When the going gets tough, the entrepreneurs get less entrepreneurial?

Joeri van Hugten, Johanna Vanderstraeten, Arjen van Witteloostuijn and Wim Coreynen

PLOS ONE, 2023, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-21

Abstract: We investigate how the 2008–2012 economic crisis relates to entrepreneurs’ confidence ten years later and, in turn, their venture’s entrepreneurial orientation. Conceptually, we introduce the new concept of ‘hard times’ to capture an entrepreneur’s sense of their venture’s hardship during the crisis. Theoretically, we extend ideas on imprinting, to build the argument that hard times cause a persistent reduction in an entrepreneur’s entrepreneurial self-efficacy and sense of job security, both of which in turn cause a contemporaneous reduction in their venture’s entrepreneurial orientation. We contrast the crisis imprinting hypothesis with a hypothesis from the more established behavioral theory of the firm. Strikingly, rich data of about 300 Flemish entrepreneurs and their ventures are in line with a small crisis imprinting effect.

Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0290253

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290253

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