28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

4018.1 Cross-cultural issues of entrepreneurship: Data and speculations, M. Frese, University
of Giessen and London Business School, Giessen, Germany
A meta-analysis of studies on strategy process characteristics and entrepreneurial success in 8
countries is presented. It was showed that there are general relationships and a need to look for
cross-cultural moderators. Uncertainty avoidance is clearly present as one cross-cultural moderator.
Planning and proactivity are effective in cultures with a high degree of uncertainty avoidance. A
number of hypotheses and speculations with four cultures are discussed: Thailand, South Africa,
China, and Germany. The GLOBE data are used as cross-cultural indices to be related to
entrepreneurial actions and entrepreneurial outcomes. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor will
be incorporated into this discussion.
4018.2 Innovativeness in high-technology firms in Taiwan, K. Leung 1 , K.L. Huang 2 , 1 City
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; 2 Tamkang University, Taipei, China
The innovation literature in the West suggests that many barriers to individual innovativeness may
be characteristic of Chinese cultures, such as authoritarian leadership and an instrumental view of
innovation and creativity. A study was conducted in Taiwan to investigate if the processes
underlying individual innovativeness in the high-tech firms display some Chinese characteristics.
Mid-level employees participated, and the effects of leadership styles and implicit theories of
innovation on individual innovativeness were assessed. The results show that most relationships
are consistent with predictions of Western theories, although some seem uniquely Chinese.
Implications for a general theory of individual innovativeness are discussed.
4018.3 Small firm growth and key approaches to entrepreneurship ability, P. Davidsson,
Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping, Sweden
Starting from assumptions of uncertainty and heterogeneity, the scholarly domain of
entrepreneurship encompasses the processes of emergence of new business ventures, across
organizational contexts. This entails the study of the origin and characteristics of venture ideas as
well as their contextual fit; of behaviors in the interrelated processes of discovery of such ideas,
and of how the ideas and behaviors link to different antecedents and outcomes on different levels
of analysis. Recent studies showed that for entrepreneurs, using the discovery ability and resource
frugality could create value to gain financial support for growth and to enhance entrepreneurship
ability.
4018.4 The start-ups of hi-tech ventures in the People’s Republic of China, K.F. Chan, Hong
Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
This paper is intended to examine what, how and why small high-tech ventures start up their
business, with particular reference to the start up environment and the competence profile of the
entrepreneur in the start up process. Two case studies of high-tech ventures were conducted in
China Mainland. Results confirmed that the practice of sub-contracting/outsourcing to outside
manufacturing partners at the start up stage is common among private entrepreneurs. The context
during transition period in the Mainland offers strong explanation for such strategy while
managerial competence of private entrepreneurs provides another cue of their preferred start-up
style.
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