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The type of activity in which entrepreneurs engage is likely to influence the potential contribution of entrepreneurship to economic growth and prosperity. Yet the entrepreneurship literature has focused largely on identifying the determinants of the level, rather than the type, of entrepreneurial activity. In this paper we hypothesize that a country's institutional environment will influence the allocation of entrepreneurial effort, and in particular will influence the extent to which entrepreneurial effort is directed toward high-growth activities. We test our hypotheses using data on 40 countries over the period 2002–2004. We find that the allocation of entrepreneurial effort toward high-growth activities is positively related to a country's financial and educational activities targeted at entrepreneurship, and is negatively related to a country's level of corruption. Our study is the first to provide empirical evidence that institutional characteristics significantly influence the allocation of entrepreneurial effort, and it is therefore the first to identify an empirically important channel through which a nation's institutions may contribute to economic growth. Journal of International Business Studies (2008) 39, 747–767. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400343

This paper applies a social exchange perspective to understand the internal contingencies of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and performance. It focuses on two aspects of social interactions among functional managers (procedural justice and trust), as well as on their organizational commitment, as potential enhancements to the firm's successful exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. A study of 232 Canadian-based firms finds several positive moderating effects: The EO-performance link is stronger for higher levels of procedural justice, trust, and organizational commitment. In addition, consistent with a systems approach to organizational contingencies, the EO-performance relationship is stronger when the organization's social context comes closer to an "ideal" configuration of procedural justice, trust, and organizational commitment that is most conducive to knowledge exchange within the organization. The study's implications and future research directions are discussed. Executive summaryThis study examines the roles of social relationships between functional managers and their commitment to the organization in shaping the entrepreneurial orientation (EO)-performance relationship. In the context of prior studies that typically focus on the external factors that affect the EO-performance relationship, as well as recent research that has begun to explore its internal contingencies, limited attention centers on how the successful exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities might depend on social interactions within the firm. Because social exchanges are instrumental for the firm's ability to combine knowledge across different functional areas, they can interfere in the successful enactment of the firm's entrepreneurial posture.Drawing from prior work on social exchange relationships, we consider three characteristics that collectively represent an organization's internal social context and that affect the extent and quality of internal knowledge exchange and thus the strength of the EO-performance relationship: (1) procedural justice in cross-functional relationships, (2) trust between functional managers, and (3) managers' commitment to the organization and its goals. Examining a sample of 232 Canadian-based firms representing a broad range of industries, we find that the overall positive relationship between EO and performance becomes nuanced once we account for social exchange processes. In particular, the relationship is positive only at high levels of procedural justice, trust, and organizational commitment; it is further amplified to the extent that the organization's social context approaches an "ideal" configuration of procedural justice, trust, and organizational commitment.This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature by drawing attention to and providing a theoretical elaboration of how the internal social context affects the EO-performance relationship. Specifically, internal social exchanges influence the firm's

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This study considers the relationship between people's access to resources and their likelihood to start a new business, and particularly how this relationship might be moderated by formal and informal institutions. Individual–level resources might be more potent for new business creation in countries with financial and educational systems that are more oriented toward entrepreneurship, higher levels of trust, and cultures that are less hierarchical and conservative. The hypotheses are tested by undertaking random–effects multilevel analyses of a multi–source data set that spans a 5–year time period (2003–2007). The study's findings offer important implications for research and practice.

We argue that entrepreneurship research would benefit from a practice perspective, and drawing from Bourdieu's work, we envision entrepreneurship as a profoundly socially embedded process connected to entrepreneurs' positions in structures of power relations. In taking an initial step in the development of a practice perspective of entrepreneurship, we focus on one domain of entrepreneurial action, that is, the gaining of legitimacy by newcomers entering a field, which we conceive as the enactment of entrepreneurial habitus. We question the assumption that a newcomer entering a field automatically is deemed an entrepreneur and instead argue that he or she must be 'legitimized' as an entrepreneur by enacting taken-for-granted yet conflicting expectations about 'fitting in' with field rules and 'standing out' as a rule breaker. We discuss how newcomers' cultural and symbolic capital shape their ability to attain legitimacy and, in turn, how the interplay between newcomers' legitimacy and success influences the extent to which the structure of fields becomes reinforced or transformed.

This paper argues that individuals differ in terms of their perception of opportunities because of the differences between the networks they are embedded in. We focus on two aspects of individuals’ embeddedness in networks, that is, (1) individuals’ belonging to residential areas that are more or less likely to be characterized by network cohesion, and (2) individuals’ differential access to network contacts based on the level of human capital they hold. Our analyses show that the nature of one’s residential area influences the perception of entrepreneurial opportunities. Further, we find a positive effect for education, i.e., people with a higher educational level are more likely to perceive entrepreneurial opportunities compared to those with a lower educational level. Copyright Springer 2005entrepreneurship, networks, opportunity recognition,

This study considers the mediating role of internal knowledge sharing in the relationship between two critical aspects of organizational social capital (trust and goal congruence) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO), as well as how this role might be moderated by the firm's level of formalization. It shows that higher levels of internal knowledge sharing relate to stronger EO, and such knowledge sharing in turn results from higher levels of trust and goal congruence. This study further provides a nuanced picture of the role of formalization in this process. The authors discuss both the study's implications and future research directions.