Business Commons^™

How A Plane Crash Changed My Life, Ted Leonsis, Miles K. Davis

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

In 1983 Ted Leonsis survived a crash landing of a plane he was on.This fateful event proved to be a pivotal point in his life. One of the byproducts of that near-death experiences is Leonsis’ list of 101 things to do before he died—a "bucket list” before the movie of that title came out. Leonsis has managed to accomplish more than two-thirds of the things on his list including owning a sports franchise (the Washington Capitals), changing someone’s life via a charity, sailing the Caribbean, and being on the cover of a magazine. As impressive as these accomplishments are, they …

Designing Clothes: Culture And Organization In The Fashion Industry, Lisa Hayes

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Book review by Lisa Hayes.

Manlow, Veronica. Designing Clothes: Culture and Organization in the Fashion Industry. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9781412810555

Strategic Marketing Practice Considerations In Family Business In Nigeria, Omotayo Adegbuyi

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

The purpose of this study is to fill a gap in the literature by examining a medium-sized firm. Most modern economies are characterized by a significant group of middle-sized firms, still owner-managed, but with multimillion naira turnovers. Many of these remain family companies and constitute an important reservoir of business initiative. One such family business is the focus of this research. The results of the study suggest that neither the existing typologies of small firm approaches to marketing nor the formal models of marketing attributed to big companies necessarily characterize the marketing planning and management of family business in Nigeria.

Mentoring And Perpetuating The Entrepreneurial Spirit Within Family Business By Telling Contingent Stories, Robert Smith

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Family businesses do not perpetuate themselves. Entrepreneurs must nurture and propagate the values that led to the creation of the very thing most precious to them—their business.This of course depends on stability. Nor do these cherished values propagate themselves. To be made meaningful for others, and for future generations, family experiences, values, and achievements must be communicated to others via language, narrative and storytelling, or other forms embedded in the narrative such as symbols. Often a variety of different socially constructed stories may be necessary contingent upon situation, purpose, or need.

Developing An Entrepreneurial Education In A Residential College: An Exploratory Case Study, James Mcalexander, Rachel Nelson, Chris Bates

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is a source of innovation, job creation, and vibrancy for local and regional economies. As a direct result, there is a profound interest in creating an infrastructure that effectively encourages entrepreneurship and incubates entrepreneurial endeavors. Western State University has responded to this call by developing the Harvey Entrepreneurship Program, which is integrated in the Enterprise Residential College.The Harvey program provides a socially embedded experiential learning approach to entrepreneurial education. Faculty, students, entrepreneurs, and technical experts are drawn together in an environment that provides space for business incubators and an entrepreneurially focused curriculum. In this article, we present a case …

Entrepreneurial Expansion Plans: An Empirical Investigation Of Infrastructure Predictors, Jianwen (Jon) Liao, Harold P. Welsch, David Pistrui

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship and the development of new business continue to be the forefront of socioeconomic development in virtually all economies today. Despite evidence of increasing research into entrepreneurial growth, the existing research is limited by the fact that most studies define entrepreneurial growth as a unidimensional construct and operationalize it as “realized” growth relying on financially based measures. Consequently, this article has two objectives: (1) to develop a set of accurate and comprehensive entrepreneurial growth measures; and (2) to test a series of hypotheses regarding precursors of growth intentions—more specifically, to what extent, infrastructure factors affect entrepreneurial growth intentions. These two …

Revisiting Doing Business In The Middle East, David Desplaces, Nancy K. Mcintyre

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This case engages students on a number of issues common to doing business in other countries, specifically in the Middle East. It is intended to be a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of the situation. The case seeks to integrate issues of international management and cross-cultural conflict and negotiation. Students are challenged to diagnose a cross-culturally sensitive situation and develop solutions in a team environment under limiting time restraints. This case is also designed to help students understand the cultural aspects of a situation and how different solutions could have major consequences …

From The Editors, Herbert Sherman, Joshua Shuart, Laurence Weinstein

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

Ethical Compliance Behavior In Small And Young Firms: The Role Of Employee Identification With The Firm, Susan Houghton, Mark Simon, Ph.D.

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

We explored whether employees in smaller, younger firms would be more ethically compromised, and whether employee identification moderates this relationship.We collected survey data from 154 working professionals enrolled in an MBA program in the southeastern United States. We found that employees of smaller, younger firms selected more compromised ethical choices than employees of larger, older firms. Contrary to our expectations, employee identification had no effect in smaller, younger, firms, yet in larger, older firms, identification actually reduced ethical compliance, suggesting that there is not a simple relationship between identification and ethical compliance.

Big-Time Small-Scale Innovations, Corline Van Es, Chris Sigaloff

Social Space

Is there value in supporting small-scale, yet innovative projects? Based on their experience in Digital Pioneers – a programme supporting innovative Dutch civil society initiatives – Corline Van Es and Chris Sigaloff of Kennisland, Netherlands, make a case for this latest sector trend and the support it deserves.

Ua62/3 January Newsletter, Wku Small Business Development Center

University Organizations

Newsletter created by the WKU Small Business Development Center.

Entrepreneurial Teams: Comparing High-Growth Software Firms Through Structure And Strategy, Thomas Cooney

Articles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore hypothesis that high-growth firms founded by entrepreneurial teams use a unique combination of organic structure and emergent strategy. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative study of 445 software development firms in the USA and 219 firms in Ireland was undertaken with a valid response rate of 22 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively. Findings – Generally, all classifications of firms in the USA and in Ireland demonstrated a combination of organic structure and emergent strategy at the beginning of their existence. As the US firms grew older they moved towards a …

Internal Branding And Brand Commitment: A Quantitative Investigation Into Corporate Brand Building In A Retail Store Network, Edmund O'Callaghan

Conference proceedings

The aim of this quantitative study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived effectiveness of internal branding activities on brand commitment among owner managers within a retail store network of previously independent retailers. Brand commitment was hypothesized as essential for coherent and consistent corporate brand building within this context. Two new scales were developed and tested to measure internal branding and brand commitment. Perceived clarity of vision, core values and brand communications were highly correlated with strong brand commitment, while lack of perceived business supports and adequate reward systems were potential inhibitors. Interalia, findings validate the significance of internal …

Sustainability Amidst Uncertainty: Columbia Forest Products’ Pursuit Of Sustainability In A Changing Market, Scott Marshall, Zachary Anderson, Matthew Flax, Daniel Gambetta, Jacen Greene, Madeleine E. Pullman

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Upon reading the latest report from the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, Harry Demorest found his concerns confirmed – the construction of new homes had fallen yet again across the United States. Over the past month, new home starts had declined over 14% in December; this marked the end of 2007 during which housing starts were down 25% compared to the previous year and hit a low not experienced since 1993. The question was no longer “will there be a recession?” but rather “how long will the recession last?”

The fate of Columbia Forest Products, the company that Harry …

The Accelerator, Volume 2 Issue 3, Winter 2009, Christa Santos

The Accelerator

No abstract provided.

Recession Comes To The Plains, Eric Thompson, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln

Business in Nebraska

U.S. Macroeconomic Outlook

Like clockwork, just a few weeks after the November Presidential election, the National Bureau of Economic Indicators declared the U.S. economy in recession. This was not news, of course. It had been evident by that time that the U.S. economy had entered recession. Instead, the major news of the last 6 months is that the U.S. recession has entered a second, and more menacing, phase. This “second act” of the recession began in September, with the upheaval on Wall Street and the freezing of global credit markets. At that time, our national housing recession morphed into a …

Venture Capitalists As Catalysts To New Venture Internationalization: The Impact Of Their Knowledge And Reputation Resources, Stephanie A. Fernhaber, Patricia P. Mcdougall-Covin

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Venture Capitalists (VC) play an important role in influencing the strategic direction of the firms in which they invest. The findings of this study reveal that VCs can serve as a catalyst to new venture internationalization through the provision of knowledge and reputation resources. Furthermore, the international knowledge of a VC is more positively related to new venture internationalization when the VC is also reputable.

Racing To Success By Identifying Key Performance Drivers, Kathy Paulson Gjerde, Susan B. Hughes

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This article focuses on ways to identify key performance drivers (KPDs) and key performance indicators (KPIs). Unfortunately, lists of KPIs published in the past often focus on one industry and assume a generic business strategy. In addition, an overemphasis on financial measures will mean that KPIs will reflect past activities rather than signaling future performance. Managers need to develop meaningful metrics for their own businesses, not use generic KPIs. This is particularly important in small and medium-sized enterprises. How adept are you at this task? Do you know what drives net income for your organization?

An Exploratory Study Of How Potential "Family And Household Capital" Impacts New Venture Start-Up Rates, Peter Rodriguez, Chris S. Tuggle, Sean M. Hackett

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Drawing from social capital theory, the authors examine the relationship between family capital characteristics and new venture start-up rates in the United States. The results of this study improve the understanding of (a) how families matter in an entrepreneur’s decision to start a business, (b) how wealth and health care considerations affect the start-up decision, and (c) whether and how these effects differ among the largest ethnic groups in the United States.

Do Campus Incubation Centres Provide A Successful Linkage Between Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Ventures And The Irish Institutes Of Technology?, Fiona Fox

Theses

This study is an examination of the issues that are pertinent to the development of linkages, which campus incubation centres provide between their host Institutes of Technology (loT) and their tenant firms. This research incorporates the views, opinions and recommendations of new firm entrepreneurs, campus incubation centre management, senior academic staff and researchers. This study responds to the lacuna of research on campus incubators hosted by the Institutes of Technology. This study confirms that campus business incubators that are affiliated to the loTs are still in their infancy. The research acknowledges that these campus incubators are in a ‘startup’ phase …

Spanish Foreign Direct Investments In Latin America: Internationalization Strategies And Financial Management Practices, Roberto Curci, Guillermo Cardoza

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This study analyzes the internationalization strategies and the financial management practices of seven Spanish companies with the largest volume of investments in Latin America. The companies selected for an in-depth analysis represent approximately 80 percent of the total Spanish foreign investments during the period of analysis. Their investments have taken place mainly in service sectors such as banking, energy, and telecommunications. The study identifies the market conditions and the corporate strategies that have allowed these Spanish companies to successfully initiate and expand business activities into Latin America. The findings suggest Spanish investors have strengthened their global competitiveness and have accomplished …

Entrepreneurial Competencies As An Entrepreneurial Distinctive: An Examination Of The Competency Approach In Defining Entrepreneurs, Xiang Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Entrepreneurship is of critical importance to the modern economy. Researchers have studied entrepreneurship for decades. In recent years, significant relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and firm performance has been reported in empirical studies. Applying the competency approach, researchers have assumed that entrepreneurial competency differentiates entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs without empirically examining if this is the case. The research conducted under this thesis addresses this gap. Drawing upon a thorough literature review regarding the components, antecedents and performance outcomes of the entrepreneurial competency, we propose the following hypothesis: the entrepreneurs generally possess higher level of entrepreneurial competencies than the non-entrepreneurs, and the entrepreneurs …

Competitive Strategy, Alliance Networks, And Firm Performance, Goce Andrevski

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the interplay between competitive strategy and alliance network structure in explaining firm performance in highly volatile environments (e.g., personal computers or consumer electronics). In particular, I examine the following three questions: (1) Which competitive strategies enable firms to gain superior performance? (2) How do these strategies affect the firm‘s networking behavior and lead to the formation of particular network positions? (3) What optimal combinations of competitive strategies and network structures maximize firm performance?

Firms can outperform rivals by pursuing two types of competitive strategies: advantage-creating and advantage-enhancing. Each of these strategies creates different needs, motivations, and opportunities …

Little To Large: Critical Success Factors & Implications For Sme's In Kerry And Rural Ireland., Noelle Foley

Theses

This research is unique in that it profiles the growth trajectories of three global knowledge based companies in rural Ireland. The chosen companies were start-up small businesses that became international global leaders in their selected fields. The selected companies range from different industries but share similar growth trajectories and factors which have enabled high growth. There was a gap in research regarding the growth factors which have allowed small to medium-sized enterprises develop into large corporations. This study took an in-depth look at how each company has managed the vital factors in their growth transition in the hope of applying …

A Review Of Interventions To Encourage Smes To Make Environmental Improvements, Craig M. Parker, Janice Redmond, Mike Simpson

Research outputs pre 2011

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own negative environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and commitment where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmental improvement. Interventions that encourage environmental improvement are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreement …

Environmental Education In Small Business: The Owner-Manager's Perspective, Janice Redmond, Elizabeth Walker

Research outputs pre 2011

Traditionally, environmental education has been aimed at the community or in primary schools and governmental pressure to reduce environmental damage has focussed on large businesses. More recently, the role and importance of small business and how to engage them in the environmental debate has come under scrutiny. Researchers have identified education as one method of increasing the understanding of small business owner-managers’ role and knowledge of practices that, when implemented, will reduce the negative impacts of their businesses. However, there is little attention given in the literature to the perspective of the small business owner-manager and environmental education. This research …

Developing Entrepreneurship Programmes For Female Members Of The Irish Traveller Community, Thomas Cooney

Articles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the distinctive challenges faced by female travellers (Roma, Sinti and Gypsy) in starting their own business. Design/methodology/approach – The paper details a pilot “start your own business” programme that was delivered in Ireland to 12 women from the traveller community. Findings – Four distinct categories of entrepreneurship barriers faced by female travellers were recognised: self-esteem, traveller identity, welfare trap and family responsibilities. Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on just one programme and so no general conclusions can be drawn. Practical implications – The paper identifies the successes and …

Ua62/3 December Newsletter, Wku Small Business Development Center

University Organizations

Newsletter created by the WKU Small Business Development Center.

Ua62/3 November Newsletter, Wku Small Business Development Center

University Organizations

Newsletter created by the WKU Small Business Development Center.

A Mapping Of Ethnic Entrepreneurship In Ireland, Thomas Cooney, Anthony Flynn

Reports

The research findings presented in this report represent the first major attempt to map in a systematic fashion ethnic entrepreneurial activity in Ireland. The rapid transformation of the demographic profile of Ireland in this decade through unprecedented levels of immigration has stimulated debate on the economic and social policy implications of the new multi-racial Ireland. One facet to this policy debate is the potential for non-Irish nationals to bolster indigenous business activity. It was the aim of this research to capture the essential nature of ethnic entrepreneurship in Ireland in 2008 with a view to better informing policy formulation as …