Book Review: Susana C Santos,Antonio Caetano,Craig Mitchell,Hans Landstrom and Alain Fayolle (Eds),The Emergence of Entrepreneurial Behaviour: Intention,Education and Orientation

Entrepreneurship is a young domain. While much of the early research was focused on ‘who the entrepreneur was’ (characteristics), it was only in the late 1980s that the field shifted to the study of ‘what entrepreneurs do’ (behaviours). The trigger for this shift is often attributed to Gartner’s now classic 1988 paper titled ‘Who is the entrepreneur? Is the wrong question?’ Researchers have taken Gartner’s call beyond his intended scope to explore many facets of entrepreneurial behaviours. The book under review covers three widely studied entrepreneurial behaviours: entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial orientation. Entrepreneurial orientation can be considered the most stable among the three behaviours, entrepreneurial intentions the most debated and entrepreneurial learning (more entrepreneurship education) the most descriptive.

A five-editor team has put together this useful volume on entrepreneurial behaviour. It is encouraging to see that there is one doctoral candidate and one postdoctoral fellow among the five editors. Senior professors joining hands with young scholars to bring out a volume is a good example of professional mentorship. This is critical not only in edited volumes, but also with journal articles, as the craft of research can only be learned this way. The editors have to be lauded for bringing together 25 scholars, comprising a fair mix of professors, associate professors, assistant professors, postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students to contribute the 10 chapters in this volume. This edited volume has 10 chapters divided into three parts, one each on the topics of ‘entrepreneurial intentions’ (three chapters), ‘entrepreneurial learning’ (four chapters) and ‘entrepreneurial orientation’ (three chapters). Seven of the 10 chapters are quantitative studies. The remaining three chapters comprise one each of: literature review, conceptual paper and qualitative study.

Part one of the volume covers entrepreneurial intention. Ajzen and Fishbein’s ‘Theory of Planned Behaviour’ forms the theoretical foundation for much of the literature on entrepreneurial intentions. Intention is seen as indicator or antecedent to action but this relationship remains debated in most empirical studies. For anyone reading this literature stream, it is not a surprise that studies are becoming repetitive and going in circles. The three chapters is a welcome break in such a context. While chapter two by Costa, Caetano, Frederiks and Santos uses prototype theory to build a theoretical model of how development of cognitive structures can influence behaviours especially in opportunity recognition, chapter four by Belchior and Linan provides an alternate conceptual model that builds on the theory of planned behaviour by identifying social antecedents (individual and cultural) to entrepreneurial intentions. While the two conceptual models provide enough fresh triggers to expand the study of entrepreneurial intentions, chapter three is an empirical study that suggests that type of entrepreneurial experience influences entrepreneurial potential and behaviour as they move across the entrepreneurship process. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data along with their data set collected, the authors Santos, Caetano, Costa and Neumeyer identify five categories within entrepreneurs (nascent entrepreneurs, owner-manager of young firms, owner-manager of established firms, future entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs). Their findings have implications for how we design future empirical studies on entrepreneurial intentions.

It is now widely accepted that entrepreneurs are not just born, they can also be created. Since the time this belief began a plethora of studies on entrepreneurship education flooded the field. They primarily were descriptive studies and covered either pedagogy or content. Entrepreneurship education research is even unsolicited by many journals due to the aforementioned complaints. In recent times, there have been numerous calls to explore entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial learning using theoretical foundations. The four chapters in this section provide some ideas on how this can be achieved. Shah, Jaen and Linan’s chapter, though predominantly descriptive, highlights the importance of contextualising entrepreneurship education for positive outcomes. Hagg and Politis share the findings from a qualitative study and showcase how mentoring can influence the outcomes in education and development. Since much of entrepreneurship education is now activity driven and mostly in teams, the chapter by Lyons, Lynn and Mac sheds light on the downside of ‘social loafing’ within these teams. The authors suggest the use of a team signatory code to reduce this effect and improve learning outcomes. Though this chapter uses student teams, it provides number of interesting ideas to take forward studies in entrepreneurship education research. The last chapter in this section explores the much touted panacea to entrepreneurship education, namely, experiential education. Kozlinska, Mets and Roigas find that while experiential education scores over traditional entrepreneurship education, skill-based outcomes mediate the relationship between cognitive and affective outcomes. Overall the four chapters in part two provide a whiff of fresh air in the area of entrepreneurship education research.

Entrepreneurial Orientation is widely seen as a measure of a firm’s entrepreneurial behaviour. Largely drawn on Miller’s now classic 1983 paper titled ‘The correlates of entrepreneurship in three types of firms’ the scales of Covin and Slevin are more widely used, tested and validated. Riviezzo’s chapter stands testimony to this while also helping even the seasoned scholar of entrepreneurial orientation gain new ground, particularly the idea of separating the influence of intrapreneurial and ‘exopreneurship’ on entrepreneurial orientation. This chapter provides innumerable ideas for further study. Riviezzo and Garofano take the discussion to small and medium enterprises and internationalisation especially considering the heterogeneity of their domestic contexts. Both of these areas are growing at the moment and will greatly benefit by their contributions. The chapter by Oliveira Jr, Oliveira and Bernardes explore the role of top management team in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and strategic alliances. In a world that is getting more ‘open’ and ‘shared’, this study points to some interesting findings and ideas for future studies.

This edited volume contains chapters on three entrepreneurial behaviours, namely, intentions, learning and orientation. While the first two are predominantly at the level of the individual, the third, orientation is a firm-level behaviour. The chapters provide scholars with a fair review of the literature in the three behaviours and also provide triggers to new ways of advancing our understanding of them. While existing scholars may find the fresh conceptual models interesting, nascent scholars of entrepreneurship will find the pointers to classic articles, the review of key articles and the new directions equally valuable. This volume can be a good reference on the shelf of both nascent and seasoned scholars. It is also worthwhile to mention that this is the seventh volume in the ‘European Research in Entrepreneurship’ series from Edward Elgar. Though the series is aimed at advancing entrepreneurship research in Europe, I’m sure all researchers across the world will find them accessible and useful.

With the ‘are entrepreneurs born or made’ debate behind us, the study of entrepreneurial behaviours is key to advancing understanding of entrepreneurship. Intentions, learning and orientation are among the three most widely studied behaviours within entrepreneurship research, but their potential is far from realised. The new directions presented in this volume should be treated as a trigger for us to look at them from a variety of lenses and approaches. This will help ‘unstuck’ the temporary stagnation of sorts in their development.