Introduction to the Special Issue: Entrepreneurship: Global Vision and Different Dimensions

Abstract

The first, sixth and eighth articles in this special issue on entrepreneurship discuss the importance of the social and economic context as conditioning factors of entrepreneurial activity. In the first article, the authors apply a binomial logistic regression to data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor to compare the self-employment intentions of immigrant entrepreneurs with non-immigrants. The second paper, “Evolution of the socio-economic profile of the entrepreneur in Galicia (Spain)”, presents the results of an analysis of data from the GEM’s Galicia reports, showing how the economic recession currently affecting Galicia has led to a significant drop in entrepreneurial activity. Finally, the eighth paper in this special issue deploys three logistic regression models, with start-up intent as the dependent variable, to examine how perceptions of the impact of the global economic downturn and local risks adversely affect perceived opportunities (Shane, S. 2012) (Shane, S., & Venkataraman, S. 2000). This strand of entrepreneurship analysis, corresponding to exploring the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and its conditioning factors, is one of the key fields that links this body of research with classical contingency theory (Donaldson, L. 2001).

The third and fourth articles investigate two classic topics from the entrepreneurship literature. In the third paper entitled, “Gender, personal traits, and entrepreneurial intentions”, the authors gathered self-report data via a questionnaire with several scales, and then applied MANOVA to this data, with results revealing gender differences in entrepreneurial intention. Although the variables field of education or entrepreneurial activity, and age explain differences in the variables better than gender, in the same sense as other studies on gender and entrepreneurship (Calás, M. B., Smircich, L. & Bourne, K. A. 2007). The fourth article, “Is informal sector entrepreneurship necessity- or opportunity-driven?”, sets out an analysis of a topic that is ever-present in the entrepreneurship literature, and that has grown in prominence since the start of the current recession: entrepreneurship as a consequence of the need for self-employment. The key finding of this study is that less than half of the surveyed entrepreneurs are driven out of necessity to embark on an entrepreneurial venture in the informal economy. The upshot of this finding is a call to recognize the prevalence of opportunity-drivers (Shane, S., & Venkataraman, S. 2000) amongst entrepreneurs operating in the informal economy.

The second article in this special issue is worthy of special mention due to its novel research approach, employing Bayes’ Theorem to analyze data from the GEM to show, “how and why innovative entrepreneurs are better at estimating the probabilities of success of newly recognized opportunities than the general public.”

Finally, the fifth, seventh and ninth articles in this special issue lie somewhere at the margin of research on entrepreneurship, thereby helping enrich and expand this body of literature. The seventh article, which consists of a study of the relationship between culture and management, contributes indirectly but significantly to the understanding of corporate entrepreneurship. The fifth paper examines the cycle service level in a continuous review policy, contributing to knowledge of the tools necessary for corporate entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. The ninth paper, and the furthest from the entrepreneurship literature, expands the field by exploring the mechanics of the decision-making process, as well as some of its effects, in relationships between shareholders and managers.