Seeking recognition and growth

Seeking recognition and growth

The year 2017 has been a productive year for the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research (IJEBR). The year has seen us increase our publication of full papers to 54 with respective positive increases in article downloads and article citation levels. Most notably, Clarivate Analytics has accepted IJEBR into the Social Science Citation Index. The journal will be indexed from the first issue in 2015, and thus will receive an impact factor when the new metrics are released in June 2017. IJEBR will be listed in two categories: business (currently 121 journals) and management (194 journals). During 2018 and beyond, IJEBR will seek to develop and grow its impact factor. This will include continuing to grow manuscript publication and citation levels. For 2018, we will look to publish 48 manuscripts. From December 2017, we will no longer be accepting book reviews into the submission process. The rationale here is our desire to focus on growing our research papers. Our thanks to the outgoing Book Review Editor, Dr Claire Seamen, for her hard work and diligence in recent years. Dr Seaman has accepted a role on our Editorial Review Board in recognition of her dedication in that role.

IJEBR is currently promoting five special issue calls at www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=ijebr#news, respectively, exploring enterprise/entrepreneurship education, artisan, cultural and tourism entrepreneurship, migration, innovations in entrepreneurship support and intersectionality and entrepreneurship. Please contact the respective guest editors in each case if you wish to make an enquiry. All relevant details are on the website. Special issues remain an important element of IJEBR in terms of publishing novel and thought leading issues in the field of entrepreneurial behaviour.

On a personal level, I would like to acknowledge the considerable contribution and efforts of the editorial team, Professor Martina Battista (Co-editor), Professor Lois Shelton (Co-editor) and Dr Richard Tunstall (Co-editor) for their hard work and diligence in their roles this year. It has been a notable year personally for both Martina and Richard with their promotions to Professor and Associate Professor, respectively. In addition, my thanks to the publisher Patti Davis, Rebecca Rozenberg (Publishing Editor) and Content Editor, Sean O’Dowd, for all their hard work and long hours that they have put into IJEBR every year. IJEBR continues to play a key role focussing on publishing original research related to the human and social dynamics of entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial management in small and growing organisations, at an international level. In conclusion, we thank all the authors and reviewers for their efforts in developing these studies to a satisfactory outcome. I thank members of both the Editorial Advisory Board and Editorial Review Board in promoting and developing the journal. Please do not hesitate to contact me or other members of the editorial team if you feel you can contribute to the further development of the journal.

This bumper issue includes 12 papers including a special section from the Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy (GIKA) (five full) papers led by Professor Tomás F González-Cruz. The issue also includes seven full papers. The study by Chang et al. considers how entrepreneurial team members interact with each other to enhance venture performance. The paper develops and tests a model that explains the trinity of cognition, conflict and cohesion in terms of social interaction between entrepreneurial team members. The study by Kasseeah and Tandrayen-Ragoobur considers female entrepreneurship underperformance using a sample of small firms. The study explains why gender matters in entrepreneurship and investigates the differences in turnover of female and male entrepreneurs, and examines the reasons behind this differential performance by accounting for the gender factor. The following paper by Kraus et al. proposes an initial social entrepreneurship orientation scale based on input from scholars in the fields of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. The fourth paper by McElwee et al. considers how to analyse barriers confronted by women entrepreneurs living and running businesses in rural Oman. The study identifies numerous problems including: accessing funding for new ventures and innovative activities, a lack of skills-based training and limited family support. The fifth paper by Henley et al. reconceptualizes the theory of planned behaviour in the light of the social cognitive theory to investigate the role of social capital, and specifically leadership skill as a social capital generating influence in formation of entrepreneurial intentions. The following paper by Imarhiagbe et al. empirically examines the determinants of owner manager financial self-confidence. The study estimates the effect of bank credit rejection and financial education on the financial self-confidence of business owners. The final standard paper by Shim et al. suggests a bibliometric method for designing agent-based models in entrepreneurship research. The application of the bibliometric procedure is illustrated with an exemplary agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) regarding early venture growth process. This bibliometric approach invigorates the utilization of ABMS as a viable research methodology in process-oriented entrepreneurship research. The GIKA paper included within the issue are next presented in an introduction to the special section by Professor González-Cruz.

Turning Kurt Lewin on his head: nothing is so theoretical as a good practice

This paper introduces current research that focusses on the analysis of entrepreneurs’ actions and behaviours, taking into considerations its personal, organisational and institutional context. The contributions included in the special section of IJEBR were selected from papers submitted to the 6th GIKA conference held in March 2016 in Valencia, Spain. This introduction provides a brief synthesis of the papers’ contributions and provides the common intention and view that all five papers share. This editor greatly appreciates the opportunity to be involved with this special issue, and wishes to express his sincere appreciation to Professor Domingo Ribeiro Soriano, and to Andrea Rey for their guidance and support, and of course to Professor Paul Jones, the Editor of IJEBR, for making this special issue possible.

The focus of this special issue is twofold, on one side to advance in entrepreneurship understanding as a phenomenon that is multidimensional and occurs within a context. In this way, it is wise to adopt a perspectivism view that considers the circumstances that condition and explain the essence of the phenomenon being studied. This view is part of a promising strand of research for academics that analyses new venture actions and results as well, especially the entrepreneur’s role and behaviour. This line of research will be a source of relevant insight for the practitioners who are responsible for providing policies that will enable entrepreneurship. On the other side, it would also be useful for those who manage economic, educational resources and infrastructures to help create improved conditions for new venture creation and development.

The papers presented in this special issue are a clear example that entrepreneurship understood in the Austrian Economic School will provide results for both innovation and creative destruction, but is also a way for bettering mankind without compromising legitimate profit and revenue which is necessary for economic sustainability and venture growth. Social value is an increasingly accepted concept that is under construction and that requires future research in order to improve its definition, delimitate its dimensions and improve its metrics and key performance indicators.

Consequently, this special issue presents papers that analyse antecedents as well as results of the entrepreneurial activity, and puts the focus in the consideration of context variables like: national culture, type of industry, organisational arrangements as well as personal circumstances. Due to its very nature, this kind of research requires a qualitative approach that allows academics to gain an improved understanding of a phenomenon that cannot be apprehended out of the milieu where it is deeply ingrained. Nevertheless, a set of different methodologies are applied: comparative case analysis, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), exploratory factor analysis and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis.

The first paper by Arte investigates the role that both knowledge and experience play for entrepreneurs who undertake a process of early internationalisation. This study presents a comparative case study of six medium-sized new ventures located in India and operating in technology-intensive industries. Departing from a theoretical framework provided by resource-based view and international new ventures literature, the paper proposes entrepreneurs’ educational background and experience as antecedents of early internationalisation. The evidence highlight that entrepreneurs’ knowledge and experience resources are important for early internationalisation but at a limited degree. The most important factor which triggers the process is the motivation to internationalise. That is, entrepreneurs’ previous international experience generates the motivation to internationalise, then knowledge and experience trigger the process. It is noteworthy to observe the synergistic effect between international and entrepreneurial experience and industry and entrepreneurial experience, that is, entrepreneurs with previous international experience in the industry are prone to be motivated to internationalise their ventures in early stages.

Žebrytė and Jorquera present a comparative case study between three Chilean “B Corporations” that belong to the tourism industry and operate in areas with local vulnerable communities. The study observes and reports on some key success elements that are common to all three cases. First is co-design and co-creation, which are the cornerstones of these business models, allowing local stakeholders – as well as local communities – to unleash creativity and value contribution; second, the entrepreneurs’ focus on social innovation through new ways of doing business; and third, authors draw our attention to the fact that Chile, which is one of the most neoliberal Latin economies, is by far the Latin American country with the largest number of “B Corporations”.

The contribution by Mehtap, Pellegrini, Caputo and Welsh presents a study analysing factors as potential enablers or barriers to entrepreneurial behaviour. The survey was conducted with 254 female business students in Jordanian universities. Their results show that effective education as well as competence development is a factor that enables entrepreneurship. However, its real impact is limited, as an educational system without a supportive, and, to some extent, munificent business environment cannot overcome the fears of engaging in entrepreneurship ventures. The authors propose a two-step model in order to, first, remove barriers providing, along university period, a supportive environment that promotes an entrepreneurial mindset, and, second, provide opportunities and acknowledgement to those who succeed.

Continuing with the topic of antecedents and incomes, the study by Krakowiak-Bal, Woźniak and Ziemiańczyk demonstrates how entrepreneurial activity should be considered in a given context. The study analyses how different infrastructure resources enable entrepreneurial activity. The originality and the main contribution of this study resides in the consideration of the relative utility of the different resources depending on the industry. Applying the AHP methodology, the research identifies the relative utility of different infrastructures depending on the predominant economic activity in different municipalities from some rural areas in Poland. The results highlight that construction activity is the most sensitive to the level of public infrastructure. Similarly, it reveals that, for all analysed activities, the most important infrastructural element is communication: accessibility transport and telecommunications services facilitate innovation and technological upgrading by reducing the fixed cost of producing new varieties of intermediate inputs. Contrastingly, the results illustrate that environmental awareness is the least important element for the pursuit of economic activity in the considered rural areas.

The final paper underpins the relevance of human capital and intra-entrepreneurship for eco-innovation. This contribution by Scarpellini, Ortega-Lapiedra, Fondevila and Aranda-Uson highlights, through a comparative case analysis of eight companies, that organisations that succeed in generating eco-innovation own a critical bunch of resources like specialised departments and competent human capital. However, promoting intra-entrepreneurship that unleashes innovative behaviour between their own employees is also necessary. Again, knowledge is a necessary but not a sufficient resource, instead, motivation and a proper mindset are the elements that trigger the entrepreneurial and innovative process.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the hard work of the many reviewers who provided guidance and feedback on the submissions. After a selection process from an initial pool of 44 papers, five have been selected and have undergone a triple blind review process. Some have been the subject of second and third revisions in order to meet the academic rigor requirements demanded by IJEBR.