Towards understanding nascent entrepreneurship: a theory of planned behavior perspective

Abstract

Purpose:

Nascent entrepreneurship is an important phenomenon that has received significant attention in recent years due to the contributions of new venture creation to the national and global economies. Furthermore, nascent entrepreneurship research is overwhelmingly quantitative and does not fully capture the experience of being a nascent entrepreneur. The purpose of this thesis is to explore this gap by extending quantitative nascent research through the use of a single-case qualitative approach in order to understand how a Finnish musician-entrepreneur experiences nascent entrepreneurship. Achieving an understanding of how an entrepreneur experiences nascent entrepreneurship is achieved by analyzing a single nascent entrepreneur's short and long-term planning behaviors through the lens of the theory of planned behavior.

Design/methodology/approach:

Using an interpretive and instrumental qualitative single case study approach, and an abductive research process; the planning behavior of one nascent entrepreneur is studied.

Findings:

Four empirical findings result in two theoretical contributions to nascent entrepreneurship literature regarding how an entrepreneur experiences nascent entrepreneurship. Firstly, emotions are shown to be a fundamental and important antecedent of intentions, and are incorporated into the framework of the theory of planned behavior. Secondly, the study of a nascent entrepreneur's short- and long-term planning activities yields 4 findings that, when taken together, increase our understanding of how an entrepreneur experiences nascent entrepreneurship.

Originality/value:

There exist few qualitative studies in nascent entrepreneurship research. Also, this thesis applies a novel approach to studying nascent entrepreneurs by examining the case of a single nascent musician-entrepreneur's short- and long-term planning activities through the lens of the theory of planned behavior.