Journal of Enterprising Culture

The manner in which the key managers of entrepreneurial firms perceive the environment of the firm has important implications for decisions regarding organizational structure, processes and performance. Entrepreneurial behavior has traditionally been characterized as one type of strategic response to uncertain environments. This research takes a unique position in exploring how the entrepreneurial orientation of the firm's key manager may in fact influence managerial perceptions of the environment. Utilizing survey data drawn from more than 800 key managers in three countries this study proposes and tests a model of perceived uncertainty. The results suggest that the greater the entrepreneurial orientation of the key manager the more likely he or she is to characterize the environment of the firm as uncertain. Although this relationship holds true in general the results also suggest that there are strong differences in the relationship across countries and industries and that certain firm characteristics have a potential impact on managerial perceptions.

This research is concerned with entrepreneurial intentions of two specific groups of nascent entrepreneurs - innovators and graduate students in two transition economies – Slovenia and the Czech Republic. The analysis gives further contribution to previous research on predictions of entrepreneurial events using items inventory of entrepreneurial self-efficacy previously developed within the Anglo-Saxon cultural environment and now tested in a specific environment of post communist economist economies. Results show that there are relatively more nascent entrepreneurs among innovators than among graduate students of business. When average scores on self-efficacy are involved, innovators feel comfortable when dealing with innovation and risk, while graduate students express higher self-efficacy in the business-related aspects of a new venture – marketing and finance. We found a reasonable fit to our sample of the entrepreneurial self-efficacy construct as introduced by Chen et al (1998).

The transfer of technologies from government operated research laboratories to commercial firms is a difficult and complicated process. Corporate research and development agreements, intellectual property licenses and other agreements are keys to this process as they offer intellectual property protection to the technology creator. But the high costs of negotiating such agreements make them prohibitively expensive for many emerging entrepreneurial firms (Steffensen, et. al, 2000). These arrangements work well for large firms because large firms have adequate funding. Moreover, they are primarily interested in evolutionary technologies that lead to rather quick market penetration and rapid returns on investment in intellectual property agreements (Christensen, 1997). Independent entrepreneurial firms, however, often focus on disruptive technologies and discontinuous innovations that take much longer to achieve market acceptance and revenue generation (Christensen, 1997).

Empirical evidence shows that small firms are more efficient innovators and develop more "major" innovations compared to large firms (Futures Group, 1984; Gellman, 1974). Thus, ineffective technology transfer from government labs to small firms may cause lower rates of innovation for society thereby reducing economic growth below its potential.

This technology transfer problem has been recognized by Sandia National Laboratories and it has responded by creating the SAMPLES program. Herein, we describe the differences between disruptive and evolutionary technologies and create a model that exemplifies the important characteristics to technology transfer. Next, we describe the SAMPLES technology transfer model that began in 1996, show how implementation of this model leads to commercialization of disruptive technologies and report empirical evidence of its success with nearly 100 entrepreneurial firms over the last four years. Success of the SAMPLES program suggests that it provides a useful model that may be replicated in other nations that seek to commercialize government laboratory research.

Extant studies on entrepreneurial success that focus on the process of resource acquisition and value creation have led to a deeper understanding of the resource requirements of entrepreneurs, but have shed less light on the antecedents to the propensity for entrepreneurial startups. Our study models the characteristics of university students as antecedents to startups. These are background and experience, beliefs about organizations and attitudes towards entrepreneurship. Background and attitudes are hypothesized to predict the propensity for entrepreneurship while beliefs are hypothesized to moderate the relationship between attitudes and the propensity to start a new business. Empirical data from a large survey of university students in Singapore provide support for the model.