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Are those who proceed successfully from entrepreneurial aspiration to new venture start-up different from unsuccessful nascent entrepreneurs? Research using longitudinal British data tracks individuals from entrepreneurial aspiration into self-employment. The analysis reveals that while aspirations towards entrepreneurship are widespread, few aspiring entrepreneurs are successful. Aspirations appear to be driven by “displacement ” factors such as low satisfaction with current employment, rather than personal resources associated with educational attainment, parental background and financial status. Aspiring entrepreneurs do not appear to engage in preparatory behaviour such higher active saving in advance of launching a new venture. Apparently they prefer to rely on, for example, housing wealth or debt finance.

Relatore: Chiar.mo Prof.

Launching the vision for an emergent class of enterprise software, professional services automation (PSA), many organizational actors recently came together as a community. At the community’s core, multiple entrepreneurs from various industries mobilized resources and assumed risks to pursue diverse but interdependent opportunities. Their community entrepreneurship, described here, sheds new light on theorizing the early diffusion of innovations, the origin of institutions, the launching process of management fashions, and entrepreneurship itself.

This paper deals with differences in the rate of self-employment (business ownership) in 15 European countries for the period 1978-2000, focusing on the influence of dissatisfaction and using the framework of occupational choice. Using two different measures of dissatisfaction, in addition to the level of economic development, the unemployment rate and income differentials, we find that dissatisfaction at the level of societies is the most significant factor for explaining differences in self-employment levels. Dissatisfaction with life and with the way democracy works are both found to be positively related to self-employment. It is concluded that these are proxies for job dissatisfaction and at the same time represent other negative ‘displacements ’ known to promote self-employment.

Scientific attaché Institut wallon de l’évaluation, de la prospective et de la statistique

Abstract. Generational relations and entrepreneurialism in organizations are attracting increasing attention from organizational scholars. This article bridges these areas of interest, by examining how entrepreneurial identity is shaped by generational encounters within a small organization context. In so doing, it contributes to ongoing challenges to the scientistic orthodoxy regarding the formation of entrepreneurial persons. Evidence from an ethnographic study of two joint ownermanagers in the port fendering industry is presented. Wenger’s ‘community of practice ’ framework is used to show that generational encounters, through their influence on self-identity, are an important social context of the decision to embark on an entrepreneurial career. By emphasizing micro-socially situated aspects of identity formation, this article provides an interactionist complement to recent accounts of entrepreneurs and identities as being (re)produced by discourses that have hegemonic effects. Key words. generations; entrepreneurs; identity; community of practice Ever since the publication of Karl Mannheim’s famous essay ‘The Problem of Generations ’ (1952 [1928]), generational differences and their social effects have been a consistent, but specialized, concern within sociology. More recently, sociologists have looked afresh at the topic of generations and the broader issues of temporality and identity that it

on this programme can be found at www.eim.nl/smes-and-entrepreneurship The papers in the SCALES-series report on ongoing research at EIM. The information in the papers may be (1) background material to regular EIM Research Reports, (2) papers presented at international academic conferences, (3) submissions under review at academic journals. The papers are directed at a research-oriented audience and intended to share knowledge and promote discussion on topics in the academic fields of small business economics and entrepreneurship research. address: mail address: telephone: telefax: website:

Research on entrepreneurship has investigated what entrepreneurs do, what happens when they act as entrepreneurs, and why they act as entrepreneurs. This paper contributes to the latter investigation, and specifically asks why some people choose to be entrepreneurs while others choose to be employees. Responding to prior literature recognizing the lack of a coherent theory of entrepreneurship and calling for a rigorous examination of the decision to become an entrepreneur, this paper presents an economic model of the career decision. We postulate that the individual chooses an entrepreneurial career path, or a career as an employee, or some combination of the two, according to which career path promises maximal utility (or psychic satisfaction). We assume that the individual’s utility from any particular occupation, whether selfemployed or employed, depends on income (which depends in turn on ability), as well as working conditions such as decision-making control, risk exposure, work effort required, and other working conditions (net perquisites) associated with that occupation. Individuals will exhibit either preference or aversion towards each of the specified working conditions, and it is the degree of that preference or aversion, in conjunction with the quantum of each working