Call for paper: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research (Entrepreneurial Ecosystem meets Entrepreneurial Behaviour: Putting the ‘Entrepreneur’ at the Core )

Entrepreneurial behaviour literature offers fertile background to incorporate the entrepreneur’s behavioural and decision-making processes into the ecosystem approach and put the entrepreneur at the core of the system as the primary agent who establishes a firm and runs it. Accordingly, how an entrepreneur’s personal traits, logical thinking, cognitive functions that determine the decision-making process play a role in the set-up and evolution of an ecosystem is largely unknown. Likewise, the role of a well-functioning EE in shaping the behavioural aspects of an entrepreneur in different ways is also not much known. Studying individual level behaviour from different perspectives in an ecosystem is crucial since it also paves the way for studying the co-evolving top-down and bottom-up approaches to the making of an EE. While culture, institutions and governance-driven approach to the development of an EE is important, the shaping of an EE by the entrepreneur is not a trivial issue and entrepreneurs’ mindsets are particularly important for sustainable development and fostering of EEs.

Such a task of combining micro and macro levels or adopting a multilevel approach to integrating systems approaches with behavioural approaches in entrepreneurship is no mean feat, both conceptually and empirically. This Special Issue aims to pave the way for new conceptual models, methodological novelties and new empirical insights and advance the field of entrepreneurship.

List of Topic Areas

We invite original contributions that add to and enhance the extant literatures of entrepreneurial behaviour and entrepreneurial ecosystems. We encourage submissions focused on, but not limited to, the following premises:

Theoretical/conceptual approaches integrating entrepreneurial cognition, decision making, orientation and behaviour into entrepreneurial ecosystem frameworks. We’d encourage scholars to consider integration of seminal theories when generating new conceptual framework to better understand the role of entrepreneurial behaviour, as input or as output or reciprocal and co-evolving, with the ecosystem.

Applicable behaviour-driven theories are, but not limited to:

Behavioural strategy perspectives such as Entrepreneurial Orientation Theory (Lumpkin and Dess, 1996; Covin et al., 2020; Clark et al, 2024a, 2024b) that offers a measurable scale of behavioural dimensions.
Need for Achievement (McClelland, 2015), Locus of Control (Rotter, 1971), Personal Values (Liñán et al., 2026) or The Big Five (Goldberg, 1992, 2013; McCrae and Costa, 1999) trait and personality-based theories which focus on relatively stable individual characteristics and argue that entrepreneurs are driven by a strong desire to achieve challenging goals and believe that outcomes result from their own actions rather than external forces.
Entrepreneurial Intention Models such as Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; 2011) that examines psychological traits of behaviour such as intentions, perceptions and actions and can bridge motivation and actual start-up behaviour or specifically Liñán’s Entrepreneurial Intention Model (Liñán and Chen, 2009; Liñán et al., 2011) which study the effects of learning on developing intentions on students.
Cognitive and decision-making theories such as Opportunity Recognition, Discovery and Creation Theory (Kirzner, 1967; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000; Alvarez and Barney, 2007) contending entrepreneurial behaviour stems from recognising or creating opportunities; Entrepreneurial Cognition Theory (Mitchell et al., 2002) highlighting entrepreneurs use distinctive mental models, heuristics, and scripts.
Action-Oriented Theories such as Effectuation Theory (Sarasvathy, 2001, 2008) which shifts focus from traits to what entrepreneurs do with available means, and Entrepreneurship as Practice with a focus on everyday actions and routines of entrepreneurs.
Human Capital Theory (Becker, 1992) that argues knowledge and skills shape individual behaviour and therefore can help explain capability-driven behavioural differences.

Applicable system-driven theories are, but not limited to:

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Theory (Isenberg, 2011; Stam, 2015; Spigel, 2017; Spigel and Harrison, 2018) which states productive entrepreneurship is an output of well-functioning ecosystem which in turn can lead to socioeconomic wellbeing (Wurth et al., 2022).
Institutional Theory (North, 1990, 1993; Scott, 1987, 2005) that positions entrepreneurial behaviour as embedded in the institutional environment, not purely individual.
Social Capital Theory (Bourdieu, 1977, 1990; Putnam, 1993) and Social Embeddedness Theory (Granovetter and Action, 1985) which embed economic action, culture and behavioural heterogeneity in social relationships and relational assets in a system (Spigel, 2013).
Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1979, 1984) Strong Structuration Theory (Stones, 2005, 2014) that explain how agency and structure interact.
Distributed Agency Theory (Rammert, 2008, 2025) which advocates behaviour emerging from interactions among actors, institutions, and resources in technology-driven environments.

Applicable context-specific approaches are, but not limited to:

Evolutionary Economic Geography (Alvedalen and Boschma, 2017) that proposes economic (entrepreneurial) behaviour evolves through path dependence and regional learning and is shaped by historical trajectories and industrial legacies and differs widely in different geographical contexts.
Feminist and Gendered Institutions Theory (Jennings and Brush, 2013) that suggests entrepreneurial behaviour is socially constructed and gendered (Liñán et al., 2024) and adds an inclusivity lens to ecosystem-behaviour integration.
Necessity, opportunity, purpose-driven entrepreneurs in deprived areas for their behavioural aspects in becoming part of a system or indeed enacting a system.
Disabled and older entrepreneurs for their behavioural aspects to become part of a system.

Methodological approaches integrating entrepreneurial cognition, decision making, orientation and behaviour into entrepreneurial ecosystem frameworks.

Unidimensional or multidimensional quantitative operationalisation of entrepreneurial behaviour and ecosystem measures.
Scale developments that integrate entrepreneurial behaviour into entrepreneurial ecosystem frameworks.
Methodology papers that address pros and cons of quantitative and qualitative methods in empirical testing/building of integrated entrepreneurial ecosystem and behaviour frameworks.
Methodology papers that introduce and discuss selected qualitative and/or quantitative techniques for their superiority in theory building or empirical testing of integrated entrepreneurial ecosystem and behaviour frameworks.

Submission Information

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Author guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.