The dominant ‘sand in the wheels’ view holds that entrepreneurship is strongly inhibited by corruption. Challenging this, the ‘grease the wheels’ view maintains that corruption might increase entrepreneurship in highly regulated economies. We extend the basic predictions of these theories by examining entrepreneurs’ start-up decisions, as well as their location choices, in a seemingly low-corruption environment: Swedish municipalities. Combining a validated index of corruption perceptions in local government with population data on new entrepreneurs, nested logit models reveal that even in a low-corruption setting such as Sweden, perceptions of corruption can deter latent entrepreneurs. We also find that a minority of entrepreneurs relocate from their home municipalities to establish their start-ups elsewhere. Surprisingly and contrary to expectations, these relocating entrepreneurs often relocate from relatively low-corruption municipalities to others that are more corrupt. Implications for future research and public policy are discussed.

Purpose Economic integration of refugees remains a challenge for developed countries. Although refugees differ greatly from labor migrants in available resources and motivation toward self-employment, prevailing studies on minority and ethnic entrepreneurship tend to lump these different categories of migrants together. Based on theories of migrants economic embeddedness, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which family- and kinship-based resources affect self-employment duration among refugees and labor migrants. Design/methodology/approach Based on Cox regression models, this longitudinal study estimates the self-employment duration of 10,519 refugees and 2,503 labor migrants starting businesses in Sweden in the period 2006-2012. Findings Results reveal that while refugees are at a disadvantage to labor migrants in terms of self-employment duration, their higher level of family embeddedness in part helps them overcome these disadvantages. For refugees but not for labor migrants, co-location in an ethnic enclave also lowers the risk of them becoming unemployed after a spell in entrepreneurship. Originality/value This original paper provides empirical and theoretical contributions to research on migrants self-employment success. It also discusses contributions for research on entrepreneurs social embeddedness and refugees entrepreneurship.

Despite its growing social relevance, research on cultural diversity in top management teams (TMTs) has been sparse and fragmented. To build a firm foundation and facilitate the development of this field, we review and synthesize 106 key articles published between 1997 and 2021. Our study provides a comprehensive field map explicating the antecedents and influence of TMT cultural diversity, showing that cultural diversity constitutes a distinct and important aspect of TMT diversity that has significant implications for a variety of outcomes. By critically assessing the field, we identify key research gaps and promising areas for future research.

Background During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, governments imposed numerous regulations to protect public health, particularly the (mandatory) use of face masks. However, the appropriateness and effectiveness of face mask regulations have been widely discussed, as is apparent from the divergent measures taken across and within countries over time, including mandating, recommending, and discouraging their use. In this study, we analyse how country-level policy stringency and individual-level predictors associate with face mask use during the early stages of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Method First, we study how (self and other-related) risk perception, (direct and indirect) experience with COVID-19, attitude towards government and policy stringency shape face mask use. Second, we study whether there is an interaction between policy stringency and the individual-level variables. We conduct multilevel analyses exploiting variation in face mask regulations across countries and using data from approximately 7000 students collected in the beginning of the pandemic (weeks 17 through 19, 2020). Results We show that policy stringency is strongly positively associated with face mask use. We find a positive association between self-related risk perception and mask use, but no relationship of mask use with experience with COVID-19 and attitudes towards government. However, in the interaction analyses, we find that government trust and perceived clarity of communication moderate the link between stringency and mask use, with positive government perceptions relating to higher use in countries with regulations and to lower use in countries without regulations. Conclusions We highlight that those countries that aim for widespread use of face masks should set strict measures, stress self-related risks of COVID-19, and use clear communication.

In social-ecological systems (SES), where social and ecological processes are intertwined, phenomena are usually complex and involve multiple interdependent causes. Figuring out causal relationships is thus challenging but needed to better understand and then affect or manage such systems. One important and widely used tool to identify and communicate causal relationships is visualization. Here, we present several common visualization types: diagrams of objects and arrows, X-Y plots, and X-Y-Z plots, and discuss them in view of the particular challenges of visualizing causation in complex systems such as SES. We use a simple demonstration model to create and compare exemplary visualizations and add more elaborate examples from the literature. This highlights implicit strengths and limitations of widely used visualization types and facilitates adequate choices when visualizing causation in SES. Thereupon, we recommend further suitable ways to account for complex causation, such as figures with multiple panels, or merging different visualization types in one figure. This provides caveats against oversimplifications. Yet, any single figure can rarely capture all relevant causal relationships in an SES. We therefore need to focus on specific questions, phenomena, or subsystems, and often also on specific causes and effects that shall be visualized. Our recommendations allow for selecting and combining visualizations such that they complement each other, support comprehensive understanding, and do justice to the existing complexity in SES. This lets visualizations realize their potential and play an important role in identifying and communicating causation.

We bridge research on work environment and competition among schools using detailed data on complaints and incidents of disorder and violence in all Swedish schools 1999-2011. Findings suggest that competition is associated with lower levels of complaints across educational levels. For lower secondary schools, municipalities with high levels of school competition experience higher levels of violence in schools. To assess the causal effects of competition on work environment, we compare municipalities that have introduced competition with those that have not in a difference–in–difference framework, finding that only school complaints in upper secondary schools decrease after competition is introduced.

Research Summary Innovative entrepreneurship, defined as the creation of new products, services, production methods, or business models, is critical for firm, industry, and economic growth and a key determinant of societal well-being. This special issue explores the roles of institutions and government policies in promoting or impeding innovative entrepreneurship. In this introductory editorial, we review theory and evidence on entrepreneurship at the macro-institutional and micro-policy levels, highlighting costs and benefits of alternative institutional environments and targeted policy interventions, as well as interactions within and across levels. We summarize the six papers in the special issue, discuss their contributions to the literature, and suggest how future work can build upon these and other papers to advance our understanding of the conditions and mechanisms underlying successful entrepreneurial innovation. Managerial Summary Innovation and entrepreneurship bring new products and services to market, help firms and industries to grow, and generate improvements in social and economic life. The papers in this special issue explore the background conditions-laws, political processes, regulations, tax policy, subsidies, training programs, and more-that make entrepreneurship and innovation successful. Both "macro" and "micro" policies can stimulate successful entrepreneurial and innovative outcomes, but can also become politicized, be ineffective, and generate unintended consequences. The papers offer lessons to researchers, policymakers, and practitioners about making entrepreneurship and innovation more successful.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, governments set recommendations and restrictions that have given rise to new situations that require residents to deliberate and respond nonautomatically. For highly impulsive individuals, dealing with these situations may be harder, as they tend to deliberate less about the consequences of their behaviors. In this study, we investigate the relationship between impulsivity and delay discounting on the one hand and compliance with COVID-19 restrictions on the other hand. We distinguish between compliance with social distancing measures and compliance with hygiene measures. Regression analyses of an international sample of 6759 students from seven European countries reveal that the self-reported personality construct of impulsivity is negatively related to both types of compliance behavior. However, and unexpectedly, we also find a weak positive association between the discount rate-as measured by a behavioral task-and compliance. Our study highlights the importance of individual differences in impulsivity in regard to compliance with public health measures during a pandemic.

This chapter present a research project dedicated to better understand how new venture teams work together to achieve desired outcomes. Teams, as opposed to an individual, start a majority of all innovative new ventures. Yet, little research or theory exists in new venture settings about how members interact with each other over time—teamwork—to produce innovative technologies, products, and services. We believe a systematic study of social and psychological processes that underlie new venture teamwork and venture outcomes is timely and important. Unique features of our research project include: (1) a team level focus on social and psychological processes, to assess relations to proximal (e.g., innovation, first sales and team satisfaction), and distal value creation outcomes (e.g., sales growth, raised capital and profits); (2) Combined qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to provide both theory building and theory testing for the relations of interest; and (3) A time-sequential design with data collection every three months over one year to allow us to investigate the relations of interest for new ventures.

The purpose of this editorial is to discuss ways to enhance exploratory quantitative studies in entrepreneurship. We use examples from entrepreneurship research and other scientific fields to illustrate the advantages of graphical data display for both exploratory purposes and post hoc tests. We provide suggestions for authors, reviewers, and editors on ways to enhance the transparency, accuracy, and pedagogical presentation of quantitative data in papers with the explicit purpose of illuminating emerging and important entrepreneurship phenomena. Our hope is that we spark a conversation among entrepreneurship scholars about the state of our empirical work and the possibilities that lie ahead to enhance exploratory entrepreneurship research.

We analyze the adoption of nonpharmaceutical interventions in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries during the early phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Given the complexity associated with pandemic decisions, governments are faced with the dilemma of how to act quickly when their core decision-making processes are based on deliberations balancing political considerations. Our findings show that, in times of severe crisis, governments follow the lead of others and base their decisions on what other countries do. Governments in countries with a stronger democratic structure are slower to react in the face of the pandemic but are more sensitive to the influence of other countries. We provide insights for research on international policy diffusion and research on the political consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research on incubators show that size is important in achieving efficiency and networking benefits for clients. However, little research has focused on what factors influence incubator size. We theorize and show partial support for size benefits to incubator specialization. Analyses of the relationship between size and four distinct specialization strategies in a sample of 96 European incubators show that incubator size is positively related to a strategic focus on universities and research institutes as recruitment channels and to a focus on sustainability, but unrelated to industry focus. Incubator size was found to be negatively related to a regional focus. While sustainability focused incubators tended to not find recruitment challenging, paradoxically, among those who did, the most frequently reported challenges were related to finding tenants that focus on sustainability. Post-hoc analyses revealed that tenants with a focus other than sustainability often dominate sustainability-oriented incubators, suggesting that sustainability may be more of a legitimating strategy than an explicit selection criterion.

This paper studies the association between the effectiveness of insolvency regulations and entrepreneurship using multilevel modeling of about 300,000 individuals in 27 countries over the 2005-2010 period. We investigate the relationship between three different measures of "resolving insolvency" (time, cost, and recovery rate) from the World Bank and four different measures of entrepreneurship from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, controlling for relevant individual- and country-level facets. We find that opportunity-driven and innovation-oriented entrepreneurs are more severely affected by onerous insolvency regulations than necessity-motivated entrepreneurs. However, entrepreneurs envisioning rapid employment growth are not affected by onerous insolvency regulations. We discuss contributions to comparative entrepreneurship research and public policy.

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Entrepreneurship research suggests that entrepreneurship education and training can bridge the gender gap in entrepreneurship, but little empirical research exists assessing the validity and impact of such initiatives. We examine a large government-sponsored entrepreneurship education program aimed at university students in Sweden. While a pre-study indicates that longer university courses are associated with short-term outcomes such as increased self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions, results from a more comprehensive study using a pre-post design suggest little effect from these extensive courses on long-term outcomes such as new venture creation and entrepreneurial income. In contrast, we do find positive effects on these long-term outcomes from more limited but more specific training interventions, especially for women. Our study suggests that less extensive but more tailored interventions can be more beneficial than longer or more extensive interventions in promoting entrepreneurship in general, and entrepreneurship of underrepresented groups in particular. We discuss implications for theory, education, and policy.

Denna rapport behandlar sambandet mellan konkurrens och arbetsmiljö i skolan, det senare en fråga som har stor relevans genom trenden av ökat anmält missnöje, olyckor, våld och andra grova arbetsmiljöproblem i skolan. I Sverige saknas i stor utsträckning forskning om våld i skolor, detsamma gäller långtidsstudier om arbetsmiljöns betydelse. Det finns emellertid omfattande socialmedicinsk och socialpsykologisk forskning där man baserat på enkäter och intervjuer undersökt arbetsmiljö och hälsa bland svenska elever. Resultaten av dessa studier indikerar att skolors psykosociala arbetsmiljö i hög utsträckning påverkar både elevers välbefinnande och deras skolprestationer. Upplevd arbetsmiljö tenderar även att samvariera med skolans elevsammansättning. Dessa befintliga studier om arbetsmiljö och våld i skolor är regelmässigt baserade på tvärsnittsdata över elever, men de inkluderar sällan variabler kopplade till skolan som organisationsform eller hur konkurrens mellan skolor påverkar såväl elevsammansättning som arbetsmiljö. Det innebär att det finns ett behov av studier som även tar hänsyn till detta.

The 2019 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research has been awarded to Professor Boyan Jovanovic at New York University in the USA. Boyan Jovanovic has developed pioneering research that advances our understanding of the competitive dynamics between incumbent firms and new entrants, entrepreneurial learning and selection processes, and the importance of entrepreneurship for the economy. Key perspectives in his research are that the entrepreneur makes employment choices based on the comparative advantage of his or her skills and that entrepreneurial firms are vehicles of technological change and knowledge diffusion that influence industry dynamics and, in turn, economic growth.

The purpose of this editorial is to discuss methodological advancements to enhance quantitative theory-testing entrepreneurship research. As the impact of entrepreneurship scholarship accelerates and deepens, our methods must keep pace to continue shaping theory, policy, and practice. Like our sister fields in business, entrepreneurship is coming to terms with the replication and credibility crisis in the social sciences, forcing the field to revisit commonly-held assumptions that limit the promise and prospect of our scholarship. Thus, we provide suggestions for reviewers and editors to identify concerns in empirical work, and to guide authors in improving their analyses and research designs. We hope that our editorial provides useful and actionable guidance for entrepreneurship researchers submitting theory-testing papers to Journal of Business Venturing.

Detta kapitel jämför vikten av flyktingars individuella resurser, såsom utbildning, med vikten av förutsättningarna på den lokala arbetsmarknaden, för tiden det tar att få en första betald anställning i Sverige. Över 100 000 flyktingar som kommit till Sverige efter år 2000 följs i vår studie i upp till 17 år. Våra resultat påvisar att individers utbildning och familjesituation spelar stor roll för tiden till första jobbet, men att även de lokala faktorerna spelar stor roll: den lokala sysselsättningsnivån såväl generellt som bland individens härkomstgrupp påverkar möjligheterna att få jobb, och i viss mån även den politiska situationen i bostadskommunen. Slutsatser för lokala och nationella integrationsåtgärder diskuteras.

Denna rapport undersöker LuMiNk Akademin (hädanefter “LuMiNk”) som är ett samarbetsprojekt mellan Linköpings universitet (LiU), Mirum galleria och Norrköpings kommun. Projektet startades hösten 2015 med niondeklassare från Söderportens skola i Norrköping där elever regelbundet träffar rekryterade studenter från olika programutbildningar på Linköpings universitet med syftet att ge stöd i studierna och inspirera till fortsatta studier. Då Söderportens högstadieverksamhet hösten 2017 flyttade till Klingsborgsskolan följde LuMiNk med och är alltså numera verksamt på Klingsborgsskolan.

Rapporten har som syfte att kvantitativt utvärdera effekten av projektet samt ge rekommendationer till LuMiNks styrelsegrupp. Data på avgångna elever från Klingsborgsskolan har använts för att skatta huruvida deras betyg, val efter högstadiet samt närvaro påverkats av att gå programmet. Detta görs genom att de elever på Klingsborgsskolan som gått programmet jämförs med de som inte deltagit i programmet. Den mån som eleverna som deltog i LuMiNk (LuMiNk-gruppen) höjt sina betyg relativt de som inte deltagit programmet (kontrollgruppen) tar vi som indikation på vilken effekt som programmet har.

Resultaten visar att de som gått LuMiNk haft signifikant höjda betyg i ämnena engelska, so, no, svenska som andraspråk samt höjda meritvärden relativt kontrollgruppen. Vi finner dock inte att de som gått LuMiNk höjt sina betyg relativt kontrollgruppen i varken matematik eller i praktiska ämnen.

LuMiNk-gruppen har under hela terminen högre skolnärvaro än kontrollgruppen men eftersom det inte sker någon noterbar divergering mellan grupperna under terminens gång kan vi inte visa på att LuMiNk lett till högre närvaro i skolan.

Eftersom ett syfte med LuMiNk är att inspirera till eftergymnasiala studier har vi följt upp hur det gått för elever som tidigare gick ut högstadiet från Söderporten för att på så sätt undersöka huruvida LuMiNk-gruppen i högre grad väljer att gå högskoleförberedande program jämfört med kontrollgruppen. Vi finner att LuMiNk-elever i dubbelt så hög grad väljer högskoleförberedande program jämfört med kontrollgruppen.

Eftersom LuMiNk är ett program som eleverna själva väljer att söka till kan det förekomma så kallad ’självselektering’. Detta kan exempelvis innebära att redan mer ambitiösa elever väljer att söka LuMiNk, och att den uppmätta relativa ökningen i betyg och frekvens att gå högskoleförberedande program på gymnasiet hade skett även utan LuMiNk. Detta försöker vi att kontrollera för genom att kontrollera för skillnader i elevkompositionen mellan LuMiNk-gruppen och kontrollgruppen, använda oss av kompletterande statistiska modeller samt genom att jämföra de skattade effekterna med en skapad variabel för förväntad effekt per ämne. Vi bedömer efter ha genomfört dessa tillvägagångssätt att LuMiNk med hög sannolikhet faktiskt bidragit till den relativa skillnaden i betygstrenden mellan LuMiNk-gruppen och kontrollgruppen.

Skillnaden i sannolikhet mellan LuMiNk- och kontrollgruppen att välja ett högskoleförberedande gymnasieprogram är behäftat med högre osäkerhet då tillgängliga data inte möjliggör lika omfattande statistiska modeller som för betygsvariabeln. Om vi dock kontrollerar för skillnader i elevkompositionen gällande betyg innan LuMiNk, kön, samt huruvida en elev kom till Sverige under grundskoletiden eller ej kvarstår dock en tämligen stor skillnad i sannolikheten att välja ett högskoleförberedande program (9 procent) mellan LuMiNk-gruppen och kontrollgruppen.

Vidare har enkätsvar, närvaro vid LuMiNks läxhjälpstillfällen samt tidigare forskning studerats för att komplettera resultaten från effektstudien. Svaren från enkäterna visar inte på att LuMiNk-eleverna verkar välja att gå till LuMiNk på grund av brister i hemmamiljön, utan snarare att de finner LuMiNk stimulerande. Eleverna rapporterar vidare att de får mycket hjälp med studierna på LuMiNk jämfört med hemma. LuMiNks studiemiljö har eleverna olika åsikter om. Vissa uttrycker att miljön är något för stökig medan andra elever just uppskattar miljöombytet från skolan till en mer avslappnad miljö.

Statistik på generell skolnärvaro och tidigare forskning som gjorts på läxhjälpsprojekt visar att äldre elever ofta har lägre närvaro och är svårare att locka till deltagande i läxhjälpsprojekt. Det är därför positivt att närvaron på LuMiNk-tillfällena generellt sett är hög samtidigt som ungefär hälften av eleverna på skolan valt att gå LuMiNk. Den höga närvaron bekräftar enkätsvaren att LuMiNk är populärt bland eleverna.

Tidigare forskning visar på att det inte är självklart att läxläsningsprojekt ger effekt på studieresultat. Vi bedömer att LuMiNks tydliga struktur där eleverna förpliktigar sig att ha hög närvaro och den tydliga kopplingen till skolan bidrar till att LuMiNk tillhör de läxläsningsprojekt som faktiskt visar ha effekt på studieresultaten.

Entrepreneurship is multifaceted. The purpose of this review is to acknowledge and critically assess the many and varied dependent variables (DVs) of entrepreneurship over the last 17 years. By focusing exclusively on systematically reviewing entrepreneurships DVs, this paper maps out, classifies, and provides order to the phenomena that scholars consider part of this self-defined field of research. Using a systematic selection process and an inductive approach to categorization, we offer a meta-framework for organizing entrepreneurships DVs. On the basis of this meta-framework, entrepreneurship involves the (a) initiation, (b) engagement, and (c) performance of entrepreneurial endeavors embedded in (d) environmental conditions in which an entrepreneurial endeavor is the investment of resources into the pursuit of a potential opportunity. For each category, we offer both a review of the different DVs and opportunities for future research.

Entrepreneurship research highlights entrepreneurship as a simultaneous source of enhanced income mobility for some but a potential source of poverty for others. Research on inequality has furthered new types of models to decompose and problematize various sources of income inequality, but attention to entrepreneurship as an increasingly prevalent occupational choice in these models remains scant. This paper seeks to bridge these two literatures using regression-based income decomposition among entrepreneurs and paid workers distinguishing between self-employed (SE) and incorporated self-employed (ISE) individuals in Sweden. We find that the proportion of self-employed in the workforce increases income dispersion by way of widening the bottom end of the distribution, whereas the proportion of incorporated self-employed contributes to income dispersion at the top end of the distribution. Implications for research are discussed. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

We investigate the impact of country-level labour market regulations on the re-entry decision of experienced entrepreneurs, whereby they become habitual entrepreneurs. Multilevel logit models on entry decisions among 15,709 individuals in 29 European countries show that labour market regulations have a positive influence on the decision to re-enter into entrepreneurship. This positive impact is stronger among individuals holding wage jobs at the time of re-entry compared to those that do not. Our results indicate that novice and habitual entrepreneurs may respond very differently to labour market rigidity. We discuss and provide tentative explanations for these differences and outline potential policy implications.

This article provides a critical review and discussion of current literature on technology transfer and academic entrepreneurship. Drawing upon the notion of robustness in social systems and public choice theory, we review, code, and taxonomize 166 studies in order to assess the likelihood that these initiatives will generate innovation and economic growth. We find that academic entrepreneurship initiatives are characterized by conflicting goals, weak incentive structures for universities and academics, and are contextually dependent on several factors, e.g. strong vs. weak universities. Our results therefore suggest that there are critical boundary conditions that are unlikely to be fulfilled when universities and governments enact policies to support academic entrepreneurship. Policymakers therefore need to be cautious in the potential design of such mechanisms. We discuss how technology transfer from universities might be better achieved through alternative mechanisms such as contract research, licensing, consulting and increased labor mobility among researchers.

This article reviews the academic contributions of Olav Sorenson, recipient of the 2018 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. His work has advanced scholarly understanding of how entrepreneurship and innovation are strongly embedded in socially and spatially bounded relationships. Based on meticulous empirical studies using a broad range of methods, he has challenged conventional models of new firms location choices, explained patterns of and determinants of knowledge diffusion, and considered how social networks can lead to economic advantages. This article discusses Sorensons work specifically focusing on three themes-(i) the geography of entrepreneurial activity, (ii) social capital, and (iii) the evolution of learning and innovation-highlighting scholarly contributions and insights for management practice and public policy.

Existing research has offered conflicting narratives of how entrepreneurial experience influences whether founders will continue working on or disengage from their ventures. We theorize and test how entrepreneurs with varying levels of experience disengage from early-stage companies. Findings reveal a U-shaped relationship, such that novices and highly experienced entrepreneurs are more likely to quit their ventures, while moderately experienced entrepreneurs are more likely to persist in their pursuits. We offer both theoretical and empirical explanations for how the propensity to disengage from new ventures evolves with entrepreneurial experience.

We outline the guiding ideas behind mechanisms-based theorizing in analytical sociology as a fruitful alternative to economics-inspired research on identification of causal effects, and discuss the potential of mechanisms-based theorizing for further development in organization and innovation studies. We discuss the realist stance on providing broader explanations as an identifying characteristic of the mechanism approach, its focus on the dynamic processes through which outcomes to be explained are brought about, and outline theoretical and methodological implications for organization and innovation studies.

Forskningen om inkomstojämlikhet har utvecklat modeller för att analysera inkomstspridning men har underlåtit att inkludera entreprenörskap – ett allt vanligare yrkesval. Vi undersöker hur antalet och typen av företagare påverkar inkomstskillnaderna i Sverige. Vi finner en tydlig polariseringseffekt av andelen företagare i arbetskraften: Egenföretagare ökar inkomstspridningen genom att flertalet har låga inkomster relativt löntagare, medan det omvända gäller för aktiebolagsföretagare. Påverkan sker således främst i svansarna av fördelningen, och den tycks vara som störst för egenföretagare.

Growth orientation is important for understanding why some young firms grow but not others, but research remains silent on the intermediary mechanisms mediating the growth orientation-firm growth relationship. We study 282 Swedish firms and show that various innovative activities mediate the growth orientation-firm growth relationship. These mediating innovative activities include informal activities and the launch of new products, but not formal Ramp;D. Our findings offer a more complete explanation for how growth orientation translates into realized growth, serving to reconcile empirical inconsistencies about the relationship between innovation and young firm growth.

We conduct a comparative case study following the growth and decline of the two largest private school organizations in Sweden from the voucher school deregulation in 1992 until the bankruptcy of one of the organization in 2013. Using archival data, hand-coded data on media exposure, interviews with managers and company press releases we explore institutional pressure and school organizations’ responses to institutional conformity and resistance. Both case organizations constitute private equity managed business groups but rely on distinct growth strategies and differential types of political and market-based ties to powerful stakeholders. Our results explain how organizational responses to institutional pressure are intimately tied to organizational structure, and furthermore how conformity may not translate into survival-enhancing conditions as earlier theorized

We review complementary theoretical perspectives on location choices of university graduate entrepreneurs derived from the individual-opportunity nexus and local embeddedness perspectives on entrepreneurship. Analysis of the full population of 215,388 graduates from Swedish institutions of higher education between 2002 and 2006 provides support for both location choice perspectives. Overall, 63% of graduate entrepreneurs start businesses locally in their region of graduation while 37% start businesses elsewhere. The likelihood of starting locally is substantially higher in metropolitan regions, if the graduate was born locally or has university peer entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial family members in the region of graduation. Implications for theory and public policy are discussed.

We investigate how perceived parents’ performance in entrepreneurship (PPE) affects the entrepreneurial career intentions of offspring. We argue that while perceived PPE enhances offspring’s perceived entrepreneurial desirability and feasibility because of exposure mechanisms, it inhibits the translation of both desirability and feasibility perceptions into entrepreneurial career intentions due to upward social comparison mechanisms. Thus, perceived PPE acts as a double-edged sword for the intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship. Our predictions are tested and confirmed on a sample of 21,895 individuals from 33 countries. This study advances the literature on intergenerational transmission of entrepreneurship by providing a foundation for understanding the social psychological conditions necessary for such transmission to occur

Scholars’ knowledge of the factors behind high-growth firms remains fragmented. This paper provides a systematic review of the empirical literature concerning high-growth firms with a focus on the strategic aspects contributing to growth. Based on our review of 39 articles, we identify five drivers of high growth: human capital, strategy, human resource management, innovation, and capabilities. These drivers are combined to develop a conceptual model of high-growth firms that includes potential contingency factors among the five drivers. We also propose a research agenda to deepen the study of high-growth firms in strategic management.

We outline the guiding ideas behind mechanisms-based theorizing in analytical sociology as a fruitful alternative to economics-inspired research on identification of causal effects, and discuss the potential of mechanisms-based theorizing for further development in organization and innovation studies. We discuss the realist stance on providing broader explanations as an identifying characteristic of the mechanism approach, its focus on the dynamic processes through which outcomes to be explained are brought about, and outline theoretical and methodological implications for organization and innovation studies.

Despite the burgeoning literature on immigrant entrepreneurship, there is a dearth of research on the social and economic factors shaping the performance of immigrant-run firms. Drawing upon human and social capital theory and assimilation theory, we investigate differences in performance measured as revenue growth in a comparative study of native and immigrant CEOs. Following 50,002 small firms in Sweden over four years, we find distinct patterns in both firm size and revenue growth between firms managed by immigrants and by natives. While firms run by second-generation immigrants from OECD countries exhibit higher growth rates than natives, the reverse is true for second generation immigrants from non-OECD countries, suggesting that economic integration in terms of immigrants’ small business growth in Sweden is characterized by segmented rather than universal assimilation.

Entrepreneurial action is embedded within a variety of complex social structures, not all of which can be as easily defined or measured as macro-institutional or micro-individual characteristics, but collectively hold rich insights into the actual causal mechanisms influencing action. To address this problem, we call upon researchers to broaden their levels of analysis and direct their focus to mesolevel structures. Although meso-level social structures are widely studied independently, these intermediate levels are seldom integrated into existing multi-level models. We argue that meso-level structures offer untapped riches for enhancing multi-level entrepreneurial mechanisms and discuss how social groups, associations, and other collectives operating at a meso-level can play a more distinct integrative role in between the two ends of the institutional spectrum. To provide practical guidance for pursuing such investigations, we adapt Coleman’s Bathtub model to form a robust framework that integrates micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis. Our framework helps alleviate the shortcomings produced by an overdependence on either solely macro- or micro-level entrepreneurial mechanisms and brings the hidden intermediate level into plain sight.

Knowledge-based theories of entrepreneurship infer transfer of knowledge from the effect of labor mobility on entrepreneurial entry. Yet, simple selection or situational mechanisms that do not imply knowledge transfer may influence entrepreneurial entry in similar ways. We argue that the extent to which such alternative mechanisms operate, labor mobility predicts entry but not subsequent performance for entrepreneurs. Analyses of matched employee–employer data from Sweden suggest that high rates of geographical and industry mobility increase individuals’ likelihood of entrepreneurial entry but have no effects on their entrepreneurial performance. This indicates that the relationship between labor mobility and entrepreneurial entry do not necessarily imply knowledge transfer.

This chapter focuses on a masculine and entrepreneurial identity. Eschewing this gendered and 'white' Western construction the author strives instead for more reflexive and nuanced considerations of entrepreneurship. The chapter highlights particular excerpts taken from the identity narratives of Muslim business women of Turkish descent living in the Netherlands to show how these stories describe quite different ways of experiencing, interpreting and responding to their marginalization. These narrative excerpts focus on some of the underlying relations of power that shapes the entrepreneurial identities of these women. The chapter takes issues with the often taken-for-granted universal subjectivity of 'the entrepreneur' by including the identity categories of ethnicity, gender and religion. An analysis of the women's own stories is used to illustrate the competing tensions in the fashioning of hybrid identities, both for and against assimilation and acceptance in the Dutch socio-political context.

Research on entrepreneurial exit has established itself as a more recognized component of the entrepreneurial process and a distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research. Despite the progress made, there still exists important topics within entrepreneurial exit where scholarly understanding is scant. This special issue discusses new and open topics of research on entrepreneurial exit. Three papers examine three such topics including pricing intentions of exiting entrepreneurs, exit considerations among angel investors, and the relationship between exit and failure in new ventures.

Entrepreneurial action is embedded within a variety of complex social structures, not all of which can be as easily defined or measured as macro-institutional or micro-individual characteristics. Nonetheless, these multilayered structures collectively hold rich insights-before now underexamined-into the actual causal mechanisms that affect entrepreneurial actions and outcomes. To address this problem, we call on researchers to broaden their levels of analysis and direct their focus to meso-level structures. Although meso-level social structures are widely studied independently, these intermediate levels are seldom integrated into existing multilevel models. We argue that meso-level structures offer untapped riches for enhancing multilevel entrepreneurial mechanisms and discuss how social groups, associations, and other collectives operating at a meso level can play a more distinct, integrative role between the two ends of the institutional spectrum. To provide practical guidance for pursuing such investigations, we adapt Colemans bathtub model to form a robust framework that integrates micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis. Our framework helps alleviate the shortcomings produced by an overdependence on either solely macro- or micro-level entrepreneurial mechanisms and offers fresh insights, as the intermediate level is more deeply integrated into this new framework.

We outline and test a decision-making theory of new venture growth and survival. Building upon research in entrepreneurship and decision making under risk, we hypothesize that entrepreneurs attention to survival and aspiration reference points changes based on venture age (experience-based learning), size (differences in decision complexity), and performance decision domain. Examining a panel of 14,760 new ventures in the professional services sector, our findings show how risk preferences change as a venture ages and increases in size. This approach offers a more nuanced view of decision making under risk and provides a theoretical explanation for the common patterns of new ventures probability of exit and growth diminishing with age and size. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.