Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Factors Contributing To Innovation Orientation Of Singapore Technology Small And Medium Enterprises (Smes), Kok Beng Neo

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As Singapore transitioned from economy that was primarily dependent on foreign direct investments (FDI) to a knowledge-based economy driven by indigenously developed science, technology and innovations, it became critical for the local firms to grow and internationalize. The government has thus invested heavily (of $19 billion from 2016 to 2020, and $25 billion from 2021 to 2015) in science and technology research and development. The Committee of Future Economy (CFE) concluded that in an era of rapid technological change where innovation cycles have shortened, one of economic strategy is to support our “high growth” enterprises to “scale up”. However, the …

Building Growth Enterprises In Singapore: Public-Private Partnership, Annie Koh, Esther Kong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This chapter traces the growth and development of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) from post-independent Singapore in 1965 to its current day digital transformation age. Singapore’s SME landscape has evolved from one of low wage, low productivity entrepot trade, to supporting multi-national corporations, and transforming into the innovative, digital and agile enterprises of today. The four main challenges faced by SMEs are in human capital, internationalisation, innovation and financing, and dependency on government policies are highlighted. Moving ahead, digitalisation, and building TIEs that bind leveraging on Trust, Innovation and Internationalisation, and Entrepreneurship, will be key to propel the nation and family …

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 …

Homie: Home Services Company, Kean Loong (Josh) Teo

MSc in Innovation Capstone Projects

Analysis of the market for home services, value proposition, differentiator, market attractiveness, and business model. Included marketing campaign and social media posts.

Are Entrepreneurial Capabilities And Prior Knowledge The Silver Bullet For The Generation Of New Digital Venture Ideas In A Digital Context?, Meifang Yao, Dan Ye, Gao Yang, Hui Shi, Xianrong Zheng

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

Digital technology has had an important impact on entrepreneurship. It has changed the uncertain nature of the process of new venture idea generation, and it has also brought unprecedented opportunities for the generation of new digital venture ideas. In order to explore how startups can deal with major challenges brought by digital technology and create new digital venture ideas, this paper focuses on micro level entrepreneurial actions and constructs a theoretical model of the relationship among networking capabilities, IT capabilities, prior knowledge, and new digital venture ideas. Furthermore, through the hierarchical linear regression analysis of 278 sample data, the paper …

Escape For Boone & Crocket, William Foxx, W. Frank Thompson Jr., Joseph W. Giese, David Vanbuskirk

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Eber Crocket is the owner of Boone & Crocket Trapper Supply (B&C). He feels like the environmental forces that are impacting his business are like a trap slowing closing on him. He is considering ideas to improve his store’s profitability.

Demand for furs as fashion goods is a multi-million dollar industry. Twenty percent of this demand is met by wild fur which is harvested by trappers. Trapping suppliers serve as the middleman between small individual trappers and auction houses. These auction houses collect the raw fur pelts from trappers and trapping stores and hold them until one of their auctions. …

Relationship Between Leadership Style And Innovation Performance In Small-To-Medium-Scale Enterprises In Nigeria, Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Ossai

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe Global Innovation Index recently indicated that Nigeria lags several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in innovation inputs and outputs. It is uncertain whether leadership style in place in Nigerian enterprises is a factor in this situation. Innovation performance is the contribution of product and process innovations to profits and growth in an enterprise. The purpose of this correlational, cross-sectional, survey study was to understand the relationship between leadership style and innovation performance in small-to-medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. The SME sector was selected because it is the engine of growth of the economy and the highest employer of labor, but …

Entrepreneurial Strategies To Mitigate The High Failure Rates Of Small Retail Businesses, James A. Latour

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The high rate of business failures within the first 5 years negatively affects half of startup business owners. Small retail business owners who fail to develop innovative entrepreneurial strategies experience high failure rates within the first 5 years of operation. Grounded in self-determination theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore entrepreneurial strategies small retail business owners use to support long-term sustainability. Participants were five small retail business owners from Southern Illinois who successfully used entrepreneurial strategies to reduce high failure rates. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and internal documents relevant to reducing high failure …

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 Nomological Network Analysis Of Innovation In Hospitality Education And Industry, Robert H. Rippee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The development of a theory of innovation for hospitality innovation finds heightened importance due to the COVID-19 Pandemic that has unleashed a devastating and sustained disruption on global hospitality and tourism. The problem for research is that the industry lacks a taxonomy for research on innovation in hospitality. This study addresses the gap in understanding the nomological relationship between innovation constructs and the observable manifestations of innovation in the hospitality industry. This study used an emergent basic qualitative design of a phenomenon through data collected in three phases. Two large samples of literature and a series of focus groups comprised …

Trust And The ‘Hive Effect’ In Family Firms, Rameshwari Ramachandra

Asian Management Insights

Boosting creativity and innovation in family firms.

The Importance Of Innovation And Entrepreneurship In China’S Social Transformation, Guo Jun Shen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As world’s second largest economy, China has seen tremendous changes since its 1978 “open door and reform” policy. Different reformations in form of policies were planned and rolled out to release the potential of productivity. At the same time, social development also seen a huge progress. How the reformation been transformed to social development and in what degree? This is the question was answered in this dissertation. I studied four major reformations covering: State owned Enterprises (SoE), land, financial liberalization, and science and technology, and their impacts on the social development. At macro level, I identified mediation effects of entrepreneurship …

The Value Of Visual Marketing As A Tool To Gain Consumer Interest, Shivani Venkatraman '21

2020 Intern Reports

This year, I interned for the company SWAMR HR, their parent company being ThoughtWave Software and Solutions. SWARM HR is a company in the IT Industry, and I worked in the Marketing and Sales Department as an Inside Sales Intern. SWARM HR’s product, SWARM HR, is a workforce automation software. It helps businesses migrate to managing their employees full-time electronically, with modules for HR, ATS, and Accounting/Payroll. The business area I researched for my project was Visual Marketing. This area was one I got to explore in my internship, as I helped come up with newsletter content, infographics, and types …

An In Depth Look Of Marketing At Xenwork, Amanda Chen

2020 Intern Reports

Xenwork is an Information Technology service company that offers an array of solutions for its business clients. Emphasis is placed on its one of a kind software development as well as algorithms to help improve the technological side of its clients. With the ever growing market in technology, Xenwork is constantly looking to improve in any way it can.

Xenwork places a high value on customer service and marketing. Therefore, it takes an extra step to reach out to potential customers with personalized scripted messages. In addition to reaching out to potential clients, Xenwork also makes sure to be updated …

Social Media Marketing, Christo Ekimov '22

2020 Intern Reports

Hespr is a mental health startup that believes that mental health is both a personal journey as well as a community one. Hespr is building an application that incorporates this idea using a guided journal, which facilitates the personal journey and a social platform to foster the community journey. It has a strong back-end which uses a variety of algorithms to calculate the emotions of the user. It combines all this with a sleek and functional UI. They focus on creating positive change in the world along with reimagining the way mental health is perceived and treated. As a marketing …

Website And Communications / Development With Iagc, Nathan Joseph '21

2020 Intern Reports

This summer, I completed a summer IMSA Internship with the Illinois Association for Gifted Children (IAGC), a non-profit aimed to provide quality education to students across the state. During this internship, I worked independently and remotely due to COVID-19 with some assistance via email or Zoom from my business mentor to complete a variety of tasks for the IAGC. Some of the endeavors that I took part in were creating website pages. Particularly, I worked on a page promoting social and emotional support for students, a page promoting and acknowledging the excellence gap, and a page answering commonly asked questions …

Safestart Medical: An Innovative Hit Solution To Never Events (Wspe), Shikhar Gupta '22

2020 Intern Reports

SafeStart Medical is a health information technology company offering a healthcare system, or electronic health record, that reduces dangerous handoff and communication errors, reduces delays and cancellations in the operating room, and empowers the patient as an active member of their care team. SafeStart is an automated and digitized revenue cycle management tool that improves perioperative patient safety, quality of care, and patient throughput. They specifically aim to prevent the occurrence of Never Events, preventable and serious medical errors that occur at an alarming rate. As an intern at SafeStart, I performed research on clinical topics such as Never Events …

Graphic Design Internship, Jonathan Gao '21

2020 Intern Reports

I have always been my own boss. From self-learning graphic design, starting in third grade, to practicing graphic design for clubs and organizations under my digression. I have been lucky enough to work for mainly myself and, when working for others, have had to cater to exclusively my taste—my experience in doing graphic design for teams has in the past been limited to making a design I like, requesting approval with little to no necessary revisions, and finally sending the design to its final destination.

Working with the Carbondale Chamber of Commerce this summer was my first time practicing graphic …

Marketing Experience: Analysis Of Competitors, Kaylee Zhou '22

2020 Intern Reports

Hespr is a start-up that focuses on promoting mental health by providing an app for the community. While the app is still in its early access program, Hespr's development team has been working diligently to improve various aspects and features. Throughout my internship, many tasks and projects were completed, such as user outreach, graphic design, written reports, and research. The objectives of this business project involved gathering information on how to analyze competitors and their marketing strategies efficiently and how to identify competitors' strengths and weaknesses effectively. My internship has provided me with valuable findings, leading me to conclude that …

Understanding Covid-19s Effect On Commerce Through Machine Learning, Madhav Parthasarathy '21

2020 Intern Reports

During these trying times, the novel virus has taken its toll on the economy. As a result, there must be a method to prevent any further loss in revenue for grocers especially. I started this project off, by researching the topic and its previous applications. As the virus is quite new, I was made to improvise a solution using machine learning. After finding a certain amount of data, I was able to utilize machine learning in order to predict the sales through certain periods of time. Due to Covid-19, there had been an extreme disparity in the sales of grocery …

Marketing & Website Visual Development To Enhance Communication For Iagc, Makayla Zheng '22

2020 Intern Reports

In the Business Context portion, the general description of the industry and organization are detailed. I interned for the Illinois Association for Gifted Children (IAGC), a nonprofit organization that works in the field of education, helping to promote the development of gifted and talented children across Illinois.

In the Business Project Description section, the work I contributed to IAGC is exhibited.During this internship, I largely partook in the marketing aspects for IAGC. I mainly worked with improving the IAGC website to increase organization and visual enhancement allowing for easier accessibility for users. The Exhibits portion consists of visuals from my …

Internship With Coursestars, Aakash Kumar '21

2020 Intern Reports

The plan of the company was to rework some parts of their website to automate submissions by employees and to attract more clients. The company I was interning with was CourseStars, a company that prides itself on finding excelled tutors to serve students. However, the project had a lot of complicated parts due to privacy issues and company policies.

First, the company needed to ensure that there was an easier way for them to give out tutor applications and publish tutors’ information on their website. The second issue was to drive tutor’s to work with CourseStars and make it easier …

Marketing And Design Applications In Website Development, Amanda Chen

2020 Intern Reports

Are there universal guidelines that ensure the efficacy of a business website’s design and marketing appeal to consumers? Through the field studies of competitor businesses of private tutoring company CourseStars, LLC. as well as research journals confirming the significance of behavioral economics working hand in hand with user experience website design, we determined that the best course of action was to rebrand the CourseStars website to reflect a personal connection its tutors can make with their students. The general principles to make a “good website” are ease of use, trust, transaction security, and behaviorally, using consumers’ cost-benefit analysis and their …

Analyzing Pricing Models In The Context Of Mental Health Markets, Edward Zhang '22

2020 Intern Reports

In today’s world, mental health is becoming an increasingly important issue. To address, this the crossroads between technology and healthcare has become more and more apparent, with many mental heath apps seeking to help consumers on this issue and reduce stigma.Hespr is one of these companies, and although in early stages of development, has a large potential to make a lasting impact.By researching pricing models and business models in the mental health software industry, this report hopes to provide insight on how these business practices can impact business finances, and ultimately have greater implications for decisions at Hespr. By using …

How To Increase A Company's Social Media Presence, Eunice Kim '22

2020 Intern Reports

The project pursued in this report is called “How to Increase a Company’s Social Media Presence.” In this context, “social media presence” will refer to how frequently Hespr posts and is active on Instagram, the levels of engagement on posts, and types of content uploaded. As the title suggests, this project will focus on factors that facilitate the growth of Hespr’s social media presence, as well as factors that may hinder progress.

Summer Internship Report, Isabel Chen '22

2020 Intern Reports

“Baby boomer,” “millennial,” and “Generations X and Z” are all familiar terms referring to the different Western cultural generations beginning from the late nineteenth century. And as they all signify a period of time in history, there are an array of associated ideas, beliefs, and traditions that come along with each. This research paper serves to explore how design and social media platforms can best cater to audiences of all generations, taking into account the differences in interests, opinions, and tendencies of each. Through observations and studies, it’s most effective to approach the audience in an attitude that is equally …

Assessing Integenerational Programs Through Market Research, Rohit Kartha '22

2020 Intern Reports

Intergenerational is an adjective that describes something that involves or affects several generations. Intergenerational programs are programs which increase interaction and exchange between people of different generations. There are several benefits of intergenerational programs. Some include generating a sense of purpose for the older adults, reducing a sense of isolation for them, as well as members from each generation learning new skills. Most importantly, younger generations better understand the aging process and learn how to face their own aging more positively. As time progresses, more and more people are understanding the benefits and importance of intergenerational collaboration and as this …

Outcomes Of Platform Openness In Complementary Markets, Franck Loic Soh Noume

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobile platform ecosystems are hyper-competitive environments. They provide important entrepreneurial opportunities for businesses that develop mobile apps. Platform openness is foundational in mobile platform ecosystems as it enables interactions between complements and platform. Although there are several studies on the impact of platform openness, our understanding of the outcomes of platform openness remains limited. In this dissertation, we examine thoroughly underexplored facets of platform openness as well as understudied outcomes. In the first essay, we investigate the impact of platform openness on incumbent complements’ performance outcomes. We unravel important causal mechanisms related to competition dynamics between new entrants and incumbent …

Fin Vs. Tech: Are Trust And Knowledge Creation Key Ingredients In Fintech Start-Up Emergence And Financing?, Theodor Florian Cojoianu, Gordon L. Clark, Andreas G. F. Hoepner, Vladimir. Pažitka, Dariusz. Wójcik

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We investigate how the emergence of fintech start-ups and their financing is shaped by regional knowledge creation and lack of trust in financial services incumbents across 21 OECD countries, 226 regions and over the 2007–2014 period. We find that knowledge generated in the IT sector is much more salient for fostering new fintech start-ups than knowledge generated in the financial services sector. Additionally, the importance of new knowledge created in the financial services sector (IT sector) increases (decreases) as fintech start-ups grow and seek financing. When the level of trust in financial services incumbents falls within a region, this is …

Green Delivery: A New Approach For The Arbor Day Foundation, Cassandra Arritt, Vincent Malene, Anthony Hare, Sarah Schilling, David Petersen, Ross Grieb

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) will partner with online retailers to create a ‘Green-Delivery’ option wherein customers can opt to delay the shipment of their order by a day in exchange for a tree being planted in their name. Each partner would fulfill their donation obligation to the ADF by allocating a portion of the cost savings generated by shipping their orders via a slower service.