Exploring the resource logic of student entrepreneurs
Abstract
This study responds to the call in recent research for comparative studies examining whether student entrepreneurs are different to other kinds of entrepreneurs. Based on institutional theory, the specific question we ask in this study is whether student entrepreneurs who start up their firms in close relation to the university have a different resource logic compared to entrepreneurs who start their firms outside the university context. We define resource logic as the individual’s set of ideas for how to secure and use resources, and we link this concept to theories of effectual reasoning and bootstrapping to develop our argument. Moreover, we identify two different viewpoints about the effects of the university milieu on the resource logic of student entrepreneurs and we develop hypotheses to test the different viewpoints. The findings give overall support for the view that student entrepreneurs have developed a resource logic that favours both effectual reasoning and the use of bootstrapping methods.
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Biographies
Diamanto Politis is Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship at Halmstad University, Sweden. She is member of KEEN and CIEL at Halmstad University. Her research interests include entrepreneurial learning; academic entrepreneurship and the value-adding role of business angels in new firms.
Joakim Winborg is Assistant Professor and Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Finance at Halmstad University. His research interests are new and small business finance, financial bootstrapping and academic entrepreneurship.
Åsa Lindholm Dahlstrand is Professor in Business Administration, specializing in Entrepreneurship, at Halmstad University, Sweden. She is member of KEEN and CIEL at Halmstad University. From 2006 to 2010 she was also Visiting Professor (in Technology-Based Entrepreneurship) and Director of the research center RIDE ‘R&D, Innovation and Dynamics of Economies’, at Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden. The overriding theme in her research is technology-based entrepreneurship and industrial dynamics. She is very interested in both innovation policy and entrepreneurship policy. Her specific research interest includes studying new and small technology-based firms and the role of entrepreneurs in the development of companies and economies. Apart from several reports and books, she has published papers in e.g.: Regional Studies, Research Policy, European Planning Studies, The Scandinavian Journal of Management, Venture Capital, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship, European Business Review, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Small Business Economics, and Technovation.
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Article first published online: January 7, 2011
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