Vincent Lefebvre

Episode 67 – Sibel Ozasir Kacar – A contextual analysis of entrepreneurial identity and experience: women entrepreneurs in Turkey

This study aims to understand the complex mechanisms of entrepreneurship in context and explores the entrepreneurial identities and experiences of women entrepreneurs in relation to opportunity structures in Turkey. Turkey’s position at the boundary of Western and Middle Eastern geographies and cultures presents a compelling context for the study of women’s entrepreneurship. Drawing on life-story…

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Episode 66 – Marieshka Barton – The magical language of un-realistic venture ideas in social entrepreneurship

As social entrepreneurship gains maturity, research has begun to explore the less alluring aspects of the field, including the heroic stance of social entrepreneurs, the assumed moral superiority of their intentions, and the misleading emphasis on solutionism. In this paper, we explore a central component of this criticism, which is the construction of un-realistic venture…

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Episode 65 – Simone Schmid – In danger of being left behind? – Media narratives of the digital transformation in the German Mittelstand

Has the Mittelstand lost its charisma? Based on a corpus of newspaper articles, we use a multi-dimensional approach combining content, framing, and metaphor analysis to expose how media report about the digital transformation in the German Mittelstand. In terms of contents, media focus on technical issues, narrowing down the scope of digital transformation. Articles with…

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Episode 64 – Alexandre Benzari – Techno-overload and well-being of French small business owners: identifying the flipside of digital technologies

Technostress is an important by-product of information and communication technologies (ICT). The technostress literature suggests focusing on specific dimensions of technostress, such as techno-overload, which describes when ICT usage demands to work faster and longer.

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Episode 63 – Josh Wei-Jun Hsueh – Strangers in my home: the 2015 refugee event in Europe and founder social identities of nascent entrepreneurs

How does the grand challenge of refugees influence nascent entrepreneurs in host countries? To explore this question, we build on social identity theory and analyse how the 2015 European refugee event is related to the strength of different founder social identities (i.e. Darwinian, Communitarian, and Missionary founder social identities) of nascent entrepreneurs in the countries…

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Episode 62 – Maud van Merriënboer, Michiel Verver & Wouter Stam – Escaping the shadow of the past: historical context and generational identity work among young entrepreneurs in Phnom Penh’s nascent start-up scene

Identity work, the process through which entrepreneurs create a coherent and distinctive identity for themselves and their businesses, constitutes an important source of legitimacy. Yet while the ongoing social and spatial contexts in which entrepreneurs operate are increasingly viewed as critical contingencies for understanding their identity work, historical context is largely neglected.

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Episode 61 – Patrick Valéau – Commitment-based persistence in the face of venture decline: towards a renewed approach to small business orientation

The development of a nation or a region depends on saving existing businesses as much as on creating new ones. Small business orientation theories suggest that small business owners’ long-term commitment may contribute to the robustness of their venture. Our study further investigates the relationship between small business owners’ affective, continuance and normative commitment and…

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Episode 60 – Robert Smith – Conceptualising animation in rural communities: the Village SOS case

This paper introduces and discusses the concept of animatorship in relation to rural enterprise and development. At its simplest level, animatorship is the art of animating others to achieve their objectives. We develop and apply this concept to understanding community development and community enterprise, with a specific emphasis on rural communities. We present a descriptive,…

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Episode 59 – Natalia Vershinina & Nichola Phillips – Online communities and entrepreneuring mothers: practices of building, being and belonging

Informed by contributions of Professor Alistair Anderson to the social perspective of entrepreneurship, rooted in social relationships and social capital, this article examines how members of an online community collectively interpret and negotiate the challenges of pursuing entrepreneurship alongside parenthood. This article adopts a multi-staged research design, incorporating netnography, participant observation, and qualitative semi-structured interviews.

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Episode 58 – Hans Rawhouser & Silvio Vismara – Blockchain and vulnerable entrepreneurial ecosystems

Blockchain technology is expected to have many far-reaching effects on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity. In this paper, we explore blockchain technology from the perspective of vulnerable entrepreneurial ecosystems. Specifically, we look into how blockchain technology is affecting six domains of entrepreneurial ecosystems identified by prior researchers: policy, finance, culture, supports, human capital and markets.

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