Sajad Noorbakhsh, Aurora Castro Teixeira and Ana Brochado
Refugee entrepreneurship is increasingly viewed as a “silver bullet” being able to promote host countries’ economic performance and enable the successful integration of refugees…
Abstract
Purpose
Refugee entrepreneurship is increasingly viewed as a “silver bullet” being able to promote host countries’ economic performance and enable the successful integration of refugees. This study aims to identify the main determinants of entrepreneurial intentions of refugees in Portugal based on the underdog theory.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors scrutinize the entrepreneurial intentions of refugees living in Portugal, an overlooked context, using a purpose-built inquiry responded to by 41 refugees and resorting to fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, complemented with partial least squares path modeling.
Findings
Some important results are worth highlighting: the entrepreneurial intentions of the respondent sample of refugees living in Portugal are high; the theoretical arguments underlying the underdog or challenge-based entrepreneurship theory are validated in the context of the respondent sample; and psychological related factors associated with the more standard explanations of entrepreneurial intentions constitute necessary conditions for high refugee entrepreneurial intentions.
Originality/value
Entrepreneurial intentions to launch a business have been discussed in the entrepreneurship literature vastly, but it has not yet received much attention when focusing on refugees, often identified as underdogs (potential) entrepreneurs. This study contributes to the literature by testing the challenge-based entrepreneurship theory to identify the primary factors influencing refugee entrepreneurial intentions.
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Ehsan Masoomi, Kurosh Rezaei-Moghaddam and Aurora Castro Teixeira
This paper aims to investigate the evolution, roots and influence of the rural entrepreneurship literature.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the evolution, roots and influence of the rural entrepreneurship literature.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a bibliometric exercise, the analysis starts with investigation of studies on entrepreneurship and gathering all (772) articles on rural entrepreneurship (from 1981 to 2020) found in both Scopus and Web of Science up to 15 August 2020. Citation analysis of the references/citations of 755 articles are listed in the abstract database, generating a citation database involving 46,432 references/citations. This paper considers 635 (out of the 772) articles on rural entrepreneurship (i.e. articles cited in one or more studies), generating a database of 10,767 studies influenced by the rural entrepreneurship literature.
Findings
This study discovers that the relative importance of rural entrepreneurship within the entrepreneurship literature has increased in the last few years, but rural entrepreneurship remains a European concern; the most frequently addressed topics include growth and development, institutional frameworks and governance and rurality, with theory building being rather understudied. Most of the studies on rural entrepreneurship are empirical, involving mainly qualitative analyses and targeting high income countries; rural entrepreneurship is rooted in the fields of economics and entrepreneurship and is relatively self-referential.
Originality/value
This study provides a comprehensive and updated investigation of evolution of the rural entrepreneurship literature. The assessment of the literature’s scientific roots of rural entrepreneurship had not yet been tackled before. To the best of the author’s knowledge this study can be considered as the first effort for identifying the scientific influence of the rural entrepreneurship literature.
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Leonor Costa, Aurora Teixeira and Ana Brochado
This study aims to understand why young people are interested in buying frugal innovations.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand why young people are interested in buying frugal innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected with a survey administered to 534 university students enrolled in various fields of study (e.g. sciences, technology, economics and fine arts). Using the Tata Nano car as an example of frugal innovation, a model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology was developed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.
Findings
The model’s results reveal that effort expectancy, performance expectancy and facilitating conditions are critical factors that explain university students’ intention to buy Tata Nano.
Originality/value
Although frugal innovations are often introduced first in developing countries, frugal innovations could be highly relevant to users in developed nations as these innovations can provide market opportunities in terms of cost-conscious, relatively low-income and sustainability-conscious consumers.
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Lúcia Pato and Aurora A.C. Teixeira
Considering the differences between rural and urban spaces, through the theoretical framework developed, the purpose of this paper is to uncover and rationalize the differences…
Abstract
Purpose
Considering the differences between rural and urban spaces, through the theoretical framework developed, the purpose of this paper is to uncover and rationalize the differences between rural and urban new ventures in terms of the environment surrounding the new venture, their general characteristics (e.g. sector, size) and export/economic performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical framework is empirically assessed resorting to exploratory statistical analysis based on data collected from a questionnaire survey responded by 408 new ventures headquartered in Portuguese business incubators and science parks. The data collected were treated with the Software Package for the Social Sciences.
Findings
The results evidence that rural and urban new ventures differ in terms of generic characteristics, namely sector, size and collaborators’ human capital. Additionally, they differ concerning export and economic performance as well in relation to the perception of the municipality support.
Research limitations/implications
Albeit the present study is mainly exploratory, it constitutes a stepping stone for future research into the differences between rural and urban new ventures regarding their export and economic performance determinants.
Originality/value
The present study innovatively contributes to uncover the role of rural and urban context in entrepreneurship and adds to the scanty empirical literature in the area.
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Sajad Noorbakhsh and Aurora A.C. Teixeira
This study aims to estimate the impact of refugee inflows on host countries’ entrepreneurial rates. The refugee crisis led to an increased scientific and public policy interest in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to estimate the impact of refugee inflows on host countries’ entrepreneurial rates. The refugee crisis led to an increased scientific and public policy interest in the impact of refugee inflows on host countries. One important perspective of such an impact, which is still underexplored, is the impact of refugee inflows on host countries entrepreneurial rates. Given the high number of refugees that flow to some countries, it would be valuable to assess the extent to which such countries are likely to reap the benefits from increasing refugee inflows in terms of (native and non-native) entrepreneurial talent enhancement.
Design/methodology/approach
Resorting to dynamic (two-step system generalized method of moments) panel data estimations, based on 186 countries over the period between 2000 and 2019, this study estimates the impact of refugee inflows on host countries’ entrepreneurial rates, measured by the total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate and the self-employment rate.
Findings
In general, higher refugee inflows are associated with lower host countries’ TEA rates. However, refugee inflows significantly foster self-employment rates of “medium-high” and “high” income host countries and host countries located in Africa. These results suggest that refugee inflows tend to enhance “necessity” related new ventures and/ or new ventures (from native and non-native population) operating in low value-added, low profit sectors.
Originality/value
This study constitutes a novel empirical contribution by providing a macroeconomic, quantitative assessment of the impact of refugee from distinct nationalities on a diverse set of host countries' entrepreneurship rates in the past two decades resorting to dynamic panel data models, which enable to address the heterogeneity of the countries and deal with the endogeneity of the variables of the model.
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Lúcia Pato and Aurora Amélia Castro Teixeira
The purpose of this study is to determine whether new rural ventures represent effective rural entrepreneurship or are just entrepreneurial ventures located in rural settings.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine whether new rural ventures represent effective rural entrepreneurship or are just entrepreneurial ventures located in rural settings.
Design\methodology\approach
Data were collected from a direct questionnaire involving 408 new ventures headquartered in Portuguese business incubators and science parks, of which 142 are located in rural areas. To analyse data, the authors performed a preliminary and exploratory statistical analysis.
Findings
The authors demonstrate that only a small percentage of ventures operating in rural areas constitute examples of effective “rural entrepreneurship”, with the bulk of them being just enterprises located in rural settings. Rural new ventures tend to be small (in terms of employees and turnover), rely mainly on the internal market and lag behind other new ventures (located in both rural and urban municipalities) in terms of performance.
Research limitations/implications
The study only includes new knowledge-intensive ventures, that is, those headquartered in business incubators and science parks. Therefore, it cannot be generalised to other new ventures located in rural settings.
Originality/value
The extant literature on entrepreneurship has neglected the empirical implications of mixing, confounding and/or merging the concepts of “rural entrepreneurship” and “entrepreneurship activities in rural areas”. In this study, the authors discuss and analyse the empirical boundaries of such concepts and uncover the magnitude of pure “rural entrepreneurship”.
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Artur Dias and Aurora A.C. Teixeira
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the aftermath of business failure (BF) by addressing: how the individual progressed and developed new ventures, how individuals changed…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the aftermath of business failure (BF) by addressing: how the individual progressed and developed new ventures, how individuals changed business behaviors and practices in light of a failure, and what was the effect of previous failure on the individual’s decisions to embark on subsequent ventures.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors resort to qualitative methods to understand the aftermath of BF from a retrospective point of a successful entrepreneur. Specifically, the authors undertook semi-structured interviews to six entrepreneurs, three from the north of Europe and three from the south and use interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Findings
The authors found that previous failure impacted individuals strongly, being shaped by the individual’s experience and age, and their perception of blame for the failure. An array of moderator costs was identified, ranging from antecedents to institutions that were present in the individual’s lives. The outcomes are directly relatable to the failed experience by the individual. The authors also found that the failure had a significant effect on the individual’s career path.
Originality/value
While predicting the failure of healthy firms or the discovery of the main determinants that lead to such an event have received increasingly more attention in the last two decades, the focus on the consequences of BF is still lagging behind. The present study fills this gap by analyzing the aftermath of BF.
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Andreia Filipa Soares Passos Cardoso and Marko Torkkeli
Low- and medium-technology sectors' (LMTs) role in modern economies has been overshadowed by the argument relating knowledge creation to R&D and thus to high-tech industries…
Abstract
Purpose
Low- and medium-technology sectors' (LMTs) role in modern economies has been overshadowed by the argument relating knowledge creation to R&D and thus to high-tech industries. Nevertheless, whereas a broader definition of innovation has enabled LMTs to emerge as innovative environments, a blind reliance on non-R&D-based indicators may be harmful too by neglecting LMTs' contribution to the development of cutting-edge, R&D-based knowledge. This paper aims to provide answers to the following questions: do LMTs innovate? Do they induce high-tech innovations across other sectors? Do networks have an impact on LMTs' innovation commitment? Can LMTs' innovation commitment be related to a better performance?
Design/methodology/approach
The research method used in this work was based on a case study approach using in-depth face-to-face interviews with representatives from two footwear companies and one technology supplier.
Findings
Collaboration with relevant stakeholders along the footwear value chain proved fundamental to the creation of innovation opportunities for all parties involved. Both footwear companies have embraced innovation strategies, allowing them to take over new functions along the value chain and build successful international paths. These strategies involved active participation in cutting-edge, high-tech knowledge prompting innovation at higher-tech companies too.
Research limitations/implications
The paper fails to establish a clear causative relationship between companies' performance and their R&DI commitment. In addition, due to the number of companies involved in the study, the findings cannot be simply extrapolated to the whole Portuguese footwear sector.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the commitment to innovation in a traditional sector and explores an underresearched topic – that of LMTs' involvement in R&D activities.