Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Publication
    The Demise of a Rising Social Enterprise for Persons With Disabilities: The Ethics and the Uncertainty of Pure Effectual Logic When Scaling Up
    How does a social enterprise pursue its ethical mandate of social impact growth while navigating the perils of the most vulnerable stage in a venture’s life—scaling up? We observe a small inclusivity social enterprise attempting to scale up rapidly to create equality for people with disabilities throughout the world. Our embedded, ethnographic study is terminated with the venture’s unfortunate demise after their dramatic effort to scale up failed. By examining scaling decision-making and conflicts around creation reasoning longitudinally, our study identifies over-use of effectual logic—a creation reasoning type considered more ethical and more appropriate for high-innovativeness contexts than causal logic—as a major factor in the venture’s failure. From this insight, we extend the parameters of effectuation theory to scaling up and dimensionalize its ethical implications. Guidance for social entrepreneurs to scale up successfully while maintaining ethical integrity is also provided.
    Scopus© Citations 1  17
  • Publication
    Examining the Formation of Human Capital in Entrepreneurship : A Meta-Analysis of Entrepreneurship Education Outcomes
    Effective human capital formation through the medium of entrepreneurship education and training (EET) is of increasing concern for governments, as EET is growing rapidly across the world. Unfortunately, there is a lack of consistent evidence showing that EET helps to create more or better entrepreneurs. We undertake the first quantitative review of the literature and, in the context of human capital theory, find that there is indeed support for the value of EET. Based on 42 independent samples (N = 16,657), we find a significant relationship between EET and entrepreneurship-related human capital assets (rw = .217) and entrepreneurship outcomes (rw = .159). The relationship between EET and entrepreneurship outcomes is stronger for academic-focused EET interventions (rw = .238) than for training-focused EET interventions (rw = .151). We find evidence of heterogeneity in many of our correlations, and recommend that future studies examine potential moderators to more clearly delineate EET effect sizes. We also find a number of methodological weaknesses among the studies analyzed and that those studies with lower methodological rigor are overstating the effect of EET. Recommendations to improve the quality of future work in the field are provided.
    Scopus© Citations 874  11326
  • Publication
    Determining the Importance of Self-Evaluation on the Goal-Performance Effect in Goal Setting: Primary Findings
    (Canadian Psychological Association, 2015-04) ; ;
    Although goal-setting theory is among the most studied theories in organizational behavior and work motivation, the underlying motivations that drive the goal-performance effect have received less attention. The authors examined the role of self-evaluation in generating the goal-performance effect via blind testing in a laboratory experiment, in which participants (N = 405) performed an idea generation task under conditions eliminating the potential for external-evaluation. Designed to replicate and extend the work of Harkins, White, and Utman (2000), the results indicate that self-evaluation plays a role in generating the goal-performance effect, and that the pursuit of self-knowledge as well as self-validation plays a role in motivating self-evaluation. These findings support hypotheses that are consistent with goal setting theory and social comparison theory, and are contrary to Harkins et al. (2000). Implications for theory boundaries and work motivation are discussed.
    Scopus© Citations 7  1656
  • Publication
    Toward rigour & parsimony: a primary validation of Kolvereid's (1996) entrepreneurial attitudes scales
    (Taylor and Francis, 2016-05-18) ; ; ;
    Questioning the validity of scholarly work is not a typical path to publication in the management field. However, although considerable scholarship assesses entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions models of behaviour, methodological weaknesses in scale development have hampered scholars' ability to rigorously interpret and build upon their research findings. We review 20 years of research and discover that the pioneer measure of entrepreneurial attitudes as a predictor of self-employment intentions, has yet to be empirically validated. We show that construct and measurement differences, one-off modifications to existing scales and a lack of adequate justification may partially explain why studies in the entrepreneurship education domain have produced inconsistent results. We address this limitation by performing factor analytic techniques on data from two sets of English-speaking university students from two North American countries. The result is a more parsimonious and streamlined 'mini-Kolvereid' scale. We further demonstrate that this scale is an effective predictor of entrepreneurial intentions.
    Scopus© Citations 22  117
  • Publication
    The roles of learning orientation and passion for work in the formation of entrepreneurial intention
    (SAGE Publications, 2013-09) ; ;
    In order to extend understanding of the drivers that underlie entrepreneurial intention formation, this article investigates the hitherto underexplored roles of people’s learning orientation and passion for work. It considers how these personal characteristics may moderate the instrumentality of their perceived ability to become a successful entrepreneur, and perceptions of the attractiveness of becoming an entrepreneur. Using a survey of 946 university students, it finds that learning orientation and passion for work invigorate the role of these feasibility and desirability considerations in enhancing entrepreneurial intention. A follow-up analysis reveals that the moderating effects of learning orientation and passion for work on the perceived attractiveness–entrepreneurial intention relationship are stronger to the extent that people value the intrinsic goal of autonomy in their future career more, but these moderating effects are immune to the importance of the extrinsic goal of earning financial rewards. Several implications for research and practice emerge.
      3424Scopus© Citations 142