Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

In most developing economies, micro and small enterprises (MSE) and self-employment provide the majority of employment and the main source of income. However, MSE’s potentials often remain exploited and there are high rates of churning. To better understand the limited success of entrepreneurship in developing economies, this paper looks at how entrepreneurs have and use agency and how this relates to their entrepreneurial success. Empirically, we use life history interviews with micro-entrepreneurs in Kampala, Uganda. Conceptually, we draw on Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, which in regard to agency, emphasizes people’s ambitions, reflected choices, and the various factors that influence how people derive options and agency from available resources. Our results suggest a stronger differentiation of entrepreneurs beyond the ‘necessity vs. opportunity’ dichotomy. This concerns entrepreneurs’ motivations and ambitions, their collective transformative potential and the question of which choices under which restrictions should be conceived of as entrepreneurial agency. Most of the entrepreneurs have and make choices beyond economic survival; self-employment is not just a last resort. It depends on business opportunities not as drivers but as occasions; it may rest on innovative means to access common businesses (rather than on innovative businesses); and it may be directed at sufficiency rather than growth.

It is well established in previous research that female and minority entrepreneurs are less successful with business ventures in comparison to whites and males. In that same literature, motivation and growth expectations have been shown to be positively associated with business success. This paper examines how motivations and business goals differ by gender and race and how they affect disparity in business outcomes. Using data from the Second Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED II), we find that stronger motivations for financial gain have a negative effect on business survival rate for black women and Hispanic men. In contrast, the effect is positive for black men and Hispanic women. When considering interactions between financial motivations, race and gender, various significant effects were found and are detailed in the paper. It is important for researchers and practitioners who want to promote entrepreneurship to understand the differences and adapt advisory and training curricula accordingly.

A widespread assumption is that competition from the informal sector has a negative impact on the firm performance of legitimate enterprises. This is because of the unfair competition they face from such enterprises in the informal sector. The aim of this paper is to provide an evidence-based evaluation of whether this is the case based on an analysis of the relationship between the firm performance of enterprises and their perception of the prevalence of informal sector competition. To do so, data is reported from a representative sample of 1,430 enterprises in Bulgaria, Croatia and FYR Macedonia. The finding is that enterprises asserting that their competitors participate in the informal economy have significantly lower real annual sales growth rates compared with those who assert that their competitors do not participate in the informal economy. The theoretical and policy implications are then discussed.

The paper examines the impact of individual culture orientations on the nascent entrepreneurship at the individual level. The cultural orientations investigated in this study were based on Schwartz’s values model. Using data from World Value Survey collected from seven countries ($\mathrm{\text{n}}=6267$), we investigate the direct effect of Open to Change, Self-enhancement, Conservation and Self-transcendence values on nascent entrepreneurship. The results show that the Open to Change values, including Stimulation and Self-direction values, significantly and positively affect nascent entrepreneurship. Only one of the Self-enhancement values has a positive effect on nascent entrepreneurship — the Power value. Meanwhile, Conservation values, including Tradition and Security, negatively and significantly affect the nascent entrepreneurship. Finally, the results show no support for the association between Self-transcendence values and nascent entrepreneurship. Our findings highlight that some values are more conducive to driving or inhibiting nascent entrepreneurship. Investigating the effect of individual cultural orientations on nascent entrepreneurship in the lens of personal values benefits us to comprehend individual motivations toward entrepreneurship, and will light many features of entrepreneurship behavior at the individual level and within and across cultures.

This study addresses a certain research issue: how do the Big Five personality traits of managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) impact the business performance of companies? A representative random sample of managers of SMEs in Slovenia was used for data collection through survey research. Hypotheses and the model were tested using structural equation modeling. A valuable contribution is made in the form of a new model of Big Five personality induced SME growth, profitability and new value creation. Openness of managers can be predictive of growth and new value creation of their companies, with the new value creation impact especially expressed in female-managed companies. Conscientiousness may not be crucial for performance, except for new value creation in females where this relationship can be negative. Extraversion can predict the growth and profitability. Agreeableness can have negative effects on all performance elements. Neuroticism can be predictive of growth and profitability. Practitioners must be aware of the importance of managers’ Big Five personality traits for SME performance. Where possible, managers may like to develop their levels of openness, extraversion, non-agreeableness and neuroticism.

Nascent entrepreneurship is important for economic growth and development because it often involves new firm creation and innovation. Besides the perceived ability to become an entrepreneur, determined by one’s human, social and financial capital, individuals must have a willingness to become self-employed as exhibited by their entrepreneurial motivation. A distinction is made between opportunity or “pull” entrepreneurs who set up a business to take advantage of an identified opportunity and necessity or “push” entrepreneurs who are forced to start a business to escape unemployment or poverty. This paper investigates nascent entrepreneurship in a selection of Small Island Developing States of the Caribbean (SIDS), along with differences between nascent opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs. We use the 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Adult Population Survey (APS) for Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Probit regressions are used and comparisons between opportunity and necessity driven entrepreneurs are made. The findings indicate that both socio-economic and perceptual factors affect nascent entrepreneurship and do so differently among opportunity and necessity entrepreneurs with important policy implications for encouraging new firm creation.

Previous studies have been silent on how institutional factors influence scientists’ entrepreneurial cognitions and behavior. Transition economies offer a unique opportunity for addressing this issue since different generations of scientists experienced vastly different ideology and management systems. Built on the entrepreneurial cognitions and contextualization views and interview data from scientists in Vietnam, this study found that scientists internalized institutional factors to form their motivations, partnership approaches, and behavioral competencies, which in turn influence their chosen modes of entrepreneurship. This suggests that new institutions which address younger generations and focus on developing entrepreneurial qualities are pertinent to promote commercialization in transition economies.