Last modified: 2022-08-25
Abstract
There has been a growing recognition of the need to understand the unique entrepreneurial processes among entrepreneurs pursuing opportunities amid diminished resources (Dencker et al., 2021). At the same time, promising approaches to training such entrepreneurs have been recognized (McKenzie, 2021). One such promising approach is that of personal initiative (PI) training (Frese et al., 2016) – a training developed largely through experience working with entrepreneurs in settings of relatively diminished resources. Using an inductive approach to theoretical development, we content analyze 101 heuristics utilized in the PI training curriculum to devise theoretical propositions regarding adaptive individual-level behavior orientations for entrepreneurs amid constrained resources. Partially deviating from insights from research on certain conceptualizations of entrepreneurial orientation (Miller, 1983), we propose that adaptive behavioral orientations for entrepreneurs operating amid diminished resources are based around innovation, proactivity, and resilience – that is, protecting oneself from constrained situations and/or setbacks. This proposition holds implications for advancing an understanding of why certain approaches to entrepreneurship trainings are beneficial for entrepreneurs amid diminished resources; moreover, these propositions might help to provide contextual boundary conditions for an understanding of adaptive individual-level entrepreneurial behavioral orientations – in particular, for risk-taking.