Self‐efficacy and Success of Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs: The Moderating Role of Resilience

• Author: Alberto Ferraris,Manlio Del Giudice,Gabriele Santoro,Francesco Schiavone
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12394
• Date: 01 September 2020
• Published date: 01 September 2020

Self-efficacy and Success of Disadvantaged

Entrepreneurs: The Moderating Role

of Resilience

GABRIELE SANTORO,

1

ALBERTO FERRARIS,

1,2

MANLIO DEL GIUDICE

3,4

and FRANCESCO SCHIAVONE

4,5

1

Department of Management, University of Torino, Corso Unione Sovietica, 218 bis,10134, Turin, Italy

2

Research Fellow of the Laboratory for International and Regional Economics, Graduate School of Economics and

Management, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

3

University of Rome “LinkCampus”, Via Nomentana, 335, 00162, Rome, Italy

4

Paris School of Business, 59 rue Nationale, 75013, Paris, France

5

Francerthenope University of Naples, Via Generale Parisi, 13, 80132,Naples, Italy

This paper aims to explore the antecedentsof success in the context of entrepreneurs with specific disadvantages,

namely those with physical challenges, and those with mental limitations, such as dyslexia and attention deficit-

hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). With a sample of 114 disadvantaged entrepreneurs located in Italy, the research

exploresthe relationship betweenself-efficacy and entrepreneurial success (both at the individual and businesslevel)

and the moderating role of individual resilience. Implementing OLS analysis, findings suggest that self-efficacy and

resilienceimprove individual success of entrepreneursand that their joint effect is positive. Slightly differently, it has

not been founda positive direct impactof resilience on businesssuccess, while the moderatingeffect is significantand

positive. We compare the results with findings from a sample of non-disadvantaged entrepreneurs (108) thus

providing diverse implications, opening up a debate around the different antecedents (and relative effects) of

entrepreneur success at individual and business level.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; disadvantaged entrepreneurship; resilience; self-efficacy

Introduction

Entrepreneurship has acted as engine in globaleconomies

as a meaning of morejobs, innovations, growth andsocial

integration. In spite of the augmented concern about

alternative aspects of entrepreneurship, such as social

and gender-based entrepreneurship behaviour, there are

still research voids regarding entrepreneurship among

disadvantaged individuals. The term ‘disadvantaged

entrepreneurship’does not have a consistent defi nition.

Scholarshave traditionally included women,unemployed,

ex-prisoners, ethnic minorities, immigrants, and disabled

people within disadvantaged entrepreneurs (see for

example Marlow and Patton, 2005; Hart and Acs, 2011).

Within the entrepreneurship literature, there is

consistent agreement that positive and environmental

factors can actually foster entrepreneurship (Hornsby

et al., 1993; Amankwa h-Amoah et al., 2019). However,

it is still not clear whether hard and alternative

circumstances may provide entrepreneurs with stimulus

and pushes towards entrepreneurial ideas and paths to

success. In this regard, recent studies suggest that,

surprisingly, success drivers of entrepreneurship can

regard serious life challenges rather than positive

situations or favourable dynamics (Miller and Le

Breton-Miller, 2017; Seguí-Mas et al., 2018).

Nevertheless, we know very little about entrepreneurship

among disadvantaged individuals and their

psychological traits that can lead to entrepreneurial

success.

Following studies that are going in this research

direction, this paper has the primary purposeof exploring

the antecedents of success in the context of entrepreneurs

Correspondence: Gabriele Santoro, Department of Management,

University of Torino, Corso Unione Sovietica, 218 bis, 10134 Turin,

Italy.E-mail: gabriele.santoro@unito.it

European Management Review, Vol. 17, 719–732, (2020)

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12394

© 2020 European Academy of Management