Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Exploring Knowledge Management Practices In Service-Based Small Business Enterprises, Orlando Skelton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business enterprises (SBEs) are significant contributors to business growth and employment in the United States, but despite governmental support, the failure rate of SBEs is high. Some small business leaders lack the critical management skills to detect or discover when underperformance in revenue-generation is due to gaps in organizational knowledge or business practices associated with managing knowledge assets. Guided by the knowledge-based view of the firm, the purpose of this multiple case study was to address that gap by exploring the skills needed by leaders to understand how deficiencies in their knowledge management practices contribute to underperformance. Semistructured interview …

Independent Retail Business Owners' Perceptions Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act., Bradley A. Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010 prompted the question of how independent businesses may react to the employer mandate in the PPACA. The law is based on the theory of managed competition and it is more likely to affect businesses with fewer employees than to affect larger businesses that already offer health insurance. The purpose of this quantitative, pre-experimental study was to examine the strategic responses of independent retail business owners in Hillsborough County, Florida, regarding their perceptions of the employer mandate in the PPACA. Before 2014, there was a great deal of non-peer-reviewed …

Marketing Strategies Of Mobile Game Application Entrepreneurs, Talaya Waller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mobile game application entrepreneurs can offer many benefits to the U.S. economy; however, 80% of the entrepreneurs in this study stated that marketing their mobile applications was a major business challenge. Successful strategies that entrepreneurs have used to overcome their mobile game application marketing challenges may be beneficial to other entrepreneurs. Based on Schumpeter's theory of economic development and new value creation of technological innovation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the strategies that entrepreneurs have used to market their mobile game application development businesses successfully. Twenty mobile game application entrepreneurs from northern California, who successfully sustained …

Impact Of Non-Audit Assurance Level (Compilation Versus Review) On Production Management Of Private Manufacturing Companies, Benjamin P. Foster

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Private small companies have been the subject of much interest by accounting regulators recently. The AICPA issued SSARS 19 and the Financial Reporting Framework for Small- and Medium-Sized Entities in 2009 and 2013, respectively. The Financial Accounting Foundation issued the Blue Ribbon Panel Report on Standard Setting for Private Companies in 2011. This is apparently the first study to compare reporting practices of small private companies whose financial statements are compiled or reviewed.

Overall results indicate that reviewed companies tend to exhibit positive abnormal production while compiled companies tend to exhibit negative abnormal production. However, for the companies most likely …

The Relationship Between Personality Traits, Goal Orientation, And Preferred Paths To Value Creation: The Case Of Latent Entrepreneurs., Michael J. Kay Phd

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examined the relationship between personality and the preferences expressed by latent entrepreneurs among different ways of creating value. Latent entrepreneurs are individuals who would prefer to be an entrepreneur rather than a salaried employee. Latent entrepreneurs take all the first time decisions on entering entrepreneurship and their entry choices have been linked in the literature to their expressed preferences. The study addressed the personality-value creation relationship through two goals. The first addressed the personality-value creation preference relationship directly. Value creation was operationalized using the Competing Values Model (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). Each approach to value creation was regressed …

2014 Q4 Market Pulse Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Market Pulse Report

The quarterly IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse Survey was created to gain an accurate understanding of the market conditions for businesses being sold in Main Street (values $0-$2MM) and the lower middle market (values $2MM -$50MM). The national survey was conducted with the intent of providing a valuable resource to business owners and their advisors. The IBBA and M&A Source present the Market Pulse Survey with the support of the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project and the Graziado School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

Invest For Impact: An Exploration Of The Incongruities In Social Finance, Kelly Marie Thompson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Within the impact investing industry, a definition for societal return and how to measure this concept is lacking. Although its potential has been proven, there is still very limited exposure to impact investing within the United States. The present study aims to survey the current status of the impact investment industry in the United States, assess the presence of gaps between investments and their outcomes, and formulate a framework for addressing such shortcomings. The current status of the impact investing industry was examined and evaluated in order to understand how the industry is defined, what is the outcomes social finance, …

'Making For Innovation' Will Be First Class At Nic [Nebraska Innovation Campus], Troy Fedderson

Nebraska Innovation Studio

'Making for Innovation' will be first class at Nebraska Innovation Campus.

A new course will allow up to thirty students to get hands-on experience and help launch the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Maker Space in the spring semester.

The course, "Making for Innovation," will be the first to meet at Nebraska Innovation Studio — formerly the UNL Maker Space — on Nebraska Innovation Campus (http://innovate.unl.edu). Shane Farritor, Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and Liana Owad, Maker Space Coordinator, will guide the class.

The Ranking Of Contractors To The U.S. Department Of Defense According To Integrated Power Blocs Among The Contractors, F. Gregory Hayden, Elliot G. Campbell, Shannon Cummins

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Knowledge about the power and misbehavior of defense contractors is substantial; yet their power continues to grow in full view of a record of waste, fraud, corrupt activity, and the failure to perform contracts. The knowledge base about defense contractors has not been sufficient to effectively oppose their extensive power. Knowledge is needed about how the boards of directors of the defense corporations are interlocked. That work is initiated in this article by ranking the top defense contractors in terms of the number of power blocs to which the corporations belong in the defense contractors' power-bloc network.

A Movement Tool Kit For The Divergent And Convergent Cps Guidelines: Instruction Cards And Activity Floor Mats, Adela Vangelisti

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

A Movement Tool Kit for the Divergent and Convergent CPS Guidelines:

Instruction Cards and Activity Floor Mats

Movement is as natural to humans as breathing is, and, yet, passivity starts early in schools. We are taught to sit still and in silence for long periods of time. By the time we reach adulthood and enter the workforce, we have almost forgotten our sense of embodiment. This lack of movement is counter-productive, not only to learning but to the development of creativity as well. For this project, I designed a tool to recapture the joy and playfulness of movement. Furthermore, the …

A Discourse On Entrepreneurial Identity : Three Essays., Krishna P. Poudel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation provides theoretical insights on individual level entrepreneurial identity in three inter-related essays, drawing on multiple theories and disciplines. In the first essay, I advance a dual-process model of identity development, contributing to the debates in the broad identity literature. I articulate that the intrinsic prospection of identity is another fundamental process of identity formation, besides the social construction of identity, the prevalent notion in the literature. I propose a comprehensive conceptual framework of entrepreneurial identity. On the basis of this conceptual framework, I explain that there are within-group and between-group variations in the entrepreneurial identity of different types …

He Creators A Look At The Changing Work Of Potters And The Future Of Their Craft In Thimi, Nepal, Natalie Silver

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Newari sur-name Prajapati has been associated with those who are of the potter caste in the Kathmandu valley. In the past 30 years ceramics in the historic pottery town of Thimi has changed drastically from being an essential and necessary craft and the only occupation for Prajapatis, to a struggling population of visually aging potters. This paper examines the workshop Everest Pottery in Thimi nepal as a case study for the state of ceramics in Thimi today. The author traces the origins of the workshop's founder Shiva Prajapati and examines the shift that Shiva made from traditional Newari pottery …

Curbing Corporate Inversions: A Study Of National And International Efforts To Establish Corporate Tax Equity, Scott Novak

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In recent years, the number of U.S. companies trying to merge with a foreign company and thereby reincorporate themselves in countries with a lower corporate tax rate – a practice known as corporate inversion – has skyrocketed. The public outcry in 2014 against corporate inversions led the U.S. Treasury to release a series of new anti-inversion regulations, and more policy changes are in the process of being debated. At the same time as this national discussion on the harmful effects corporate inversions have on the U.S. tax base is progressing, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is in …

A New Course Offered At Nebraska Innovation Studio On Nebraska Innovation Campus, Nebraska Innovation Campus

Nebraska Innovation Studio

A new course offered at Nebraska Innovation Studio on Nebraska Innovation Campus.

In spring semester 2014, Shane Farritor, PhD, and Liana Owad, MFA, taught “Making for Innovation” which covered techniques used to bring ideas to reality. This was the first class to meet at Nebraska Innovation Studio – the UNL makerspace – located on Nebraska Innovation Campus.

The course was built on two basic ideas. The first, that building and hands-on problem solving are important paths to innovation. The act of building prototypes and physical models leads to improved creative thinking and is in important path to the conception of …

Risk Sharing In An Asymmetric Environment, Eric Fesselmeyer, Leonard J. Mirman, Marc Santugini

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We study the effect of an asymmetric environment on risk sharing. In our model, entrepreneurs consider undertaking risky projects in the real sector as well as selling part of their projects to investors. To capture the idea of an asymmetric environment, the returns on the alternative risk-free investment are allowed to differ between the entrepreneurs and the investors, i.e., agents have different opportunity costs of participating in the risky projects. We first show that the presence of asymmetric options establishes links between the risk-free and risky sectors as well as between the real and financial sectors. In particular, an asymmetric …

Successful Communities: What Is Desired And What Is Present In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska, 2014 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Rural Nebraskans are looking for many things in a community. The characteristics of a community that most believe are absolutely essential include social dimensions (sense of personal safety), economic dimensions (jobs/economic opportunities), some basic services (a quality school system, available medical services, affordable housing, quality housing and well maintained infrastructure) and environmental dimensions (a clean and attractive natural environment).

Unfortunately, when asked if these characteristics are present in their current community, some of these areas are lacking. One of the more extreme cases involves jobs/economic opportunities. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents say these are absolutely essential in order for them …

Kinship In Entrepreneur Networks: Performance Effects Of Resource Assembly In Africa, Jane N. O. Khayesi, Gerard George, John Antonakis

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine the relationship among structural social capital, resource assembly, and firm performance of entrepreneurs in Africa. We posit that social capital primarily composed of kinship or family ties helps the entrepreneur to raise resources, but it does so at a cost. Using data drawn from small firms in Kampala, Uganda, we explore how shared identity among the entrepreneur's social network moderates the relationship between social capital and outcomes. A large network contributed a higher quantity of resources raised, but at a higher cost when shared identity was high. We discuss the implications of these findings for the role of …

‘I Just Want A Job’: The Untold Stories Of Entrepreneurship, Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, Lucia Sell-Trujillo, Paul Donnelly

Books/Book Chapters

In this chapter, we explore the untold stories of Spanish and Irish necessity entrepreneurs to better understand the process of becoming an entrepreneur. Working with narratives, media articles, and policy documents, we illustrate how necessity entrepreneurs do not recognize themselves in the institutionalized entrepreneur narrative as empowered, creative and independent individuals. It is necessity, not opportunity that is pushing, not pulling, them to become entrepreneurial. The process is experienced as more fragmented than official narratives outline. In exposing these untold stories, the chapter expands our understanding of entrepreneurship, presenting a more nuanced view of both entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial process.

Risk Sharing In An Asymmetric Environment, Eric Fesselmeyer, Leonard J. Mirman, Marc Santugini

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We study the effect of an asymmetric environment on risk sharing. In our model, entrepreneurs consider undertaking risky projects in the real sector as well as selling part of their projects to investors. To capture the idea of an asymmetric environment, the returns on the alternative risk-free investment are allowed to differ between the entrepreneurs and the investors, i.e., agents have different opportunity costs of participating in the risky projects. We first show that the presence of asymmetric options establishes links between the risk-free and risky sectors as well as between the real and financial sectors. In particular, an asymmetric …

Start-Up Reputations In Asian Markets, Mark Chong, Jurrien Gregor Halff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.