Journal of Enterprising Culture

Much of the extant entrepreneurship research has focused on studying the field using positivist research methodologies and little attention has been paid to interpretive methodologies or the use of multiple paradigms. The focus of the paper is on illustrating how we applied a multiple paradigm research methodology to an existing research problem. Specifically, the research was concerned with gender differences in motivations for becoming an entrepreneur. We explain how a multiple paradigm research methodology enabled us to gain new insights into an aspect of entrepreneurship where results of the prior research were not only contradictory, but also lacked a focus on theoretical development. Our research process involved two phases. First, a mail survey which was designed to replicate existing studies was administered to 289 entrepreneurs. The second phase involved in-depth face-to-face interviews with 50 entrepreneurs (25 men and 25 women) who responded to the mail survey. Theoretical contributions regarding entrepreneurial motivation are detailed, as are some more general implications of using multiple paradigm research methodologies in other entrepreneurship and organizational research.

The notion of opportunities is fast becoming a central theme in the field of entrepreneurship research. As part of this growing interest, the ontological status of opportunities has been scrutinized with researchers tending to view them as either objectively existing or socially created. In the present treatment, this ontological debate is partly avoided in favor of a phenomenological examination of Mobile Internet entrepreneurs, which naturally bridges these distinctions. The empirical findings are used to propose a framework in which opportunities are seen as both existing and created in the evolving set of perceptions and projections, sometimes fixed and sometimes mutable, that provide the cognitive and practical drivers needed to guide entrepreneurial action.

The research to date in the literature has not provided a consensus on the nature of public entrepreneurship. Many authors relate the concept of entrepreneurship to only the private sector and dismiss the idea of public sector entrepreneurship. Others argue that the introduction of entrepreneurship into the public sector is inimical to its basic goals, concept and values. This paper proposes a conceptual model that explains the public sector corporate entrepreneurial process based on a review of past theoretical and empirical research. To date, very little research exists which attempts to establish a theoretical framework or model that illustrates the various components, including environmental and organizational characteristics, that effect the corporate entrepreneurship process within the public sector. The model is intended to depict key corporate entrepreneurial dimensions that relate to entrepreneurial behavior within the public sector organization. The proposed model delineates the antecedents and consequences of corporate entrepreneurship within the public sector.

Attribution theory is said to be one of the few psychological theories that can deal with entrepreneurial persistence and setbacks. To explain the question why some entrepreneurs “succeed” in establishing the firm and others do not, recently researchers are emphasizing upon the attribution style of the entrepreneurs. Moreover, US Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) by Gartner and Shaver (2002) is also pointed out that nascent entrepreneurs show self serving bias in their attribution style. To know whether Indian nascent entrepreneurs show the same style of attribution, this study has been conducted. In this study, differentiation has been made upon high and low success group of nascent entrepreneurs in association with attribution style. Results of this study indicate different style of attribution among Indian nascent entrepreneurs.