Entrepreneurs as cultural heroes

Investigating the Impact of Institutions on Small Business Creation Among Saudi Entrepreneurs

Institutions significantly impact people’s attitudes and behaviors, both favorably and negatively. The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of several institutions on the intentions and decisions of Saudi entrepreneurs to start a business. Accordingly, the study on which this article is based used cross-sectional data of 3,376 respondents obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) in 2016. The findings demonstrated that insufficient business legislations and policies have a detrimental impact on the ability to start small businesses. Furthermore, it was discovered that the more media attention is given to successful entrepreneurs, the greater the likelihood of small businesses being established. Surprisingly, the typically high regard for successful entrepreneurs had no positive impact on the establishment of small businesses in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, there was no negative impact of fear of failure on the likelihood of starting small firms. Finally, the influence of control variables, such as age and gender, was also varied. Because the study was limited to the context of Saudi Arabia, future research could focus on expanding the analysis to other Gulf countries and including more institutions.

Tall Poppy Syndrome: Implications for entrepreneurship in New Zealand

The Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) of knocking high achievers is often described as being ingrained in New Zealand's culture. This study interviews 40 entrepreneurs to explore how TPS impacts on entrepreneurs. Internationally, New Zealand is considered to be a highly entrepreneurial country. Thus TPS and an entrepreneurial culture appear to co-exist. Over half of the participants had experienced TPS in their role as entrepreneurs and their individual strategies for managing its impact included 'staying under the radar', not telling people they owned a business and not ‘flaunting’ their wealth. This study suggests that the effects of TPS may have significant implications for entrepreneurship in New Zealand. Firstly, TPS may discourage entrepreneurs from starting a business. Secondly, people who have experienced a business failure may be reluctant to establish another business because of the public reaction to their 'fall'. Finally, entrepreneurs may deliberately limit business growth because they don't want to attract attention. Potential ways of reducing the impact of TPS on entrepreneurs include celebrating entrepreneurial success more visibly, highlighting realistic role models for people to aspire to and emphasising the hard work and risk that entrepreneurs take to achieve success.

Tall Poppy Syndrome: Implications for entrepreneurship in New Zealand

The Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) of knocking high achievers is often described as being ingrained in New Zealand's culture. This study interviews 40 entrepreneurs to explore how TPS impacts on entrepreneurs. Internationally, New Zealand is considered to be a highly entrepreneurial country. Thus TPS and an entrepreneurial culture appear to co-exist. Over half of the participants had experienced TPS in their role as entrepreneurs and their individual strategies for managing its impact included 'staying under the radar', not telling people they owned a business and not ‘flaunting’ their wealth. This study suggests that the effects of TPS may have significant implications for entrepreneurship in New Zealand. Firstly, TPS may discourage entrepreneurs from starting a business. Secondly, people who have experienced a business failure may be reluctant to establish another business because of the public reaction to their 'fall'. Finally, entrepreneurs may deliberately limit business growth because they don't want to attract attention. Potential ways of reducing the impact of TPS on entrepreneurs include celebrating entrepreneurial success more visibly, highlighting realistic role models for people to aspire to and emphasising the hard work and risk that entrepreneurs take to achieve success.

Reflections on the Societal Conditions for the Pervasiveness of Entrepreneurial Behavior in Western Societies

Entrepreneurship has become an important issue in contemporary management practice and research. While there is much debate about the benefits of entrepreneurial behavior, its obvious pervasion in many areas of life remains largely unexplored. It is this persuasive power that inspired us to conceptualize entrepreneurship as a dominant institution in modern Western societies. In contrast to most institutional approaches which draw on entrepreneurial behavior for studying institutional change, our approach focuses on the societal preconditions for the dominance of entrepreneurship. We outline how entrepreneurship is manifested in ideals of modern Western societies, discourse and techniques of control and how individuals who are socialized into an entrepreneurial society, contribute to legitimize entrepreneurship and further its pervasiveness. Our analysis provides a framework for research on differences in the valuation of entrepreneurial behavior across societal settings, as well as for the study of mechanisms for the deepening of taken for-grantedness of entrepreneurship.