Dr Javier Monllor

Experiential learning has gained in popularity over the past 20 years in many fields and in entrepreneurship education in particular, where many educators posit that it is essential. Delivery of experiential learning activities and courses became extremely difficult and nearly impossible in some countries during the COVID-19 pandemic due to government imposed lockdowns and restrictions, forcing educational institutions to adapt and many opted to move their teaching online. How these changes impacted positively or negatively on experiential learning and students’ ability to adapt and learn has yet to be fully understood. This paper introduces a concrete experience framework and describes how it was applied to the process of pivoting an MBA experiential learning module online. It contributes by demonstrating how educators can adopt the framework in their efforts to adapt or create online courses that aim to deliver experiential learning.

Purpose. Examine and understand how an informal volunteer’s goals and actions develop from the moment they first learn about a disaster.

Design/methodology/approach. We examine informal volunteerism (the activities of people who work outside of formal emergency and disaster management arrangements) through the theoretical lens of entrepreneurial effectuation to explain informal volunteer behavior and cognition and gain insight on how they develop their disaster relief ventures.

Findings. We find that informal volunteers follow an effectual logic, relying on available means to take advantage of opportunities as they are recognized or created. Application of effectuation vs causation processes depended on whether the informal volunteers were categorized as traditional, emergent or extended volunteers.

Practical implications. Informal volunteers’ disregard for the Affordable Loss Principle task governments and disaster relief organizations with the important challenge of managing and assuring the safety and well-being of informal volunteers. Their entrepreneurial behavior also invites the establishment of formal processes to counsel and guide informal volunteers, helping them fill out the necessary paperwork and funding applications to develop their efforts.

Social implications. Through their experimentation and flexibility, informal volunteers accelerate disaster recovery, recognizing opportunities, working around bureaucracy and other roadblocks that hinder the efforts of established organizations. They also demonstrate entrepreneurial behavior that helps revitalize and jumpstart the local economy, making for stronger and more resilient communities

Originality/value. This study borrows from Effectuation Theory from the entrepreneurship field in order to bring a much needed theoretical lens to the topic and greatly assists informal volunteerism research, moving from past efforts that simply define and categorize the concept.

Purpose. Examine and understand how an informal volunteer’s goals and actions develop from the moment they first learn about a disaster.

Design/methodology/approach. We examine informal volunteerism (the activities of people who work outside of formal emergency and disaster management arrangements) through the theoretical lens of entrepreneurial effectuation to explain informal volunteer behavior and cognition and gain insight on how they develop their disaster relief ventures.

Findings. We find that informal volunteers follow an effectual logic, relying on available means to take advantage of opportunities as they are recognized or created. Application of effectuation vs causation processes depended on whether the informal volunteers were categorized as traditional, emergent or extended volunteers.

Practical implications. Informal volunteers’ disregard for the Affordable Loss Principle task governments and disaster relief organizations with the important challenge of managing and assuring the safety and well-being of informal volunteers. Their entrepreneurial behavior also invites the establishment of formal processes to counsel and guide informal volunteers, helping them fill out the necessary paperwork and funding applications to develop their efforts.

Social implications. Through their experimentation and flexibility, informal volunteers accelerate disaster recovery, recognizing opportunities, working around bureaucracy and other roadblocks that hinder the efforts of established organizations. They also demonstrate entrepreneurial behavior that helps revitalize and jumpstart the local economy, making for stronger and more resilient communities

Originality/value. This study borrows from Effectuation Theory from the entrepreneurship field in order to bring a much needed theoretical lens to the topic and greatly assists informal volunteerism research, moving from past efforts that simply define and categorize the concept.

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role exposure to digital fabrication technology plays in the development of students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and intentions.

Design/methodology/approach. Data were collected from 131 students enrolled in a business administration undergraduate program at a large Midwestern university in the USA. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

Findings. Results provide evidence on how exposure to and hands-on experience with digital manufacturing technology in universities can have a positive impact on students’ ESE and intentions to become entrepreneurs.

Practical implications. Results support initiatives by business schools and entrepreneurship programs to invest in digital manufacturing technology as they help increase students’ confidence in their technological and entrepreneurial abilities.

Originality/value. This is the first study that directly looks at the role that exposure to digital technology in a business and entrepreneurship education program has on students’ ESE and intentions.

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to contribute a deeper understanding of how natural disasters influence entrepreneurial intentionality as an important antecedent of entrepreneurial intention. It reviews the conceptual and operational backgrounds of natural disaster research and entrepreneurship theories and formulates a distinctive conceptual approach to entrepreneurial intentions in natural disaster settings.

Design/methodology/approach. An exhaustive review of research articles published in peer-reviewed entrepreneurship journals is provided and focuses on entrepreneurship, natural disasters, and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Findings. Six propositions about the influence of natural disasters on entrepreneurial intentions in ways that are distinct to the specific circumstances of post-disaster environments.

Research limitations/implications. The paper’s findings serve as a useful foundation for future research of post-disaster entrepreneurial behavior. The propositions highlight the relationship between opportunities, self-efficacy, feasibility, desirability, fear of failure, and resilience that complement macro-level research with micro-level antecedents. Implications entail new methodological avenues for future studies of humanitarian and post-disaster entrepreneurial activities.

Practical implications. This paper suggests ways in which public policy and educational, state and community programs can be designed and executed so that entrepreneurial intentions are developed and entrepreneurial action is not hindered. Moreover, it clarifies several ways to achieve more effective action (or inaction) to serve those affected by natural disasters and minimize disaffection.

Originality/value. The study illustrates that natural disasters can and do create opportunities for entrepreneurial behavior even as they generate powerful and sweeping negative effects on socioeconomic systems. Its unique approach explores individual-level variables concerning intent and motivation that drive entrepreneurial decisions in disaster contexts.

There is plenty of debate in the entrepreneurship literature regarding entrepreneurial opportunity. There also has been a lack of construct clarity. These two issues have combined to stifle progress in understanding this important phenomenon. We believe that across these debates there are many underlying commonalities and potential for more clear constructs. In this article, we review how scholars have defined and operationalized entrepreneurial opportunity and opportunity-related processes in order to better understand what they really mean when they say ‘opportunity’. We found a total of 102 definitions and 51 operationalizations from 105 articles published in leading entrepreneurship and management journals. A total of 81 elements were identified across the definitions and operationalizations and compiled into an integrated process model. The model incorporates what seemed to be disparate views into a single unifying model. Comparison between conceptual definitions and operationalizations reveals many elements that are missing either conceptual or empirical attention. The model will help scholars more easily identify and build upon prior research. To that effect, numerous suggestions for future research are discussed and are summarized in a table.

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changes in perceptions and actions taken on post-disaster entrepreneurial opportunities.

Design/methodology/approach. Utilizing worldwide data on natural disasters (EMDAT) and entrepreneurial perceptions (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)), the authors apply analysis of covariance to compare entrepreneurial opportunity perceptions and actions before and after a disaster took place.

Findings. The study found that natural disasters have a significant and positive impact on entrepreneurial opportunity perceptions and actions but not on perceptions of self-efficacy, fear of failure and entrepreneurial intentions.

Research limitations implications. One limitation of the study is the use of the secondary data. While the GEM data as well as the EMDAT data are country specific, disasters usually have a direct impact on a region of a country rather than affecting the whole country’s behavior.

Practical implications. The results hold important policy implications. The fact that disasters increase entrepreneurial action implies that local government institutions should include entrepreneurial action as part of the post-disaster recovery process. By providing assistance and access to resources, government institutions could further increase entrepreneurial action and could increase the number of opportunities perceived by individuals which would lead to new and innovative businesses, in addition to the rebuilding of pre-existing firms.

Originality/value. Natural disasters are frequently considered to be the cause of small business failures or an obstacle to their performance, while simultaneously thought to be a vital component of post-disaster reconstruction. To date, few researchers have attempted to understand the impact of these events on entrepreneurial tendencies, behaviors and activities, even though the authors barely understand how they could serve as a source of entrepreneurial opportunity and innovation. This research is one of the first attempts to shed some light into this interesting and important phenomenon.

Purpose. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the development of entrepreneurial opportunities within the context of environmentally‐sustainable business. The “4P” creativity framework (person, process, press/situation, and product) was used.

Design/methodology/approach. Three cases were used to examine opportunity development. Each case involved an entrepreneur in the process of starting a new environmentally‐friendly business. The entrepreneurs were interviewed on a weekly basis.

Findings. Findings suggest that the 4Ps are useful framework for examining entrepreneurial opportunity development. Furthermore, they are strongly interrelated.

Research limitations/implications. Given their inherent creative nature, a creativity perspective is useful for examining opportunities. Additionally, the findings suggest that future research should consider the interaction within the constellation of creative factors – person, process, press and product – when using a creativity perspective.

Originality/value. This study provides one of the few accounts of the development of entrepreneurial opportunities in which data were collected contemporaneously.

We examined 19 years worth of definitions of entrepreneurial opportunity and opportunity-related processes. We found 56 articles in six entrepreneurship-focused publications, with a total of 49 conceptual definitions and 32 operational definitions. Among those definitions, we identified 25 distinct conceptual and 12 operational elements of opportunity plus 48 conceptual and 39 operational elements of opportunity-related processes. We found considerable fragmentation across conceptual and operational elements. However, based on commonalities among conceptual definitions, we developed six composite conceptual definitions of opportunity and eight composite conceptual definitions of opportunity-related processes, which we hope will help reduce the fragmentation of the entrepreneurial opportunity literature.

Social entrepreneurship has only recently been studied and a comprehensive model of how it works is unknown. This paper presents a case analysis of various international social entrepreneurs to understand how social entrepreneurship opportunity recognition can be mapped and differentiated from commercial entrepreneurship by applying the creativity model of opportunity recognition. The study reveals that social entrepreneurs follow the creative opportunity recognition process, although some stages may include different activities. This paper hopes to begin the discussion of how to bring developed theory into the new realm of social entrepreneurship. Research propositions are provided in order to highlight future research opportunities.