Entrepreneur: do social capital and culture matter?

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of the individual perceptions of social capital and culture in entrepreneurial aspirations before and after the economic crisis in Western Europe. Following the approach of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), we advance the analysis of the effect of the perception of subjective norms in the entrepreneurial intentions. We studied the Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) of twelve countries in 2006 and 2010. The results reveal that the perception of having social networks is significant for the TEA, and it increases after the economic crisis. However, the cultural factors do not have a significant impact, except the one related with the perception of social equality. The results obtained through the double perspective of this analysis (individual´s social capital vs cultural factor of individualistic perspective) offers a certain dilemma when we try to understand the entrepreneurial intention through the individual´s perception of subjective norms, following the Ajzen´s model. The more individualist is a person, the lower the weight of its social capital. However, the more a person has access to social networks, the greater his entrepreneurial intention will be. This result opens future lines of research focused on understanding the value of the individual´s social capital for different countries and groups of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurial intention among online and face-to-face university students: The influence of structural and cognitive social capital dimensions

“…Others talk about how the structural and cognitive dimensions of social capital have different effects on the EI of women and men (Rodríguez and Santos 2009). Yet others like Neira et al (2017) state that the knowledge of other entrepreneurs (social networks as a measure of individual social capital) is positively and significantly related to higher EI.…”

Regional Cultural Context as a Determinant of Entrepreneurial Behaviour: The Case of Germany

“…In low UAI societies people are more ready to exploit opportunities even if information is limited (Dubina & Ramos, 2016). In societies with a higher level of UAI there is less motivation for entrepreneurship (Neira, Fernández, Portela, & Calvo, 2016). The empirical evidence regarding UAI and entrepreneurship, however, is mixed again (Hofstede et al, 2004; Kara, 2014; Stephan & Pathak, 2016).…”

Caracterización del emprendimiento agrario en España y análisis de su ecosistema. Identificación de retos y oportunidades

“…No obstante, el hecho de conocer personalmente a un emprendedor está positiva y significativamente relacionado con la probabilidad de emprender en un nuevo negocio. En estos contactos se accede a recursos como conocimientos y habilidades tecnológicas, acceso a otras personas del sector empresarial, así como apoyo emocional (Afandi, Kermani, & Mammadov, 2017;Minniti & Arenius, 2003;Neira, Calvo, Fernández, & Portela, 2017;Ramos, Medina, & Ruiz, 2012).…”

“…Por ello, tradicionalmente los emprendedores agrarios tienen menor tolerancia al riesgo y prefieren trabajar en entornos de baja incertidumbre (Naldi, Nordqvist, Sjöberg, & Wiklund, 2007). No obstante, no ha podido probarse que una mayor tolerancia al riesgo tenga efectos significativos en el emprendimiento agrario (Arafat et al, 2018;Neira et al, 2017;Pindado & Sánchez, 2017).…”

“…La característica sobre la tolerancia al riesgo, aparece en el análisis descriptivo como mayor para los emprendedores agrarios frente a la población en general, pero menor que los emprendedores de otros sectores. Sin embargo, esta afirmación no se podría confirmar con la regresión logística, como tampoco se ha podido confirmar en investigaciones precedentes (Arafat et al, 2018;Neira et al, 2017;Pindado & Sánchez, 2017).…”