The goal of this study was to examine cultural differences in the value of family involvement in German and Chinese small businesses due to their differences in collectivism/individualism. Our analyses, based on a sample of 562 Chinese and German owners, showed that family involvement —...

The authors present a model that explains how comprehensive social competency (made up of three components -- social skills, proactive and elaborate social strategies, and relational perseverance) is related to business people's network development, and how social networks in turn are related to...

The concept and desiderata of an evidence-based entrepreneurship (EBE) is discussed as a strategy to overcome the gap between knowledge developed in the field of entrepreneurship and its use in practice. Evidence constitutes the best summary of knowledge based on several sources of information...

This contribution discusses a theory of entrepreneurship, its empirical base, and its implications. First, it argues that a psychological approach is necessary to understand entrepreneurship. Second, it argues that any theory of entrepreneurship should use active actions as a starting point —...

We examine whether organizational climate for personal initiative (PI climate) is conducive to firm innovation in small and medium-sized firms. Employees with PI are self-starting, proactive, and persistent, and a PI climate is characterized by common norms of encouraging PI at the workplace. A...

The road from intentions to actions and new venture creation is long. So far, the literature has provided insights into action-regulatory factors that contribute to new venture creation. However, the literature has neglected to take into account the temporal dynamics underlying these...

Face-to-face interactions are a crucial part of services. However, research that investigates the dynamics of service encounters is still rare. In this study we used a theoretical framework that aligned the concept of interpersonal complementarity with Mehrabian and Russell?s (1974)...

Personal strategies of owners/founders of small business startups are related to performance and to environmental uncertainty. This is done using a longitudinal data set. Personal strategies are operationalized by a behavioral measure of the manners in which small business founders deal with...

Results of a longitudinal study on older blue-collar workers in the Federal Republic of Germany ([1] Soc. Sci. Med. 25, 173-178, 1987) showed that people who retired out of unemployment improve in depression similar to those people who found a job. Furthermore, financial problems and...