Malin Malmström

Cognitive Constructions of Low‐Profit and High‐Profit Business Models: A Repertory Grid Study of Serial Entrepreneurs

This study shows how the repertory grid methodology can be used to understand entrepreneurs’ cognitive construction of business models and evidence of entrepreneurs’ differential cognition of high–profit and low–profit business models. We show that entrepreneurs are more cognitively complex and more nuanced in constructing high–profit business models than low–profit business models. Furthermore, although they are perceived as meaningful, low–profit business models are characterized by relatively less clear cognitive constructions. This study suggests that the repertory grid technique may be useful for future research and entrepreneurship practice to understand the entrepreneurial cognition of business models.

Gender Stereotypes and Venture Support Decisions: How Governmental Venture Capitalists Socially Construct Entrepreneurs’ Potential

In the present study, we conduct a discourse analysis on a set of longitudinal observations of government venture capitalists’ decisions to identify how gender stereotypes are socially constructed and activated when assessing entrepreneurs’ potential in the financial distribution of venture support. The present study finds that female entrepreneurs risk receiving significantly less venture capital, which is caused by the language and rhetoric used that relates to gender differences when funding decisions are made. We consider and discuss the implications of our results for related research about distributing venture capital and the social constructions of female and male entrepreneurs.

Modelling competence acquisition in small firms

Prior research has not given much attention to competence acquisition in small firms. In response, we developed a competence acquisition model in a sample of 842 small firms. We then tested the model through multiple regression analyses. The model acknowledges the influence of factors related to the entrepreneur, the business concept, and the small firms existing competence based on how it acquires competence (whether it uses internal, social network, or market modes) and how this selection of modes of competence acquisition influences performance. In support of a contingency view, we find that certain antecedents seem to have different kinds of influence on the modes of competence acquisition in sub-samples characterised by different levels of internal organisational complexity and external environmental uncertainty. The influence of internal acquisition on firm performance is robust across the samples. We discuss the implications of our findings and suggest areas for future research.

Teachers’ leadership: a maker or a breaker of students’ educational motivation

ABSTRACT Teachers’ leadership plays a critical and central role in students’ educational motivations. This indicates that, in the school context, a teacher’s leadership can have both positive and negative impacts on students’ educational motivation and performance. This article explores these assumptions, building on the path-goal theory, more specifically the effects of teachers’ leadership from students’ perspectives. Using a qualitative research design, this study collected data comprising 35 interviews with children and young people in both primary and upper-secondary school. The results show that the degree of teachers’ developmental leadership greatly affects students’ educational motivation and school performance. Two contrasting teachers’ profiles were found: teachers with a high degree of developmental leadership and teachers with a low degree of developmental leadership. Our findings suggest that teachers with the profile of a high degree of developmental leadership create an environment that fosters educational motivation positively among students, facilitating students’ achievement of high performance levels and a sense of well-being about their studies. In contrast, we show that teachers with a low degree of developmental leadership create an environment that is nonconductive for educational motivation, performance or the welfare of schoolwork.

What Motivates Students? A Study on the Effects of Teacher Leadership and Students' Self-Efficacy.

Abstract Students’ educational motivation is significant for performance and achieving learning, but little is known about what fuels such motivation. Educational motivation is regarded as the drive and inner state that energise educational activities, facilitate learning and channel behaviour towards achieving educational goals. Educational motivation paves the way for students to learn and acquire the knowledge that is essential for successful study outcomes. This article aims to explore what determines students’ educational motivation. Building on the self-determination theory, we modelled the influence of teachers’ leadership and students’ self-efficacy on students’ educational motivation. We used survey data from a sample of upper secondary school students in Sweden; we received a total of 993 answers, equal to a response rate of 74%. The results show that students’ self-efficacy and teacher leadership are of extreme importance for students’ educational motivation, and that highly efficacious students lose most educational motivation when the teacher’s leadership is poor. The results thus support the importance of teachers’ leadership for encouraging student learning.

How vague entrepreneurial identities of Swedish women entrepreneurs are performed by government financiers: A New Look at Women’s Entrepreneurship Research

How vague entrepreneurial identities of Swedish women entrepreneurs are performed by government financiers