Entrepreneurial Intentions–Taking in the Context

Dear Colleagues,

We would kindly like to invite you to propose a paper for a Special Issue, titled “Entrepreneurial Intentions–Taking in the Context”.

Entrepreneurial intention is seen as the first step in the entrepreneurial process (Liñán and Chen 2009), and research on entrepreneurial intention has gained wide interest among scholars during the past 20 years (Kolvereid 1996; Krueger et al. 2000; Fayolle and Liñán 2014; Kautonen et al. 2015). In today’s world, our reasons for caring about entrepreneurial intentions are weightier than ever. Entrepreneurship is needed at the societal level, to provide a drive for combating global threats, and at the individual level, to cope with the increasingly turbulent environment. To inform both policy-making and education, we need a better understanding of what causes a person to become an entrepreneur. Bruton et al. (2018) argue that the models of entrepreneurship are highly affected by history, culture, and institutions defining the nature, scope, manifestation, and outcomes of entrepreneurship. Thus, in entrepreneurial intentions research, it is essential to take in the context.

Thanks to widespread research efforts, we know a great deal about the interplay of the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions, and some longitudinal studies have allowed us to gain insights into the behavioral outcomes of intentions (Kibler et al. 2014; Kautonen et al. 2015; Liñán and Rodriguez-Cohard 2015; Bogatyreva et al. 2019; Weiss et al. 2019). Maalaoui et al. (2018) identified a set of 955 authors with 600 journal articles contributing to entrepreneurial intention research. Their study revealed that various concepts can be related to entrepreneurial intention, such as education, motivation, SME growth, entrepreneurial orientation, and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Despite the magnitude of previous studies, there is still a growing interest in studying entrepreneurial intention in various settings, as stated by Maalaoui et al. (2018).

There remains a need to enrich our understanding of entrepreneurial intentions especially in relation to contexts in which they appear and come to fruition. Are intentions for starting up a business of one’s own different from intentions to take over a family firm, or intentions to buy an existing business? How is entrepreneurial intention shaped by embeddedness in another passion, for example, among social media influencers or among entrepreneurs driven by sustainability objectives? What does starting out part-time mean for intentions to become a fulltime entrepreneur? What about entrepreneurial teams – how do team dynamics contribute to the formation of entrepreneurial intentions in the first place?

For this Special Issue, we seek qualitative and quantitative empirical research studies. We also welcome literature reviews that notably contribute to existing understanding.

References

Bogatyreva, K., Edelman, L., Manolova, T., Osiyevskyy, O. and Shirokova G. (2019). When do entrepreneurial intentions lead to actions? The role of national culture. Journal of Business Research: 96, 309–321.

Bruton, G., Zahra, S. & Cai, L. (2018). Examining Entrepreneurship Through Indigenous Lenses. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice: 42, 351–361.

Fayolle, A. & Liñán, F. (2014). The Future of Research on Entrepreneurial Intentions. Journal of Business Research: 67, 663–666

Kautonen, T., Van Gelderen, M. & Fink, M. (2015). Robustness of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Predicting Entrepreneurial Intentions and Actions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice: 39, 655–674.

Kibler, E., Kautonen, T., & Fink, M. (2014). Regional social legitimacy of entrepreneurship: Implications for entrepreneurial intention and start-up behavior. Regional Studies: 48, 995–1015.

Kolvereid, L. (1996). Prediction of employment status choice intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice: 21, 47–57.

Krueger, N., Reilly, M. & Carsrud, A. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing: 15, 411–432.

Liñán, F. & Rodríguez‐Cohard, J. (2015). Assessing the stability of graduates’ entrepreneurial intention and exploring its predictive capacity. Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración: 28, 77–98.

Liñán, F. & Chen, Y. (2009). Development and Cross-Cultural Application of A Specific Instrument to Measure Entrepreneurial Intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice: 33, 593–617.

Maalaoui, A., Perez, C., Bertnand, G., Razgallah, M. & Germon, R. (2018). “Cruel intention” or “entrepreneurial intention”: what did you expect? An overview of research on entrepreneurial intention – an interactive perspective.” In M. Brännback & A. Carsrud (Eds.). A Research Agenda for Entrepreneurial Cognition and Intention. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. 7–46.

Weiss, J., Anisimova, T. & Shirokova, G. (2019). The transition of entrepreneurial intention into start-up behavior: The moderating role of regional social capital. International Small Business Journal: 37, 473–501.

Dr. Elina Varamäki
Dr. Sanna Joensuu-Salo
Dr. Anmari Viljamaa
Guest Editors

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• entrepreneurial intentions
• entrepreneurship education
• entrepreneurial behavior
• nascent entrepreneurship
• longitudinal studies
• quantitative studies
• qualitative studies