Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

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

Malaga Business Review 2004, Beth Walker

Research outputs pre 2011

This report is the result of a Swan Grant to review the current status of business and business activity in the Malaga Business District and to map any changes that have occurred since the original Malaga Business Audit was conducted in 2001. This project was undertaken in two parts. The first part was a replication of the 2001 Malaga business survey so that the City could review trends and analyse if any of the implemented recommendations based on the 2001 results had any discernable effect. The results of the current survey were also used to inform the second part of …

Smart Business Incubators : The Australian Context, Beverley Webster, Beth Walker, Janice Burn

Research outputs pre 2011

The aim of this collaborative study was to research the current status of Australian incubators and develop a benchmark based on successful business incubators, using criteria such as tenant and manager selection, operating indicators and exit criteria...

Best Practice Hrd: Exploring The Feasibility Of Conventional Models In The Small Firm: The Case Of The Irish Hotel Sector, Ciara Nolan

Masters

The growth and popularisation of best practice HRD literature has been a key feature of recent international management research. This study explores this concept within the context of the small firm. In particular, the work sought to analyse the feasibility of conventional best practice HRD, theoretically and empirically, within a small hotel environment. Conventional best practice theory advocates that HRD takes place within a structured framework of formal plans and procedures. It explicitly overlooks and ignores informal and tacit means of training, which have proven to be particularly crucial within small hospitality firms. Yet, many small firms are successful and …

Small Business Smart Business: Final Report, Beth Walker, Beverley Webster

Research outputs pre 2011

The Small Business Smart Business (SBSB) program is in it's fifth year of operation and while acknowledging the changes that have occurred to SBSB over the past five years, it was determined that a review of the effectiveness of SBSB in connecting small business to the VET system would be of benefit in planning for SBSB in 2005 and beyond.

The SBSB program was initially designed to provide eligible small businesses with a training voucher valued up to $200.00 towards approved training and was aimed at improving the productivity of their business. Emphasis was placed on ensuring a wide range …

Mary T'S: A Restaurant Providing Healthy Food Options, Mary T. Savner

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Notes From An ‘Intelligent Island’: Towards Strategic Knowledge Management In Singapore’S Small Business Sector, Thomas Menkhoff, Yue Wah Chay, Benjamin Loh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This essay outlines some of the benefits and challenges of implementing strategic knowledge management systems in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with reference to respective initiatives in the Republic of Singapore. The article addresses following research questions: What is knowledge management (KM) and why has it become an issue? How can SMEs benefit from strategic KM? What are the potential pitfalls of KM applications in small firms? What are the strategic imperatives of using KM in SMEs? Do small and large firms require different KM systems? What are the critical success factors which have to be considered during implementation? How …

Absorptive Capacity And Entrepreneurship, Shaker A. Zahra, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Can B2g Portals Be Used Effectively To Stimulate Business In Smes?: A Case Analysis Of The 2cities Business To Government Portal, Ian Martinus

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have many options when purchasing goods or services. These include personal contacts and networks, familiar centralised supply sources and other ad hoc means. One purchasing possibility is to buy from and sell to other businesses within a similar geographic area. The benefits of buying and selling locally may not occur to SMEs. They seek, like other consumers, to get value for money, fast and efficient service, and a reasonable level of quality. Many factors can impinge upon an SME's decision to purchase locally. It can be assumed that, given a reasonable local option, SMEs wish …