Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Entrepreneurship'

In crowdfunding, funders often have very little or no information about the social entrepreneur and the venture. This asymmetric information hinders funding in that potential funders only make a pledge if they can trust the entrepreneur and the seriousness of the project. Thus entrepreneurs have to signal information to potential funders. In the case of conventional ventures, this means showing that the company is committed to the financial returns or the quality of the product, for instance. However, in the case of social enterprises, entrepreneurs can signal their commitment to a social or an environmental challenge. The information that entrepreneurs want to convey to potential funders depends very much on the type of crowdfunding. The type of crowdfunding determines whether the entrepreneur is pitching to potential investors, lenders or potential consumers and general supporters of the project. While investors tend to be more concerned with the financial returns, the quality of the product or service tends to be the variable that matters most to the potential consumer. This thesis examines the crowdfunding campaigns of social ventures in order to understand how to crowdfund social enterprises. It identifies the signals with which, social entrepreneurs try to attract funding through different types of crowdfunding, mainly reward-based. It finds that reward-based crowdfunding offers a good basis for social entrepreneurs to attract funding by advertising and signaling their commitment to social or environmental issues. This is all the more true when the social enterprise seeking to be crowdfunded only aims to be financially autonomous and thus cannot offer attractive financial returns to potential investors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2010.<br>"September 2010." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references.<br>It is often argued that borrowing constraints are crucial to the understanding of entrepreneurial activity in the United States. However, portfolio data and calibration exercises raise doubts about the importance of borrowing constraints. This thesis provides three chapters on the subject of entrepreneurship, two study the role of borrowing constraints and another shows that introducing uncertainty about ability in an occupational choice model without financial frictions can generate many patterns that resemble capital market imperfections. In the first chapter, I model agents who are imperfectly informed about their entrepreneurial ability and whose income provides a signal about their ability. In each period, they observe their income and choose their occupation (worker or entrepreneur) for the next period on the basis of their belief about their ability. I find that such a model produces patterns of wealth, savings, entry into entrepreneurship, and correlations between cash flow and investment that are consistent with the data. While previous work has used these patterns to argue that entrepreneurs face binding borrowing constraints, this paper shows that the same patterns may emerge simply because entrepreneurs are uncertain about their ability and learn slowly about it. In the second chapter, I use cross-sectional and panel data from the Survey of Consumer Finances across occupations and occupational transition groups. I argue that the evidence on mortgage rates and holdings of stocks and bonds of entrepreneurs are at odds with theories that propose borrowing constraints as the key ingredient in understanding occupational choice and entrepreneurial activity in the United States. Finally, the last chapter uses a standard general equilibrium model of occupational choice to study the role of financial constraints, finding that borrowing constraints are tighter in the model than in the data. Next, I recalibrate the model to match measures of firm size and slack in the financial constraint given by the real estate equity available for borrowing on the entrepreneur's primary home. Finally, two policy experiments are analyzed for both calibrations, highlighting the equilibrium effects of the differing degrees of tightness in the borrowing constraints.<br>by Carmen Aída Taveras.<br>Ph.D.

The first part is devoted to the analysis of the features of the financial crisis of 2020 and its impact on the principles of entrepreneurship management strategies formation. The second part presents methodological of digitalization as a basic strategy for the development of entrepreneurship in modern conditions and details the questions like the main stages of digitalization of entrepreneurship in Ukraine and the practice of implementing a startup project using the trends of digitalization of entrepreneurship. Practical calculations for determining the expected profitability of startup project are also given. The third part identifies the main psychological aspects of formation of entrepreneurship strategies as aspects of self-identification in business and the importance of the emotional intelligence in business. The factual basis of the thesis consists of data from the Internet, periodicals, laws and regulations, as well as information on public data on stock returns.

New firm creation is one of the most important features of modern economic life. The emergence of new ventures is central to economic adaptation and change and one of the major factors associated with employment growth and increases in sector productivity. In addition, hundreds of millions pursue new firm creation as a serious career option. Knowing more about countries with different levels of firm creation, and the context and specific characteristics of those active in firm creation, is of considerable scientific, practical and policy interest (Reynolds, 2010). Why is it important to focus on the dynamics of new initiatives? The most significant is that new firms replenish and maintain the population of operating firms. There is considerable evidence that firm creation is associated with a number of other important contributions to the economy. Pioneering studies in economic literature have tended to examine the important role of new firms in job creation (Birch, 1987). The role of new ventures is the key to the emergence of new production sectors, new technology clusters in a local context where the new initiatives may benefit from the advantages of agglomeration. Second, the new independent firms are the source of half of all net new job creation; the other half is accounted for by new branches and subsidiaries, reflecting expansion of existing firms. Third, recent advances in consolidated longitudinal data sets on US firms has made it possible to estimate the labour productivity of new, existing, and discontinuing businesses. It turns out that new firms have the highest labour productivity and are responsible for a major share of increases in sector productivity. More efficient new firms displace less efficient existing firms. Fourth, new and small firms are source of technical and market innovations. One of the more careful efforts to track the source of technical innovation by firm size found that half of new innovations were produced by small firms (Audretsch, 1995). Moreover, new firm creation is a major mechanism used by immigrants to integrate themselves into the economy and, for many, a major route for status enhancement. It seems particularly popular for well educated, high energy individuals that may see promotions in established work organizations as problematic, such as minorities and women (Reynolds, Carter, Gartner, & Greene, 2004). Last but not least, generally, entrepreneurship is attractive even for brilliant people with high levels of formal education who have difficulty in finding placement in existing organizations. For all the above mentioned reasons, entrepreneurship is now at the centre of many policy questions related to science and technology, sustainability, poverty, human capital, endogenous resources, employment, regional and comparative advantages. The surge of policy interest in entrepreneurship has, not surprisingly, been accompanied by growing academic research into its dynamics and processes. With respect to policy, research priorities have focused first on understanding (measuring) and second, on creating environments supportive of entrepreneurship. According to the literature, we can expect a positive relationship between the activation rate of new business initiatives and the overall growth of the economy, with reference to both entire countries and to specific geographical areas. Over the past decade, the entrepreneurial rate in Italy decreases and the last GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) global report shows as Italy presents the lowest rate of total early stage entrepreneurial activities, defined as the prevalence rate of individuals in the working-age population who are actively involved in business start-ups, either in the phase preceding the birth of the firm (nascent entrepreneurs), or the phase spanning 42 months after the birth of the firm (new owner manager of firm). The empirical evidence shows that the local production systems in Italy based on small firms have experienced increasing difficulty in ensuring the competitiveness of their production and the proper placement and remuneration of new recruits, in particular young people with a high level of education. Several regions in advanced economies have experienced the same stagnation or decline in traditional manufacturing jobs and the changes in the patterns of entrepreneurial activity during the last decades pose a number of questions that satisfy both the objectives of scientific knowledge and the interests of policy makers who wish to implement measures for promoting entrepreneurship. The main aim of this research study is to provide a better understanding of the process for setting up new initiatives, analysing the several factors related to entrepreneurship dynamic. Specifically, the first essay analyses the factors explaining the entrepreneurial rates in Italy and the differences in entrepreneurial dynamics in a sample of EU countries. From the methodological point of view, the following database are used: • Movimprese for a descriptive analysis of entrepreneurial rates in Italy by year (from 2000 to 2009), province and sector of activity; • Gem (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) APS (adult population survey) from 2001 to 2007 to analyse the personal, business and environmental factors explaining the rate of nascent entrepreneurs and the business model of new firms. The principal findings show that the entrepreneurial dynamics is very different across countries and to establish a policy to foster entrepreneurship, there is a need to investigate which factors drive the entrepreneurial process. From a macroeconomic perspective, the ability of a country to support entrepreneurship is determined by conditions linked with context, while at a micro level, the likelihood of a person becoming an entrepreneur is influenced by individual personal traits, that determine the entrepreneur’s response to entrepreneurial push or pull factors (loss of employment, discontent at work vs chance or opportunity to pursuit an idea). I find that gender, age, level of education, social perception of self-employment as a good career choice have an impact on the probability to become nascent entrepreneur but with different significance across countries and across sectors (low tech vs high-tech sectors) in the same countries. The data shows that in Italy the level of education losses significance if we add to the econometric model the social capital and the importance of social network in the propensity to start a business: the fact that respondent knows another entrepreneur increase the probability to start a new firm. Another important finding is that very few nascent entrepreneurs start a business in hightech sectors. According to the endogenous growth theory, for which technological innovation is seen as the most important factor for achieving long-term economic growth, in Italy a change in the composition of production activities is needed, especially in the manufacturing sector, with a move towards productions that have a greater knowledge content (high-tech sectors). Regional policy in this area, prompted mainly by the availability of European funds, moves along two parallel tracks: on the one hand, to promote innovation within existing firms, and on the other to promote entrepreneurship in new areas of activity, especially in high technology sectors. In both cases there is a reassessment of the role of research centres and universities in technology transfer activity from these to industry. For this reason, the second essay is focused on the phenomenon of academic entrepreneurship that could be defined as the direct involvement of academic scientists into the development and commercialization of their research. The commercialization of scientific and technological knowledge produced within public research institutions such as universities, laboratories, research centres is increasingly considered by policy makers as fuel for developing and sustaining regional economic growth and the most promising ways to transfer research results to the market place is the creation of a new firm: the most promise way is the set-up of academic spin-offs. The second chapter analyses the experience of Italian spin-offs, from their first introduction in 1999, with specific regard to the following aspects: the early growth and their impact on local economies. Up to now the empirical analyses of the phenomenon has focussed on analysing the characteristics of spin-offs and their growth, the difference between those universities that have been most active in the creation of spin-offs and those that have been least active, the factors that foster the creation, the beneficial impact on the growth of other local high-tech start-ups when these are able to detect, absorb, and use this knowledge, etc. After ten years experience of spin-off promotion by universities and local institutions, there is a growing concern about the evaluation of the impact of spin-offs on universities’ technology transfer and local economies. The empirical analysis refers to a sample of 210 Italian spin-offs set up between 2000 and 2006. From a quantitative point of view, measurable through variable as turnover or employment, the impact is rather marginal and this confirms the literature evidence that shows as most academic spin-offs are not gazelles: most of them start small and remain small, reflecting founder aspirations, capabilities, and resource endowments. Several study investigate the possible reasons to explain these: the imbalance of the sponsor team towards technical skills, lack of clarity in the identification of the entrepreneurial figure, the difficulty of promoters to transform the academic knowledge in management and organizational objectives. This does not imply that the firm’s performances should be attributed only to the entrepreneurial characteristics: the technical knowledge of the founder-entrepreneur plays a crucial role during the first stage of the firm’s life, but during the growth stage, a more complex set of resources is necessary to sustain the firm’s activities, and the main issues regard availability of financial resources, organizational weaknesses, availability of specialized suppliers, availability of professional services. As regards the Italian institutional context, for example, the main problem is the difficulty for new firms to raise adequate funds during their start-up and subsequent development. The lack of these factors generate a vicious circle where the low level of investment and commitment creates low revenue and consequent scant capacity to stimulate employment, affecting the business size and the economic role played by academic spin-offs. Given these quantitative results, there is a need for assessing the effective role played by these firms in an advanced economy. What I want to demonstrate in the second essay is that the impact of spin-offs tends to be local as most spin-offs stay within the same geographical area as the institution from which they originate. To investigate the phenomenon of university spin-offs considering the specific context means to change the focus at local level, where I think that the impact is relevant. Large empirical literature findings support this line of research giving growing importance of knowledge spill-overs from university research to industrial innovation. To the best of our knowledge, little attention has been paid to evaluate the role of spin-offs on technology transfer activity by universities and to their impact on local systems. The aim of the second chapter is to cover this knowledge gap, developing an analytical framework to evaluate the impact of academic spin-offs on university technology transfer and on regional development. The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 26 spin-offs created between 2000 and 2010 from Università Politecnica delle Marche, for which balance sheet data and information about governance were examined. The analysis of the ownership and management team, and its change over time, was made through an examination of information provided by Chambers of Commerce. To develop a set of indicators to measure the impact of academic spin-offs, I chose to adopt a local approach due to the fact that there are several difference in local innovation system and these may depend on the relevance of the three main actors of triple helix model, university, industry and government, in terms of quantitative importance on the regional innovation system; orientation towards R&D and innovation; technology transfer activities by universities; the importance of relations between the three main actors; funds allocated by public institutions to firms and universities, etc. These differences in local system determine the development of spin-offs. In this sense, the factors fostering the creation of this kind of firms are several. Regulations have an impact on spin-off activity because they determine the degree to which universities have the autonomy to make their own rules regarding technology transfer activities, as the reputation and research eminence of individual universities. Even the institutional factors as culture of the university, its attitude toward spin-offs and the competence of the technology transfer office, could have an impact on this phenomenon. Moreover, the distribution of spin-offs across industry sectors is highly uneven and spin-offs are diverse in their activities because they reflect the prevalent sectors of research and activities of universities. The empirical results reaffirm the consolidated literature about the localized nature of knowledge transfer. If knowledge spill over tends to occur only within limited geographic areas, embedding economic activity based on this knowledge within the local context, universities can become important focal points for local economic developments. In this sense the main findings could be summarized up as following: • The phenomenon of academic spin-offs could have positive effect at the local level in terms of creation of high-tech entrepreneurship and employment and in terms of diffusion of technological spill-over; • There is a need to evaluate the phenomenon on long term; • The geographical span of the spin-off impact is mainly localized; • To evaluate the real effect it is important to consider the local context in terms of industry specialization and policy objectives that have an important role in fostering the creation of new technology based firms. The chapter analyse also what factors affect the birth and the development of these companies: sectors of activities, geographical localization, ownership structure, the presence of Technology Transfer Office (TTO) or business incubator and the presence of entrepreneurial courses at University. The last factor is considered particular important because it could play an important role in fostering entrepreneurship, in general, and high-tech entrepreneurship, in particular, due to the lack of managerial and commercial skills of the nascent techno-entrepreneurs. For this reason, the third essay has the aim to discuss the present situation and recent dynamics of entrepreneurship education in Italian universities and compare them with the situation of other countries. This is done with the aim of understanding the factors affecting the presence of entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions and to assess to what extent the number and characteristics of courses matches the demand for entrepreneurial competences in the Italian economy. The explosion of interest for the entrepreneurship field is resulted also in the institution of courses and degrees at undergraduate and graduate level. Courses about entrepreneurship have grown steadily in all the main countries. In this context the Italian situation is rather ‘anomalous’ as entrepreneurship education at the university level is still at an embryonic stage. This seems in vivid contrast with the need of Italy to foster new firms formation. The empirical analysis is based on a census of entrepreneurship courses and curricula run by Italian universities. The information collected and analysed refers to the academic year 2009-2010. I also provide a comparison with the situation of the academic year 2003-2004. From the methodological point of view, the survey is mainly based on data and information collected through Internet that seems to be the appropriate source due to the fact that all Italian universities supply information about their curricula and courses through Internet. Moreover, I have taken advantage of the fact that the information about the curricula offered by Italian universities are collected and organized in a centralized database by the Italian Ministry of Education and Scientific Research. The database is publicly available and allows to search by keywords. Compared with the situation observed in USA and in other European countries, entrepreneurship education is Italy is rather ‘underdeveloped’. Only a few of Italian universities have courses dedicated to entrepreneurship and none have developed a specific curriculum on this topic. The courses are concentrated within business faculties while very few exist in engineering faculties. Moreover, in most cases the courses deal with the development of the business plan and are offered as a way to support the participation of students and researchers to start-up competitions rather than as part of official curricula. The courses are generally run by external teachers on the basis of temporary contracts rather than by tenured professors. This situation contrasts with the potential importance of entrepreneurship education at the university level in the Italian case. In fact, the spread of entrepreneurship courses could contribute to reduce some of the weaknesses of the Italian entrepreneurship model, as highlighted by the results of the empirical analysis carried on in the first two essays: a) new businesses are concentrated in traditional sectors while there are too few start-ups in hightech sectors; b) academic spin-offs that, by definition, are high-tech firms tend to remain small, rather than pursuing rapid growth for several reasons, one of them is the lack in managerial competences of team of promoters. The slow pace with which Italian universities are keeping up with the global trend in entrepreneurship education at university level could depend on two main factors, both referring to the supply side. On the one hand, the presence of a cultural tradition that favours theoretical rather than practical education; for this reason entrepreneurship lacks academic status and recognition as a topic to be inserted in university curricula. On the other hand, there are some rigidities of the Italian university system that do not favour the introduction of new research disciplines or research fields that, like entrepreneurship, have an interdisciplinary nature. In these sense, there is a need to change this mind-set through specific actions at institutional level.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO<br>COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR<br>PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO<br>Este estudo se propõe a entender como empreendedores sustentáveis - empreendedores que tentam resolver problemas ambientais e sociais, além de gerar riqueza econômica - atuam como empreendedores institucionais, iniciando mudanças divergentes nas normas e modelos mentais construídos socialmente. Unindo a pesquisa em empreendedorismo com a teoria institucional, o objetivo deste estudo foi elucidar como empreendedores sustentáveis: identificam, avaliam e decidem explorar oportunidades de negócios; mobilizam recursos através das lógicas de causation, effectuation ou bricolagem e tentam se legitimar e convencer stakeholders para o seu negócio. Para o entendimento do processo histórico e do contexto da formação do empreendimento optou-se pelo método de múltiplos estudos de caso. Consonante com a literatura, os resultados mostraram que os empreendedores sustentáveis se utilizam de um misto de causation e effectuation na exploração das oportunidades, variando a lógica conforme o contexto. A incorporação da ótica institucional permitiu revelar que a lógica de causation é utilizada em um contexto de busca de legitimidade e convencimento de stakeholders. Por outro lado, verificou-se que as estratégias de convencimento pelos empreendedores como a teorização podem apresentar variações ao longo do tempo, numa lógica de effectuation, à medida que novos desafios e oportunidades surjam. Ao combinar a perspectiva da teoria institucional à pesquisa em empreendedorismo, unindo as estratégias de legitimação e convencimentos dos stakeholders aos mecanismos da ação empreendedora em empreendimentos sustentáveis, esta pesquisa preenche uma lacuna de pesquisa em ambas áreas.<br>In this study, I assume that sustainable entrepreneurs, i.e, entrepreneurs who tackle environmental and social problems while also creating economic wealth (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2011), act as institutional entrepreneurs, promoting divergent changes in the models, schemas and norms of a given organizational field. By combining both entrepreneurship research and institutional theory, the aim of this research is threefold: to uncover how sustainable entrepreneurs 1) identify, evaluate and decide to explore business opportunities; 2) mobilize resources through mechanisms known in the entrepreneurship literature as causation, effectuation, and bricolage, and 3) legitimate their businesses and change institutions so as their products/services get accepted. The method used in this research was the multiple case study to get rich and detailed data, making a thorough understanding of the historical process and context of the venture creation possible. Confirming prior research, the results suggest that entrepreneurs use both effectuation and causation logics to explore opportunities. However, the institutional theory lens in this study suggests that the use of causation logic is intended at gaining legitimacy and attracting stakeholders. On the other hand, results also suggest that theorization strategies used by sustainable entrepreneurs may take an effectual approach, changing its arguments in an experimental and iterative way as stakholders face new necessities and challenges. By combining entrepreneurship research to institutional theory, this study fills a literature gap in both areas.

In our economic era, the youth unemployment is a considerable issue. The labour market isblocked and it is a challenge for young people to find a stable job, especially in specificfields as social sciences or humanity studies. After graduating, the job seeking can take fewweeks even few months. Thus, entrepreneurship appears as a solution for those younggraduates who do not find a job or as a future career. Historically speaking, entrepreneurshipwas defined as an economic phenomenon but is seen as a broader concept today. Throughdecades, notions as opportunity, risk-taking and creativity have been added to the definitionbut also the different forms of entrepreneurship as social, societal, ecological or educational.Everyone can be an entrepreneur in his own way and young people are seduced by thisconcept that brings independence and freedom. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate onthe way young graduates who decided to turn themselves into entrepreneurship experiencetheir engagement in this field. To answer the research question, the abductive method hasbeen used. The thesis’ authors interviewed six young graduates who are engaged in variousprojects in order to collect the different experiences and relate them with the differentconcepts of entrepreneurship. After gathering the empirical data and analysed it with diversetheories, a conclusion has been drawn. It showed that there is no common way ofexperiencing entrepreneurship and that personality can have a valuable role concerning thedecision-making. In the following manuscript, theories and interviews have been collectedto reflect on engagement that can be taken by young graduates.

Informal entrepreneurship is widespread in Sarawak but limited studies are conducted on these establishments. This research aims to explore the factors that influence entrepreneurs to operate in the informal economy and their transition into the formal economy. The findings are of significance for policy-makers in implementing policies related to promoting transition strategies of informal entrepreneurship into the formal economy as well as for existing informal entrepreneurs who wish to transition into the formal economy.

El tema de l’emprenedoria com un camp d'investigació és àmpliament reconegut i s'ha afirmat com un important motor de creixement econòmic. Aquesta tesi doctoral consisteix en tres assaigs centrats en l'anàlisi de l'emprenedoria. L'ús de diferents bases de dades i l’aplicació de diferents tècniques metodològiques, tant en el macroeconòmic com a nivell microeconòmic, enriqueix aquesta tesi ja que permet analitzar l’emprenedoria des de diferents punts de vista i ens permet analitzar el fenòmen amb més detall. En particular, aquesta tesi aporta noves evidències sobre tres grans temes: el comportament dinàmic de les taxes empresarials; l'autoocupació com una forma d'escapar del desajust de competències i habilitats al lloc de treball i; l'impacte de les petites empreses en comparació amb les grans empreses en el creixement econòmic. Els resultats del primer assaig indiquen un impacte positiu de les sortides empresarials en els nivells futurs d’emprenedoria en un país, sent l’efecte major per a emprenedors d’oportunitat. Els resultats mostren algunes implicacions importants per als investigadors i els responsables de les polítiques, atès que la sortida de negocis pot ser superada quan hi ha una motivació necessitat. Els resultats del segon assaig ens indiquen que no només els auto-empleats són menys probable de declarar tenir desajust de competències i habilitats sinó també que aquells individus que realitzen la transició des de l'ocupació assalariada a l'autoocupació redueixen la seva probabilitat d'inadequació de les qualificacions i competències després d’haver fet la transició. Els resultats del tercer assaig suggereixen que, de mitjana, la participació de les micro i grans empreses pot haver estat ‘per sobre de l’òptim’ (sobretot en els països d'ingressos més baixos de la UE), mentre que la proporció d'empreses mitjanes poden haver estat ‘sota de l'òptim’ (sobretot en països de majors ingressos de la UE).<br>El tema del emprendimiento como un campo de investigación es ampliamente reconocido y se ha afirmado como un importante motor de crecimiento económico. Esta tesis doctoral consiste en tres ensayos centrados en el análisis de la emprendeduría. El uso de diferentes bases de datos y la aplicación de diferentes técnicas metodológicas, tanto en el macroeconómico como a nivel microeconómico, enriquece esta tesis ya que permite analizar el emprendimiento desde diferentes puntos de vista y con más detalle. En particular, esta tesis aporta nuevas evidencias sobre tres grandes temas: el comportamiento dinámico de las tasas empresariales; el autoempleo como una forma de escapar del desajuste de competencias y habilidades en el lugar de trabajo y; el impacto de las pequeñas empresas en comparación con las grandes en el crecimiento económico. Los resultados del primer ensayo indican un impacto positivo de las salidas empresariales en los futuros niveles de emprendimiento en un país, siendo el efecto mayor para emprendedores de oportunidad. Los resultados muestran algunas implicaciones importantes para los investigadores y los responsables de las políticas, dado que la salida de negocios puede ser superada cuando hay una motivación por necesidad. Los resultados del segundo ensayo nos indican que no sólo los auto-empleados son menos probable que declaren tener desajuste de competencias sino también que aquellos individuos que realizan la transición desde el empleo asalariado al autoempleo reducen su probabilidad de inadecuación de las cualificaciones y competencias después de haber hecho la transición. Los resultados del tercer ensayo sugieren que, en promedio, la participación de las micro y grandes empresas puede haber estado 'por encima del óptimo' (sobre todo en los países de ingresos más bajos de la UE), mientras que la proporción de empresas medianas pueden haber estado 'debajo del óptimo' (sobre todo en países de mayores ingresos de la UE).<br>The topic of entrepreneurship as a field of research is widely recognised and it has been claimed as a major driver of economic growth. This doctoral thesis consists of three essays focused on the analysis of entrepreneurship. The use of different databases and the application of different methodological techniques, both at macroeconomic and at microeconomic levels, enriches this thesis by approaching the entrepreneurial activity from different points of view and allow us to analyse the phenomenon much deeper. In particular, this thesis provides new evidence on three broad issues: the dynamic behavior of entrepreneurial rates; self-employment as a way to escape from skill mismatches and; the impact of small versus large firms on economic performance. The results of the first essay indicate that exits have a positive impact on future levels of entrepreneurial activity in a country, being this effect higher for opportunity entrepreneurs. The results show some important implications for researchers and policy makers given that business exit may be overcome when there is a necessity motivation. The results of the second essay that not only the average self-employee is less likely to declare being skill-mismatched but also that those individuals who transit from salaried employment to self-employment reduce their probability of skill mismatches after the transition. The results of the third essay suggest that, on average, the share of micro and large firms may have been ‘above optimum’ (particularly in lower income EU countries) whereas the share of medium-sized firms may have been ‘below optimum’ (particularly in higher income EU countries).

The main objective of the thesis is to contribute to the field of entrepreneurship in the areas of new firm formation, regional economic development and individual behavior. First, the results indicate that regional new firm formation activity is path-dependent over time. The main factors that determine the level and the development of regional new firm formation are the entrepreneurial culture and the level of innovation activity. Second, the empirical analyses show that entrepreneurship is a source of regional economic development. New firms have a long term employment effects and new firms serve as a conduit for knowledge spillovers. Third, the entrepreneurial environment may influence the individual decision to start a business. The empirical analyses are carried out on the regional and individual level. This thesis uses the establishment file of the IAB and the SOEP dataset for the empirical analyses.

This dissertation attempts to contribute to extant discussions on how one utilizes knowledge for economic gain. The first essay is a response to the controversy on whether the interactions divert academic scientists research agenda toward industry interests at the expense of fundamental science. This essay considers how an academic scientist chooses the level of difficulty of a research project and its level of relevance to industry interests. A simple game-theoretic model between research sponsors, a government agency and a firm, and an academic scientist is constructed. The shows that the funding decisions of research sponsors are strategic substitutes. It also shows that the academic scientists choices of project characteristics are strategic complements. The second essay provides insights on scientific entrepreneurs. It is argued that the nature of scientists research, specifically the level of its commercial applicability, is an important predictor of entrepreneurial actions of academic scientists. Using data from 395 academic scientists at five top US research universities, it is observed that there is a non-linear relationship between the nature of research and entrepreneurial actions. The third essay offers insights on entrepreneurial teams. This essay investigates mechanisms that give rise to entrepreneurial teams. The model shows that an entrepreneur obtains less expected value from a project if the entrepreneur chooses to work solo at latter stage than working in a team. It is also explained how asymmetry of importance between tasks in a commercialization project influences the decision of team formation and its optimal size. An extended model is constructed to analyze two benefits of team work: specialization and diversity.

Cette thèse rédigée sous la forme de trois articles explore les antécédents de l’entrepreneuriat, c’est à dire le choix d’individus de quitter leur travail salarié pour créer leur propre entreprise. Le premier chapitre examine les raisons pour lesquelles les entreprises les plus performantes génèrent plus d’entrepreneurs que leurs compétiteurs ne le font. Le deuxième chapitre étudie la relation entre l’appariement salarié-organisation sur le marché du travail et la transition vers l’entrepreneuriat. Au plan empirique, ces deux premiers chapitres exploitent une base de données sur le lien employeurs-employés en Suède (1990-2007) et s’appuient sur une méthodologie originale pour différencier les effets dus à la qualité individuelle du salarié, à la qualité de l’entreprise, et à l’appariement salarié-entreprise. Le troisième chapitre de cette thèse étudie au niveau organisationnel les effets des stratégies d’exploration/d’exploitation dans l’industrie des appareils médicaux. Cette thèse tend à montrer que le contexte ainsi que le processus d’appariement et de sélection jouent un rôle important dans le choix de devenir entrepreneur<br>This dissertation consists of three essays on employee entrepreneurship where some employees leave paid employment to start their own business. In particular I examine the antecedents of such entrepreneurial transitions from contextual and individual perspectives. In the first essay I examine why historically best performing firms generate more entrepreneurs than other firms. In thesecond essay I investigate the relationship between matching in the labor market and entrepreneurial transition of employees. The empirical setting of the first two essays is the whole population of Swedish workers from 1990 to 2007. In the third essay I investigate the effect of organizational exploration and exploitation on employee entrepreneurship in medical devices industry. The overall conclusion of this dissertation is that context matters for entrepreneurship. In addition, sorting in the labor market and fit between an employer and employee determine who becomes an entrepreneur

Das Paper beschreibt das Konzept des im EU Kooperationsprogramm INTERREG Polen-Sachsen 2014–2020 geförderten Projekts „TRAILS – Traveling Innovation Labs and Services“ und stellt erste Ergebnisse der explorativen Analyse vor. TRAILS bringt mobile Innovationslabore direkt zu Schulen sowie Unternehmen an Standorte in der deutsch-polnischen Grenzregion und ist dort jeweils für eine Woche stationiert. In den Innovationslaboren kommen Schüler in eintägigen Workshops mit Unternehmertum in Berührung, kreieren eigene Projektideen und testen neue Technologien. Mitarbeiter von KMU trainieren Methoden, um neue Produkte und Services zu entwickeln und Prozesse zu optimieren. Ziel ist es, Formate wie Business Modeling, Makerspaces und Hackathons samt benötigten Räumlichkeiten, Technologien und Workshop-Programmen in strukturschwachen Regionen vor Ort anzubieten und für die digitale Transformation sowie neue Geschäfts- und Vermarktungsmodelle zu sensibilisieren.

This study has examined the knowledge required for the publication of an Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (E&BI) focused teaching text. The research design was based on a constructivist, interpretive paradigm, and utilised a qualitative methodology to support the development of a framework and content for a text. Data collection occurred through formal research, discovery and exploration of knowledge rather than verification, and was subject to my interpretation arising from my participation as an academic. The analysis of data required a conceptual framework to be developed consistent with the research paradigm, and be so designed as to provide a way for me through a participatory process, to identify and evaluate knowledge in E&BI and investigate the research questions. The study rationalised that E&BI educational programs must first be consistent with, and reflective of, the mission of the institution providing such programs, and also, must address the learning needs of students. Previous research undertaken for this thesis had clearly identified a strong demand for material on E&BI that combined theory and practice with case studies drawn from real world entrepreneurial practices. The outcome of this study resulted in the design of a formal text that was suitable for use by secondary, community and adult education institutions within Australia, for delivery to both a digital and print audience and representative of international E&BI good practice. The text “Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation” was published in 2005. The published text was designed to provide new entrepreneurs and existing Small to Medium Enterprise owners with a practical guide on how to pursue business success based on established entrepreneurial and enterprise management techniques. The thesis has explicated the scholarly coherence and originality of the published work, and further places the text within a pedagogical framework.

This thesis aims to investigate the performance of different types of franchisees, in terms of perceived market share and profitability, are affected by constrains defined by the theories of franchise selection and contractual terms. The two different types of franchisees researched include novice and parallel. This begins by examining how the constraints defined by the Resource Base, Social Exchange and Equity theories of franchise selection are applicable to entrepreneurs who want to become franchisees, and by examining the differences in the attitude of franchisees toward contractual terms. The main contribution is that the research broadens and extends other franchising and entrepreneurship studies by exploring external and internal factors to examine perceived franchisee performance. Therefore, this study relates the criteria used by franchisees in the selection of potential franchisors and contract clauses, to their performance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Sultanate of Oman in the food and beverage sector. Moreover, existing research has primarily focused on the perspective of franchisors and has not adequately explored the franchisee's perspective on determining success. Therefore, this study contributes to franchising literature by broadening the scope of existing theories. The study has adopted a multi-methodology strategy, employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Qualitative data was collected through 11 face-to-face interviews, 5 franchisees in Oman, and 6 in Saudi Arabia; using semi-structured questionnaires. Quantitative data was collected via a survey. A self-administrated questionnaire was designed, translated, piloted and distributed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Data analysis was conducted on a sample of 123 responses. Factor analysis was implemented to test the scale, followed by the Mann-Whitney U test, regression, and moderation analysis. The qualitative findings show that constraints defined by the resource-based theory are applicable to novice franchisees. However, franchisor training and support were found to be exceptional resources, applicable to both novice and parallel franchisees. Constraints defined by the social exchange theory are applicable to both novice and parallel franchisees; whereas constraints defined by the equity theory are applicable only to parallel franchisees. The quantitative findings indicate that both types of franchisee have different attitudes toward training clauses; support clauses; contract duration clauses; territorial exclusivity clauses; tying arrangement clauses and franchise fees clauses. However, both types of franchisees have similar attitudes toward termination clauses. Moreover, the results show that franchisor brand reputation, technical know-how and high franchise fee factors will increase the franchisee perceived market share. Additionally, franchisor brand reputation and higher franchise fees, will increase franchisee perceived profitability. Furthermore, parallel franchisees believe that a franchisor's local market knowledge will decrease their performance in terms of perceived profitability. Alternatively, novice franchisees believe long contract duration will help them increase their perceived profitability. In addition, imposing higher franchise fees on novice franchisees will increase their perceived profitability more than that of parallel franchisees. Finally, the results show that contract clauses such as: extensiveness of support; long contract duration, and stricter termination clauses, will affect franchisee perceived market share positively. Finally, contract clauses such as extensiveness of support and short contract duration clauses, will affect franchisee perceived profitability positively; whereas extensiveness of training clauses will affect franchisee perceived profitability negatively.

Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2016.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 85-86).<br>This study explores local innovation and entrepreneurship in Ghana. It presents the results of 28 in-person interviews with Ghanaian entrepreneurs who live and work in four cities across Ghana. The interviews detailed the entrepreneurs' business endeavors, backgrounds, and thoughts regarding Ghanaian innovation and entrepreneurship. The interview data was supplemented with a statistical analysis in order to observe trends among the entrepreneurs, and the main findings offer some insight into Ghanaian entrepreneurship. Overall, the interview participants found it relatively easy to start businesses in Ghana, and started businesses for a variety of reasons, which included a deficit of currently existing jobs and the desire to solve a local problem in an entrepreneurial way. In addition, the makeup of the businesses varied, and many included both a for-profit and philanthropic arms. The philanthropic arms of businesses also varied in terms of focus and informativeness. Although the cities in which the entrepreneurs are situated are very different, geography did not seem to impact the businesses' focus overall. The study also investigated the relationship of entrepreneurship to innovation in Ghana. Overall, we determined that entrepreneurship in Ghana does not always mean that innovation is occurring, and that many entrepreneurs seemed limited in their capacity to innovate. The study identifies several barriers to innovation in Ghana, including a lack of capital, infrastructure challenges, and an entrenched system of apprenticeship. Within the bounds of the study, the more innovative businesses tended to be headed by entrepreneurs who were more highly educated, and businesses with more innovative philanthropic arms tended to be started by entrepreneurs with more clearly-defined role models. The results of this study are not representative of the whole pool of Ghanaian entrepreneurs because the interview participants were not selected rigorously. The findings are intended to be used as guidelines for future work relating to entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana, and potentially other developing countries.<br>by Grace Connors and Jessica Press-Williams.<br>S.B.

Thesis (MEd)--Stellenbosch University, 2000.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this masters thesis the nature and theory of entrepreneurship, leadership and creativity are discussed. The primary objectives were to identify the entrepreneur. The secondary objectives were to evaluate that when he corporates his leadership skills and creativity if he can be a winner. Entrepreneurs create and manage change. Action-orientation is the essence of entrepreneurship. In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives an in-depth literature study was carried out. It was followed by informal interviews with different entrepreneurs, managers and leaders of big and small businesses. Young entrepreneurs were also interviewed. During this study it was found that leadership and creativity are necessary for entrepreneurship, in order to prosper in an increasingly competitive world. Development of entrepreneurship, leadership and creativity becomes an important strategic objective of schools and other organisations. There is a need for training young people and adults efficiently. This situation poses definite challenges. On the part of educators it requires innovative and unique approaches to develop these abilities. Entrepreneurs are leaders. Being a leader is a prerequisite to entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur must be a leader to attract, retain and get the most out of financiers, suppliers, customers, consultants, professionals and contractors. He must be a leader to get the best out of himself. Some entrepreneurs lead in such a way that their leadership is easy to observe and to understand, while others' ways are less visible or comprehensible; but they are all leaders. One thinks that leaders are born with leadership talent. Some small elements of leadership may come with birth (Shefsky, 1994: 168), but those elements tend to determine the quality of the leadership, not the existence of leadership talent. People can be educated how to be leaders. This can also be taught at school. Entrepreneurial leadership develops by keeping perspective so that dreams can become reality, knowing why one must lead, identifying targets and staying focussed. Like other forms of leadership, entrepreneurial leadership entails a blend of what is ethically correct and what is financially successful. The entrepreneurial leader must be prepared for the stimulation and the responsibility of the position. Creativity in entrepreneurship is challenging and stimulating. Intuition is the enabling factor in creativity. Once the entrepreneurial leader creates, he tears apart his good ideas. He will analyse how long his idea will take to develop, what the risk is and what the market is. He will estimate both sides of success, spectacular and worst case scenarios. His mind will be open for creativity to truth. He will be inquisitive, he will question everything and try to figure out how in the world everything can be done better.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie verhandeling word die aard en teorie van entrepreneurskap, leierskap en kreatiwiteit bespreek. Die primêre doelwitte was om te bepaal of die entrepreneur suksesvol kan wees as hy leierskap en kreatiwiteit koppel aan entrepreneurskap. Die entrepreneur skep verandering en hy bestuur verandering. Die wese van die entrepreneur is daarin om daadwerkilk op te tree. Om bogenoemde doelwitte te verwesenlik, is en diepgaande Iieteratuurstudie gedoen, asook onderhoude gevoer met verskeie entrepreneurs, bestuurders en leiers van groot en klein sakeondernemings. Daar is ook onderhoude met skoolgaande en jong entrepreneurs gevoer. Tydens die studie is bevind dat leierskap en kreatiwiteit noodsaaklik is vir entrepreneurskap ten einde voorspoedig te wees en vooruit te gaan in en Wêreld wat toenemend mededingend raak. Ontwikkeling van entrepreneurskap, leierskap en kreatiwiteit raak al hoe meer die strategiese doelwitte van skole en ander organisasies. Daar is en behoefte daaraan om jong mense en volwassenes effektief op te lei. Hierdie situasie skep werklik uitdagings. Aan die kant van die opvoeders vereis dit unieke verandering deur nuwighede in te voer en unieke benaderings te ontwikkel, ten einde hierdie vermoëns te ontwikkel. Entrepreneurs is leiers. Om en leier te wees, is en vereiste vir entrepreneurskap. en Entrepreneur moet en leier wees ten om die finansiers, verskaffers, kliënte, konsultante, beroepslui en kontrakteurs aan te trek, hulle te behou en die meeste uit hulle te haal. Hy moet 'n leier wees om die beste uit homself te kry. Sommige entrepreneurs lei op so 'n manier dat hulle leierskap maklik waarneembaar en verstaanbaar is. Ander se leierskap is weer minder sigbaar of verstaanbaar, maar hulle is almal leiers. Daar word algemeen aanvaar dat leiers gebore word met leierskaptalent. Sommige beginsels van leierskap is reeds by geboorte aanwesig (Shefsky, 1994: 168), maar hierdie beginsels is geneig om die bestaan van leierskap te bepaal, maar nie die bestaan van leierskap talent nie. Mense kan opgelei word on leiers te wees. Leierskap kan ook in die skool aangeleer word. Ondernemende leiers ontwikkel deur perspektief te behou sodat hulle drome werklikheid word, deur te wete te kom hoekom hulle moet lei, deur doelwitte te stel en gefokus te bly. Soos enige vorm van entrepreneurskap tree hulle eties korrek op om finansieel suksesvol te wees. Kreatiwiteit en entrepreneurskap skep 'n uitdaging en is stimulerend. Intuïsie is die bydraende faktor tot kreatiwiteit. Sodra die voornemende leier skep, haal hy sy idee uitmekaar uit. Hy analiseer hoe lank dit sal duur voor sy idee ontwikkel, wat die risiko is en waaroor die mark geleenthede gaan. Hy maak 'n waardebepaling van moontlike suksesse of mislukkings. Hy is ingestelop kreatiwiteit, is ondersoekend en weetgierig. Hy doen alles in sy vemoë om 'n belangrike rol te speel om die wêreld 'n beter plek te maak. Klem is gelê op die eienskappe, vaardighede, rolle en funksies van die voornemende leier en watter rol leierskap en kreatiwiteit in entrepreneurskap speel.

Mestrado em Finanças<br>O objetivo desta dissertação é examinar o impacto das eleições políticas na atividade empresarial. Para isso, coletamos dados de 16 países por um número variado de anos (dentro de uma faixa de 16 a 21 anos por país) para construir uma amostra de 3.056 observações. Os nossos dados vêm do Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Adult Population Survey e do Nordsieck, W. (1997) Parties and Elections in Europe, obtido em http://www.parties-and-elections.eu. Em seguida, estimamos um pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) e um modelo de efeito fixo para ver como o momento das eleições afeta os níveis empresariais no país. Além disso, examinamos os efeitos de uma vitória inesperada. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a Atividade Empreendedora Total aumenta durante um ano eleitoral e diminui no ano anterior, enquanto não há evidência estatística de qualquer efeito no ano seguinte.<br>Purpose of this dissertation is to examine the impact of political elections on entrepreneurial activity. In order to do so, we collect data from 17 countries for a varied number of years (within a range of 16 to 21 years per country) to build a sample of 3,056 observations. Our data comes from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Adult Population Survey and from Nordsieck, W. (1997) Parties and Elections in Europe retrieved from http://www.parties-and-elections.eu . We then estimate a pooled Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and a fixed effect model to see how the elections timing affect entrepreneurial levels in the country. In addition, we examine the effects of an unexpected victory, Results obtained suggest that Total Entrepreneurial Activity increases during an election year and decreases the year before, while there is no statistical evidence of any effect in the year after.<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Das vorliegende Working Paper gibt einen Überblick über unterschiedliche Zugänge zu Social Entrepreneurship (SE) in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur und stellt die Ergebnisse einer im Frühjahr/Herbst 2012 durchgeführten Telefonbefragung zum Thema "Mapping Social Entrepreneurship in Österreich" vor. Ziel der Befragung war es, einen Überblick über SE in Österreich zu geben. Die zentralen Ergebnisse lassen sich wie folgt zusammenfassen: 1) Die wissenschaftlichen Definitionsversuche von SE sind mannigfaltig. Konsens besteht lediglich darin, dass die soziale Mission prioritär oder zumindest wirtschaftlichen Zielen gleichgestellt ist. Darüber hinaus unterscheiden sich die Verständnisse von SE teils stark und reichen von der Auffassung, SE würde als Überbegriff für Organisationen und Personen mit einer sozialen Mission dienen, die eine starke betriebswirtschaftliche Orientierung und einen Fokus auf die Generierung eigener Einnahmen legen, über Definitionen, die besonders den innovativen Charakter von SE hervorheben, bis hin zu Verständnissen, die verstärkt die Wirkung von SE und damit einhergehend institutionellen Wandel sowie das soziale Transformationspotential von SE in den Vordergrund stellen. 2) Im Rahmen der Untersuchung konnten zehn Organisationen in Österreich identifiziert werden, die sich der Unterstützung von SE, durch Finanzierungs-, Beratungs-, Trainings-, und Netzwerkleistungen, verschrieben haben. Es sind dies Ashoka Österreich, der Bundesdachverband für Soziale Unternehmen, der Essl Social Prize, Good.bee, HUB Vienna, Pioneers of Change, der Social Business Day, der Social Impact Award, der Trigos Preis für Social Entrepreneurs, sowie die WU Wien. Diesen Organisationen kommt eine besondere Rolle im SE-Feld zu, da sie aufgrund ihrer zentralen Positionen im Netzwerk, das Feldverständnis von SE mitprägen. 3) Darüber hinaus konnten in Summe 273 Organisationen bzw. Personen in Österreich identifiziert werden, die mit dem SE-Begriff in Verbindung gebracht werden. Von diesen konnten 105 interviewt werden, von denen sich wiederum 80 selbst als Social Entrepreneurs sehen. 4) 75% der Social Entrepreneurs sind jünger als 4 Jahre. Die Projektideen selbst existieren aber oft schon wesentlich länger. 5) Bildung, regionale bzw. lokale Entwicklungsprojekte, Arbeits(re)integrationsprojekte, Projekte in Entwicklungsländern sowie Projekte mit einem Schwerpunkt auf Umweltschutz sind die wichtigsten Bereiche, in denen sich Social Entrepreneurs engagieren. Zu den am häufigsten genannten Zielgruppen zählen Kinder und Jugendliche, nachhaltige KonsumentInnen, Menschen aus Entwicklungsländern sowie die breite Öffentlichkeit. Die am häufigsten genannten Leistungen, die angeboten werden, um die sozialen Zielsetzungen zu erreichen, sind der Verkauf von Produkten und Dienstleistungen, das Vernetzen von Personengruppen, sowie die Beratung, Ausbildung, und Weiterbildung von spezifischen Personengruppen. 6) Jede Organisation verfügt im Durchschnitt über ein jährliches Budget von 30.000 Euro. Dabei setzen sich die Finanzierungsquellen durchschnittlich zu 52% aus privaten Mitteln, zu 34% aus Markteinnahmen und 14% aus öffentlichen Mitteln (in Form von Subventionen und Leistungsverträgen) zusammen. 7) 37% der Social Entrepreneurs sind in Form eines Vereins organisiert, 23% haben die Rechtsform der GesmbH gewählt und 17% sind als Einzelunternehmen strukturiert. 18% haben noch keine Rechtsform. Die verbleibenden 5% sind Personengesellschaften. Bezogen auf die Rechtsform unterscheiden sie sich maßgeblich von etablierten NPOs. Diese sind zu 90% als Vereine organisiert. 8) Unterschiede zu etablierten NPOs liegen vor allem im Bereich der Finanzierung, der Rechtsform sowie dem Selbstverständnis von Social Entrepreneurs. Der Wunsch nach finanzieller Autarkie und die damit verbundene stärkere Betonung von Markteinnahmen, ein Fokus auf wirtschaftliche Methoden und Herangehensweisen, sowie der unternehmerisch Charakter, der sich unter anderem in der Wahl der Rechtsform niederschlägt, sind Spezifika von SE.<br>Series: Working Papers / Institute for Nonprofit Management

This study will focus on two main concepts: entrepreneurship and feminism and more clearly about the relation which brings them together.Feminist values have gained more attention over the years and became a field of studies (Grunig, 2000; Van Bogaert, 2009; Ahmed et al., 2013; Gardner, 2009). It becomes a natural topic in our society as it fills a role in businesses; and even more in entrepreneurship (Ahl and Marlow, 2012; Morris et al., 2006 ; Mutch, 2018 ; Orser, 2012).Even if feminism gain ground in the business world, its definition is still not unanimous.The first section will then give an insight about all the main way feminism can be understood in the current environment, then entrepreneurship. Linking both term lead to another point of view of business management. Therefore, the effect of feminism in the managerial and business culture is researched through the paper.Three main feminist values have been chosen in this study, by their predominance in the existing feminist and entrepreneurial literature. To that aim, this paper will state the three main feminist values and then, how to identify them in the workplace.

Das Paper beschreibt das Konzept des im EU Kooperationsprogramm INTERREG Polen-Sachsen 2014–2020 geförderten Projekts „TRAILS – Traveling Innovation Labs and Services“ und stellt erste Ergebnisse der explorativen Analyse vor. TRAILS bringt mobile Innovationslabore direkt zu Schulen sowie Unternehmen an Standorte in der deutsch-polnischen Grenzregion und ist dort jeweils für eine Woche stationiert. In den Innovationslaboren kommen Schüler in eintägigen Workshops mit Unternehmertum in Berührung, kreieren eigene Projektideen und testen neue Technologien. Mitarbeiter von KMU trainieren Methoden, um neue Produkte und Services zu entwickeln und Prozesse zu optimieren. Ziel ist es, Formate wie Business Modeling, Makerspaces und Hackathons samt benötigten Räumlichkeiten, Technologien und Workshop-Programmen in strukturschwachen Regionen vor Ort anzubieten und für die digitale Transformation sowie neue Geschäfts- und Vermarktungsmodelle zu sensibilisieren.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2020<br>Cataloged from PDF of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (pages 136-145).<br>Having overturned the traditional producer-led, in-house production model of software, open source entered the physical world and started to change physical products' development and commercialization process. Will open source diversify the hardware world as it did in software 20 years ago? Since mid-2000, engineer entrepreneurs were observed to have purposefully chosen to abandon the intellectual properties of their products and licensed the design under open source licenses. As a consequence, public are allowed to participate to the product design processes from an early phase and interact with firms in an open, transparent way. It is reasonable to consider this extreme openness as a high risk move for hardware startup-level firms, who are normally resource-scarce, capital-intense and loosely organized. Then, the research questions come as how open source hardware firms generate profit and manage risks? Can open source model be a sustainable hardware development model in an entrepreneurial setting? Using data collected from 66 open source hardware firms over 4 years across 21 countries, the research questions were answered with a series of four research projects. In brief, the success of open source model in entrepreneurial activities is a result of dynamic design of organizational openness and community governance mechanism according to firm's business model and community's social needs, so that firms are able to exploit community value brought by being open and mitigate risks associated. Open source hardware entrepreneurship can serve as an extreme application of open innovation and user innovation theories in hardware venture creation, and we hope to use this work as a pilot study for the emerging socio-technological phenomenon.<br>by Zhuoxuan Li.<br>Ph. D.<br>Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering

This study has examined the knowledge required for the publication of an Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (E&BI) focused teaching text. The research design was based on a constructivist, interpretive paradigm, and utilised a qualitative methodology to support the development of a framework and content for a text. Data collection occurred through formal research, discovery and exploration of knowledge rather than verification, and was subject to my interpretation arising from my participation as an academic. The analysis of data required a conceptual framework to be developed consistent with the research paradigm, and be so designed as to provide a way for me through a participatory process, to identify and evaluate knowledge in E&BI and investigate the research questions. The study rationalised that E&BI educational programs must first be consistent with, and reflective of, the mission of the institution providing such programs, and also, must address the learning needs of students. Previous research undertaken for this thesis had clearly identified a strong demand for material on E&BI that combined theory and practice with case studies drawn from real world entrepreneurial practices. The outcome of this study resulted in the design of a formal text that was suitable for use by secondary, community and adult education institutions within Australia, for delivery to both a digital and print audience and representative of international E&BI good practice. The text 'Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation' was published in 2005. The published text was designed to provide new entrepreneurs and existing Small to Medium Enterprise owners with a practical guide on how to pursue business success based on established entrepreneurial and enterprise management techniques. The thesis has explicated the scholarly coherence and originality of the published work, and further places the text within a pedagogical framework.

This study has examined the knowledge required for the publication of an Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (E&BI) focused teaching text. The research design was based on a constructivist, interpretive paradigm, and utilised a qualitative methodology to support the development of a framework and content for a text. Data collection occurred through formal research, discovery and exploration of knowledge rather than verification, and was subject to my interpretation arising from my participation as an academic. The analysis of data required a conceptual framework to be developed consistent with the research paradigm, and be so designed as to provide a way for me through a participatory process, to identify and evaluate knowledge in E&BI and investigate the research questions. The study rationalised that E&BI educational programs must first be consistent with, and reflective of, the mission of the institution providing such programs, and also, must address the learning needs of students. Previous research undertaken for this thesis had clearly identified a strong demand for material on E&BI that combined theory and practice with case studies drawn from real world entrepreneurial practices. The outcome of this study resulted in the design of a formal text that was suitable for use by secondary, community and adult education institutions within Australia, for delivery to both a digital and print audience and representative of international E&BI good practice. The text 'Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation' was published in 2005. The published text was designed to provide new entrepreneurs and existing Small to Medium Enterprise owners with a practical guide on how to pursue business success based on established entrepreneurial and enterprise management techniques. The thesis has explicated the scholarly coherence and originality of the published work, and further places the text within a pedagogical framework.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the alternative value created by EVOLuSION Fitness. EVOLuSION Fitness is a fitness facility that provides a holistic approach to wellness. Through group fitness, nutrition, and accountability classes, and accountability emails and texts, EVOLuSION Fitness is able to motivate individuals suffering from maintainable chronic conditions to exercise and make healthier lifestyle decisions. EVOLuSION Fitness creates social, experiential, and environmental alternative value. This is because clients can potentially improve their quality of life and even potentially increase their life expectancy. Furthermore, as individuals increase their activity, their bodies create endorphins, which in turn improves their mood and self-confidence. Because EVOLuSION Fitness is not like the typical gym, in that it does not have rows upon rows of cardio machines, its carbon footprint is relatively small. Overall, this company is revolutionizing the fitness and health industry.

Entrepreneurship represents a means of increasing personal freedom and designing an attendant lifestyle. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies sole proprietors used to sustain their small business operations beyond five years and attain profitability levels necessary for freedom and autonomy. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews of 10 entrepreneurs who answered open-ended interview questions, granted access to archival documents, and direct observation of their business operations. The conceptual framework was emancipation theory addressing personal freedom through business autonomy. With the modified van Kaam method, the identification of emerging themes involved identifying groupings, clusters, and unrelated antecedents all of which yielded such themes as customer service, personal control, and creativity. The customer service theme was prevalent throughout the interview. The personal control theme arose from participants' perceptions of emancipation, business autonomy, and personal freedom. The creativity theme appeared through the comments of all participants; each participant alluded to the power of creativity and vision. Determination mattered to all the participants. The participants harped on the need for inward strength necessary to overcome all obstacles. Results from this study may contribute to social change assisting sole proprietors in strategies to grow their businesses to profitability, attain personal freedom, and contribute to community economic development which in turn would extend to benefits a stable economy across the community for a safe and progressive society.

My work is positioned within an emerging trend in entrepreneurial research which revises prior work by considering the impact of selection effects. Prior research on the individual-level determinants of start-up size, performance, and exit has ignored that individuals select into entrepreneurship and this might seriously bias our understanding of the post-entry process. I'm particularly well positioned to investigate the nature, the extent, and the consequences of these selection effects because I could access extraordinary data on the Swedish population, which allows me to incorporate information on individuals who were at risk but did not enter entrepreneurship. Yet, the overall contribution of my dissertation goes beyond flagging a selection problem and developing a method to cope with it. It comes up with reexamining and even questioning some of the most prominent theoretical explanations to fundamental issues in entrepreneurship, such as the notion of initial size, the liability of smallness, and the interplay between entrepreneurial performance and firm exit.

The dissertation examines rural entrepreneurship as a potential vehicle for facilitating local and regional development. Development of the rural areas is one of the top priorities of European Union. Consequently, the phenomenon of Rural entrepreneurship is also gaining importance in the European context, where for the purpose of cohesion of urban and rural area a substantial amount of resources is deployed on the annual basis. In this paper we analyze the role of entrepreneurship in the creation of wealth and employment in the peripheral context. The overall research questions revolve around: How rural context affects the entrepreneurship in highly marginalized areas and the interplay between them. What are the most appropriate regional development and growth theories present for this purpose? How entrepreneurs discover new business opportunity? And, What mental schemes and strategies are deployed in doing so? And finally, What is the role that various institutions play to facilitate entrepreneurship in such areas?

Family business is an important and prevalent type of organization. The intertwined relationship between business and family has deep implications for the success of the family business and the welfare of the business family. In this dissertation, I aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of that relationship by using a dynamic approach to study how family businesses evolve and how they impact the family. I focus on opportunity entrepreneurship and study its antecedents and outcomes. I study (1) the factors that shape the path of individuals into opportunity entrepreneurship, and (2) the implications of the business for the entrepreneur and for other members of the family as it evolves into a business family. I develop an unfolding model of entrepreneurship that captures the impact of business involvement of family members on their psychological and financial wellbeing. My core thesis is that the involvement of family members in a family business has important consequences for the business family. I formulate hypotheses about four forms of involvement: (1) direct involvement through self-employment, (2) indirect involvement through living with a self-employed relative, (3) direct and dependent involvement through working for a relative, and (4) family-level involvement in terms of the proportion and intensity of family members work in the business. Moreover, I argue that the effects of these forms of business involvement are moderated by the household roles that family members play. I explore empirically how these forms of involvement coupled with household roles affect family members' psychological wellbeing (life satisfaction) and financial wellbeing (income). I use a comprehensive large panel dataset from Germany that spans over 28 years and use fixed effect models. I find that family business involvement has positive effects for the entrepreneur, while it has negative effects for the other members of the family. Family-level business involvement has overall negative effects. I also find that the effect of business involvement on family member's wellbeing is not moderated by gender, nor is it moderated by household roles. Overall, the findings support my unfolding model of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a mixed blessing in terms of the wellbeing of family members.<br>Business, Sauder School of<br>Graduate

This thesis examines the role of personal agency in the cultural worker’s experience of entrepreneurship. The thesis is a response to a call for further empirical studies capturing the lived experience of cultural work and of entrepreneurship (See Banks, 2006; Gill and Pratt, 2008; Hesmondhalgh and Baker, 2011; and Steyaert and Hjorth, 2006). I am inspired by an emerging literature which seeks to re-invent entrepreneurship by placing it within a social context, including being ‘enterprising’ for counter-cultural activities or for ‘good’ work (morally, ethically and practically), and female entrepreneurship. I draw on the academic disciplines of cultural studies, cultural policy studies and entrepreneurship studies as a context for this empirical research. By exploring the lived experience of cultural entrepreneurship I focus on the worker’s position and personal agency within a milieu. Day-to-day activities reveal a pragmatic approach to managing the challenges of cultural work, and the possibility for ‘rethinking cultural entrepreneurship’ (Oakley, 2014). The cultural entrepreneur’s capacity for reflexivity emerges as a means of subverting or negotiating entrepreneurial modes of work. Identity and myths are challenged by discussing ideas of performing the entrepreneur, or counteracting popular stereotypes. My research approach encourages individuals to construct their story within this dynamic context, a space they shape as well as being shaped by it.

In the late nineteen eighties, Hills proposed that marketing scholars should pay far more attention to entrepreneurship and the smaller enterprise. He founded an annual research symposium and associated proceedings published under the title of Research at the Marketing/Entrepreneurship Interface. The symposia and proceedings still flourish and both the Academy of Marketing in the UK and the American Marketing Association have special interest groups for this area. This thesis is concerned with the contribution that entrepreneurship can make to understanding this interface. Without a robust definition of entrepreneurship, the interface simply becomes a study of a very common and disparate organisational form - Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). There is no shame in this for they deserve our interest, support and help. Without an understanding of the entrepreneurship component of the interface that help and support might be less effective than we, and they, would desire. Small business is not a little large business, they operate in very different circumstances with very much fewer resources to hand, and, because of who they are may have very different motivations and skill sets. Not necessarily worse but different. So entrepreneurial marketing might offer different insights, and help, compared to a standard academic approach to small business. This is a PhD by published work and twenty-three submissions are organised into four themes and form a core for discussion. The first theme considers appropriate definitions of entrepreneurship and the role they play in conceptualising the interface. The second theme considers how adopting an entrepreneurial marketing approach could guide and inform the SME in two particular respects: addressing critical situations and developing and maintaining appropriate relationships. This theme is considering entrepreneurial marketing within the SME. The third theme considers firstly entrepreneurial marketing extended away from the SME to larger organisations in both public and private ownership and to a particular form of public art where participants can be small or large and in either public or private ownership. Secondly the experience of organisations within a cluster and SMEs within a conflict zone are considered. The distinguishing focus of this third theme is that it extends the interface away from the traditional focus on SMEs. Whilst it was natural for the interface to arise out of a desire to understand a neglected organisational form in marketing – it can be applied in other contexts. The final theme considers how the author’s conceptualisation of the interface has informed their teaching and the implications for practical business support. A fundamental argument that is made in respect of understanding the role of entrepreneurship within entrepreneurial marketing is that we should not treat entrepreneurship as an absolute attribute which would direct us into classifying people simply into entrepreneurs as opposed to non-entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs range from the exceptional ‘stellar’ entrepreneur to those who are imitative of current market offerings and we should work across this range appropriately. Having discussed both an appropriate definition and role for entrepreneurship within the marketingentrepreneurship interface the implications of such a view are illustrated through considering the different contexts discussed in themes two and three above and reflecting upon the delivery of teaching programmes based partly or wholly on the notion of the marketing-entrepreneurship interface. The work is a critique of the role of entrepreneurship within the interface. The contexts selected and discussed draw out practical lessons for a wide range of individuals from undergraduates through SMEs to larger organisations in either private or public ownership.