Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Upleft: Pick Up Leftovers, Uplift Those In Need, Veronica Galles

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Meeting The Sustainability Challenges: An Assessment Of Entrepreneurial Education, Anna Zherdeva, Intesar Madi, Abrar Alzankawi, Lucia Morales Dr, L. Pop, A. Soler-Dominguez, J.C. Saez

Conference papers

The importance of sustainability and entrepreneurship education is highlighted in this study. The world economies are facing significant challenges as they try to enable the transition towards more sustainable economic and business models. Therefore, at the centre of the transition process, it is critical to consider the role that business education can play and, more specifically, the role of business schools in integrating and supporting the development of skills and competencies that align with our contemporary society's needs. In this paper, we initially assess the need to connect entrepreneurial and sustainability education by exploring the educational offerings at Technological University …

Sustainability Impact Assessment Of New Ventures: An Emerging Field Of Research, Klaus Fichter, Florian Ludeke-Freund, Stefan Schaltegger, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Entrepreneurs and start-ups are key actors in implementing environmental innovation and accelerating sustainability transitions. Thus, analyzing as well as predicting the impact of entrepreneurial ventures is central to management and entrepreneurship research. The sustainability performance, value and impact of incumbent firms and their products and services has been a key topic in business-related sustainability research for many years. However, assessing the sustainability effects of new ventures such as start-ups is a neglected area in the research literature. This article therefore provides an overview, including key definitions, a new conceptual framework, and notions that can help guide and inspire a future …

Competitive Sustainability: The Intersection Of Sustainability And Business Success, Clyde Eiríkur Hull

Articles

Sustainability that beats the competition is different from sustainability that does not. Some who care very much about sustainability may not care at all about business success. However, they should. If businesses were to see that competitive sustainability leads to financial success, they would take it up and abandon nonsustainable practices

What Has Changed For Top Mba Schools Within A Decade In Terms Of Mindfulness?, Dr. Damla Aktan, Asst. Prof. Nilgün Gürkaynak

International Journal for Business Education

The concepts of “mindful consumption” and “sustainability” became indispensable parts of both academia and business life. Based upon an initial research conducted in 2012, this research aims to understand and compare the change within a decade in MBA curricula in terms of mindfulness content inclusion as well as sustainability and ecological orientation. The results compare the evolution of the integration of concepts to curricula since 2012 through the official websites of the top 100 MBA schools of the Financial Times Global Ranking in both 2012 and 2022. The study aims to summarize how the concepts of sustainability, mindful consumption and …

Making Sustainability A Core Competency: Consumer Response To Sustainable Innovative Products, Clyde Eiríkur Hull, Jennifer D. Russell, Monika Kukar-Kinney

Articles

Research suggests that sustainability may not be sufficient to yield a competitive advantage. Building on the resource-based view, this research evaluates three questions: (1) Can using sustainability as a differentiator lead to consumers choosing sustainable products? (2) Does product sustainability appeal more to environmentally concerned consumers? (3) Does product sustainability appeal more when paired with innovation? To test the hypotheses, an online survey of 344 US respondents was conducted. Consumers were given a hypothetical budget for an office chair and asked to choose between two products at a time. Hypotheses were tested with frequency and Chisquare tests and logistic regression. …

Societal Sustainability: Projects To Address The Three Dimensions Of A Sustainable Future, Braden K. Bateman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability is an important, commonly discussed societal goal regarding assurance of resources for the world to be able to enjoy a prosperous future. Three primary dimensions of sustainability include environmental, economic, and social sustainability, and objectives for various projects can be aimed at any of the three dimensions to pursue societal sustainability. Solar installations, which can be used to pursue environmental and economic sustainability, convert abundant sunlight to electricity, displacing fossil fuel use that contributes harmful greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The regulatory environment at the state level has a significant impact on the feasibility of solar projects. At present, …

Strategies For Information Technology Small Business Owners To Sustain Beyond The First 5 Years, Edward Alan Rodarte

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses are the foundation of an economy and spawn innovation, but small business owners fail at an alarming rate because they lack strategies to sustain business operations. Since 50% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years, small business sustainability research is critical to support small business owners. Grounded in entrepreneurial theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to identify strategies information technology (IT) small business owners use to sustain operation beyond the first 5 years. The participants included four IT small business owners in the Southwestern United States who sustained operations beyond the first 5 …

National Culture And Attitudes’ Impact On Diffusion Of Sustainable New Technology-Based Products, Mayank Jaiswal, Lee Zane

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Sustainability is increasingly becoming an essential aspect of technological innovations. In addition, the diffusion of sustainable new technology-based products appears to be uneven across the globe. The authors examine the effect of three country-level Hofstede measures of culture and two national-level innovation characteristics on the diffusion of Sustainable New Technology-based Products (SNTP).

Design/methodology/approach – Regression and Necessary Conditions Analysis were used to analyze a panel dataset of electric and hybrid vehicles sales from 2008 to 2017 across 89 countries.

Findings – Results suggest Long-Term Orientation (LTO) was correlated with SNTP diffusion, Indulgence (IVR) was partially correlated with SNTP …

Strategies For Increasing The Sustainability Of Small Restaurant Business, Sahara J. Givens-Evans

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners who operate in the restaurant industry face many challenges and sometimes succumb to failures. Identifying solutions to avoid failure is important and will strengthen this community of entrepreneurs and help in terms of creating sustainability strategies. Grounded in Richard Cantillon’s entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business owners in the restaurant industry use to sustain business beyond 5 years. Participants included six small restaurant business managers who survived beyond 5 years and specialized in fast-casual food service within Chicago. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and participant reflections. …

Strategies For Achieving Sustainability Of Small Business Restaurants, Tanisha Thomas-Beard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many small business restaurant owners perform unprofitably and fail within 5 years of opening. Small business restaurant owners are concerned about sustainability as approximately 50% of small businesses that start up do not last beyond the fifth year. Grounded in the general systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business restaurant owners use to grow and maintain profitability to sustain business beyond 5 years. The participants were five small business restaurant owners in the Southeastern region of the United States who sustained their business beyond 5 years. The data were analyzed using …

Strategies To Improve Minority Business Enterprises’ Access To Capital For Competitive Positioning And Profitability, Darlene Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some minority business enterprises (MBEs) have limited capital for setting up their businesses, which often leads to business failure. Grounded in entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies MBEs used to access capital to improve their competitive positioning and profitability. The participants were six MBE owners from Alabama who demonstrated success at maintaining and securing working capital to maintain a profitable business for a minimum of 5 years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and reviews of organization documents and websites. Using Yin’s five-step data analysis process, four themes emerged: owner financing, government loans …

Strategies To Improve Minority Business Enterprises’ Access To Capital For Competitive Positioning And Profitability, Darlene Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some minority business enterprises (MBEs) have limited capital for setting up their businesses, which often leads to business failure. Grounded in entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies MBEs used to access capital to improve their competitive positioning and profitability. The participants were six MBE owners from Alabama who demonstrated success at maintaining and securing working capital to maintain a profitable business for a minimum of 5 years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and reviews of organization documents and websites. Using Yin’s five-step data analysis process, four themes emerged: owner financing, government loans …

Beyond The Green Iron Cage: Exploring The Macro And Micro-Level Influences On Executive Decisions About Sustainability Investments In Small And Medium Size Firms, Igor Estraykh

Theses and Dissertations

Although research on corporate environmental sustainability has shed light on different aspects of organizational and individual level factors that influence corporate decisions, it does not fully account for how individual executives within firms react to these forces and make decisions, specifically within small to medium size enterprises (SMEs). This study used a grounded theory approach to interview 19 SME executives from 13 different industries to explore how organizational and individual level factors influence their ability to evaluate and make decisions related to sustainability initiatives. The study found that SME executives faced isomorphic pressures for sustainability, individual agency pressures, significant resource …

Exploration Of Small Fashion Retailers' Green Efforts In Supply Chain Management And Their Coping Strategies During Covid-19, Madison Huskey

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current business model of small fashion retailers and their green efforts in supply chain management based on the Six-R framework that consists of recycle, reuse, reduce, re-design, recovery, and remanufacture. This study also investigated the impact of COVID-19 on small fashion businesses. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews of owners/employees of four small fashion retailers that addressed sustainable supply chain management, customer segments, and challenges and barriers in green supply chain management, and the effects of COVID-19. Interview findings revealed that small fashion retailers are more likely to implement green …

Investing For The Future, Saker Nusseibeh

Perspectives@SMU

Even if you don’t believe in climate change, shifting consumer and governmental attitudes make businesses that prioritise sustainability more profitable

Business Families As Stewards Of Sustainability, John Cheng, Ankesh Shahra, Cynthia Handriani Wijaya, Louise Dudley

Perspectives@SMU

The drive to preserve the business for future generations makes family-owned enterprises especially suited to sustainability initiatives. Embracing ESG frameworks will help measure their effectiveness

The Right To Repair: (Re)Building A Better Future, Jumana Labib

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The goal of this research project was to take a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary approach to research and examine the Right to Repair movement’s progress, current repair practices, impediments, and imperatives, and the various large-scale implications (environmental, economic, social, etc.) stemming from diminished consumer freedom as a result of increased corporate greed and lack of governmental regulations with regards to repair and the environment. This poster exhibits the highlights of my general research project on the Right to Repair movement over the course of this four month internship, and aims to disseminate information about the movement to the wider public in an …

Small Business And Sustainability: How The Back Bone Of America And The Buzz Word Of The 2010s And 2020s Can Be A Powerhouse For Change, Raleigh Woods

Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the years phrases like “going green” or “reduce, reuse, recycle” have been the war cries of environmentalist conservationists. Now, a new word has begun to heavily circulate among the environments communities and beyond: sustainability. However, the concept of sustainability has been around for centuries. According to the World Energy Foundation sustainability was “coined in German, the original term was Nachhaltigkeit, meaning ‘sustained yield.’ It first appeared in a handbook of forestry published in 1713, and was used to mean never harvesting more than the forest can regenerate.” (The World Energy Foundation, 2014). Since then, the word and concept has …

Conscious Couture: Upcycling And Sustainable Style, Sara Wilson

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

The fashion and apparel industry has become synonymously associated with wastefulness and pollution due to the high levels of production, consumption and disposal of the billions of garments produced globally each year. Throughout the industry, brands have continued to set sustainability goals for both efforts to reduce their environmental impacts as well as appeal to the ‘green’ consumer. The power that a consumer holds can be leveraged for driving sustainability related initiatives through an apparel market that is virtually available everywhere. Since the 1990s, the secondhand market has developed from simply an economically friendly place to purchase necessities, to its …

The Future Of Fashion: Corporate Social Responsibility And Essential Marketing Strategies, Taite Jorgensen

CMC Senior Theses

This paper analyzes how fast fashion has impacted future trends of the fashion industry. Due to globalization, the fast fashion industry has been able to create new norms of over-consumerism and international labor. Because of this, the fast fashion industry is able to mass produce in a way consumers have never seen before, in addition to making it all at extremely low prices. However, fast fashion brands are only able to mass produce cheap goods through unethical methodologies; these methodologies include unsustainable materials and practices, inhuman labor conditions and wages, and by making sizes that exclude bigger bodies. Consumers are …

Nonprofit Strategies For Alternative Revenue Generation And Sustainability, Aretha Lepearl Day

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractIn the post-2008 Great Recession era of a highly volatile global business environment of increased competitiveness, diminishing predictable revenues, and depleting philanthropy, many nonprofit leaders struggle to sustain their organizations. Volatility is important to nonprofit leaders because such fluctuations create unpredictability, which threatens their organizations' financial stability for short-term survivability and long-term sustainability. Grounded in Elkington's triple bottom line conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore nonprofit leaders' strategies for short-term survivability and long-term sustainability. The participants comprised 3 senior leaders in a nonprofit located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States who …

Succession Planning Strategies For Small Family-Owned Businesses, Samuel Buckner Jr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some business owners lose young, skillful midlevel leaders to competitors because of limited training to prepare a potential successor for senior leadership roles. Family business owners lack succession strategies to transfer business operations to a junior leader that can lead to business closure and increased community unemployment. Using the transformational leadership framework, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the succession planning strategies that small family-owned business owners use to train the next generation of leaders in the southeastern region of the United States. The data sources included a semistructured interview with two business owners and leadership …

Funding Strategies For Small Business Sustainability, Ayokunle O. Iyanda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

About 50% of small businesses fail within the first five years of operation, lacking access to capital being a contributing factor. The high failure rate is of great concern to the business owners; their livelihood and employees are jeopardized. Through the pecking order theory lens, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business owners use to access capital to sustain the business past the first five years. Eight small business owners who successfully operated for more than five years in Georgia and Illinois participated in the semistructured interviews. Through thematic data analysis, four themes …

Strategies For Small Business Entrepreneur Sustainability For 5 Years And Beyond, Ralph A. Heath Iii

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSmall business failures impede entrepreneurs' sustainability in localities, the state, and the U.S. economy. Small business entrepreneurs are concerned about strategies to target and minimize obstacles from business inception for business survival because the failure rate increases as the business develop. Grounded in the entrepreneurial theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies for small business entrepreneur sustainability beyond five years. Participants comprised three small business owners in Southeast Virginia who effectively used strategies to sustain their business beyond five years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, analysis of participants’ business documentation, and research of …

Adding A Strategic Lens To Feasibility Analysis, Gregory Berry, Kareem M. Shabana

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Traditional feasibility analysis is focused on the immediate and urgent needs of a new venture start-up. All four parts of the feasibility analysis (product/service, industry/market, organizational, and financial) are valuable and essential, but what is missed is a part that provided attention to the longer-term requirements for success and sustainability. A fifth strategic feasibility analysis is needed, focused on the long-term sustainability of the new venture. This strategic/contingent context-dependency lens considers the organization’s long-term survival, confirming that organizational success depends on the new venture’s ability to emphasize its uniqueness and fit with its external environment. Design/methodology/approach – This …

Human Resource Management Practices For Sustainability Of Ghanaian Small And Medium Enterprises, Charles Bandari

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2018, the failure rate of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana was approximately 75%. SME owners and managers who refuse to recognize HRM strategies as a way for business sustainability risk closure. Grounded in Blau's social exchange theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore human resource strategies leaders of SMEs use to sustain their businesses. Participants were 4 SME leaders in the Tamale metropolitan area of Ghana who successfully used human resource management strategies to promote the sustainability of their businesses. Data were collected from semistructured face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions, and company …

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, …

Strategies For Sustaining Minority-Owned Small Businesses, Taha Seid

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Minority small businesses play a significant role in the development of the United States economy. Minority small business owners who do not implement successful and sustainable strategies are at a high risk of failure. Grounded in entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that minority small business owners used to sustain their business beyond 5 years of beginning operations. The participants included 3 minority small business owners in Alexandria, Virginia, who have been in business for 5 years. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, field notes, company websites, and financial, marketing, strategy, and …