Muhammad Azam Roomi and Pegram Harrison
The purpose of this research is to investigate the needs and preferences for training among growth‐oriented women‐owned SMEs in the East of England.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate the needs and preferences for training among growth‐oriented women‐owned SMEs in the East of England.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative data were collected through 108 on‐line questionnaires, and the means analysed using SPSS. Qualitative data collected in response to open‐ended questions were inductively analysed and interpreted.
Findings
Only one fourth of respondents received growth‐oriented training in the previous two years, with an average duration of 3‐5 days per year. Programmes most in demand concerned innovation and opportunity recognition, business evaluation and growth considerations, developing strategic customers and customers care, customer relationship management, as well as selling, networking and negotiation skills. High demand for these programmes corresponds to others results identifying contributory factors to higher enterprise performance and growth: product/service quality, new product/service development, appropriate marketing, effective use of websites, selling skills and informal networking.
Research limitations/implications
The scope of the project is limited to service sectors and sole proprietorships. Geographic scope is limited to the East of England. These limits nonetheless provide a reasonable base and rationale for the scope of the study.
Practical implications
With a better understanding of the capacity building requirements of women entrepreneurs in growth businesses, appropriately designed training programmes can be developed to help women achieve higher levels of entrepreneurial success.
Originality/value
The study offers original primary research into the contributory growth factors for women‐owned enterprises in a representative area of Britain, identifies key issues, maps survival and success factors, and assesses women entrepreneurs' training needs and preferences.
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Muhammad Azam Roomi and Pegram Harrison
The purpose of this paper is to understand the gender‐related challenges of Pakistani women entrepreneurs, to explore these women's particular capacity‐building needs, and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the gender‐related challenges of Pakistani women entrepreneurs, to explore these women's particular capacity‐building needs, and to assess the impact of capacity‐building programs on the establishment and performance of the women's enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins with a review of various theoretical contexts through which to understand women's entrepreneurship in an Islamic socio‐cultural context. From this, the paper derived two working propositions: women in Islamic Pakistan face particular barriers to becoming entrepreneurs; these barriers can be reduced by women‐only training in entrepreneurial competences. These propositions are examined in a three‐part longitudinal process: a field survey to gather information about the training needs of current and potential women entrepreneurs, the design and delivery of a women‐only training module, a follow‐up survey with participants, 18 months later. Subjects and participants were randomly selected, and segmented according to entrepreneurial factors and characteristics.
Findings
Results confirm that the barriers perceived by women entrepreneurs in Islamic Pakistan can be alleviated through women‐only training that allows participants to develop capital and competences. Greater clarity about learning outcomes desired and achieved by women entrepreneurs in an Islamic socio‐cultural context can be a basis for designing improved training and education programmes, with a view to women's economic empowerment.
Practical implications
For women entrepreneurs living in an Islamic society, this analysis has implications for understanding the importance and effectiveness of entrepreneurial training especially in a women‐only setting. For policy makers, it turns the spotlight on the need for creating an environment conducive to female entrepreneurship consistent with socio‐cultural structures and gender asymmetries.
Originality/value
There are no comparable previous data on the learning preferences and outcomes of this particular demographic group.
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Muhammad Azam Roomi, Pegram Harrison and John Beaumont‐Kerridge
This study attempts to understand the nature and activities of growth‐oriented women‐owned businesses in the East of England by highlighting the problems faced by women…
Abstract
Purpose
This study attempts to understand the nature and activities of growth‐oriented women‐owned businesses in the East of England by highlighting the problems faced by women entrepreneurs during the growth process.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach analysed the main growth factors and their influence on the adoption of different growth strategies. An online questionnaire was designed using Snap survey software™, with results exported to SPSS™ for analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected via a variety of scaled, open‐ended, rank order, dichotomous, multiple choice and open questions.
Findings
The research indicates that most do not opt to develop growth‐oriented businesses, choosing instead small, non‐scalable, locally focused businesses providing services or operating in low‐tech industries. Women who are growth‐oriented appear to be inhibited due to a lack of access to, and control over such resources as, capital, business premises, information and technology, production inputs, appropriate childcare, qualifications, experience, training facilities and appropriate assistance from business development agencies. Non‐effective accumulation and use of social capital hinders access to appropriate decision‐making circles, and limits the probability of accessing critical management and financing resources, especially through the venture capital industry.
Practical implications
This research has implications for government or other business development agencies seeking to understand the growth patterns and problems of women‐owned enterprises in the East of England.
Originality/value
There are few British studies that have focussed on growth oriented women‐owned businesses. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by attempting to understand the nature and activities of such business, by analysing the main growth factors and their influence on different growth strategies.
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Elsewhere in this issue details are given of the requirements of the Meat Products Order, 1952. Certain minimum meat contents have been increased with effect from March 16th last…
Abstract
Elsewhere in this issue details are given of the requirements of the Meat Products Order, 1952. Certain minimum meat contents have been increased with effect from March 16th last, without the issue of any prior warning, and at the time of writing, twenty days after the Order came into force, the Public Analyst has received no official notification of the changes. This type of ill‐considered arbitrary action by the Ministry of Food can only breed distrust amongst those whose duty lies in complying with or enforcing whatever the Ministry decrees.
Igor Laine, Sami Saarenketo and Xiaotian Zhang
This chapter investigates the role of authentic leadership in international entrepreneurship. The authors examine how the four pillars of authentic leadership – self-awareness…
Abstract
This chapter investigates the role of authentic leadership in international entrepreneurship. The authors examine how the four pillars of authentic leadership – self-awareness, relational transparency, internalised moral perspective and balanced processing of information – can promote effective collaboration for cross-border social value creation in entrepreneurial ventures. Questions that the authors address are: How do we define ‘international’ entrepreneurship from the perspective of authentic leadership? Are new or different leadership qualities required for the ‘international’ dimension? What are international leadership values or/and qualities and how does the international context change what competencies are needed? The authors call for research to examine how leadership can be depersonalised and become collective rather than an individual trait.
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Chocolate and cocoa are made from the “beans” or seeds of several small trees, natives of tropical America, of which Theobroma cacao (L.) is by far the most important. Cocoa beans…
Abstract
Chocolate and cocoa are made from the “beans” or seeds of several small trees, natives of tropical America, of which Theobroma cacao (L.) is by far the most important. Cocoa beans were highly esteemed by the aborigines, especially the Aztecs of Mexico and Peru, who prepared from them beverages and foods. They were brought to the notice of Europeans by Cortez and other explorers, but were not extensively imported into Europe until the seventeenth century, about the time tea and coffee were introduced from the East. At present the world's supply comes chiefly from Venezuela, Guiana, Ecuador, Brazil, Trinidad, Cuba, Mexico, and other regions bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, being gathered in these regions from trees both wild and cultivated; and also to some extent from Java, Ceylon, Africa, and other parts of the Old World, where the tree has been successfully cultivated.
The food retailing loyalty scheme is one of the marketing phenomena of the 1990s with most of the major supermarket multiples now having a customer loyalty card scheme. Consumers…
Abstract
The food retailing loyalty scheme is one of the marketing phenomena of the 1990s with most of the major supermarket multiples now having a customer loyalty card scheme. Consumers reciprocate by possessing loyalty cards – there are 40 million such cards in circulation. By knowing what individual consumers buy, the food retailer should be able to target them with relevant offers whilst the consumer saves money in the process. The dilemma for the consumer is one of cheaper shopping on the one hand and privacy invasion on the other because they reveal details about themselves every time they let their purchases at the checkout be matched with their data file via the loyalty card. The dilemma for supermarkets is whether loyalty schemes create truly loyal relationships or whether they are merely sales promotions.
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Monique Bell, Liz Thach and Fiona Fang
The two major entrepreneurial motivations of being “pushed” or “pulled” to start a business have been frequently explored in the entrepreneurship literature. In the global wine…
Abstract
Purpose
The two major entrepreneurial motivations of being “pushed” or “pulled” to start a business have been frequently explored in the entrepreneurship literature. In the global wine industry, thousands of small entrepreneurial wine businesses are flourishing, but few have been started by Black entrepreneurs. What is missing from the research is an exploration of the motivations of these entrepreneurs and what the industry can do to encourage the entrance of more minority entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study is to apply push–pull theory to better understand the motivations and challenges of what prompts Black entrepreneurs to start and succeed in the wine industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study uses a qualitative methodology of 42 in-depth interviews with US Black winemakers, retailers, and other wine business owners conducted over Zoom. The data were analyzed using Otter software and a thematic coding process for 2,120 pages of rich text.
Findings
Findings included 12 motivation themes and 12 challenges for Black wine entrepreneurs, with more emphasis on “push” versus “pull” motivation factors. Many of these entrepreneurs were “pushed” to participate in the industry to create a more inclusive space for Black wine consumers and to create opportunities for other Black professionals and minorities in the industry. Managerial implications include solutions for more inclusive marketing and workplace culture.
Originality/value
This study contributes to push–pull theory by offering a unique perspective on the motivations of Black wine entrepreneurs, as well as being the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to focus on this issue.
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The purpose of this paper is to consider the way in which agency theory has crowded out other approaches to understanding the governance of modern businesses. The paper rescues…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the way in which agency theory has crowded out other approaches to understanding the governance of modern businesses. The paper rescues the meaning and context which informed the American corporate governance reform movement originally and demonstrates how the economically predicated agency approach became dominant in academic considerations of corporate governance.
Design/methodology/approach
Both primary and secondary sources were considered in a Foucauldian history of ideas approach.
Findings
Other approaches to corporate governance have been pushed out of the mainstream of corporate governance discourse by an economic model which excludes many of the key issues which informed the notion originally.
Practical implications
Dominant academic attitudes to corporate governance have occluded other ways in which the governance of corporations can be understood.
Originality/value
Previous accounts of corporate governance have ignored the alternative approaches represented before agency theory became dominant.
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Engaged employees assure organizational competitiveness and sustainability. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between job resources and employee turnover…
Abstract
Purpose
Engaged employees assure organizational competitiveness and sustainability. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between job resources and employee turnover intentions, with employee engagement as a mediating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 934 employees of eight wholly-owned pharmaceutical industries. The proposed model and hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Construct reliability and validity was established through confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings
Data supported the hypothesized relationship. The results show that job autonomy and employee engagement were significantly associated. Supervisory support and employee engagement were significantly associated. However, performance feedback and employee engagement were nonsignificantly associated. Employee engagement had a significant influence on employee turnover intentions. The results further show that employee engagement mediates the association between job resources and employee turnover intentions.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of the findings will be constrained due to the research’s pharmaceutical industry focus and cross-sectional data.
Practical implications
The study’s findings will serve as valuable pointers for stakeholders and decision-makers in the pharmacuetical industry to develop a proactive and well-articulated employee engagement intervention to ensure organizational effectiveness, innovativeness and competitiveness.
Originality/value
By empirically demonstrating that employee engagement mediates the nexus of job resources and employee turnover intentions, the study adds to the corpus of literature.