Antonio Thomas

The Perception of the Contextual Factors as Predictor of Entrepreneurial Intent: Evidences from an Empirical Survey

Identifying people interested into starting-up a business is becoming more and more relevant. As widely recognized, two key aspects affecting on start-up are the role of the external context factors and the influence of entrepreneurial competencies.With this in mind, the paper shows an application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour with the aim to assess factors believed to affect entrepreneurial intent among engineering students. As the use of well thought-out and research-tested intent models is believed to provide a good means of examining the precursors to business start-up, the survey provides a test of the robustness of the intent approach and then examines the influence of some predictors within the contextual factors.Consistently with other leading articles, the results evidence that attitudes and perceived behavioural control effectively predicts entrepreneurial intent, while social norms have no effects. As regards the role of contextual factors and entrepreneurial competencies, they exhibit indirect effects on intent via entrepreneurial attitudes and perceived behavioural control. Thus, their contribution to favour academic entrepreneurship is confirmed. The result of the study also has valuable implications for the university system.

Start-up competitions as learning environment to foster the entrepreneurial process

Purpose The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to shed light on the increasing start-up competitions (SUCs) phenomenon; second, to provide an interpretive framework to understand whether the SUCs have the potential to be effective entrepreneurial learning environment; third, to analyse the different roles of public and private actors in organizing SUCs. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a cross-section analysis of the Italian SUCs population. In total, 77 competitions are analysed on the basis of different criteria which should properly mirror their distinguishing structural features, helping understand the potential of SUCs as learning environments. Findings The recent increase in the number of SUCs has been mainly fuelled by private actors. Moreover, Italian SUCs show some features that make them rich learning environments. Private and public actors play different roles, as confirmed by statistical tests performed. Privately organized SUCs follow mainly a market-oriented approach, while publicly organized ones are more education oriented. Research limitations/implications The findings cannot be easily generalized mainly due to the peculiarities of the Italian context. Practical implications Soft forms of regulation should be defined to strengthen those features which could potentially support the entrepreneurial learning processes. In this view, SUCs should be part of a start-up friendly ecosystem where actors (startuppers, incubators, venture capitalists) are effectively coordinated with each other. Originality/value Despite the remarkable diffusion of SUCs, there are significant gaps in literature about this phenomenon. Given the lack of a systematic and comprehensive analysis of SUCs as effective entrepreneurial learning environments, the paper represents an important starting point.

The Emergence of Innovative Entrepreneurship: Beyond the Intention — Investigating the Participants in an Academic SUC

To stem the increasing competitiveness of many newcomer countries, managerial and business literature underlines the necessity to favor entrepreneurship in high tech and innovative sectors. From this perspective, an increasingly important role in the generation of innovative entrepreneurship is carried out by the universities, which are natural incubators of borderline and cutting-edge technologies. With this in mind, the present study explores the entrepreneurial intention among a population of academics participating at a start-up competition (SUC) that view entrepreneurship as an opportunity-driven choice to give value to their researches. Two variables affecting the entrepreneurial intention among these participants are specifically examined: the perception of external environment and the perception of subjective competencies. To test the intention, the paper refers to the widespread Theory of Planned Behaviour, currently recognised as one of the most influential theoretical model. The results of the ...

Role and potentiality of start-up competitions. An overview of the italian context

The emergence of an entrepreneurial society in the Western countries presupposes the diffusion of a larger number of start-ups, due to their role in the industrial renewal of the economic system. To this aim, a relevant role could be entrusted to the start-up competitions (SUCs). In the last few years SUCs are exploiting a wide diffusion around the world. Nevertheless, there is a gap in literature about their impact on the entrepreneurial choice and a comprehensive monitoring of how they actually work. In this view, the paper displays a cross-section analysis of Italian SUCs to individuate their main features and potential influences on the environment. The survey shows that their diffusion is accompanied from deep change processes due to first of all at the stronger interest of private organizers in promoting SUCs. Coherently, SUCs are becoming more and more internationalized and specialized. The risk is to transform them in an instrument subservient only to the industrial logic.

Prospettive e criticità delle aziende di gestione dei servizi aeroportuali. Un’analisi territoriale

Il contributo intende rappresentare la situazione attuale e prospettica dei gestori dei servizi aeroportuali del Mezzogiorno alla luce della privatizzazione che sta determinando l’ingresso di societa private in un’area finora saldamente in mano pubblica; con le conseguenze che cio comporta in termini di dimensionamento dell’offerta e di prezzi dei servizi resi. Una situazione che potrebbe rivelarsi problematica per tutti quegli aeroporti la cui redditivita non consente di perseguire le condizioni di autosufficienza o di raggiungere una dimensione competitiva a livello nazionale ed internazionale. Per sperare di inserirsi con successo nei flussi di traffico, gli scali dovranno attrezzarsi adeguatamente con consistenti investimenti, sia in fase realizzativa sia nella manutenzione delle strutture, in quanto la presenza di una dotazione adeguatamente estesa e funzionale e un prerequisito per l’attrazione delle aerolinee; dunque all’espansione dei volumi di passeggeri e merci. Basandosi sull’analisi di dati ufficiali, sui riscontri di pregresse indagini empiriche e su interviste dirette a testimoni privilegiati, si valutano le prospettive dei gestori aeroportuali alla luce della loro aspirazione di configurarsi come un vero e proprio sistema mirante a soddisfare una domanda crescente di mobilita.

La relazione tra ruolo imprenditoriale e piccole aziende ad alto potenziale

This paper is addressed to discuss about the subjective characteristics of entrepreneurs that allow them to start or to run small firms able to contribute in a stable and relevant manner to the local development (high-potential firms). For this purpose a literature analysis and a field research based on a sample of 101 small firms have been conducted. This topic is discussed with reference to a backward area context which is also characterized by the presence of many policy measures aimed to directly support small business. Some policy measures indication emerge, that address the necessity to propose innovative instruments aimed to reinforce and to support, in a business management perspective, the entrepreneurial role in order to sustain the economic development.