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Earlier research confirms the positive effect of innovation in shaping growth ambitions of entrepreneurs. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the effect of innovation on growth ambitions of entrepreneurs is contingent on the role of institutions, namely, culture and economic freedom. In other words, the authors’ objective is to provide an institutionally contingent understanding of the role of innovation in shaping growth ambitions of early-stage entrepreneurs.

The authors applied hierarchical linear modeling technique on the data of 100,566 early-stage entrepreneurs in 109 countries that participated in annual surveys of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

The authors find that the effect of innovation on shaping growth ambitions of early stage entrepreneurs is contingent on the role of culture such that, in secular cultures, innovation benefits growth ambitions more than traditional cultures. Further, the authors found that the effect of innovation on growth expectations is dependent on the level of economic freedom in the country in which the firms operate so that in the countries with higher level of economic freedom, early-stage entrepreneurs expect more growth out of their innovation as compared to their counterparts in the depressed economies.

The results contribute to our understanding of entrepreneurial growth aspirations as a result of the interplay of entrepreneur–firm–environment nexus.

While universities are using more digital tools such as learning management systems (canvas, blackboard, etc). or massive open online courses (MOOCS) such as MIT, OpenCourseWare, edX, Coursera, digitalization has also influenced university libraries. Digital services of academic libraries need exploration on how they provide digital services and how they respond to COVID-19. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore and map digital services of academic libraries and their response to COVID-19 in Sweden.

Qualitative research approach is used in this study. Through a Web search, data was gathered from all 39 universities in Sweden through two means: visiting university and their respective library websites; examination of other documents provided by the university such as press releases, announcements. Evaluation of the content and digital services and libraries response to COVID-19 is conducted by thematic coding.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 spread, a general trend seen among all is limited working hours, shutting down physical libraries for general public, unmanning operations. All 39 number of universities in Sweden have moved their offerings toward using online tools. The main themes that have been identified from our study are as follows: Availability of Information, Accessibility of resources, Collaboration with other actors, Increased use of existing services, motivation and support to practice social distancing.

Owing to the limitations of COVID-19 conditions, time and other aspects, there was not any opportunity to visit the university libraries or book time to interview librarians or students, which led to limited level and imperfect research. There are many other activities that university libraries are offering to their employees and using their internal newsletters and email groups to reach their audience; as a result, some of digital services that are offered during COVID-19 might have not been noticed.

These findings can provide base to other universities on how to react to COVID-19 and bring more discussion.

COVID-19 has big social impact on people. The findings present that libraries can go beyond their responsibilities and provide emotional and psychological support the community towards social distancing such as videos, social online meetings, live video workshops.

The findings from this study call for a review digital services of academic libraries and their response to COVID-19 in Sweden, so that best reactions and services could be understood.

The current research investigates the regional differences in benefiting from innovation toward growth ambitions in a sample of female entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Nordic region. A sample of 4,048 early-stage female entrepreneurs from these two regions who were participated in annual surveys of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor was selected for further analysis. The results of data analysis using hierarchical linear modeling (mixed models) revealed that innovation benefits growth ambitions of early-stage female entrepreneurs. Further, the regional differences affect the benefit of innovation in shaping growth ambitions, so that, in Nordic region, the early-stage female entrepreneurs expect more growth out of their innovation as compared with their counterparts in MENA region. These results have been discussed regarding to existing literature, and future research directions have been suggested based on the results.

Women Entrepreneurship has received increasing attention over the past decade. In particular, a new area dealing with women entrepreneurs in the developing societies. The aim of this study is how is women entrepreneurship in developing economies? More specifically, we are excavating various questions at the individual and institutional level. The results of this study contribute to understanding the importance of the context on women entrepreneurs’ activities. Additionally, it systematically provides a comprehensive framework at multilevel analyses to cover all aspects of women entrepreneurship in developing countries. Ultimately, knowing women entrepreneurship in developing countries helps policymakers provide a firm ground for self-employment of women.