Business Commons^™

Economic Evaluation Of Route Choice Characteristics For Company Truck Drivers And Owner-Operator Truck Drivers In Southern California Freeways, Joseph J. Kim, Jose Alejandro Arroyo Turcios

Mineta Transportation Institute

To contribute to the understanding of freeway capacity and financing options, this study evaluates the demand for truck-only toll lanes on Southern California freeways. The study implemented surveys to both company truck drivers and owner-operator truck drivers to estimate the value they place on time, reliability, and safety measures. The research team met face-to-face with both types of truck drivers near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to understand the drivers’ perspectives regarding truck-only toll lanes on Southern California freeways. A data set containing 45 surveys out of 62 survey responses were used for statistical analysis. The results …

Evaluating The Entrepreneurship Ecosystem In Stockton, California, Angelina Abella

Master's Projects

In any community, entrepreneurs and small business owners play an important role in the fabric of the community. The concept of “community wealth-building” is the idea that cooperatives, Community Development Financial Institutes (CDFIs), impact investors, and local governments, can “...strengthen locally-rooted and locally-held businesses and investing vehicles…” (Field, 2015, n.p.). It is believed that keeping businesses local results in “...more local tax revenue, more local business activity and more local employment” (Field, 2015, n.p.).

Therefore, supporting an entrepreneur may contribute to the overall quality of life of the community by supporting them, their families, and their employees. This can be …

Gender-Based Characteristics Of Micro, Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises In An Emerging Country: Is This A Man’S World?, Angelica Maria Sanchez-Riofrio, Nathaniel C. Lupton, Segundo Camino-Mogro, Álvaro Acosta-Ávila

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Purpose: Worldwide, Ecuador is one of the countries with the most entrepreneurial activity from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). However, the effect of adopting the US dollar (dollarization), over which the central bank has no control, combined with being mainly an exporter of primary products, as well as strategic currency devaluation by neighboring economies, has created a difficult situation, especially for Ecuadorian women’s MSMEs. This paper aims to study the relationship between female ownership and Ecuadorian MSMEs’ financial, economic and social outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors compile a near-population panel of 617,804 firm-year observations representing an unbalanced panel of 112,917 …

The Impact Of Integrating An Sbdc Program Into A College/University Career Center, Harshdeep Singh Nanda

Master's Projects

With a new approach for integrating the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) program in Alameda County, the Ohlone Community College District (Ohlone College) has introduced a new model for hosting an SBDC program on a college/university campus. While many other educational institutions across the nation have hosted an SBDC program (Cook Center for Entrepreneurship - Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, n.d.; University of Scranton Small Business Development Center (SBDC) | Helping NEPA & Northern Tier Small Businesses Start, Grow & Prosper., n.d.; Olson, 2006), most have treated the program as a separate entity or department, often leading to the …

Platforms As Entrepreneurial Incubators? How Online Labor Markets Shape Work Identity, Francesca Bellesia, Elisa Mattarelli, Fabiola Bertolotti, Maurizio Sobrero

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the process of work identity construction unfolds for gig workers experiencing unstable working relationships in online labor markets. In particular, it investigates how digital platforms, intended both as providers of technological features and online environments, affect this process.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an exploratory field study and collected data from 46 interviews with freelancers working on one of the most popular online labor markets and from online documents such as public profiles, job applications and archival data.

Findings
The findings reveal that the online environment constrains the action of workers …

Social Ties, Prior Experience, And Venture Creation By Transnational Entrepreneurs, Sarika Pruthi, Mike Wright

Faculty Publications

The interaction between resources, and host and home country contexts of transnational entrepreneurs (TEs), is important for understanding their strategies and hence performance of their ventures. Yet, how they deploy their unique experiences and social networks in the founding of ventures in multiple institutional contexts is less understood. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with TEs of Indian origin in the UK, and nine of their counterpart heads of transnational venture (TNV) operations, we explore the use of prior experience, and personal and industry ties in the founding of TNVs in their home country. Our findings show that the way TEs …

How Do Principles Textbooks Treat The Return To Entrepreneurship? The Missing Factor, John Estill, Tom Means

Faculty Publications

Principles textbooks have improved in incorporating entrepreneurship intheory. However, they still generally lack simple demonstrations of theentrepreneurial input, particularly when teaching the theory of a normal rateof return. Many texts are unclear over the definition of a normal return andits constituent parts. Our paper (1) reviews the theory of the entrepreneurialinput; (2) sorts how popular textbooks calculate a normal rate of returnconsistent with their definition of the entrepreneurial input; and (3)provides a simple numerical example that incorporates the entrepreneurialinput, which can be more fully developed in intermediate texts.

From 'Break Out' To 'Breakthrough': Successful Market Strategies Of Immigrant Entrepreneurs In The Uk, Anuradha Basu

Faculty Publications, School of Management

This paper explores the strategies that enable ethnic minority immigrant entrepreneurs to 'break out' of local ethnic markets and 'break through' into more promising markets with greater opportunities. It analyzes the contextual and personal characteristics of the entrepreneurs that implement those strategies, based on a primary survey of South Asian entrepreneurs in the UK. The analysis suggests that breaking out of co-ethnic customer markets is neither necessary nor sufficient for entrepreneurial expansion. The critical factor is the entrepreneur's ability to break through into customer markets that are larger, by geographical reach or profit margins and value added. Many successful immigrant …

From 'Break Out' To 'Breakthrough': Successful Market Strategies Of Immigrant Entrepreneurs In The Uk, Anuradha Basu

Anuradha Basu

This paper explores the strategies that enable ethnic minority immigrant entrepreneurs to 'break out' of local ethnic markets and 'break through' into more promising markets with greater opportunities. It analyzes the contextual and personal characteristics of the entrepreneurs that implement those strategies, based on a primary survey of South Asian entrepreneurs in the UK. The analysis suggests that breaking out of co-ethnic customer markets is neither necessary nor sufficient for entrepreneurial expansion. The critical factor is the entrepreneur's ability to break through into customer markets that are larger, by geographical reach or profit margins and value added. Many successful immigrant …

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 …

How To Weave Entrepreneurship Into Engineering Education: The Experience At San Jose State University, Minnie Patel, Anuradha Basu

Faculty Publications

There is a growing consensus about the need for engineers and scientists to have entrepreneurial skills to be successful in their careers. However, there is a continued debate as to how best to impart these skills at the undergraduate level. It is possible to identify two routes to accomplish this objective. One route is to offer courses in engineering entrepreneurship and the other is to encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities that help to foster entrepreneurial skills. The most common approach adopted by a growing number of universities is to offer courses in entrepreneurship to engineering students. A more …

How To Start A University Business Plan Competition: The Experience Of San Jose State University, Michael Solt, Asbjorn Osland, Anuradha Basu

Faculty Publications

San Jose State University’s Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship has hosted a business plan competition for the last two academic years. The purpose of the Silicon Valley Business Plan Competition (SVBPC) is to stimulate interest in entrepreneurship among students and help to create new start-ups. The winners have typically been MBA students with an engineering background. This paper documents the process of planning and implementing the SVBPC as it has evolved at San Jose State University (SJSU), the resources required, and the key challenges encountered in organizing this annual event and widening participation in the competition. The paper reports on …

San Jose State University Based Incubators: Loosely Coupled Elements In Silicon Valley’S Entrepreneurial System, Asbjorn Osland, Burton Dean

Faculty Publications

The San Jose Redevelopment Agency (RDA) fostered and continues to nurture incubators. In partnership with the RDA, San Jose State University (SJSU), through its Foundation, operates four fairly autonomous loosely coupled university based incubators (UBIs). Their primary mission is to develop start-ups. They also provide excellent learning opportunities for students. What they have not done is commercialize university or faculty intellectual property. The incubator directors are experienced business people who have the business acumen to nurture start-ups successfully, which they have done. The RDA, SJSU, the UBIs, and the incubator directors are all part of the entrepreneurial system that characterizes …

Description And Assessment Of A Business Plan Competition And New Venture Fair At San José State University, Malu Roldan, Asbjorn Osland, Michael Solt, Burton Dean

Faculty Publications

After the first business plan competition, in May 2003, San José State University (SJSU) faculty and community entrepreneurs serving on the university’s Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship (SVCE) concluded that the process should be spread over an academic year. Hence, the New Venture Fair (NVF) was born, which was held Dec. 16, 2003. The feedback from all sources has been very positive regarding the NVF. A significant NVF exhibit was the Hewlett Packard Mobile Computing Grant (HPMCG). All teams completed projects that were impressive to most observers from the university and greater community but additional lessons were learned that will …