Digital Commons Network^™

Esg Scores Impact On U.S. Insurance Companies’ Financial Performance, Franceska Xhafa

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

This paper examines the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores on U.S. insurance companies' financial performance and is among the first to do so. The existing literature has sundry conclusions on whether there is any impact; this study intends to add to the existing literature to elucidate an answer. In this study, the financial ratio, net profit margin, is used as the dependent variable. The ESG score, governance score, and governance metrics such as the number of independent directors on the audit committee, size of the compensation committee, board size, and the number of executives are used as …

The Influence Of Gender And Social Attention To Gender Equality On Applicant Acceptance Into Venture Development Programs: Competing Perspectives, Christopher R. Reutzel, Carrie A. Belsito, Jamie D. Collins

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to add to the small but growing body of research examining the influence of founder gender on new venture access to venture development programs.

Design/methodology/approach: Hypotheses were tested utilizing a sample of 482 nascent technology ventures which applied for admittance into a venture development organization headquartered in the southern region of the United States from March 2004 through February 2016.

Findings: Findings suggest that female-founded applicant ventures experience a higher likelihood of acceptance into venture development programs than male-founded applicant ventures. Results further suggest that social attention to gender equality reduces this effect …

Transitional Entrepreneurship: Unleashing Entrepreneurial Potential Across Numerous Challenging Contexts, Golshan Javadian, Anil Nair, David Ahlstrom, Kaveh Moghaddam, Li-Wei Chen, Younggeun Lee

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Transitional entrepreneurship refers to the practices of entrepreneurs from communities facing adversity who navigate substantial life transitions as they launch and manage new ventures in response to various changes and challenges in their environment. Entrepreneurship is not only a critical driver of economic growth and social development (Ahlstrom et al., 2019; McCloskey, 2010) but can also represent a life-changing transition for most, if not all, of the entrepreneurs themselves. Transitional entrepreneurship entails strategic pivots or transformations that enable entrepreneurs to adapt and thrive in evolving circumstances. In this regard, transitional entrepreneurship research focuses on entrepreneurs from veterans, minorities, immigrants, refugees, …

Effect Of Nascent Entrepreneurs' Training On Their Stress: The Role Of Gender And Participants' Interaction, Etienne St-Jean, Maripier Tremblay, Franck Barès, Monica Simionato

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose: A career in entrepreneurship is stressful, especially during the start-up phase. Training programs for these nascent entrepreneurs are designed to improve entrepreneurial competencies and, more generally to generate learnings. Although learning outcomes can reduce stress, the conditions under which this can happen are not fully understood. The study looks particularly at the effect of learning, interaction with other participants and gender.

Design/methodology/approach: A six-month three-wave longitudinal study of 120 nascent entrepreneurs has been conducted to investigate the before-and-after effects of training on stress reduction. The training is specially designed to develop competencies, share knowledge about business creation and support …

Jump To Platform Faster? Gender, Institutional Change, And Pre-Entrant Entrepreneurial Attempt, Lei Xu, K. Praveen Parboteeah, Hanqing Fang

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – The authors enrich and extend the existing institutional anomie theory (IAT) in the hope of sharpening the understanding of the joint effects of selected cultural values and social institutional changes on women’s pre-entrant entrepreneurial attempts. The authors theorize that women are culturally discouraged to pursue pre-entrant entrepreneurial attempts or wealth accumulation in a specific culture. This discouragement creates an anomic strain that motivates women to deviate from cultural prescriptions by engaging in pre-entrant entrepreneurial attempts at a faster speed. Building on this premise, the authors hypothesize that changes in social institutions facilitate the means of achievement for women …

The Entrepreneurial Cognitive Adjustment Mechanism: Transitional Entrepreneurship As A Solution To Mitigate Illegal Migration, Jorge Arteaga-Fonseca, Yi (Elaine) Zhang, Per Bylund

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose

In this paper, the authors suggest that Central Americans can use entrepreneurship to solve economic uncertainty in their home country and that entrepreneurship can contribute to reducing the number of undocumented migrants to the USA.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors first illustrate the context of Central American illegal migration to the USA from a transitional entrepreneurship perspective, the authors address the economic drivers of illegal migration from Central America, which results in marginalization in the USA. Second, the authors build a theoretical model that suggests that Central Americans can improve their entrepreneurial abilities through the entrepreneurial cognitive adjustment mechanism.

Findings

Central …

Twenty-Five Years Of New England Journal Of Entrepreneurship: A Bibliometric Review, Younggeun Lee, Satish Kumar, Andrés Felipe Cortés, Riya Sureka, Weng Marc Lim

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose: In 2023, the New England Journal of Entrepreneurship (NEJE) reached its 25th anniversary.To commemorate this major milestone as well as entrepreneurship’s growth as an academic field, the study employs bibliometric methods to provide key trends and research suggestions for entrepreneurship scholars using all original research published in the journal.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors perform two predominant bibliometric techniques, performance analysis and science mapping, using all 251 articles published by NEJE from1998 to 2022.

Findings: The authors find that the impact of entrepreneurship research published at NEJE is growing consistently and that the challenge of the future will be to maintain …

Advancing The Model Of Social Entrepreneurial Intention: The Role Of Perceived Financial Security, Minhajul Islam Ukil, Muhammad Shariat Ullah, Dan K. Hsu

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose: Although few studies indicate that financial concerns matter to social entrepreneurs, the literature is unclear about the extent to which a financial motive affects the intention to start a new social enterprise. Moreover, prior research suggests that the intention to start a new enterprise heavily depends on the societal context in which the enterprise operates. Therefore, this study aims to examine the seminal model of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) developed by Hockerts (2017) in a different social context; additionally, it proposes a new antecedent of SEI – perceived financial security.

Design/methodology/approach: This study used two different measurement scales and …

Decoding Underperformance Of Entrepreneurship At The Bottom Of The Pyramid: A Literature Review Of The Field, Amber Y. Chang, Yalan Xu

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Driving economic development at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) is an enduring global challenge. While the market-based approach places hope on entrepreneurship as a major impetus to drive the underdeveloped economy, the performance of entrepreneurial businesses and their impact on poverty reduction are sometimes below expectations. This paper seeks to examine the factors that may be hindering entrepreneurship within the BOP context. This paper presents preliminary answers and provides research suggestions related to this question.

Design/methodology/approach – In order to identify the reasons behind the underperformance of entrepreneurship at the BOP, a comprehensive literature review was conducted …

Thinking Local With Original Data In Ai And Machine Learning Research, David G. Taylor, Robert Mccloud

WCBT Working Papers

Sacred Heart University spent significant funds to establish an AI lab. Initially there is no ongoing research and no real plan for a research agenda. This paper details how the Jack Welch College of Business and Technology created and implemented an active meaningful research plan. It involves two key elements: thinking local and using business connections to foster active, impactful research. Surrounding communities, business connections, area environment, and other Sacred Heart University departments all played a part. The research plan also identifies a specific issue in working with local and business contact sources: the AI researcher almost never gets data …

Predictors Of Covid-19 Vaccination Rate In Usa: A Machine Learning Approach, Syed M. I. Osman, Ahmed Sabit

WCBT Faculty Publications

In this study, we examine state-level features and policies that are most important in achieving a threshold level vaccination rate to curve the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. We employ CHAID, a decision tree algorithm, on three different model specifications to answer this question based on a dataset that includes all the states in the United States. Workplace travel emerges as the most important predictor; however, the governors’ political affiliation (PA) replaces it in a more conservative feature set that includes economic features and the growth rate of COVID-19 cases. We also employ several alternative algorithms as a robustness check. …

Gender Differences In The Impact Of Worklife On Executives’ Psychological Health, Marcus B. Mueller

WCBT Faculty Publications

The Impact of Worklife on Executives’ Psychological Health Purpose: This is the first scientific research studying the impact of worklife factors on executives’ psychological health by gender. The study has a particular focus on the factors of ‘Community’ and ‘Work-life balance’.

Design: Survey data were collected from N=481 senior executives to measure seven worklife factors and psychological health. Standardized regression analysis was performed for each worklife in a regression model predicting psychological health by gender.

Findings: Results showed significant differences between female and male senior executives in the profiles of seven worklife factors in terms of their relationship with …

Quantifying The Evidential Value Of Celebrity Endorsement: A P-Curve Analysis, Shiyun Chloe Tian, Ruoyu Sun, Qian Huang, John Petit

WCBT Faculty Publications

Celebrity endorsements have long been used as a promotional tool in marketing communication. However, literature has documented inconsistent findings on the effects of celebrity endorsements compared to no endorsement or noncelebrity endorsements, suggesting a close examination about the reliability and robustness of celebrity endorsements is needed. This study conducted a p-curve analysis among two sets of published studies based on different comparison groups (celebrity endorsements vs. no celebrity endorsement; celebrity endorsements vs. noncelebrity endorsements) to investigate if both sets of studies contain an evidential value. The significantly right-skewed p curve suggests that both sets of published studies have some integrity. …

Architectural Dimensions Of Socially Driven Venture Capital Firms: Social Innovation In The Capital Markets, Raymond Jones, Manjula S. Salimath

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Private equity and venture capital (VC) firms in the capital markets sector invest capital with the primary goal of delivering economic value. However, some firms in the capital markets sector have started to shift this focus to create (i.e. invest in) social value. More specifically, traditional VC firms are starting socially oriented funds, while other firms have emerged to focus solely on investments in social enterprises. These VC firms are contributing to an interesting paradox – performance metrics are not measured by profit alone but also by social innovation. From an architectural perspective, the authors examine the implications …

Problems Of Political Unrest: Women In Small Businesses In Bangladesh, Jasmine Jaim

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Whereas the extant literature on women’s entrepreneurship is almost exclusively focused on developed nations, the effect of many context-specific issues of other countries on ventures of women has been overlooked. The study aims to reveal how political unrest, a common feature of the developing nation, can significantly affect the experiences of women in small businesses of that region.

Design/methodology/approach – This feminist research is conducted on Bangladesh, which is one of the most politically unstable countries in the world. The study conducts interviews with women to explore the adverse effect of political unrest on their small firms. Findings …

Polychronicity, Decision-Making And Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy Of Venture Team Founders: An Exploratory Study, Hsing-Er Lin, Rachel S. Shinnar, Yongchuan Shi, Dan Hsu

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose - This study explores the role of polychronic temporal orientation and decision-making decentralization on founders' perceptions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE).

Design/methodology/approach - Longitudinal survey data were collected from 141 business founders in China.

Findings - Findings suggest that decision-making decentralization is positively associated with founders' ESE. In addition, a polychronic temporal orientation is positively related to ESE, and this relationship is mediated by decision-making decentralization.

Originality/value - This study adds to existing knowledge on ESE and temporal related issues by presenting empirical evidence that explains how and why the temporal orientation context and the practice of decision-making decentralization can …

An Examination Of How Personal Characteristics Moderate The Relationship Between Startup Intent And Entrepreneurship Education, Tyler Burch, Neil M. Tocher, Gregory Murphy

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose - While research has identified a consistent link between startup intent and entrepreneurship education (EE) intentions, studies also indicate that many entrepreneurs lack the EE they need. However, research examining factors that explain why certain individuals with high startup intent pursue EE while others do not is rare.Given this, the purpose of this paper is to examine how individual characteristics moderate the startup intent EE intentions relationship.

Design/methodology/approach - Survey data were gathered on 199 US adults. Moderators examined include attitudes toward education, perceived entrepreneurial efficacy, propensity for risk taking and the Big Five personality traits. Linear regression models …

Guest Editorial : New Trends In Entrepreneurship: A Global Context, Jun Li, Irem Demirkan, Younggeun Lee, Andrés Felipe Cortés

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

When management guru Peter Drucker wrote about entrepreneurship in 1984 (Drucker, 1984), entrepreneurial activities were primarily perceived as an American phenomenon. Today, entrepreneurship has spurred globally, from developed countries to emerging economies, thanks to accelerated globalization, integration of people and cultures, and rapid technological innovation. While Drucker’s focus on entrepreneurial decisions in the late 1980s was mainly about established corporations, millions of empowered individual entrepreneurs are increasingly recognized as the backbone of the global economy (Khanna, 2007). Thomas Friedman once described this stage of globalization as globalization 4.0, which features empowered entrepreneurial individuals (Friedman, 2005). New technology, especially information and …

Investigating The Mediating Role Of Market Orientation Between Internal Marketing And The Development Of Entrepreneurial Orientation Within Private Sports Clubs, Hossein Mansouri, Saeed S. Boroujerdi, Michael Polonsky, Maizaitulaidawati M. Husin, Mehdi Seydi

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose–This studyexamines the role of market orientation in the relationship between internal marketing and entrepreneurial orientation within private sports clubs.

Design/methodology/approach–The research is a descriptive-correlational study based on private sports clubs employees within Iran (Sanandaj). A theoretical model was developed based on the literature and tested using SPSS and PLS-SEM software.

Findings– The findings indicate a positive relationship between internal marketing and employees’ entrepreneurial orientation. Market orientation has also played a positive mediating role in the relationship between internal marketing and entrepreneurial orientation.

Originality/value– The results suggest a higher level of market orientation in the organization can increase teamwork and, …

How Do Consumers In General Evaluate, Judge, And Act Toward Shoplifting? The Moderating Effects Of Personal Characteristics And Motives Shoplifting?, Juehui Shi, Ngoc (Cindy) Pham, Claudio Schapsis, Tofazzal Hossain, Arturo Z. Vasquez-Párraga

WCBT Faculty Publications

Despite the seriousness of shoplifting, consumers’ evaluations, judgements, and intentions toward shoplifting remain underexplored by scholars from business ethics, marketing, retailing, and consumer behavior. We propose a new shoplifting ethics model, which integrates Hunt and Vitell’s theory of ethics with Nadeau, Rochlen, and Tyminski’s typology of shoplifting, by incorporating the moderators of consumers’ personal characteristics (i.e., age, gender, marital status, income) and shoplifting motives (i.e., social, experiential, economic, emotional) onto the relationships among deontological evaluation, teleological evaluation, ethical judgment, and intention. Based on a two-by-two randomized experimental design, two shoplifting cases (i.e., swapping price tags, stealing products) are investigated in …

Pandemic, Perceived Risk, And Cognitive Dissonance As Antecedents To Need For Cognitive Closure, Ruchika Sachdeva

WCBT Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of the pandemic, perceived risk, and cognitive dissonance on the need for cognitive closure. A consumer today wants an aversion towards the ambiguity that is created due to this pandemic. The data is collected using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk panel. All of the filled questionnaires are analyzed using stepwise regression. The findings suggest that perceived risk, pandemic, and cognitive dissonance influence the need for cognitive closure, and perceived risk is the major predictor of cognitive closure. These results enrich our understandings with regards to the importance of designing the marketing strategies …

The Coronavirus Shopping Anxiety Scale: Initial Validation And Development, Ruchika Sachdeva

WCBT Faculty Publications

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop a scale to measure coronavirus shopping anxiety. Numerous studies have developed a scale for measuring coronavirus anxiety and fear, notably absent is a concerted effort to review and assess the impact of coronavirus on the shopping anxiety of consumers. This scale fulfills this gap.

Design/methodology/approach

The steps taken for checking the various psychometrics of the scale include item generation, followed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) through SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis through AMOS. The data were collected from over 208 respondents.

Findings

This study resulted in the development of a nine-item …

Employee Policy Handbook October 2021, Sacred Heart University

Handbooks & Factbooks

No abstract provided.

Understanding Immigrant Entrepreneurship: A Home-Country Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Perspective, Carson Duan, Kamaljeet Sandhu, Bernice Kotey

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Given the importance of immigration and immigrant entrepreneurs in advanced economies, the authors take an entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective to study the home-country benefits possessed by immigrant entrepreneurs and how home-country entrepreneurial ecosystem factors affect immigrant entrepreneurial motivations, activities and outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual research paper follows McGaghie, Bordage and Shea’s (2001) four-step new theory creation process, which suggests that new theories can be created through facts extraction from the extant literature. Findings – The authors propose that although immigrant entrepreneurs are unable to take full benefit of the host-country entrepreneurial ecosystem due to blocked mobility, they do …

Social Entrepreneurship In Smes: A Note On Three Essential Questions, Andrés Felipe Cortés, Younggeun Lee

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – This research note discusses three essential and practical questions related to social entrepreneurship and social activities in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): What motivates SMEs to undertake social activities? What are the obstacles faced by SMEs when undertaking social activities? What are the types of social activities that SMEs undertake? The article presents preliminary answers and provides research suggestions related to these questions. Design/methodology/approach – The authors search and review articles that study social entrepreneurship and social activities of SMEs and synthesize their findings based on the three main topics of interest. Findings –The authors synthesized findings based …

Exploring The Motivation Of Social Entrepreneurs In Creating Successful Social Enterprises In East Africa, Caroline N. Wanyoike, Matilda Maseno

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the motivations of social entrepreneurs in East Africa to create a social enterprise and their identified links to successful social entrepreneurship in East Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employed a qualitative method by performing thematic analysis on a set of interviews on social entrepreneurs from East Africa who are Ashoka fellows. Findings – The findings suggest that intense personal experiences linked to past-life events as well as a high achievement orientation towards improving livelihoods and creating impact serve as key triggers for social entrepreneurship. Successful entrepreneurship focusses on system change at national and …

Is There A Relationship Between The Gender Of The Ceo And Short-Termism Or Long-Termism?, Kerry Calnan

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

Based on a panel of S&P 1500 firms from the period of 2008-2016, we evaluate whether firms managed by female CEOs exhibit the same short-termism or long-termism as firms managed by male CEOs. We evaluate in terms of market based, firm based and investment indicator. Our goal is to better understand if there is a relationship between the gender of the CEO and short-termism or long-termism.

Our results find firms with female CEOs have lower Tobin’s Q, lower ROA, however, they spend more on research and development than firms run by male CEOs.

Carbon Management Strategy And Carbon Disclosures: An Exploratory Study, Kathy K. Dhanda, Mahfuja Malik

WCBT Faculty Publications

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept aimed to ensure that corporations conduct their business in an ethical manner by taking care of their environment and human resources in addition to their economic impact. Often times, CSR refers to the steps undertaken by a corporation to measure its efforts to improve the environment and social well-being. One of the aspects of CSR pertains to the disclosure of emission information and carbon management strategy (CMS). Carbon Management refers to analyzing and focusing on those areas within the corporation where cost reductions can be made via energy reductions, waste management and reduced …

Improving Entrepreneurial Competencies In The Classroom: An Extension And In-Study Replication, Caroline E. W. Glackin, Steven E. Phelan

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – A recent paper by Morris et al. (2013b) presented evidence that students can develop entrepreneurial competencies through international fieldwork. This paper explores whether the same results can be developed in a traditional classroom setting. Design/methodology/approach – The study is a systematic replication of the Morris study with the addition of a matched pair, quasi-experimental design, with a self-replication. Data were collected on 13 self-reported competencies at the start of a semester from two groups using the Morris instrument. The treatment group was exposed to a curriculum designed to teach entrepreneurial competencies, and both groups were resurveyed at the …

Effect Of The University On The Social Entrepreneurial Intention Of Students, Carlos Bazen, Hannah Gaultois, Arifusalam Shaikh, Katie Gillespie, Sean Frederick, Ali Amjad, Simon Yap, Chantel Finn, James Rayner, Nafisa Belal

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – The study aims to test the applicability of a variant of the model proposed by Hockerts (2017) for assessing the social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) of male and female students. It extends the model by incorporating the university’s environment and support system (ESS) as an additional more distal construct. The university’s ESS, coupled with the experience with social, cultural and environmental issues can affect SEI by influencing the more proximal precursors of empathy towards others, perceived self-efficacy, perceived community support and social, cultural and environmental responsibility. Design/methodology/approach – A structured non-disguised questionnaire was administered to students at a Canadian …