Journal of Enterprising Culture

The study explores the relationship between intrapersonal resources (formal schooling, formal entrepreneurial education and training, and informal entrepreneurial training and education) and success of micro and small enterprises (MSEs). Using Structural Equation Modeling, the study tested the mediating role of entrepreneurial competence in this relationship on a sample of 303 women drawn from the tourism and hospitality sector. The results reveal that entrepreneurial competence plays a mediating role in the relationship between intrapersonal resources and enterprise success. The results also show that informal entrepreneurial training is important in complementing formal entrepreneurial training and education towards enterprise success. It is also shown that formal schooling has a weak relationship with entrepreneurial competence but has varying relationships with both financial and non-financial success.

This study investigates whether post-business transfer MCS development (PBTMCSD) is associated with post-business transfer success (PBTS) in small firms. The data for the study was collected in January 2012 as a web-based survey. The target group consisted of acquirers (both external buyers and family business successors) who had implemented a business transfer during 2006–2011 in Finland. A total of 178 questionnaires were sent out, and 67 responses were received. Regression analysis is used to investigate the relationship between PBTMCSD and PBTS. We utilize both resource-based view (RBV) and contingency theory. The results indicate that PBTMCSD has a positive and significant relation with PBTS. Our findings highlight the importance of PBTMCSD even in small companies in the context of business transfer. However, the relationship between PBTMCSD and PBTS performance was stronger for firms with five or more employees as well as firms with previous experience of business transfers.

This research aims to investigate whether attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social norm and gender predict entrepreneurial intentions of Saudi Freshmen students. Starting from the findings of GEM report in Kelley & al. (2010), entrepreneurial intention of Saudi people was recorded as the lowest rate of 1% among 59 countries. This research focuses on studying factors explaining intentions. Based on a literature review, we use a theoretical model of intention based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) which was tested earlier by Boissin et al. (2007a) to French context. We intend to retest it in Saudi context. We add gender as control variable and a potential predictor of intention. Then, we conduct a research survey from Autumn 2013 to Autumn 2014 of 289 Saudi (183 males and 106 females) students. The collected data was analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique. Then, results are shown and discussed, and finally, some recommendations are presented.

Based on a sample of 400 subjects enrolled in business courses at the National University of Lesotho, the aim of this paper is to examine the influence of economic powerlessness on entrepreneurial intent. Correlation, hierarchical regression, stepwise regression and usefulness analyses are used to analyse data. The results reveal that economic powerlessness is not only negatively associated with entrepreneurial intent, but also accounts for the unique variance above that accounted for by demographic factors and the elements of theory of planned behaviour in the explanation of entrepreneurial intent. While subjective norm fails to influence entrepreneurial intent, attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived behavioural control respectively are the strongest predictors of entrepreneurial intent in this paper. Implications for policy and education are discussed.