Akin Fadahunsi, David Smallbone and Salinder Supri
This paper is concerned with the role of networking in the development of ethnic minority enterprises, using empirical data drawn from a wider study of 82 ethnic minority…
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the role of networking in the development of ethnic minority enterprises, using empirical data drawn from a wider study of 82 ethnic minority businesses in North London. The paper uses a broadly based definition of networks that focuses on the exploitation of both formal and informal relationships for business development purposes, which includes social networks as well as voluntary and necessary business‐based linkages. More specifically, the paper considers the role of networking in raising capital, recruiting labour, identifying and finding customers, as well as accessing business support. The results show that personal and community‐based networks are used both to mobilise resources and to generate sales by business owners in all groups, although the nature and extent of the activity varies at different stages of business development. As other studies have shown, there is a very low level of take‐up of business advice and support from mainstream support agencies by these ethnic minority enterprises, not because of a lack of awareness but because of a range of negative attitudes towards them.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences/similarities in business practices of second‐generation South Asian entrepreneurs within family‐owned firms, in comparison…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences/similarities in business practices of second‐generation South Asian entrepreneurs within family‐owned firms, in comparison to their second‐generation counterparts managing and running their own business.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws its theoretical underpinning via a number of concepts relevant to the South Asian business experience. To understand this, investigation was conducted within a phenomenological paradigm. In total, 48 semi‐structured interviews were carried out with three South Asian groups. Namely, first‐ and second‐ generation Sikh, Hindu and Pakistani Muslim entrepreneurs from both family and non‐family owned micro‐small businesses situated within the Greater London area. In addition, nine businesses from all three ethnic groups were selected to complete the multiple (comparative) case‐study stage of the research.
Findings
Similarities and differences between second‐generation entrepreneurs within family and non‐family businesses (NFBs) are evident. For instance, a majority of the respondents (from family and non‐family businesses) considered entrepreneurship as something to embrace, and not as a means of economic survival. A minority of the respondents within FBs were pushed into entrepreneurship, as such, this has had an impact on the father‐son relationship in a negative way. Second‐generation respondents from FBs, in comparison to their counterparts within NFBs, were more likely to have decision‐making pertaining to the business impeded by the father. Furthermore, respondents from FBs were moving back into the said business, whereas, respondents from NFBs were developing businesses more akin to their prior employment experience.
Practical implications
The paper offers insights into the behaviour and business practices of second‐generation South Asian entrepreneurs from family and non‐family, so adding a further dimension to our understanding of this particular group.
Originality/value
The paper will be of value to policy makers, practitioners and researchers alike, is it sheds light on motives, prior experience and class resources the second‐generation bring to entrepreneurship.
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Michelle Davey, Gerard McElwee and Robert Smith
Building on previous work from Frith, McElwee, Smith, Somerville and Fairlie this chapter further explores entrepreneurship as practiced by an entrepreneur (who is also a drug…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on previous work from Frith, McElwee, Smith, Somerville and Fairlie this chapter further explores entrepreneurship as practiced by an entrepreneur (who is also a drug dealer) in a rural, UK, northern, small-town context and how he does ‘strategy’.
Methodology/approach
This research was conducted in a broadly grounded approach using a conversational research methodology (Feldman, 1999). A series of conversations were conducted with a career drug dealer, guided by a very basic agenda-setting question of ‘how do you earn money?’ Emergent themes were explored through further conversation before being compared with literature and triangulated with third party conversations.
Research limitations/implications
Implications for research design, ethics and the conduct of such research are identified and discussed. As a research project this work is protean and as a case study the generalisations that can be made from this piece are necessarily limited. Access to and ethical approval for research directly with illegal entrepreneurs is fraught with difficulty in the risk-averse environment of academia. This limits the data available directly from illegal entrepreneurs. The credibility of data collected from third parties is limited by their peripheral interest in and awareness of entrepreneurship discourse, entrepreneurial life themes and the entrepreneurial dimension to crime, as well as by the structural bias implicit in the fact that many of these third parties deal only with what might be termed the unsuccessful entrepreneurs (i.e., those that got caught!) Findings represent a tentative indication of potential themes for further research.
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Xuan Wang, Tao Huang, Wenping Zhang, Qingfeng Zeng and Xin Sun
This study aims to investigate the role of information normalization in online healthcare consultation, a typical complex human-to-human communication requiring both effectiveness…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the role of information normalization in online healthcare consultation, a typical complex human-to-human communication requiring both effectiveness and efficiency. The globalization and digitization trend calls for high-quality information, and normalization is considered an effective method for improving information quality. Meanwhile, some researchers argued that excessive normalization (standardized answers) may be perceived as impersonal, repetitive, and cold. Thus, it is not appreciated for human-to-human communication, for instance, when patients are anxious about their health condition (e.g. with high-risk disease) in online healthcare consultation. Therefore, the role of information normalization in human communication is worthy to be explored.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from one of the largest online healthcare consultation platforms (Dxy.com). This study expanded the existing information quality model by introducing information normalization as a new dimension. Information normalization was assessed using medical templates, extracted through natural language processing methods such as Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Patient decision-making behaviors, namely, consultant selection and satisfaction, were chosen to evaluate communication performance.
Findings
The results confirmed the positive impact of information normalization on communication performance. Additionally, a negative moderating effect of disease risk on the relationship between information normalization and patient decision-making was identified. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that information normalization can be enhanced through experiential learning.
Originality/value
These findings highlighted the significance of information normalization in online healthcare communication and extended the existing information quality model. It also facilitated patient decision-making on online healthcare platforms by providing a comprehensive information quality measurement. In addition, the moderating effects indicated the contradiction between informational support and emotional support, enriching the social support theory.