Institutional dimensions and social entrepreneurship: a multilevel study

To provide individuals with entrepreneurial skills and prepare them to engage in entrepreneurial activities, universities offer entrepreneurship education (EE) courses. However, the growing number of studies on EE impact offers mixed and apparently contradictory results. The present study contributes to this literature by indicating the type of EE (elective vs. compulsory) and the characteristics of students’ exposure to an enterprising family as two complementary boundary conditions that contribute to explain the outcomes of EE. To do so, the paper takes advantage of quasi-experimental research on a sample of 427 university students who participated to two consecutive waves of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS). The study finds that both types of EE contribute to students’ entrepreneurial skills; however, the impact of EE in compulsory courses is contingent on students’ perceptions of parents’ performance as entrepreneurs.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to verify some relationships between entrepreneurial attitude, university environment, entrepreneurial culture and entrepreneurial training, which can be used to promote entrepreneurship among university students.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 3,005 questionnaires answered by students from ten universities in Colombia was gathered and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used for the analysis.FindingsThe results show that the more a student perceives an entrepreneurial culture and the more training he or she receives, the more entrepreneurial attitude he or she will have. Also, it was found that entrepreneurial culture has a positive effect on university environment, and the latter has a positive effect on entrepreneurial training.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this study was that only ten Colombian universities were sampled; therefore, general inferences cannot be made. Additionally, the variables investigated here may have not accurately measured the full scale of the entrepreneurship programmes in such universities or the way the culture of these institutions had a direct impact on students. Projects such as the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS), which measure variables related to entrepreneurship at the university level, enable universities to shape their policies around this important topic. This study indicates that universities should offer training in entrepreneurial, problem-solving and communication skills to produce entrepreneurs who can better face current challenges.Originality/valueOther studies have discussed entrepreneurial culture, but they usually deal with university environment, entrepreneurial training and entrepreneurial attitudes separately. This study integrates all these factors and measures the level of interaction between them.

Purpose The Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS) reveals a striking paradox: while over 50% of university students globally have entrepreneurial ambitions, fewer than 10% take tangible steps towards achieving these goals. A significant factor contributing to this gap is procrastination, a pervasive issue among university students. It has been identified as a major barrier to both academic and entrepreneurial success. Most university students in emerging economies have great intentions of venturing into entrepreneurial activities, but they often struggle to get started due to procrastination. This study investigates the phenomenon of procrastination and its impact on entrepreneurial intention and action. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a phenomenological approach whereby the data were gathered using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs) and reflective journals among the undergraduate university students. The sample size was 15, and the respondents were selected through judgmental or purposive sampling. The Atlas.ti software was used to analyse and interpret the data and identify and extract the main patterns and themes through a thematic analysis. Findings The overall results highlight the negative impact of procrastination on entrepreneurial activity because it influences decision-making, cognition, and productivity. The research proposes institutional interventions, such as mentorship, entrepreneurship training and incubation, to deal with procrastination and co-create student entrepreneurship. Originality/value The theoretical contributions of the research consist of the broadening of knowledge about the influence of procrastination in the translation of entrepreneurial intentions into action. In practice, it provides practical solutions to students, institutions and policymakers to alleviate the problem of procrastination and encourage entrepreneurial behaviour.

Economic growth and innovation in our society are driven by the presence of individuals endowed with entrepreneurial skills who allow them to spur processes of knowledge spillover and commercialization. To equip individuals with entrepreneurial skills and prepare them to engage into entrepreneurial activities, universities offer entrepreneurship education (EE) courses. However, the growing number of EE impact studies offers mixed and apparently contradicting results about the results of such courses. Our study contributes to this literature by conceptualizing the type of EE (elective vs. compulsory) and the students’ exposure to family business as institutional and social boundary conditions that explain the heterogeneous outcomes observed by EE impact studies. To do so we take advantage of a quasi-experimental research and on a sample of 446 university students who have participated to two consecutive waves of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS). While we find that both types of EE contribute to students’ entrepreneurial skills, their impact is contingent to several dimensions students’ exposure to family business (i.e., having self-employed parents, students’ perceptions of parents’ performance as entrepreneurs and working experience in the family firm). Additionally, we find that none of EE type is per se sufficient to induce students to engage in actual entrepreneurial behavior. Taken together, our results add further nuances on the conditions under which institutions create opportunities for individuals to acquire entrepreneurial skills.

PurposeEntrepreneurship requires the attitudes and capabilities needed to begin new and innovative projects able to create positive impacts in the economy of a society. Given that it forms the basis from which new companies, products and innovations emerge, it is a very relevant term in business. With the aim of strengthening these capabilities, many universities are incorporating new educational strategies into their curricula to boost entrepreneurial intention and business skills among their students. This study aims to determine the factors that intervene in the entrepreneurial spirit of students in Spanish universities by examining areas of study, different personal and contextual characteristics, and the type of training students receive in entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachData collected from 33,182 students in 77 Spanish universities in the 2018 edition of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS) is examined in an exhaustive univariate and bivariate descriptive and inferential analysis. Furthermore, the relationship between the entrepreneurial index and the different explicative variables is modelled, and a basic random effect for the area of study is introduced to detect differences at this level.FindingsEconomics, engineering and health sciences presented higher than average entrepreneurial indices. Regarding the type of training, only voluntary education in entrepreneurship influenced entrepreneurial spirit, albeit not equally in all areas of study.Originality/valueThis study’s results can help universities to incorporate new educational strategies into their curricula to boost entrepreneurial intention and business skills among students by focusing resources where they are most efficient.

<p>Stimulating social entrepreneurship in South Africa has the potential to address not only the high youth unemployment rate in the country, but also other pressing social and environmental challenges. This study was conducted as part of the 2011 Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey and focused on South African university students’ intentions to start social enterprises. The findings, based on 673 responses to an online questionnaire, reveal that the majority of respondents had such an intention. However, less than half of this group mentioned the specific type of environmental or social mission that they would like to pursue. Despite more males than females being currently engaged in social entrepreneurship activities in South Africa, no statistically significant difference was found in this study between the intentions of male and female respondents in starting a social enterprise. African language speakers and students enrolled for qualifications in the social sciences were, however, statistically more likely to start social enterprises. Education is a critical factor in achieving increased levels of social entrepreneurship activity; however, fundamental interventions in the education system are required to achieve this objective.</p><strong>KEYWORDS:</strong> Entrepreneurship education; Environmental challenges; Generation Y; HIV and AIDS; Social challenges; Social entrepreneurship; Social enterprises; South Africa; Youth unemployment

The purpose of this thesis is to extend the understanding of social entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the institutional environment, and their behaviour when they try to adapt to a context where social entrepreneurship is non-institutionalised. Theoretically, the thesis draws on institutional and cognitive perspectives to develop a conceptual framework in order to answer the research questions. The thesis uses primary data from interviews and secondary documents collected by the researcher. Data collection was conducted in two rounds between 2014 and 2016 in Saudi Arabia. The empirical findings are divided into three main parts. The first part explores the influences of individual factors (human capital and psychological capital) and institutional factors (religion- Islam) on social entrepreneurs’ perceptions. The findings explained how social entrepreneurs rely on these factors to build internal and external expectations. The second part investigates social entrepreneurs’ perception regarding the regulative, cognitive and normative institutional environment dimensions. The findings show that Saudi social entrepreneurs perceive their institutional environment to be unfavourable towards social entrepreneurship. The third part looks at their behaviour in terms of their collaboration with their social ties to adapt to the institutional environment. The findings identified the roles of other actors in the field (government, intermediaries, local foundations, global non-profits, private sector). These further emphasise the importance of the social entrepreneurs’ social capital in a noninstitutionalised context such as Saudi Arabia. The findings of this thesis can be valuable not only for researchers but also for policymakers and practitioners working to improve the social entrepreneurial institutional environment in similar countries.

Impact of institutional environment on social entrepreneurial intentions

ABSTRACTThe entrepreneurial potential of a region is a key factor in linking innovation to the market, thus leading to economic growth. This is especially important in peripheral regions that are characterized by low innovative dynamism. This paper analyses the entrepreneurial process in a European peripheral region, the Canary Islands, Spain. It attempts to determine possible cultural specificities and the role of motivation in the entrepreneurial process. To do this, an analysis of entrepreneurial intention (EI) is framed within the theory of planned behaviour and using motivation, opportunity and ability theory. An empirical study was carried out using a sample of 1457 university students participating in the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey project. Results indicate that motivation influences EI directly and indirectly through an individual’s attitude towards entrepreneurial behaviour. The perception of business opportunities is also a significant antecedent of entrepreneurial motivation. Consequently, entrepreneurial education and policies to foster entrepreneurship in peripheral regions should not attempt to transform individuals’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship directly, but rather focus on improving motivation using intensive pedagogical strategies in creativity that go beyond mere informative content. Methodologies and content focused on recognizing opportunities and problem-solving would also be effective elements in educational programmes of entrepreneurship.

Studies examining the relationship between national culture and entrepreneurial activity have largely ignored the influence of culture on individual decision-making. Recent years have witnessed considerable interest in cognitive logics employed by entrepreneurs. A growing body of literature examines factors contributing to the relative reliance on causal and effectual reasoning as entrepreneurs attempt to launch and grow new ventures, with evidence suggesting expert entrepreneurs engage more heavily in effectual reasoning than do novice entrepreneurs. The present study examines the mediating role of cognitive logic in explaining venture performance in differing cultural contexts. A series of hypotheses are tested using a sample of 3411 new ventures started by student entrepreneurs from 24 countries based on the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey. The findings indicate that both venture cognitive logics have positive effects on new venture performance and serve as mediators in the culture-performance relationship. Based on these findings, we conclude entrepreneurial reasoning is shaped not only by personal characteristics of entrepreneurs but also by aspects of the cultural context.

Background To cater for the growing global population, the future of employment has been policy discourse. This is mainly because, as the population increases, the demand for employment increases. The danger of a looming crisis may be inevitable if considerable employment opportunities are not created to match population growth. In order to curtail uncertainty in the labour market and secure future employment, increased emphasise is laid on entrepreneurship – the skills to match new ideas to market and societal needs. Aim and Data This study examines the extent of social entrepreneurship and its impact on future employment in Nigeria by testing the hypothesis stated in a null from as “social entrepreneurship has no significant impact on future employment in Nigeria” . The study utilises data sourced from youth entrepreneurship with innovation (YouWiN) (2019) conducted by the World Bank in conjunction with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of Nigeria. Method The study engaged descriptive statistics to estimate logit regression and propensity score matching (PSM) to achieve its objective. Result The descriptive statistics show that only 3.15 per cent of entrepreneurship in Nigeria is a social enterprise. In addition, the mean age of business owners is about 31 years, with 83.14 per cent being male. The result from the logit regression shows that ICT utilisation, access to loans, level of education, and gender of business owners are other significant and positive determinants of future employment. The result from the PSM shows that social entrepreneurship is a significant and positive driver of future employment. It shows that social entrepreneurship will contribute not less than 21 per cent to employment in Nigeria in the next five years. Conclusion From the analysis, it was revealed that only 3.15 per cent of Nigerian enterprises are social enterprises, which is a possible reason for their little current contribution to present and future employment. More involvement in this sector is capable of improving future employment. In addition, to attain a boost in future employment creation in Nigeria, there has to be a significant contribution in this sector by the youth. In addition, access to ICT by business owners should be enhanced to improve business performance towards contributing to future employment. The government should adopt measures to aid business owners in securing loans to finance business activities and improve their performance.

Factors Influencing Students’ Venture Creation Process

Human capital and institutional factors explain the dynamics fuelling social entrepreneurial activity. Social entrepreneurs enhance social value by creating new social entities. The study investigates the prevalence of early stage social entrepreneurship activity amongst the Norwegian adult population. As much as 5.1% of the population is at any time engaged in nascent social entrepreneurship, as measured in involvement in the starting up non-profit volunteer organisations. Males, younger and better educated people are more inclined to engage in nascent social entrepreneurship. Institutional factors such as social needs and municipality centrality are linked to start-up of social entrepreneurial activity. Different structural frameworks link to different categories of social entrepreneurship. Social bricoleur activity aimed at creating social value more often appears in rural municipalities. Social constructionists and social engineers wanting societal change are negatively correlated with social requirements in their home municipality. This paper discusses how better to categorise nascent social entrepreneurship activity in order to improve our understanding of its drivers.

PurposeThere has been a substantial realization of the importance of community engagement (CE) for social enterprise (SE) missions. However, the emerging literature on CE in social enterprises is riddled with theoretical inconsistencies and there is universal lack of studies in this direction. For the sake of advancing the field, the purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the elements of CE in SEs. Further, a comprehensive preliminary model is developed integrating the five fundamental dimensions of CE in SE setting.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on the critical analysis of the extant literature across disciplines to identify the relevant themes that can affect the CE in SEs.FindingsThe paper develops a preliminary social enterprise community engagement model (SE-CEM), which results from a broad literature analysis. The proposed model attempts to offer a comprehensive perspective outlining the institutional, organizational, individual, community and process dimensions likely to predict engagement success in SE context.Originality/valueThis paper pioneers in presenting a holistic approach to understanding the dimensions that constitute CE in SEs. The SE-CEM incorporates the determinants of CE in social entrepreneurship (S-ENT) context to direct a future research agenda. The preliminary model can further be developed and empirically tested by researchers. Moreover, practitioners can also gain benefits from the model and promote S-ENT.

In enterprising families, the family, as a social institution, is the foundation of the family business. However, in enterprising families, intergenerational succession remains problematic. Using intergenerational solidarity theory, and data from the 2013 Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students Survey (GUESSS; N = 18,576), our findings indicate that affective commitment partially mediates the relationship between family business exposure and offspring’s succession intentions. We also find that this relationship is stronger for sons than for daughters, while birth order has no effect. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.