Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Gender Differences And New Venture Performance, Mayank Jaiswal

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – This study compares the performance of female majority-owned new ventures (FNV) vs. male majority-owned new ventures (MNV). It analyzes the differences in levels of variables such as education, the same industry work experience of owners, and other venture level attributes between FNVs and MNVs. More importantly, this study employs decomposition techniques to determine the individual contribution from the intergender difference of each attribute on the performance of the new venture. For example, the study finds that, on average, the owners of an MNV possessed 3.4 years more of the same industry work experience than their FNV counterparts. This …

New Venture Modeling Strategies For Information Technology Business Startups, Jude Thomas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information technology (IT) startup owners often lack new venture modeling strategies to sustain their businesses beyond 5 years. Information technology startup owners with backgrounds in software development, IT project management, and computer engineering need to know about the strategies discovered in the study to make operational, modeling, and project level decisions that ensure sustained organizational profitability. Grounded in Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore new venture modeling strategies some information technology startup owners use to sustain their businesses beyond 5 years. Study participants comprised 3 IT startup business owners …

On Effectuation And Networks: Three Essays On Their Mutuality, Jon Kerr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The notion of co-creating opportunities positions effectuation as both a network-driving and network-dependent phenomenon. On one hand, networks are products of relational interactions and, therefore, artefactual outcomes of effectual processes. On the other hand, it would seem that understanding networks and network processes is essential to understanding effectuation. Although past research acknowledges this mutuality, recent discourse highlights that our understanding of the relationship between effectuation and networks is far from complete. In this dissertation, I address this knowledge gap through three essays positioned at the interface of effectuation and network theory.

In the first essay, my systematic literature review synthesizes …

Marketing Strategies That Chinese Business Leaders Use To Increase Sales Of Smartphones, Byron Edward Johns

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Chinese smartphone manufacturing business leaders are experiencing difficulties associated with entering into the U.S. market, partly because of U.S. government concerns that the technology could be used by the Chinese government to gather intelligence. Grounded in Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore marketing strategies Chinese smartphone marketing business leaders used to increase their smartphone sales in the United States. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents from 3 Chinese smartphone marketing business leaders with successful experience in using marketing strategies to increase their smartphone sales in the United …

A Business Plan For The Fitzgerald Institute, Elaine M. King, Matthew G. Deibel, Matthew J. Bulgrin, Alex Skeen, Stephanie N. Kieke

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This piece seeks to develop a business strategy for the University of Akron's Fitzgerald Institute for Entrepreneurship. The recommendations given were developed utilizing research on entrepreneurial education and the desires of students at the university.

Effective Marketing Strategies Of Profitable Small Businesses, Xoriunstance T. Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The inability to achieve profitability can negatively impact business operations. Small independent insurance agency owners who fail to maintain profitability are at a higher risk of failure. Grounded in the dynamic capabilities model, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective marketing strategies leaders of small independent insurance agencies use to achieve and maintain profitability. The participants comprised 3 independent insurance agents in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who effectively used marketing strategies to achieve and maintain profitability. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company websites, and company documents. Yin’s 5-step thematic analysis, which included compiling, disassembling, interpreting …

Exploring The Strategies For Sustaining Small- To Medium-Scale Enterprises, Kingsley Onochie Umadia

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The lack of development and the continued survival of small- to medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) poses a challenge to SME practices in Nigeria. Using sustainability theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies that leaders use in sustaining SMEs in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria. Ten SME leaders from the manufacturing sector, trading services, education, oil and gas service companies, and financial services sector provided comments during the interviews that addressed the research question. Data were analyzed by transcription, coding, categorizing and analysis of participants' responses using member checking. From the themes that emerged from the study, …

Nigeria Small And Medium Enterprise Sustainability Strategies, Elizabeth Olufunmilayo Ajibola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute to economic development and create 80% of the jobs in Nigeria. However, 80% of SMEs are not sustained beyond 5 years. Grounded in stakeholder theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies SME owners used to sustain their businesses beyond 5 years. Three SME owners who have sustained their businesses over 5 years in the Southwest region of Nigeria were purposefully selected to participate in this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and other business documents. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data using comparison method, and …

Economic Engagement, Development, And Entrepreneurship: The Role Of Applied Public Service Colleges, Jason Jolley, Gilbert Michaud

eJournal of Public Affairs

This paper investigates the unique role of applied public service colleges in engaging with communities through economic development and entrepreneurship-related activities. Schools of public administration, affairs, and service are often distinctively tasked with being public facing, and connecting and working with outside agencies, nonprofits, and other stakeholders. Using a case study of Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, we discuss the emerging engagement role of these types of schools through a typology of strategies brought forth by the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities. We outline seven specific programs run by the Voinovich School, and discuss …

Features Of Formation Of The Competitive Environment In Small Business In The Conditions Of Development Of Innovative Economy, Rano Sadikova Phd

The Light of Islam

In a market economy, small business is the leading sector that determines the rate of economic growth, the composition and quality of the gross national product. The development and expansion of the sphere of production and services of small businesses in the Republic will eventually lead to an increase in employment and the development of the country’s economy as a whole.

Further enhancement of the role of small business in the national economy and further improvement of its participation in economic growth largely depends on the state of the competitive environment in this area. It is connected with creation of …

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 …

Accelerator Drives Women Entrepreneurs' Success

Business Exchange

This article discusses how the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute in the Driehaus College of Business came to be and profiles several committee members, entrepreneurs in the program, curriculum and networking opportunities.

Platforms As Entrepreneurial Incubators? How Online Labor Markets Shape Work Identity, Francesca Bellesia, Elisa Mattarelli, Fabiola Bertolotti, Maurizio Sobrero

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the process of work identity construction unfolds for gig workers experiencing unstable working relationships in online labor markets. In particular, it investigates how digital platforms, intended both as providers of technological features and online environments, affect this process.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an exploratory field study and collected data from 46 interviews with freelancers working on one of the most popular online labor markets and from online documents such as public profiles, job applications and archival data.

Findings
The findings reveal that the online environment constrains the action of workers …

Innovation Agents, Mirit Eyal-Cohen

Washington and Lee Law Review

The standard narrative of entrepreneurship is one of self-employed creative individuals working out of their garage or independently owned start-up companies. Intrapreneurship— where employees are responsible for being alert to new opportunities inside firms—is another model for developing innovations. Relatively little is known, however, about the latter process through which large, complex firms engage in groundbreaking corporate entrepreneurship.

This Article’s focus is on these types of innovation agents. It provides a thorough account of the positive and negative spillovers of intrapreneurial firms while making the following key points: First, intrapreneurial companies utilize their economies of scale, scope, and age to …

Empowering Female Entrepreneurs Through Mentorship In Medellin, Colombia: Results From The Field, Theresa Solenski

Master's Theses

Utilizing the power of local knowledge and peer networking, this study attempts to quantify the impacts of mentorship among female micro-entrepreneurs in Medellin, Colombia on empowerment. Developing countries such as Colombia have disproportionately high rates of unprofitable micro-businesses, many of which are managed by women. Internal constraints, such as disempowerment, play a central role in perpetuating poverty. We implement a 6-month mentoring intervention by pairing 18 successful entrepreneurs with 52 disadvantaged female, micro-entrepreneurs in Medellin, Colombia to measure the additional benefit of localized knowledge to micro-borrowers. Using a process of random assignment, I measure the change in female empowerment, measured …

Schumpeter Revisited : Faster Better Cheaper As Grounds For Entrepreneurial Success And A Path To An Ipo., Charles Raymond Olsavsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current entrepreneurship research focuses on two types of entrepreneurial firms: (1) the firms that develop innovative novel products or services arising from technological innovation; and (2) the firms that develop innovative novel products or services arising from recognition of an opportunity in existing conditions, no type of change required. A third type of business founder has been largely ignored in the modern entrepreneurship research - - the founder who enters a competitive market with no novel product or service that he or she invented. I refer to this founder in a competitive market as a performance entrepreneur. This dissertation …

Research On Extreme Poverty Governance Based On Social Network Analysis, Wenyong Lei

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In this dissertation, the author goes inside some of China's most remote and poorest villages and tries to reveal the determinants, correlates and strategies to address the gap of existing poverty governance system and the complexity and diversity of poor population. He offers in-depth insights into what the poor people think about poverty with two major indicators, identifies evidence on the feasibility of duel-network embedding strategy to reduce poverty, and explains how diverse groups hit by extreme poverty could develop entrepreneurship relationship with diversified market and available social economic resources. Drawing on examples that take place in Xide County, a …

Time Changes Everything: Examining Socioemotional Selectivity’S Effects On Entrepreneurial Intentions And Attitudes, Zane N. Sudan

Honors College Theses

Entrepreneurship is still regarded as a popular career choice across generations, however, the Millennial generation has seen the lowest rates of entrepreneurship among past generations. The purpose of this study is to identify psychological mechanisms that could explain this drop in entrepreneurship, discerning whether or not time perspective has a significant effect on an individual’s entrepreneurial intentions and attitudes. Two studies were conducted: (1) a 2x2 experiment that manipulated time perspective (open time vs limited time) and perceived certainty (perceived certainty vs. perceived uncertainty) to see what effects these variables had on entrepreneurial intentions and emotion regulation regarding entrepreneurial goals. …

Social Entrepreneurship And The Direct Selling Channel: A Case Study On Trades Of Hope, Christine Mollenkopf-Pigsley

Applied Organizational Studies Publications

Two homeschooled Florida teenagers meet in a homeschool group arranged by their moms, start community college at 14 years of age and discover a shared passion for social entrepreneurship. The result of that passion was the global jewelry and accessories start-up called Trades of Hope, founded in 2010. The company utilizes the direct selling distribution channel to create a supply chain of fair trade artisans in developing countries and a U.S. salesforce of more than 7,000 compassionate entrepreneurs who build businesses of their own. This case reveals the journey from passion to profit is not unique from other successful entrepreneurs …

My Pop-Up Shoppe, Brenna Backemeyer

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

My Pop-Up Shoppe is a curriculum to teach students problem-solving and independent learning through running a small business. Everything needed to facilitate a My Pop-Up Shoppe experience where students will take part in a hands-on, real-life entrepreneurial journey is included. During My Pop-Up Shoppe, students will receive a product provided by the facilitator, school or organization and be challenged to turn the product into a running business with real sales and customers. The facilitator will empower students to be startup founders. The suggested timeline of My Pop-Up Shoppe is anywhere from a weekend to two-weeks.

The curriculum package gives instructions …

How Does Energy Matter? Rural Electrification, Entrepreneurship, And Community Development In Kenya, Antoine Vernet, Jane N. O. Khayesi, Vivian George, Gerard George, Abubakar S. Bahaj

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine the impact of rural electrification on individuals and businesses within a community in order to test a resource-based theory of entrepreneurship. We show that access to electricity increases average households’ income and entrepreneurial activities. The impact of electricity on entrepreneurial activity has wide-ranging implications for development policy in countries where access to electricity is sparse. Results show a significant difference in entrepreneurial opportunities with respect to firm formation, with the electrified site reporting more new micro-enterprises than the control site after implementation. Electrification affects both households’ income, individuals’ perceptions of their social position, and opportunities for business development. …

Entrepreneurship In Silicon Valley: The Road To Sustainable Prosperity, June Y. Lee

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Strategy

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Context In Country Level Entrepreneurial Activity, Naeimah Alkhurafi

2019

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role of context in entrepreneurship. I intend to shed light on the role of context in facilitating country level entrepreneurial activity through a multi-method approach in this three-paper format dissertation. In paper one, I systematically review two country level measures of entrepreneurship, namely Total Entrepreneurial Activity from The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and New Business Density from The World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey (WBGES), to understand how used in extant literature and investigate the research question: What are the primary antecedents and outcomes associated with country level entrepreneurship?

In paper two …

Tech Entrepreneurship: An Experiential Journey, Punit Arora

Open Educational Resources

This course uses Lean Launchpad for creating entrepreneurial ventures that start small but can be scaled up fairly quickly. You should you take this class only IF you are interested in creating such ventures. This course provides real world, hands-on learning on what it’s like to actually start a high-tech company. This class is not about how to write a business plan. It’s not an exercise on how smart you arein a classroom, or how well you use the research library to size markets. This is a practical class – essentially a lab, not a theory or “book” …

Strategies To Sustain A Real Estate Small Business In Postnatural-Disaster Area, Vianka Miranda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many small real estate business leaders lack effective strategies to resume and sustain operations in a postnatural-disaster environment. This multiple case study investigated strategies that 3 small real estate business leaders in southeastern Louisiana used to resume and sustain operations in the aftermath of a natural disaster. The chaos theory and stakeholder theory were the conceptual frameworks for this study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, and reviews of business continuity plan documents and member checking. The themes that emerged from data analysis were leaders' strategies relating to business planning and innovation, stakeholder engagement, operations management, and disaster responsiveness. Implications …

The Role Of Leadership In Business Model Innovation: A Case Of An Entrepreneurial Firm From India, Abrar A. Saiyed

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between leadership and business model innovation (BMI) in an entrepreneurial firm. From the literature, it was found that the role of a leader in BMI was unexplored. A research framework was created which was the replication of the model created showing the relationship between leadership and innovation. Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative single in-depth case study was used to understand the effects of leadership in BMI. The case of an entrepreneurial firm in the graphic and animation education sector from India was chosen to test the research framework. The …

The Missing Entrepreneurs 2019 “Ireland”, Thomas M. Cooney

Reports

This country profile benchmarks self-employment and entrepreneurship data for women, youth, seniors and immigrants in Ireland against the European Union average. It also highlights current inclusive entrepreneurship policy issues and recent policy developments.

Business Sustainability Strategies Of Small Technology Companies, Eric Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Each year, almost 12% of small technology companies fail to survive, and the risks associated with high-tech startups are high for business failure due to the introduction of new technology, similar competitor technology, and the short product life cycle of new products. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the business sustainability strategies that some owners of small technology companies used to remain in operation for longer than 5 years. The population for the study was the owners of 5 small technology companies located in the southeast region of the United States. The general systems theory was …

Applying The Practice–Based Method In Teaching Entrepreneurship: The Case Of The Msc In Business & Entrepreneurship At Tu Dublin, Anthony Paul Buckley

Articles

‘Since we live in an age of innovation, a practical education must prepare a [wo]man for work that does not yet exist and cannot yet be clearly defined’ - Peter Drucker Following reviews of the relevant IEET (Innovation, Entrepreneurship Education & Training) literature and after assessing current thinking and practice in the domain, it was concluded that, in the absence of empirical evidence in favour of a particular pedagogical approach, that a portfolio of coordinated practice-based methods is an appropriate approach for developing value-based learning outcomes at this time (2019). These pedagogical approaches focus on students’ attempts to discover, create …

Editorial: Entrepreneurship And Innovation In A Global Context, Chun (Grace) Guo, Crystal X. Jiang

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Ever since Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989, the world is revolutionized in ways of communications and social networking. Now technology advancement drives transformation around the world with fastened speed of globalization, allowing more companies achieving globalization and recognize cross-cultural, cross-national, cross-disciplinary opportunities to create new value-added activities. Technology advancement such as the fourth industrial revolution will inevitably transform the ways in which we live, work and interact with one another. As such, we need to embrace technology changes and examine the evolving domain of international entrepreneurship (IE) research and identify where the gaps are in …