What Affects Nascent Entrepreneurs’ Proactiveness

Dumin Zhao

Associate Professor

Jiangsu University of Science and Technology

No.2 Mengxi Road, Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province, 212003, P.R. China

Tel. +86 15105290898

E-mail: zhaodumin@126.com

David Smallbone

Professor, Associate Director of the Small Business Research Centre

KHBS412, Kingston Business School, Kingston University, Kingston Hill, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 7LB, UK.

Tel. +44(0)20 8417 9000 Ext: 65218

E-mail: D.Smallbone@kingston.ac.uk

Abstract:Proactiveness is a pervasive phenomenon in entrepreneurial organisations, however, the existing literatures mainly focus on entrepreneurial orientation, proactiveness is only regarded as one dimension of EO, and most studies on EO are at the level of firm, not the inpidual. Based on effectuation theory, this study utilized data from CPSED and examined the antecedents of nascent entrepreneurs’ proactiveness. We find that entrepreneurial experience has a positive effect on nascent entrepreneurs’ proactiveness while management education and systematic search have negative effect. These findings add to the effectuation and entrepreneurial proactiveness literatures.