Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Tapping New Markets: With Drinkmaple, Kate Weiler '04 Makes Sap The Latest Health Drink, Elaine K. Howley

Colby Magazine

Tapping New Markets: With DRINKmaple, Kate Weiler '04 makes sap the latest health drink. Maple sap, it turns out, is a nutritious, tasty, and hydrating drink that’s gaining a foothold in the beverage industry thanks, in part, to Kate Weiler ’04. Weiler tapped into this new market with her company, DRINKmaple, launched in January 2014.

Small Retail Business Owner Strategies Needed To Succeed Beyond 5 Years, Colonel Jaime Solis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses accounted for 99% of the firms in private industry, provided 38% of the goods and services sold in the United States, and hired 55% of the labor force each year between 2012 and 2015. From 1993 to 2013, small firms accounted for 63% of new work generated while more than 50% of U.S. small businesses failed inside of 5 years and at least 20% failed during the first year. The purpose of this multiunit case study was to explore the strategies small retail businesses used to achieve sustainability beyond 5 years in a purposefully selected county in Virginia. …

The First 4 Years: A Small Business Sustainability Study, Iris Ann Cooper

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses create most of the new jobs in the world, yet more than half fail before the 5th year. Small businesses contribute to the economy by originating new products and services, yet they often lack the strategies to overcome the challenges of the beginning years. When businesses fail, the community wanes from unemployment, poverty, crime, and other social dilemmas. The purpose of this single case study was to explore small business strategies for sustainability beyond Year 4, specifically in a single independent operating Ohio restaurant owner with less than 500 employees. The conceptual framework was Schumpeter's theory of the …

Startup Elsewhere, Michaela Ross

Capstones

Immigrants have made outsized contributions to American innovation and entrepreneurship, but the headwinds they face in the U.S. are now driving them to return to their native countries to startup their tech companies.

U.S. immigrants make up only 13% of the country’s overall population, but they have filed over a quarter of the country’s global patent applications, won a third of America’s Nobel prizes in the sciences in the last hundred years and make up over half of all computer science Ph.D. students in U.S. universities. Immigrants also build businesses at twice the rate of native-born Americans, and over the …

Who Wants To Be An Entrepreneur?, Maura O Connell

The ITB Journal

So you want to be an Entrepreneur? What does it take? Are you suited to entrepreneurial life? Have you got the required personality characteristics and what social factors influence whether or not you become an entrepreneur? While many studies have tried to answer these questions the results are somewhat mixed.

Wellness, Relaxation, Creativity: Development Of A Business Plan Igniting The Creative Journey Towards Self-Actualization, Julie A. Wolasz

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project explores the affective side of creativity and its involvement in personal growth towards self-actualization. The author proposes that the implementation of relaxation techniques and creative training methods in a specialized spa-like retreat setting could assist an individual in their goals towards reaching self-actualization and ultimately producing a more creative person. The finished product includes a business plan identifying a business that is dedicated to guiding individuals towards self-actualization through a creative journey utilizing relaxation techniques, mindfulness and creativity training.

Out Of The Building, Into The Fire: An Analysis Of Cognitive Biases During Entrepreneurial Interviews, Tianxu Chen, Mark Simon, Ph.D., John Kim, Brian Poploskie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

A major source of failure for new ventures is the entrepreneurs’ misunderstanding of the product-market fit. Recently, researchers have suggested that to get a better understanding of the product-market fit, entrepreneurs should “get out of the building” and interview many customers. This approach, while advantageous, is not without drawbacks. This article presents a conceptual model that incorporates the characteristics of “getting out of the building” to conduct customer interviews, and the biases that can arise to influence the entrepreneurs’ misjudgment of the product-market fit. We provide recommendations to overcome these biases.

The Power Of Words In Tension: Enterprise/Strategy As A Dilemma In Neoliberalism’S Persistence., Brendan O'Rourke

Conference papers

We address how enterprise is related to, another important discourse, strategy. From a discourse analysis of the talk of small firm owner-managers, emerges a view of strategy and enterprise as a single, integrated entity, bound together by some commonalities but more importantly by paired opposites reminiscent of ideological dilemmas (Billig, Condor, Edwards, Gane, Middleton & Radley, 1988). This dilemmatic nature of enterprise/strategy discourse adds to explanations for the persistence of the neoliberal form of enterprise, with the entrepreneur as the heroic saviour of all, based on the entrepreneur as an empty signifier (Jones & Spicer, 2009; Kenny & …

The Lean Bookstore, Joshua Hirahara, Scott Santore

Industrial Technology and Packaging

The bookstore industry has been changing in recent years with the growing popularity of e-books and self-publishing. The publishing houses are losing their grip on the industry because a greater portion of books are being sold by companies who don’t need to sell books to stay afloat, and overproduction is rampant, with 40% of all printed books being pulped. Bookstores have been suffering because of the high costs associated with the current value stream. E-books aimed to reduce these costs but have been cannibalizing their print counterpart and do not generate enough revenue to offset the loss of print sales. …

Establishing Credibility Online Through Impression Management Strategies, Shauna Vanbogart

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This project sought to understand how individuals establish credibility online through impression management strategies. Applying Goffman’s (1959) impression management theory, the literature review highlighted four leading self-presentation tactics that bolster credibility effectively on the Internet: structure and aesthetics of personal websites, publication of content that is consistent, insightful and authentic, the use of self-disclosure, and verification of expertise through testimonials and references. These four self-presentation strategies were applied to analyze eight entrepreneurs who have successfully built a credible presence online. These case studies were further developed through the design of online course that teaches entrepreneurs how to use impression management …

Individual Factors Affecting Entrepreneurship In Hispanics, Julio C. Canedo, Dianna L. Stone, Stephanie L. Black, Kimberly M. Lukaszewski

Journal Articles

A model of entrepreneurship (Baron & Henry, 2011) is used to understand and explain the factors related to the behaviors of Hispanic entrepreneurs. Testable hypotheses to guide future research are presented.

The Sustainability Of Agriculture In Nigeria Using Rubber As A Case Study, Owen Osahon Ogbebor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study is an investigation of the sustainability of agriculture in Nigeria using Rubber as case study. Edo and Abia states were sampled for the study with 300 questionnaires administered in 10 communities among rubber farmers. The study is an investigation of the socio-demographic distribution of the rubber farmers, perception of rubber farmers, and influence of government activities. Sources of information and the data were cumulated for Nigeria as a whole. The data were analyzed using statistical analysis.

Findings indicated the distribution of rubber farmers on socio-demographic distribution, sources of funds, and the effects on agricultural sustainability in Nigeria. Farmers’ …

The Next Generation Of Entrepreneurs, Christopher Schwab

Honors Theses and Capstones

A.R. (Venky) Venkatachalam, Ph.D. (Associate Dean of Academic Programs & Professor of Information Systems) and I believe that the steps to insure future entrepreneurial success have not been taken; therefore my intention is to provide quality insight regarding the importance of embracing our next generation of entrepreneurs.

Social Capital, Informal Governance, And Post-Ipo Firm Performance: A Study Of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms, Jerry X. Cao, Yuan Ding, Hua Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper explores the links between entrepreneurs' social capital and post-IPO firm performance in China's unique capital market and regulatory setting. Using hand-collected data on entrepreneurs' political connections and firm financial information, we construct original measures for various types of social capital and examine their roles in determining the accounting and financial performance of entrepreneurial firms after an IPO. On one hand, firm accounting performance is enhanced by entrepreneurs' bridging social capital, such as political connections or a willingness to share power with external investors. On the other hand, bonding social capital such as intra-group related party transactions causes performance …

Adroll: A Case Study Of Entrepreneurial Growth, Todd A. Finkle

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This case study examines the background, start up, and growth of one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States, AdRoll. It explores the various strategic factors related to the growth of AdRoll and how these issues must be addressed in order to maintain its level of growth.This case study is especially interesting not only because it focuses on one of the fastest-growing firms in the country, but also because it addresses on an understudied topic within the field of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial growth.

500 Year Documentation, Francis T. Marchese, Phd, Maninder Pal Kaur Shergill

Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship

Museum visitors today can regularly view 500 year old art by Renaissance masters. Will visitors to museums 500 years in the future be able to see the work of digital artists from the early 21st century? This paper considers the real problem of conserving interactive digital artwork for museum installation in the far distant future by exploring the requirements for creating documentation that will support an artwork's adaptation to future technology. In effect, this documentation must survive as long as the artwork itself -- effectively, in perpetuity. A proposal is made for the use of software engineering methodologies as solutions …

The Effect Of Entrepreneurial Marketing On Outcome Goals In Smes, Richard C. Becherer, Marilyn M. Helms, John P. Mcdonald

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This study examines how entrepreneurial marketing dimensions (proactiveness, opportunity focused, leveraging, innovativeness, risk taking, value creation, and customer intensity) are related to qualitative and quantitative outcome measures for the SME and the entrepreneur (including company success, customer success, financial success, satisfaction with return goals, satisfaction with growth goals, excellence, and the entrepreneur’s standard of living). Using factor analysis, three success outcome variables (financial, customer, and strong company success) emerged together. A separate factor analysis identified satisfactory growth and return goals. Stepwise regression revealed entrepreneurial marketing impacts outcome variables, particularly value creation. Implications for entrepreneurs and areas for research are included.

Understanding Entrepreneurial Opportunity Via Differentiated Bertrand Oligopoly Market Structure, Colton Hicks

Student Works

In this paper we develop a method to be able to recognize opportunity for a new entrant in a Bertrand Oligopoly market based upon industrial organization. We infer from the demand curves of competitors if opportunity for a new entrant exists and the necessary characteristics of the entrant that would make it successful in a given market. This provides a significant contribution to the field of entrepreneurship since it has struggled to find a bona fide way to define and identify opportunity. Most research on entrepreneurial opportunity has focused on the characteristics of the product being developed, e.g., what are …

Three Essays On Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Carole Louise Cangioni

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The association between entrepreneurial activity and economic growth appears to be robust: the source of half of job creation emanates from new ventures which, in addition, are a source of technical and market innovation as well as higher labor productivity (Gartner, Shaver, Carter, & Reynolds, 2004). Also, there is a growing percentage of ethnic entrepreneurship in immigrant receiving metropolitan areas, and marginal economic conditions, often experienced by immigrants, increase self-employment. According to the U.S. Census Bureau: "By 2010, Hispanics will be the largest minority group in the U.S with more than 20% of the nation's population" and "minorities, now roughly …

Innovative Entrepreneurs' Workbook: A Guide For Innovators And Entrepreneurs, Arcot Desai Narasimhalu

Research Collection Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

This is a workbook for individuals who have decided to start their long winding entrepreneurial journey. It is organized into four parts. The first part introduces the aspiring entrepreneur to the process of identifying an innovation opportunity and refining for market readiness. The second part provides insights into a product or service development. The third part lays out the key steps involved in building a new company. This part includes IP strategy for a startups, a topic rarely discussed in many text books or workbooks. The last part will discuss the art of securing the early deals. This book was …

The Determinants Of Entrepreneurial Income In South Carolina, Devin Swindall

All Theses

Supporters claim that entrepreneurship is critical to building and sustaining the economy of urban and rural areas across the nation. Proponents argue that economic development practices that enhance and support entrepreneurship are essential because they cultivate innovation which, in turn, provides the area with new jobs, new wealth, and a better quality of life. However, self-employment income growth in South Carolina in particular and in the United States in general has lagged growth in income from other sources. This fact raises the need to study the determinants of self-employed income. Using the literature as a guide, a conceptual model was …

Optimizing Finance Procurement For New Businesses, Kyle Schoenberger

Graphic Communication

When starting a business in the Graphic Communication field, capital is nearly always needed to purchase equipment as most of these graphics based businesses require state of the art computers, printing presses, and large facilities to conduct business. Such expenses can range from a few thousand to a few million dollars. While some might have previous experience procuring business capital, many have none. Being that these items are crucial to starting a business in the Graphic Communication industry, capital is a keystone to success. This study addresses the problem of how to optimize efforts when seeking capital through bank loans …

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 …

Principles Before Profits: An Interview With S. Truett Cathy, S. Truett Cathy, Miles K. Davis, Leyland M. Lucas

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Interview of S. Truett Cathy with Miles K. Davis and Leyland M. Lucas.

Since 1946, S. Truett Cathy, founder and chairman of Chick-fil-A Inc., has run his enterprises based on his understanding of Christian principles. In the following interview, S.Truett offers his perspective on why focusing on principles is more important than focusing on profits and what he thinks it takes to succeed in business and in life.

Standout Attractions, Jonathan Jeffrey

SCL Faculty and Staff Publications

Living in Chicago and working as a traveling salesman in the 1920s-1930s, Duncan Hines had a hobby—visiting and assessing restaurants. He said he was looking for “standout attractions in the culinary department.” His hobby eventually made this native of Bowling Green “America’s foremost food authority” and one of the most recognized Kentuckians of the twentieth century. This article traces the biography of the culinary entrepreneur from his early years in Bowling Green to his successful publishing ventures, and finally to the phenomenal marketing strategy that was used to create one of America’s most enduring and endearing brands.

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.

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

Neje Interview: Stew Leonard, Jr., Ceo, Stew Leonard's Company, John F. Welch College Of Business

WCBT Faculty Publications

An interview conducted with Stew Leonard, Jr., CEO of Stew Leonard's Company. NEJE interviews Stew Leonard Jr. as the entrepreneurial spirit at the Connecticut dairy will soon be passed on to the fourth generation of Leonards.

Reflections Of An Executive Turned Entrepreneur: Interview With R. Subramaniam, S Venkatesh

IIMB Management Review

Interview with R. Subramaniam, one of the founder and vice chairman of Sterling Holiday Resorts