Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

European Report On Prisoner Reintegration Through Entrepreneurship And Psychology., Thomas M. Cooney, Martina Brophy, Nida Ul Habib Bajwa, Maggie Clune, Mindaugas Galeckas, Niklas George, Andrada Istrate, Oana Murgeanu-Manolache

Reports

It has been well documented that reintegration into the workforce is a key factor in reducing recidivism amongst people with a criminal record. However, mainstream employment poses a challenge for many individuals with criminal histories who experience discrimination from prospective employers. Entrepreneurship or self-employment offers an alternative pathway into the labour market but it is not widely promoted as a viable career option. In recent years, in-prison entrepreneurship education programmes (particularly in the USA) have grown in prominence to offer participants another option in terms of future labour market activation. Despite the recorded success of these initiatives, the adoption of …

Digital Entrepreneurship: Context And Conceptualization, Kisito Futonge Nzembayie, Anthony Paul Buckley

Books/Book Chapters

Recognizing how the lines between digital and traditional forms of entrepreneurship are blurring, this forward-thinking book combines digital technology and entrepreneurship perspectives to advance knowledge on this paradigm-shifting typology of entrepreneurship.

Webarometer 2022: A Survey Of Women Entrepreners In Europe., Thomas M. Cooney

Reports

We live in challenging economic times, the likes of which many of us will not have experienced in our business lives. Recovery from the Covid pandemic had started to improve the business climate, only for it to be dramatically interrupted by other economic and political troubles that have disturbed almost every aspect of business life. All entrepreneurs are affected, but the business problems endured by women entrepreneurs become more exaggerated because of the additional and distinctive challenges that they face. It is a noticeable trend that, once again, it is in industry sectors in which women entrepreneurs are particularly prevalent …

An Investigation Of Teenagers’ Advertising Literacy In The Context Of The Brand-Rich Environment Of Social Media, Emma Sweeney

Doctoral

Teenagers are avid consumers of social media and consequently, constitute attractive target audiences for marketers. On social media, advertising can be integrated into content such as YouTube videos and Instagram posts which means the boundary between commercial content (the advertisement) and non-commercial content (e.g., the video in which the ad appears) becomes increasingly blurred. Therefore, in this context, the consumer must be able to navigate a minefield of overt and covert advertising that is disseminated by a range of sources, including brands and social media influencers. A resulting concern for academics, parents and policy makers alike relates to young people’s …

An Exploratory Study Of The Role And Contribution Of Absorptive Capacity Levels In The Commercialisation Of Knowledge In Knowledge Intensive Smes, Francis Martin Behan

Doctoral

Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) is a construct introduced by Cohen and Leventhal in 1990 to describe the process by which an organisation recognises and absorbs new external knowledge to increase its current stock of knowledge, thereby giving it increased capability to create value for its customers, stakeholders and wider society. ACAP, as a construct, has gained widespread acceptance within academia and the construct has been further refined and developed over the last thirty years. However, the application and testing of the construct, is in practice, still in the early stages of development. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate …

A New Approach To Self-Assessment Of Community Engagement: A Case Study Of Technological University Dublin., Emma O'Brien, Martina Brophy, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Building upon existing international tools, the TEFCE (Towards a European Framework for Community Engagement of Higher Education) Toolbox for community engagement represents an innovative, robust, and holistic framework to support universities in reflecting upon their community engagement. Through a case study approach, this paper highlights the piloting of the TEFCE Toolbox at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), Ireland. Through an inclusive and participatory methodology, the process facilitated the recognition of community engagement achievements and the identification of potential areas for improvement.

Application Of Competitive Intelligence For Insular Territories: Automatic Analysis Of Scientific And Technology Trends To Fight The Negative Effects Of Climate Change, Henri Dou, Pierre Fournie

International Journal of Islands Research

Islands are fragile territories because of their geographical position. As a result, climate impacts can have serious consequences, of which some are irreversible. Therefore, it is necessary to allow insular territories to benefit from the latest scientific and technological advances in combating climate effects. The current article shows how to deal with automatic analysis of scientific information on the one hand, but also its applications via patents. We will analyse the latest scientific results as well as their possible applications using patent analysis. We will also focus on experts, laboratories, and leading companies, that are active on the field. The …

A Flair To Remember: Innovative Use Of Technology During Covid-19 Focus On Weddings, Carla Rosas, Danielle Lynch, Mj Adekanmbi, Simioluwa Opayemi

Case Studies

Student blog series from MSc in Event Management students at TU Dublin.

In this blog post Carla Rosas, Danielle Lynch, MJ Adekanmbi and Simioluwa Opayemi interview event planner Gabriella Olukoya from luxury events company A Flair to Remember. Gabriella gives vital insight on the current state of the wedding industry and also on how to ‘flip the script’ and use the ‘negatives’ and make them positives to elevate an events company. As a current ‘Regional Finalist’ for Wedding Planner of the Year, Gabby is a prime example of ‘Creating Success’ during COVID-19 by adding and implementing technology into their events …

The Missing Entrepreneurs 2021 “Ireland”, Thomas M. Cooney

Reports

This country profile describes current inclusive entrepreneurship policy issues and recent developments in Ireland, including the COVID-19 response. It also benchmarks self-employment and entrepreneurship indicators for women, youth, seniors and immigrants against the average for the European Union.

Webarometer 2021 - A Survey Of Women Entrepreneurs In Europe, Thomas M. Cooney

Reports

Entrepreneurship is crucial to economic development, promoting social integration and reducing inequalities and women have made an enormous effort in recent decades to be present in the world of entrepreneurship. However, women across the world have been and still are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, reversing gains in gender equality. Women-led businesses have been more negatively impacted economically, mainly because they trade in sectors hardest hit by the pandemic, such as recreational services and accommodation and food. In addition, there is a problem with understanding the term when referring to women entrepreneurs. There is still a wide range of …

The Value Of Leadership Practices When There Is No One To Lead: A Nascent Entrepreneurship Context, Lucia Walsh, Bruce Martin

Articles

Although a considerable amount of literature shows how entrepreneurs develop and utilize social capital to create and grow their ventures, there is scant learning on how nascent entrepreneurs with few ties actually create and utilize social capital to help turn their early ideas into ventures. This paper reveals the role of relational leadership in social capital development and shows how it enhances persistence among very early-stage nascent entrepreneurs, even when they have no employees or partners to lead. Learning from our 18-month in-depth case studies of early-stage nascent entrepreneurs in one European country is used to propose a theory of …

International Entrepreneurship From Emerging To Developed Markets: An Institutional Perspective, Nuraddeen Nuhu, Martin Owens, Deirdre Mcquillan

Articles

Purpose The authors explore how home and host market institutions impact emerging market (EM) international entrepreneurship (IE) into developed markets.

Design/methodology/approach Based on four case studies of Nigerian entrepreneurs expanding into the USA, this qualitative research adopts an institutional perspective to the study of EM IE.

Findings The findings show home and host formal and informal institutions simultaneously enable and constrain the IE process. Weak home institutions shape the international opportunity recognition decision but seriously impede international opportunity development and exploitation activities in the developed market. EM entrepreneurs benefit from highly functioning regulation in the developed market whilst also experiencing …

Summary Tefce Report On Community Engagement In Tu Dublin., Emma O'Brien, Thomas M. Cooney, Martina Brophy

Reports

The EU-funded project Towards a European Framework for Community Engagement in Higher Education (TEFCE, www.tefce. eu) sought to develop innovative and feasible policy tools at the university and European level for supporting, monitoring and assessing the community engagement of universities. It defined community engagement as a process whereby universities engage with external organisations to undertake joint activities that can be mutually beneficial, even if each side benefits in a different way. The TEFCE Project was a pilot initiative that began in Dublin Institute of Technology and was focused only on that institution initially. Following the formation of TU Dublin, the …

Chapter 8: Leveraging Immigrant Entrepreneurship For Job Creation And Growth, Thomas M. Cooney, Osa Godwin Osaghae

Reports

Immigrant entrepreneurship is diverse, ranging from small self-employment activities to businesses that operate in multiple countries. Traditionally policy support for immigrant entrepreneurship has focussed on supporting labour market integration through self-employment. However, the increasing skills levels of immigrants create an opportunity for governments to do more to attract and support immigrant entrepreneurs that have the potential to make significant impacts on the economy. This chapter discusses a range of emerging policy approaches such as start-up visa programmes, dedicated business incubation and accelerator programmes, as well as outreach and incentive programmes to attract high-potential immigrant entrepreneurs. Policy advice is provided for …

Management Development In Small And Medium Sized Firms In The Republic Of Ireland: An Investigation Of Contingency Factors And Management Development Activities, Deirdre Mcquillan, Thomas Garavan, Wael Rashwan, Lorraine Sweeney, Ciara Nolan, Osa Godwin Osaghae

Articles

Purpose The development of managerial skills is an important priority for small and medium sized firm globally yet we have few insights about the predictors and types of management development (MD) activities in SMEs. To date studies of MD have not sufficiently differentiated between small and medium sized firms. In this paper we investigate the impact of three sets of predictors (contextual, technology and innovation activities, behavioural and skill) on six dimensions of MD (formal internal development, formal internal with an external expert, formal external development, one-to-one MD activities, budget for MD and experiential focused MD).

Design/methodology/approach Survey of 360 …

Using Sequential Mixed Methods To Evaluate The Contribution Of Absorptive Capacity (Acap), Anthony Paul Buckley, Francis Martin Behan

Conference papers

How might Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) (Cohen & Levinthal 1990,,Song et al. 2018) contribute to indigenous firm innovation and growth and how might the effects of this construct be evaluated at both firm and policy level? This paper demonstrates how a mixed methods research design and data analysis strategy can address the research question outlined above. Within the ‘mixed methods’ research genre, the design approach argued for here is for a ‘sequential mixed methods research’ approach. This is where one methodology is followed sequentially by another to add robustness to the overall findings from a study. The approach can also be …

A Proposal Digital Marketing Strategy For Marcheluzzo Srl: Training And Evaluating A Prediction Model For The Number Of Adv. Impressions, Charles Alves De Castro

Articles

This research aims to describe a digital marketing strategy elaborated to be deployed in the MarcheluzzoSrl Company located in Italy. In addition, it intends to give a wide range of information to the company about its customers, target, competitors, market, digital marketing strategy, and potential recommendations. It is also important to highlight that this strategy is focused on the Brazilian market. Most of the information collected for the situational analysis and many other components for this research were gathered through the author`s perception during his internship in the company. The methodology includes secondary data collected through field observation in the …

Sme Ict Marketing Impact: A New Conceptual Model, Justina Setkute, Simone Kurtzke

Conference papers

This paper presents a conceptual model for SME ICT marketing impact. The conceptualization integrates approaches from technology-in-practice scholarship, which argues that the use of information and communications technology (ICT) among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is highly context specific, and applies it within marketing practice. The resulting model is relational, iterative and context-sensitive, and considers marketing impact from the use of ICT as emerging over time. This article extends existing research by considering the role that attitudes towards ICT may play in their successful use. It also provides three propositions to guide future research towards generating an empirically based understanding …

Irish Beef Supply Chain And Trade Challenges Post-Brexit: A Case Study, Amr Mahfouz, John Crowe, Rishi Choudhary, Jennifer Floody, Declan Allen

Technical Reports/Case Studies

No abstract provided.

Webarometer 2020 - A Survey Of Women Entrepreneurs In Europe, Thomas M. Cooney

Reports

Businesses throughout Europe, particularly small businesses, are suffering extremely difficult trading times, addressing challenges on a daily basis that they have never previously experienced. Within the business community, women entrepreneurs are being expressly challenged in these problematic times, with data for example showing that it is currently considerably more difficult for women to access finance to start and grow their business. The identification of the distinctive problems and barriers that women entrepreneurs encounter when starting and growing their own business is the crucial foundation to developing tailored support and services to assist them. The WEgate platform is being redeveloped into …

Pathway To Entrepreneurship For People With Disabilities In Ireland, Thomas M. Cooney, Brian Aird

Reports

This report, Entrepreneurship for People with Disabilities in Ireland, is timely and welcome. Authors Professor Thomas Cooney and Brian Aird present a blueprint for encouraging the entrepreneurial potential of people with disabilities. The report sets out concrete actions and recommendations in the overall context of current policies and the tailored supports required to support people with disabilities into self-employment.

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 …

Entrepreneuring After 50: The Liminal Identity Transitions Of Older Emergent Entrepreneurs, Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo, Lucia Sell-Trujillo, Paul Donnelly

Articles

Entrepreneurship has been proposed as a solution to extending working lives. However, little is known about how older (50+) entrepreneurs manage their personal transitions into entrepreneurship. In this paper, we propose to use a liminal identity work perspective to explore the identity paradoxes that older entrepreneurs experience during their transition into entrepreneurship and how they manage it. We use a qualitative study conducted over 14 months in the United Kingdom. Our analysis shows how older entrepreneurs confront identity paradoxes, interruptions and identity polarization in their attempts to shift from older identities and activity patterns into new ones. The entrepreneurs who …

Exploring The Relationship Between Immigrant Enclave Theory And Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurial Opportunity Formation, Osa Godwin Osaghae Dr, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Immigrant Enclave Theory (IET) investigates the concentration and localisation of immigrants in a specific geographic area. Some IET studies have highlighted the resilience of these communities and described such enclaves as sources of mutual support, collective political power and beneficial social relationships. Other studies have examined the influence of IET on immigrant entrepreneurial activity within these geographic areas, although some of these studies have highlighted IET as a contributor to low profit margin businesses due to over-representation of immigrant enterprises within the same sector and geographic locality. This article considers the potential for Transnational Diaspora Entrepreneurship (TDE) as an alternative …

Contextual Influences On Human Resources Development: Considerations And Evaluations On The Various External And Internal Factors That Shape And Influence Hrd In Organisations, Charles Alves De Castro

Articles

This article aims to briefly understand and evaluate the main external and internal factors that impact directly on human resources development area within the organisations, mainly related to multinational companies. Also, it discusses the various aspects and influences on HRD-(Human Resources Development) such as societal, organisational/local, global, that impacts on costs, environment, regulations, policies, culture, beliefs, technology and values. This research was carried out by way of a literature review. This is important to demonstrate, explain and evaluate the current existent literature about this specific theme covered in this article. Furthermore, through this review we compared previous research on HRD. …

Design As Entrepreneurship: Towards A Design-Specific Entrepreneurship Framework, Con Kennedy

Conference papers

Current thinking on entrepreneurship states there is no specific link between the entrepreneur and their enterprise. Design is an individual creative act; therefore, the practitioner is not separate from their idiosyncratic process. The Designer is the product offering. Designers form Design Enterprises, meaning that with this aspect of inseparability, the Design Entrepreneur is a different kind of entrepreneur than currently discussed. The literature on the topic discusses design as a creative output, not as entrepreneurship output. Like any enterprise, Design Enterprises must be profitable. There are many entrepreneurship processes, none of which seem to address the needs of the Design …

An Examination Of The Role Of Placemaking In Tourism On The Entrepreneurial Eco System, Ziene Mottiar, Theresa Ryan

Conference papers

Place-making is a topic of increasing interest in the tourism literature as national and local governments and DMOs continue to focus on the competitiveness and attractiveness of their destination. While the focus in the entrepreneurship and innovation literature is on individual entrepreneurs, policies and networks, place is a vital element in the tourism nexus and this concept is explored in this paper. As Solfield et al. (2017, p.2) note ‘place making in tourism.. creates an identity, an image, a difference from other places’. This paper examines how place making can encourage innovation by investigating the case of the Wild Atlantic …

The Same But Different: Understanding Entrepreneurial Behaviour In Disadvantaged Communities, Thomas M. Cooney, Michelle Licciardi

Books/Book Chapters

While entrepreneurship is widely viewed as being equally accessible in all contexts, it could be questioned if potential or nascent entrepreneurs from minority and disadvantaged communities experience entrepreneurship in a similar manner to the mainstream population. This chapter examines immigrant, people with disability, youth, gay and unemployed communities to explore how their entrepreneurial behaviour might differ from the practices of mainstream entrepreneurs. What emerges is that marginalised communities can frequently find it difficult to divorce business from social living. This can have both positive and negative connotations for an entrepreneur, plus they face additional and distinctive challenges that mainstream entrepreneurs …

External And Internal Networks And Access To Hrd Resources In Small Professional Service Firms, Ciara Nolan Dr, Thomas Garavan

Articles

A key challenge facing small professional service firms (PSFs) in the context of implementing human resource development (HRD) is access to resources. The use of external and internal networks represents an important means of identifying and acquiring needed resources. We utilize resource dependency and network theories to explore the types of networks used by owner-managers to acquire HRD resources and the types of resources that are acquired. We investigate these issues utilizing three case study organizations located in the Republic of Ireland and interview data from owner-managers and employees. We found that small PSFs derived resources from both coercive and …