Beyond pioneers and followers. A typology of entrepreneurial behaviours for hostile environments’

Entrepreneurial behaviors in hostile environments are researched using a two-step approach: identifying sources of effective entrepreneurial action and developing a research design on firms striving to survive in a hostile environment. Survey data was collected on 213 manufacturing and service firms in Calabria, Italy. According to the Fraser Institute Index of Economic Freedom for Europe, from an institutional perspective, Italy is a hostile business environment. Research results allowed for the identification of an entrepreneurship typology in response to a hostile environment. An exploratory factor analysis followed by a confirmatory factor analysis revealed four types of entrepreneurial behavior. Relational behavior ischaracterized by a tendency to form relationships with other institutions with the purpose of cooperation, risk sharing, and shared access to resource markets. Imitative behavior entails marketing competence, human resource management, and absorptive capabilities. Arbitraging behavior is characterized by alertness to opportunity exploitation due to advantages and is related to purchasing and selling markets. Self-referential behavior is characterized by an autonomous and autocratic personal orientation and shaped by personal goal achievement, innovativeness, and risk propensity. Effective entrepreneurial behavior in hostile environments seems to be more a matter of relational and imitative capabilities than arbitraging and self-relational behavior, which contrasts with many past and present studies. These results may point to intriguing new research perspectives linking entrepreneurship to social capital and networking capabilties in a local context.