Special issue: From higher education to new venture creation – Unpacking the entrepreneurship process

Entrepreneurship is the result of planned activities and random occurrences, of predetermined actions and rash decisions, of personal inclinations and social expectations. For these reasons, scholars worldwide are increasingly inclined to talk about ‘entrepreneuring’ (Johannisson, 2011; Steyaert, 2007) or entrepreneurial processes (Dimov, 2018; Leyden and Link, 2015), thus confirming the idea that entrepreneurship is not a spot phenomenon, but that it needs some time to reveal itself (Matricano, 2020; McMullen and Dimov, 2013). There has been a consistent increase in theoretical and empirical contributions addressing entrepreneurial processes (Hjorth et al., 2015; Pryor et al., 2016), albeit following a variety of research paths. Some scholars (Bygrave, 2004; Hisrich and Peters, 2002) refer to the descriptive model – proposed by Moore (1986) – along which different events (such as innovation, triggering events, implementation and growth) are generated. Other scholars (Grégoire and Shepherd, 2012; Haynie et al., 2009) instead recall the normative models – proposed by Timmons (1989) – including entrepreneurs (or their teams), opportunities and resources. Whatever the approach (descriptive or normative), other scholars have focused their attention on specific elements that need to be considered because they both enable the generalization of entrepreneurial processes and characterize them. Entrepreneurial processes are dynamic (Nassif et al., 2010) and dependent on an individual’s motivation (Shane et al., 2003) and characteristics (Matricano, 2016). They result from serendipity (Dew, 2009), combine risk and rationality (Miller, 2007), and require fitting individuals and external context (Anderson, 2000). The relevance of external context is among the most investigated topics (Moroz and Hindle, 2012; Zahra and Wright, 2011), since it is expected to exert a noticeable impact on entrepreneurial processes. The setting in which entrepreneurial processes take place, in fact, affects their dynamics, an individual’s motivation and the role of serendipity. In particular, it is very important to know if entrepreneurial processes take place in favourable or hostile, limited or broad contexts. Among the possible settings, this special issue of Industry and Higher Education focuses attention on educational institutions, such as high schools, business schools or universities. In these institutions, aspiring entrepreneurs perceive the context in a peculiar way. Young students typically have had no prior direct experiences in entrepreneurship and so the importance of classes, teachers and dedicated programmes is unquestionable. The papers included in this special issue investigate and reveal the role that educational institutions can play with regard to entrepreneurial processes. Despite the differences emerging in empirical research (different kinds of institutions, working in different countries and addressing students of different ages), the contributions consistently confirm the importance of that role and demonstrate how they can support and foster entrepreneurial processes.