Growth Aspirations and Cultural Support for Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Post-Socialist Countries

Abstract

Based on GEM data this paper explores whether significantly different growth aspirations of early stage entrepreneurs in Slovenia, compared to those in Hungary and Croatia, are also accompanied by significantly different opportunity recognition, cultural support for entrepreneurship and self-efficacy. Our results suggest that a higher degree of alertness to unexploited perceived opportunities, and cultural support for entrepreneurial motivation may be the cause of higher growth aspirations of Slovenian early stage entrepreneurs, while self-efficacy with regard to entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and experience was not found to be crucial. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007Early stage entrepreneurship, Growth aspirations, M13, D01, J24, L26,

The Effect of Cultural Factors on Social Entrepreneurship: The Impact of the Economic Downturn in Spain

“…According to our results, during the crisis the influence of perceived opportunities on social entrepreneurship increased 37 % compared with the period before the crisis. Similar to previous results (Lehner & Kaniskas, 2012;Roy et al, 2014;Tominc & Rebernik, 2007), perceived opportunities are found to be related to entrepreneurial intentions and are a key driver in the decision to start a new business.…”

“…Accordingly, patterns can be negative (not-feasible opportunity) or positive (suggesting that this opportunity can be a business opportunity). Hence, it is important to note that these perceived opportunities are related to entrepreneurial intentions (Reed, Storrud-Barnes, & Jessup, 2012), and are vital in the decision to start a new entrepreneurial project, especially during economic downturns (Tominc & Rebernik, 2007). Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:…”

Entrepreneurial Self–Efficacy: Refining the Measure

“…At the extreme, several scholars claim to have measured ESE by simply asking subjects to respond to one or two questions regarding their confidence in starting a new venture. As an illustration, in a recent study by Tominc and Rebernik (2007), respondents were asked to provide a yes or no response to the question, "Do you have the knowledge, skills, and experience required to start a new business? "…”

Entrepreneurial Growth Ambitions: The Case of Finnish Technology Startups

“…One of the challenges related to this research is that the issue is discussed with many names. For example, growth ambitions (Gundry & Welsch, 2001), growth willingness (Davidsson, 1989), intended growth and growth intentions (Cassar, 2006), growth preferences (Cassar, 2007), attitude toward growth (Cliff, 1998;Wiklund, Davidsson, & Delmar, 2003), and growth aspirations (Kolvereid, 1992;Tominc & Rebernik, 2007) are all terms that are used in studies that generally aim to understand why and how entrepreneurs seek (or do not seek) high growth. Although these concepts have varying meanings for growth, many of those regard growth as increase in employment.…”