Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Strategies For Sustaining Minority-Owned Small Businesses, Taha Seid

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Minority small businesses play a significant role in the development of the United States economy. Minority small business owners who do not implement successful and sustainable strategies are at a high risk of failure. Grounded in entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that minority small business owners used to sustain their business beyond 5 years of beginning operations. The participants included 3 minority small business owners in Alexandria, Virginia, who have been in business for 5 years. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, field notes, company websites, and financial, marketing, strategy, and …

Social Connectedness And Financial Independence Strategies Supporting Nonprofit Sustainability, Christopher Edmund Maylor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) often lack strategies to ensure the sustainability of their organizations beyond initial funding, resulting in significant risk to program continuity. Grounded in social entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to explore strategies used by 3 leaders of a small NPO in the southwest region of the United States. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and a review of organizational documents. Through thematic analysis, 6 social themes emerged: optimization of business strategies, income and donor growth, program cost management, funding diversification, program licensing, and public awareness of NPO programs. The contributions to …

Successful Marketing Strategies For Small Business Sustainability, Jasmine Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses play a significant role in the health of the U.S. economy, but 50% of small businesses close before reaching 5 years of operation. Some small business owners do not utilize effective marketing strategies to guide them towards sustainability in business. Grounded in hybrid typology, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore marketing strategies small business owners use for sustainability. The participants comprised three small business owners located in the Midwest Region of the United States, with a business in operation for at least 5 years. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, public company documents, …

Business Funding Strategies For Women-Owned Small Businesses, Jefreda R. Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, limitations in funding allocation threaten the viability of small business success. In the United States, women start businesses at faster rates than men do, but women business owners continue to experience challenges in accessing capital to sustain their businesses. Grounded in pecking order theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to identify business funding strategies women small business owners in Birmingham, Alabama, used to sustain their businesses for more than 5 years. The participants for this study were 3 women small business owners in Birmingham, Alabama, who have used business funding strategies to …

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Highlights 2019-2020, Jim Jansen, Jeffrey Stokes

Extension Farm and Ranch Management News

Introduction

The Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Highlights 2019-20 report represents the 42nd edition to the annual series. These reports provide an important insight on agricultural land market dynamics for stakeholders across Nebraska. In today’s market, where market transactions exceeding $1 million dollars are the norm, objective market information and analysis is more critical than ever. The focus of the report continues to be on providing unbiased information for agricultural land values and rental rates so industry participants can make educated and informed decisions.

This year, the February 2020 survey of nearly 120 expert panel members from across the state …

Effect Of The University On The Social Entrepreneurial Intention Of Students, Carlos Bazen, Hannah Gaultois, Arifusalam Shaikh, Katie Gillespie, Sean Frederick, Ali Amjad, Simon Yap, Chantel Finn, James Rayner, Nafisa Belal

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – The study aims to test the applicability of a variant of the model proposed by Hockerts (2017) for assessing the social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) of male and female students. It extends the model by incorporating the university’s environment and support system (ESS) as an additional more distal construct. The university’s ESS, coupled with the experience with social, cultural and environmental issues can affect SEI by influencing the more proximal precursors of empathy towards others, perceived self-efficacy, perceived community support and social, cultural and environmental responsibility. Design/methodology/approach – A structured non-disguised questionnaire was administered to students at a Canadian …

Overconfidence: A Common Psychological Attribute Of Entrepreneurs Which Leads To Firm Failure, Robert Paul Singh

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – There has been significant growth in entrepreneurship research over the past several decades. Yet with all of the knowledge gained and presumably improved training of would-be entrepreneurs, firm failure rates remain persistently high. It is argued here that the historical and continued research focus on successful entrepreneurs has limited the field. Entrepreneurs are often considered to possess uniquely positive capabilities relative to the general population; this paper explores the possibility that the majority of entrepreneurs suffer from overconfidence and that this leads most entrepreneurs to make “bad bets” that result in underperformance and firm failure. Design/methodology/approach – In …

Gender Differences And New Venture Performance, Mayank Jaiswal

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – This study compares the performance of female majority-owned new ventures (FNV) vs. male majority-owned new ventures (MNV). It analyzes the differences in levels of variables such as education, the same industry work experience of owners, and other venture level attributes between FNVs and MNVs. More importantly, this study employs decomposition techniques to determine the individual contribution from the intergender difference of each attribute on the performance of the new venture. For example, the study finds that, on average, the owners of an MNV possessed 3.4 years more of the same industry work experience than their FNV counterparts. This …

Adding A Strategic Lens To Feasibility Analysis, Gregory Berry, Kareem M. Shabana

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Traditional feasibility analysis is focused on the immediate and urgent needs of a new venture start-up. All four parts of the feasibility analysis (product/service, industry/market, organizational, and financial) are valuable and essential, but what is missed is a part that provided attention to the longer-term requirements for success and sustainability. A fifth strategic feasibility analysis is needed, focused on the long-term sustainability of the new venture. This strategic/contingent context-dependency lens considers the organization’s long-term survival, confirming that organizational success depends on the new venture’s ability to emphasize its uniqueness and fit with its external environment. Design/methodology/approach – This …

Improving Entrepreneurial Competencies In The Classroom: An Extension And In-Study Replication, Caroline E. W. Glackin, Steven E. Phelan

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – A recent paper by Morris et al. (2013b) presented evidence that students can develop entrepreneurial competencies through international fieldwork. This paper explores whether the same results can be developed in a traditional classroom setting. Design/methodology/approach – The study is a systematic replication of the Morris study with the addition of a matched pair, quasi-experimental design, with a self-replication. Data were collected on 13 self-reported competencies at the start of a semester from two groups using the Morris instrument. The treatment group was exposed to a curriculum designed to teach entrepreneurial competencies, and both groups were resurveyed at the …

Tailormade : Fine Art Merchandise, Mirabelle Alan

MA Projects

This Master’s Thesis Project proposes a three-year business plan for establishing TAILORMADE, an online platform that develops fine art merchandise through accessible means to combat intellectual property theft from emerging artists. It analyzes how merchandise is used as a method in transforming the ways we create, buy and sell art. It also addresses how fast-fashion stores use their mass-produced merchandise as to copy artworks from emerging artists without consent or compensation. Through this analysis, TAILORMADE proposes a company that sells merchandise made by the artist, for the art lover, and that maintains artistic integrity.

TAILORMADE also taps into an emerging …

Intelligent Art, Lindsay Covington

MA Projects

This proposal outlines the development of software, composed of a network of machine learning algorithms, which aims to eliminate risk associated with investment in Post-War and Contemporary art.

While art funds employ specialists to inform decision-making, there still remains an unsettling level of volatility in the art market, especially in the Contemporary art sector. This program will inform art fund specialists on what to buy and sell based on a variety of factors. These factors, which the program include economic predictors, changes in political climate, art news, celebrity sales and social media trends. Sentiment analysis of articles will be used …

Connecting Art And The Public Through Digital Marketing And Brand Collaboration – Co-Art, A New Art Marketing Agency, Qing Su

MA Projects

Traditional art marketing often focuses on physical exhibitions, in-person networking, and the endorsement of the art world “gatekeepers.” The making of a “star” artist relies not only on the quality of the art itself, but also on how galleries (the art marketers) orchestrate the complex power dynamics in the art industry – critics, curators, institutions, and collectors. This long-lasting mechanism leads to the elitization of the art world and disconnection with the mass public as it targets only a niche number of audiences that might make an influence on an artist’s career, price, and portfolio. COART is an agency that …

Increasing Diversity Among Women Entrepreneurs In High Growth High Tech Using Hbcu Female Academic Entrepreneurs, Clovia Hamilton

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

There is a concentrated number of potential women entrepreneurs of diverse races among faculty in the United States' Historically Black Colleges and Universities (known as HBCUs and are called 'Black Colleges' herein). This study describes the potential for developing university technology transfer in these Black Colleges as a strategy for increasing diversity among women entrepreneurs in high growth, high tech fields using female academic entrepreneurs. Currently, Black Colleges lag behind their peer non-Black Colleges in . technology transfer because historically they have been under, served and were originally established largely as teaching and blue-collar trade schools. Although Black female STEM …

Community Engagement At Technological University Dublin: Report On Piloting The Tefce Toolbox., Emma O'Brien, Thomas M. Cooney, Ninoslav Šćukanec Schmidt

Reports

Traditionally, the three central roles identified for higher education are frequently listed as learning and teaching, research and scholarship and engagement with society. Within Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) we have recognised that these roles are interconnected and should not be approached in isolation and should not remain in silos. Rather, these areas should be integrated and embedded across core university activities. In doing so, community engagement becomes a real way of engaging students, faculty and community partners in areas of mutual interest and concern. For the student, it develops understanding, an opportunity for application, and a range of learning …

Supporting People From Marginalised Communities Into Employment, Thomas M. Cooney

Reports

Diversity means hiring difference rather than choosing the people whom you find ‘comfortable’ and who mirror your own experience and background. It means working against conscious and unconscious bias, educating yourself and proactively finding merit in people different to you. Inclusion means recognising intersectional identities – the sum of the whole person – that greatly improve the workplace with the different perspectives they bring to an organisation. You recognise the value of that person, equal to all others who work for and with you, and you treat them as equal in all respects. This is all more than box ticking …

New Venture Modeling Strategies For Information Technology Business Startups, Jude Thomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information technology (IT) startup owners often lack new venture modeling strategies to sustain their businesses beyond 5 years. Information technology startup owners with backgrounds in software development, IT project management, and computer engineering need to know about the strategies discovered in the study to make operational, modeling, and project level decisions that ensure sustained organizational profitability. Grounded in Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore new venture modeling strategies some information technology startup owners use to sustain their businesses beyond 5 years. Study participants comprised 3 IT startup business owners …

Nebraska Ppe Partnership Project Receives Excalibur Award At Aurp 2020 International Conference, Nebraska Innovation Campus

Nebraska Innovation Campus Materials

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) announced recipients of the Awards of Excellence during the 2020 virtual international conference. The Nebraska PPE Partnership Project, a partnership between Nebraska Innovation Studio (NIS), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Food Processing Center and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, received the Excalibur Award.

Veterans In Recovery, David Martin

Nebraska Innovation Studio

Flyer about the Veterans in recovery Program at Nebraska Innovation Studio, 2020.

Veterans in Recovery is a program at Nebraska Innovation Studio designed to provide basic woodturning skills and other creative outlets that will have therapeutic value for veterans. The program provides instruction, materials, and safety equipment to veterans at no cost.

Unintended Impacts On Entrepreneurs During Covid-19 – Pandemic Creates Unforeseeable Opportunities Of A Lifetime, Ryan Matthews

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Select entrepreneurs are successful for a reason. One reason being, they have been able to use their skills to execute during times of chaos and panic, sometimes using these times as an opportunity to identify and exploit new or existing opportunities. Now and then, the external business environment changes in a manner that was never imagined or planned, therefore creating unintended impacts or new opportunities. During times of chaos, will these entrepreneurs pursue newly present opportunities that were not planned, or will they stick to their comfort zone? While several studies have been conducted looking at the characteristics of the …