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The purpose of this paper is to explore the career shocks that young, newly graduated entrepreneurs experience in the process of starting a business.

The study adopted a qualitative approach, drawing upon 25 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs who recently graduated from university (up to the age of 30) in different European countries.

The analysis identifies several career shocks that can confront entrepreneurs before and after starting a business and reveals how these shocks influence graduates’ decisions to become and continue to be an entrepreneur.

The study sheds light on the diverse nature of career shocks and the importance of integrating agency concepts and environmental influences in career research. It identifies important factors relevant for school-to-work transition research and complements work in entrepreneurship research on necessity and opportunity entrepreneurship, push and pull motives, and entrepreneurial intentions.

Organizations can use the findings to attract and retain young entrepreneurial employees, while higher education organizations can use the findings to better prepare students for a successful transition into entrepreneurship, whether in the corporate or independent form.

The paper integrates the concept of career shocks with literature on entrepreneurship and offers a categorization of career shocks in the pathway to entrepreneurship.

In the context of the question of how entrepreneurship education can contribute to entrepreneurial competency development, this paper aims to outline the deliberate practice (DP) method and showcase how it can be applied in entrepreneurship education. To this end, this paper presents a learning innovation in which DP improves entrepreneurial competencies.

The paper describes an entrepreneurship training in which participants, over a seven-week period, learn about DP and use this approach to develop an aspect of an entrepreneurial competency of their choosing.

Evaluations show that participants find both short- and long-term gains in their competency development, and value having learnt a competency development method as well.

The presented format is designed in accordance with the DP principles as originally described in the literature on expert performance, and shows that DP can be applied in the context of entrepreneurial competency development at lower levels of proficiency. Entrepreneurship educators interested in competency development can consider to adopt (aspects of) the described approach.

The format applies DP principles as described in the literature on expert performance. The value lies in the short- and long term effects of the training.

This paper sets out to present a detailed empirical investigation of the entrepreneurial intentions of business students. The authors employ the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), in which intentions are regarded as resulting from attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms.

The methodology used was a replication study among samples of undergraduate students of business administration at four different universities (total n=1,225). Five operationalisations of intentions are used as well as a composite measure. Prior to the main study, qualitative research conducted at two other universities (total n=373) was held to operationalise the components of the TPB.

The results show that the two most important variables to explain entrepreneurial intentions are entrepreneurial alertness and the importance attached to financial security.

Various research design features are used that result in better and more detailed explanations of entrepreneurial intentions.

Should one want to stimulate entrepreneurship in educational or training settings, then this paper's results provide guidance. Several suggestions are offered on how entrepreneurial alertness can be improved and financial security concerns can be reduced.

The study provides detailed and solid results on entrepreneurial intentions which are positioned in the career literature.

Autonomy is a primary motive for a large majority of small business starters. As an explanation of why people want their own (autonomous) business it is tautological. This study sets out to focus on an explanation of the autonomy motive itself: why small business starters want autonomy.

Data were collected using semi‐structured interviews with a sample of 167 nascent entrepreneurs.

There are two types of autonomy motives: a proximal motive which is associated with task characteristics of being self‐employed (decisional freedom), and distal motives for which autonomy is instrumental (to avoid a boss or restrictions; to act in a self‐endorsed and self‐congruent manner; and to be in charge).

Autonomy measures should either operationalise autonomy only in a proximal sense without regard to underlying motive sources, or take distal motives into account and offer items that reflect these autonomy motive sources.

Persons who resist bosses and rules now must be a boss and set rules themselves. People who want to express their personality and creativity in their work might be so busy and occupied that there will be little space left for personality and creativity expression. People who want autonomy because of the power and control it brings them may find that as a small business owner they have to deal with several types of uncertainty. Practitioners must resolve these tensions.

In spite of the intimate relationship between freedom and entrepreneurial motivation, this is perhaps the first paper to focus exclusively on autonomy as a start‐up motive.

This paper has three purposes: first, to present a vision of entrepreneurship education that has the student's capacity for autonomous action as its ultimate aim; second, to convince the reader of the timeliness and relevance of such an approach; third, to outline how this can be implemented.

The paper integrates several strands of literature: research on entrepreneurial autonomy, educational psychology, and entrepreneurship education.

The importance of autonomy is suggested by research on entrepreneurial motivation and satisfaction, as well as by a range of societal trends that favour increased self‐reliance. Two perspectives, self‐determination theory and self‐directed learning, provide leads about how to put autonomy centre stage in entrepreneurship education. Several implementation‐related issues are discussed. These include trade‐offs between guidance and freedom, information and pressure, the self and others, and choice and relevance; the effects of student behaviour on autonomy support by faculty; and the suitability of autonomy supportive entrepreneurship education for different kinds of students and educational settings.

Teachers, schools and institutions wishing to adapt this approach need to adopt individualised, empowering approaches.

It is novel to conceive of entrepreneurship education as an exercise in the service of the capacity for autonomous action.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the way home‐based internet businesses (HBIBs) are operated and the reasons for which they are started enable HBIBs to bring about variety, and to argue that this variety has a broader impact on the industry and the economy.

The paper adopts a multiple case study approach, studying the best practices of eight HBIBs.

The study finds that HBIBs generate variety because of the unique way in which they operate, and because of the reasons why they are started. How HBIBs operate can be captured in the acronym SMILES: Speed, Multiple income, Inexpensive, LEan, and Smart. They are founded (amongst other motives) for reasons of autonomy, freedom and independence. Both aspects – the how and why – of HBIBs are conducive to the creation of variety as they facilitate trial‐and‐error commercialisation of authentic ideas.

Five theoretical perspectives posit that variety is important for the industry and the economy: evolutionary theory, strategic management, organic urban planning, opportunity recognition, and the knowledge economy. The findings are discussed in the context of each perspective, showing how HBIBs play a role in each perspective.

Policy makers should be aware of the importance of HBIBs, which can be promoted, providing generic facilities for business information, training, and mentoring, and by making compliance burdens more proportional to business size.

The paper shows how and why HBIBs are drivers of variety. This paper argues, by means of five theoretical perspectives, that because of the variety HBIBs generate, they contribute to the economy over and above their direct and indirect contributions in terms of revenue and employment.

The purpose of this paper is to arrive at a conceptual understanding of perseverance processes in the context of enterprising behavior and to outline readily employable perseverance strategies for situations characterized by obstacles, challenges and setbacks.

This paper presents a process model of perseverance, drawing on elements of control theory and appraisal theory.

From this model, a variety of perseverance strategies within four broad categories is derived: strategies that affect adversity itself; strategies that change the way adversity is perceived; strategies that reframe the aim that adversity has made difficult to attain; and strategies that help to increase self‐regulatory strength. James Dyson's biography provides examples for the strategies.

The paper discusses a broad variety of strategies to help individuals persevere in reaching their enterprising goals.

Although it is a widely held perception that perseverance is needed to successfully start and run a venture, the perseverance process and perseverance strategies have received little research attention.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of proactive personality (PP), entrepreneurship education (EE) and entrepreneurial opportunities (EO) on shaping entrepreneurial intentions (EI) among university students through attitude toward entrepreneurship (ATE) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) according to Ajzen’s (1985) theory of planned behaviour.

The study used questionnaires to collect data from university students enroled in undergraduate programmes. A total of 209 surveys were successfully collected. SPSS and SmartPLS 3.0 software were used to analyse and test nine hypotheses derived from the intentions-centred model.

The results supported seven hypotheses. There were positive relationships between PP and ATE; PP and PBC; EE and ATE; EO and ATE; EO and PBC; ATE and EI; and PBC and EI. However, there were no relationships between EE and PBC, and subjective norms and EI.

This study used a cross-sectional survey and self-report data which hinder conclusively making correlational inferences. In addition, the various developmental stages of students may influence perceptions of EI.

The empirical findings provide new insights for policymakers, educators and academics about the antecedents governing EI. This study also enhances the understanding of the preconditions for EI, which can be utilised by practitioners to encourage and manage graduate entrepreneurship.

This study advances an intentions-based model which suggests a simultaneous presence of the three core factors, PP, EE and EO for an effective formation of EI. By doing so, the study addresses the issue of the scarcity of investigations on the combined effects, thus closing the research gap and bringing new perspective to the antecedents-intentions nexus of graduate entrepreneurship.

Many entrepreneurs often struggle with the fear of failure, which can be detrimental to both their business and personal well-being. To better understand the factors that contribute to this fear, the authors conducted research on the impact of various obstacles, such as limited financial resources, risk aversion, stress and hard work avoidance, and prior business failures. Additionally, the authors explored the effects of social capital in mitigating these obstacles and their relationship to fear of failure in entrepreneurship.

The authors conducted a survey with 440 young Iraqi entrepreneurs using non-probabilistic and purposive methods. The survey instrument included multiple measuring scales, which were provided in both English and Arabic. The authors analysed valid responses using structural equation modelling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS).

The findings show that the fear of failure in entrepreneurship is negatively influenced by factors such as limited financial access, risk aversion, and past business failures. However, aversion to stress and hard work did not have a significant impact. The findings also show that social capital could potentially mitigate these negative factors.

The theoretical and practical implications of this study manifest in revealing the difficulties entrepreneurs encounter in developing countries like Iraq, where entrepreneurship is vital for economic growth. The study's limitations stem from its focus on one country and the use of a single survey method. Future research could use varied methods across multiple countries for a more comprehensive view.

This study sheds light on the factors that are obstacles for entrepreneurs to starting a business in emerging economies like Iraq.