Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

A Systems Approach To Evaluation Metrics: A Case Study Of Salvation Farms, Julia D. Scheier

Capstone Collection

This paper examines how integrating systems thinking into nonprofit work and evaluation metrics can help to advance an organization’s mission and clarify that mission to the public. The researcher will utilize her practicum site at Salvation Farms, a small nonprofit in northern Vermont, as a case study to observe the extent to which this organization utilizes systems thinking and how current evaluation metrics can be improved to more effectively inform and involve the community. Salvation Farms’ mission, after all, is to build greater resilience into Vermont’s food system through agricultural surplus management.

The researcher offers a literature review on systems …

Women's Professional Sports: A Case Study On Practices That Could Increase Their Profitability, Danielle H. Mcardle

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Women’s professional sports leagues have often been considered a risky business endeavor. Critics cite low attendance, lack of sponsorships, lack of media rights deals, and numerous other reasons for why women’s professional sports leagues are not profitable. In analyzing the current landscape of women’s professional sport leagues, this paper uses a case study approach to develop a strategy that will highlight lessons learned from past women’s professional sports leagues, current professional sports leagues, sponsorship agreements, fans, social, digital, and mobile marketing strategies, and management practices to show how the business of women’s sports could be made into a more profitable …

Diversity And Innovation: The Effects Of Diverse Creator Teams On Video Game Characteristics And Sales, Jill C. Rosok

CMC Senior Theses

I analyze the effects of gender diversity on video game production teams. I hypothesize teams with greater gender diversity produce more games with uncommon characteristics than less diverse teams, and the games these teams develop generate higher revenue and unit sales compared to games developed by less diverse teams. I find teams with more women disproportionately develop games that are non-violent and have playable female leads. I examine whether there is an optimal ratio of women to hire for each game genre in order to maximize revenue by analyzing the relationship between the percentage of women on a team in …

Experts Vs. Public, Who Knows Better? Factors Affecting High Growth Entrepreneurship In Developed And Developing Countries, Su Min Ha

CMC Senior Theses

This paper uses the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data of approximately 200,000 surveys conducted on industry experts and general population to examine factors that have a significant impact on high growth Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA), with a focus on developed countries with GDP per capita of USD 20,000 or above. The results suggest that expert opinion has a significant positive correlation with high growth TEA in developed countries, while only the public sentiment has a meaningful relationship with high growth TEA in developing countries. Among the specific categories of the survey, access to funding and government regulations and support had …

Is The Woman-Owned Federal Contracting Program A Good Choice For Your Business?, Mary L. Graff

White Papers

Set asides narrow the playing field and increase your chance of winning contracts. A contracting specialist explains the federal government set-aside program for woman-owned businesses and explores the advantages and disadvantages.

Customer Service Through Incoterms, Josh Nichol-Caddy

White Papers

Settling for the "one size, fits all" shipping solutions typically offered by large logistics companies, small businesses miss out on customer service options that could help differentiate their products. This paper defines the terms and conditions of all the options Incoterms present.

Five Key Ways To Pitch Your Idea To Investors, Wei Jing

White Papers

Here are five key ways by which a startup can effectively pitch their ideas, focusing specifically on communicating financial information.

Perceptions Of Cause-Related Marketing Tactics, Robert Bernier

White Papers

Study of small business owners in Nebraska reveals reluctance to make judgements about tactics intended to manipulate customers and more certainty about genuine charitable actions.

Startups And Unmet Legal Needs, Alice Armitage, Evan Frondorf, Christopher Williams, Robin Feldman

Utah Law Review

Our survey results demonstrate that startup companies are exposed to a wide variety of legal needs from an early stage: when attorneys associated with the Startup Legal Garage were asked to handle a company’s most pressing legal needs, the average startup received assistance with over three distinct legal matters over the course of a thirteen-week academic semester. These issues often spanned multiple categories. Although matters frequently touched on a variety of topics within companies, strong similarities emerged in the types of issues faced by all startups in our sample. Almost 90% of the legal matters addressed by Startup Legal Garage …

The Entrepreneurial Commons: Reframing The Relationship Between Intellectual Property And Entrepreneurship, Michael J. Burstein

Utah Law Review

Reconceptualizing entrepreneurial activity as a knowledge commons leads us to ask a different set of questions than previous studies have, and to utilize a different set of methodological tools. As Part II described, existing approaches to understanding the relationship between IP and entrepreneurship focus on the firm and its reactions to various IP laws. By contrast, to the extent that the exemplar entrepreneurial activities described in Part III can be described as instances of commons governance, the analysis must necessarily be broader. The knowledge commons framework forces us to acknowledge that much of information production and dissemination depends on relationships …

Supply Chain Organizational Infrastructure For Promoting Entrepreneurial Emphasis And Innovativeness: The Role Of Trust And Learning., Divesh Ojha, Jeff Shockley, Chandan Acharya

Publications and Research

Research has argued that inter-organizational trust and learning are critical factors associated with successful supply chain innovation and long-term competitiveness. In this paper, we develop and test a proposed model of supply chain organizational design using survey data collected from 128 decision-makers across diverse sample of supply chain decision-makers across many industries. Our analysis provides evidence that both trust and supply chain learning play important, but distinctive roles in developing an entrepreneurial and innovative supply chains. Moreover, our research findings add critical insight into existing resource-based perspectives of supply chain innovation by illuminating the roles and progression of the different …

Entrepreneurship Research In Management And Organizational Studies: A Contribution-Based Assessment Of The Literature, Vishal K. Gupta, Sajna Ibrahim, Chun (Grace) Guo, Erik Markin

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship-related research in management and organizational journals has experienced rapid growth, particularly in the last several years. The purpose of this study is to identify the researchers and universities that have had the greatest influence on entrepreneurship research since the turn of the century. Using a systematic and comprehensive study identification protocol, the authors delve into the individual and institutional actors contributing to scholarship in entrepreneurial studies for the period from 2000 to 2015. Examination of top-tier management and organizational journals revealed that a total of 371 entrepreneurship-related articles were published during this period by 618 authors from 303 different …

The Glass Cage: The Gender Pay Gap And Self-Employment In The United States, Leanna Lawter, Tuvana Rua, Jeanine K. Andreassi Ph.D.

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Self-employment is often viewed as a more desirable work arrangement than working as an employee for a firm. Women are pushed into self-employment due to organizational factors, such as a shrinking workforce or limited job opportunities, while being attracted to self-employment by the many psychological and social benefits (e.g., independence, flexibility, work-life balance, job satisfaction). Despite more women moving into self-employment, this type of employment still has different financial consequences for men and women. This article investigates whether a pay gap exists for self-employed women after controlling for industry, occupation, and hours worked and seeks to quantify the gender wage …

Classics In Entrepreneurship Research: Enduring Insights, Future Promises, Vishal K. Gupta, Dev K. Dutta, Grace Guo, Golshan Javadian, Crystal Jiang, Arturo E. Osorio, Banu Ozkazanc-Pan

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Academic inquiry into entrepreneurial phenomena has had a rich history over several decades and continues to evolve. This editorial draws attention to the classics: seminal articles that make profound contributions to the development of an academic field in entrepreneurship studies. We focus on the formative years of entrepreneurship research, specifically the 1970s and 1980s, to identify classics using a key informant approach that surveys members of the journal editorial board. Each nominated classic is introduced and discussed by an editorial board member, with particular focus on research opportunities that may be pursued going forward. Analyzing classics allows for the recognition …

Supporting Sustainability Through Developing A Learning Network Among Traditional Food Producers: Applications Of Action Learning, Paul Coughlan, David Coghlan, Denise O'Leary, Clare Rigg, Doireann Barrett

Articles

Purpose: The chapter describes and reflects upon an EU-funded research initiative, TRADEIT, which has attempted to develop a learning network among European traditional food producers as one way of contributing to the economic sustainability of the ventures, the social sustainability of the food’s regional character, and the environmental sustainability of food production through the use of traditional methods.

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter describes TRADEIT before moving on to an exploration of learning in organizations and networks. It outlines the action learning research methodology developed and implemented to explore the development of a learning network in TRADEIT. A single case history …

Communicating Entrepreneurial Passion: Personal Passion Vs. Perceived Passion In Venture Pitches, Kristen Lucas, Sharon Kerrick, Jenna Haugen, Cole J. Crider

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Research problem: Entrepreneurial passion has been shown to play an important role in venture success and therefore in investors’ funding decisions. However, it is unknown whether the passion entrepreneurs personally feel or experience can be accurately assessed by investors during a venture pitch. Research questions: (1) To what extent does entrepreneurs’ personal passion align with investors’ perceived passion? (2) To what cues do investors attend when assessing entrepreneurs’ passion? Literature review: Integrating theory and research in entrepreneurship communication and entrepreneurial passion within the context of venture pitching, we explain that during venture pitches, investors make judgments about entrepreneurs’ passion that …

Strategies For Retaining Employees In The Hospitality Industry, Melvia Edna Scott

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee retention is a critical issue for business leaders. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported over 4.5 million employee separations in 2014 because of resignations, layoffs, or terminations. Hospitality managers face some of the lowest employee retention rates of any industry, which leads to poor customer satisfaction and decreased profitability. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the perceptions of 3 hospitality managers from 3 different mid-sized hospitality organizations in Brevard County, Florida. The conceptual framework for this study was built upon motivation theory; existence, relatedness, and growth theory; and expectancy theory. The data were …

Sustainability Of Small Businesses In Zimbabwe During The First 5 Years, Barbra Sibanda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses in Zimbabwe make up 94% of the country's business population but only contribute 15% to the country's economy due to a high failure rate during the first 5 years. The purpose of this descriptive multiple case study was to explore strategies and skills that may contribute to the sustainability of small businesses during the first 5 years. The study population consisted of 5 small business owners in Ntepe village in Zimbabwe who had sustained their businesses for the first 5 years of operations. The conceptual framework that grounded this study was management theory. The data collection process involved …

Extreme Minimum Wages: Effects On The U.S. Hotel Industry, John O'Neill, Sean P. Mcginley

ICHRIE Research Reports

The subject report analyzes literature regarding minimum wages to explore the potential effects of what could be described as extreme increases in the minimum wage on the American hotel industry. The current presidential administration as well as several large municipalities are actively seeking, or recently passed laws that increase the minimum wage by an extreme amount. The subject report quantifies the forecasted effect on the U.S. hotel industry. The study concludes that the hotel industry in the U.S. would have a negative economic impact estimated at $2.53 billion if the current national minimum wage proposal is approved.Min

Quantifying A Mining Investability Quotient To Mitigate Junior Mining Investment Risk, Jonathan Mickey Merguerian

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Uncertainty and risk are inherent features of investing in mineral exploration ventures. Investors rely on qualitative and quantitative analysis to evaluate risk of capital. The distinction between risk and uncertainty pertaining to mineral exploration is that risk is an opportunity for loss and uncertainty can be described as the range of probabilities that some condition may occur (Rose, 1987). Stakeholders rely on a combination of investment conferences, risk analysis equations, press releases, financial reports, and investment research to determine if an investment potential. J. M. Cozzolini developed a formula for Risk Adjusted Value (RAV) of an exploration venture. The study …