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Academic engagement with small business and entrepreneurship was facilitated by the availability of European Union (EU) funding, which also stimulated the emergence of a small business and entrepreneurship (SBE) ‘community of practice’. Gradually, the SBE community developed into a ‘landscape of practice’ as small business research moved towards maturity. Furthermore, the SBE landscape of practice has coalesced around three core concepts: entrepreneurial learning, social networks and social capital. EU funding was the catalyst for many SBE academics in the UK to engage with practitioners involved with starting and managing their own businesses. The UK’s exit from the EU will inevitably mean that universities will no longer have access to EU Structural Funds. This has major implications for the UK SBE community’s engagement with practice as well as for entrepreneurs and business owners who have benefitted from a range of programmes designed to improve the performance of smaller firms.

PurposeThis article examines the influence of Daoist nothingness on leadership in growing Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Daoism is based on a “letting-go” approach through maintaining inherent openness, which challenges goal-oriented and hierarchical approaches typical of Western and Confucian leadership theories. This facilitates the cross-fertilization of ideas related to the effective management of smaller firms.Design/methodology/approachThis study focuses on SME leaders in a group of 12 growing SMEs in the Shanghai logistics industry in China. Narrative and semi-structured interviews explored emerging aspects beyond the established model of leadership associated with reputation-building. This led to in-depth, thick descriptions, broadening our understanding of leadership and reputation-building.FindingsSME leaders follow nothingness by continuously adopting a letting-go approach which spontaneously fosters reputation-building. By maintaining inherent openness, nothingness functions as an enabling principle that mobilizes multi-beings leading to reputation-building in unintended ways.Research limitations/implicationsA greater plurality of empirical and methodological contexts in Western and non-Western countries helps to understand the dynamics and intersection of Daoist nothingness, leadership and reputation-building.Practical implicationsSME leaders recounted how they discursively practised nothingness for extended periods in their everyday practice. The study shows the significance of nothingness for SME leaders who aspire to grow their businesses by reputation-building among salient stakeholders.Social implicationsDaoist nothingness provides insights into the distinctive approach of Chinese SME leaders and their relationships with local and distant stakeholders. By engaging in active non-action they relax pre-determined intentions and immerse themselves in the process of leading, where the connections between goals and processes are automatically animated. Such an approach differs from the top-down and goal-oriented approach to leadership adopted in many Western SMEs.Originality/valueThis paper makes two theoretical contributions. First, it indicates the powerful influence of Daoist nothingness on leadership by drawing on the broader context of entrepreneurship in Chinese SMEs. Secondly, it enriches existing concepts such as reputation by endowment and reputation borrowing by demonstrating how Daoist nothingness silently fosters both local reputation and generalized reputation.

There is limited research linking entrepreneurial learning and business models in start-up businesses. Business models are important cognitive devices that link entrepreneurial thinking and engagement with customers and suppliers during business start-up. This research examines business model evolution during the first 6 years of a family-based start-up, which was formed in 2008 by 2 young brothers. The business grew quickly and achieved a turnover of £4.5 million with 15 staff members by 2014. The case study contributes a better understanding of ways in which team-based learning in a family business links experiential and cognitive learning during business model evolution.

The options for conventional graduate careers have become more limited in the last 20 years. This has stimulated an increase in university programmes and modules designed to encourage students to start their own businesses. The recent global Covid-19 pandemic is likely to make the job market even more difficult for those graduating from universities in the next few years. A career as an entrepreneur is a realistic alternative to employment in the ‘gig’ economy for many young graduates. University-based incubators can provide a sheltered learning environment for those wishing to develop business ideas without incurring a large financial burden. In this paper, the authors draw on a range of literature (business incubation, entrepreneurial learning, human capital and communities of practice) to develop a model of a university-based incubator that will support young people in their transition to becoming real entrepreneurs.

The review of literature covering business incubation, with a focus on university-based incubators (UBI) presented in Chap. 2 points to an important knowledge gap; namely, how the incubation process works in practice from the perspective of incubatees. Improving understanding of the entrepreneurial process within BIs is fundamental to advancing theoretical and practical knowledge. Therefore, as a first step in exploring the interaction between the incubation process and entrepreneurs, this chapter presents an overview of the literature in the field of entrepreneurship and opportunity identification. We pay particular attention to the important issue of how an individual’s prior knowledge shapes their approach to new opportunities, whether discovered or created. Renewed interest in the interaction of entrepreneur and opportunity identification was stimulated by a number of key publications early in the twenty-first century (Shane 2000; Shane and Venkataraman 2000). Others suggest that rather than ‘identifying’ new opportunities, entrepreneurs create opportunities based on their existing knowledge and experience (Gartner et al. 1992; Sanz-Velasco 2006; Sarasvathy 2001).

The six pathways presented in Chap. 5 highlight a number of different ways that ideas evolved during the incubation process (Fig. 5.7). In this chapter, we explore the development of ideas using the concepts of prior knowledge and opportunity identification. The ability to discover and develop business opportunities is considered to be among the most important abilities of successful entrepreneurs (Politis 2005). A number of scholars have pointed out that experienced entrepreneurs have valuable prior knowledge about contacts, markets, products and resources that improve their ability to identify and develop entrepreneurial opportunities (Shepherd et al. 2000; Ronstadt 1988). Politis (2005) expands on this to suggest that it is the total stock of prior information and knowledge that influences an individual’s ability to recognise opportunities. This could be prior knowledge of business start-up, industry-specific knowledge gained as an employee or customer, or management experience where leadership, communication or problem-solving skills have been acquired (Shane 2003). The interaction between different types of prior knowledge and opportunity identification has the potential to provide greater insight into the way businesses developed during incubatees’ time in INNOSPACE. Moreover, it represents an important point of departure for investigating knowledge that is newly acquired during the incubation process.

According to Hackett and Dilts (2004), the first business incubator was established in the Batavia Industrial Centre (New York) in 1959. Initially, growth was slow and the USA had only a few dozen incubators by the 1980s; after which, there was a fairly rapid expansion with over 1000 by 2006 and 1250 by 2012 (Harper-Anderson and Lewis 2018). A recent report for NESTA indicated that in the UK there are currently 205 incubators and over 160 business accelerators (Bone et al. 2019). Interest in linkages between business incubators and universities was stimulated by Etzkowitz’s (2003) concept of the ‘entrepreneurial university’. Growth in the number of incubators also coincided with various UK policy initiatives designed to promote the role of the third mission, which encouraged universities to establish closer links with business (Clark 1998; DTI 1998, 2000; Lambert 2003). Science parks pre-dated the emergence of business incubators in the UK although there is little consensus on their effectiveness.

This chapter explores the incubation experience and process from the perspective of incubatees by presenting a series of narratives. This is our response to calls for in-depth, qualitative studies in the incubation process (Todorovic and Moenter 2010; Hackett and Dilts 2004, 2008; McAdam and McAdam 2006; Voisey et al. 2006) and provides a contextual understanding of pathways through INNOSPACE. The 20 interviews with frequent users capture rich data about the incubation process. To bring these narratives to life and explore the incubation experience in detail, a two-step analysis was carried out. The aim of the first step was to identify key stages and activities during the incubation period. Key activities at the pre-, during and post-INNOSPACE stages are summarised in Appendix E, using the individual incubatee as the unit of analysis. The second stage of the analysis uses ‘activities’ as the unit of analysis. Figure 5.7 draws on data from all 20 incubatee interviews to identify individual pathways through INNOSPACE by comparing activities and patterns between cases. Flowcharts are used to illustrate key activities and stages during the INNOSPACE process.

In Chap. 5, we explored the process of business incubation that took place in INNOSPACE. After examining the pathways of all 20 participants, 6 individuals were selected to demonstrate their incubation experience and to examine the associated activities. To gain a more in-depth understanding of the entrepreneurial process we focused on the core of this process; opportunity identification and development. In Chap. 6, we specifically examined the relationship between prior knowledge and opportunity identification. In this chapter, we extend that analysis by exploring the opportunity development process through a learning lens. Outcomes from the two previous chapters suggest that INNOSPACE played a key role in developing entrepreneurship by providing a physical facility, mentoring and business advice as well as creating social spaces to nurture those intangible resources crucial to the entrepreneurial process. We take the experiential learning framework (Chap. 3) to explore opportunity development within INNOSPACE.

In this chapter, we draw together findings, based on data from twenty incubatees to discuss the contribution to knowledge. We also discuss the implications of the research for those running or managing business incubators, prospective and existing incubatees, as well as policymakers. The overall aim of the research was to explore the role of business incubators in developing a learning community of practice for new entrepreneurs. After mapping the process of starting a business in INNOSPACE, we used six selected cases to demonstrate the varying pathways through the business incubation process. Chapter 5 unravels the experiences of starting up a business in a UBI environment. Chapter 6 mainly focuses on the impact of prior knowledge on opportunity identification. Chapter 7 explores the interaction between opportunity development and entrepreneurial learning during incubatees’ INNOSPACE tenancy.

This study addresses a research gap by focusing on incubatees located in a UK university-based incubator. INNOSPACE provided the case study for this book and falls between a non-profit incubator and an academic incubator on the continuum developed by Allen and McCluskey (1990). The overall aim was to help university students and graduates start new businesses with a view to creating jobs and enhancing the local economy. The set-up funding for INNOSPACE was provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Manchester Metropolitan University Business School (MMUBS), and the Centre for Enterprise (CfE). A large office space provided by MMUBS was under-utilised before INNOSPACE was established. During the first operational year, management charged incubatees a rent well below market price. Before the ERDF funding was due to run out, the management team was thinking of ways of sustaining INNOSPACE financially. After funding the first year, the University agreed to continue to provide the office facilities but insisted that the management team had to be supported through rental income. Consequently, a tiered rent system was introduced depending on the facilities incubatees wanted (or could afford) to access. The rental packages ranged from postal address only with no other administrative support, hot-desking, a dedicated desk, and a dedicated office on a different floor (rent depending on size of office). Because of the benefits provided to incubatees and the increasing number of tenants, it was possible to increase the overall rent substantially and the incubator became partially financially self-sustaining financially and independent of MMUBS and the CfE. INNOSPACE fits with Todorovic and Moenter’s (2010: 28) definition of a university incubator:INNOSPACE regularly had student visitors from MMUBS and other University departments who had studied or were studying subjects related to entrepreneurship or small firms. Some incubatees offered work experience to students. For example, Jamie Bettles (Sect. 10.6) saw the on-campus location as a platform for collaboration and recruitment (including opportunities for placements, internships, student-led consultancy projects, and part-time and full-time employment). In a sense, the incubator complemented existing educational programmes. The University and the CfE promoted INNOSPACE to students and encouraged them to turn their ideas into real businesses. Hence, MMU students had the opportunity to test out their ideas before or after graduation. When setting up and running INNOSPACE, academics and managers from various MMU Faculties, who were interested in supporting entrepreneurship, were invited to join the Steering Group, which we discuss in more detail below. In addition, most of the business advisors were associated with business support organisations such as Blue Orchid and Winning Pitch, which exposed incubatees to mentors with long experience of supporting new businesses.

In the early years of the twenty-first century, a number of UK reports stressed the importance of universities making a bigger contribution to economic development and growth (DfES 2003; DTI 1998, 2000; Lambert 2003). Incorporation of the ‘third mission’ (Clark 1998; Lambert 2003; Van Vught 1999), which encouraged universities to become integral to regional economic development, formalised a process that was widely adopted in the USA (Etzkowitz 1998; Henry 1998). In addition, changes to UK government funding regimes promoted ‘the third mission’ to the top of the agenda for Vice-Chancellors (Woollard et al. 2007). For example, involvement with the New Entrepreneur Scholarship (NES) enabled a number of universities to develop innovative programmes designed to support individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds start their own businesses (Jayawarna et al. 2011). More recently, Paolini et al. (2019: 197) stressed the importance of ‘relational capital’ as the means by which universities ‘promote and emphasise the effectiveness of the third mission’.

© 2018 British Academy of Management Resource constraints are a challenge for social enterprises, prompting interest in innovative approaches to address these deficiencies. In this study, we contribute to the literature on resourcing practices in small, early stage, social enterprises by examining the role of socially oriented bootstrapping for resource access. We use data from eight UK social enterprises to reveal organizational practices – building credibility, leveraging persuasion and creating resource communities – that shape a diverse set of bootstrapping mechanisms to facilitate exchange relationships and to enable resource acquisition and mobilization. We argue that the unique position of social enterprises allows them to benefit from socially orientated bootstrapping and they display a complex approach that is shaped by a creative interplay of practices to support value creation through resource exchange.

Teamwork has become increasingly prevalent both in undertaking research projects and in preparing papers for publication. While there are some reflections on the process of teamworking in the organisational studies literature, there is little published work in the area of entrepreneurship. Most existing studies distinguish between problems associated with task-based conflict and relationship-based conflict. In this chapter, the author provides an ethnographic account of a team involved with preparing a proposal and, subsequently, undertaking a small firm research project. The Evolution of Business Knowledge (EBK) was a major Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) initiative which funded 13 distinct projects. During the nine-month period of preparing and refining the research proposal, the team worked together extremely effectively. There were periods of intense knowledge sharing, which enabled the team to develop an impressive and successful bid to study the ‘EBK in 90 small firms’. A major dispute between team members, during the early stages of the fieldwork, led to a period of both task-based and relationship-based conflicts, which threatened to undermine the project. As a result of my first-hand experiences with the EBK project, the author suggests that accounts such as this will help those who find themselves operating in dysfunctional teams make sense of the underlying tensions associated with ‘academic knowledge creation’.

In this paper we examine the microprocesses associated with a successful business established by two young brothers (16 and 18). The study is informed by recent processual approaches to entrepreneurship associated with effectuation theory and sensemaking. We also draw on literature related to personal dispositions, which are the basis of habitual behaviours. The empirical data are drawn from a longitudinal study of an unconventional family business which was created by the two brothers while still at school. Opportunities were created, rather than discovered, by optimizing limited familial resources during the early stages of start-up. We expand effectuation theory by demonstrating the role of sensemaking (enactment, selection and retention), familial influences on dispositions (habits, heuristics and routines) and experiential learning during the first three years of operation.

In this editorial, the co-editors-in-chief undertake a number of tasks related to International Journal of Management Reviews (IJMR). They begin by reviewing the objectives set out by Macpherson and Jones in their 2010 editorial (IJMR, 12, pp. 107–113). The benefits of publishing in IJMR for scholars at various stages of their careers are then discussed. The section outlining the progress of IJMR over the last four years sets out the main reasons why so many papers are desk rejected by the co-editors. The main criteria for writing an analytical literature review of the type that the editors aspire to publish in the Journal are then discussed. The objectives are not simply to reduce the number of desk rejects, but also to encourage authors to be more ambitious and innovative in their approaches to reviews of the literature.

Empirical evidence for links between human capital and entrepreneurship potential is equivocal despite a wide range of studies. This research draws on prospective longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) to offer new theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence on the human capital predictors that drive entrepreneurship. The results suggest that start-up is more likely for those who demonstrate higher levels of analytical and creative abilities in childhood, benefit from a supportive family background, invest in their human capital through diverse and longer work experience and have accrued a solid basic education, albeit not strongly credentialed. This article contributes to a better understanding of human capital acquisition during the unfolding entrepreneurial life-course. Mediators and moderators of the relationship between education, human capital and entrepreneurship are also identified by accentuating the importance of family processes. In doing so, this study bridges the human capital and cultural capital literatures that have tended to evolve on separate tracks.

The broad context for our study is set by discussions of equality of opportunity to start-up business finance. There is an increasing literature which suggests that female entrepreneurs face significant disadvantages compared to their male counterparts in their access to resources from orthodox channels such as banks. The consequence of undercapitalization during the start-up phase is underperformance during the life of the business. Adopting a range of informal ‘bootstrapping’ techniques gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to obtain alternative financial resources without resorting to debt or equity funding. In this article, we draw on a unique sample of 211 nascent entrepreneurs in the early stages of business start-up, contacted through a postal and web-based two-wave longitudinal survey, to examine gender differences with regards to different forms of bootstrapping behaviour. The study demonstrates significant differences in the ways that male and female entrepreneurs access informal financial resources. We discuss explanations drawn from women's studies suggesting that the features of capital markets and business and personal characteristics that limit female business owners from accessing sources of orthodox finance also impede their access to the most effective forms of bootstrapping. We suggest that further explanatory and qualitative research is required to investigate these effects.

A new educational approach to sustainable development is emerging in the entrepreneurship literature. However, because business schools encourage a ‘profit-first mentality’, critics question their ability to deliver sustainability-related education programmes. This article adapts the theory of planned behaviour to examine attitudes to an entrepreneurial form of sustainability education. The relationship between nascent entrepreneurs’ intentions to exploit learning and the extent of a profit-first mentality is examined. The study utilises data from 257 nascent entrepreneurs participating in a business start-up programme. Structural equation modelling is used to test a series of hypotheses which examine links between sustainability education and nascent entrepreneurs’ attitudes. The results indicate a strong relationship between perception of learning benefits and intentions of nascent entrepreneurs to exploit those benefits. Although a profit-first mentality is negatively related to perceptions of benefit, learning itself is not affected. The results have implications for research, policy and the practice of entrepreneurship education.

Over 7 years, the UK-Government funded an entrepreneurship scholarship scheme in the most deprived regions of England. This study examines how, for 211 of these nascent entrepreneurs, bootstrapping compensated for their inability to obtain debt or equity funding. Results show that social capital (strong, weak and brokerage ties) is important for access to bootstrapped resources. While human capital, including previous business experience and financial skills, are linked to joint-utilisation approaches to bootstrapping, higher financial investment is linked to owner- and payment-related approaches. A key outcome for developing appropriate regional policy is that ‘brokers’ provide a link between socially disadvantaged entrepreneurs and external resources.

Recent research has suggested that the effectiveness of university technology transfer activity could potentially be determined by strategic choices made by University senior management teams. Exis...

It is commonly reported that new businesses have difficulty in accessing finance. Such businesses can engage in ‘bootstrapping’ activities as a way of compensating for the lack of finance and other resources. This paper extends prior research on start-up finance by investigating how social networks can help new ventures to acquire bootstrapped resources and how these resources influence business performance. Based on theoretical considerations, the paper proposes a framework linking social networks and bootstrapping activities to the performance of firms during the early stages of operation. The model is tested using structural equation modelling. Results obtained from the longitudinal study based on a sample of 211 entrepreneurs indicate that social networks play a key role in the acquisition of bootstrapped resources. The study differentiates between the roles of strong ties, weak ties and brokerage in accessing three different types of bootstrapped resources: payment related, owner related and joint ut...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw on emerging ideas related to the concept of entrepreneurial leadership which emphasises a “distributed” model synonymous with terms which indicate that authority is decentralised (“shared”, “team”, “democratic”, “representative” and “dispersed”).Design/methodology/approachA model of authentic entrepreneurial leadership was developed based on a review of the literature. Eight small manufacturing companies were selected to empirically examine, via interviews, the extent to which authentic entrepreneurial leadership was adopted by owner‐managers.FindingsInterviews with owner‐managers indicated that they did in fact rely on an approach to leadership which emphasised the role of employees as genuine stakeholders in the business. This finding can be related to the concept of what Dovey and Fenech, describe as “enterprise logic” which the authors link to the emergence of knowledge‐based capitalism. Owner‐managers were keen to involve their employees in development of the businesses through the development of new products and new services.Practical implicationsThis study confirms earlier work which points out the importance of entrepreneurs adopting an authentic approach to leadership. Authentic leadership means that employees are encouraged to develop their individual strengths and owner‐managers adopt an ethical approach to their dealings with all stakeholders.Originality/valueThe paper develops a model of entrepreneurial leadership which sets out the links to organizational innovation. The empirical study provides clear evidence of links between this approach to management and higher levels of innovation within small firms.

Knowledge transformation between practice-based communities is reported through a 2-year longitudinal case study. The company, PresMed, was transformed from a moribund and divided organization to one where different practice-based communities engaged in collective learning. However, the transformation involved conflict, politics and power to overcome the influence of localized and embedded knowledge. The nature of practice-based learning means investment in past activities and different organizational communities create tensions. It is suggested that mediating artefacts, or boundary objects, provide an opportunity to develop new shared conceptions of activity and new modes of action. However, at the heart of this transformation, communication, politics and power are central to pragmatic engagement in new practices. Thus, it is the social activities and the political will and skill to influence, cajole and institutionalize systemic changes and not the artefacts or objects per se that are at the heart of knowledge transformation.

PurposeThe paper seeks to draw on the work of Engeström to set out an activity theory framework for the analysis of entrepreneurs engaged in the creation of new business ventures (NBVs). Adopting an activity‐based approach involves analysing the actions of individual and groups that are mediated through a range of devices, including language and physical artefacts.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical data are based on a small sample of “scholars” taking part in a UK government‐sponsored initiative to promote enterprise: the New Entrepreneur Scholarship (NES). The data were collected by means of semi‐structured interviews with the entrepreneurs. NVivo software was then used to systemise the data according to the six dimensions of the activity theory triangle.FindingsThe cases illustrate the contradictions and tensions that confront nascent entrepreneurs as they consider the horizon of possibilities associated with their business idea. The paper demonstrates that the new business actually emerges from a contested set of relationships within which the entrepreneur plays a critical, creative, but far from solitary, role.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of activity theory helps provide a better understanding of how entrepreneurs engaged in relatively mundane business start‐ups actually identify and develop “new” opportunities. This is in contrast to many studies of entrepreneurial activity which focus on “high‐tech” or fast‐growing firms.Originality/valueThis is an exploratory study which utilises the activity theory framework to understand the difficulties and rewards for individuals with limited human and social capital to create successful new firms.