Creating Entrepreneurial Space: Talking Through Multi-Voices, Reflections on Emerging Debates: Volume 9A

This chapter provides a rationale and an introduction for this book. The organisation and structure of the book is identified and justified. Thereafter, each chapter included within the book is introduced and profiled. The chapter concludes by drawing brief conclusions on the book chapters included in this book with suggestions for further research opportunities and implications for the entrepreneurship discipline.

Entrepreneurship teachers (ETs) evolve in an environment where different categories of people interact: students, teachers and stakeholders. Assuming one or more identities or roles, teachers, practitioners, ex-entrepreneurs and/or researchers are the ‘transmitters’¹ of entrepreneurship education (EE). The question of recognition of teachers’ professional status is not always addressed (Hargreaves, 2000). Scientific research in EE shows certain weaknesses (Byrne, Fayolle, & Toutain, 2014; Fayolle, 2013), notably, a lack of interest in questions of (i) the perceived legitimacy of ETs and (ii) the support they receive in carrying out their work (particularly professional development). Taking a decidedly multidisciplinary perspective, this chapter aims to deal with the question of the perceived legitimacy of ETs using a literature review that covers all disciplines having shown an interest in the notion of teacher legitimacy.

The legitimacy of EE depends on the interactions between legitimate instructors and legitimate students in a given context, which respects certain collectively accepted norms. It also depends on the context and the objective of EE. Following the example of a university hospital worker (doctor), ETs can be practitioners, teachers and researchers. Their degree of expertise, position in the institution, positioning in relation to other actors – students, peers, colleagues, institutional and professional stakeholders – and the discourse they use are the elements that constitute their legitimacy.

The demand for including enterprise in the education system, at all levels and for all pupils is now a global phenomenon. Within this context, the use of competitions and competitive learning activities is presented as a popular and effective vehicle for learning. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how a realist method of enquiry – which utilises theory as the unit of analysis – can shed new light on the assumed and unintended outcomes of enterprise education competitions. The case developed here is that there are inherent flaws in assuming that competitions will ‘work’ in the ways set out in policy and guidance. Some of the most prevalent stated outcomes – that competitions will motivate and reward young people, that they will enable the development of entrepreneurial skills, and that learners will be inspired by their peers – are challenged by theory from psychology and education. The issue at stake is that the expansion of enterprise education policy into primary and secondary education increases the likelihood that more learners will be sheep dipped in competitions, and competitive activities, without a clear recognition of the potential unintended effects. In this chapter, we employ a realist-informed approach to critically evaluate the theoretical basis that underpins the use of competitions and competitive learning activities in school-based enterprise education. We believe that our findings and subsequent recommendations will provide those who promote and practice the use of competitions with a richer, more sophisticated picture of the potential flaws within such activities.

Given that international research is now consistently showing higher rates of entrepreneurial activity from immigrants above native people, research regarding our understanding of how immigrant entrepreneurs view business opportunity formation remains underdeveloped. Based upon a review of the literature, this chapter examines how ethnicity relates to business opportunity formation through constant interactions. It also introduces the Visual Mixed Embeddedness Framework as an empirical lens for understanding the differences in the business opportunity formation process models between immigrant and native entrepreneurs. By explaining how factors and traits from both home and host countries impact upon the immigrant entrepreneurial business activity process, the framework clearly identifies how the concept of ethnicity influences immigrant entrepreneurial opportunity formation activities in different ways. The framework contributes to existing knowledge by offering a novel method for examining the influence on business opportunity formation of ethnicity, the role of home and host countries and variations between immigrant and native entrepreneurs.

The objective of this longitudinal ethnography of a rural small town in Northern Sweden, following the presence and identifying the processes associated with an incoming entrepreneur, was to better understand entrepreneurship in a rural context. The significant shaping of entrepreneurship by context is increasingly recognised, with entrepreneurship in depleted communities being an important part of this research movement. This chapter is positioned at the conjunction of these literatures. The authors have studied this community for 10 years; regularly interviewing the entrepreneur and residents; attending meetings and making observations. The authors found that the entrepreneurial creation of garden provoked a raft of change, such that entrepreneurship reverberated throughout the town. To explain these effects, the authors developed the concept of entrepreneurial energy. Entrepreneurial energy is a vitality produced in and by entrepreneurship. It works, in part, as a role model, holding up examples of what can be done. But much more, the presence of entrepreneurial energy serves to invigorate others. It becomes amplified in new ways of doing, new ways of being, yet calcified in the entrepreneurial actions of others. The authors saw how it unleashed the latent, promoted the possible, to entrepreneurially revive the town.

The importance of succession in family business is well documented and there is general agreement that successful succession represents a key factor in the success or otherwise of individual businesses owned and run by families. The importance of gender in family business succession is a much more recent topic, where initial work has focussed very much on the increasing tendency for women to take on the family business as a successor. Far less research, however, considers the scenario where a female leader passes on the business, whether that takes the form of family succession, a new leader from out with the family or indeed business sale. This dearth of research is not entirely surprising: whilst female leaders in a family business context are not new, their numbers have been relatively small and often mediated through the lens of co-preneurship with a male partner. As women increasingly succeed to and found family businesses however, the gender dimension within family business succession develops and the research response forms the basis for this chapter.

Succeeding in export markets remains a challenging task for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in developing countries. Empirical studies from these regions on SMEs’ internationalisation remain scarce bringing contrasting evidence to those emerging from developed countries. To increase understanding on these issues, the present study adopts a novel fuzzy-set comparative analysis technique to investigate the combination(s) of different resource factors driving Algerian SMEs’ export performance. Using a sample of 103 exporters, the study identifies two distinct resource configurations likely to boost SMEs export performance. The present study holds important implications for the internationalisation literature and the export promotion organisations in developing countries.

In this chapter, the authors explore entrepreneurial change in Stanton, a rural small town in New Zealand. This once-prosperous place has suffered economically and socially as its past core industries have vanished, and it can now be considered as a depleted community. Yet in recent years, the town has seen a rejuvenation, in part due to the endeavours of Sue, a high-profile entrepreneur from outside the town who has set up several businesses in the town and indeed in other small towns in the region. Theoretically, the authors take an entrepreneurial identity perspective in examining how Sue’s arrival has changed the town; the authors examine how her entrepreneurship was perceived as legitimate. The authors use a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews. The authors contribute in demonstrating how an ascribed entrepreneurial identity can not only enable but also hinder change in this community, generating confidence and emotional contagion around entrepreneurship, and also uncertainty and resentment. In doing so, the authors challenge the universality of entrepreneurship benefits.

Creative industries, such as the designer fashion industry (DFI), are among the toughest in which to establish sustainable business ventures. While studies have examined how networks and social capital contribute to independent DFI start-ups and why such businesses fail, these studies have been largely restricted to well-established entrepreneurial spaces like London, which differ in structure and size compared to emerging DFI entrepreneurial spaces in small economies like New Zealand. This chapter addresses this gap in the creative enterprise literature by presenting findings from an examination of 12 New Zealand fashion designers’ accounts of their responses to start-up challenges. The analysis, which paid particular attention to the relationship between social capital and reported strategic practice, revealed that the designers’ challenge profiles and strategic responses were linked to very ‘biographical’ personal networks and their personal enterprise orientations. While those designers with well-established networks started the most resilient businesses, the analysis revealed that even these designers were not necessarily particularly strategic when tapping into the social capital embedded in their networks. Overall, the findings provide further confirmation of the importance of social capital and network management during start-up. Most significantly, they demonstrate why designers need to be forward looking and employ a strategic approach to developing and accessing social capital and when making business decisions. Those who did so were more likely to have viable ventures than those who accessed social capital in order to react to unanticipated challenges.

This chapter explores the perceived impact of strategic learning plans on growth-focussed small service firms from the owner-manager’s (OM) perspective. Adopting a social learning lens, the study employs the action research method, involving three cycles performed over a 12-month period wherein the authors studied the co-created design and implementation of a strategic learning plan in each of the three participant firms. Findings present insights into the ways in which firms that wish to grow can be facilitated to learn strategically. A contextualised approach involving OMs in both design and implementation resulted in openness to the formal planning process. Notably, OMs may impede growth depending on their learning orientation, planning perspective, and their ability to delegate tasks. Over time, the OMs honed their reflective skills to the benefit of organic learning strategies. There was a distinct preference for social learning, and a perceived need for external monitoring to sustain plan momentum. The proposed framework offers a process for embedding a strategic learning approach in order to leverage strategic position. It also highlights the value of considering and evaluating OM perceptions of their own learning activities and the impact that these perceptions may have on the enactment of enabling policies to promote growth in their firms.

The growing importance of ‘lived practices’ in entrepreneurship-related studies has sought to pose several questions and challenges for researchers/scholars in the field (Ruona & Gilley, 2009; Short, Keefer, & Stone, 2009). The issue of how current entrepreneurship research practices can become more applied in nature provides the basis for articulating more clearly what we mean by research impact and why it has become a central concern in the research field (Beyer & Trice, 1982; Huggins et al., 2008; Rynes, 2007; Starkey & Tempest, 2005). This debate has drawn specific attention to the need for applied research in entrepreneurial scholarship, which is more reflective of lived practice. The need to reach a balance between practitioners and academics’ expectations in terms of delivering research which is focussed towards achieving academic rigour and application to practice, which is both meaningful and relatable, is significant for both communities (Ram, Edwards, Jones, Kiselinchev, & Muchenje, 2017). This chapter seeks to assist and inspire both existing and future researchers in the field to make more informed choices and offer tangible evidence of good practice, serving as a guide to researchers wishing to develop engaged research. The authors hope that the nature of this chapter would seek to clarify the importance of engaged research in supporting how we understand and respond to the needs of entrepreneurial practice as a means of building trust and confidence in research reported. A key characteristic of the issue will be the different ‘framing’ of questions that can enhance practical knowledge.