Journal of Enterprising Culture

When involved in entrepreneurship activities, the competencies of entrepreneurs are made tangible as entrepreneurs interact with their environment. This study focuses on a framework for entrepreneurial competencies. The entrepreneurial competencies held by entrepreneurs are explored from the perspectives of conative, social, and cognitive competencies. The multidimensional construct of entrepreneurial competencies is extended based on these perspectives, past studies, and an empirical study that uses data concerning entrepreneurs in China. This study contributes to science by developing a three-component construct of entrepreneurial competencies that has four elements (cognitive–education, cognitive–experience, conative, and social).

Despite progress in recognising the popularity of explaining a university’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO), the literature still lacks clear and systematic means of evaluating and measuring university EO. This study seeks to assess the different ways of measuring university EO and develop recommendations for future research to address this gap. Based on a systematic EO review of empirical research were identified three thematic groups: (i) EO and academic entrepreneurship, (ii) EO and entrepreneurial universities, and (iii) EO and academic spinoffs. These results allow for a greater understanding of the research topics and develop an integrated framework, thus helping to measure and refine operationalisations of EO that can help formulate future quantitative studies and increase the empirical accuracy of the field.

The ability of an organisation to endure in the face of critical changes in the business environment and resist disruptions and catastrophic events is a key factor explaining how to be able to manage organisational crises. The resilience of family firms is considered a major capacity that allows them to pass through difficult times and to be sustainable (Miller and Le Breton-Miller, 2005). Although the academic literature argues that family firms are more resilient than non-family firms, the reasons for this presumed superiority are still not clearly identified. In addition, while family firms are a significant component of the economic landscape, research has evidenced variations in this organisational form such that some family firms seem to be more resilient than others. In this research, we highlight two entrepreneurial features that may explain why family firms are resilient in times of crises (and why family firms are heterogeneous in terms of their resilience capacity). We propose a model that aims to test the effect of entrepreneurial orientation and commitment to learning on a family firm’s resilience while considering the moderating effect of a family-to-firm identity fit. More precisely, we first hypothesize that entrepreneurial orientation and commitment to learning positively influence a family firm’s resilience capacity. Then, we suggest that family-to-firm identity fit would negatively moderate these relationships. The empirical investigation is based on a sample of 76 Tunisian family firms. Data were collected through a survey and analysed through Smart PLS modelling. Findings show that the family firm’s commitment to learning is positively associated with family firm’s resilience. However, contrary to expectations, entrepreneurial orientation has no significant effect on family firm’s resilience. Finally and unexpectedly, we found that the more the family is oriented towards preserving family members’ identification with the firm the more commitment to learning would positively influence a family firm’s resilience.

This study examines the effect of digital capability on firm performance and firm growth. We apply the resource-based view and especially its expansion of the dynamic capabilities perspective to illustrate how digital capability is positively related to firm performance and firm growth, and how firm size is a relevant factor in explaining digital capability in incumbent SMEs. The context of this study is Finnish SMEs. The data were gathered from 242 SME owner-managers and analysed with structural equation modelling. The results show that smaller firms have less digital capability than larger SMEs and that smaller firms struggle with performance indicators. Digital capability is positively related to firm performance and firm growth. Our results indicate that although several factors explain and alter the course of firm growth, digital capability can boost the opportunity creation process, and aid survival in the face of competition. Digital capability is an important resource in SMEs and allows firms to safeguard the sustainability of their business model. We argue that digital capability is strongly related to SME’s management practices and SME owner/manager’s commitment to responding to digital transformation. This research sheds light on the importance of strategic leaders’ perceptions of digital capability on incumbent SMEs’ competitive advantage, and contributes both entrepreneurship theory and practice.