Business Commons^™

An Examination Of Reward-Based Crowdfunding Performance And Success, Matthew Alan Grace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reward-based crowdfunding (RBCF), where fundraisers raise funds from a crowd of investors in return for a reward, has carved a niche as a proven option for not just entrepreneurs seeking early-stage funding, but also for established firms looking to presell or market a new product or service. Establishing crowdfunding performance and success factors is important for researchers and practitioners alike. Fortunately, a large portion of the RBCF academic literature is immediately applicable to entrepreneurs, with very little additional interpretation required. However, important questions about RBCF remain. The first paper in this three-part dissertation, a systematic literature review, examines some of …

An Examination Of Reward-Based Crowdfunding Performance And Success, Matthew Alan Grace

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reward-based crowdfunding (RBCF), where fundraisers raise funds from a crowd of investors in return for a reward, has carved a niche as a proven option for not just entrepreneurs seeking early-stage funding, but also for established firms looking to presell or market a new product or service. Establishing crowdfunding performance and success factors is important for researchers and practitioners alike. Fortunately, a large portion of the RBCF academic literature is immediately applicable to entrepreneurs, with very little additional interpretation required. However, important questions about RBCF remain. The first paper in this three-part dissertation, a systematic literature review, examines some of …

For Love Or Money: Investor Motivations In Equity-Based Crowdfunding, Jason C. Cherubini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular method for entrepreneurial ventures to raise financing from a large number of small supporters (the “crowd”) instead of raising it through a small number of larger supporters. Crowdfunding is normally conducted through online platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, where the entrepreneurial venture runs a campaign directly seeking support from individual funders. Most of the research into crowdfunding to date has been focused on what elements of the crowdfunding campaign lead to eventual successful funding, especially in the rewards-based crowdfunding space. The comparatively new equity-based crowdfunding has not been as heavily researched and is technically …

Blackstone Launchpad University Of Montana Strategic Analysis/Jacob Treece Honors Capstone Report, Jacob R. Treece

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Immigrant Entrepreneurs And The Contingent Value Of Personal Legitimacy, Kurian George

Dissertations - ALL

Despite growing recognition of the importance of the founder’s personal legitimacy for successful venturing, various questions remain with respect to what founder legitimacy is and how it is achieved. My review of the legitimacy literature reveals that founder legitimacy can be conceptualized as both a characteristic and a process, and that the entity signaling the founder’s legitimacy can be the founder, an organization, or even an industry or region. My review also shows that the expertise needed for founder legitimacy is taken for granted in most studies. To develop a better understanding of how founders acquire and signal personal legitimacy, …

Developing An Assessment Model For Entrepreneurship Ecosystems Using Hierarchical Decision Model: Case Study Of Riyadh City, Mustafa Kamal Almuzel

Dissertations and Theses

Entrepreneurship is one of the major drivers of economies. Countries that aim to improve their economies by increasing entrepreneurial activities and its effectiveness need to develop an effective entrepreneurship ecosystem. This ecosystem combines a set of domains and factors that create a healthy environment for entrepreneurs. The analysis shows that there is limited research about structured assessment methods to evaluate the entrepreneurship ecosystems.

Therefore, this research objective is to introduce a universal assessment model that can be adopted in different cities for implementing an effective entrepreneurial ecosystem. This will be achieved by addressing three main research questions. 1) What are …

Getting Ahead And Getting Along In Entrepreneurial Networks: Network Effects Of The “Dark” And “Light” Sides Of Personality In New Venture Performance, Victoria Antin Yates

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how dark and light personality traits influence venture performance via mediating effects of social structure. Because entrepreneurship is an inherently social process, theoretical perspectives of social network theory and social comparison theory are used to examine how entrepreneurs’ dark and light personality traits interact with personality traits of socially proximal others to influence venture performance via network structure. These perspectives are drawn together using socioanalytic theory. This dissertation argues that agreeableness and narcissism interact with the personality traits of network others at the group-level to influence structural hole positioning within entrepreneurial networks; in turn, structural holes are …

How Innovation Occurs In The Software Industry: A Qualitative Study On Innovation Management, Jihoon Rim

Student Theses and Dissertations

Research in innovation has been widely conducted by academics. However, many of them merely define associations among innovation factors, findings are often contradictory, and research that involves innovation leaders with rich experiences, both successes and failures, is rare. Thus, how to best innovate remains a question among practitioners. This qualitative research is aimed at filling this gap in the literature. To that end, 23 innovation leaders, most of whom founded software companies worth hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, were interviewed with a grounded theory approach using Peter Drucker’s innovation theory as a lens through which to view new …

The Many Sides Of Social Capital: How Social Capital Is Related To Entrepreneurship?, Vivian M. Williams

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study explores two questions about the relationship between social capital and entrepreneurship that have not received much attention. The first is, how different dimensions of social capital relate to entrepreneurship? The second is, to what extent community social capital is related to the level of entrepreneurship among marginal and dominant members of a community? Social capital is the benefits derived from social connections. We know about the positive aspects of the relationship between social capital but it is also important to examine if there are negative effects. Further, community social capital, which is the aggregate level of social capital …

A Phenomenological Study To Describe How Hispanic Entrepreneur Women Use Mark Crowley’S Four Principles To Accomplish Extraordinary Results, Elizabeth Vargas

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe how exemplary Hispanic entrepreneur women lead from the heart using Crowley’s four principles (building a highly engaged team, connecting on a personal level, maximizing employee potential, and valuing and honoring achievements) to accomplish extraordinary results in their organizations.

Methodology: A qualitative phenomenological research approach was used in this study to illuminate the lived experiences of exemplary Hispanic entrepreneur women. A sample of eight Hispanic entrepreneur women from the target population in Southern California was chosen. The sample of eight Hispanic entrepreneur women was chosen using predetermined criteria. Each participant was …

2+2=Cake: A Book Of Conversations About Possibilities In Business And Art, Elizabeth Ann Alspach

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

2+2=CAKE is a toolkit for people interested in creating their own economic container to support their livelihood. Calling upon the entrepreneurial experience of artists and creatives who founded or run organizations, the book and accompanying workbook and motivational posters serve as an incubator, buoy, and affirming resource for those looking to build the economic container in which they make their livelihood.

Footloose Business Plan, Ashlyn Sarah Burnsed

Honors College Theses

Savannah, Georgia has over ten million visitors that spend over three billion dollars each year. The streets of Savannah are filled with countless retail stores to meet the needs of every tourist and local. Unfortunately, even with all of these stores there is still an unmet need. There is currently no store in Savannah that offers a trendy and affordable shoe. The following business plan presents a way to capitalize on this unmet market need. Our company, Footloose, has the potential to have a competitive advantage in an unsaturated shoe market. Footloose will cater affordable shoes to any women looking …

Leadership Strategies Of Successful Women-Owned Businesses In Cameroon, Henry Ntoko Ajieh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Lack of leadership skills in women-led businesses can result in high business failure rates. Women business owners who do not know how to improve their leadership skills could face difficulties succeeding in business. Grounded in the transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that women business owners in the events planning business use to improve leadership skills to succeed in business beyond 5 years. The participants included five women in the events planning business in Cameroon, Central Africa, who successfully developed strategies to improve leadership skills to succeed in business beyond 5 years. …

Leadership Adapted: Towards An Understanding Of How Western-Developed Leadership Theories Are Translated And Practiced In The Modern Arab Middle East, Derek R. Olson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to understand how western-developed leadership theories are translated and practiced in the Modern Arab Middle East (MAME). Over the past century the notion of leadership has progressed through phases of understanding, definition, and practice. This evolution continues today and is no longer contained to the academic and practice-oriented institutions of North America and Europe. Through western-styled educational institutions and professional industries, western-developed leadership theories have stretched around the globe, including the MAME. While this is known, what is much less understood is how these theories are adopted and adapted. This study’s objective is to …

Caracterización De Las Ideas De Emprendimiento Empresarial Desarrolladas Por Asociados De Asogatenjo Tenjo Cundinamarca, Juan Sebastián Arana Villa

Administración de Agronegocios

En este trabajo se ha planteado como objetivo identificar los aspectos característicos de las ideas de emprendimiento empresarial que se desarrollan en los contextos rurales. Para dar cumplimiento a este objetivo se ha considerado pertinente emplear la metodología de investigación de tipo deductivo, a partir de la cual se realizó el estudio de los planteamientos teóricos referentes al emprendimiento y al emprendimiento rural que brindarían el conocimiento necesario sobre estos para hacer la caracterización en el caso de estudio. Como herramienta de investigación se utilizó la encuesta, la cual fue aplicada a 30 productores pertenecientes a la Asociación de Ganaderos …

A Business Plan For The Fitzgerald Institute, Elaine M. King, Matthew G. Deibel, Matthew J. Bulgrin, Alex Skeen, Stephanie N. Kieke

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This piece seeks to develop a business strategy for the University of Akron's Fitzgerald Institute for Entrepreneurship. The recommendations given were developed utilizing research on entrepreneurial education and the desires of students at the university.

On Effectuation And Networks: Three Essays On Their Mutuality, Jon Kerr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The notion of co-creating opportunities positions effectuation as both a network-driving and network-dependent phenomenon. On one hand, networks are products of relational interactions and, therefore, artefactual outcomes of effectual processes. On the other hand, it would seem that understanding networks and network processes is essential to understanding effectuation. Although past research acknowledges this mutuality, recent discourse highlights that our understanding of the relationship between effectuation and networks is far from complete. In this dissertation, I address this knowledge gap through three essays positioned at the interface of effectuation and network theory.

In the first essay, my systematic literature review synthesizes …

The Role Of Context In Country Level Entrepreneurial Activity, Naeimah Alkhurafi

2019

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role of context in entrepreneurship. I intend to shed light on the role of context in facilitating country level entrepreneurial activity through a multi-method approach in this three-paper format dissertation. In paper one, I systematically review two country level measures of entrepreneurship, namely Total Entrepreneurial Activity from The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and New Business Density from The World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey (WBGES), to understand how used in extant literature and investigate the research question: What are the primary antecedents and outcomes associated with country level entrepreneurship?

In paper two …

The Role Of Human Capital And Innovative Entrepreneurship In Developing Countries, José Rolando Torrech Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Human capital, innovation and entrepreneurship have long been associated with economic development in different contexts. However, in the recent past, several research studies carried out show that the complexity and technical nature of the everchanging business environment necessitated by technology have superseded the current human capital required to address innovative strategies in developing countries. Several scholars assert that although inadequate skills are a great challenge for entrepreneurs, more research needs to be done to break down the varying units affecting the impact of human capital on entrepreneurial development and economic growth. The purpose of the study was to investigate the …

Strategic Analysis Of Lifeloop, Llc: Current Positioning And Recommendations For Future Growth, Erin Dabbs

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

LifeLoop is a senior living software company that has the potential to gain market share in a new and growing industry. By making changes to current processes, business level strategy, and corporate level strategy, the company can grow organically, faster. LifeLoop must make these strategic changes to areas of marketing and sales processes now as the industry is changing life cycle stages; the company’s movement in this window of opportunity is critical to their future success. These findings outline where LifeLoop is currently positioned and the first steps needed to grow and develop into a reputation of excellence that will …

Strategies For Success And Sustainability In Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises Beyond The First 5 Years, Atem Emmanuel Ndeisieh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to the Cameroon Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employ over 70% of the active population and contribute significantly to economic growth and development, yet the failure rate of SMEs in the region within the first 5 years remains at 72%. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that SME owners used to sustain their businesses for longer than the first 5 years. With the resource-based view as the conceptual framework, purposive sampling was used to select 5 owners of small food-processing enterprises in Cameroon who demonstrated successful …

Leadership Skills To Sustain High-Tech Entrepreneurial Ventures, Zoaib Z. Rangwala

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High-tech (HT) innovation-oriented entrepreneurs start 35% more ventures and create 10% more jobs in the first 5 years of operation than the rest of the private sector and drive significant economic growth across all industries; however, more than 50% of the entrepreneurial HT ventures fail during the first 5 years of operations. Guided by the conceptual framework of transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this multicase study was to explore skills used by successful entrepreneurial leaders to sustain their HT ventures in Silicon Valley, California. Data collection was from 8 participants in semistructured 1-on-1 interviews and 3 participants in a …

Cash-Flow Management Strategies In Small And Medium-Sized Occupational Health Enterprises, Sibongiseni Selby Myeni

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses are critical to the success of a country's economy. The leaders of the South African government focus on the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to boost the economy and eradicate inequality, poverty, and unemployment. However, the sustainability track record of South African SMEs remains one of the worst records in the world. Therefore, it is essential that stakeholders improve the sustainability of SMEs. Using the resource-based view conceptual framework, the aim of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that occupational health SME leaders use to manage cash flow to achieve sustainability for longer …

Market-Entry Strategies Of Startup Owners, Evgeny Tsaplin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Russia's startups fail at high rates. The purpose of this multiple case study was to understand the market-entry strategies used by accelerated startup managers to succeed in business longer than the first 3 years. The target population for this study was 3 startup owners who completed an acceleration program from the Internet Initiatives Development Fund and continued to operate businesses that generated revenue. The participants in the study were located in 3 different cities in Russia: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Tomsk. The conceptual framework for the study was Raheem and Akhuemonkhan's theory of enterprise development and von Bertalanffy's general system …

Barriers To Women Leadership Of Small And Medium Enterprises In Nigeria, Roseline Iruoma Ojinta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Management literature lacks a deeper understanding of barriers to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) leadership among women entrepreneurs in Nigeria focusing on women leaders' daily business experiences, their agency, and their entrepreneurial context. Women in Nigeria seeking promotion to leadership roles in SMEs continue to look for answers on how to surmount the multiple barriers hampering their leadership aspirations. To address this need, this study was designed to explore how women entrepreneurs in Nigeria describe barriers to SME leadership through narratives about their daily business experiences, their agency, and their entrepreneurial context. The women's entrepreneurial development in Nigeria, the Nigerian …

The Role Of Family Endorsement In Venture Creation And Sustainability, Thomas Daniel White

Doctoral Dissertations

Entrepreneurship research has shown that family social support is an important factor in an entrepreneur’s venture creation and sustainability efforts, yet little is known about the nature and impact of family processes that occur prior to venture start, or how early endorsement of a venture impacts the entrepreneur. These processes are important to consider, because they may facilitate or inhibit ongoing family social support and influence the entrepreneur’s venture creation and sustainability decisions. Utilizing a family systems theoretical framework, I draw on theories of self-perception, social support and conservation of resources to address three issues. First, I introduce the construct …

The Impact Of Culture On Hispanic Entrepreneurs As Mediated By Motivation, Challenge, And Success, Valerie V. Ballesteros

Theses & Dissertations

In the modern economic environment, demographic shifts in U.S. population resulting from changing immigration, changing economic policies and environments, and growing socioeconomic disparity, scholarly research examining the business behavior of specific groups and the impact of behavior on the broader marketplace is valuable and necessary. Hispanic entrepreneurs, when compared to both minority and non-minority business-owners, started and flourished in successful business ownership at a greater growth rate than any other group (Davila, Mora, & Zeitlin, 2014). Since the beginning of the 21st century, Hispanic entrepreneurs have become a measurable economic force. The cultural experience of the Hispanic entrepreneur is important …

The Great Recession Of 2007 And The Housing Market Crash: Why Did So Many Builders Fail?, Mohamad Ali Hasbini

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The “Great Recession” of 2007 created havoc in the homebuilding industry, more than any other previous economic down cycle. Countless seasoned local homebuilders across the country did not survive. The impact of their failure on the economy, community, employment, lenders, suppliers, and subcontractors was devastating. While previous studies have sought to identify the symptoms and causes of business failure, very little research has been done on home builder business failure due to acts, omissions, characteristics, or other events which are non-financial. Specifically, those that are attributable to the failed entities' top management and leadership during the housing crisis and the …

Two Essays On The Impact Of Institutional Structures On Entrepreneurship: Country Level Analysis, Mehdi Sharifi Khobdeh

Management Theses & Dissertations

Entrepreneurship has long been viewed as an engine of innovation and economic growth; however, there is limited understanding of cross-national differences in rates and types of entrepreneurship. This dissertation mainly uses an institutional theory framework to investigate whether shared social knowledge, value systems, and regulations influence differences in rates and types of entrepreneurial activities among countries.

This dissertation’s central research question is addressed in two essays. In Essay 1, I examine what factors explain the recovery of entrepreneurial activities in countries after the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). Nearly all countries experienced a sharp drop in entrepreneurial activities during the …

Facility Location Decision For Global Entrepreneurial Small-To-Medium Enterprises Using Similarity Coefficient-Based Clustering Algorithms, Suhail H. Serbaya

Theses and Dissertations

Decisions on location selection are critical for the survival of small-to-medium entrepreneurial organizations from the time they are established until later stages of operation and expansion. The selection of location for small and medium entrepreneurial businesses requires a selection strategy that incorporates relevant factors, quantifies these factors and develops a methodology that analyzes data for better decision-making. In the era of globalization where borders have become easier to transcend, many small ventures tend to choose more attractive international markets as a potential location for their operations where they can obtain higher returns on their investment. Thus, significant changes in the …