Search Results (29)

This study addresses a significant gap in the academic literature by directly examining the relationship between spirituality and sustainable behaviors. While existing research has explored these topics individually, a review of databases like Web of Science and Scopus revealed a unique absence of studies that directly connect them. The primary purpose of this research is to bridge this gap and identify the influence that spirituality has on sustainable behavior, thus potentially reshaping our understanding of these two interconnected concepts. To achieve this, the study used the ASPIRES scale, a validated instrument for measuring spirituality and religious beliefs across various countries and faiths. For the sustainability component, we adapted and statistically validated an entrepreneurial intention instrument to create the ‘Instrument of Intention in Sustainability’ (IIS), designed to assess leaders’ motivations for implementing corporate sustainability initiatives. The study’s findings involved comparing two confirmatory factor analysis models and two structural models to analyze the relationship between spirituality and sustainability. The results show that both instruments have acceptable psychometric properties; however, the direct relationship between spirituality and sustainability was found to be weak. Despite this weak direct link, our research provides valuable practical implications. The findings can help managers identify other factors that more effectively motivate sustainability-related behaviors. This insight can be instrumental in enhancing human resource strategies within organizations focused on sustainability. Ultimately, this research provides a new framework for sustainability-focused organizations within the specific cultural contexts of Colombia and Latin America. Implementing this framework could prove beneficial for a range of companies, from local and regional to multinational, that operate in areas with similar cultural characteristics. Full article

This study explores the determinants of startup intention within the context of e-commerce platform-based startups in South Korea. We employ an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) that integrates individual, social, and entrepreneurial characteristics. A two-step analytical approach is applied, combining variable extraction through data mining and hypothesis testing using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that personal and social factors—such as entrepreneurial mindset and social influence—positively affect perceived usefulness, while job relevance and exposure to successful startup models enhance perceived ease of use. In contrast, security concerns and technological barriers negatively impact these relationships, posing critical obstacles to platform-based startups. This study extends the TAM framework to the platform-based startup context, offering theoretical contributions and proposing policy implications, including promoting digital literacy, developing entrepreneurial networks, and addressing security and regulatory issues. These insights offer a deeper understanding of how platform environments shape entrepreneurial behavior, providing practical guidance for startup founders, developers, and policymakers. Full article

This study fills a crucial gap by offering fresh insights into healthcare entrepreneurs’ characteristics and decision-making, enriching the understanding of entrepreneurial behavior. Employing a mixed-methods approach, by combining qualitative and quantitative data, the researchers examined how factors such as age, gender, education, number of children, marital status, and house ownership influence business orientation. Utilizing both quantitative data, collected through surveys, and statistical analyses, conducted in EViews 12, data drawn from 113 Romanian medical start-ups revealed that marital status was a significant determinant, with single individuals exhibiting a profit-centric approach, while couples or married entrepreneurs prioritize patient well-being. Also, the lower the sense of ownership, the lower the number of co-founders there was in the start-up. The motivation of entrepreneurs involved in start-ups with more than two co-founders, is based on the motivation behind a problem that directly affected the entrepreneurs themselves. An unexpected result was found regarding the healthcare entrepreneurs that perceive failure more due to lack of funding than competition, especially in profit-focused ventures, shaping their decision-making. To shape managerial implications, the authors depicted the swim lane decision-making process diagram based on these insights. Full article

Entrepreneurship is considered one of the key factors in facilitating a company’s pursuit of sustainable development. The findings of this study can help firms improve their entrepreneurial capacity and highlight its significance for sustainable development; therefore, the levels of entrepreneurship serve as indicators of the potentials of enterprises to achieve sustainable development goals. The existing literature has explored whether there are differences in the approaches between family and non-family firms as well as in their levels of entrepreneurship. Contributing to this ongoing debate, this article aims to compare the levels of entrepreneurship between these two types of companies in a selected small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector. The analysis encompasses eight dimensions of entrepreneurship: risk-taking, innovativeness, proactiveness, inter-organizational cooperation, competitiveness, diversification, flexibility, and digitalization. This study was conducted on a sample of 145 small printing companies that operated in Poland in 2023. The results of the statistical analysis revealed that family firms exhibited a higher level of entrepreneurship when treated as a multidimensional construct. Moreover, family firms outperformed non-family firms across all of the analyzed dimensions, with statistically significant differences being observed in four dimensions: innovativeness, proactiveness, diversification, and competitiveness. This study confirmed the existing indications in the literature that family firms demonstrated higher levels of entrepreneurship, which may suggest their greater potential in pursuing sustainable development. The novelty of this research lies in its multidimensional approach, which offers a comprehensive analysis that integrates eight dimensions of entrepreneurship. This allowed for a deeper understanding of entrepreneurial behaviors and attitudes when highlighting the unique characteristics of family and non-family firms. The findings are particularly relevant for the owners and managers of family and non-family businesses; they provide tools for diagnosing entrepreneurship levels in a more comprehensive manner and applying tailored management practices for addressing areas that require improvement. One limitation of this study is its focus on a single sector; this may have affected the generalizability of the results. Future research could explore governance and ownership structures when analyzing entrepreneurial dimensions—particularly in the context of family firms. Full article

The entrepreneurial behavior of individuals is a result of a complex assembly of factors, and education is one of them. The article is aiming to address the scientific gap in the relation between education and the intention and attitudes in entrepreneurship by focusing on the analysis of the economic and entrepreneurial background as a determinant factor. Besides that, the study looked for the factors that influence entrepreneurial intention and intended to find out if there are significant differences between economic and non-economic backgrounds and entrepreneurial intentions of individuals. A survey with 582 validated respondents was employed in the north-west and the west part of Romania to determine the entrepreneurial intention of the residents. For investigating the results, descriptive statistics were used to analyze the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, and principal component analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to reduce the number of items used to analyze the entrepreneurial intention of the respondents. The study demonstrated the significance of entrepreneurial education for entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial process: the higher variance is given by entrepreneurial intention (58.75%) for those with economic studies and by entrepreneurial capacity (58.39%) for those without economic studies. It concludes that entrepreneurial education policies should concentrate on the increase of opportunities for entrepreneurs and on creating a culture of entrepreneurship. Regression analysis revealed that entrepreneurial capacity, personal attraction, social valuation, and entrepreneurial education/economic background significantly predict entrepreneurial intention. Full article

Entrepreneurial risk is an important factor that individuals must consider when starting their own business. The COVID-19 continues to rage, bringing great challenges to China’s economy and entrepreneurial activities. In this study, college students encounter greater entrepreneurial risks. There are two opposing views on the role of entrepreneurial risk in shaping individual entrepreneurial motivation: one view that risk is a threat, and the other view that entrepreneurial risk contains opportunity. Existing studies have discussed the issues from individual factors and environment factors, respectively, ignoring the combined effects of individual and environment factors. Person–situation transactions theory points out that individuals usually make their final behavior choices based on their comprehensive evaluation of environmental factors and themselves. Therefore, individual and environment factors should be integrated to investigate the effect of entrepreneurial risk on entrepreneurial motivation. Based on the person–situation transactions theory, this study establishes a theoretical model that entrepreneurial risk perception influences necessity and opportunity entrepreneurial motivation through entrepreneurial self-efficacy and discusses the moderating effect of entrepreneurship policy. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 595 fresh graduates from eight universities in China to obtain relevant data and the Structural Equation modelling was established to test the hypothesis. The results confirm that without the influence of external factors, college students regard entrepreneurial risk as a great threat, which not only weakens their entrepreneurial self-efficacy, but also reduces their necessity and opportunity entrepreneurial motivation. However, with the support of good entrepreneurial policies, entrepreneurial risk can be transformed into an opportunity to improve the entrepreneurs motivation driven by necessity of college students, but the impact on the opportunity motivation is not significant. This study deeply analyzes the dual characteristics of entrepreneurial risk perception in the process of shaping individual entrepreneurial motivation, expands the related research on entrepreneurial risk perception and entrepreneurial motivation, and has important implications for the government and universities to formulate entrepreneurial policies for college students. Full article

Recent accomplishments in genome sequencing techniques have resulted in vast and complex genomic data sets, which have been used to uncover the genetic correlates of not only strictly medical phenomena but also psychological characteristics such as personality traits. In this commentary, we call for the use of genomic data analysis to unlock the valuable field of the genetics of entrepreneurship. Understanding what makes an entrepreneur and what explains their success is paramount given the importance of entrepreneurship to individual, organizational, and societal growth and success. Most of the studies into the genetics of entrepreneurship have investigated familial entrepreneurial inclinations in the form of parent–offspring comparisons or twin studies. However, these do not offer a complete picture of the etiology of entrepreneurship. The use of big data analytics combined with the rapidly growing field of genetic mapping has the potential to offer a more complete picture of the etiology of entrepreneurship by allowing researchers to pinpoint precisely which genes and pathways underlie entrepreneurial behavior and success. We review the risks and opportunities which accompany this endeavor and make the case that, ultimately, prioritizing more research into the genetics of entrepreneurship has the potential to be of value to both science and society. Full article

The knowledge economy, fostered by knowledge-based innovation, has been linked to entrepreneurial and economic success, especially in OECD countries. Studies have shown the influence of socio-cultural factors on almost every area of economic behavior. However, few studies have attempted to connect these factors to the knowledge economy. Our research bridges this gap. We investigated the impact of socio-cultural factors on knowledge-based innovation, then we also examined whether digitalization impacted knowledge-based innovation, regardless of the influence of socio-cultural factors. Using official data from Russia’s statistical office, we developed a correlation regression model using a linear graphical test and Pearson correlation. Our results show that certain socio-cultural factors significantly influenced knowledge-based innovation. We also found that digitalization could mitigate the negative effects of socio-cultural factors. Digitalization had a positive influence on knowledge-based innovation across all regions and socio-cultural characteristics. Our research provides pioneering analysis of the topic within post-Soviet economies and has huge implications for business practice, policy making, and academic research. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic is a trying time for both businesses and citizens. The measures and restrictions were devastating for the economy. As different countries had their strengths and challenges in dealing with the pandemic, there no unified approach applicable to every context. However, the entrepreneurial initiative is what boosts the economic development in each free market economy. The current paper’s goal is to evaluate how the pandemic affects entrepreneurial initiatives and to determine the degree to which three sets of elements influence these initiatives. The scope of the research is enterprises, working in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the focus is the entrepreneurial initiative among them. The research with the enterprises is based only on a quantitative method—a survey across a representative sample of the general population of the enterprises whose headquarters are registered in the territory of the city of Plovdiv. The representative sample was selected as a random sample of 1000 companies (with an assumed response rate of about 10%), stratified by the size of the enterprise (number of employees) and by the field of economic activity. Statistical analysis was performed using the software product IBM SPSS version 26. The results show that the personal characteristics of the respondents are more relevant to the results rather than the specifics of the enterprise. The relevance of both work experience and ownership of the enterprise as preconditions that create opportunities for entrepreneurial initiatives during the global crisis offers a further empirical contribution. A key theoretical contribution of this study lies in finding evidence that innovativeness has a significant direct effect on behavioral intention to acquire new opportunities during crisis conditions. Full article

The participation of youth in agricultural entrepreneurship (agripreneurship) is beneficial for the sustainable development of agrarian societies that are transitioning towards the commercialization of agriculture. Accordingly, we investigated the phenomena that motivate practicing young, small- and medium-scale agripreneurs to pursue their careers, using the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) as a case study. To achieve this, we applied narrative inquiry techniques to the accounts of 74 young Laotian agripreneurs regarding their entry into agripreneurship. This enabled us to identify and describe common and influential paradigms that were subsequently interpreted from the perspective of entrepreneurship and behavioral studies of career decision making to explain the influence of motivations on the young agripreneurs. Our study has shown that despite the characteristics that set agripreneurship in Laos apart from entrepreneurship in general, commonly identified typologies of entrepreneurial motivation, particularly income, extrinsic benefits and emotional paradigms also motivate Lao youth to become agripreneurs. The application of narrative inquiry has revealed the emphasis some practicing agripreneurs in Laos place on the attainability of their career, which resulted in its practice by both opportunity-driven and necessity-driven entrepreneurs, with implications for the sustainable development of other countries in transition to commercial agriculture. Full article

The fact that personality traits play an important role when it comes to predicting people’s entrepreneurial behavior is currently indisputable. However, so far, the majority of subject literature has focused on employee characteristics in developed countries. To address this gap, research was conducted, including 188 entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises (SME) and 21 highest-level employees in Poland—one of the countries with the most hostile and turbulent environment for entrepreneurial operations in the world. The five personality traits (Big Five) were evaluated using the 60-item scale. There were three objectives of this study: to identify the differences between entrepreneurs and the most effective, highest-level employees, in the context of personality trait intensities, to determine the level of specific trait(s) intensities (OCEAN) of an effective entrepreneur. Finally, to determine whether it is possible to construct a model based on BIG5 to estimate the probability of success as an entrepreneur. The research results imply there are significant differences between successful entrepreneurs and highly effective employees and their personality trait intensities, described in the BIG5 model. Moreover, it is possible to distinguish trait intensity ranges, determining the success as an entrepreneur. Finally, we constructed the empirically based model, which allows us to estimate the chances of an individual succeeding as an entrepreneur with only a 5% error rate. The main factor and common denominator of entrepreneurial effectiveness is the trait of extraversion. The findings of our study are particularly important for the renewable energy sector in Poland, as the last part of green energy implementing blockchain (e.g., the installation and maintenance of wind turbines and solar panels) is being undertaken, in vast majority, by independent contractors and SME owners (entrepreneurs). Full article

Most entrepreneurship studies have an urban focus, and it is studied mainly from the perspective of opportunity exploitation. Rural entrepreneurship presents different characteristics, and it requires analysis from a resource-based view since this kind of entrepreneurial behavior takes place in rural communities under resource constraints. The sustainable livelihood perspective represents a relevant framework in rural entrepreneurship, considering resources and capacities to face poverty in rural areas. Therefore, this study presents a literature review to identify current and emerging issues in rural entrepreneurship from a sustainable livelihood framework. The literature review identifies that the main concepts involved in rural entrepreneurship and sustainable livelihood are women, poverty alleviation, youth, social entrepreneurship, and institutions. Likewise, social capital and human capital prevail as the most relevant capitals in the analyzed documents. The study offers research opportunities in emerging issues related to social entrepreneurship, governance and institutions, livelihood growth, and eco-entrepreneurship for extending the boundaries of rural entrepreneurship from the sustainable livelihood framework. Full article

This paper aims to propose an integrated theoretical model with which to identify the personal characteristics, behaviors, and competencies of individuals who have successfully seen a senior cohousing project through to the residential stability phase. Numerous early-stage senior cohousing projects are registered each year. However, only a few of them are actually built, and when they are, the construction process takes an average of 10 years. Would-be cohousing residents have to put their tenacity and other competencies to the test to overcome the obstacles in their path before their residential complex is completed. The model proposed here analyzes senior cohousing initiatives as entrepreneurial undertakings. To this end, it draws upon a comprehensive review of the literature on entrepreneurship to identify the personal characteristics, behaviors, and competencies typical of entrepreneurs. In this model, participants in senior cohousing projects make use of these entrepreneurial competencies to help them overcome the obstacles to completing their housing development. However, for the would-be cohousing residents, the objective is not simply to build the residential complex but to enjoy the satisfaction and well-being this housing typology offers. Here, too, we find their entrepreneurial competencies can play a role. Full article

Several colleges and universities in the Middle East have been undertaking significant initiatives to forge and foster corporate entrepreneurship. The viability and success of those initiatives rest upon the input of faculty, possessing to various degrees an entrepreneurial orientation that revolves around innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactivity. This study investigates the extent to which individual-level factors moderate the influence of faculty entrepreneurial behavior on the entrepreneurial orientation of higher education institutions in Kuwait. These factors include gender, academic qualifications, teaching experience, school affiliation, scientific productivity, industrial experience, and professional certification. Data were collected using questionnaires filled by 291 faculty members, and the model was analyzed using structural equation modelling. The differences for each faculty characteristic in the structural path coefficients were tested using the Z-score statistics. The eight hypotheses that were partially validated as the most notable findings indicate that entrepreneurial orientation among male or business faculty has a greater impact on their institutions’ organizational, entrepreneurial orientation. In contrast, the differences for the rest of the moderating characteristics were insignificant. The originality of this study pertains to the fact that the scope of faculty intrapreneurship does not seem to be strongly affected by any individual-level characteristic. Full article

Agreed upon by the UN member states, Agenda 2030 assumes joint action for long-term sustainable development. These actions are focused on the implementation of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where actions are assumed to lead to the suppression of negative externalities of human activity. It is stressed that the objectives of sustainable development can only be achieved through deep institutional changes in most dimensions of the economy, including the entrepreneurship dimension. Entrepreneurship plays a pivotal role in the sustainable transformation of the community, as the related activities of companies are the source of the desired structural changes. Entrepreneurial projects make the biggest contribution to the objectives of sustainable development through research and development, investment in new technologies, and innovation. The biggest threat to sustainable entrepreneurship is firms’ aggressive corporate financial strategy, which most often results from CEO overconfidence and aggressive financial behavior. The aim of the article is to indicate differences in corporate financial strategies regarding the status of the company (family or non-family) and CEO characteristics (overconfident or non-overconfident). The fulfilment of this aim by analyzing a selected EU member country (Poland) found more aggressive behavior of overconfident CEOs in non-family firms. It was also found that family firms are a fairly coherent group of companies that implement a more conservative corporate financial strategy regardless of CEO characteristics. We can state that family power can curb CEO overconfidence and its impact on aggressive financial strategy. This means that family firms are much more able to create sustainable entrepreneurship and contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within a market framework. Full article