New IE Articles
(from Online First, Oct 2013)
1. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (ETP):
International Entrepreneurship: Exploring the Logic and Utility of Individual Experience
through Comparative Reasoning Approaches
Marian V Jones, Lucrezia Casulli
In this paper, we suggest that individual experience and reasoning, as applied to new endeavors
in internationalization, are concepts with high potential to advance conceptual and empirical
research in international entrepreneurship (IE). Experience is known to be important in
internationalization, but the logic or reasoning with which it is applied is insufficiently
understood. Cognitive, comparison-based reasoning theories explain how individuals draw on
experience to make sense of uncertain, novel, and complex situations. Drawing on two such
theories, heuristics and analogical reasoning, we delineate the logic of experience and advance
speculative propositions on its utility in the context of internationalization research.
2. Journal of Business Venturing (JBV):
Entrepreneurial Orientation and International Scope: The Differential Roles of Innovativeness,
Proactiveness, and Risk-taking
Li Dai, Vladilav Maksimov, Brett Anitra Gilbert, Stephanie A. Fernhaber
This research integrates the international business and entrepreneurship literatures by
examining the independent influences of innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking on the
ability of a firm to broaden its scope across international markets. For each dimension of
entrepreneurial orientation, a cost–benefit framework is applied to highlight the trade-offs
associated with different levels in the internationalization context. Based on a unique dataset of
500 SMEs spanning 10 industries, the results reflect the consequences of being “stuck in the
middle” with respect to their strategic posture on innovativeness and proactiveness, but reveal
a nuanced role for risk-taking behavior. The non-uniform and non-linear relationships from the
findings contribute to a better understanding of when the individual dimensions of
entrepreneurial orientation help or hinder entrepreneurial firms in the internationalization
process.
3. International Journal of Management Reviews (IJMR):
The Concept of International Opportunity in International Entrepreneurship: A Review and a
Research Agenda
Tuija Mainela, Vesa Puhakka and Per Servais
Recent research in the field of international entrepreneurship (IE) has emphasized the concept
of international opportunity. The entrepreneurial behaviors focused on international
opportunities have been found to be critical in IE. International opportunities, however, are
often depicted in rather abstract and unspecified ways, and the research suffers from narrow
theoretical discussion in relation to the concept of opportunity. To address these issues, the
authors draw from entrepreneurship research and present alternative conceptualizations of
opportunities as a basis for more in-depth study of international opportunities in IE. To further
articulate a future research agenda, the authors review the state of knowledge on opportunities
in the IE field by content-analyzing articles published between 1989 and 2012. All the analyzed
articles incorporate the concept of opportunity into their studies. It is found that, although the
IE research has investigated many relevant elements, it is rather limited in the articulation of the
conceptual features of international opportunities and opportunity-focused behaviors. Building
on these observations, the authors propose a definition of international opportunity and
research questions and strategies to advance IE research on international opportunities.
4. Small Business Economics (SBE):
Institutional Dimensions and Entrepreneurial Activity: An International Study
David Urbano, Claudia Alvarez
The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of institutional dimensions (regulative,
normative and cultural-cognitive) on the probability of becoming an entrepreneur. The main
findings demonstrate, through logistic regression, that a favourable regulative dimension (fewer
procedures to start a business), normative dimension (higher media attention for new business)
and cultural-cognitive dimension (better entrepreneurial skills, less fear of business failure and
better knowing of entrepreneurs) increase the probability of being an entrepreneur. Data were
obtained from both the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the International Institute for
Management and Development for the year 2008, considering a sample of 30 countries and
36,525 individuals. The study advances the literature by providing new information on the
environmental factors that affect entrepreneurial activity in the light of institutional economics.
Also, the research could be useful for designing policies to foster entrepreneurship in different
environments.