extend the scope of their “work” beyond creation and towards practices which can future sustain an artistic venture. Arts Entrepreneurship therefore seeks to graduate artists who are able to consider and measure the scope of external impacts.
 The proposal here seeks to address the need of graduates in art education to pursue meaningful employment while also generating new potentials the artist’s role in wider society.

Advancing HEIs\u2019 third-mission through dynamic capabilities: the role of leadership and agreement on vision and goals

Higher education institutions (HEIs), once considered among society’s most resilient institutions, are facing challenges due to changes in governments’ and society’s expectations of them. Within the sector, there is a global call for new models and practices, requiring HEIs to develop the management capabilities once reserved for businesses. In this sense, they will pave entrepreneurial pathways and contribute to economic, technological and societal developments in their regions, thus adding a third mission (engaging socio-economic needs and market demands) to the traditional two (education and research) and transforming themselves into more entrepreneurial institutions. Dynamic capabilities enable transformation processes by allowing the dynamic sensing and seizing of opportunities and risks and the promotion of iterative change and reconfiguration. Scholars have called on HEIs to develop such dynamic capabilities in order to transform themselves and better respond to their sector’s challenges. Nevertheless, the understanding of how dynamic capabilities might advance HEIs’ third mission is still an underexplored concept, and in this paper, we propose mechanisms that promise to transform dynamic capabilities into third mission advancement. We have developed numerous theoretically grounded hypotheses and tested them with a partial least squares structural equation model into which we funnelled data collected from key decision-makers at German HEIs. The results suggest that dynamic capabilities do indeed influence third mission advancement; however, this relationship is mediated by the role of leadership and organisational agreement on vision and goals.

Entrepreneurial Pathways in Art: An Introductory Course for Undergraduate Students in Arts Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial Pathways in Art: An Introductory Course for Undergraduate Students in Arts Entrepreneurship

Chemotaxis and the Mechanism of Gradient Sensing in Entrepreneurial Actions

Entrepreneurship is about discovery and creation. These two theories shape the discussions on how entrepreneurial opportunities are formed and have important implications for a wide array of entrepreneurial actions in different contexts. Entrepreneurial actions are predicated on profit motives. Entrepreneurs’ purposeful movement and motion acting in response to opportunities to derive profits share similar behaviours with bacterial or cell chemotaxis. Chemotaxis is the cell’s response mechanism by sensing and swimming to chemicals such as nutrients. Their pathway selections are a result of remarkable sensing and signalling properties in the mechanism. Approaches in information theory and stochastic thermodynamics can explain how pathway selections are processed from environmental stimuli. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial pathways can be studied from these theoretical advances pivoting on information theory and thermodynamics. Opportunity-stimulated entrepreneurial action apparently operates by a set of sensing criteria from the profit-sensing mechanism. Any venture outcome is a function of the entrepreneurs’ sensitivity to opportunity and the robustness and intensity of subsequent entrepreneurial actions. Gradients and the state of nonequilibrium play a big part in the motion and entrepreneurial actions since it is the gradient-sensing in heterogeneities caused by the disequilibrium that result in opportunistic exploitation by the entrepreneurs.

The Driving Force for Venture Emergence on Thermodynamic and Kinetic Terms

The exploration of the driving force for venture creation and perpetuation on thermodynamic and kinetic terms provides a new way to understand entrepreneurial actions. Thermodynamic forces explain many natural phenomena from biological, chemical and physical mechanisms. This same thermodynamic mechanism can be used to express and to determine the directionality of entrepreneurial emergence and the pathway. The key difference between the physical and chemical reactions with that of entrepreneurial actions or human action is free-will, freedom of action including nonrationality of the agent. Free-will multiplies the stochastic probabilities of outcomes. The relationship between thermodynamic potentials and fluxes is not limited to questions of directionality but also affect the kinetics of reactions and interactions through the flux- force interplay. Entrepreneurs act in response to signals and stimuli. Entrepreneurial actions therefore emerge as a result of such stimulations. Opportunities or prospects of profit are such stimulations. Among the various constraints and enablers that shape the structure of entrepreneurial pathways, this paper is arguing that thermodynamics forces feature prominently and shape pathway architecture and emergent events. Thermodynamic forces play a central role in the synthetic pathway design by identifying the most promising candidate pathways while collapsing the unlikely ones bringing about generative emergence.

An international foresight reflection on entrepreneurial pathways for higher education institutions

Recent decades have seen many countries reforming their higher education systems, affecting the mission and governance of higher education institutions (HEIs). HEIs are now expected to produce entrepreneurial capital and to be catalysts for regional economic and societal development, taking on significant roles in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Hence, this article addresses entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders’ preoccupation with and interest in the role of HEIs in the future and assesses the opportunities and risks associated with HEIs pursuing entrepreneurial pathways. The authors propose five future scenarios, which they term ‘worldwide’, ‘transdisciplinary’, ‘adaptive learning’, ‘blended’ and ‘ecosystem’. These scenarios demonstrate that internationalization, digital transformation, collaborative networks and co-creation processes are key drivers of the advancement of higher education and provide guidance for HEIs and policymakers on the framing of decision-making agendas related to possible entrepreneurial pathways. Based on experts’ assessments, the authors consider the transdisciplinary and blended scenarios to be the most auspicious.

Exploring the University-based Entrepreneurial Activities in International Collaboration: Development Cases of HEIs

Abstract Objective: This paper attempts to shed some light on the entrepreneurial university elements through the examination of two HEIs – Karelia University of Applied Sciences and Poznan University of Technology. The case study explores the prerequisites for effective result-driven entrepreneurship education and business collaboration. Furthermore, the study examines what is the potential to build joint entrepreneurial pathways for HEI students and staff in an international context within the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project “Entrepreneurship and Communication in Multicultural Teams (ECMT+)”. Methodology: The nature of this exploratory case study is descriptive and data was collected using literature and reports review, participatory observation, reflection, and inference tools. The HEIs cases of practical implementation of the entrepreneurial university framework were selected with a purposeful sampling technique. The applied case study was practical orientated. Due to the small number of informants within the case and its qualitative nature, no generable conclusions can be drawn. Findings: Even as a subjective and descriptive case study, it offers an arena to explore one authentic example of a community of practice and entrepreneurial education platform promoting the systematic competence and skills development in international collaboration context. Entrepreneurial university with a true multicultural nature supports building inclusive education bridging universities with their regions and businesses. Value Added: The study reveals that the higher education has to be more inclusive and develop practices to meet the more diverse learners who may have disabilities and learning difficulties, diverse racial, cultural and linguistic backgrounds or meet with social and economic challenges. The value resulting from the research allow to state that the effective cooperation and building of entrepreneurial university practices at ECMT+ partner universities are beneficial both for students, teachers and the HEIs and they could be applied at other HEIs. Recommendations: The strategic development of higher education should be oriented to promote the entrepreneurial mindset reforming the curricula to provide academic graduates more practical skilled, multi-disciplinary and social competent to discover the entrepreneurial opportunities and boosting employability. Despite the qualitative nature of the study it may enrich the discussion on the entrepreneurial university practice.

Initiatives in surplus F and V Management: Inclusive and entrepreneurial pathways

Initiatives in surplus F and V Management: Inclusive and entrepreneurial pathways

Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis for a finer-grained understanding of entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship theory has largely been developed and tested using symmetrical correlational methods, effectively describing the sample-average respondent and subsuming individual differences. Such methods necessarily limit investigation of asymmetries that are evident in entrepreneurship, and provide only a single explanation that belies the multiple pathways to entrepreneurship observed in practice. This paper employs a case-based approach—fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)—to identify configurations of antecedent attributes of individuals in groups within samples, thereby revealing asymmetries and multiple entrepreneurial pathways that are otherwise hidden in the data. We explain the application of fsQCA to reveal these common issues in entrepreneurship; demonstrate how fsQCA complements correlational methods and offers finer-grained understanding of individual entrepreneurial behavior; and offer a comprehensive research agenda to build new entrepreneurship theory.