The Journal of Entrepreneurship

Decision making no longer assumes a rational information processor, be it in business management or entrepreneurship. Emotions and conations interact with cognition. This is the received view. But what exactly are emotion and will? True to its title, this article begins by providing a firm grounding on emotions. Next, it considers conscious will: Is it a force or a feeling or is it an illusion? Moving on, this article briefly examines the complex concept of consciousness and its role in decision making from the Euro-American and the East Indian perspectives. Is there a little man, a homunculus, who makes decisions? It then considers an existing theory of planning as a cognitive process. The context for discussion is provided by a case history of an entrepreneur. It examines and highlights the infusion of emotional determinants at each step of the decision-making process. The final section of this article describes tests of executive functions that are biased towards analytic or synthetic aspects of planning.

Expanding the level of entrepreneurial activity within all nations is an increasingly important political and economic goal, especially for developing countries. Literature suggests that culture, education and environment play key roles, yet these attributes vary greatly across nations. This study explores the level of interest in entrepreneurship among what may be India's next generation of entrepreneurs, namely undergraduate business students, and draws comparisons with students enrolled in the US. Despite a combination of social structures and cultural values within India that historically constrained entrepreneurship, a number of efforts in recent years seem to have significantly shifted the national mindset regarding entrepreneurship, particularly among India's youth who were found to demonstrate a significantly higher level of interest in starting new ventures than their US counterparts.

Regionalism has been evident throughout Canada's history. Economic policies and political conflicts have emphasised regional differences. Changes in the business environment have been dramatic with a shift to continental integration. This article explores the historical evidence of regionalism, Canada as a political community, Canada as an economic community and the changing scene for small business in Canada.

Corporate entrepreneurship is a topic of attraction for many managers in corporate enterprises. In the early 1980s, several researchers discovered the importance of entrepreneurship and its role in organisational renewal, innovation, risk taking and creation of new businesses. Corporate entrepreneurship became a subject of interest because of its beneficial effect on revitalisation and performance of the firms. Studies on this topic focused mainly on the organisational factors like freedom, organisational boundaries and management support which influence intrapreneurship. In the late 1990s, the popularity of this subject rose. This article focuses on the relationship between organisational characteristics and present conditions for corporate entrepreneurship in Dutch organisations. A questionnaire administered in Dutch organisations received 711 responses. In this article, the analyses of the questionnaire are presented via an exploratory factor analysis and a subsequent confirmation analysis. Four factors/scales were identified: centralisation (αlpha = 0.75), cooperation between colleagues (αlpha = 0.76), cooperation between departments (αlpha = 0.77) and formalisation (αlpha = 0.75). These factors are connected with the perception of corporate entrepreneurship. The respondents were asked about the level at which they found themselves entrepreneurial. The conditions and the perceptions taken together give a fair overview of the corporate spirit of an organisation.

In Pakistan, women entrepreneurs do not enjoy the same opportunities as men due to a number of deep-rooted discriminatory socio-cultural values and traditions. Furthermore, these restrictions can be observed within the support mechanisms that exist to assist such fledgling businesswomen. The economic potential of female entrepreneurs is not being realised as they suffer from a lack of access to capital, land, business premises, information technology, training and agency assistance. Inherent attitudes of a patriarchal society, that men are superior to women and that women are best suited to be homemakers, create formidable challenges. Women also receive little encouragement from some male family members, resulting in limited spatial mobility and a dearth of social capital. The research suggests that in order to foster development, multi-agency cooperation is required. The media, educational policy makers and government agencies could combine to provide women with improved access to business development services and facilitate local, regional and national networks. This would help integration of women entrepreneurs into the mainstream economy

Many factors motivate entrepreneurs to start and enhance their businesses. In the past, their primary concerns revolved around the bottom-line and survival strategies. However, with awareness of environmental impact of industry operations, entrepreneurs should have a much broader mindset. To determine the extent to which environmental sustainability has become a part of the planning horizon of entrepreneurs, we conducted research involving thirty-six Philippine entrepreneurs. In view of the limited sample size, the data analysis was confined to non-parametric tests of significance. The analysis established that if an entrepreneur has larger asset size or is advanced in age, one could expect the him/her to be more motivated to incorporate environmental initiatives in the enterprise, leading to better environmental performance. At the same time, when an enterprise is set up by an entrepreneur who is more professionally-oriented, the enterprise can also be expected to demonstrate better environmental performance.