Discussion: View Thread

Jerome

I teach a tech entrepreneur course in the MBiotech program at U of
Toronto.Traditionally most students starting my class (I survey them
each year) do not have an intent to start their own business
(typically less than 10%).

When asked, it is because they have been exposed too large
pharmaceutical companies during their internship program and like the
companies and the industry.

So I challenge them...I ask them if they view their career risks as
being different in the large companies. Of course their perception is
that working in a larger company is much less risky...which is one of
the key reasons for pursuing this as a career (second is that income
is less variable).

I then explain that I worked for the Canadian branch of two large
multinationals, and that after a number of very successful years with
each business (15 and 4 years respectively) corporate re-organizations
left me jobless. In other words, unrelated to my performance,
individuals in a remote office in another country could randomly
decide I did not have a job.

After sharing my insights, students became more aware of some of
these issues in the larger companies in which they were undertaking
their internships. As the key component of the course relies on
students working with local entrepreneurs to build business plans,
they also became more aware of the psychic and financial motivations
of real entrepreneurs. By the end of the course, interest in starting
their own ventures, or specifically in joining an existing
entrepreneurial venture, usually exceed 50% of the class.

Bottom line, I think the current behaviors of large companies
(regarding employment and values) is leading skilled individuals to
question their career choices, and turn to entrepreneurship as a way
of both having more control over their careers. It also allows them to
align their own values with those of the organization in which they
work.

Andrew Maxwell


> Saw something interesting that got me to thinking. This year, our MBA level
> intro to entrepreneurship (start-your own business) course is packed beyond
> capacity, while we have empty seats in our other intro course, corporate
> entrepreneurship. Talked with students in each. Here is the question.
>
> We talk today about necessity vs. opportunity driven entrepreneurship
> (thanks PSED). In earlier days, it was push vs. pull (thanks Karl Vesper).
> But what are we seeing when students with jobs are taking a
> start-your-own-business course because they are worried about long term
> employment prospects (aside from "trying to be good providers")? They don't
> sound like they're being pulled by the lure of self-employment, but their
> firm has not taken overt steps to push them out either.
>
> This situation is very real, but also seems to call into question how we
> normally talk about opportunity/pull or necessity/push type thinking.
>
> Anyone have some thoughts to share on this and any tweaks we may need to
> give our opportunity models and definitions? (A new research direction!)
>
> Respond to the list. I think people will want to hear what everyone has to
> say about this.
>
> Thanks,
> Jerry
>
> --
> Jerome A. Katz
> Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship
> John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University
> 3674 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis MO 63108 USA
> 314-977-3864w; -1484f; 314-275-8721h; -7513h/f
> katzja@slu.edu, http://eweb.slu.edu
>
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> jbunch@benedictine.edu.
>
> Ventures HO!
>

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Ventures HO!

Hi.

The necessity versus opportunity idea is more fully developed in the GEM
studies. I would not attach the idea of (necessity versus opportunity) to
the PSED, per se.

There have been a number of working papers floating around that have
pointed out a number of conceptual and empirical problems with the
opportunity/necessity construct, but, I can't seem to find them.

And, I think a better way to use the necessity versus opportunity
construct is to not think of it as uni-dimensional. It would be better to
think of opportunity as one dimension, and, necessity as another
dimension, so, you have a two by two matrix. From this perspective, one
could be driven by both opportunity and necessity. So, I do not think it
is "either - or." It can be both, or not at all, as well.

Best

Bill


William B. Gartner
Spiro Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership
Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership
345 Sirrine Hall
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-1345
gartner@clemson.edu
william.b.gartner@gmail.com


> Saw something interesting that got me to thinking. This year, our MBA
> level
> intro to entrepreneurship (start-your own business) course is packed
> beyond
> capacity, while we have empty seats in our other intro course, corporate
> entrepreneurship. Talked with students in each. Here is the question.
>
> We talk today about necessity vs. opportunity driven entrepreneurship
> (thanks PSED). In earlier days, it was push vs. pull (thanks Karl Vesper).
> But what are we seeing when students with jobs are taking a
> start-your-own-business course because they are worried about long term
> employment prospects (aside from "trying to be good providers")? They
> don't
> sound like they're being pulled by the lure of self-employment, but their
> firm has not taken overt steps to push them out either.
>
> This situation is very real, but also seems to call into question how we
> normally talk about opportunity/pull or necessity/push type thinking.
>
> Anyone have some thoughts to share on this and any tweaks we may need to
> give our opportunity models and definitions? (A new research direction!)
>
> Respond to the list. I think people will want to hear what everyone has to
> say about this.
>
> Thanks,
> Jerry
>
> --
> Jerome A. Katz
> Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship
> John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University
> 3674 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis MO 63108 USA
> 314-977-3864w; -1484f; 314-275-8721h; -7513h/f
> katzja@slu.edu, http://eweb.slu.edu
>
> **************************************
> This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship
> Division of the Academy of Management.
>
> Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or
> spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder
> "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list.
>
> You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the
> list here:
> http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1
>
> If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
> jbunch@benedictine.edu.
>
> Ventures HO!
>

**************************************
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Ventures HO!

Perhaps what you are seeing is an important reality (to put it
strangely), for at least some people. In a pool otherwise split by
researchers (after the fact oftentimes) into two bins, "necessity" and
"opportunity," there are many people who have to operate with both
bins in mind. Either we have a continuum, with some people near the
middle of the distribution, or we have an important interaction.

Beyond the empiricals, I would say from experience that starting
things "feels like" having both necessity and opportunity in common.
At any one moment in time, one of these extremes may be dominant. But
the overall experience is more of toggling between these extremes, or
experiencing them both at the same time.

As such, Entrepreneurship "in the wild" is perhaps a natural mixture
of extremes - both necessity AND opportunity, push AND pull, creation
AND discovery (this latter area being a working subject for myself and
a co-author). This combination may lead researchers to pull their
hair out, but if we are going to be honest, this mixture may be what
entrepreneurs experience.

This same sort of combination has changed research in sociology
(social structure being both cause AND effect - structuration) and in
psychology (the empirical approach to affect having now shifted from
positive OR negative to positive AND negative).

Alternatively, we are seeing evidence that entrepreneurship is a
discipline, interesting elective, or just a buzzword that goes beyond
startups and self-employment. Personally, I think this is the case.
Entrepreneuring (to use the gerund) is something that pervades a
number of settings, maybe only at particular moments in time or more
persistently, like a background hum throughout the overall
experience. Students hear this hum, and choose their classes
accordingly.


David Touve
--------------------------------------
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategy
Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics
Washington and Lee University
+1 (540) 458-8346
touved@wlu.edu

On Oct 9, 2009, at 9:58 PM, Jerome Katz wrote:

> Saw something interesting that got me to thinking. This year, our
> MBA level intro to entrepreneurship (start-your own business) course
> is packed beyond capacity, while we have empty seats in our other
> intro course, corporate entrepreneurship. Talked with students in
> each. Here is the question.
>
> We talk today about necessity vs. opportunity driven
> entrepreneurship (thanks PSED). In earlier days, it was push vs.
> pull (thanks Karl Vesper). But what are we seeing when students with
> jobs are taking a start-your-own-business course because they are
> worried about long term employment prospects (aside from "trying to
> be good providers")? They don't sound like they're being pulled by
> the lure of self-employment, but their firm has not taken overt
> steps to push them out either.
>
> This situation is very real, but also seems to call into question
> how we normally talk about opportunity/pull or necessity/push type
> thinking.
>
> Anyone have some thoughts to share on this and any tweaks we may
> need to give our opportunity models and definitions? (A new research
> direction!)
>
> Respond to the list. I think people will want to hear what everyone
> has to say about this.
>
> Thanks,
> Jerry
>
> --
> Jerome A. Katz
> Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship
> John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University
> 3674 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis MO 63108 USA
> 314-977-3864w; -1484f; 314-275-8721h; -7513h/f
> katzja@slu.edu, http://eweb.slu.edu
> ************************************** This message is from ENTREP
> which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy
> of Management. Please do not post messages with attached files.
> Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list.
> The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to
> your removal from the list. You can manage your subscription
> options, including joining or leaving the list here: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1
> If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch jbunch@benedictine.edu
> . Ventures HO!

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Ventures HO!

Hi,
here is one of the working papers floating around:

http://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/610.html

best, Joern


> Hi.
>
> The necessity versus opportunity idea is more fully developed in the GEM
> studies. I would not attach the idea of (necessity versus opportunity) to
> the PSED, per se.
>
> There have been a number of working papers floating around that have
> pointed out a number of conceptual and empirical problems with the
> opportunity/necessity construct, but, I can't seem to find them.
>
> And, I think a better way to use the necessity versus opportunity
> construct is to not think of it as uni-dimensional. It would be better to
> think of opportunity as one dimension, and, necessity as another
> dimension, so, you have a two by two matrix. From this perspective, one
> could be driven by both opportunity and necessity. So, I do not think it
> is "either - or." It can be both, or not at all, as well.
>
> Best
>
> Bill
>
>
> William B. Gartner
> Spiro Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership
> Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership
> 345 Sirrine Hall
> Clemson University
> Clemson, SC 29634-1345
> gartner@clemson.edu
> william.b.gartner@gmail.com
>
>
>> Saw something interesting that got me to thinking. This year, our MBA
>> level
>> intro to entrepreneurship (start-your own business) course is packed
>> beyond
>> capacity, while we have empty seats in our other intro course, corporate
>> entrepreneurship. Talked with students in each. Here is the question.
>>
>> We talk today about necessity vs. opportunity driven entrepreneurship
>> (thanks PSED). In earlier days, it was push vs. pull (thanks Karl
>> Vesper).
>> But what are we seeing when students with jobs are taking a
>> start-your-own-business course because they are worried about long term
>> employment prospects (aside from "trying to be good providers")? They
>> don't
>> sound like they're being pulled by the lure of self-employment, but
>> their
>> firm has not taken overt steps to push them out either.
>>
>> This situation is very real, but also seems to call into question how we
>> normally talk about opportunity/pull or necessity/push type thinking.
>>
>> Anyone have some thoughts to share on this and any tweaks we may need to
>> give our opportunity models and definitions? (A new research direction!)
>>
>> Respond to the list. I think people will want to hear what everyone has
>> to
>> say about this.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jerry
>>
>> --
>> Jerome A. Katz
>> Coleman Foundation Chair in Entrepreneurship
>> John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University
>> 3674 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis MO 63108 USA
>> 314-977-3864w; -1484f; 314-275-8721h; -7513h/f
>> katzja@slu.edu, http://eweb.slu.edu
>>
>> **************************************
>> This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship
>> Division of the Academy of Management.
>>
>> Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or
>> spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder
>> "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list.
>>
>> You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving
>> the
>> list here:
>> http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1
>>
>> If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
>> jbunch@benedictine.edu.
>>
>> Ventures HO!
>>
>
> **************************************
> This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship
> Division of the Academy of Management.
>
> Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or
> spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder
> "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list.
>
> You can manage your subscription options, including joining or leaving the
> list here:
> http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=entrep&A=1
>
> If you have questions or need help, please contact Dr. John Bunch
> jbunch@benedictine.edu.
>
> Ventures HO!
>

**************************************
This message is from ENTREP which is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management.

Please do not post messages with attached files. Commercial messages or spammed messages are not allowed on the list. The use of auto-responder "out-of-office" messages may also lead to your removal from the list.

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Ventures HO!

Having worked on the GEM project for several years (2000 to 2004), I agree with Bill Gartner that's
where the Opportunity / Necessity motivations emerged.
While I don't have an answer for your specific observation, a couple of questions that were around in
the GEM project at the time I was involved remain (so far as I'm aware) under-explored.

1) Is the self-classification of opportunity vs necessity accurate? Are retrenched executives and
professionals who started a business willing to admit that they had "no better options for work" (the
definition of necessity entrepreneurship)? Or even if at the time it felt like necessity, have they
subsequently rationalised it as pursuit of opportunity? The feedback from your students sounds more
like necessity push than opportunity pull, but if they take the plunge and start a business and you
talk to them a year into it, would they still say it was necessity-driven? I wonder.

2) "Opportunity" entrepreneurship was pretty much defined as "not necessity" and many of us felt
that this was too broad and contained a wide range of motivations from desire for autonomy to
desire to accumulate wealth.

Maybe an opportunity for a small 'as it happens' research project that sheds a little more light on this
whole subject of pull versus push.

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Ventures HO!