Ambitious entrepreneurship: Antecedents and consequences

Julie Hermans (), Johanna Vanderstraeten, Marcus Dejardin (), Dendi Ramdani, Erik Stam and Arjen van Witteloostuijn

Working Papers from University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics

Abstract: In the recent literature on entrepreneurship there is a growing body of knowledge that recognizes that some entrepreneurs have higher ambitions than others and that these entrepreneurial ambitions are an important antecedent of actual firm success. Consequently, it is not surprising that ambitious entrepreneurship gradually becomes a topic of high interest for policy makers and scholars (e.g., Gundry and Welsch, 2001; Van Gelderen, 2006). Nevertheless, there does not yet exist a clearly defined overview of what is known (and not known) about this topic. Moreover, although authors advocate that the difference between high and low entrepreneurial ambitions should be recognized (Cassar 2007), few studies actually distinguish between ambitious entrepreneurs and their less-ambitious counterparts. In this paper, we address this gap and provide a structured overview of existing literature on ambitious entrepreneurship. Our analysis confirms that ambitious entrepreneurs are an interesting population for the research community as well as for policy makers and other practitioners. Indeed, it suggests that ambitious entrepreneurs have a specific impact upon the economy and contribute to the quality of entrepreneurial activity. From a conceptual point of view, the review reveals that there is no consensus with regard to the operationalization of ambitious entrepreneurship and growth ambitions in general. As outcomes of this review, we identify promising paths for future research and we propose the concept of a projecting process to clarify the link between growth attitude, growth intention and growth expectation.

Keywords: Ambition; Motivations; Growth; Entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D84 L25 L26 M13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2012-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Ambitious entrepreneurship: antecedents and consequences (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ant:wpaper:2012023

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