IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v6y1992i4p577-599.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Entrepreneurial Professionals: Australian Engineers, 1965-1984

Author

Listed:
  • Toni Makkai

    (Department of Law, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia)

Abstract

Little research has been conducted on how and why workers enter self-employment. Even less research has been devoted to self-employment among professionals, despite its theoretical and practical significance. Four explanations derived from the literature - family socialisation, social marginality, bureaucratisation and attitudes and values - are tested to determine whether they predict entry into self-employment for professionals. The data are a panel survey of 192 professional engineers collected between 1965 and 1984. Although there is partial support for each explanation the results show that the relative importance of factors vary between career points. Whereas attitudes and values are more important early in a career, family socialisation and bureaucratic constraints have stronger effects as the career progresses. Schooling and social marginality, on the other hand, have a consistent impact across the career. The results suggest the need for a dynamic understanding of professional career paths and the processes whereby professional entrepreneurs reproduce themselves.

Suggested Citation

  • Toni Makkai, 1992. "Entrepreneurial Professionals: Australian Engineers, 1965-1984," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 6(4), pages 577-599, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:6:y:1992:i:4:p:577-599
    DOI: 10.1177/095001709264003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/095001709264003
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/095001709264003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geoff Payne, 1987. "Mobility and Social Class," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Employment and Opportunity, chapter 8, pages 189-192, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Peter Bearse, 1984. "An econometric analysis of black entrepreneurship," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 111-134, March.
    3. Bernard Casey & Stephen Creigh, 1988. "Self-Employment in Great Britain: Its Definition in the Labour Force Survey, in Tax and Social Security Law and in Labour Law," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 2(3), pages 381-391, September.
    4. George J. Borjas, 1986. "The Self-Employment Experience of Immigrants," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 21(4), pages 485-506.
    5. Nonna Mayer, 1987. "Small Business and Social Mobility in France," Post-Print hal-03397544, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jan Wiers & Didier Chabaud, 2022. "Bibliometric analysis of immigrant entrepreneurship research 2009–2019," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 12(1), pages 441-464, December.
    2. Christofides, Louis N. & Pashardes, Panos, 2002. "Self/paid-employment, public/private sector selection, and wage differentials," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(6), pages 737-762, December.
    3. Robert W. Fairlie & Christopher Woodruff, 2007. "Mexican Entrepreneurship: A Comparison of Self-Employment in Mexico and the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Mexican Immigration to the United States, pages 123-158, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Díaz Serrano, Lluís, 2010. "Do Legal Immigrants and Natives Compete in the Labour Market? Evidence from Catalonia," Working Papers 2072/148476, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    5. Riillo, Cesare Fabio Antonio & Peroni, Chiara, 2022. "Immigration and entrepreneurship in Europe: cross-country evidence," MPRA Paper 114580, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Giuliano Guerra & Roberto Patuelli, 2014. "The influence of role models on immigrant self-employment: a spatial analysis for Switzerland," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(1/2), pages 187-215, May.
    7. Chengguang Li & Rodrigo Isidor & Luis Alfonso Dau & Rudy Kabst, 2018. "The More the Merrier? Immigrant Share and Entrepreneurial Activities," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(5), pages 698-733, September.
    8. Marcén, Miriam, 2013. "The effect of culture on self-employment," MPRA Paper 47338, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Raijman, Rebeca, 2001. "Determinants of entrepreneurial intentions: Mexican immigrants in Chicago," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 393-411.
    10. Francesco Campo & Luca Nunziata & Lorenzo Rocco, 2024. "Business is tense: new evidence on how language affects economic activity," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 121-149, March.
    11. Lina Andersson & Mats Hammarstedt, 2010. "Intergenerational transmissions in immigrant self-employment: Evidence from three generations," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 261-276, April.
    12. Korpi, Martin & Hedberg, Charlotta & Pettersson, Katarina, 2013. "Immigrant Women and Entrepreneurship: A Study of the Health Care Sector in Sweden, 2002-2006," SULCIS Working Papers 2013:3, Stockholm University, Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS.
    13. Belso Martínez, J.A., 2004. "Una aproximación inicial al papel del mercado de trabajo, la inmigración y la conflictividad socio-laboral como factores explicativos de la creación de empresas./An Initial Approach to the Role of Lab," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 22, pages 67-82, Abril.
    14. Jose Manuel Comeche & Jose Vicente Pascual, 2014. "Facilitating Elements for the Transmission of the Entrepreneurial Spirit in the Classroom," Business and Management Research, Business and Management Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(2), pages 18-27, June.
    15. Vandor, Peter & Franke, Nikolaus, 2016. "See Paris and… found a business? The impact of cross-cultural experience on opportunity recognition capabilities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 388-407.
    16. Theodore Lianos & Anastasia Pseiridis, 2009. "On the occupational choices of return migrants," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 155-181, March.
    17. Constant, Amelie F., 2004. "Immigrant versus Native Businesswomen: Proclivity and Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 1234, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2021. "Whose Job Is It Anyway? Coethnic Hiring in New US Ventures," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 86-127.
    19. Amelie Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2004. "Self-Employment Dynamics across the Business Cycle: Migrants versus Natives," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 455, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Liliana Sousa, 2013. "Community Determinants Of Immigrant Self-Employment: Human Capital Spillovers And Ethnic Enclaves," Working Papers 13-21, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:6:y:1992:i:4:p:577-599. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.