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Bootstrapping is a practitioner-based term adopted in entrepreneurship to describe the techniques employed in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to minimise the need for external funding by securing resources at little or no cost and applying strategies to effectively use resources. Working capital management (WCM) is a term used in financial management to define a set of practices used to manage business resources, including cash management. This paper explores the overlap and divergence between these two disciplinary distinct concepts.

A dual methodology is employed. First, the usage of the two terms in prior literature is analysed and synthesised. Second, the study uses factor analysis to explore how bootstrapping practices described by owners of 167 established MSMEs relate to the components of WCM in financial management.

The factor analysis identifies two main bootstrapping practices employed by MSMEs: (1) delaying payments and owner-related bootstrapping and (2) customer-related bootstrapping. Delaying payments is an integral practice in trade payables management and customer-related bootstrapping includes practices that are integral to trade receivables management. Therefore, links between bootstrapping practices and WCM practices are firmly established.

The study is not without limitations. Based on cross-sectional evidence for established firms in Ireland only, future studies could explore cross-country longitudinal panel data to fully examine life cycle and sectoral effects, as well as other external shocks (for example, COVID-19) on bootstrapping and WCM practices. This study does not explain why some factors (for example, joint utilisation and inventory management) are present in some bootstrapping studies and not in others; further case study research might help explain this. Finally, changes in the business environment facing start-ups and established enterprise, including increased digitalisation, online trading, self-employment, remote hub working and sustainability, offer new avenues for bootstrapping research.

This is the first study to comprehensively explore the conceptual and empirical links between bootstrapping and WCM. This study will enable researchers and practitioners in these two distinct disciplines to learn from each other. Accounting researchers and practitioners can broaden their understanding of how WCM “works” in MSME settings. Similarly, entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners can deepen their understanding of how bootstrapping can be adopted by businesses to manage resources effectively.

There has been an unprecedented increase in online learning worldwide, including in teacher education. However, student lurking can be a common issue, leading to a non-interactive learning environment.

The authors employed a qualitative case study with thematic analysis to examine a novel “self-directed” pre-service teacher online degree module that engaged students in regular peer-feedback, which intended to promote student engagement and interactivity. The research questions were as follows: To what extent did the seminar series represent the principles of self-directed learning and were learning outcomes effective from the process? And, how effective was the use of peer feedback?

The thematic analysis revealed that student progression and course completion was successful, and it represented some principles of self-directed learning; but (a) it cannot be presumed that pre-service teachers are competent in giving (peer) feedback and (b) pre-service teachers may need specific guidance and training for providing competent feedback.

This paper is highly original in respect of its combination of the self-directed learning framework with use of peer feedback, to engage students in an interactive learning environment. The present paper identifies that peer feedback is a powerful tool in online learning; peer feedback can supplement self- and teacher-assessment; but it should not be assumed that pre-service teachers are competent in providing (peer) feedback – pre-service teachers may need specific training in providing feedback.

The purpose of this study is to determine if regional proximity and fan club involvement could be used to predict success for brands that jointly sponsor a team and their key rival.

A brand with regional proximity to the rival teams it sponsored was identified. Fan club members of a major college sports team served as respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model that predicted antecedents to purchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth based on individual fan characteristics.

Results suggest that the intrinsic and social components of fanship as well as regional proximity facilitate the success of brands jointly sponsoring rivals. The intrinsic dimension of fandom foreshadowed approval of the joint sponsorship investigated but did not directly enhance the sponsor’s brand equity. Instead, it was demonstrated that fans must first approve of the joint sponsorship arrangement before conferring elevated brand equity onto the sponsor. Increased social interaction with the fan club resulted in higher levels of purchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth of the joint sponsor.

This study differs from prior studies investigating joint sponsors in four ways. First, the intrinsic and social dimensions of fanship were measured within the context of a fan community. Second, the context of the study included a sponsor with regional proximity to both rival teams. Third, it was determined that the proclivity for social interaction within a fan community enhances the positive outcomes for joint sponsors. Fourth, unlike previous research studying joint sponsors, this study demonstrates a path to success for these brands.

African agricultural mechanization could lead to a mechanization divide, where only large farms have access to machines. Technological solutions such as scale-appropriate machines and institutional solutions like service markets offer hope for more inclusive mechanization. Two-wheel tractor-based service markets combine both technological and institutional elements, but there is limited research on their economic viability and challenges.

We analyze the economic viability of two-wheel tractor-based service provision based on data from service providers in Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, and Zimbabwe. We also examine the institutional framework conditions for such service providers based on qualitative interviews with these service providers and stakeholders such as machinery dealers, spare parts providers, and banks.

Two-wheel tractor-based service provision is economically highly viable, largely due to multifunctionality. Post-production services such as threshing and transportation are particularly lucrative. However, the emergence and economic sustainability of service providers can be undermined by bottlenecks such as access to finance, knowledge and skills development, access to fuel and spare parts, and infrastructure problems.

This is the first study on the economics of two-wheel tractor-based service provider models. Past studies have focused on large four-wheel tractors, but two-wheel tractors are different in many aspects, including regarding investment costs, repair and maintenance costs, capacity, and multifunctionality.

While Christmas and the holidays are widely celebrated in society at large in the US, the question arises whether doing so has value in today’s organizations. In this light, the present study examined the relationship of workplace holiday practices with positive affect and emotional engagement, along with some boundary conditions of these relationships. Specifically, this research examined the moderating influences of religious orientation, political orientation and political environment.

Data were collected at two points in time via an online survey. At time 1, the participant survey included measures of workplace holiday practices, political orientation and demographic characteristics. At time 2 (approximately two weeks afterward), the participant survey included measures of positive affect and emotional engagement.

Workplace holiday practices were related to both positive affect and emotional engagement. There were slightly stronger effects for the impact of workplace holiday practices among individuals who reside in more conservative (“red”) states in the US on emotional engagement, but not positive affect. Individual political orientation did not moderate the relationships between workplace holiday practices and the outcomes. Counter to expectations, the absence of workplace holiday practices had a stronger negative effect on non-Christians’ emotional engagement than Christians. The interaction between workplace holiday practices and religious orientation with positive affect was nonsignificant.

The data from this research were obtained via a survey methodology. Although data on the independent and dependent variables were obtained at two different points in time, future research could experimentally manipulate features of the work environment related to the celebration of the holidays to more definitively establish cause-and-effect relationships.

This research highlights the value of celebrating Christmas and the holidays. In this light, organizations should not underestimate the potential value of such celebratory activity in promoting employee goodwill. At the same time, organizations must be cognizant that some individuals may value the celebration of Christmas and the holidays more so than others.

This research provides a framework for further research on workplace holiday practices and identifies theories that can be used in future research to explore the mechanisms that influence how and under what conditions workplace holiday practices impact employees’ experiences at work.

Framed by social cognition theory, this study examines the impact of environmental factors (e.g. social norms) on students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ES) and entrepreneurial intention (EI).

We obtained responses to a survey from 811 senior secondary students in Hong Kong. We then employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the proposed hypothesis. We removed non-significant parameters in testing the model and obtained the final SEM.

Among these students, those who were male or spoke English at home showed stronger social norms of entrepreneurship and greater entrepreneurial SE, which was linked to greater EI. Among students perceiving stronger social norms of entrepreneurship, those who lived in private housing or spoke English at school showed greater entrepreneurial intention.

The study provides a new social cognitive perspective for examining EI that emphasizes learning and development through the interaction of environmental and cognitive factors. It supplements previous research by demonstrating the significant influence of social norms and the conditional role of parental influence, adding complexity to our understanding of how these factors' interplay.

Literature on teacher leadership highlights a significant gap in understanding the role of teacher leaders (TLs) as entrepreneurs. This research aims to bridge this gap by examining the multifaceted entrepreneurial dimension of teacher leadership. It specifically focuses on providing a comprehensive profile of these leaders and assessing their perceived influence on teachers’ outcome, which are important for improving school performance.

A two-step clustering procedure was utilized to discern profiles of teacher leaders’ entrepreneurial behaviours, sampling 586 participants in a teacher leader training program. To assess mean differences in relation to perceived influence on teacher outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, intrateam trust and innovative teaching practices) among these clusters, two-way contingency table analysis and MANOVA were conducted.

We identified three teacher-leader profiles: congenial facilitators, champion-leaders and executors. Our findings reveal the unique strengths and weaknesses of each profile and their contributions to job satisfaction, intrateam trust and innovative teaching practices.

This study is innovative in its detailed examination of teacher leadership through the lens of Teacher Entrepreneurial Behaviour (TEB), providing new perspectives on the intricate relationships between teacher leaders' TEB and their perceived influences. This deeper insight emphasizes the important role of entrepreneurial behaviours within teacher leadership, suggesting new directions for further research and development in educational leadership practices.

This study evaluates how well Victorian local councils’ procurement policies align with the sustainable and circular economy (CE) approach that prioritises sustainable and regenerative practices. It proposes a set of criteria designed to effectively integrate environmental sustainability issues into purchasing policies.

Employing the Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART) framework, a multi-dimensional content analysis guided by the goal-setting theory was applied to evaluate all 79 Victorian local councils’ procurement policies. This approach provided an assessment of policy specificity, measurability, assignability, realism and time sensitivity in promoting environmental sustainability through purchasing policies.

The findings underscored a significant deficiency in policy adherence to all SMART criteria concerning environmental sustainability, hindering the effective green purchasing decisions within government entities. This lack of integration of greening in purchasing policy poses challenges for manufacturers of waste-derived goods, obscuring the procurement objectives of these critical public sector customers.

The paper contributes to the sustainable procurement (SP) discourse by proposing guidelines aimed at improving the efficacy of governmental purchasing of sustainable products. These guidelines address the broader imperative to mitigate the environmental impacts of governmental spending on less sustainable goods, thereby fostering ecological sustainability and promoting responsible consumption.

While past studies have often relied on subjective content analysis methods, the SMART assessment used to develop the environmental sustainability criteria for purchasing policies, which distinguishes this study from previous governmental policy evaluation studies. This approach marks a departure from traditional governmental policy evaluation studies, offering a more structured analysis of policy effectiveness in promoting SP practices.

This paper aims to introduce the concept of consumer impatience, empirically explore how it relates to time-based logistics performance (delivery speed and delivery timeliness) and discuss its impact on consumer satisfaction. This research argues that gaining insights related to delivery performance from a consumer’s perspective can help the development of more effective time-based logistics strategies for e-commerce home deliveries.

Hypotheses in this study are developed using attribution theory and tested with empirical data collected through an online behavioral consumer experiment. Middle-range theorizing is used to develop an understanding of the mechanisms that impact the relationship between time-based logistics performance and consumer satisfaction.

Findings indicate that consumer impatience with delivery speed and delivery timeliness play an essential role in the relationship between time-based delivery performance and consumer satisfaction. Issues with delivery timeliness are shown to have a more negative impact on consumer satisfaction than issues with delivery speed, while delivery communication is demonstrated to have a positive relationship with consumer satisfaction.

This empirical study adds to existing time-based competition literature by taking a consumer-centric perspective and bringing a largely overlooked but critical concept – consumer impatience – into the logistics and supply chain management setting. Middle-range theorizing allows for a conceptualized understanding of consumers’ delivery experiences that can help companies develop proactive actions in their time-based competition initiatives.

The increased use of Information Systems (IS) as a working tool for employees increases the number of accounts and passwords required. Despite being more aware of password entropy, users still often participate in deviant password behaviors, known as “password workarounds” or “shadow security.” These deviant password behaviors can put individuals and organizations at risk, resulting in a data breach. This paper aims to engage IS users and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), focused on designing, developing and empirically validating the Password Workaround Cybersecurity Risk Taxonomy (PaWoCyRiT) – a 2x2 taxonomy constructed by aggregated scores of perceived cybersecurity risks from Password Workarounds (PWWAs) techniques and their usage frequency.

This research study was a developmental design conducted in three phases using qualitative and quantitative methods: (1) A set of 10 PWWAs that were identified from the literature were validated by SMEs along with their perspectives on the PWWAs usage and risk for data breach; (2) A pilot study was conducted to ensure reliability and validity and identify if any measurement issues would have hindered the results and (3) The main study data collection was conducted with a large group of IS users, where also they reported on coworkers' engagement frequencies related to the PWWAs.

The results indicate that statistically significant differences were found between SMEs and IS users in their aggregated perceptions of risks of the PWWAs in causing a data breach, with IS users perceiving higher risks. Engagement patterns varied between the two groups, as well as factors like years of IS experience, gender and job level had statistically significant differences among groups.

The PaWoCyRiT taxonomy that the we have developed and empirically validated is a handy tool for organizational cyber risk officers. The taxonomy provides organizations with a quantifiable means to assess and ultimately mitigate cybersecurity risks.

Passwords have been used for a long time to grant controlled access to classified spaces, electronics, networks and more. However, the dramatic increase in user accounts over the past few decades has exposed the realization that technological measures alone cannot ensure a high level of IS security; this leaves the end-users holding a critical role in protecting their organization and personal information. Thus, the taxonomy that the authors have developed and empirically validated provides broader implications for society, as it assists organizations in all industries with the ability to mitigate the risks of data breaches that can result from PWWAs.

The taxonomy the we have developed and validated, the PaWoCyRiT, provides organizations with insights into password-related risks and behaviors that may lead to data breaches.