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Purpose: Preventing business failure remains a significant challenge for small businesses in the Netherlands. Given their importance for the Dutch economy, understanding the causes of business failure and equipping business owners with strategies for resilience is imperative. This dissertation seeks to address this challenge by examining the sales role of business owners, referred to as ‘Entrepreneurial Selling,’ within the context of small-scale Dutch businesses. The goal is to identify how business owners can develop effective sales behaviors to mitigate the risk of failure and enhance the long-term viability of their businesses. The research into Entrepreneurial Selling is rising, yet further advancements, including this dissertation, are required to better support business owners in their continuous sales responsibilities. The main research question, therefore, is: How do small-scale business owners in the Netherlands behave in their Entrepreneurial Selling role and how can they become more effective in their sales behavior? Methods: To address the research question, a multimethod research approach is utilized. The research design comprises a literature review, three progressively linked studies, and practical applications. The first study (Chapter 4) involves a content re-analysis of 55 interviews to underscore the pivotal nature of Entrepreneurial Selling in preventing business failure. The second study (Chapter 5) conducts 12 semi-structured interviews, employing thematic analysis to categorize business owners' sales behaviors based on their entrepreneurial motivations. In the third study (Chapter 6), quantitative methods are employed (N=276) to explore the relationship between Entrepreneurial Selling Role Orientation (ESRO) and effective sales behavior. These studies provide the foundation for the practical applications developed in collaboration with practitioners (Chapter 7).Findings: The first study found that Entrepreneurial Selling is a crucial activity for preventing business failure and one that business owners recognize. Reasons for underperformance can include business owners allocating inadequate time to selling, deficient sales skills, and procrastination of sales activities. The subsequent studies build on this foundation. The second study introduces an Entrepreneurial Selling typology, linking business owners' motivations with their sales role strategies, offering insights into how motivations influence sales behavior. The third study introduces the concept of ESRO and substantiates its impact on sales behavior. Furthermore, a positive connection is identified between sales training and effective sales practices. The findings of the studies are individually applied to Sarasvathy’s Bird-in-Hand principle of Effectuation theory and are synthesized within the Entrepreneurial Selling Matrix. Originality/Value: This dissertation contributes to the Entrepreneurial Selling field by advancing our understanding of the business owners’ sales role in enhancing business resilience. It underscores the connection between ineffective sales practices and business failure and delves deeper by investigating the interplay between entrepreneurial motives and ESRO on sales behavior. Additionally, this study bridges the gap between entrepreneurship- and sales research by applying the Bird-in-Hand principle to business owners' sales behavior. In practical terms, the research's outcomes are twofold. First, it refines the Entrepreneurial Selling Matrix, providing a pragmatic typology that aids sales training practitioners in guiding business owners toward aligning sales behaviors with entrepreneurial goals. Second, it introduces an Entrepreneurial Selling Training Program, accompanied by tools, facilitating sales trainers in evaluating and improving current and desired sales behaviors. This practical approach contributes directly to nurturing resilient and thriving businesses.
Despite the increase in the number of entrepreneurship initiatives and interventions, there is a poor understanding of the range of entrepreneurship programs in secondary education and their learning objectives. This study provides insight into the current supply of entrepreneurship programs and their underlying pedagogy in secondary education in the Netherlands. To examine existing offerings and their underlying pedagogy, we used the 11 design principles of Baggen, Lans, and Gulikers (2021). Data were collected from three different sources for triangulation purposes - data from Vecon Business Schools (VBS) application forms, interviews with VBS schools, and documents and additional information (student ratings, learning goals, missions, and visions). Our findings show that schools offer mostly causation-oriented and traditional entrepreneurship programs, in which there is little room for effectuation-oriented education. Also, due to the lack of a clearly stated mission, vision and learning goals of entrepreneurship education, schools pay little attention to the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurship skills/intentions. However, we observe that schools acknowledge this and slowly design and offer entrepreneurship programs more consciously.
Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education is generally viewed upon as being important for economic growth in the 21st century. Teaching entrepreneurship however seems to need another approach to fulfill the changing needs. In this perspective active learning and constructivism is generally seen as essential. Other elements that are influencing the teaching process are attention for competences, culture, the needs of the student and the curriculum. So the design of the curriculum must address these changing demands of society. Effectuation, constructivism and andragogy are the key elements for the curriculum to meet the criteria for delivering sustainable and flexible professionals to society. Based on practical experiences in the last decades in the Region of Twente, elements for an entrepreneurial curriculum are elaborated in this article.
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Although dozens of empirical studies have been published on effectuation as a whole, much work remains to be done on elaborating each principle in more depth. Based on an exploratory study of seven ventures from the Caribbean island of Curacao, this paper develops an elaborated process model of the affordable loss heuristic in effectuation. The model breaks affordable loss into two components—ability and willingness, and connects these to the concept of loss aversion from prospect theory. Furthermore, these components are encapsulated in a process involving identity, affect, and resourcefulness leading to the entry-stage entrepreneurial investment decision.
Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education is seen by all kind of people to be important for economic growth. Teaching entrepreneurship needs another approach. Active learning and the constructivism is mostly seen as essential. Other elements that are influencing the teaching process are the competences, the culture and the teacher. So the teacher must be capable of using other methods and theory as he is used to. Effectuation, constructivism and andragogy are the key elements for the training of entrepreneurial teachers. From that perspective there has been made an education program that will start in September 2013 for teachers at universities of applied science. Until that time there are being held some minor experiments on parts of the program.
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Purpose: A model is developed to analyse what personality traits impact entrepreneurial cognitive and social strategic decision-making skills, originating from the effectuation framework. Design/methodology/approach: 128 participants from an entrepreneurial pre-launch programme were assessed by experienced incubator and business coaches. Personality was measured by a Big Five test. Based on a confirmatory factor analysis, the relationships were analysed between personality and three core dimensions of the effectuation framework: 1) the bird-in-hand principle, 2) the crazy quilt principle and 3) the pilot in the plane principle. Findings: Specific patterns (moderation effects) as opposed to levels of personality traits proved to be relevant. The bird-in-hand and the crazy quilt principles are related to the moderating effect between sensitivity to feedback, sociability and ambition. The pilot in the plane principle was related to the whole pattern of entrepreneurial key qualities embedded in the extraversion domain. Furthermore, relationships of personality with key issues in the effectuation framework were found, examples being reflecting on a high diversity of means or on own talents, conducting a thorough risk analysis and engaging in inspirational networking. The final model revealed a direct positive influence of the capacity to conduct a thorough risk analysis on the overall capacity to apply the effectuation principles. Originality/value: The research results offer deeper insights for the mobilisation and development of complex entrepreneurial behaviours. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-06-2019-0343 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-hensel-phd-8ba44a43/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-visser-4591034/
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