Entrepreneurial minds, bodies and behaviours
Understanding entrepreneurs better using theories in psychology and sociology to investigate entrepreneurial phenomena.
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Entrepreneurship carries social and economic importance. The way entrepreneurs think and behave shapes their opportunities, business models/offers, and whether/how they grow and innovate. How entrepreneurs think and behave is in turn influenced by internal factors – their emotions, attitudes, experiences, values, identities and mindsets – as well as external factors – particularly the communities entrepreneurs belong to and/or reside in, the resources they are able to access, interactions with different stakeholders, macroeconomic forces and crisis events.
Examples of work carried out in the IMS touching on these themes include entrepreneurial resilience in the context of a crisis and in relation to creative work and managing sustainable/green businesses; entrepreneurial values and identities in marginalised groups; the development of professional identities and careers in different groups of entrepreneurs.
IMS staff have published studies on entrepreneurship in a range of high-quality entrepreneurship and management journals – e.g., Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, International Small Business Journal, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Journal of World Business, Organizational Research Methods, and Journal of Business Research.
IMS staff have received funding from the public, private and charitable sectors to study entrepreneurship and regularly do public talks and media work to disseminate their ideas and research on entrepreneurship in an effort to bring research and practice closer together.