International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship

This article examines an apparent contradiction at the heart of the provision of management training and advice for new and small firms. Assessments using self-report data show high levels of satisfaction, implying that the training/advice is effective and appreciated. In contrast, assessments using robust statistical methods point to modest, or even zero, impact upon firm performance. Accordingly, our core research question explores whether there is an identifiable performance benefit of management training or whether impact is limited to emotional attachment to the training provider – reflected in enhanced loyalty. We test this by examining the effects of a bank seminar provided for new enterprises and find it had no significant effects on either the survival or sales growth of participants. However, those new enterprises who participated in the seminar were significantly less likely to switch to a rival bank, implying the seminars may have induced a feeling of loyalty among clients. Finally, we discuss the implications for theory, for the bank and for the providers of training for new and small firms more widely.

This article argues that cultural and personal values are relevant in the formation of entrepreneurial intentions; as such, the interplay between both value-levels deserves attention. Individualist values such as achievement, pleasure, self-direction and an exciting and stimulating life are related to entrepreneurial intention and activity, at both the cultural and personal levels. From a sample of 2069 adults with a university degree, the results support a double-effect of culture on entrepreneurial intention: the personal values effect (a more individualist culture leads to more members exhibiting higher entrepreneurial intentions) and the outlier effect (those who are more individualist than average in their culture will exhibit a higher entrepreneurial intention). Within the two individualist dimensions considered (self-enhancement and openness to change), the relationship of self-enhancement to entrepreneurial intention is stronger than that of openness to change. The implications of these results are discussed and avenues for future research are proposed.

This conceptual article aims to respond to the poorly addressed question of the emergence of hybrid organizations; that is, organizations that embrace several institutional logics. It does so by developing a model and a set of propositions focusing on the heterogeneity of the entrepreneurial team as a possible driver for hybridity throughout the entrepreneurial process and up to the emergence of a hybrid organization. Contributing to the literatures on (collective) entrepreneurship, imprinting and hybrid organizations, we advance several avenues and conditions under which the heterogeneity of the entrepreneurial team may imprint the entrepreneurial process and lead to the creation of hybrid organizations. Our propositions connect the individual, team and organizational levels and thus, advance our understanding of how institutional logics can be combined across different levels of analysis and throughout the stages of an entrepreneurial process.

This article examines the impact of corruption on entrepreneurship in transition economies. Utilising in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Bucharest, Romania, the article finds that despite economic reforms, corruption occupies a pervasive space which impacts entrepreneurial strategy. In both countries, entrepreneurs operate within a ‘devil’s circle’, in which they are unable to operate entirely independent of corruption. This is caused by a combination of weak formal institutions and a weak entrepreneurial culture leading to entrepreneurs either seeking to avoid the attention of government officials by hiding some or all of their activities with little prospect of sanction, limiting their growth aspirations, or engaging in corruption as a way of furthering their activities. The research contributes to understandings of corruption and its impact on entrepreneur strategies to avoid, minimise or benefit from it.

This article explores the role of firm-level human capital for the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on the resource-based view of the firm and theories of SME internationalization, we hypothesize that the level of human capital will vary with SME internationalization strategy and will be of considerable importance for firms that follow a strategy of accelerated internationalization. At the same time, we suggest a threshold point, after which additional firm endowments of human capital become less productive. We test our ideas using a unique dataset of all manufacturing SMEs in Belgium which internationalized between 1998 and 2005. Findings indicate a significant curvilinear (inverted U) association between the level of human capital and the firm’s export intensity when firms choose a strategy of accelerated internationalization.

This article explores the direct influence of school-based enterprise education on career choices and, particularly, how this might be limited as entrepreneurial intentions dissipate over time. We propose that it is the indirect influence of school-based enterprise education, through encouraging voluntary engagement with other forms of enterprise education, which is important. Drawing upon data from the UK Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, this article utilises a binary logistic regression approach and finds evidence to support the proposed indirect role. This shows the importance of collaboration between those delivering and designing enterprise education at all stages to ensure that young people are prepared correctly to move seamlessly between such stages.

This article explores leadership development in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We investigate determinants of the adoption of leadership development practices in established SMEs expecting human resource management (HRM)-strategy fit, human resource (HR)/leadership expertise and the existence of gaps in leadership capability to influence both the presence and intensity of leadership development practices. We found that all three variables positively related to both measures of adoption. The attitudes of owner-managers towards development mediated the HRM-strategy fit–adoption relationship. The theory and practice implications of our findings are evaluated.