Sandrine Emin

Students and Entrepreneurship: A comparative study France - United States

Abstract This research paper analyzes the differences in sensibility regarding the creation of enterprises among French and American students. The research measures not only students’ intentions to start up an enterprise but also their attitudes toward the creation of an enterprise, their perceptions of social norms and their feelings of being able to manage the entrepreneurial process. The research compares their beliefs in order to identify differences and similarities. The paper analyzes the professional values of students (i.e. the professional characteristics which they value), their vision of entrepreneurship (the needs they think will be satisfied by entrepreneurship), and their degree of confidence in their capabilities to properly manage tasks deemed critical to starting a new business via the entrepreneurial process. Descriptive and data analyses are run on the results of a questionnaire administrated to 272 American students enrolled in marketing and management classes at the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University (GA) and 340 French students, studying economics and management at the Université Pierre Mendès France (Grenoble 2). The results show that the intention to start up a company is stronger in the US than in France, and show important differences in beliefs. Taking into consideration the whole sample, first we have control beliefs, and then, behavioral beliefs, which explain students’ entrepreneurship intentions. We thus characterize three clusters of students with homogeneous entrepreneurship behaviors. Because nationality clearly comes to light, we pursue the analyses separately for each country and we describe, in this way, three typical behaviors for each.

Urban Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurs: A Closer Look at Cultural Quarters and the Creative Clustering Process in Nantes (France)

This chapter deals with the genesis of an urban cultural and creative cluster (CCC) as a collective system of cultural and creative entrepreneurs and very small companies. Beginning with a longitudinal case study of the trajectory of a CCC, the purpose is to address the analysis framework of the clustering process and to identify the keys actors in the cluster life cycle. The methodology is based on a 6-year qualitative study of the French “Quartier de la creation” in Nantes. The findings confirm the prevailing view of the CCC as a dynamic organization. It shows distinct stages, with specific key actors and governance practices. It reveals difficulties in shaping the roles of the support organization, the interactions with the small firms, and the collective competencies to build amongst the cultural and creative entrepreneurs. The governance mechanisms and cluster practices of some localized groupings of cultural entrepreneurs and very small creative enterprises require balancing institutional and entrepreneurial approaches, which results in hybrid cluster practices based on ambidextrous management mechanisms.

How does the non-profit economy affect entrepreneurship?

How and on what basis can we can analyse the entrepreneurial process in the non-profit sector? This article is based on a critical discussion of four paradigms – value creation, innovation, business opportunity and creation of organisation – analysed by Verstraete and Fayolle (2005). We examine how these four paradigms can help analyse social entrepreneurship. We suggest that the non-profit sector challenges these four paradigms of entrepreneurship. They suffer from limitations due to assumptions that are not compatible with the non-profit sector. Lastly we conclude that a new set of assumptions should be introduced to provide new insight into social entrepreneurship.