2020 journal article
An agentic perspective of resourcefulness: Self-reliant and joint resourcefulness behaviors within the entrepreneurship process
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS VENTURING, 37(1).
author keywords: Resources; Bootstrapping; Self-regulation; Self-reliant; Agency
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
1. No Poverty
(Web of Science)
5. Gender Equality
(Web of Science)
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
(OpenAlex)
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
(Web of Science)
Source: Web Of Science
Added: January 3, 2022
We integrate social cognitive theory, and its tenets of personal and collective agency, to develop an individual-level perspective on entrepreneurs' resourcefulness behaviors that illustrates how resourcefulness behaviors can be classified as ‘self-reliant behaviors’ or ‘joint resourcefulness behaviors’. Using this novel cognitive theoretical approach, we provide and test a framework that explains how dispositional, perceptual, and behavioral factors interact in the enactment of purposeful action with regards to entrepreneurs' resourceful behaviors. Consistent with our hypotheses, results from a quantitative study of entrepreneurs (N = 178), as well as a supplemental study involving qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs (N = 15), highlight that entrepreneurs higher in frugality tend to perceive higher levels of environmental hostility. This relationship, in turn, leads to higher amounts of self-reliant resourcefulness behaviors (i.e., customer-related and internal self-financing bootstrapping behaviors) but not joint resourcefulness behaviors. Multiple theoretical and practical contributions emerge from our findings as the extant literature does not yet account for human agency as a reason why some entrepreneurs may choose to engage in certain resourceful behaviors relative to other behaviors.