Congratulations to Melvin Haas for achieving his PhD!

Abstract

The topic of entrepreneurship, i.e. the process surrounding the identication and exploitation of opportunities by an individual, has received a great amount of interest from scholars throughout the last decades. Theoretical lenses from disciplines as varied as psychology, economics, strategy and sociology have been successfully employed in entrepreneurship research, greatly increasing our understanding particularly of high-growth businesses funded by venture capital. Yet, surprisingly little is know about the large number of individuals desiring to become self-employed facing less fortunate circumstances than the glamorous fast-growing enterprises dominating the public perception of entrepreneurial activity. This dissertation aims to shed light on three critical research questions surrounding entrepreneurship occurring in unfavorable circumstances, employing individual, environmental, as well as public-policy perspectives.

The rst article reviews and reconceptualizes necessity entrepreneurship, suggesting a clear denition of the phenomenon and proposing to differentiate between an absolute versus a relative form of necessity. This perspective allows resolving several inconsistencies in the prior literature and promises a better understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of rm creation under unfavorable circumstances. While absolute necessity is evoked predominantly by certain environmental parameters, relative necessity results from negative situational inuences. It is suggested that the entrepreneurial process differs for individuals driven by necessity compared to their non-necessity driven counterparts, as well as between necessity in its absolute- and its relative form.

The second research study focuses on a previously neglected outcome measure of entrepreneurship, the phenomenon of work satisfaction for the self-employed. Self-employment has repeatedly been associated with high rates of work satisfaction in prior studies. Although different explanations for this phenomenon have been offered, the drivers of work satisfaction in entrepreneurship are still largely unknown to date. This study reveals that the individual’s psychological makeup as well as the social support that the founder receives when starting his/her company are signicant predictors of entrepreneurial work satisfaction. The implications of these ndings for the entrepreneurship and job satisfaction literatures are discussed.

The last research study subsequently changes the focal unit of analysis to the public policy level. The current self-employment support programs within a number of European countries are analyzed and compared, revealing the key policy dimensions with regards to their administrative structure, the program eligibility and admission criteria, the practices related to the provision of nancial as well as non-nancial support. An examination of contrasting policy approaches led to the discovery of three distinct policy strategies that have been implemented by the governmental institutions studied in this work. Several insights have been revealed by this research project which are likely to be of relevance also for policymakers in places where similar programs are absent thus far.

Keywords: necessity entrepreneurship, self-employment, unfavorable circumstances, unemployment, individual factors, personality traits, environmental inuences,
theory, conceptual model, work satisfaction, job satisfaction, social support, cofounders, outcome measures, policy support, governmental contribution, political
strategy, international comparison