Advancing a Framework for Entrepreneurship Development in a Bioeconomy

This chapter frames bioeconomy as a pathway to sustainable development, and entrepreneurship as the bedrock of a bioeconomy. Its objective is threefold. First, the chapter enumerates the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in a bioeconomy. Second, the chapter identifies the key production determinants and transformative game changers in a bioeconomy that should be the focus of innovative entrepreneurial activities. Third, it presents a conceptual framework for entrepreneurship development in a bioeconomy. The chapter employs systematic literature review approach to achieve its objectives. In total, the chapter asserts that there are several entrepreneurial opportunities in a bioeconomy, spanning the production determinants, the development of transformative game changers, and in distinct innovations like substitute products, new (bio-based) products and new (bio-based) processes.

Social Entrepreneurship and Related Concepts

In the past few decades, a new way of responding to social and environmental problems has emerge: the social entrepreneurship. It is presented as a special type of venture, in which the creation of social value prevails over the maximization of profits. Thus, the main objective of these types of ventures is to serve the community and to search for a positive social change. In this chapter, in addition to presenting the concept of social entrepreneurship and its various approaches within the so-called third sector and the emergent fourth sector, the main sources of funding that can be used by social entrepreneurs are also presented, especially business angels and crowdfunding, are detailed. New paradigms such as the collaborative economy and the circular economy are also addressed within social economy, highlighting the relationship with social entrepreneurship and the path of opportunity to foster new ventures in these fields.

Financing Nascent Entrepreneurs by Reward-Based Crowdfunding

A problem faced by nascent entrepreneurs is to attract outside capital to finance a new venture. A new promising funding mechanism created outside the banking system is crowdfunding (CF). The reward-based model of CF allows nascent entrepreneurs to capture funds from a large group of small investors through a campaign on the Internet. In return for the contribution of the backers, crowdfundees provide rewards (tangible items or services) or other types of incentives. However, in order to be successful a campaign must be designed according to a strategy that encompasses important steps. This study collects data from projects posted in the Indiegogo platform to identify the critical factors of a successful reward-based campaign. The results indicate that it is possible to find an explanation for the different levels of success of reward CF campaigns based on the analysis of the characteristics of the project (depth of the description, updates, and type) and its founders (own presentation, number of backers, team involved, and previous experience).

Determinants of Nascent Entrepreneurship Development

The current international economic crisis, at the moment of writing, will affect global economy and will demand entrepreneurial attitude to seize business opportunities. Nascent entrepreneurship emerged as an important concept in the boundary between entrepreneurship and organizational contexts. Literature on nascent entrepreneurship has only gained attention recently, thus remaining diverse and limited, particularly concerning their interplay with contexts and varying entrepreneurial processes. This study reviews those themes on nascent entrepreneurship and it enhances the way contextual challenges are addressed by nascent entrepreneurs, through diverse entrepreneurial leaning and entrepreneurial capability.

Much More Than Meets the Eye

Nascent entrepreneurship plays an important role in the study of entrepreneurship. It has been studied from different angles, especially from the psychological and sociological perspective as nascent entrepreneurs have distinctive traits and competencies. Other important foci of research are the investigation of the environment in which nascent entrepreneurs operate, as well as the way both the identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities have emerged. The main objective of this chapter is to address (1) the main individual characteristics that entrepreneurs have in common; (2) the environmental factors contributing to new venture creation; and (3) the steps in the creation process. The chapter departs from the fundamental process of nascent entrepreneurship, which is centered on opportunity recognition, evaluation, and exploitation, and is complemented by the way how contextual factors and personal characteristics and competencies influence the new venture creation process.

The Antecedents of Entrepreneurial Intention Among Nascent Entrepreneurs

Research confirms that entrepreneurial intention plays an important role in the decision to start a new firm. For this reason, it has received a lot of attention from researchers who have studied it from different perspectives, using different variables. The goal of this chapter is to investigate the reasons why some individuals tend more to entrepreneurship than others. By utilizing Schwartz's theory of cultural values as the explaining model, this paper analyzes cultural values in relation to three bipolar dimensions: conservation vs. autonomy, hierarchy vs. egalitarianism, and mastery vs. harmony. The authors applied the EOQ scale to a sample of 600 nascent entrepreneurs aged between 25 and 35, belonging to several autonomous communities in Spain. The results show significant differences in the variables of personal, contextual, and entrepreneurial intention regarding the gender, occupation, or professions of the parents and the autonomous community.

Is Entrepreneurship a Bio-Social Phenomenon?

The entrepreneur is regarded as a driver of economic development encouraging researchers to delve into the causes that lead some people to choose the entrepreneurial activity. The response has followed two approaches: biological and sociological. The former privileges non-cognitive skills while the sociological favors factors are associated with learning and contextual conditions. Thus, the question arises: Is behavior determined by non-cognitive skills or can it be 'shaped' throughout an individual's lifetime? Using an exploratory approach supported by a literature review and contacts with the Portuguese (context under analysis) educational system, the authors aim to understand which skills are critical, the way they are acquired and developed, and the role the educational system plays in their development, concluding that entrepreneurial activity implies cognitive and non-cognitive skills which the system must deliver provided the teachers' training in advance.

The Mutual Influence Between Legitimacy and Nascent Second-Generation Ethnic Entrepreneurship

This chapter investigates the interaction between legitimacy and nascent ethnic entrepreneurship in the country of residence. The study relies on institutional theory to demonstrate that host institutions and ethnic institutions play different roles in the early stages of second-generation ethnic entrepreneurship. The qualitative data in this study demonstrate that second-generation ethnic entrepreneurs are firmly embedded in the mainstream community and, therefore, earn proper legitimacy in various industries in the mainstream market. On the one hand, the prevailing connections between entrepreneurs and their ethnic communities provide second-generation ethnic entrepreneurship with the legitimacy to contribute to society. On the other hand, ethnic society legitimates the entrepreneurial activities of second-generation ethnic entrepreneurs because of these contributions. Moreover, the results of this study illustrate the reciprocal process in which institutions recognize the legitimacy of nascent second-generation ethnic entrepreneurship in different contexts.

Factors Influencing Nascent Entrepreneurship Across Countries

Nascent entrepreneurship is one phase of entrepreneurial activity that covers the first months in creating new ventures after the identification of business opportunities. On the other hand, the 4.0 revolution has created new opportunities but also disruption and polarization within and between economies and societies. Thus, this chapter reflects upon factors that influence nascent entrepreneurship across countries in an evolutionary approach, considering the previous findings and the influence of Fourth Industrial Revolution. The aim is to verify the conditions associated to nascent entrepreneurship using different perspectives of analysis. Correlation analysis is applied using various explanatory variables derived from different approaches. Clusters analysis is applied to verify how different countries are positioned in terms of nascent entrepreneurship. Scheffe's test of mean differences distinguishes the unique characteristics of each cluster and assesses the principal determinants of the nascent entrepreneurship capacity.

Entrepreneurship and Happiness

Subjective well-being and happiness have taken on increasing interest and relevance. Recently some governments and entities have been presenting, developing, and supporting happiness indexes. Regarding entrepreneurial activity, the presentation of global indexes has been developed for some more years until now. However, despite the existence of these two kinds of analysis, few studies have, so far, focused on comparing the evolution of the two sets of indicators, as well as on the hypothetical relationship between them, which prefigures a gap in the literature. In the present work, an exploratory analysis is performed on this theme, trying to establish the basis for identifying the existence of relationship between both types of indicators, using the comparison between two of the main open access databases, namely data from the World Happiness Report (WHR) and from the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI).