Silke Tegtmeier

Gender perspectives on university education and entrepreneurship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to recent research on women’s entrepreneurship with a focus on university education. A literature review and a summary of authors’ selected papers provide both a context for and an introduction to the articles in this special issue. Design/methodology/approach – This introduction provides an overview of the literature on female entrepreneurship with specific reference to the context of university education. Searches on Web of Science and in this journal were conducted to provide a systematic overview of the area of research. This introductory article ends with a set of propositions for future research engagement. Findings – This paper finds that the quantum of past research endeavours remains limited despite the growing significance of the subject. This paper also finds that developing a focused approach that is based on a female ontology of entrepreneurship, and one that identifies specific contexts, and appropriate methodological considerations ...

Introduction: Reopening the Debate – A Delphi Panel of the Leading Scholars in Research on Entrepreneurial Opportunities

The creation or emergence of a marketable opportunity that promises significant prospects for gain represents the key factor in the entrepreneurial process. The decision to create a new venture often arises from the belief that a unique opportunity has been created or identified. The entrepreneurial opportunity has become widely accepted as a central concept in the field of entrepreneurship research (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). Opportunities can be conceptualized from different viewpoints, such as the objectivist (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000; Alvarez and Barney, 2007) or constructivist (Alvarez and Barney, 2007; Dyer et al., 2008; Read et al., 2009; Wood and McKinley, 2010) perspectives. In very broad terms, we can define the entrepreneurial opportunity as the ability to identify or develop an idea for a new product or service, and to transform it into a valuable and profitable business concept. Opportunities can be addressed from, for example, an environmental perspective or from the individual perspective of the person who identifies a potential opportunity. Although there is a body of research on this key aspect of entrepreneurship, no consensus has yet been reached as to what constitutes an opportunity about either the opportunity creation or the identification process. This also holds true for research on the factors explaining who creates opportunities. Scholars should further examine how the concept of opportunity can be measured more precisely and effectively.

Business Entry and Window of Opportunity – Empirical Results for Women Entrepreneurs with Graduate Degree

This paper explores the nascence period - the time between idea generation and business entry - among women entrepreneurs with a graduate degree. To address this research problem and to better understand the specifics of a window of opportunity, we combine selected theories of human and social capital and set up three hypotheses regarding the influence of different factors on the nascence period. To test our hypotheses, we used a representative sample of 678 graduate women entrepreneurs in Germany and ran a logit of regression on the nascence period. The estimated model revealed two main factors with a positive influence, namely having an entrepreneurial role model and having attended seminars about starting a business. In our model, these factors support waiting longer before starting a business. In light of these results, we call for a more experimental approach in entrepreneurship education.

Von der Innovation zum Corporate Spin Off - Technologieorientierte Ausgründungen aus Großunternehmen in Deutschland

Die industrielle Forschung und Entwicklung hat in Deutschland traditionell grose Bedeutung fur das Hervorbringen von Produkt- und Prozessinnovationen. Grose Industriekonzerne verzeichnen den weitaus grosten Teil aller Patentanmeldungen. Der Erkenntnisstand uber innovationsinduzierte Ausgrundungsaktivitaten aus Grosunternehmen ist jedoch bisher sehr begrenzt. Dies hat insbesondere zwei Ursachen: Aus grundungsorientierter Sicht sind ganz grundsatzlich defizitare statistische Grundlagen zu beklagen (van Elkan, 1998; Struck, 1998; Clemens, 2000; Schulte, 2002). Es existiert in Deutschland bisher keine befriedigende Grundungsstatistik, die umfassend Auskunft uber die Entstehung und den Verbleib von Unternehmen geben konnte. Dieses Defizit schliest auch Ausgrundungen aus Grosunternehmen ein — eine darauf bezogene Ausgrundungsstatistik fehlt damit zwangslaufig. Aus Sicht der Innovationsforschung wird dieser Aspekt bisher allenfalls rudimentar behandelt, denn sie befasst sich kaum mit der quantitativen Erfassung von Ausgrundungen als Form der Vermarktung von Innovationen (Lehmair, 2002).

Introduction: establishing new frontiers for European entrepreneurship research: Frontiers in European Entrepreneurship Research

The Frontiers in European Entrepreneurship Research series aims to contribute to and extend discussions within entrepreneurship research with the idea of consolidating, questioning and testing conventional wisdom and knowledge. In addition, the goal is to create room for new ideas to help the entrepreneurship research field to evolve into new directions. Finally, the series allows knowledge transfer from previously insular national research communities to a burgeoning wider international entrepreneurship research community (Welter and Lasch, 2008). In past years, research reviews have been conducted to make sense and highlight what is distinctive about European entrepreneurship research, compared with other regional approaches and specifically in the US (for example, a special issue edited by Welter and Lasch in 2008). In this introduction our aim – both through the chapters included in this volume and by revisiting some of the earlier volumes – is to take stock and elaborate on the possible future directions for European entrepreneurship research. We acknowledge this is an ambitious task and that we are not able to offer a pre-emptive review, or a list of suggestions, but merely act as a starting point for future activities. In this introductory chapter we will first summarize the chapters in this volume. Then, we discuss the key features of European entrepreneurship research as we understand them, based on existing reviews, as well as what can be seen through this series. The key features are: contextual embeddedness, methodological diversity and distinctive clusters that, in combination, have resulted in versatile contributions that characterize the European entrepreneurship research field. Finally, we suggest avenues for future contributions that we would like to see from the research community and,

How do family entrepreneurs recognize opportunities? 3 propositions

Purpose Opportunity recognition (OR) is a key factor in the entrepreneurial process. The purpose of the paper is to elaborate on whether OR, such as related to internationalization strategies, by/in family businesses differs from OR by other companies or individuals, and if yes, to what extent. Design/methodology/approach Taking a conceptual perspective, the authors combine OR and family business knowledge to develop propositions on how family entrepreneurs recognize opportunities. Findings The authors develop three propositions about OR in entrepreneurial families. Specifically, they suggest that storytelling strengthens OR in family businesses and helps to hold on to tacit opportunities. They also address their special human capital resources in. These advantages together with their long-term orientation, lead to the proposition that family businesses are more likely to recognize opportunities than non-family businesses. Research limitations/implications These findings contribute to an increased underst...

How do family entrepreneurs recognize opportunities? Three propositions

Purpose Opportunity recognition (OR) is a key factor in the entrepreneurial process. The purpose of the paper is to elaborate on whether OR, such as related to internationalization strategies, by/in family businesses differs from OR by other companies or individuals, and if yes, to what extent. Design/methodology/approach Taking a conceptual perspective, the authors combine OR and family business knowledge to develop propositions on how family entrepreneurs recognize opportunities. Findings The authors develop three propositions about OR in entrepreneurial families. Specifically, they suggest that storytelling strengthens OR in family businesses and helps to hold on to tacit opportunities. They also address their special human capital resources in. These advantages together with their long-term orientation, lead to the proposition that family businesses are more likely to recognize opportunities than non-family businesses. Research limitations/implications These findings contribute to an increased underst...

How do family entrepreneurs recognize opportunities

Purpose Opportunity recognition (OR) is a key factor in the entrepreneurial process. The purpose of the paper is to elaborate on whether OR, such as related to internationalization strategies, by/in family businesses differs from OR by other companies or individuals, and if yes, to what extent. Design/methodology/approach Taking a conceptual perspective, the authors combine OR and family business knowledge to develop propositions on how family entrepreneurs recognize opportunities. Findings The authors develop three propositions about OR in entrepreneurial families. Specifically, they suggest that storytelling strengthens OR in family businesses and helps to hold on to tacit opportunities. They also address their special human capital resources in. These advantages together with their long-term orientation, lead to the proposition that family businesses are more likely to recognize opportunities than non-family businesses. Research limitations/implications These findings contribute to an increased underst...

Building technology entrepreneurship capabilities: an engineering education perspective

Although technology entrepreneurship has received increased attention in the near past, the link between entrepreneurship education and the transfer and commercialization of technology has not equally explored. In this study, we apply an inductive approach to investigate two cases of science and technology entrepreneurship education (STEE), we use documents and interviews to build each of the cases. Our findings suggest that open and problem-based pedagogical approaches are more applied in STEE related courses compared to regular engineering courses. Additionally, STEE benefits greatly from taking place in a practical context with access to support structures that assist in developing technical and business aspects of start-ups. The findings hold implications for research, educational programs, policy makers and entrepreneurs.

Revisited: How Gender Role Stereotypes Affect the Image of Entrepreneurs Among Young Adults

Purpose Entrepreneurship is shaped by a male norm, which has been widely demonstrated in qualitative studies. The authors strive to complement these methods by a quantitative approach. First, gender role stereotypes were measured in entrepreneurship. Second, the explicit notions of participants were captured when they described entrepreneurs. Therefore, this paper aims to revisit gender role stereotypes among young adults. Design/methodology/approach To measure stereotyping, participants were asked to describe entrepreneurs in general and either women or men in general. The Schein Descriptive Index (SDI) for characterization was used. Following the procedures of Schein (1975), intra-class-correlation was calculated as a measure of congruence. This approach was complemented by controlling explicit notions, i.e. the image that participants had when describing entrepreneurs. Findings The images of men and entrepreneurs show a high and significant congruence (r = 0.803), mostly in those adjectives that are untypical for men and entrepreneurs. The congruence of women and entrepreneurs was low (r = 0.152) and insignificant. Contrary to the participants’ beliefs, their explicit notions did not have any effect on measures of congruence. However, young adults who knew business owners in their surroundings rated the congruence of women and entrepreneurs significantly higher (r = 0.272) than average. Originality/value This study is unique in combining “implicit” stereotypes and explicit notions. It demonstrates that gender stereotypes in entrepreneurship are powerful. The image of the entrepreneur remains male, independent of explicit notions. As young adults who knew business owners in their surroundings rated the congruence of women and entrepreneurs higher, this could be a starting point for education programmes.