The moderating influence of national culture on female and male entrepreneurs’ social network size and new venture growth

Influence of national and regional level social capital on entrepreneurial activity

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence that national levels of social capital have on entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, we argue that national and regional level social capital positively influences the ability of entrepreneurs to mobilize and access important resources thereby positively impacting the rate of entrepreneurship within nations and regions.

Design/methodology/approach

We advance a multilevel and multidimensional conceptualization of social capital. Then based on a dataset of 68 nations and 665 within-nation regions, we empirically evaluate the effects of social capital at the national and regional level in explaining differences in entrepreneurial activity across nations and regions using a combination of regression analysis and multilevel hierarchical linear modeling (HLM).

Findings

Our findings emphasize the importance of formulating a multilevel conceptualization of social capital for entrepreneurship research. We discuss the results, provide implications for public policy and suggest avenues for future research.

Originality/value

The overwhelming majority of entrepreneurship research focused on investigating the implications of social capital reside at the individual level of analysis. Our unique inquiry is an inaugural effort to consider this important implications at the macro and meso-level of analysis by examining both regional and national-level effects.

Whether and how managers' negotiable fate belief and knowledge search affect enterprise innovation

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the mechanism and boundary condition of the effect of managers' negotiable fate belief (NFB) on enterprise incremental and radical innovation based on social cognition theory and social network theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used Mplus and SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) to test the proposed model with data from 278 enterprises that have established national or municipal enterprise technology centers. In this study, questionnaires were collected through commission and field investigation.

Findings

The results indicate that managers' NFB has a significant positive impact on local and cross-border knowledge search and on the incremental and radical innovation of enterprises. Knowledge search is positively correlated with enterprise innovation and can play a mediating role between the managers' NFB and enterprise innovation. Network capability can positively moderate the relationship between managers' NFB and cross-border knowledge search but has no significant impact on the relationship between managers' NFB and local knowledge search.

Originality/value

Although there have been many studies of managers' cognition, little is known about how managers' NFB influences enterprise behavior and enterprise innovation. This study incorporates managers' NFB and knowledge search into the research model and examines the moderating effect of network capability between managers' NFB and knowledge search from an interactive perspective. By verifying the research model, this study offers original views on whether and how managers' NFB and knowledge search affect enterprise innovation.

Entrepreneur-Region Fit and Entrepreneurial Success in China: The Effect of "Confucian" Personality

The personality of entrepreneurs is associated with their entrepreneurial success, and the regional personality plays a crucial role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Recently, scholars have called for an indigenous personality perspective and combining the personality of entrepreneurs with the regional personality. The current study aimed to investigate the indigenous Confucian personality (e.g., interpersonal relatedness [IR]) and taking an entrepreneur-regional personality fit perspective, allowing testing how entrepreneurs interact with the local ecosystem. Using the personality data of entrepreneurs (N = 1,386) from a representative sample across 42 major cities in China, we found that (1) city-level IR is curvilinearly correlated with the annual income of entrepreneurs, with moderate IR associates with the highest income; and (2) the entrepreneur-regional fit analysis further revealed substantial interplay between an entrepreneur and the city. Specifically, entrepreneurs who have moderate IR and run their business in the city also with moderate IR are most likely to have the highest income. This study highlights the usefulness of investigating indigenous personality and the fit perspective in entrepreneurship research.