E.A.B. Draffan and Robbie Corbett
This paper discusses the development and implementation of the National Internet Accessibility Database (NIAD), how the design of the database was based on ease of use by both its…
Abstract
This paper discusses the development and implementation of the National Internet Accessibility Database (NIAD), how the design of the database was based on ease of use by both its target audience and those working on the database, and also the approaches taken to ensure the successful implementation and launch of the NIAD.
Details
Keywords
Jari Huovinen and Sanna Tihula
Previous research has predominantly focused on the meaning of prior entrepreneurial experience in the context of habitual entrepreneurship. To date, however, little is known about…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has predominantly focused on the meaning of prior entrepreneurial experience in the context of habitual entrepreneurship. To date, however, little is known about how previous experience affects the way in which several firms can be managed simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to examine entrepreneurial learning in the context of portfolio entrepreneurship and clarify how it is possible to manage several firms at the same time.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory study using a case method was conducted (Eisenhardt; Yin) by focusing on one portfolio entrepreneur. In this study, the case can be considered as unusual thus being suitable for a single‐case study. Data were collected through interviews and the entrepreneur also provided the researchers with a written description of the development and present situation of his entrepreneurial career.
Findings
This study proposes that failures may develop entrepreneurial knowledge as well as founding experiences. Development of entrepreneurial knowledge is viewed as leading to new ways of organizing and managing start‐up firms. Learning through previous experiences has strengthened entrepreneurial knowledge and contributed to the formation of the management team (MT). Without cooperation, delegation and sharing responsibilities, successful portfolio entrepreneurship would not have been realized. However, the results suggest that learning from failure is dependent on the entrepreneur's personal background.
Originality/value
This study seeks to bring new insight to portfolio entrepreneurship by concentrating on the entrepreneurial career of a well‐known Finnish entrepreneur by following the framework of Politis. In this case, a MT in each firm enabled effective control and management of the current firm portfolio. The study shows that in addition to the entrepreneurial team, the management teams can also have a significant role in the context of portfolio entrepreneurship although they have largely been ignored.
Details
Keywords
IN 1946 there was in the British Isles a clear image of librarianship in most librarians' minds. The image depended on a librarian's professional environment which was of the…
Abstract
IN 1946 there was in the British Isles a clear image of librarianship in most librarians' minds. The image depended on a librarian's professional environment which was of the widest possible range, not less in variation than the organisations, institutes or types of community which required library services. Generalisations are like cocoanuts but they provide for the quickest precipitation of variant definitions, after the stones have been thrown at them. A generalisation might claim that, in 1946, public librarians had in mind an image of a librarian as organiser plus technical specialist or literary critic or book selector; that university and institute librarians projected themselves as scholars of any subject with a special environmental responsibility; that librarians in industry regarded themselves as something less than but as supplementing the capacity of a subject specialist (normally a scientist). Other minor separable categories existed with as many shades of meaning between the three generalised definitions, while librarians of national libraries were too few to be subject to easy generalisation.
Jonas Gabrielsson and Diamanto Politis
This paper seeks to develop an integrated framework to examine how entrepreneurs' work experience is associated with the generation of new business ideas. The framework combines…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to develop an integrated framework to examine how entrepreneurs' work experience is associated with the generation of new business ideas. The framework combines human capital theory with theory and research on entrepreneurial learning.
Design/methodology/approach
A statistical analysis on a sample of 291 Swedish entrepreneurs is conducted.
Findings
The paper finds that a learning mind‐set that favors exploration is the strongest predictor of the generation of new business ideas. It also finds that breadth in functional work experience seems to favor the generation of new business ideas while deep industry work experience is negatively related to new business idea generation. In addition, the paper finds indications that a learning mind‐set that favors exploration is required to more fully benefit from investments in human capital.
Research limitations/implications
The study's findings add to knowledge of how investments in human capital via work experience, and the employment of a learning mindset that favors exploration, influence performance outcomes in the early stages of the entrepreneurial process.
Practical implications
The study's findings suggest that entrepreneurs should develop and nurture a learning mind‐set that favors exploration as this will increase their ability to generate more new business ideas. Moreover, movements across different functional work areas appear to have great potential as sources of ideas for new products and markets.
Originality/value
Prior empirical studies have not taken individual learning preferences among entrepreneurs into account. Nor have they explicitly tested the effect of depth versus breadth in work experience. The paper thus provides novel insights with respect to how these factors interact in the process of generating new business ideas.
Details
Keywords
Yancy Vaillant and Esteban Lafuente
The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether business owners that simultaneously demonstrate past entrepreneurial experience and process agility have greater export propensity…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether business owners that simultaneously demonstrate past entrepreneurial experience and process agility have greater export propensity levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed hypotheses are tested using binary choice models relating past entrepreneurial experience and reported process agility on a unique sample of 246 Catalan business owners for the year 2010.
Findings
Consistent with the theoretical arguments on the relevance of generative-based cognitive agility, the results of this paper reveal that serial entrepreneurs demonstrate a greater export propensity. Additionally, the authors found that serial entrepreneurs who also demonstrate process agility show superior export propensity levels, compared to the group of business owners outside this ambidextrous group (first-time business owners without process agility).
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this study indicate that traits characterizing international marketing agility, decisional speed and accuracy are also linked with greater export propensity levels. The added export market expansion resulting from the opportunity responsiveness of serial entrepreneurs is found to be amplified by the accuracy of internal adaptation capabilities of process agility.
Practical implications
Therefore, the promotion of ambidextrous strategic agility coming from the complementarities between the benefits of entrepreneurial experience and adaptive process abilities is essential for increasing businesses’ internationalization.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature by further exploring the influence of different sources of agility on the internationalization of entrepreneurial ventures and opens a link between entrepreneurs prone toward export market expansion and international marketing agility.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to showcase that the valuation of startups is still considered to be more “art than science”. Moreover, such non-rigorous approaches often lead to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to showcase that the valuation of startups is still considered to be more “art than science”. Moreover, such non-rigorous approaches often lead to valuations, which turn out to be too high, which in turn has become a well-known phenomenon to a broader audience due to shining examples such as We Work. This is reason enough to revisit the important topic of where we stand today with startup valuation procedures and methodologies.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature synthesis and exploratory analysis.
Findings
While some studies describe sound results about how to assess startups, what the authors found was that many questions remain open or have not been covered at all. This is the reason why the authors needed to apply a substantial amount of reasoning in the analysis of studies, which do not exactly deal with startup companies. The authors provided some interesting impulses for future research.
Originality/value
Based on an original overview of the current state of research about the valuation of startup companies, this paper makes the following principal contribution to both the literature and practice: on the one hand, the authors assess four impact factors on startup values critically; on the other, the authors provide an outlook on promising future research avenues.
Details
Keywords
Michael C. Brennan, Anthony P. Wall and Pauric McGowan
The aim of the paper was to investigate entrepreneurship in a university setting and in particular amongst university managers, established academic entrepreneurs and nascent…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the paper was to investigate entrepreneurship in a university setting and in particular amongst university managers, established academic entrepreneurs and nascent academic entrepreneurs. The purpose was to better understand the enablers and barriers to entrepreneurship taking place.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative, sense‐making methodology was used involving a single case method and a purposeful sampling approach. A three‐stage design strategy consisted of: identification of key themes by questioning university policy makers, managers and academic entrepreneurs; development of a questionnaire to profile academic entrepreneurs; and use of the questionnaire to assess preferences amongst nascent academic entrepreneurs
Findings
Four types of academic entrepreneur (hero, maverick, broker and prospector) were identified based on different approaches by individual academics to the use/production of discipline knowledge and the nature of their relationship with the host university.
Research limitations/implications
The single case research is perceived as a limitation. Future studies will involve refining the level of analysis in terms of different disciplines and institutions.
Practical implications
The results suggest that interventions to promote entrepreneurship within universities ought to consider different strategies in order to take account of preferences amongst nascent entrepreneurs.
Originality/value
The paper looks at entrepreneurship in universities from a corporate perspective rather than from an individual perspective. The powerful influence of the university organisational setting is therefore recognised in terms of the creation of enablers and barriers to academic entrepreneurship taking place.
Details
Keywords
Anne de Bruin and Susan Flint‐Hartle
To explore the demand and supply of private capital for successful women entrepreneurs in New Zealand. To obtain and interpret fine‐grained information in order to mitigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the demand and supply of private capital for successful women entrepreneurs in New Zealand. To obtain and interpret fine‐grained information in order to mitigate the research gap on growth finance for women‐led businesses in New Zealand.
Design/methodology/approach
Multiple approaches for data collection and analysis. Includes interviews with key decision makers in the private capital industry and an e‐mail survey of venture capitalists (supply‐side) and the narrated experiences of women entrepreneurs (demand‐side).
Findings
Quantifies the degree of women's current participation in the venture capital (VC) industry and delineates key considerations in the private capital investment decision‐making process. Confirms the absence of overt gender discrimination in the VC market but draws attention to the presence of other – some of which are more hidden – considerations which affect mobilisation of private capital by women entrepreneurs.
Research limitations/implications
Highlights that a combination of supply‐side (private capital) and demand‐side (entrepreneurs) influences, as well as country‐specific structural and policy factors, needs to be considered when seeking explanations for the lower incidence of private capital to women business owners.
Originality/value
Mitigates the large research gap on women's entrepreneurship in New Zealand and supplements the literature on the private capital and women's business nexus. Signals the importance of policy considerations in growing the role of private capital.