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Why is Germany less entrepreneurial? A behavioral reasoning perspective

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Abstract

This study uses empirical data collected from the entrepreneurial working environments to examine and reason the effect of entrepreneurial behaviors on the stagnation of entrepreneurship in Germany and how these behaviors are influenced by the national cultural characteristics, practices and values. Using ethnographic research techniques and Grounded Theory method, we observe that the entrepreneurial behaviors—in the context of managing adversities for the first time—are impacted by the German cultural practices and characteristics: (1) “Do-it-Yourself” culture, (2) perfectionism and (3) social trust issues. Consequently, we suggest that these practices reflect the relevance of the behaviors’ reasoning to uncertainty avoidance and risk aversion as cultural values in Germany. This study describes and reasons the behaviors of entrepreneurs in their early venturing stage, and contributes to the new area of research that seeks more links between the entrepreneurial behaviors and the cultural values, and how both impact the entrepreneurial growth and success.

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Source: www.coworking.de/

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Availability of data and material

The data collected for this research is available for the entity that has funded the research, “Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, Hamm, Germany”.

Code availability

Software application used for data analysis is ATLAS.ti under the Reference Number: 128661862.

Notes

  1. Countless studies have based their research using famous theories, such as the “theory of planned behavior”, but they could not interpret or reason the behaviors of entrepreneurs in different contexts and different conditions like analysing the entrepreneurs’ response to adversities or hardships they face for the first time when becoming entrepreneurs. Consequently, finding reasons behind entrepreneurial behaviors is rather absent in the current research stream (Calza et al. 2020).

  2. “The conditional matrix represents a set of levels in 8 concentric circles, each level ‘corresponding to different aspects of the world’ pertaining to a phenomenon (Strauss and Corbin 1990, p. 161). Moving from the outer circle to the inner the levels are (Strauss and Corbin 1990, p. 163): International, National, Community, Organizational and Institutional, Sub-Organizational and Sub-Institutional, Group, Individual, Collective, Interaction, Action.” (Partington 2000).

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  1. The Institute for Development Strategies, Indiana University, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, 1315 East 10th Street, SPEA Room 201, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Maha Aly

  2. Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

    Galal Galal-Edeen

  3. University College London, London, UK

    Galal Galal-Edeen

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Aly, M., Galal-Edeen, G. Why is Germany less entrepreneurial? A behavioral reasoning perspective. J Technol Transf 46, 1376–1416 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09823-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09823-4

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