Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship research has been criticized for a lack of methodological rigor, although evidence suggests that from a methodological perspective, it is improving (Davidsson, 2006). In this paper, we systematically review the methods used in the study of nascent entrepreneurs to identify challenges associated with the data used in these studies. We also review the field's achievements — notably, the successful use of representative sampling of populations of nascent entrepreneurs — and we raise concerns about the predominant use of secondary data sets and the use of scales originally developed for large, established firms. Drawing on methodological advancements in other fields, we offer suggestions related to study design, data collection, sampling and measurement. Although some of the challenges we note are inherent to the nature of entrepreneurship, we hope our discussion can help researchers design better studies and better interpret their findings.

This paper makes an attempt to estimate the index of informal sector employment that can be attributed to the supply-push phenomenon. Factors explaining the inter-state variations in this index include the industrial-informal sector wage gap, revenue expenditure and development expenditure incurred by the government. Increased development expenditure brings a decline in distress-led informalization because education, health and infrastructure facilities tend to enhance the employability of an individual. However, education as such does not reduce the residual absorption in the informal sector unless there is improvement in quality. The paper also notes an increase in inequality with an increase in distress-led informalization. Adoption of labor intensive technology in the organized or formal industrial sector is indeed crucial for pro-poor growth. The other policy implication is in terms of enhanced investment in the areas of human capital formation and overall development of the region.

Studies of the relationship between gender and entrepreneurship have shown that men are significantly more likely to start a new business than women. Because an individual's entrepreneurial intentions are shaped by the perceived feasibility and desirability of an entrepreneurial opportunity, these results have generally emphasized how men perceive themselves as more capable of pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities than women. In this study, men have a higher level of self-efficacy than do women regarding entrepreneurial abilities. At the same time, the higher levels of involvement in business planning processes caused women to have a higher sense of ownership in the plan than did men. This sense of ownership is positively and significantly related to the perceived likelihood of success of the new venture. The findings of this study suggest women adopt certain roles and affects in the development of entrepreneurial opportunities that provide alternative explanations to the beliefs-attitudes-intentions-behavior model of intentionality. The roles and affects women adopt during new venture planning may give them superior insights into the likelihood of success of the new venture.

This study examines a number of proposed relationships between formal and informal institutional factors that impact the entrepreneurial intent (EI) of 477 university business students in Germany, Russia and the United States, as well as similarities and differences in these relationships between countries. This is the first study, of which we are aware, to develop an instrument to measure the impact of formal institutional factors on EI based upon the World Bank's Doing Business Report. Overall, the results give only minor support for the influence of formal institutional factors on EI with the greater impact appearing to come from the informal institutions of need, social norms and parental experience. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Two hundred and eighty five entrepreneurs, prospective entrepreneurs and the lay public in the West Bank, Palestine, were surveyed to determine their motivations for business ownership, the factors contributing to their success and the challenges they faced. Based on survey responses, the personality variable has been found to be a major determinant of success in an economically disadvantaged, politically unstable and culturally traditional environment as exists in the Palestinian Society. The public attitudes have a tremendous impact on how Palestinian entrepreneurs view themselves and their role in the community. More weight was assigned to internal or subjective factors (personality characteristics and social competence) than to external or objective factors (economic, political) in the achievement of business success. The results have very significant implications for the design and implementation of training courses for both prospective and operating entrepreneurs in Palestine and possibly elsewhere in the world.

This article investigates the entrepreneurial beliefs/attitudes, ambitions, expectations, goals and visions of rural women who choose to cooperate and found Women's Rural cooperatives in the Prefecture of Heraklion on the island of Crete. The results of a qualitative study involving a sample of eight chairwomen of rural women's established Traditional Food Production cooperatives indicated that the traditional domestic roles (housewife, mother), the low level of education, the lack of professional skills, enterprise experience and mostly the unwillingness of rural women to undertake enterprise risk, have turned them toward an enterprise model that lacks modern business methods in the use of quality control production systems, in the production of Protected Geographical Identification Goods and/or Certified Local Traditional Food and/or Organic Products, in the use of new organizing and managing technologies, in advertising and promoting products and in administrative renewal.