The contextual factors of entrepreneurship consist of social, political, and economic variables such as displacement, changes in markets, and government deregulation (Bird, 1988). Entrepreneurial intentions are further structured by both rational/analytic thinking (goal-directed behavior) and intuitive/holistic thinking (vision). These thought processes underlie the creation of formal business plans, opportunity analysis, and other goal-directed behavior. This paper further develops Bird's model of entrepreneurial intentionality by suggesting that individual self-efficacy, which has been defined as a person's belief in his or her capability to perform a task, influences the development of both entrepreneurial intentions and actions or behaviors.

By working with and through the paradoxes present in the resource-based view (RBV) of strategic management, scholars can advance understanding concerning the con-tradictions and tensions inherent in creating and sustaining superior firm perfor-mance. We identify and discuss various RBV paradoxes, illustrating how paradoxical thinking can enhance theorizing and open up new vistas for knowing and understand-ing. Finally, we discuss the utility of the paradoxical perspective in furthering RBV scholarship. Paradox, “the dynamic tensions of juxtaposed opposites ” (Rosen, 1994: xvii), underpins much organization and management scholarship and practice. The use of paradox can promote diver-gent or “oppositional ” thinking (Cameron, 1986;