Karina Bogatyreva

Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance in different environmental settings

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and firm performance across different levels of environmental hostility and market growth. The contingency approach of two-way interactions of EO with each environmental variable is contrasted with the configurational approach of three-way interactions of EO simultaneously with different levels of both environmental variables. Design/methodology/approach – Hierarchical regression analysis is applied for the pooled data set of 163 Finnish and Russian small- and medium-sized enterprises, and supplemented with post hoc analysis of the differences in regression slopes across environmental configurations. Findings – Results show that EO is directly and positively associated with firm performance. However, the strength and direction of this relationship varies by configurations of the external environment variables. Firms achieve superior performance when adopting EO in environments with high levels of bo...

Expertise, university infrastructure and approaches to new venture creation: assessing students who start businesses

Abstract Within the broader literature on contextual determinants of effectual and causal cognitive logics, the paper explores the drivers of causal and effectual reasoning in student-founders of new ventures, particularly focusing on the role of university entrepreneurship-related offerings and student prior business experience. Using the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS), the study involves a sample of 2179 student entrepreneurs from 26 countries. Our findings indicate that university entrepreneurship-related offerings such as curricular programming, co-curricular activities, and financial support play a differentiating role in the proclivity towards causal or effectual approaches across the groups of experienced and inexperienced student entrepreneurs. We also provide evidence that effectuation and causation are not mutually exclusive constructs: they are intertwined and can unfold simultaneously.

From Entrepreneurial Aspirations to Founding a Business: The Case of Russian Students

The formulation of entrepreneurial aspirations represents one of the key stages of the entrepreneurial process. In practice, however, not every declared intention is eventually translated into a viable enterprise, creating the phenomenon of the intention-action gap. This study is based upon the key principles of embeddedness perspective and the theory of planned behavior, considering a variety of factors that are able to increase or diminish the probability of an actual shift from entrepreneurial intentions to concrete start-up activities. These factors include the presence of a family business, support from a university entrepreneurial environment, and the level of development of regional entrepreneurial institutions. An analysis of data on 4,484 students from 32 Russian universities gathered over the course of the international project, the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS), in 2013–2014 revealed a negative correlation between a family business and the probability of a potential entrepreneur’s shift from entrepreneurial aspirations to the actual creation of a start-up enterprise. The development of regional entrepreneurial institutions, on the other hand, exhibits a positive link.