Growth Aspirations Research Articles

Start-Up Competences and Early Stage Hiring: A Contingency Perspective

Early employment growth can be a stepping-stone for start-up scaling. Yet, we have little insights into the factors that can enable early stage hiring. Building on competence-based theory, we posit that initial competences, namely those assembled via founders’ start-up experience and external shareholders, can help start-ups overcome early staffing challenges. However, through a contingency perspective, we demonstrate that a start-up’s ability to leverage those initial competences and hire soon after entry is contingent on its strategic orientation towards innovation. Both internal and external competences are likely to be underutilized in less R&D intensive start-ups lacking innovation-based growth aspirations. We find general support for our hypotheses with a rich dataset of Italian innovative start-ups, and additionally show that early staff recruitment is largely characterized by (positive) assortative matching dynamics in the human capital attributes of the demand and supply sides.

Women's High Growth Entrepreneurship: Programs, Polices, and Practices

Herein, we offer a panel designed to engage in a lively discussion around women’s participation in high growth entrepreneurship, the various programs, polices, and practices that can foster high potential entrepreneurship, and what theoretical constructs might make a difference in understanding high-growth entrepreneurship among women. This panel symposium will have broad appeal across AOM divisions because of its focus on the wider entrepreneurship ecosystem through our gendered perspective on diversity issues. Our broad appeal also stems from our discussions on women’s access to venture financing and women entrepreneurs in the technology, biotech, and/or health care sectors. Our symposiums also compliments the 2020 theme of Broadening our Sight by addressing issues surrounding gender equity and opportunity, the challenges women face, and the high-growth potential women entrepreneurs have. Our panelists will discuss topics related to: 1) how high-growth women’s entrepreneurship fuels social and economic development, 2) programs, policies, and practices that can foster high-growth women’s entrepreneurship, 3) self-leadership strategies among high-growth female entrepreneurs as they innovate, 4) the democratizing effect of digital technologies to enable the internationalization of women-owned SMEs, and 5) regulatory efficiency and the employment growth ambitions of male and female entrepreneurs.

Explicating How Institutions Connect the Dots Between Human Capital and Entrepreneurial Aspirations

Drawing from institutional economics and theories on human capital, we study how institutions moderate the relationship between human capital and entrepreneurial growth aspirations (EGA). We propose a multi-level model in which a high regulatory burden and a cultural pressure against failing negatively moderate the relationship between the entrepreneur’s human capital and EGA. We test our predictions on a combined dataset of individual- and country-level characteristics, which we obtain from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and World Development Indicators for the period 2006–13. We find that informal institutions strongly condition the human capital-EGA relationship in developing countries. However, in developed countries this relationship is highly influenced by formal institutions.

Energy Consumption and Economic Growth Nexus in China: Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)

This paper intends to investigate the nexus between energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission, total export and economic growth of China from 1971 to 2014. This study adopted Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds test to examine the existence of short-run and long-run relationships among the variables. Empirical findings indicated that energy consumption contribute to economic growth while carbon dioxide emission is impeding the growth. There is a positive long-run relationship between both energy consumption and total export with economic growth of China. However, a negative relationship is observed between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth. Hence, in terms of policy recommendation, policymakers can implement a balance environment-economic policy; reduce the carbon dioxide emission by imposing carbon tax; promote renewable energy among the industries and households and promoting reserves forest policy is needed for aspiration of sustainable growth for both environmental and economic.

High-Growth Aspirations of Entrepreneurs in Latin America: Do Alliances Matter?

This study considers how the formation and implementation strategies of a Latin America alliance between four of the best economic performance countries in the region have impacted the quality of entrepreneurship in these countries. To this end, we studied the Pacific Alliance (PA) and employed an ordered probit model with sample selection bias and statistical information from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database for the 2012–2017 period. As a dependent variable, we used the growth aspiration of entrepreneurs as a proxy to measure the future growth of the company, from which a possible economic impact could be inferred. The evidence shows that during the implementation period of the PA, there is a positive impact on entrepreneur growth aspirations in member countries; the likelihood that entrepreneurs have high-growth aspirations is found to be greater during and after the implementation period than before the signing of the PA. Likewise, it was found that motivation, gender, education, skills, innovation (as perceived by the entrepreneur), export level, two pillars of the global competitiveness index (GCI), and the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate explain the growth aspirations of entrepreneurs in the member countries during the period under study.

Schumpeterian Entry: Innovation, Exporting, and Growth Aspirations of Entrepreneurs

We posit that entrepreneurs who engage in strategic activities will have high growth aspirations. Our proposed mechanism is that strategic engagements, specifically product innovation, process innovation and internationalization, open entrepreneurial ventures to learning, and thereby greater growth opportunities. Furthermore, these learning effects are reinforced in research-intensive industrial environments. We apply multilevel random slope estimation for individuals from 74 countries, 2001–2015, to derive results consistent with our hypotheses. The findings are robust to potential reverse causality between strategic behavior and growth aspirations, and to selection bias resulting from strategic engagements being only observed for actual entrepreneurs.

A Novel Smart Tag-Based Vigilance System for Human Against Wildlife Threats on Iot

India has 1.37 billion people and still the population is growing, therefore government is putting immense pressure on land to build homes and factories irrespective to wild inhabitants. Also, government in the process of taking endless effort in aspiration for economic growth of country by rushing through projects, sometimes without proper safeguards and deforestation. Deforestation and urbanisation are becoming a major concern. Which in turn results, human wildlife conflicts. This is a matter of serious alarm in balancing the competition for land between people and animals. Due to the above-mentioned reason the tribal people who dwell in and around the forest area suffer from the human and wild animal conflicts. The occurrence is mainly due to the unawareness of their migration of animal inhabitants in and around the living area due to scarcity of food and water. It has been visualized and propounded as an idea towards the people who dwell in the tribal forest areas, and encounter such kind of human wild life conflict problems through the articles in daily news. It’s a major problem to be concerned, because this conflict has led to the extinction, reduction of numerous species, uncountable human deaths and economic losses. Recent advances in our understanding of conflict have led to a growing number of positive conservation but unfortunately with technology gaps.

The tangled historical roots of entrepreneurial growth aspirations

AbstractResearch SummaryWe consider what configurations of historical and geographic dimensions influence entrepreneurial growth aspirations (EGA). Our theoretical framework combines geography (coastal location, resource dependence), long‐term colonial history (ethnic heterogeneity, legal origins), and postcolonial history (low levels of conflict and population displacement; not having “bad neighbors”). We employ abductive reasoning to link the social science and historical literatures via analytically structured histories of Ghana, Nigeria, and Angola. Next, we undertake a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis on sub‐Saharan Africa countries to investigate which particular configurations of these dimensions are important for EGA. We demonstrate the importance of configurations over individual variables and add context‐bound dimensions to the study of entrepreneurship in developing countries, through historical analysis.Managerial SummaryOur analysis may offer entrepreneurs a template for identifying potential opportunities and threats in order to calibrate their strategies for scaling up their venture in sub‐Saharan Africa. We argue that environments rich in entrepreneurial growth opportunities are associated with configurations where negative aspects are more than compensated by positive ones. For Botswana, the low levels of internal conflict compensate for unfavorable location. For Angola, the positive impact of coastal location and relatively low ethnic heterogeneity counterbalance the negative effect of resource rents. Resource‐driven economies are more entrepreneurial: better economic opportunities can sometimes result from having extractive industries. For African entrepreneurs it is not only relevant what happens in their own countries, as their opportunities are directly affected by economic or political turmoil in neighboring countries.

A Desire for Growth? An Exploratory Study of Growth Aspirations Among Nascent Nonprofit Entrepreneurs

This research note examines the growth aspirations, and beliefs about growth, based on survey responses from 57 nascent nonprofit entrepreneurs. About 21% of the respondents displayed strong growth ambitions and 40% declared they do not consider growth a current and/or highly prioritized matter. A majority of the nascent nonprofit entrepreneurs recognized that growth could have both positive and negative implications on their emerging nonprofit. Only 14% perceived growth as a ubiquitous positive feat. Perceived positive implications of growth included enhanced impact and reputation, and some of the perceived negative implications of growth were loss of control and increased workload. Furthermore, drawing on brief follow-up conversations with eight respondents, this research note illuminates how growth preferences can evolve as the nonprofit evolve, and even nonprofit entrepreneurs with clear and explicit aspirations to grow may not have the ability to grow.

Evaluating environmental impact assessment (EIA) in the countries along the belt and road initiatives: System effectiveness and the compatibility with the Chinese EIA

BRI has a great potential to improve necessary infrastructure, regional development, connectivity, and industrialization, and promote the sustainable transformation of the countries along the routes. Despite the remarkable aims, economic growth ambition of BRI may clash with the sustainability of the ecosystem given the scales of operations in environmentally sensitive regions, and the amount of material and energy needed. Therefore, the sustainable potential and environmental stewardship of the BRI will largely depend on the standard of strategic environmental and social management, and integration between China and partner countries of respective priorities, policies, and regulations. The effectiveness and compatibility of environmental impact assessment systems (EIA) remain largely unknown, especially across the diverse ecological, social, economic and political contexts represented in countries along the BRI. We review and compare EIA systems on the contextual factors that moderate the effectiveness and compatibility with China's policy. This work helps to identify strategies to more efficiently and effectively implement BRI towards sustainable development.

Innovation and Growth Ambition of Female Entrepreneurs: A Comparison between the MENA Region and the Rest of the World

The aim of the current paper was to compare the regional differences in innovation and the resulting growth expectation among female entrepreneurs in the MENA region as compared with the rest of the world. Data on innovation and growth aspirations of 162,752 female entrepreneurs in 109 countries was extracted from GEM annual surveys in 2002-2016. A hierarchical linear modelling technique was used to analyse the data. Interestingly, results indicated that female entrepreneurs in the MENA region are more innovative than their peers in the rest of the world; however, there is no difference between the MENA female entrepreneurs and their counterparts in the rest of the world in terms of growth ambitions and benefiting from innovation for growth. Innovation was found to be positively related to shaping growth ambitions in female entrepreneurs.

International Orientation of early-stage Entrepreneurs in the Balkan region – The age perspective

The main objective of our study is to analyse the relation between early-stage entrepreneurs' age and their international orientation in the Balkan region economies, which are facing increasing globalisation and an ageing population. Based on the existing theory, we link the international orientation with some additional influencing determinants, such as the entrepreneurs' innovativeness, their growth aspirations and the financial resources required. Our results underline the importance of institutional frameworks and the moderating effects of age and these influencing determinants, on international orientation. Accordingly, we emphasise the significance of associating explanatory variables with the early-stage entrepreneurs' age. Data from six countries in the Balkan region were obtained from the year 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Adult Population Survey. The study contributes to a better understanding of the international orientation of senior (in terms of age) early-stage entrepreneurs in the Balkan region. Given the changes that have occurred with increasing globalisation and an ageing population, the concept of this particular group of entrepreneurs is important for national and regional policy makers.

Материалистична ориентация и психично благополучие при юношите в 11-12 клас

The aim of the current study is to look for theoretically and empirically grounded proof for the correlation between aspirations – extrinsic and intrinsic- determining the motivation – and the psychological wellbeing of adolescents in 11th grade. Materialistic orientation is expressed in the preferences of extrinsic goals such as fame, wealth and image, while the intrinsic aspirations are related to preferences of aspirations for personal growth, personal relationships and community contribution. High level of psychological wellbeing is measured through the six elements from K. Ryff’s definition: self-acceptance, positive interaction with others, autonomy, managing of environment, meaning and personal growth. The research includes a group of 50 students in two Bulgarian high schools.

Innovation and growth ambition of female entrepreneurs: a comparison between the MENA region and the rest of the world

Innovation and growth ambition of female entrepreneurs: a comparison between the MENA region and the rest of the world

Opportunity Motivation and Growth Aspirations of Mexican Entrepreneurs: The Moderating Role of the Household Income

Framed in the Theory of Planned Behavior, this work analyzes the entrepreneurial growth aspirations in efficiency-driven economies and examines the interaction effect of household income on the relationship between opportunity entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial growth aspirations. We propose a growth aspirations model using GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) data, with two explanatory variables: increased wealth and independence, and a moderating variable (household income). Hypotheses were validated with the use of hierarchical regression, and we find that that opportunity motivation is positively related to the entrepreneurial intention to expand entrepreneurial business activities. A second interesting finding of this study is that the independent effects model infers that growth aspirations are significantly related to household income.

Product Newness, Low Competition, Recent Technology, and Export Orientation as Predictors for Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations

This study examines the contribution of how product newness, low competition, recent technology, and export orientation affect entrepreneurial growth aspirations moderated by financial capital. Based on a Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) sample of 512 Mexican new entrepreneurs, we use a hierarchical regression model to study the independent and interaction effects between these variables, and we apply a Chow breakpoint test and a CUSUMSQ (cumulative sum of squares of recursive residuals) test to analyze structural change and robustness. Our results suggest that achieving higher educational levels, acquiring recent technology, and product newness slightly increase the entrepreneurial growth ambition of the firm, and that financial capital positively moderates the impact of product newness and recent technology on growth aspirations. Besides this, we show that the interaction effect of financial capital with low competition and export activity on their growth aspirations is not crucial, and business angles tend to finance, primarily when the firm exports new products and services are facing a reduced number of competitors.

SME innovation orientation: Evidence from Norwegian exporting SMEs

This article explores the innovation orientation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through a quantitative study of 380 Norwegian exporting SMEs. Although recent research emphasises the influence of resource scarcity on SME innovation orientation, we argue that no clear hypothesis can be made about this relationship; rather, we focus on the role of managers and owners in influencing innovation orientation. We find that resource scarcity is not correlated with the innovation orientation of SMEs, while the growth ambitions of managers and owners strongly and positively influence their focus on both exploratory and exploitative innovation. Contrary to our expectations, we find that managerial perception of competitive intensity only moderately influences innovation orientation, while managerial perception of market growth does not influence innovation orientation. Our findings suggest that achieving ambidexterity is primarily a matter of ambition and entrepreneurial capability, rather than an issue of having the necessary resources or lucrative market conditions to innovate ambidextrously. As we also find that ambidextrous SMEs have the strongest innovation performance, our findings indicate that SMEs both can and should be ambidextrous.

Strengthening Township Economies in South Africa: the Case for Better Regulation and Policy Innovation

There is considerable policy interest in supporting township economies at present. This is important considering their history of marginalization and the extent of unemployment and poverty. However, the short-term injection of additional resources could simply leak out unless more conducive conditions are created for enterprises to grow and develop locally. The paper examines the framework of government laws, regulations and administrative procedures that inhibit township economic development. Inappropriate standards and onerous approval systems make it difficult for firms with growth aspirations and potential to formalize their operations and expand. The current situation oscillates between laissez-faire neglect and enforcement of punitive regulations, which creates uncertainty and opportunities for abuse. The paper concludes with some recommendations to create a more enabling environment, emphasizing the need for local experimentation and learning from reforms to different elements of the regulatory framework.

Examining the Glass Ceiling for Female Entrepreneurs: An Empirical Analysis

Extensive research on the glass ceiling has shown that the large gap between the female representation at lower and upper levels of management is largely driven by differences in family responsibilities, career interruptions and the requirement of working long hours. Additionally, recent data suggests that female entrepreneurial activity lags behind that of males in terms of business creation and revenue generation. Though one might expect female entrepreneurs to bypass the glass ceiling constraints when becoming a business owner, research still documents gender gaps in this market. This paper examines whether the traditional glass ceiling inhibitors apply to female entrepreneurs as well. We find that male and female entrepreneurs reach early levels of success at similar rates and have similar aspirations for financial growth. However, we find that female entrepreneurs are more likely to cite flexibility as an important reason for entering entrepreneurship and spend more time on housekeeping and childcare.

Necessity entrepreneurship in Latin America: it´s not that simple

ABSTRACTEntrepreneurship literature takes for granted the motivation dichotomy; however, this simplistic view have been criticised for several studies because it likely does an injustice to entrepreneurs, particularly Latin America (LA) entrepreneurs. This study seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge on entrepreneurs to better explain the process of entrepreneurs being motivated by necessity. We use the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database for LA countries and develop an econometric model based on a set of variables, including contextual variables. First, we identify three types of entrepreneurial motivation: necessity, opportunity and transition. We then demonstrate that the motivation dichotomy does not represent LA entrepreneurship. Second, we find that necessity-driven entrepreneurship does not necessarily indicate the absence of high growth aspirations because some entrepreneurs in this category have such aspirations. Third, we observe that significant differences exist among entrepreneurs based on context, specifically among necessity-driven entrepreneurs. These findings have practical implications for research on entrepreneurship and for regional development.