An essential part of entrepreneurial activity is the drafting and narrating of an entrepreneurial vision. This study is premised on the observation that entrepreneurial groups form an interaction arena for the practice of imagining the future and asks how the content of entrepreneurial visions is shaped by the conditions of the group. Taking an entrepreneurship-as-practice lens, which we enrich with

In a globalized world with high international factor mobility, crises often spread quickly over large parts of the world. Politicians carry a vital interest in keeping crises as small and short as possible. Against this background we study whether the type of company of owner-managed SMEs, in Germany well-known as Mittelstand firms, helps increasing an economy’s crisis resistance. We study this issue

Compared to their male peers, female entrepreneurs tend to face greater obstacles in raising venture funding from business angels, venture capitalists, and financial institutions. In this paper, we investigate whether this gender gap also exists in equity crowdfunding. Based on data from the German equity crowdfunding market, we find that ventures with and without female managing directors are equally

Several factors affect the capital structure of start-ups. In this study, we compare the capital structure choices of accelerated and non-accelerated start-ups to evaluate the role of accelerated programmes on the capital structure decisions for start-ups. Using a comprehensive database provided by Emory University, we find that accelerated start-ups have higher external equity ratios than non-accelerated

We study the formation of an entrepreneurial network in an environment, in which entrepreneurs who are contesting with each other for the development of a new venture have the possibility to collaborate. On the one hand, such bilateral knowledge collaborations are beneficial because they allow the integration of external knowledge. On the other hand, external knowledge collaborations reduce an entrepreneur’s

Amidst considerable debate on the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic inequality, scholarship only indirectly addresses how entrepreneurship informs individuals’ relative well-being. We theorize on the nuanced relationship between entrepreneurship and equality of eudaimonic well-being through the lens of New Institutional Economics. Drawing on theories of human flourishing, we suggest

Abstract The emergence of digital technologies has significantly reduced the economic costs of data—search, storage, computation, transmission—and enabled new economic activities. Over the years, firms able to create a platform-based ecosystem have become a force of “creative construction.” Economic activities (C2C, B2C, B2B) have been reorganized around platform-based ecosystems for value creation

Abstract High-growth enterprises (HGEs) have a large economic impact but are notoriously hard to predict. Previous research has linked high-growth episodes to the configuration of lumpy indivisible resources inside firms, such that high capacity utilisation levels might stimulate future growth. We theorize that firms reaching critically high capacity utilisation levels reach a “trigger point” involving

David B. Audretsch was named a 2021 Clarivate Citation Laureate, together with four other colleagues in the field of economics. A Clarivate Citation Laureate is recognized as having a research record and impact commensurate with that deemed to be ‘of Nobel class.’ This article briefly highlights the life and work of David B. Audretsch, Co-founder and Co-Editor in Chief of Small Business Economics:

This paper distinguishes between formal and informal entrepreneurship. It theorises that each are influenced by very different combinations of macro-economic factors and strongly moderated by country income levels. Empirically, we show the ease of starting a business and high-quality governance, exert a powerful influence on formal, but not informal entrepreneurship. The latter is influenced by self-employment

Abstract This paper investigates firms’ access to bank credit in eleven euro area countries over the periods 2014–2019. Exploiting firm-level longitudinal data, we analyse loan demand and credit rationing probabilities, accounting for sample selection, unobserved heterogeneity and state dependence. Empirical results show that small and informationally opaque businesses, with deteriorated public support

Abstract This study explores the effect of bankruptcy laws on the quality of entrepreneurship and the moderating role of an entrepreneur’s socio-cognitions in it. By adopting the pursuit of innovative opportunities to represent the quality of entrepreneurship, we find that stringent bankruptcy laws inhibit an entrepreneur from pursuing more innovative opportunities, and this effect is mitigated by

Abstract Hidden champions are market leaders in niche markets and are an important part of the German Mittelstand. Although the hidden champion phenomenon has received considerable interest in practice, few academic studies on this issue exist. We especially lack evidence on the financial performance of hidden champions. Our study addresses this gap and investigates the profitability of hidden champions

Abstract How does an entrepreneur’s social capital improve small informal business productivity? Although studies have investigated this relationship, we still know little about the underlying theoretical mechanisms driving these findings. Using a unique Zambian Business Survey of 1971 entrepreneurs administered by the World Bank, we find an entrepreneur’s social capital facilitates small business

COVID-19 has caused significant and unforeseen problems for entrepreneurs. While entrepreneurs would normally seek social support to help deal with these issues, due to social distancing, physical networks are often not available. Consequently, entrepreneurs must turn to alternative support sources, such as online communities, raising the question of how support is created in such spaces. Drawing on

Despite the proliferation of innovative technologies during the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), there is a severe lack of quantitative and empirical studies that deal with the effectiveness of recently emerging technologies. This study examines the impact of employing core technologies of the 4IR on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We used the firm-level cross-sectional data on Korean manufacturing

Employer business startups contribute disproportionately to job creation, innovation, and productivity growth. This contribution is dynamic and complex involving much trial and error. Most startups fail or do not grow but a small fraction grow rapidly contributing substantially to economic performance. In the USA, there has been a decline in startup rate and the share of activity accounted for by young

We suggest that a political leader or a political administration can be described in terms of a public sector entrepreneurship framework. To illustrate, we define the actions of US President Donald Trump’s Administration to refocus the emphasis of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an innovative public policy initiative. And, we explore empirically the social consequences of those actions

Abstract While the dissolution of new ventures is a common phenomenon in the organizational landscape, it seldom means the end of the road for those involved in the new venture. Nevertheless, most research treats this dissolution with a sense of finality. Using the Danish Integrated Database for Labor Market Research (IDA), we explore the persistence of cofounders and early employees to continue their

Given that recent research on entrepreneurial behavior and success has established skill variety as a central human capital factor, researchers, educators, and policymakers have turned their interest to a deeper understanding of the formation of skill variety. Based on human capital theory and the competence growth approach in developmental psychology (highlighting long-term, age-appropriate, and cumulative

In the race to the South Pole, Roald Amundsen’s expedition covered an equal distance each day, irrespective of weather conditions, while Scott’s pace was erratic. Amundsen won the race and returned without loss of life, while Scott and his men died. In the context of firm growth, the Amundsen hypothesis suggests that smoother growth paths are associated with better performance in subsequent periods

This paper examines the association between high-growth firm status and global linkages with special focus on the role of imports. We rely on a rich panel data covering all formal firms in Tunisia between 1999 and 2015. Our results show that firms that import, export, have foreigner ownership, or benefit from offshore regimes are more likely to achieve high-growth status compared to other similar firms

The body of literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) is rapidly expanding, but few studies have simultaneously examined their complexity, dynamics, and context. To better understand how they evolve, we introduce the notion of EE path dependence based on an original combination of an evolutionary approach and complex adaptive system theory. We thus present a whirlwind model that takes the form

Abstract This paper posits that distinguishing security token offerings (STOs) from initial coin offerings (ICOs) is important for the study of entrepreneurial finance. We first provide a working definition of a security token and present an overview of the STO market using a unique STO sample. The STO activity developed after the end of the ICO market bubble. The STO market is, however, still a nascent

The existential threat to small businesses, based on their crucial role in the economy, is behind the plethora of scholarly studies in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examining the 15 contributions of the special issue on the “Economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurship and small businesses,” the paper comprises four parts: a systematic review of the literature on the

Using representative linked employer-employee data for Germany, this paper analyzes short- and long-run differences in labor market performance of workers joining start-ups instead of incumbent firms. Applying entropy balancing and following individuals over ten years, we find huge and long-lasting drawbacks from entering a start-up in terms of wages, yearly income, and (un)employment. These disadvantages

We assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on venture capital (VC) investments, documenting a significant decline in investments using a dataset of 39,527 funding rounds occurring before and during the pandemic in 130 countries. In line with our theoretical considerations, we show that this decline is more pronounced for investments characterized by higher uncertainty, namely investments in seed-stage

The question of why some firms grow faster than others is of high theoretical and practical importance. Beyond a wealth of studies based on stochastic models, firm growth has mostly been explained by looking at the structural characteristics of firms, sectors, and countries. The role of managers’ characteristics in fostering firms’ growth has been explored much less. In this study, we adopt one key

We conduct a survey among 1922 Swiss SMEs to analyze their access to bank loans. Credit-constrained SMEs are six times more likely to be discouraged than rejected. The most dominant reasons for being discouraged are too high collateral requirements, cumbersome application procedure, and the expectation of being turned down. Through a unique feature in the Swiss banking market, we also find new evidence

Abstract This article investigates the mediating role of women entrepreneurs’ reluctance to adopt an entrepreneurial strategic posture in the negative relationship between their perceptions of market hostility and competitive performance. It also notes a potential buffering role of family business support. According to survey data collected among women entrepreneurs in Ireland, beliefs about unfriendly

The 2020 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research has been awarded to Professor John Haltiwanger. John Haltiwanger has made significant contributions to the field of entrepreneurship by improving our understanding of job creation and destruction, productivity growth, and the role of small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in economic development. He has played a major role in the careful development

This study estimates random effects and difference-in-difference-in-differences models to examine the initial impacts of COVID-19 on the employment and hours of unincorporated self-employed workers using monthly panel data from the Current Population Survey. For these workers, effects were visible in March as voluntary social distancing began, largest in April as complete shutdowns occurred, and slightly

Using a unique sample of Italian manufacturing firms, we investigate the impact of relationship lending on firms’ use of trade credit. We find that firms maintaining close and long-lasting relationships with their main banks are associated with higher amounts of trade credit extended by suppliers. This result is robust to alternative measures of trade credit and relationship lending, and to different

As a digital financial innovation, equity crowdfunding (ECF) allows investors to exploit the complementarity of information provision and network effects in a reduced transaction cost environment. We build on the underlying distinction between soft and hard information and show that ECF platforms create an environment of greater information pooling that benefits from network externalities. We test

Abstract Traditional macroeconomic stabilization policies seek to moderate swings in economic activity through measures that primarily augment aggregate demand. Such measures are, however, inadequate in mitigating the comprehensive effects of crisis such as the COVID-19, which affects both the demand and supply sides of the economy. Moreover, monetary policies are presently close to a liquidity trap

Abstract Conceptualising early-stage new venture informal investors as co-entrepreneurs whose actions are socially embedded, we examine the role of social influence and how it interplays with entrepreneurial experience at the individual level leading to informal investment. We extend theories of social homophily and social influence to argue that informal investment decisions are influenced by shared

Abstract This paper introduces narratives in entrepreneurial ecosystems as drivers of effectuation vs. causation. Drawing on 43 interviews with successful players in Silicon Valley, Munich, and Singapore, we found ecosystem-specific narratives indicate what is common, appropriate, and successful in each ecosystem, and these narratives encourage either effectuation or causation. Our findings indicate

During the economic slowdown caused by the financial crisis in 2008, grants for entrepreneurs were made available to support economic development. Whether such a policy instrument is effective for business development is a highly relevant question in the aftermath of the COVID-19. We evaluate the causal effects of small business development matching grants using a quasi-experimental approach. The grants

Abstract Comparing one hyper-growth venture with one moderate growth venture, we show that growth paths critically depend on the founders’ capability to leverage BAs’ and VCs’ financial and cognitive resources in an ongoing process of interaction. Dynamically matching specific entrepreneurs’ and investors’ decision-making styles is critical for shaping heterogeneous growth paths, as investors and entrepreneurs

Abstract Little is known about self-employment as a career choice for women who marry a high-income spouse. Using rich Swedish register data, we show that Swedish women who are married to a high-income spouse are, on average, highly educated and more likely to pursue self-employment than those married to a spouse in the middle of the income distribution. Our results indicate that the likelihood of

Ethnicity not only shapes pathways to entry into entrepreneurship but also plays an important role in the organizing structure of the business. Previous research on ethnic entrepreneurs has focused on niche markets, their coethnic labor supply, and the spatial concentration of businesses (i.e., enclaves), overlooking the role that ethnicity plays in business strategies more broadly. I draw on 65 in-depth

We study immigrant-native differences in long-term self-employment in Sweden combining population-wide register data and a unique survey targeting a large representative sample of the total population of long-term self-employment. Using the registers, we analyze the evolution of labor and capital incomes during the first 10 years following self-employment entry. We find that immigrant-native differences

COVID-19 placed a special role on fiscal policy in rescuing companies short of liquidity from insolvency. In the first months of the crisis, SMEs as the backbone of Germany’s economy benefited from large and mainly indiscriminate aid measures. Avoiding business failures in a whatever-it-takes fashion contrasts, however, with the cleansing mechanism of economic crises: a mechanism which forces unviable

AbstractSection Abstract We assess the role of race in loans made through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP program, created by the U.S. government as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, provides loans to small businesses so they can keep employees on their payroll. We argue that the historical record and PPP program design choices made it likely that many Black-owned businesses received

This paper reviews the scholarly contributions of Zoltan J. Acs, who served as a Co-Founder and Co-Editor in Chief since the inception of Small Business Economics. His scholarship serves as one of the foundations and cornerstones of the field of entrepreneurship. His contributions range from innovation to philanthropy and national systems of entrepreneurship.

Women are consistently underrepresented among graduate entrepreneurs. This is especially true among the entrepreneurs who graduate in STEM fields. Here, we aim at identifying factors that reduce/enlarge the gender imbalance in entrepreneurship among STEM graduates. In particular, we explore the underinvestigated association between university education in STEM fields and entrepreneurial entry of recent

Entrepreneurial universities contribute directly and indirectly to supporting all stages of entrepreneurship. The challenge for entrepreneurial universities is how they can best support academic entrepreneurs through these stages of entrepreneurship. This has led to the creation of different and often ad hoc organizational units within an entrepreneurial university. The organizational challenge for

This study distinguishes entrepreneurs’ cognitive financial constraints from financial supply constraints and assesses their relative importance to small business growth. Drawing from the literature on cognitive styles and institutional theory, we argue that small businesses’ financial constraints derive not only from financial market failures but also from the cognitive factors of entrepreneurs. Analysing

Abstract The COVID-19 crisis presents manifest threats for entrepreneurs since their business survival is often directly at stake given the alarming economic downturn. This existential threat, together with their crucial role in the economy, is the reason for the plethora of public financial support schemes being implemented throughout the entire world. However, support schemes for mental health are

Publishing entrepreneurship research is not just important but challenging. Longstanding experts in the field can provide helpful advice. As borders between academic fields blur, research fields are increasingly global in their perspective, knowledge, and findings, thus enabling robust participation in research fields at a scale previously unimaginable. Drawing on the experience, insights, and perspectives

This study examines the influence of organizational psychological capital on the performance of small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) during crises. We argue that SMEs use their intangible resources to cope with difficult situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we investigate how organizational psychological capital impacts performance and creative innovation through such intangible

Abstract The DUI (learning by doing-using-interacting) mode offers a promising theoretical framework to explain why many small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are successful in innovation without research and development (R&D) efforts. In this context, we argue that—because of the informal, person-centered, and interactive nature of the DUI mode—small business owners should be in a key position

Abstract What makes a place desirable is the subject of much debate. We conduct a mixed methods analysis on two mid-sized US cities—Indianapolis and Kansas City. We use a migration analysis to understand the flow of the general population, creative workers, and entrepreneurs, followed by an exploratory qualitative analysis of impactful entrepreneurs. Our migration analysis shows that these cities are

This study investigates how venture capital (VC) investments flowing into an industry impact both the innovative opportunities and technological arbitrage opportunities presented in the industry. After examining 855 industry-year observations for 45 industries in the USA for 1997–2015, we found that VC investments moderate the effects of new venture entry rates on innovative opportunities and technological

We examine firms’ employment adjustments immediately after the imposition of stringent lockdown in March 2020. In doing so, we use monthly administrative data, and take value-added tax payment changes as a proxy for the demand shock. We merge data with COVID-19 tests, classified by economic activity, and employ a fixed effects instrumental variable regression. We find that all sized firms in the manufacturing

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-021-00494-5

This work investigates the relationship between the characteristics and survival probabilities of firms, distinguishing between “involuntary” firm exit and exit by merger and acquisition (M&A). More in detail, we study how, and to what extent, innovation capabilities, as proxied by patents and trademarks, are able to shape, together with standard performance variables, the observed dynamics at the

We investigate the impact of COVID-19 on 42,401 UK SMEs and how government intervention affects their capability to survive the pandemic. The results show that, without governmental mitigation schemes, 59% of UK SMEs report negative earnings and that their residual life is reduced from 164 to 139 days. The analysis shows that government support scheme reduces the number of SMEs with negative earnings

We investigate the corpus of literature on firm exit by means of a systematic literature review (SLR) which yields a final sample of 142 journal articles for the period 1991–2020. The phenomenon of firm exit is explored from a variety of perspectives: business exit; exit at the individual entrepreneur level; exit from specific markets; exit from foreign markets; and the role of exit for industrial

The recent widespread interest of policy in entrepreneurial ecosystems has been complemented by a burgeoning academic research output. This research to date may be broadly categorized as focusing on place, actors, governance, and evolution. Of these groupings, evolutionary processes have been paid least attention despite their centrality to a dynamic ecosystem phenomenon that evolves from an origin