Entrepreneurial decisions: Insights into the use of support services for new business creation

This research presents an integrative model about the use of those services that have been specifically designed to support entrepreneurial initiative. By contrast with conventional perspectives from the entrepreneurship field, mainly drawn from a resource-based view, we propose a two-fold approach to explain the utilization of services that are oriented to new business creation: by considering the role of resources within the start-up's reach (internal and external); by incorporating a behavioral and decision-making approach. On the basis of the suggested decision-making framework, a multi-stage decision model is developed and tested by means of a representative sample of entrepreneurs linked to a local development agency. The results show that the adoption and use of support services for new business creation is a complex and reflexive process, triggered by the entrepreneur's internal forces. The entrepreneur searches for information throughout the process and, with assistance from internal teams and external networks, evaluates the choices of business-support services. Our findings offer relevant implications and recommendations for business incubators and institutions.