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This article explores links between entrepreneurship education (EE) participation, alertness and risk-taking skills and the intensity of entrepreneurial intention relating to becoming an entrepreneur. Guided by insights from human capital and socially learned stereotypes theories, we conceptualize and test novel hypotheses that consider the potential moderating effect of gender and participation in EE. Business students participating in EE modules were compared with engineering students excluded from such programmes. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that EE students reported high intensity of intention; however, EE did not generate equal benefits for all students. Women were significantly less likely to report high intensity of intention; however, those citing the alertness skill were more likely to report high intensity of intention than non-EE women students. Both male EE and non-EE students citing the risk perception skill reported higher intention, whereas women EE students citing the risk perception skill reported lower intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable entrepreneurship encourages a focus on innovation, efficiency and environmentally-friendly actions. Certification enables firms to accumulate legitimacy that enables stakeholders to know of, and understand, a firm’s activities: it is a mechanism to buffer against the liabilities of newness and smallness. Building on insights from the resource-based view of the firm, institutional theory and signalling theory, this article conceptualises environmental certification as an observable high-quality resource investment signal. This resource fosters innovation and encourages certified firms to accumulate and mobilise legitimacy. Regression analysis detected that very young and micro firms who cited the compounded signal of certification reported significantly higher levels of effectiveness. Micro firms that cited the compounded signal of certification reported weakly significantly higher levels profitability. Certification enables very young, rather than young firms, to address the liabilities of newness, and enables micro, rather than small firms, to address the liabilities of smallness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines whether human capital, particularly prior business ownership experience, is associated with the opportunity exploitation outcome relating to the intensity of exporting. A distinction is made between entrepreneurs who acquire their business ownership experience sequentially (that is, serial entrepreneurs) or concurrently (that is, portfolio entrepreneurs). Using survey data from 432 entrepreneurs in Ghana, this study explores whether human capital theory relating to prior business ownership experience is associated with superior exporting intensity. Notably, portfolio entrepreneurs reported higher exporting intensities than other entrepreneurs. The case for customized assistance to each type of entrepreneur with regard to prior business ownership experience is made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the resource-based view of the firm and signalling theory, we challenge the traditional perspective that spatial proximity benefits can be leveraged by university spin-outs (USOs) located in the South East of England (particularly those drawn from 'star' golden-triangle universities with additional reputational benefits), and that USOs located elsewhere will be constrained from obtaining first formal venture capital (VC) required for venture development. With the aid of a longitudinal database of 134 USOs involving unique archival and survey data, event-history analysis identified, counter to the traditional perspective, that USOs located outside the South East of England were significantly more likely to obtain formal VC. Also, counter to the spatial proximity benefits view, star golden-triangle USOs were not significantly more likely to obtain VC. Our evidence supports a spatial mismatch view between investors and investees. Resource-combination signals sent by USOs and favourably received by VC firms were found to differ according to USO location context: USOs located outside the South East of England and star golden-triangle universities that signal the credible presence of habitual founders were more likely to obtain VC. USOs located outside star golden-triangle universities that had previously obtained publicly backed equity finance were also more likely to obtain VC. However, USOs located in the South East of England with reputable management teams were most likely to obtain VC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

David Storey offers a novel theory to explain temporal variations in novel firm development. The article challenges this approach; it is suggested that it does not take account of important developments in recent entrepreneurship research. The themes of human capital, entrepreneurial learning, entrepreneurial prior experience, attitudes and networks and networking to illustrate ‘one-way bets’, which can shape temporal firm growth, are critically evaluated. With reference to these themes, the article seeks to stimulate additional research attention with regard to several emerging relationships that are ignored or partially discussed, relating to diversity of the entrepreneur, venture and external environmental contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Issues relating to private family firm diversity and development are discussed with reference to established and emerging debates. Family firm assets and liabilities are highlighted. Key issues for family firms research and practice relating to family firm definition and family firm diversity are raised. Issues relating to context, culture and time are also discussed. Conceptual and empirical ‘types’ of family firms are illustrated. The contributions of ‘invisible’ members, women and couples in family firms are discussed. Various ownership forms relating to the perpetuation of family firms and business ownership transfer issues are highlighted. Articles in this special issue are then briefly summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When no suitable family successor can be identified, private family firm owners may select a management buyout (MBO) or a management buyin (MBI) exit route. After a private equity backed MBO/I, new owners may select strategies that encourage superior firm performance. We explore the strategic orientation of former private family firms pre- and post-MBO/Is. Ownership and governance issues are considered. Following insights from agency and stewardship theory, several hypotheses are derived and tested with reference to a representative sample of 104 MBO/ Is located across Europe. Univariate analysis suggests greater scope for efficiency gains and growth in cases where the founder was present at time of buyout, where no managers with equity stakes or non-executive directors were employed pre-buyout, and where the private equity investor and management were involved in succession planning. Multinomial logistic regression suggests efficiency gains in firms with no equity holding non-family managers pre-buyout. Conclusions and implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a study on whether habitual entrepreneurs in Great Britain could report a higher information search and identify more opportunities in business than novice entrepreneurs. Four hypotheses were tested, in which human capital and cognitive theories have guided them, for a sample of 625 entrepreneurs. It has found out that habitual entrepreneurs do not have lower intensity of information search and could identify more business opportunities.

Agency and stewardship theories are used to explore associations between ownership and management profiles and the performance and objectives of family firms. Using data from privately held family firms in the United Kingdom, a range of performance measures and objectives were examined. Multivariate regression analysis detected that closely held family firms did not report superior firm performance. The results show that the management rather than the ownership structure of a family firm was generally associated with selected firm-performance indicators and nonfinancial company objectives. Although family CEOs were associated with lower propensity to export, presented evidence generally fails to suggest that private family firms should avoid employing family members in management roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses upon the emergence of Virtual Teams that increasingly form the competitive core of successful e-Entrepreneurship in Europe. In recent years new forms of entrepreneurship have begun to emerge from the synergies between Information and Communication Technology developments and changing paradigms of economic transactions. The resulting turbulence within the international small business community has facilitated the evolution of innovative organizational forms that are structured dynamically to ensure sustainable competitive advantage in local, national or global markets. Virtual Teams consist of groups of geographically distributed individuals (entrepreneurs) who interact through interdependent tasks and are led by common (entrepreneurial) interests and/or goals.

This article cites a study which addresses gaps in knowledge surrounding inexperienced novice entrepreneurs, as well as experienced serial and portfolio entrepreneurs. Some policy makers and practitioners are considering whether resources could be more effectively utilized if they were targeted towards experienced entrepreneurs, rather than the provision of additional initiatives to increase the pool of inexperienced novice entrepreneurs. To inform this policy debate, similarities and differences between novice, serial and portfolio entrepreneurs are highlighted with regard to their experience and cognition.

This exploratory study provides a review of the neglected area of entrepreneurial founder team turnover. A novel distinction is made between entrepreneurial founder team member entry and team member exit. Ninety owner-managed ventures were monitored between 1990 and 2000. Presented hypotheses relating to a team's human capital were explored using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Variables associated with entry were found not to be the same as those associated with exit. The size of the founding team was significantly negatively associated with subsequent team member entry. The link between team turnover and entrepreneurial team heterogeneity was mixed. Functional heterogeneity was weakly significantly positively associated with team member entry. Heterogeneity of prior entrepreneurial experience was significantly positively associated with team member exit. In addition, family firms were significantly negatively associated with team member exit. The average age of the team was not significantly associated with team member entry or exit. Additional insights in future research may be gathered if a broader definition of team turnover (i.e., considering team member entry and exit) is considered. Practitioner awareness of the different factors associated with team member entry and exit may encourage them to provide assistance, which facilitates the team building process over time in developing firms. Promising areas for additional research are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the internal and external environmental characteristics of private family companies associated with succession decision-making outcomes. Multivariate logistic regression analysis detected that the life cycle dynamics of the chief executive officer and family dynamics were associated with the selected outcomes. The presence of a non-executive director was found to be positively associated with selected outcomes. Business performance was found to be positively associated with two outcomes, but negatively associated with another.

This study explores management and ownership imperatives facing 427 independent unquoted (i.e., nonpublic) companies in the United Kingdom. To detect real rather than sample differences, the study used a matched pairs methodology. Chi-square and student's T-tests confirmed several similarities among the 73 family companies and the comparable 73 nonfamily companies. The tenure periods of CEOs in both groups of firms before being appointed to the CEO position were similar. CEOs in family firms had not remained in this position for significantly longer periods than CEOs in nonfamily firms, and the majority of directors in family and nonfamily firms did not hold outside directorships in other companies. Several significant differences were also detected. CEOs from the kinship group owning the family business had been in the CEO position for much longer than “outside” CEOs in family firms. Furthermore, the proportion of total shares owned by directors in family firms was significantly more than the proportion owned by directors in nonfamily firms. A significantly larger proportion of nonfamily rather than family firms had employed a nonexecutive director. In concluding, it is highlighted that a firm's identification of itself as a family firm is important in defining family firms and that firms that do not currently perceive themselves to be family firms may in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Low and MacMillan (1988) suggested that research into entrepreneurial behavior should consider contextual issues and identify the processes that explain rather than merely describe the entrepreneurial phenomenon. Recent studies focusing upon entrepreneurial behavior, especially heuristics, and differences between `types' of entrepreneurs are discussed in this review. The literature focusing upon opportunity recognition and information search is examined. Further, the literature relating to the organizational forms selected by entrepreneurs is discussed. Studies examining the relationship between external environmental conditions and the nature of entrepreneurial activity are reviewed. We conclude that additional research attention should be directed towards gaining a greater understanding of the behavior of different types of entrepreneur (i.e., nascent, novice, serial, and portfolio entrepreneurs) and the different organizational forms selected (i.e., corporate venturing, management buy-outs and buy-ins, franchising, and the inheritance of a family firm) by entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the relationship between small firm performance and participation in management training in Great Britain. Review of related literature; Improvement of the internal efficiency and business performance small and medium-sized enterprises; Reasons for the weak relationship between management training and small business performance in well-conducted research.

Professor sue Birley is with the managment school, imperical college, London, and Dr Paul Westhead with the center for small and medium-sized Enterprise, warwick univerisity, England. This paper identifies statistically significant difference between new independent owner-managed business established by two types of founders: 'novice' and 'habitual 'enterpreneurs. Novice founders were defined as those individuals with no previous experience of founding a business while habitual fouonders are those who had established at least one other businessjprior to the start up of the current new venture. Results from the final discriminant analysiss model indicate that habitual fouonders are yonger than theri counterparts when starting theri first business, they are likely to be continuing a tradition (i.e. the incubator prior to start up was also more likely to be theri own business), they emphasissed the 'fellow role models' reasons rather than 'welfare consideration' leading to the start up of the current busines and they used personal savings at the launch of the business, which suggest that previous business foundingexperience canbe anasset rather than a liability. from this the autors conclude that there is no empirical evidence to suggest from this study that those new busiens established by novice founders withno prior buisness founding experience are at a competitive disadvantage in relation to their counterparts. Moreover, a small firms policy of targettingscarce ecomomic resources to habitual founders with an established track record is questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The scale of family company activity in the United Kingdom was measured with regard to several family firm definitions. This study confirms that family companies are a numerically important group of businesses. Policy makers and practitioners must, however, be aware that the scale of family firm activity in any developed economy is highly sensitive to the family firm definition selected. Within a bivariate as well as multivariate statistical framework, marked demographic differences were identified between family and non-family companies with regard to several family firm definitions. We suggest that bivariate studies comparing the management practices and performance of family and non-family firms may have identified 'demographic sample' differences rather than 'real' differences. Implications for future research exploring the management and performance of family and non-family firms are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the importance of entrepreneurship in the economic well-being of a country. There is a growing need to recognize that entrepreneurship may not be a single event action. Moreover, entrepreneurship not only involves the creation of new businesses and the purchase of established businesses. With the resurgence of new firm start-ups over the last two decades and the emergence and growth of management buy-outs and buy-ins, entrepreneurial activities have become more diverse. There is a need for policy makers to more fully appreciate the backgrounds, objectives, and needs of various types of entrepreneurs and investors when they are formulating policies to encourage new firm formation and business development at a regional level. Policy makers need more information surrounding the performance and economic contributions made by different types of entrepreneurs and investors.

To encourage economic development policy makers and practitioners need to understand the backgrounds and objectives of entrepreneurs who own businesses in rural as well as urban areas, in this study rural firms owned by novice, portfolio, and serial founders were compared. In addition, urban firms owned by novice, portfolio, and serial founders were compared. At the founder level of analysis, similarities as well as differences in the personal background, work experiences, reasons leading to the start-up of businesses, and personal attitudes to entrepreneurship of these three types of founders were explored. At the organizational level of analysis, finance, employment and performance differences between the businesses owned by the three types of founders were analyzed. Implications for policy makers and researchers studying entrepreneurial careers and independent businesses over time are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines performance differences between "types" of owner-managed high-technology businesses. Four distinct types of firms are identified. Technically qualified spin-out founders" were the most likely to survive, whilst "young firms with limited technical networks established by inexperienced founders" were the least likely. Firms in clusters 2 ("technically qualified novice founders utilizing the financial network") and 1 ("technically qualified spin-out founders") were more likely to experience employment growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]