IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbvent/v35y2020i5s0883902618301551.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The unshackled entrepreneur: Occupational determinants of entrepreneurial effort

Author

Listed:
  • Laffineur, Catherine
  • Dubard Barbosa, Saulo
  • Fayolle, Alain
  • Montmartin, Benjamin

Abstract

Entrepreneurial effort triggers action towards business creation and constitutes the ultimate link between intention and action. Although occupations play a significant role in entrepreneurial entry, extant research has not thoroughly investigated primary occupational characteristics as specific antecedents of entrepreneurial effort. We contribute to this line of research by proposing and testing a model in which three occupational characteristics at the occupational level (managerial knowledge, self-accomplishment, and arduousness) are correlated with two cognitive factors at the individual level (effort-performance and instrumentality beliefs) that in turn affect behavior (entrepreneurial effort). We draw upon expectancy theory to motivate our model and combine data from the PSED and O*NET to test our hypotheses. We find compelling evidence that individuals facing arduous working conditions and lacking personal accomplishment in their salaried jobs will be more committed to their new business. In addition, we find that entrepreneurs coming from occupations involving high levels of managerial knowledge tend to put more effort into the new venture.

Suggested Citation

  • Laffineur, Catherine & Dubard Barbosa, Saulo & Fayolle, Alain & Montmartin, Benjamin, 2020. "The unshackled entrepreneur: Occupational determinants of entrepreneurial effort," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:35:y:2020:i:5:s0883902618301551
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2019.105983
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902618301551
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2019.105983?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carter, Nancy M. & Gartner, William B. & Shaver, Kelly G. & Gatewood, Elizabeth J., 2003. "The career reasons of nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 13-39, January.
    2. Timothy B. Folta & Frédéric Delmar & Karl Wennberg, 2010. "Hybrid Entrepreneurship," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(2), pages 253-269, February.
    3. Gueorgui Kambourov & Iourii Manovskii, 2009. "Occupational Specificity Of Human Capital," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 50(1), pages 63-115, February.
    4. Åstebro, Thomas & Chen, Jing, 2014. "The entrepreneurial earnings puzzle: Mismeasurement or real?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 88-105.
    5. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1998. "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 26-60, January.
    6. Edward P. Lazear, 2004. "Balanced Skills and Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 208-211, May.
    7. Thomas Åstebro & Jing Chen & Peter Thompson, 2011. "Stars and Misfits: Self-Employment and Labor Market Frictions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(11), pages 1999-2017, November.
    8. Bradley R. Johnson, 1990. "Toward a Multidimensional Model of Entrepreneurship: The Case of Achievement Motivation and the Entrepreneur," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 14(3), pages 39-54, April.
    9. Christina Gathmann & Uta Schönberg, 2010. "How General Is Human Capital? A Task-Based Approach," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-49, January.
    10. Delmar, Frédéric, 2015. "A response to Honig and Samuelsson (2014)," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 3(C), pages 1-4.
    11. Cooper, Arnold C. & Woo, Carolyn Y. & Dunkelberg, William C., 1988. "Entrepreneurs' perceived chances for success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 97-108.
    12. McCann, Brian T. & Folta, Timothy B., 2012. "Entrepreneurial entry thresholds," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 782-800.
    13. Tåg, Joacim & Åstebro, Thomas & Thompson, Peter, 2016. "Hierarchies and entrepreneurship," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 129-147.
    14. Giuliano Guerra & Roberto Patuelli, 2016. "The Role of Job Satisfaction in Transitions into Self–Employment," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(3), pages 543-571, May.
    15. Mueller, Stephen L. & Thomas, Anisya S., 2001. "Culture and entrepreneurial potential: A nine country study of locus of control and innovativeness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 51-75, January.
    16. Birley, Sue & Norburn, David, 1987. "Owners and managers: The venture 100 vs the fortune 500," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 351-363.
    17. Benjamin A. Campbell, 2013. "Earnings Effects of Entrepreneurial Experience: Evidence from the Semiconductor Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 286-304, February.
    18. Unger, Jens M. & Rauch, Andreas & Frese, Michael & Rosenbusch, Nina, 2011. "Human capital and entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytical review," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 341-358, May.
    19. Joop Hartog & Mirjam Van Praag & Justin Van Der Sluis, 2010. "If You Are So Smart, Why Aren't You an Entrepreneur? Returns to Cognitive and Social Ability: Entrepreneurs Versus Employees," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 947-989, December.
    20. Andreas Oehler & Andreas Höfer & Henrik Schalkowski, 2015. "Entrepreneurial education and knowledge: empirical evidence on a sample of German undergraduate students," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 536-557, June.
    21. Thomas Ã…stebro & Kevyn Yong, 2016. "Invention Quality and Entrepreneurial Earnings: The Role of Prior Employment Variety," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 381-400, March.
    22. Van Gelderen, Marco & Kautonen, Teemu & Fink, Matthias, 2015. "From entrepreneurial intentions to actions: Self-control and action-related doubt, fear, and aversion," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 655-673.
    23. Scott Shane, 2000. "Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 448-469, August.
    24. Peter Berkhout & Joop Hartog & Mirjam van Praag, 2016. "Entrepreneurship and Financial Incentives of Return, Risk, and Skew," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 249-268, March.
    25. Lars Frederiksen & Karl Wennberg & Chanchal Balachandran, 2016. "Mobility and Entrepreneurship: Evaluating the Scope of Knowledge–Based Theories of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 359-380, March.
    26. Begley, Thomas M. & Boyd, David P., 1987. "Psychological characteristics associated with performence in entrepreneurial firms and smaller businesses," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 79-93.
    27. William B. Gartner, 1988. "“Who Is an Entrepreneur?†Is the Wrong Question," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 12(4), pages 11-32, April.
    28. Edmund R. Thompson, 2009. "Individual Entrepreneurial Intent: Construct Clarification and Development of an Internationally Reliable Metric," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(3), pages 669-694, May.
    29. Sander Hoogendoorn & Hessel Oosterbeek & Mirjam van Praag, 2013. "The Impact of Gender Diversity on the Performance of Business Teams: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(7), pages 1514-1528, July.
    30. Daniel W. Elfenbein & Barton H. Hamilton & Todd R. Zenger, 2010. "The Small Firm Effect and the Entrepreneurial Spawning of Scientists and Engineers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 659-681, April.
    31. Chihmao Hsieh, 2016. "Do the Self–Employed More Likely Emerge from Sequential or Parallel Work Experience in Business–Related Functions?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 307-334, March.
    32. Sara Carter, 2011. "The Rewards of Entrepreneurship: Exploring the Incomes, Wealth, and Economic Well–Being of Entrepreneurial Households," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(1), pages 39-55, January.
    33. Pernilla Andersson Joona & Eskil Wadensjö, 2013. "The best and the brightest or the least successful? Self-employment entry among male wage-earners in Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 155-172, January.
    34. John C. Dencker & Marc Gruber & Sonali K. Shah, 2009. "Pre-Entry Knowledge, Learning, and the Survival of New Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(3), pages 516-537, June.
    35. Oosterbeek, Hessel & van Praag, Mirjam & Ijsselstein, Auke, 2010. "The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurship skills and motivation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 442-454, April.
    36. Carroll, Glenn R. & Mosakowski, Elaine M., 1987. "The Career Dynamics of Self-Employment," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt13p1n10b, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    37. M. Diane Burton & Jesper B. Sørensen & Stanislav D. Dobrev, 2016. "A Careers Perspective on Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 237-247, March.
    38. Andrew Burke & Felix FitzRoy & Michael Nolan, 2008. "What makes a die-hard entrepreneur? Beyond the ‘employee or entrepreneur’ dichotomy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 93-115, August.
    39. Lars Kolvereid, 1996. "Organizational Employment versus Self-Employment: Reasons for Career Choice Intentions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 20(3), pages 23-31, April.
    40. KruegerJR, Norris F. & Reilly, Michael D. & Carsrud, Alan L., 2000. "Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(5-6), pages 411-432.
    41. Maija Renko & K. Kroeck & Amanda Bullough, 2012. "Expectancy theory and nascent entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 667-684, October.
    42. Lee, Lena & Wong, Poh Kam & Foo, Maw Der & Leung, Aegean, 2011. "Entrepreneurial intentions: The influence of organizational and individual factors," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 124-136, January.
    43. Robert F. Scherer & Janet S. Adams & Susan S. Carley & Frank A. Wiebe, 1989. "Role Model Performance Effects on Development of Entrepreneurial Career Preference," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 13(3), pages 53-72, April.
    44. Ramana Nanda & Jesper B. Sørensen, 2010. "Workplace Peers and Entrepreneurship," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(7), pages 1116-1126, July.
    45. Jerome A. Katz, 1992. "A Psychosocial Cognitive Model of Employment Status Choice," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(1), pages 29-37, October.
    46. Elizabeth J. Gatewood & Kelly G. Shaver & Joshua B. Powers & William B. Gartner, 2002. "Entrepreneurial Expectancy, Task Effort, and Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(2), pages 187-206, April.
    47. C. M. Van Praag & J. S. Cramer, 2001. "The Roots of Entrepreneurship and Labour Demand: Individual Ability and Low Risk Aversion," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(269), pages 45-62, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jitao Hu & Longying Hu & Mingzhu Hu & Antony Dnes, 2023. "Entrepreneurial human capital, equity concentration and firm performance: Evidence from companies listed on China's Growth Enterprise Market," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 187-196, January.
    2. Guerrero, Maribel & Pugh, Rhiannon, 2022. "Entrepreneurial universities’ metamorphosis: Encountering technological and emotional disruptions in the COVID-19 ERA," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    3. Jintong Tang & Zhi Tang & Shaji A. Khan, 2022. "Do the rich give more? The effects of family wealth and entrepreneurial effort on firm philanthropy and growth," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 699-722, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Catherine Laffineur & Benjamin Montmartin & Fayolle Alain & Saulo Dubard Barbosa, 2020. "The unshackled entrepreneur: Occupational determinants of entrepreneurial effort," Post-Print hal-02349480, HAL.
    2. Klyver, Kim & Steffens, Paul & Lomberg, Carina, 2020. "Having your cake and eating it too? A two-stage model of the impact of employment and parallel job search on hybrid nascent entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    3. M. Diane Burton & Jesper B. Sørensen & Stanislav D. Dobrev, 2016. "A Careers Perspective on Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 237-247, March.
    4. Koch, Michael & Park, Sarah & Zahra, Shaker A., 2021. "Career patterns in self-employment and career success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    5. Vladasel, Theodor & Lindquist, Matthew J. & Sol, Joeri & van Praag, Mirjam, 2021. "On the origins of entrepreneurship: Evidence from sibling correlations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    6. Alina Sorgner & Michael Fritsch, 2018. "Entrepreneurial career paths: occupational context and the propensity to become self-employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 129-152, June.
    7. Zellweger, Thomas & Sieger, Philipp & Halter, Frank, 2011. "Should I stay or should I go? Career choice intentions of students with family business background," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 521-536, September.
    8. Fredriksen, Lars & Wennberg, Karl & Balachandran, Chanchal, 2015. "Mobility and Entrepreneurship: Evaluating the scope of knowledge-based theories of entrepreneurship," Ratio Working Papers 266, The Ratio Institute.
    9. Sierdjan Koster & Martin Andersson, 2018. "When is your experience valuable? Occupation-industry transitions and self-employment success," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 265-286, April.
    10. Failla, Virgilio & Melillo, Francesca & Reichstein, Toke, 2017. "Entrepreneurship and employment stability — Job matching, labour market value, and personal commitment," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 162-177.
    11. Lars Frederiksen & Karl Wennberg & Chanchal Balachandran, 2016. "Mobility and Entrepreneurship: Evaluating the Scope of Knowledge–Based Theories of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(2), pages 359-380, March.
    12. Alina Sorgner, 2012. "A Physician With A Soul Of A Cook? Entrepreneurial Personality Across Occupations," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-063, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    13. Elert, Niklas & Andersson, Fredrik W. & Wennberg, Karl, 2015. "The impact of entrepreneurship education in high school on long-term entrepreneurial performance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 209-223.
    14. Anne Spanjer & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2017. "The entrepreneur’s experiential diversity and entrepreneurial performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 141-161, June.
    15. Aliaa El Shoubaki & Issam Laguir & Matthijs den Besten, 2020. "Human capital and SME growth: the mediating role of reasons to start a business," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1107-1121, April.
    16. Emma Lappi & Johan E. Eklund & Johan Klaesson, 2022. "Does education matter for the earnings of former entrepreneurs? Longitudinal evidence using entry and exit dynamics," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 827-865, July.
    17. Krieger, Alexander & Block, Joern & Stuetzer, Michael, 2018. "Skill variety in entrepreneurship: A literature review and research directions," MPRA Paper 88389, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Asante, Eric Adom & Affum-Osei, Emmanuel, 2019. "Entrepreneurship as a career choice: The impact of locus of control on aspiring entrepreneurs' opportunity recognition," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 227-235.
    19. David R. Marshall & Robert Gigliotti, 2020. "Bound for entrepreneurship? A career-theoretical perspective on entrepreneurial intentions," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 287-303, March.
    20. Louise Lindbjerg & Theodor Vladasel, 2021. "Hiring Entrepreneurs for Innovation," Working Papers 1309, Barcelona School of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Entrepreneurship; Occupational; Characteristics; Entrepreneurial effort;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:35:y:2020:i:5:s0883902618301551. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusvent .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusvent .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.