Pekka Stenholm

Perceived Learning Outcomes in Entrepreneurship Education: The Impact of Student Motivation and Team Behaviour

Purpose – This paper aims to address the impact of a persons motivation to study entrepreneurship on their subsequent levels of performance in terms of the generation of business ideas, while taking into account the effect of student team behaviour.Design/methodology/approach – The paper hypothesises that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as well as team behaviour influence the learning outcome and that team behaviour moderates the relationship between motivation and learning outcomes. A survey was used to generate data. A total of 117 students, who participated in pre‐programme, and post‐programme surveys, provided the sample data. First, explorative factor analyses were employed to examine the latent variables. Second, hierarchical lineal regression analyses were carried out to test the proposed hypotheses.Findings – It was found that intrinsic motivation has a negative effect on the learning outcome while extrinsic motivation had a positive one. However, the team (and in particular the resources...

Innovative Behavior as a Moderator of Growth Intentions

Although several studies suggest that both growth intentions and innovative behavior have positive effects on firm growth, little is known about how innovative behavior interacts with the intentions and the growth. This study examines its role in this relationship. Longitudinal data composed of 232 observations show that the innovative behavior itself has a positive effect on firm growth. However, innovative behavior negatively moderates the effect of growth intentions on growth. Of the analyzed dimensions of such behavior, the launching of new products and services, in particular, impedes the chances of realizing the growth intentions. In conclusion, the identified moderating effect of innovative behavior gives a new insight into existing knowledge on the effect of growth intentions on firm growth.

The role of creativity in opportunity search and business idea creation

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationships between student creativity, various opportunity search strategies, and the viability of business ideas developed during an entrepreneurship education module.Design/methodology/approach – The paper sets out hypotheses on the associations between individual creativity, opportunity search strategies and the viability of business ideas generated. A group of 117 students provided the sample data by participating in pre‐programme and post‐programme surveys. Explorative factor analysis was employed to examine latent variables, and factor structures were confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modelling was then used to test the resulting hypotheses.Findings – The results show that creativity is not directly associated with the viability of the business idea. Creativity does, however, strengthen the creative opportunity search strategies and the use of opportunity identification strategies based on knowledge acquisition. Accordingly...

Firm Growth in Family Businesses - The Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation and the Entrepreneurial Activity

Previous studies show that growth is an important goal for businesses, but little is known of how the entrepreneurial orientation–performance relationship works in family businesses and how this differs from their nonfamily peers. We examine that and how entrepreneurial activity mediates the relationship in family and nonfamily businesses. Our results on 532 firms show that family businesses benefit from innovative orientation, which is both directly and indirectly associated with firm growth via entrepreneurial activity. This association does not exist in nonfamily businesses. Furthermore, risk taking does not influence family business growth even if it does in nonfamily businesses.

Transfers of business planning and bounded emotionality: a follow‐up case study

Purpose – Existing research focuses on the role of planning in successful transfers of family business. From a bounded emotionality perspective, this paper aims to investigate the transfer of business processes and the underlying reasons for delayed or unplanned transfers despite the feasible succession plans.Design/methodology/approach – A follow‐up case study in six small family firms was carried out between 2001 and 2008. The research material was collected primarily in interviews with firm representatives in 2001 and 2008. Further information was obtained through participant observation, and background data on the firms were also used.Findings – The analysis enhances understanding of business‐transfer processes in the context of subjective limitations and relational feelings. Any divergence from the original conditions in the transfer plan may delay the process but the delays are tolerated by putting the transfer on hold in the daily activities and focusing on business routines instead. The results em...

Identifying and understanding entrepreneurial decision-making logics in entrepreneurship education

It is unclear how nascent entrepreneurs make decisions during the venture creation process. The purpose of this paper is to investigate decision-making logics and their transformation over time among student entrepreneurs who aim to create new business ventures in the higher education setting.,The study employs the mixed methods approach through the use of survey and observation data. The longitudinal survey data comprise three surveys collected via an internet-aided tool. The constructs of causation and effectuation are measured using previously tested scales (Chandler et al., 2011). Non-participant observation data were collected during the course, focussing on the venture creation processes of four different start-ups, and were analysed thematically.,The findings show three transformation patterns – doubts in how to proceed, unwillingness to proceed, and unsatisfactory team dynamics – that led individuals towards a coping decision-making logic in which no causation or effectuation is emphasised. The findings illustrate that, despite this stage of decision-making logic, the learning process continues: Even if no new business venture is launched, entrepreneurship education can still generate learning outcomes that improve students’ understanding of entrepreneurship as well as understanding of themselves as entrepreneurs.,This study brings the theories of causation and effectuation into the teaching of entrepreneurship. Of particular value to scholars is the fact that the study generates new understanding of the decision-making logics during new venture creation. Accordingly, this study sheds new light on the transformation and complementarity of the decision-making logic of an individual as new ventures emerge in an educational context reflecting the real-life start-up context.

The Influence of the Quality of Government Institutions on Entrepreneurial Motivation: Exploring the Variance across Countries

Despite the increasing understanding of the relationships between institutions and entrepreneurship, the influence of the quality of government institutions on entrepreneurship is less addressed. This paper focuses on this critical eterminant of entrepreneurship in developing and developed ountries. Drawing from institutional theory we hypothesize and empirically assess the role of the quality of institutions in entrepreneurial activity. We examine how the quality of government institutions influences the rate of necessity-based entrepreneurial activity across countries and over time by using a cross-sectional time-series approach on data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database covering the years 2001–2011. Our results suggest that higher economic development associated with better quality of institutions reduces the prevalence of necessity-based entrepreneurship. Our findings imply that developing countries must rationally organize their functions, and seek to remove unnecessary barriers, decrease political instability, and controls that hamper entrepreneurial activity.

Necessity or Opportunity? The Effects of State Fragility and Economic Development on Entrepreneurial Efforts:

This paper studies the effects of state fragility and economic development on necessity and opportunity-based individual entrepreneurial efforts. We contribute to the literature on the contextual determinants of entrepreneurship by examining multilevel data on 956,925 individuals from 51 countries for the period of 2005–2013. We show that state fragility has a positive effect on necessity-based entrepreneurial efforts while hindering opportunity-based efforts. Our findings illustrate that the level of economic development moderates the relationship between state fragility and necessity-driven entrepreneurial efforts reducing the likelihood of the latter. We discuss the implications for theory and for proentrepreneurship policy.

Institutional Drivers of Informal Entrepreneurship

There is increasing scholarly interest in informal entrepreneurship. We empirically examine how institutions interact to influence the informal entrepreneurship. Using a novel multi-source dataset we test institutional drivers of informal entrepreneurship in 28 innovation-driven countries during 2004-2011. Our results show that cognitive institutions inhibit informal entrepreneurship. Contrary to received wisdom in the literature, we find no relationship between regulatory institutions, normative institutions and the rate of informal entrepreneurship in innovation-driven countries. We find that regulatory institutions moderate the influence of cognitive institutions on informal entrepreneurship. Our study on informal entrepreneurship advances knowledge on heterogeneous entrepreneurial outcomes.

The Hierarchical Structure of Dynamic Capabilities and Evolutionary Fitness of the Firm

This study introduces and validates a model of the hierarchical structure of dynamic capabilities. The hierarchical aspect has mostly seen conceptual theorizing while empirical evidence on the complex relationship between the different levels and firm performance is still scarce. Our findings reveal the complex relationships between dynamic capabilities and the evolutionary fitness of the firm. Our results drawn from data comprising 532 firms show that the higher order, regenerative and renewing, capabilities have an indirect positive influence on firm’s evolutionary fitness. Further, the results show that regenerative capabilities are negatively associated with evolutionary fitness. The incremental capabilities have positive direct effect on the evolutionary fitness of the firm which supports the assumed mediating role of incremental capabilities in the relationship between higher order capabilities and firm’s evolutionary fitness.