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New England Journal Of Entrepreneurship, Fall 2005

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

Developing And Validating A Construct Of Entrepreneurial Intensity, Jianwen Liao, Patrick J. Murphy, Harold P. Welsch

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

In this article we define, validate, and propose a construct of entrepreneurial intensity, or the degree of entrepreneurship in firms. First, in defining the construct, we explore theoretical differences between entrepreneurial intensity and orientation in order to distinguish it. Second, we empirically validate a measure of entrepreneurial intensity using data based on a sample of 563 entrepreneurs. Third, we propose avenues for research on how entrepreneurial intensity distinguishes entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial action. Finally, we detail theoretical implications of using entrepreneurial intensity as an antecedent and outcome.

Creating A New Program In Entrepreneurship Education: A Case Study In Colombia, Kirk C. Heriot, Noel D. Campbell

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship has been widely recognized as having greatly influenced the United States. Its influence has especially been documented over the past 20 years. Paralleling our societal interest in entrepreneurship has been increasing interest in entrepreneurship education. While our interest in entrepreneurship education has grown considerably over the past two decades, this field of study continues to have critics both within and outside of schools and colleges of business (Kuratko 2004). In spite of these criticisms, some researchers suggest that the United States is still far ahead of other regions of the world in terms of entrepreneurial education (Solomon et al. …

Preparing Your Business For Valuation, Margaret D. Nowicki, Eric E. Lewis, Jeffrey W. Lippitt

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

There is a tremendous need for the valuation of small businesses. Oftentimes, small businessowners do not have the wherewithal to gather the data and keep it up to date for use in situations that require valuation. Formal valuations are necessary because they provide objective evidence of value, in contrast to value set by markets on which public companies are traded. This article focuses on some factors that impact the valuation of the business and will help small businessowners feel more comfortable talking with financial professionals about how the business might be valued.

Entrepreneurship Research Through Databases: Measurement And Design Issues, Karl Wennberg

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This article provides an account of how databases can be effectively used in entrepreneurship research. Improved quality and access to large secondary databases offer paths to answer questions of great theoretical value. I present an overview of theoretical, methodological, and practical difficulties in working with database data, together with advice on how such difficulties can be overcome. Conclusions are given, together with suggestions of areas where databases might provide real and important contributions to entrepreneurship research.

Entrepreneurship As Expectations Management, Steven E. Phelan

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial profits flow from differences in expectations between buyers and sellers regarding the future value of resources. This article investigates whether differences in expectations can be influenced by an entrepreneur to produce greater profits. It is argued that there are several points in the entrepreneurial process where such interventions can occur and that the use of these techniques should be associated with superior wealth creation. The article also explores the ethical implications of influencing stakeholders in this way.

Does My Business Need A Human Resources Function? A Decision-Making Model For Small And Medium-Sized Firms, Golbou Ghassemieh, Elizabeth "Liz" Thach, Armand Gilinsky Jr.

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

The questions of when and what types of human resource (HR) support are needed tend to be unanswerable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This article addresses this gap in the strategic HR literature. Hiring, training, employee retention/satisfaction, wages and benefits programs, and worker’s compensation insurance are important to SMEs seeking to build strong capabilities and resources and to increase their competitive advantage. This article presents an analysis of the existing HR literature for SMEs. It introduces a decision model to help SMEs choose a cost-effective HR strategy, listing a range of options from hiring the HR function to electronic …

From The Editors, Laurence Weinstein, Joshua Shuart, Christopher Sheehan, Joseph E. Levangie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

New England Journal Of Entrepreneurship, Spring 2005

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

Goatboy Soaps: From Itch To Concept To Execution, Laurence Weinstein, Lisa Agee, Rick Agee

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Lisa and Rick Agee of New Milford, Connecticut, are in their second full year of trying to turn their lifelong dream of being financially independent from corporate life into a reality.They are placing their bets on their product line of goat’s milk based soap products (www.Goatboy.us). Goat’s milk is said to have important skin benefits for the user over commercially made bar soap products such as Dove, Ivory, Dial, Olay, Zest and Irish Spring.

A System Dynamics Approach To Assessing Public Policy Impact On The Sustainable Growth Rate Of New Ventures, Jeff W. Trailer, Kuau Garsson

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

The growth of firms is fundamentally based on self-reinforcing feedback loops, one of the most important of which involves cash flow. When profit margin is positive, sales generate cash, which may then be reinvested to finance the operating cash cycle. We analyze simulations of a sustainable growth model of a generic new venture to assess the importance of taxes, and regulatory costs in determining growth. The results suggest that new ventures are particularly vulnerable to public policy effects, since their working capital resource levels are minimal, and they have few options to raise external funds necessary to fuel their initial …

Collecting Oral Histories For Entrepreneurship Research, Brian Mckenzie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Oral history collections can offer a wealth of detailed information for entrepreneurship researchers. The stories that entrepreneurs tell provide researchers with insight into both perspective and into substantive issues of entrepreneurial behavior.

The life stories of entrepreneurs offer students of entrepreneurship insight into both the explicit and the tacit knowledge of working entrepreneurs.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Ipos* But Were Afraid To Ask, Joseph E. Levangie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Many entrepreneurs want to reach high to the heavens to achieve unlimited success. These hardworking, often underappreciated, venturers often crave fame and fortune as they strive to create their personal business legacy. One strategic path many have wandered down is that of the Initial Public Offering (IPO), whereby shares of the company are sold to the public. The IPO has many strong attractions. Large amounts of capital can be brought into the company.The company’s stock can be used as currency to acquire other companies. Early investors realize a good ROI. Employees can perceive real value in their stock options. Customers, …

Dhr Construction, Llc : Parts A And B, Herbert Sherman, Daniel James Rowley

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Stephen Hodgetts read the e-mail over and over again and still could hardly believe what he had read. He had just come back from his vacation, well rested and refreshed, and this e-mail had dampened his high enthusiasm. It took time to absorb such bad news and for Hodgetts to get over his incredulity. Yet in the end Hodgetts accepted the truth—a deep, dark terrible truth that would not go away. Robert Davis, his business partner’s son, had confirmed in an e-mail his worst fears about their newest business partner, David Russ. Many thoughts were running through his mind simultaneously …

The Values Of Being Small And Nimble, Joshua Shuart, Peter Christian ("Chris") Murphy

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Peter Christian (Chris) Murphy had worked his way up the “food chain” at AT&T for 19 years, culminating in his position as Sales Center Vice President for South Florida. When he and a coworker realized there was an opportunity in the marketplace for a small, nimble company to take advantage of emerging communications technology that a stodgy, lumbering corporation would have trouble integrating into its service package, Chris decided to jump into an entrepreneurial opportunity.

Knowledge Flows And Economic Development Through Microenterprise Collaboration In Third-Sector Communities, Raymond M. Jones, Roger J. Kashlak, Audra M. Jones

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

"The U.N. once dealt only with governments. By now we know that peace and prosperity cannot be achieved without partnership involving governments, international organizations, the business community and civil society. In today’s world we depend on each other.” Kofi Annan, UN Secretary (1999).

As emphasized by Secretary Annan’s quote, the global community is increasingly concerned with economic development and promotion of democracies is focusing on developing programs to stimulate partnerships among three distinct sectors: government sector, civil society and private sector, including locally based and international entrepreneurs. The modern organization is becoming increasingly informed in its strategies and practices by …

No Mulligans: When Good Entrepreneurs Make Bad Decisions, Joseph E. Levangie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Some of the best entrepreneurs fail early and often. Less talented or less committed entrepreneurs do not even get a second chance. Failure and setbacks, however, can be instructive. What lessons can be learned from these experiences? How can the entrepreneur (and investors) navigate around the potholes on the New Venture Highway? Read on.

From The Editors, Spring 2004, Laurence Weinstein, Joshua Shuart, Christopher Sheehan, Joseph E. Levangie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

New England Journal Of Entrepreneurship, Spring 2004

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

The Lizard King Of Sobe Beverages, Laurence Weinstein, John Bello

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

John Bello, aka the “Lizard King,” has been lionized in the business press as having been the brilliant entrepreneur who started a beverage company from scratch in early 1995 with his partner, Tom Schwalm, and then sold the product line to PepsiCo seven years later for a reported $375 million. What many people do not know is how close Bello came to failing with his SoBe line of innovative drinks.

Cashing In On Seafood, Laurence Weinstein, Stephen Heard

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Stephen Heard graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1970 with a degree in business administration. He started his career by signing up as a management trainee at Woolworth’s Department Store in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It didn’t take him long to realize he missed his calling: being by the Rhode Island shoreline and employed in the fishing industry. Nearly 35 years later, Stephen is a self-made multimillionaire, having followed both his passion for entrepreneurship and for living his life on the Atlantic coast.

Employee Equity, Incentive Compensation, And Growth In Entrepreneurial Firms, Ben Arbaugh, Larry W. Cox, S. Michael Camp

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

We examined the relationship between employee equity compensation, incentive compensation, and firm growth using a sample of 480 privately held firms from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s database of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year (EOY) winners. Using frameworks from agency and motivation theories, we argued that larger percentages of both equity- and incentive-based compensation allocated to top managers and employees would be associated with firm growth. After controlling for firm and industry effects, the results of the study showed that while the firms in the sample preferred providing incentive compensation, providing equity compensation for employees was a positively …

Elements Of Infrastructure: Factors Driving International Entrepreneurship, Stephen K. Callaway

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This article focuses on "born globals" (Knight and Cavusgil 1996) and interfirm resources to explain international entrepreneurship. The theory posed here challenges the traditional image of international business as a long, gradual process not occurring until later in the life cycle, and applying only to large multinational corporations (MNCs).

Increasingly, new ventures must expand their operations internationally early in their history in order to be competitive (Oviatt and McDougall 1994), and require infrastructure (Van de Ven 1993), or interfirm resources, for success. Specifically, firms may rely on three factors to expand internationally: cost factors, unique global resources, and networks.

Seeking God (In The Details), Joseph E. Levangie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs tend to be self-styled “idea” people. They often believe they have the next “Big Concept”—one which could change the world, reaffirm their self-worth, and, of course, make them and their venture team a fortune. In contrast, as they build a company to implement their business dream, entrepreneurs also tend to eschew or trivialize administrative details. Why should they waste their creative juices on minutia? As a result of this insensitivity to detail, these captains of capitalism often trip in their entrepreneurial journey. For example, they might:

• Forget to remit payroll taxes on schedule.

• Fail to document the …

New England Journal Of Entrepreneurship, Fall 2004

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

From The Editors, Laurence Weinstein, Joshua Shuart, Christopher Sheehan, Joseph E. Levangie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

Juliska: Filling A Niche With Imports, Laurence Weinstein, David Gooding

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

David and Capucine Gooding are completing their third year in business, directing the growing activities of their import business located in Stamford, Connecticut. Their niche is marketing handblown glass which is historically accurate and inspired by such disparate designs as 14th-century French, 16th-century Dutch, and 19th-century Venetian glassware. We interviewed David on a “quiet” day when the phones didn’t seem to be ringing constantly.

Omitted Variable Bias In The Link Between Planning And Performance, Kirk C. Heriot, Noel D. Campbell, R. Zachary Finney

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This article argues that existing research poorly specifies the link between planning and performance because of omitted variable bias. Researchers agree planning is a critical part of creating any new venture. Many researchers assess planning by whether a small firm has a written business plan. Unfortunately, efforts empirically to validate this relationship have been inconclusive. This article proposes that researchers should assess business plans both on the quality of the plan (and the planning process that produced it), and on the quality of the underlying business opportunity. Failure to account for both aspects of a business plan amounts to omitted …

Doing Well And Happy About It? Explaining Variance In Entrepreneurs’ Stated Satisfaction With Performance, Gregory B. Murphy, Stephen K. Callaway

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

The importance of performance measurement is largely undisputed. There is debate, however, regarding the equivalency of objective and subjective performance measures. This debate has not considered a frequently used subjective measure, satisfaction with performance, to be an important measure independent of its equivalency with objective measures. Using a sample of 368 manufacturing firms, this study found that objective measures explained only a modest amount of variance in satisfaction with performance and that other variables added significantly to the explained variance.These factors included perceived environmental hostility, vulnerability, perceived competitive advantage, and commitment.

A Classic Book—Revisited, Peter A. Maresco

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Book review by Peter Maresco.

Ricardo Semler, Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace, New York: Warner Books, 1993. ISBN 9780446516969