Digital Commons Network^™

“It’S A Ripple Effect”: Global Mamas In A Developing Ghana, Mara Dold

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My research took place almost entirely in Cape Coast but was supplemented with time in Krobo-Odumase and Accra. I worked exclusively with the nonprofit and fair trade international organization Women in Progress, specifically focusing on the women working for their brand name product line Global Mamas. I was a part of 2 batik workshops and 1 bead making workshop, led by Ghanaians hired by Global Mamas. Participant observation and informal interviews went hand in hand during the workshops. I had many an informal discussion and just 5 formal interviews overall. Book research was key to my more general findings and …

The Case For Actively Seeking Startup Companies For “Technology-Push” Inventions From Universities: A Research Agenda, Paul Swamidass

Paul Swamidass

Google Inc. began as a startup when all the large players in the industry turned down the opportunity to license the technology from Stanford University; Google has since become the leader in the industry with nearly 20,000 employees and a market value of about $150 Billion as of August 2009. Startup companies, using university technologies, have the potential to become a major economic force in the economy. But, it takes additional skills and effort on the part of University Offices of Technology Transfer (UOTT) to license an invention to a startup company compared to the effort needed to license to …

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects In Collaboration With Boston World Partnerships: 2009 Agenda/Executive Report, Patricia Neilson

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

Eight teams of Fellows from the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) provided their input and ideas to the newly launched Boston World Partnerships (BWP), from February through July 2009. Last year, our 2008 Fellows learned about the new thinking in corporate social responsibility: get professionals involved by having them contribute their skills to non-profit organizations. Our 2009 Fellows contributed their skills as “thinking partners” with BWP – in the areas of strategic planning, market outreach, competitive analysis, and information technology. The Fellows met regularly with Dave McLaughlin, Yoon Lee, and Eric Schoenfeld from Boston World Partnerships.

Examining The Inseparability Of Enterprise And Strategy Discourse, Brendan O'Rourke

Conference papers

Small owner-managed firms are an interesting site in which to examine the deployment of strategy discourse. On the one hand, small firms offer a location where the holistic nature of strategy (Clegg et al., 2004:24; Liedtka, 1998:122; Lilley,2001: 75) is more likely to feature in daily practice On the other hand, owner-managed firms lack a key reason for the original emergence of the strategy discourse i.e. strategy as a discourse of accountability by professional managers to shareholders (Knights & Morgan, 1991). Small firm owner-managers are the ideological heroes of the enterprise discourse (Carr, 2000:101). This work looks at how owner-managers …

Soaps, Creams And Strips: Procter & Gamble’S Approach To Innovation, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Innovate to give the customers what they desire -- it may sound like a simple and straightforward mantra for success in business, but many companies find themselves struggling to be gainfully innovative! Throw in ‘fickle-minded consumers’ and ‘a myriad of competitor offerings’ into the mix and the challenge magnifies glaringly. Yet, Procter and Gamble (P&G), a 172-year-old company, has somehow managed to get it right – and with more than 300 brands across 80 countries. Dr Shekhar Mitra, P&G’s Senior Vice-President of Research and Development, offers Singapore Management University an insider look into the innovation principles that guide one of …

Ua62/3 September Newsletter, Wku Small Business Development Center

University Organizations

Newsletter created by the WKU Small Business Development Center.

Marketing And Economic Aspects Of Entrepreneurship: Raising Cane In The Low Desert-A Case Study, Carol Ann Dorn, Nancy Scannell

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This article chronicles a collaborative effort between entrepreneurial farmers in Southern California's Imperial Valley and University of California researchers to introduce cane sugar into the Valley.

Corporate Entrepreneurship: A Strategic And Structural Perspective, Joao Ferreira

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Researchers have found that a firm's external environment plays a profound role in influencing corporate entrepreneurship.

Ua62/3 August Newsletter, Wku Small Business Development Center

University Organizations

Newsletter created by the WKU Small Business Development Center.

Do Rigid Labor Laws Mean Higher Unemployment In Developing Countries?, Terence Lau

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Organizational Learning Capabilities In Strategic Alliances, Wai Kwan (Elaine) Lau

Management Faculty Research

Recent studies on strategic alliance show great interest on how firms develop alliance capabilities to achieve alliance success. This study examines the relationship between organizational learning capabilities and alliance performance. The concept of organizational learning capabilities in this study is developed comprising training availability, technical expertise, and alliance experience. It proposes that a greater alliance learning capability is positively related to alliance goal achievement. The research further investigates how the inter- and intra-firm mechanism, the average level of technical expertise and alliance experience, and the gap of technical expertise and alliance experience between the partners impact alliance objectives.

Entrepreneurial Leadership And Teamwork: The Key To Innovation In The 21st Century, Connie I. Reimers-Hild, Susan N. Williams

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Entrepreneurial leadership and continuous innovation are vital components of 21st century communities and organizations. Entrepreneurial leaders must realize the importance of environmental, social and global issues while creating an atmosphere of innovation designed to help followers become more entrepreneurial themselves.

Entrepreneurial individuals and teams have the ability to recognize and capitalize on opportunities, innovate, take risks, adapt to rapid change and marshal resources to achieve their goals. When individuals come together as an effective team, they can produce a synergy to meet the demands of a rapidly changing and competitive work environment. Therefore, entrepreneurial leaders must develop entrepreneurial individuals and …

The Accelerator, Volume 2 Issue 4, Summer 2009, Christa Santos

The Accelerator

No abstract provided.

There Should Be Little Or No Liquidity Discounts For Controlling Interests In Closely Held Businesses, Michael Sack Elmaleh

Michael Sack Elmaleh

The application of liquidity discounts to the appraised values of controlling interests in closely held businesses reflects a failure of the valuation community to fully appreciate the fact that these equity interests belong to a fundamentally different investment class than publicly traded securities. Investors in publicly traded securities have dramatically different expectations about the benefits and sacrifices of such investments, compared to the expectations of benefits and sacrifices of investors in closely held companies. Investors in publicly traded securities expect their minority interest investments to be highly liquid, yield free cash flow, and require no participation in the management of …

Understanding The New Marketing Dna: Bringing Marketing Education Up To Speed With Marketing Practice, Paul Harrigan, James Seligman

Dr. Paul Harrigan

This research is concerned with the overarching impact of technology on marketing, and the need to review higher education marketing curriculum to reflect this impact. The research objectives are twofold: the identification of changes in marketing practice; and how these changes should be reflected in marketing degree programme structure. The ongoing research project involves a mixed methods approach. The qualitative phase comprised in-depth interviews and focus groups with a range of marketing managers in UK organisations. This comprehensive two-year phase was completed in 2008, laying foundations for further quantitative empirical investigation, due to be completed in 2010. The current paper …

Using E-Crm To Create Customer Insight In Smes, Paul Harrigan, Elaine Ramsey, Patrick Ibbotson

Dr. Paul Harrigan

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vital components of our economies, and their marketing exhibits striking resemblances to customer relationship management (CRM) theory. However, SMEs’ marketing strategies tend to suffer from the effects of limited resources, limited expertise and a limited impact on their external environment. Through the use of Internet-based technologies (IBTs) SMEs may be able to enhance marketing performance and competitiveness, particularly by facilitating the development of customer insight through improved technology-enabled customer information management processes. In this regard, this paper will present research evidence to help us understand the impact of IBTs on the CRM activities (i.e. …

Driving Nigerian Smes Venture Capital Transformational Financing Super-Highway: Focus On The Nigerian Economy, Daibi W. Dagogo

Daibi W Dagogo

The fact that a business started small is not an absolute transcendental sentence to perpetual littleness & ordinariness. This conviction set the stage for the conduct of this study. The prime task was to examine the transformational financing window of venture capital (VC) and its instrumentality in driving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to the higher heights of greatness and largeness. The key perspectives of VC examined were equity finance, management support, and technical support. A total of 120 copies of questionnaire were administered on SME focal officials (60 each for VC-backed and non-VC-backed) in various parts of Nigeria. The …

Ua62/3 July Newsletter, Wku Small Business Development Center

University Organizations

Newsletter created by the WKU Small Business Development Center.

Are Credit Unions In Ecuador Achieving Economies Of Scale?, Nick A. Marchio

Economics Honors Projects

This study tests the assertion that membership growth in credit unions is constrained by their unique structural features, such as their non-profit mission and member-based ownership. Although these features enhance inclusiveness, existing theory suggest that they work against efficiency when membership grows too diffuse. To address this issue, this study uses a model that takes into account existing theory on constrained-optimization in credit unions and theory on the adverse effects of diffuse ownership. Using data on 36 public credit unions in Ecuador, the empirical analysis finds evidence that credit unions can achieve economies of scale despite their problematic structural features. …

The Development Of Informal Sector Small And Medium Scale Enterprises Through Formation Of Cluster And Networking: A Case Study Based On Sri Lanka And Pakistan, S.W.S.B. Dasanayaka

Business Review

In recent years Pakistan has faced a rapidly growing services sector which has lead some observers to believe that there is a transfer of resources occurring in Pakistan from the tradable to the non-tradable sector, hence causing the Dutch Disease in the economy. However no precise response has been offered on this subject. This paper seeks to provide empirical evidence on the question of the existence of Dutch Disease in Pakistan by using Linda Kamas's model on Dutch Disease. The percentage change in the growth of the tradable and the non-tradable sectors in Pakistan is calculated by using data from …

Think Outside Your Box: Enhancing Creativity Through Multicultural Interactions, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Creative ideas are often the result of two or more seemingly non-overlapping concepts. The more we expose ourselves to diverse experiences, the more likely we might be to sample from a richer pool of ideas, thereby facilitating our creativity, and by extension for some, organisational innovation. This is because experience lowers our resistance and increases our readiness to sample foreign concepts. Angela Leung, an assistant professor of psychology at Singapore Management University, notes that while ideas from differing cultural experiences can be recruited as intellectual resources, several factors inhibit our ability to draw on these experiences, thus impeding our creative …

Developing And Assessing A Case Study For Teaching Engineering Entrepreneurship At San Jose State University, Anuradha Basu, Minnie Patel

Faculty Publications

In this paper the authors share their experience of developing a case study for teaching engineering entrepreneurship and subsequently developing assessment and instructional material for the case. We also present the lessons learned from that experience. The authors developed the case study in question on the basis of a survey of engineering students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship6. Our survey showed that many students were interested in entrepreneurship, but were hesitant about starting their own business. We proposed two complementary approaches to learning, namely, case studies and active learning, to enhance the engineering students’ understanding of the entrepreneurial process and dispel some …

Market Simulation Programming As A Culminating Experience For Students Interested In Entrepreneurship And Pursuing An M.S. In Engineering Technology, W. Andrew Clark, Craig A. Turner

ETSU Faculty Works

Many of our students enrolled in our Master of Science in Technology program have expressed an interest in learning about entrepreneurship and the development and management of a technology driven company. Students interested in entrepreneurship can pursue a 12 credit concentration that includes classes in developing a cohesive marketing and technology strategy, comparing and contrasting technology strategies for companies within the same market niche, developing an entrepreneurial business plan and coursework in either small business management or entrepreneurial finance. One critical component of this concentration is the utilization of the Marketplace™ Venture Capital simulation game to provide students with real …

Creekside Farms Business Plan, Amanda K. Lemm

Horticulture and Crop Science

Creekside Farms is a developing small business in Paso Robles, where the Lemms have big dreams of hosting weddings and receptions. Incorporating their prime agricultural land in Paso Robles is a necessity to help make this business special. Creekside Farms has huge potential in being the first choice for those searching for a beautiful place to get married and/or have their special reception. Part of making this plan successful, is focusing on using country rose gardens to utilize in wedding flower arrangements as well as accenting the wedding sites. These unique roses allow the Lemm’s the ability to compete with …

Feasibility Study Of Cold Room Renovations For P.O.V.E., Kurtis Kobara

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

Summary -- Entrepreneurial Uncertainty: What Do Stakeholders Look For?, Douglas A. Bosse, Jeffrey S. Harrison

Management Faculty Publications

This paper proposes that in the early stages of a venture entrepreneurs can reduce uncertainty for stakeholders -- and raise the probability of attracting desirable stakeholders -- by exhibiting behaviors associated with fairness and justice. Actors base their reciprocal behaviors -- both positive and negative -- on their subjective perceptions of distributive, procedural and interactional justice. Thus, entrepreneurs can influence perceptions of fairness in early interactions with stakeholders. This paper extends the logic of reciprocity and fairness to the setting in which entrepreneurial firms are seeking to attract desirable stakeholders in order to commercialize innovations.

The Great "Reset", Eric Thompson, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln

Business in Nebraska

THE GREAT “RESET”

U.S. Macroeconomic Outlook

Recent consumer spending, home and retail sales, and industrial production reports suggest that the economy may be nearing a turning point, and that the recession will end later this year. But, even if this happens, the U.S. economy will still face major challenges. The economy has dug itself a deep hole, with very high levels of unemployment. Further, there are reasons to expect an anemic and perhaps even unsteady recovery, rather than rapid expansion that often occurs at the end of a recession. First, consumption is not likely to return to pre-recession levels in …

Reinventing An Innovation Ecology With New Models For Research And Research Parks, Robert G. Wilhelm, Barry L. Burks

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

A novel effort to reinvent the innovation ecology of the Charlotte region is described. The methods and approaches are particularly relevant for restarting both local and global economies. Addressing requirements for faster innovation and more diverse innovation cycles, the research enterprise of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Charlotte Research Institute, the University Research Park, and a diverse collection of partners are working together to recast university research models and research park paradigms. Best practices are discussed for technology transfer based on interdisciplinary applied research. A novel collaboration model developed by the Charlotte Research Institute is described. Guiding …

Perceptions About Rollersoccer Youth Programs, June Solomon

Master's Projects and Capstones

The purpose of this research was to investigate the demand for structured

RollerSoccer Youth Programs and to examine the perceptions about this type of

Program. The market for RollerSoccer is untapped and unrepresented in the

world of sports. To date, there are no articles about the development of

RollerSoccer Youth Programs or scholarly work on marketing the emerging sport

of RollerSoccer. The RollerSoccer International Federation (RSIF), the governing

body for this fast‐paced, high scoring hybrid sport aims to expand its reach to

youth in diverse communities by developing this sports initiative.

Three hundred and ten youth participants from selected schools …

Fueling Innovation Through Information Technology In Smes, Clay Dibrell, Peter S. Davis, Justin B. Craig

Justin B. Craig

This paper describes a study that investigates the mediating effects of information technology (IT) on the relationships among product and process innovations and firm performance (measured in multiple profitability and growth rate metrics). Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 397 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we find evidence that (1) increases on the strategic emphasis placed on innovation, both product and process, positively impact the prominence managers place on IT; (2) the impact of innovation (both product and process) on performance (both profitability and growth) is primarily indirect, felt via the mechanism of the importance managers place on …