Search Results (134)

Problem: Entrepreneurship education continues to expand, yet it remains fragmented across disciplines and loosely connected to the knowledge, innovation, and venture ecosystems that shape entrepreneurial success. At the same time, AI is transforming research, collaboration, and venture development, but its use in education is typically limited to narrow, task-specific applications rather than ecosystem-level integration. Objective: This paper seeks to develop a comprehensive conceptual model for integrating AI into entrepreneurship education by positioning AI as a connective infrastructure that links and activates the knowledge, innovation, and venture ecosystems. Methods: The model is derived through an integrative synthesis of literature, programs, and activities on entrepreneurship education, ecosystem-based learning, and AI-enabled research and innovation practices, combined with an analysis of gaps in current educational approaches. Key Findings: The proposed model defines a progressive learning pathway consisting of (1) AI competency training that builds foundational capacities in critical judgment, responsible application, and creative adaptation; (2) AI praxis labs that use AI-curated ecosystem data to support iterative, project-based learning; and (3) venture studios where students scale outputs into innovations and ventures through structured ecosystem engagement. This pathway demonstrates how AI can function as a structural mediator of problem definition, research design, experimentation, analysis, and narrative translation. Contributions: This paper reframes entrepreneurship education as an iterative, inclusive, and ecosystem-connected process enabled by AI infrastructure. It offers a new theoretical lens for understanding AI’s educational role and provides actionable implications for curriculum design, institutional readiness, and policy development while identifying avenues for future research on competency development and ecosystem impacts. Full article

Existing research suggests that information asymmetry remains a core barrier to entrepreneurial firms’ external financing. Drawing on signaling theory and a signal cost perspective, this study examines how two key entrepreneurial signals—high-cost patent signals and low-cost international market orientation (IMO) signals—shape the scale of firms’ external financing in Korea. We argue that although both signals are positively associated with financing scale, their effectiveness is differentially conditioned by investment discourse sentiment. Specifically, positive discourse sentiment amplifies the financing effects of both signals, whereas negative discourse sentiment attenuates the effect of IMO but strengthens the impact of patent signals, indicating that in pessimistic contexts investors rely more heavily on high-cost, externally verifiable signals when valuing and allocating capital. Using data from the Korean Venture Business Survey (2021–2023) and investment discourse sentiment measures constructed via LDA topic modeling and dictionary-based sentiment extraction, our empirical analyses support these hypotheses. Full article

This article analyzes how Austrian economic principles contribute to bioeconomic development in Ecuador, emphasizing key aspects such as property rights, spontaneous order, entrepreneurial innovation, institutional frameworks and decentralized knowledge. The relevance of incorporating an instrumental case was established, in which the scale, composition, and technology (SCT) effects model was applied to the comparative analysis of Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil during the 2000–2023 period. This study was complemented by multiple linear regression, which was used to evaluate the relationship between economic growth, CO₂ emissions, the agricultural industry, foreign direct investment, and a composite bioeconomy index. The results showed complete decoupling between GDP and emissions in Ecuador, driven by technological improvements and transformations in key sectors such as agriculture and renewable energy. Chile and Brazil also showed paths of complete decoupling, although to a lesser extent for the latter, while Argentina exhibited relative decoupling, in which bioeconomic growth continues to be associated with an increase in emissions. The estimated models present an R² (between 0.81 and 0.91). This study shows that it is possible to move towards a sustainable bioeconomy. Full article

On 7 October 2023, Israel experienced a large-scale attack, initiating the Iron Swords War (also known internationally as the 2023 Israel–Hamas War). This protracted armed conflict profoundly disrupted social and economic life in Israel and the region. This study investigates the psychological distress of small business owners in the aftermath of this terrorist assault and during the ensuing conflict. Drawing on a nationwide survey of 363 entrepreneurs, we applied a two-stage higher-order PLS-SEM model to examine how economic stressors, psychological and institutional resources, and demographic factors shaped distress. The findings reveal that uncertainty and revenue loss intensified distress, while resilience, hope, and trust in government operated as protective resources, with notable gender differences also observed. Beyond its economic and psychological relevance, the study situates entrepreneurial distress within a broader public health perspective, viewing the mental health and well-being of small business owners as integral to community resilience, social stability, and national recovery during crises. By framing entrepreneurial distress and resilience as key determinants of population mental health and collective well-being, this research underscores how supporting entrepreneurs contributes to wider health promotion and psychosocial recovery efforts. Overall, the study offers a novel multidimensional empirical analysis of entrepreneurial distress during armed conflict, underscoring the psychological mechanisms through which terrorism and its aftermath affect small business owners, and highlighting the need for resilience-building and institutional support to mitigate mental health burdens. Full article

Entrepreneurship is increasingly important for economic and societal innovation, yet the individual characteristics that encourage entrepreneurial entry remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether character strengths, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and highly sensitive person (HSP) traits influence entrepreneurial entry. Two independent web-based surveys were conducted, with ADHD assessed using a psychological scale in Study 1 and self-reported medical diagnosis in Study 2. The Character Strengths Test24 showed a revised factor structure, and an extracted factor (Drive) positively influenced entrepreneurial entry in both samples. ADHD (Hyperactivity/Impulsivity) consistently facilitated entrepreneurial entry, while HSP (Ease of Excitation) inhibited it. The robust positive contribution of ADHD traits across both symptomatic and clinically diagnosed individuals suggests that entrepreneurial potential is not limited by clinical labels and may also be found among individuals who are often marginalized, misunderstood, or discouraged in traditional career pathways. These findings highlight the importance of educational and support systems that not only develop character strengths linked to entrepreneurial drive but also recognize, accommodate, and strategically leverage diverse neuropsychological traits. Empowering individuals with varied cognitive profiles may expand pathways to innovation and contribute to a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem. Full article

Using survey data from five countries in the Southeast Europe (SEE) region, we examine the factors that contribute to the green career intention. As expected, the prior pro-environmental orientation, as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm scale, is associated with green career intention. In addition, there is also a significant association between prior volunteering and the observed career plans. Other factors, including gender, age, study level, social background, and work-related experiences, did not prove to be empirically significant predictors in this context. There is an interesting, but insignificant, tendency among SEE business students at higher study levels to choose green careers; however, seemingly important career determinants, such as work experience, managerial experience, and entrepreneurial experience, do not appear to matter at all. The examined model explains only a small portion of the variation in career intentions, indicating that a wealth of factors remain to be accounted for in future research. We conclude the study with a discussion of implications for business education in the SEE region and offer recommendations for fostering ESG talent in emerging economies. Full article

Based on Social Cognitive Theory and Positive Psychology, this study addresses a research gap by examining internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediating mechanism between psychological capital and internet entrepreneurial intention in the digital context—a relationship rarely explored among engineering students in Eastern European economies. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional design, data were collected from 900 undergraduates enrolled in three Romanian technical universities who completed a set of specific instruments. Entrepreneurial intention was measured with the Individual Entrepreneurial Intent Scale adapted for online entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the online context was assessed using the Internet Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy Scale; and psychological capital was measured with the Psychological Capital Questionnaire adapted for the student environment. The mediation analysis conducted through PROCESS-macro showed that psychological capital exerts a significant indirect effect on internet entrepreneurial intention via internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Psychological capital exerted a strong effect on internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy (β = 0.538), which in turn influenced the intention to start an online business (β = 0.213), while the direct effect on internet entrepreneurial intention remained relatively reduced (β = 0.037). The results indicate that positive psychological resources foster entrepreneurial intention by strengthening confidence specific to the digital environment. This study advances Social Cognitive Theory by demonstrating that internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy operates as the proximal cognitive pathway through which psychological capital is translated into entrepreneurial intention in online settings, clarifying how general psychological resources acquire domain-specific relevance in digital entrepreneurship. Full article

This study advances the literature on digital entrepreneurship by examining how Information Technology Culture (ITC) and Technology Orientation (TO) influence entrepreneurial intentions through the mediating role of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (ESE) and the moderating role of Social Support (SS) within the context of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. By integrating psychological, cultural, and technological constructs, the research offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the internal drivers of digital venture creation in youth. Data were collected via an online survey targeting Saudi youth and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Validated scales measured ITC, TO, ESE, SS, and Digital Entrepreneurship Intention (DEI), with a sample of 372 participants predominantly under age 30. Findings reveal that while ITC and TO do not directly predict DEI, both exert significant indirect effects through ESE, underscoring the central role of psychological self-belief in entrepreneurial motivation. The moderating effect of SS on the ESE–DEI relationship was non-significant, suggesting that internal efficacy may outweigh external validation in this context. The sample’s demographic skew90.9% male and 99.5% under 30limits generalizability, though it aligns with the most digitally active segment of the population. The cross-sectional design restricts causal inference, and future research should explore longitudinal and gender-balanced samples to validate and extend these findings. This study provides actionable insights for policymakers and educators aiming to foster digital entrepreneurship by enhancing ESE through targeted training, cultural alignment, and strategic technology exposure, especially among youth populations driving Saudi Arabia’s innovation agenda. Full article

Data-driven text classification technology is crucial for understanding and managing a large number of entrepreneurial policy-related texts, yet it is hindered by two primary challenges. First, the intricate, multi-faceted nature of policy documents often leads to insufficient information extraction, as existing models struggle to synergistically leverage diverse information types, such as statistical regularities, linguistic structures, and external factual knowledge, resulting in semantic sparsity. Second, the performance of state-of-the-art deep learning models is heavily reliant on large-scale annotated data, a resource that is scarce and costly to acquire in entrepreneurial policy domains, rendering models susceptible to overfitting and poor generalization. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a Multi-granularity Invariant Structure Learning (MISL) model. Specifically, MISL first employs a multi-view feature engineering module that constructs and fuses distinct statistical, linguistic, and knowledge graphs to generate a comprehensive and rich semantic representation, thereby alleviating semantic sparsity. Furthermore, to enhance robustness and generalization from limited data, we introduce a dual invariant structure learning framework. This framework operates at two levels: (1) sample-invariant representation learning uses data augmentation and mutual information maximization to learn the essential semantic core of a text, invariant to superficial perturbations; (2) neighborhood-invariant semantic learning applies a contrastive objective on a nearest-neighbor graph to enforce intra-class compactness and inter-class separability in the feature space. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed MISL model significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines, proving its effectiveness and robustness for classifying complex texts in entrepreneurial policy domains. Full article

This study evaluates the income effects of China’s Major Agricultural Technology Collaborative Extension Program (MATCEP) using CFPS panel data and a Difference-in-Differences model. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how large-scale collaborative agricultural extension affects farmers’ income and its underlying mechanisms. The results show that the program significantly raises farm household income through two mechanisms: production expansion, achieved via lower transaction costs and land consolidation, and quality upgrading, driven by improved technical efficiency and standardization. The effects are stronger among entrepreneurial and financially constrained households. These findings demonstrate that coordinated extension systems linking research, education, and production effectively translate technological progress into rural income growth. Full article

This study aims to develop an entrepreneurial literacy model for mompreneurs that contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 (poverty reduction) and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 (decent work and economic growth), focusing on how entrepreneurial literacy transforms into financial behavior and fosters innovation in micro-business management. A qualitative case study was conducted in several districts of Makassar City, Indonesia. Participants were selected based on their status as mompreneurs and their type of business. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observations, and documentation, then analyzed using a thematic spiral model. Entrepreneurial literacy, obtained through formal and informal education, translates into financial behaviors such as basic planning, financial management, and reporting. Innovation emerges through improved creativity, marketing, customer relationships, product development, and service enhancement. This study proposes a conceptual model linking entrepreneurial literacy, financial behavior, and innovation, offering insights for developing training programs that empower women in entrepreneurship. The scope of this study is limited to mompreneurs operating micro-scale businesses in Makassar City; therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to different socio-economic contexts. Nevertheless, the results provide theoretical implications for enriching entrepreneurial literacy models from an accounting perspective and practical implications for policymakers to design gender-responsive entrepreneurship and financial literacy programs. Full article

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

Digital inclusive finance (DIF) serves as a critical mechanism for sustainable economic development among marginalized populations. However, DIF’s impact on China’s 376 million migrants remains understudied, despite their significance for inclusive growth. This study provides the first comprehensive empirical analysis of DIF–migrant entrepreneurship relationships using nationally representative data and multiple analytical approaches. Three key findings emerge: First, DIF significantly reduces entrepreneurship likelihood among migrant populations (marginal effect: −0.449, p < 0.01). Second, heterogeneity analysis reveals differential impacts across entrepreneurial motivations—specifically, inhibiting necessity-driven entrepreneurship (marginal effect: −0.426) while showing no significant impact on opportunity-driven entrepreneurship. Third, while DIF reduces overall entrepreneurial participation, it substantially enhances income levels and the employment scale of existing migrant entrepreneurs. Mechanism analysis reveals that DIF operates through expanding urban employment demand and raising wage levels, thereby increasing entrepreneurship’s opportunity cost for migrants. These findings provide evidence for leveraging digital finance to achieve SDG 8 (Decent Work) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) while ensuring equitable access to digital dividends for vulnerable populations. Full article

Business financing involves supplying funds or capital to initiate, expand, or maintain a business. This study investigates entrepreneurial funding in South Africa, emphasizing microloans, venture capital, and gender-sensitive grants as tools to facilitate inclusive business growth. Using a qualitative desktop research methodology, this study relies on policy documents, institutional reports, and peer-reviewed studies to assess how these funding strategies tackle access barriers for marginalized populations, specifically women, youth, and rural entrepreneurs. Guided by Access to Finance Theory, Gender Finance Theory, and Innovation Ecosystems Theory, this study indicates that microloans offer immediate funding for informal businesses but show minimal long-term effects without additional assistance. Venture capital promotes rapid innovation, yet it is predominantly based in urban regions and unattainable for underrepresented populations. Grants that address gender issues foster equity but are obstructed by institutional fragmentation and insufficient scale. The results highlight the necessity for unified financing frameworks that merge financial and non-financial assistance, facilitating scalable and inclusive business ventures. Policy suggestions involve aligning public financing tools with the National Integrated Small Enterprise Development Masterplan, integrating gender-sensitive budgeting frameworks, and utilizing digital financial platforms to enhance access. Future studies should utilize mixed-methods or longitudinal approaches to assess the ongoing developmental effects of coordinated financing models within the South African setting. Full article

Based on the theoretical framework of systems thinking, this study investigates the mechanism of systems thinking in promoting entrepreneurial persistence among technology entrepreneurs in China’s digital economy development. From a dynamic complex systems perspective, 409 technology entrepreneurs from China, were measured using the systems thinking scale, the psychological ownership scale, the resource bricolage scale, and the entrepreneurial persistence scale. Systems thinking among technology entrepreneurs has been found to enhance entrepreneurial persistence significantly. Psychological ownership of technology entrepreneurs partially mediates the process of systems thinking influencing entrepreneurial persistence. Resource bricolage positively moderates the systems thinking process, influencing entrepreneurial persistence among technology entrepreneurs. This study innovatively introduces systems thinking into the field of technology entrepreneurship, reveals the relationship between systems thinking and entrepreneurial persistence of technology entrepreneurs, and provides theoretical guidance for Chinese technology entrepreneurs to enhance entrepreneurial persistence through systems thinking. Full article