Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …