Entrepreneurship In Germany Research Articles

The relationship between entrepreneurial personality patterns linked to risk, innovation and gender across industrial sectors

This study examines the personality patterns of solo founders in both high-tech and non-high-tech sectors during the first seven years of their entrepreneurial journey to emphasize the patterns’ implications during policymaking, investment decisions, and self-assessments. IAB/ZEW startup panel microdata for the sector classification of 4470 solo entrepreneurs in Germany were analyzed to identify Big Five trait patterns influenced by risk propensities, innovation inclination, and gender. The entrepreneurial profiles indicate positive openness, emotional resilience, and sector-specific clusters. Conscientiousness suggests flexibility, and while variations in extraversion and agreeableness exist, negative neuroticism was predominantly found, except for gender-related differences and multidimensional service innovators. Big Five traits provide information about important foundational profile patterns to describe unique solo entrepreneur types influenced by risk, innovation, and gender. Originality and value: Risk propensity characterizes ‘Adaptive Services,’ ‘Dynamic Knowledge Innovators,’ and ‘Strategic Risk Navigators.’ Additionally, ‘Multidimensional Service Innovators’ and ‘Focused Tech Innovators’ signify innovation understanding. The Big Five profiles show openness and emotional stability across sectors, providing crucial insights for effective entrepreneurial support and investment strategies.

How Will “GenZ” Impact Entrepreneurship in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria?

How Will “GenZ” Impact Entrepreneurship in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria?

Networking as a business strategy among Brazilian female transnational entrepreneurs in Germany

Networking as a business strategy among Brazilian female transnational entrepreneurs in Germany

Barriers to immigrant entrepreneurship: A causal relationship analysis of the Asian immigrant entrepreneurs in Germany employing the DEMATEL approach

Research background: Entrepreneurship and migration are top priorities on many national and international agendas. As a result, entrepreneurship is one of the most popular strategies immigrants use to avoid unemployment in a host country. However, studies lack to discuss causal relationships among key barriers to immigrant entrepreneurs. Purpose of the article: This study attempts to fill the knowledge gap and investigate the causal relationship between the primary obstacles faced by Asian immigrant entrepreneurs in Germany. Methods: A predesigned questionnaire was used in face-to-face interviews with Asian business owners in Germany for the study, and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method of data analysis was used. Findings & value added: The findings reveal that lack of sufficient financial resources to establish a business, high market competition, and a lack of knowledge of the local language of the host country are the most significant barriers, among others, which may severely hamper Asian immigrant business performance and have a considerable impact on their entrepreneurial decision. At the same time, lack of professional knowledge & skills, problems with rules & regulations, and cultural differences are among the least essential obstacles for Asian immigrant entrepreneurs. The findings show that unfamiliarity with the local language, problems with rules and regulations, cultural differences, and lack of international business experience are associated with the causer category. However, lack of enough capital to establish a venture, lack of professional knowledge and skills, difficulty in access to financial resources, and high market competition relate to the receiver category. This research generates value for policymakers, particularly those participating in migration studies. One of the study's novelties is using the DEMATEL framework for decision-making on barriers to immigrant entrepreneurship in the European context.

Youth Entrepreneurship in Germany: Empirical Evidence on the How, the Why, the How Many, the Who and the When

Youth entrepreneurship is an increasingly prominent aspect of entrepreneurship support policies, but there is surprisingly little relevant research-based empirical evidence. This research gap is particularly noticeable when it comes to the personal and contextual factors that steer young people’s decision to start a business. Using statistically representative survey data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for Germany, we apply logit regressions to determine the influence of 10 independent variables on the likelihood of starting a business. We distinguish between 18–24-year-olds and 25–64-year-olds as well as between founders and non-founders. Self-efficacy in entrepreneurial skills, fear of failure and gender are the strongest influencing variables for the person-related factors and knowledge of other founders for the contextual factors. For younger people, the formal level of education and the perception of local entrepreneurial opportunities do not play a role in the decision to start a business, whereas they are very important for older people. Our results suggest that start-up promotion policies should explicitly address the empirically proven factors of youth entrepreneurship instead of a ‘one size fits all’ policy for new businesses, regardless of the age of the founders.

Key motivational factors behind Asian immigrant entrepreneurship: A causal relationship analysis employing the DEMATEL approach for Germany

Research background: Immigrant entrepreneurship remains a key issue for researchers, politicians, and policymakers. It has been widely discussed from different angles among various researchers in recent studies ? particularly in Europe. However, there is a lack of studies to present the motivation of the causal relationship between immigrant entrepreneurs. Purpose of the article: This study aims to fill the gap and analyze the causal relationship between the motivations of Asian immigrant entrepreneurs in Germany. Methods: The study was conducted through a face-to-face interview using a predesigned questionnaire from Asian business owners in Germany and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach was applied to analyze the data. Findings & value added: The results show that capital acquisition, employment, financial problems in the family, and existence opportunities in the market are the factors that have higher priority, and may highly impact the Asian immigrant entrepreneurial decision. On the other hand, relatives or social networks remain the lowest priority factor that encourages Asian immigrants towards self-employment. The study has also found that entrepreneurship in the family, the state support policy for immigrants, low level of education, unfamiliarity with the local language, and dissatisfaction with the previous job belong to the cause group. However, some of the motivating factors relate to the effect group, such as capital acquisition, opportunity in the market, immigrant community ties or social networks, unemployment, and financial problems in the family. The most affected factor among the effect group is unemployment, while immigrant community ties or social network is the least affected factor. This study includes a novel interpretation of the DEMATEL approach that researchers have not yet addressed; therefore, it is highly relevant for policymakers, especially those interested in migration studies. Finding out the main driving forces behind Asian immigrant entrepreneurs in a developed European nation like Germany and how these drivers affect cause-and-effect interactions between them are the contributions that add value to the field.

Can Entrepreneurship Enable Economic and Social Integration of Refugees? A Comparison of the Economic, Social and Policy Context for Refugee Entrepreneurship in the UK and Germany

This article examines critically the support systems necessary for economic integration of refugees by analysing the economic, social and policy context of refugee entrepreneurship in Germany and the UK. Current economic integration policies in both countries focus primarily on assisting refugees to find employment while appearing to neglect the value of refugee entrepreneurship as a viable option for integrating refugees into the destination country’s economy. Assuming economic integration of refugees is a fundamental socio-economic goal in both countries, our aim was to examine the challenges that could be addressed with regard to future policies for targeting refugee entrepreneurship and augmenting both entrepreneurship development and entrepreneurial policy formulation in host societies. We introduce a theoretical framework building on Wauters and Lambrecht (2008 , Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 34(6), 895–915) and use inductive thematic analysis ( Guest et al., 2013 , Collecting qualitative data: A field manual for applied research) to examine which variables impact refugees. We identify how regulations, measures and policies in different environments affect those variables. We also examine the concept of mixed embeddedness ( Kloosterman et al., 1999 , International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23(2), 252–266), and its appropriateness for understanding the emergent entrepreneurial activity of refugees and the support systems that can aid opportunity-based integration. Our findings show that first, the most common challenges refugee entrepreneurs encounter are (a) seed capital, (b) language barriers, (c) location, (d) embeddedness and (e) knowledge about the local market. Second, there are no significant differences in the challenges that refugee entrepreneurs encounter, between the UK and Germany. Third, we also find that the support system for refugee entrepreneurs is larger in Germany than in the UK due to the capacity of government and civil society support. We conclude that combating downward occupational mobility, and fully using the potential and expertise of refugees, refugee entrepreneurship could be considered as a viable option for economic integration because refugee communities offer unique opportunities for potentially expanding the scope and style of entrepreneurship in host countries.

Insight into biases when measuring socioeconomics and demographics of consumers patronizing retailing fashion design entrepreneurs: Germany’s perspective vs. South African requirements

With an increasingly globalised market, it has become more pivotal to provide cross-cultural analytics of the different markets conducting international business. Thus, this paper aims to study demographic and socioeconomic variables inherent when conducting a cross-cultural analysis of consumer needs when patronising retailing fashion design entrepreneurs in Germany and South Africa. The primary problem was identified when the research team tried to match German and South African demographics and socioeconomic variables. A discrepancy in variables was recognised, delaying an appropriate cross-cultural analysis. Currently, fashion design entrepreneurs are becoming increasingly interested in the global market. Consequently, this research intends to provide information about consumer differences between one of the Southern African economies and one of the central European economies. Hence, this paper recognises that it does not need to compare „apples with apples” but instead acknowledges that cross-cultural analytics are still possible in different societies if similarities are not forced but rather acknowledged and appropriately managed. As a result, the diverse demographic and socioeconomic variables identified when conducting a cross-cultural analysis between German and South African consumers patronising fashion design entrepreneurs were scrutinised, and necessary recommendations were provided. Accordingly, the main question interrogated in this paper is that of demographic and socioeconomic differences between Germany and South Africa. Secondly, the question related to how bias can be avoided when comparing demographic and socioeconomic variables between Germany and South Africa is studied. Finally, the question connected to German consumers' characteristics and levels of patronage towards retailing fashion design entrepreneurs was addressed. The empirical data was collected through quantitative measures, through a survey and from 469 respondents in Germany. The findings indicated that construct, method and item biases all needed to be carefully considered for a cross-cultural analysis between Germany and South Africa. Secondly, the results revealed that the profile of consumers patronising retailing fashion design entrepreneurs in Germany as highly educated millennial females with an upper-middle-income living in metropolitan areas with no children. Finally, it was found that just over 10% of the population patronised retailing fashion design entrepreneurs in Germany.

Resilience on an emotional rollercoaster: Refugee entrepreneurship under adversity

The political turmoil, civil war, economic crisis, and breakdown of the political systems in the Middle East and many African countries led to the global refugee crisis in 2015. Since then, policymakers and academics have recognized the entrepreneurial potential of refugees. Compared to migrants, due to forced displacement, refugees face significant adversities, such as psychological trauma and substantial institutional barriers. Consequently, refugee entrepreneurs need to develop and maintain a high degree of resilience to pursue an entrepreneurial path despite adversities. However, previous studies have treated resilience as a mere personal trait of refugees, neglecting its multi-layered, dynamic aspect. Against this background, this study examines how refugee entrepreneurs' resilience emerges and develops, and it analyzes the factors that influence the maintenance of their resilience. Based on 52 interviews with refugee entrepreneurs in Germany, this study finds that the fragile, unstable nature of refugees' resilience depends on various factors at the individual, relational, and institutional levels during venture development. Based on the findings, we theorize the dynamic process view of refugee entrepreneurs’ resilience.

Age-specific entrepreneurship and PAYG: Public pensions in Germany

We present new empirical evidence on the distribution of earnings, income and wealth among entrepreneurs in Germany. We document that both earnings and income are more concentrated among entrepreneurs than among workers and describe a large-scale overlapping-generations model that replicates the age-earnings profiles of these two household types. As an application, we compute the equilibrium effects of a reform of the German pay-as-you-go pension system in which entrepreneurs must also contribute and receive a pension. We show that in the presence of mobility between workers and entrepreneurs, the expected lifetime utility of all newborn households unanimously declines due to the general equilibrium effects of lower aggregate savings, and welfare losses amount to approximately 0.7% of total consumption. In addition, the integration of self-employed workers into the social security system in Germany does not help to improve its fiscal sustainability, and only an increase in the retirement age to 70 years will help to finance pensions at the present level beyond the year 2050.

Resilience and business model adaptation in turbulent times: experiences of Russophone migrant entrepreneurs in Germany during Covid-pandemic

ABSTRACT Migrants starting up businesses face different challenges than local companies, this difference can represent multifaceted features during turbulent times. Migrant entrepreneurs with diaspora resources can adapt their business models with special cultural and linguistic value creation elements that target markets both physically and online using digital means. Migrant resilience has been ignored in the business model-related literature. This multiple case study contributes to that. It examines ways five Russophone migrant entrepreneurs adapt their business models and employ available cultural and linguistic features, and other business and digital solutions by doing so using a business model canvas. The cases indicate that migrant life transformations combined with international experience may foster their entrepreneurial resilience and help them to adapt to the value creation elements. Shared language is one strategic value component. The study shows that migrant entrepreneurs discover and address both domestic and international opportunities and have aspirations beyond simple survival or necessity.

Engaged or Addicted? Exploring the Effects of Entrepreneurial Fear of Failure on Work Investment

Entrepreneurial fear of failure is a frequent though often concealed experience in the entrepreneurial process. Prior research has shown that fear of failure does not only inhibit entrepreneurial activity but can also act as a motivator. However, it is still unclear what kind of implications this type of motivation might have, especially whether it is a positive or negative motivation and to which specific behaviors it leads. In our study, we therefore explore whether fear of failure motivates entrepreneurs to be more engaged or addicted. We empirically test our hypotheses with a sample of 519 entrepreneurs in Germany. Our findings reveal that entrepreneurial fear of failure is negatively related to work engagement and positively related to workaholism. We thereby show that entrepreneurial fear of failure can spur increased activity but results in undesirable work practices and poorer well-being for entrepreneurs. Moreover, we find support that a tolerance for failure culture can act as a coping mechanism, as it mitigates both effects in more desirable directions. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN GERMANY

Abstract. Entrepreneurship is an important component of the formation of the society and the economy. Today the question arises, what should be the strategy of its development given the past experience. This article discusses the strategy of entrepreneurship development in Germany. The purpose of this article is to investigate the basis for further strategies for entrepreneurial activity development based on the data from previous years, cultural and social heritage of society as well as to identify the most relevant and possible areas of development, its trajectories and the main problems. I found that entrepreneurship in modern Germany had been influenced by the events of the 20th century, when the country had been divided into two parts. However, the transition period had its positive consequences, such as the exchange of knowledge and approaches in solving certain problems and issues. I determined that the reform of entrepreneurship in Germany had entered a new wave of development, taking into account not only its own history, but also general global trends and needs of the internal market. State programs to support start-up entrepreneurs to facilitate the establishment of their own business and the first steps for its development and scaling were considered. I found that the issues of women’s, institutional and social entrepreneurship were becoming relevant. It is related to the change of base conceptions of personality of woman in society as a main educator of child, to the growing problem of explanation of central role of separate agency in institutional changes and to the desires of people and government to do an enterprise more inclusive through development of social enterprises that play a role of preachers of the alternative going near the decision of social problems. The development of entrepreneurship in Germany has a clear strategy in all its areas. The government, the federal government, and private entrepreneurs are making significant efforts to integrate entrepreneurship into society and spread its ideas among the larger masses and categories of citizens. However, there are still obstacles and some of the necessary concepts of communication between different institutions are missing and need to be refined.

Theorizing Disembedding and Re-Embedding: Resource Mobilization in Refugee Entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT Forced displacement drastically changes the nature of refugees’ connection to their home countries and requires them to build new ties to their host countries. While refugees undergo the dynamic transformation of their embeddedness after arriving in host countries, previous studies on refugee entrepreneurship have not sufficiently examined the dynamic and procedural nature of refugees’ embeddedness and its influence on their entrepreneurial activities. This study seeks to understand how the process of embedding influences refugees’ resource mobilization in their entrepreneurial activities. Based on 20 interviews with refugee entrepreneurs in Germany, this study revealed that forced detachment from home-country contexts led to a loss of certain resources while simultaneously creating opportunities for refugees to develop resources by building new connections. This study challenges the conventional structural deterministic approach of mixed embeddedness and theorizes disembedding and re-embedding processes of refugee entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that these processes require a cognitive process on the part of entrepreneurial agents to become aware of a loss of resources and to reinterpret the value of their resources. Furthermore, this paper discusses how these processes constrain and enable refugees’ access to resources. The findings offer implications for policymakers of refugee-hosting countries and refugee support organizations.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Entrepreneurship in Germany

The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected not only incumbent firms, but also the emergence of start-ups. This paper investigates and analyzes the pandemic’s effect on new business formation, as well as business exits and insolvencies, in Germany. We find that the overall level of business registrations slightly decreased during the first year of the pandemic, but that the effect is specific to certain industries. Innovative manufacturing industries and technology-oriented services experienced an increase in the numbers of start-ups. High subsidies and a temporary suspension of important criteria obliging firms to declare insolvency weakened market selection resulting in fewer exits in 2020. The relaxation of insolvency regulations may lead to considerable numbers of ‘zombie’ firms. Generally, the pandemic re-enforced ongoing structural change, but also exerted specific effects that may be temporary in nature.

How the Trick is Done – Conditions of Success in Entrepreneurial Digital Journalism

Entrepreneurial journalism is often ascribed the potential to partly close the supply gap in digital journalism caused by the effects of digitization. Decreasing fixed costs on the production stage, in particular, have enabled smaller entities, entrepreneurs and start-ups to produce high quality journalistic content. While there is a broad stream of literature on entrepreneurial success in general, empirical research says little about the reasons for digital journalistic entrepreneurs’ success (or lack thereof). This study aims at empirically investigating success conditions associated with entrepreneurship in the digital news business. Seven broader “super”-conditional prerequisites are considered: Experience, skills, personality, product, business model, company organization, and broader environment. The data, collected through 49 interviews with digital journalistic entrepreneurs in Germany, is analysed with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), a set theoretical method to determine necessity/sufficiency of preformulated conditions for a respective outcome (i.e., entrepreneurial (non-)success). The results indicate high importance of, first, the experience of the founder, and, second, the functioning organization of the company, while, interestingly, third, only absence of support from the broader environment and/or government contributed to the success.

The Private Value of Entrepreneurial Control: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment

We study how much entrepreneurs value being in control over their ventures. Even though control and independence are widely believed to be an important reward to entrepreneurship, and despite the importance of control rights for venture capital contract design, it remains unknown how much entrepreneurs value being in control. In order to establish how much entrepreneurs value control, we perform a discrete choice experiment with a representative sample of entrepreneurs in Germany to estimate the value of control in the setting of venture capital investment. In the experiment, participants have to choose between hypothetical investment offers that carry different equity stakes, control rights, and VC value-added activities. We find that entrepreneurs highly value control: In a hypothetical VC contracts, entrepreneurs are willing to give an additional 38% of equity shares to investors to avoid the highest level of control, a voting majority. We additionally estimate entrepreneurs’ valuations of VC valueadded activities. We find that these carry a premium, reaching 12% of equity when the investor offers market access support. Our findings hint that control requirements form important entry barriers for entrepreneurs to venture capital financing.

The link between entrepreneurial passion and tolerance for failure mediated by adaptive cognition

Emotion and cognition are fundamental for successful entrepreneurial efforts. Yet, the interplay between emotion and cognition and ultimately venture-level outcomes is not fully understood. This study sheds light on this relationship by investigating how entrepreneurial passion relates to adaptive cognition and ultimately to venture-level tolerance for failure. Drawing upon mood-dependent retrieval theory, we develop a mediation model in which adaptive cognition mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture-level tolerance for failure. We test our hypotheses among a sample of 447 entrepreneurs in Germany. Our results suggest that adaptive cognition mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial passion for inventing and developing and venture-level tolerance for failure in an indirect-only manner. Overall, we contribute to mood-dependent retrieval theory by showing how emotion and cognition interact in an entrepreneurial context. We do so in a nuanced way considering three domains of entrepreneurial passion. Additionally, we investigate adaptive cognition as translating mechanism from entrepreneurial passion to venture-level tolerance for failure.

Sport and social entrepreneurship in Germany: exploring athlete perspectives on an emerging field

PurposeAthletes are increasingly perceived as important drivers of entrepreneurship and social change. As a result, increasing research and activity has attempted to engage athletes in both entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. Against this backdrop, the authors aim to provide insights on how high-level athletes in Germany understand entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship and their perceptions of (social) entrepreneurship as a potential career pathway.Design/methodology/approachA survey was designed for athletes to assess their social entrepreneurship-related skills and attitudes. This survey is based on Capella Peris et al. (2020) who developed and validated a social entrepreneurship questionnaire for use in the physical education sector. To deepen the authors’ understanding of the initial survey results, a structured focus group was conducted with an additional set of five high-level German athletes.FindingsBoth the survey results and the focus group indicate that athletes have reservations about starting businesses or social enterprises, and that formal support on the topic is limited.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper suggests numerous possible avenues for future research, both related to athletes and sport social entrepreneurship more generally. The authors also suggest that athlete career programmes need to provide more support for athletes who wish to venture in entrepreneurial activities.Originality/valueThis study answers numerous calls within sport entrepreneurship literature to further integrate athletes into research in the area.

Analiza polskiej regulacji wspomaganego samobójstwa w kontekście orzeczenia niemieckiego Federalnego Trybunału Konstytucyjnego z dnia 26 lutego 2020 r

This publication aims to examine the Polish regulation of assisted suicide in terms of its constitutionality. The starting point is an analysis of the judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court, which resulted in the depenalization of the offer of suicide assistance under professional services by entrepreneurs in Germany and, consequently, the complete legalisation of assisted suicide in this country. The theses contained in the cited judgment, however, refer to much broader issues, such as: ratio legis of assisted suicide penalization, understanding the right to life and tasks of the state within its protection, the right of the individual to decide about his death as part of exercising the right to self-determination and its bond with human dignity. The study attempts to transfer the legitimacy of these theses to the Polish legal order, introducing Polish regulations of assisted suicide found in the Penal Code and the provisions of the Constitution. The text also attempts to indicate the complexity of the assisted suicide problem, briefly referring to the very different approaches to it by selected European legislation and to the social controversy that this phenomenon raises. Moreover, de lege ferenda proposals were presented within the scope of the matter under consideration in the Polish legal order and the reasons for the necessity to introduce them, resulting from the influence of cultural conditions.