Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

This paper attempts to interpret the reason for high failure rate in venture capital backed nascent entrepreneurship by applying contract theory and employing a theoretical model of contract choice between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The results of the model show that the suboptimal contract for new venture growth is not only the best choice of venture capitalists, but also the best choice of nascent entrepreneurs, which may lead to a high failure rate in venture capital backed nascent entrepreneurship. Some implications and solutions are also discussed.

When seeking to harness entrepreneurship and enterprise culture, governments often seek to transfer policy measures successful in another country to their own. Until now however, governments have often lacked a practical evaluation framework for selecting policy measures and then appraising the feasibility and transferability of such measures. The aim of this paper is to fill that gap. Reviewing the literature on cross-national policy transfer, this paper provides a pragmatic evaluation framework for selecting policy measures and appraising their feasibility and transferability from one country to another. This details how successful policy transfer and cross-national policy learning must be informed by prospective policy analysis and testing the features of the specific policy initiative against the specifics of the national context and circumstances, and then establishes the criteria and processes through which potential policy adopters can identify promising policies used elsewhere to tackle similar problems in their own country and assess their 'goodness of fit' prior to transfer to national realities.

This study explores the relationships between bricolage, firm performance and growth opportunities in contexts characterized by extreme resource scarcity. Using a sample of 160 Palestinian female entrepreneurs as representative of entrepreneurs acting in extremely resource-deprived environments, we find that bricolage has a positive influence on firm performance. Further, as predicted in the hypotheses, the role of bricolage differs depending on the type of strategy the firm develops. When firms seek to introduce new products/services or modifications in their current products/services, a high level of bricolage hinders performance. Conversely, when firms seek to expand by introducing their current products/services in new markets and opening new locations, bricolage enhances performance. This study offers a more nuanced understanding than previous research of the role of bricolage in contexts of extreme resource constraints.

There is a growing appreciation for the value and impact of the informal economy on the lives and livelihood of many in developing economies. A key question for researchers has been whether those operating in it do so out of necessity or voluntarily as opportunity seekers? Unlike previous studies that have examined the informal economy as one large block, this paper took a slightly different tangent. First, we analyzed and identified three distinct sub-groups within the informal entrepreneurial sector — the street walker (st. walker), the street corner (st. corner) and store owner (st. owner) — and then examined each group's motives. Reporting the results of face-to-face structured interviews with 200 informal entrepreneurs in Cameroon (West Africa), the finding is that the majority, especially st. walker and st. corner informal entrepreneurs, are predominantly necessity-driven while st. owner entrepreneurs are predominantly opportunity-driven. Our study also revealed a progression pattern whereby st. walkers do progress to st. corner and ultimately to st. owner entrepreneurs. The assumption is that this does create a learning curve effect in the entrepreneurial abilities and effectiveness of store owners. This is an area for future research. There are policy implications for institutional support that can grow the informal economy into the formal economy.

Creative and qualified self-employed individuals contribute to economic growth by inventing new products, production processes, distribution methods and employing other people. Researchers are interested in self-employment if it can provide jobs to the unemployed population and also for those who face job discrimination. However, increase in self-employment is uncertain because entrepreneurial skills are assumed to be risky and self-employed workers can learn their skills gradually after starting their businesses. Economists pay special attention to finding the conceptual relationship between entrepreneurship as self-employment and economic development. Furthermore, studies show that the process of entrepreneurship has significant spatial autocorrelation and affects neighboring counties. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify and estimate the spatial impacts of self-employment in the economic development of the northeastern United States. The study expects to provide policy makers with vital information for policy measures designed for economic development. The study uses the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) to estimate the relationship of employment, population and per capita income against self-employment. The results indicate that employment and population are positively linked to self-employment. Also, results highlight the positive contribution of self-employment on rural economic development.

This study examines how entrepreneurial relationship variables such as trust, conflict, interpersonal justice (IJ) and satisfaction differ among a group of male and female franchisees. Results suggest differences exist between these two groups in relation to conflict, IJ and trust with their franchisor. These results are consistent with research on feminine gender roles and research that suggests female entrepreneurs are more relationship oriented throughout the entrepreneurial process. The results further make a case for the importance of empirically examining different entrepreneurial relationship variables in future research on gender and entrepreneurship, and illustrate the power of the franchising business model in breaking down potential barriers of gender discrimination for female entrepreneurs.

With a sample of 46 Chinese small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this study examines factors that might affect firms' use of financial statements to make decisions. Financial statements contain insightful information about potential risk and return implications of various decisions. A logit analysis shows that owners of Chinese SMEs use financial statements to make decisions according to the frequency of available financial statement information and their ability to interpret the information contained in the financial statements. These results can help owners of SMEs, educators and service providers understand which factors affect the use of financial statements and the process by which financial statements are incorporated into SMEs' decisions.