To contribute to the knowledge of factors that shape entrepreneurial beliefs, the purpose of this paper is to theorize and empirically test how individuals’ general attitudes…
Abstract
Purpose
To contribute to the knowledge of factors that shape entrepreneurial beliefs, the purpose of this paper is to theorize and empirically test how individuals’ general attitudes toward entrepreneurship based on exposure to others’ prior entrepreneurial activities are related to beliefs surrounding current entrepreneurial opportunities. Positive attitudes based on prior exposure can lead to bias in the beliefs about current opportunities being evaluated, suggesting that positive affect can be a negative influence in the entrepreneurial process.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample is the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics I, a nationally representative, longitudinal data set of US adults in the process of starting businesses. Regression analyses demonstrate how general attitudes are associated with beliefs about level of future sales, probability of venture survival, and levels of financial, competitive, and operational uncertainty.
Findings
Nascent entrepreneurs with more positive general attitudes toward entrepreneurship form more optimistic estimates of the financial performance and survival likelihood of their future ventures. They also estimate lower levels of environmental uncertainty.
Originality/value
This research extends understanding of the impact of prior exposure to entrepreneurship in the entrepreneurial process. It also contributes to increasing understanding of the determinants of entrepreneurial beliefs and extends prior work that has considered cognitive determinants (knowledge and motivation) to consider emotional determinants (affect-infused attitudes), consistent with the heightened recent interest in the role of emotion in entrepreneurship. This research provides a different perspective on the role of affect in the entrepreneurial process. While prior work addressing affect in entrepreneurship has explored the positive aspects of affect, the present study suggests that affect may not have a uniformly positive influence.
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Research has focused primarily on the antecedents that influence the risk taking of CEOs themselves. This study examines how an important event experienced by a CEO at a direct…
Abstract
Purpose
Research has focused primarily on the antecedents that influence the risk taking of CEOs themselves. This study examines how an important event experienced by a CEO at a direct rival firm influences a CEO's risk-taking. It also examines how prior firm performance relative to aspirations moderates the relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to test the hypothesis, the authors perform an a difference-in-differences methodology.
Findings
Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that when a CEO wins a prestigious CEO award, competitor CEOs increase their firm risk-taking in the post-award period. The proclivity becomes stronger when their prior firm performance relative to aspirations is better. These findings suggest that a CEO winning a prominent CEO award influences competitor CEOs' risk-taking.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on managerial risk-taking by highlighting that a star CEO winning a prominent award may serve as a striving aspiration and induce competitor CEOs to take risks, and that two different types of aspirations – striving and competitive aspirations – interact to influence the competitor CEOs' risk-taking.
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Chiung-Hui Tseng and Nguyen Thi Kim Lien
Indirect knowledge leakage to rivals located near alliance partners represents a significant risk that has received limited scholarly attention. Hence, the question of how to…
Abstract
Purpose
Indirect knowledge leakage to rivals located near alliance partners represents a significant risk that has received limited scholarly attention. Hence, the question of how to manage this risk – which the authors term “partner-rival co-location risk” – in nonequity alliances remains unanswered, and this study aims to suggest establishing a steering committee to oversee the partnership.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the agglomeration economies and alliance governance literatures, the authors develop a set of hypotheses and perform a series of empirical tests on 470 nonequity alliances in the US biopharmaceutical industry.
Findings
The authors propose that there is a positive linkage between partner-rival co-location risk and the formation of a steering committee in a nonequity alliance, which receives strong empirical support. Further, this relationship is significantly moderated by the breadth (alliance scope) but not the depth (reciprocal interdependence) of interaction between the partnering firms.
Originality/value
This paper is a pioneer to shed light on “partner-rival co-location risk” and how partner-rival co-location risk affects the governance decision of whether to establish a steering committee in a nonequity alliance, thus offering important theoretical and practical insights into competition and cooperation in alliance management.
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Shannon C. King, Amanda L. Rebar, Paul Oliveri and Robert Stanton
This paper aims to present the current state of evidence regarding the mental health literacy of paramedics and student paramedics and whether mental health literacy affects the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the current state of evidence regarding the mental health literacy of paramedics and student paramedics and whether mental health literacy affects the care that paramedics provide to their patients with mental illness.
Design/methodology/approach
Embase, PubMed, Medline and Google Scholar were searched for recent (2010–2020) English language published articles using the key phrases paramedic AND/OR ambulance AND mental health AND mental health literacy. Additional searches of the reference lists of included articles were undertaken. A descriptive thematic analysis was used to arrive at a narrative synthesis of the study findings.
Findings
The emergency medical services system has taken a primary role in the care of patients with mental illness but has limited capacity for non-emergency psychosocial situations. Negative and judgemental attitudes amongst paramedics towards patients with mental illness is a significant issue and remains a barrier to patients seeking medical care for mental illness. Improved care provision and patient engagement might result from specific education aimed to better enhance paramedics’ mental health literacy.
Originality/value
This literature review provides insights into the current practice of mental health training for Australian undergraduate paramedic science students and the implications for patient care. Recommendations for educational strategies are provided.
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Jan de Vries, Carmel Downes, Danika Sharek, Louise Doyle, Rebecca Murphy, Thelma Begley, Edward McCann, Fintan Sheerin, Siobhan Smyth and Agnes Higgins
People who identify as transgender face stigma, isolation and harassment while often struggling to come to terms with their gender identity. They also disproportionately…
Abstract
Purpose
People who identify as transgender face stigma, isolation and harassment while often struggling to come to terms with their gender identity. They also disproportionately experience mental health difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to present the voices of transgender people in the Republic of Ireland (RoI) in regard to the issues they are facing, improvements they would like to see made to schools, workplaces, services and society in general and whether mental health supports fulfil their needs.
Design/methodology/approach
Ten open questions were embedded within a quantitative online survey (LGBTIreland study) on factors impacting social inclusion, mental health and care. These open questions were re-analysed with exclusive focus on the transgender participants (n = 279) using content/thematic analysis.
Findings
The participants in this study reported significant signs of mental distress. The following themes emerged: impact of stigma, deficiencies in mental health services, need for education on transgender identity, importance of peer support, achieving self-acceptance and societal inclusion questioned.
Research limitations/implications
Efforts to recruit young participants have led to a possible over-representation in this study.
Practical implications
The findings suggest the need for improvement in mental health support services, including further education in how to meet the needs of transgender individuals.
Social implications
Transgender people in Ireland experience social exclusion. The need for more inclusivity was emphasised most in secondary schools. Education on transgender identities in all contexts of society is recommended by the participants.
Originality/value
This study reports on the largest group of transgender participants to date in RoI. Their voices will affect perceptions on social inclusion and mental health care.
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Guoyou Qi, Hailiang Zou, Xie X.M. and Saixing Zeng
Threats from the informal sector have become an important concern among formal firms. As a response to these threats, formal firms can adopt product innovation (PI) and marketing…
Abstract
Purpose
Threats from the informal sector have become an important concern among formal firms. As a response to these threats, formal firms can adopt product innovation (PI) and marketing innovation (MI) strategies to differentiate themselves. The purpose of this paper is to examine how firm-level technical capability and external institutional quality affect firms’ reactions to the threats from informal firms by adopting innovative activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on attention-based view (ABV), an empirical study is conducted by using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey in 2013.
Findings
The findings indicate that when faced with competition from informal firms, formal firms will intensify their innovation activities in both MI and PI, and their technical capability mitigates the competitive threats from informal sectors and thus weakens the impact of informal competitors on the level of product and marketing innovations. Moreover, it is found that the improvement of institutional quality reduces formal firms’ urgency to introduce new products when facing informal competitors. However, this improvement strengthens the impact of informal rivalry on formal firms’ innovation in marketing methods.
Originality/value
Previous studies that investigate the influence of informal threats are focused on technological innovation (e.g., PI and process innovation) strategies, but little knowledge is provided on non-technological innovative strategies, such as marketing strategies (e.g., MI and organizational innovation). This study contributes to the innovation literature by delving into the circumstances under which PI and/or MI is adopted to counter informal rivals. The findings enrich ABV by investigating how inter-firm resource similarity and marketing commonality strengthen top managers' attention to competition from informal firms.
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The study examines the effects of corruption activities on new product development of firms. The roles of senior managers in the relationship between corruption activities and new…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines the effects of corruption activities on new product development of firms. The roles of senior managers in the relationship between corruption activities and new product development are also studies.
Design/methodology/approach
The data of Indian firms are collected from the Enterprise Survey conducted by World Bank in 2014. Variables on corruption, new product development, and other firm level factors are considered in the study. Logistic regression is used to examine the effect of firm's engagement in corruption activities on new product development.
Findings
Corruption activities of firms is negatively related to new product development. Senior manager's industry experience and engagement in regulatory activities weaken the negative relationship between firm's engagement in corruption activities and new products development.
Practical implications
With the increased focus on innovation, organizational managers have to work on the development of new products, and understanding of the negative relationship between engagement in corruption activities and new product development will help them to achieve the desired organizational goals.
Originality/value
The study contributes in three ways. Firstly, the paper extends the theoretical understanding of the implication of a non-market strategy, corruption on new product development. Secondly, the study contributes to the existing literature on the antecedents of new product development. Finally, the roles of senior managers helps to understand the importance of their industry and regulatory experience in the main relationship.
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Larissa Malone and Runchana Pam Barger
This essay explores how women scholars grapple with gender and racial inequality during a syndemic. Using a culturally comparative lens, two mother-scholars, one Afro-Boricua who…
Abstract
This essay explores how women scholars grapple with gender and racial inequality during a syndemic. Using a culturally comparative lens, two mother-scholars, one Afro-Boricua who identifies as Black and the other Thai who identifies as Asian, examine this topic through a comparative international womanist theoretical framework. This discussion provides a brief overview of the challenges faculty women of color have faced around the world in contemporary history. It also interrogates how the professional identities of these scholars inform their teaching, scholarship, and personal lives during a period fraught with anti-Blackness and anti-Asian hostility, gender bias, familial demands, and heightened fear and isolation. Through counter-narratives, their lived experiences are placed into a global context and insightful comparisons spotlight specific challenges that uniquely converge for women of color in the academy. This analytical discussion reflects trends in the field of comparative education by examining the impact of gender and racial discrimination on women scholars of color within political, economic, social, and cultural landscapes.
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Frank Tian Xie, Naveen Donthu and Wesley J. Johnston
This paper aims to present a new framework that describes the relationship among market entry order and timing, the advantages accruing to first-movers and late-movers, entry…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a new framework that describes the relationship among market entry order and timing, the advantages accruing to first-movers and late-movers, entry timing premium (ETP), marketing strategy and enduring market performance of the firms. The framework, empirically tested using data from 241 business executives, expands extant research into new territory beyond first- and late-mover advantages in an attempt to reconcile a few streams of research in the area and provides an entry related, strategic assessment tool (ETP) for the managers. Contribution to marketing strategy theory and managerial implications are also presented.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants included informants in a firm’s strategic business unit who were the most familiar with a new product’s commercial launch, market condition at launch, competitor offerings, marketing activities and capabilities and eventual integration into or withdrawal from the product’s portfolio. Therefore, for the survey, the study targeted chief executive officers, vice presidents of marketing or sales, product or sales managers, general managers and regional managers. Both preference bias (Narus, 1984) and survivor biases among the respondents were addressed.
Findings
The research result of this study reveals two very significant aspects of marketing and marketing strategies. First, the importance of financial, pricing and cost strategies further attests to the fiercely competitive nature of the global market today and the tendency for firms to commoditize most products and services. An effective financial and pricing strategy, coupled with a higher level of ETP, is capable of leading a firm to initial market success in the product-market in which it competes. Both ETP (a positional advantage and resource of the firm) and financial and pricing strategies (a deliberate strategic decision of the management) are important to achieve this goal.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited in several ways. The effects of entry order and timing on market performance could be dependent on the types of industries and types of product categories involved. However, as the hypotheses were well supported, the “industry specific” factors would provide “fine-tuning” in the future study. Second, the nature of the product (goods or services) may also present varying effects on the relationship studied (for differences between manufacturing and service firms in pioneering advantages, see Song et al., 1999). Services’ intangible nature, difficulty in protecting property rights, high involvement of boundary-spanning employees and customers, high reliance on delivery and quality, and ease of imitation may alter the proposed relationships in the model and the moderating effects. Third, although this study used a “retrospective” protocol approach in the data collection by encouraging respondents to recall market, product and business information, this study is not longitudinal. Lack of longitudinal data in any study involving strategic planning, strategy execution and the long-term effects is no doubt a weakness. In addition, due to peculiarity and complexity with regard to regulation and other aspects in pharmaceutical and other industries, the theory might be limited to a certain extent.
Practical implications
In all, the integrated framework contributes to the understanding of the intricate issues surrounding first-mover advantage, late-mover advantage, entry order and timing and the role of marketing strategy. The framework provides practitioners guidance as to when to enter a product-market to gain advantageous positions and how to maintain that advantage. Firms that use a deliberate late-mover strategy could also benefit from the research finding in mapping out their strategic courses of action.
Originality/value
This study believes that the halo effect surrounding first-mover advantage may have obscured the visions of some researchers and managers, and the pursuit of a silver bullet has led to frenzied interests in becoming a “first-mover” or a deliberate “late-mover”. The theoretical framework, which is substantiated by empirical testing, invalidates the long-held claim that entry of a particular kind (first-movers or late-movers) yields any unique competitive advantage. It is a firms’ careful selection of marketing strategies and careful execution of the strategies through effective operational tactics that would lead to enduring competitive advantage, under an adequate level of ETP.