Bélyse Mupfasoni, Aad Kessler and Thomas Lans
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the emerging literature on sustainable entrepreneurship by studying knowledge, motivation and early stage outcomes of sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the emerging literature on sustainable entrepreneurship by studying knowledge, motivation and early stage outcomes of sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship in the context of farmer groups in Burundi.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative and qualitative data were combined in a multiple-source case study. Data were analyzed using content analysis and basic statistics.
Findings
Results revealed that farmer groups’ prior knowledge (PK) on environmental sustainability is better developed than their social and economic sustainability. This is reflected in the environmental sustainability part of the business plans (BPs), which is generally better than the economic and social sustainability parts. Moreover, the top groups on PK identified opportunities directly related to their PK. Pro-activeness of the group was a more determining factor than risk taking and innovativeness. Furthermore, there seemed to be a positive interplay between the groups’ PK, entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge motivation (KM) and the quality of the sustainable BP. In particular, KM seemed to be important, but other variables also explained the quality of the BP, such as level of education.
Originality/value
This research fills a gap in literature because there are few empirical studies on agricultural entrepreneurship that focus on the earliest phase of opportunity recognition, let alone studies that focus on sustainable opportunity recognition in the context of emerging economies such as Burundi. Furthermore, in this research, the authors studied well-known knowledge, motivations and outcomes of sustainable entrepreneurship.
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Bélyse Mupfasoni, Aad Kessler, Thomas Lans and Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of specific internal states (i.e. the set of sustainable values and motivations) that underlie group formation and joint business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of specific internal states (i.e. the set of sustainable values and motivations) that underlie group formation and joint business idea identification of farmer groups in the context of Burundi.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative and qualitative data were combined in this study. Quantitative data were analyzed using basic statistics. Qualitative data were collected in focus group discussions with farmer groups.
Findings
Findings revealed that groups are not just formed on the basis of homophily (same level of internal states) but also on “compensation” and “committed leadership.” Moreover, prior sustainable behavior of members influences sustainability of new group business ideas and the nature (e.g. focus on farming) of that business idea.
Research limitations/implications
As this study was done at an early stage of group formation and does not include group dynamics over a longer period of time, further monitoring of the groups is needed to examine if the observed motivation persists.
Originality/value
Although there is a vast amount of literature on entrepreneurial and top management teams, literature on the (early) mechanisms of entrepreneurial group formation in an emerging economy and rural context is relatively scarce.
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Jakob Mainert, Christoph Niepel, Thomas Lans and Samuel Greiff
This study aims at the employees’ view on organizational learning (OL). OL is originally assessed in the Strategic Learning Assessment Map (SLAM) at the level of the firm by…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims at the employees’ view on organizational learning (OL). OL is originally assessed in the Strategic Learning Assessment Map (SLAM) at the level of the firm by addressing managers, who rated OL in the SLAM on five dimensions of individual, group, organizational, feed-forward and feedback learning. However, as employees are getting their jobs done discretely and are increasingly making their own decisions, their perspective on OL genuinely matters. Hence, the authors assessed OL at the level of the individual by addressing employees on all levels, who rated OL in a short form of the SLAM (SF-SLAM).
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors focused on the construct validity of this SF-SLAM by investigating its reliability, factorial validity and nomological network. First, they asked whether the SF-SLAM reliably measures OL on five dimensions of individual, group, organizational, feed-forward and feedback learning. Next, they asked whether the SF-SLAM was associated with its nomological network of engaging in innovation-related learning activities, behaving innovatively on the job and showing higher educational levels, intelligence and individual job performances. They used a diverse German employee sample of skilled and unskilled workers and managers (N = 434) and analyzed the data with structural equation modeling.
Findings
The SF-SLAM was reliable, but revealed both constrained factorial validity and validity on the basis of its nomological network. First, five dimensions found support in the employee sample, but their correlations were high or very high, except for individual learning. Second, the SF-SLAM showed only few differential relations with variables from its nomological network.
Originality/value
Taken together, the SF-SLAM is short, reliable and only valid for examining individual learning.
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Navid Mohammadi and Saeed Heshmati
Entrepreneurship is the driving force of countries for sustainable economic development. The importance of this issue is to the extent that in recent years, countries have made…
Abstract
Purpose
Entrepreneurship is the driving force of countries for sustainable economic development. The importance of this issue is to the extent that in recent years, countries have made great efforts to develop their entrepreneurial ecosystem. But the starting point for entrepreneurship is when an opportunity is identified and the entrepreneur rises to use it. Accordingly, opportunity recognition will be the foundation of entrepreneurship and ultimately sustainable development. Given the importance of this topic, this paper attempts to provide a large picture of the studies conducted in this field.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the importance of this topic, this paper attempts to provide a large picture of the studies conducted in this field by reviewing 868 articles published on the Web of Science database in the field of opportunity recognition. Accordingly, using statistical descriptions of articles, analyzing the communication network among elements such as authors, countries, institutions, keyword analysis in articles and examining their trends over time, identifying the most important articles using co-citation analysis and finally this macroimage has been mapped, clustered and identified in leading articles in the last decade by co-citation clustering.
Findings
The results of the clustering show that the five main clusters of recent decades have included entrepreneurial characteristics and opportunity recognition, macroeconomic opportunity recognition cluster (community and impact on economic development of the country), opportunity recognition process cluster, opportunity recognition cluster in serial and intra-entrepreneurship and opportunity recognition cluster in new venture internationalization.
Originality/value
Using a bibliometric analysis and co-citation analysis in the field of opportunity recognition and making a big picture of studies in this field of study is a contribution that can be used for future studies and researchers and managers in this field.
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THE ABOVE advertisement appeared in The Cambrian of 20th August 1875, and in the two following editions of this weekly newspaper. Swansea had adopted the Public Libraries Acts at…
Abstract
THE ABOVE advertisement appeared in The Cambrian of 20th August 1875, and in the two following editions of this weekly newspaper. Swansea had adopted the Public Libraries Acts at a lively and rather stormy meeting in October 1870. Until December 1874, the matter of establishing a library service lay in abeyance. Then after mounting criticism, particularly in the local press, over the long delay in implementation of the Acts, the Town Council appointed a Library Committee which held its initial meeting on 8 January 1875. Their first important duty was to appoint a librarian.
Martin Mulder, Thomas Lans, Jos Verstegen, Harm Biemans and Ypie Meijer
The purpose of this paper is to study the learning of entrepreneurs in authentic learning environments. The research questions are: How do entrepreneurs assess their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the learning of entrepreneurs in authentic learning environments. The research questions are: How do entrepreneurs assess their compentencies, and how do employees and external consultants assess the compentencies of these entrepreneurs? What are the competence strengths and weaknesses of entrepreneurs? What are the learning activities that entrepreneurs perform?
Design/methodology/approach
Ten small business owners participated in a self‐assessment and an assessment by employees and external consultants. Follow‐up interviews elicited work‐related learning activities. The interviews were transcribed. Descriptive statistics, t‐tests and correlation tests, and a qualitative analysis of interview transcriptions were performed.
Findings
Competencies are being rated differently. Competence assessment is a potentially powerful learning source. The top competence strength is having a learning orientation. A total of 99 learning activities were found embedded in the innovative work processes of the entrepreneurs. The top three learning activities were reflection, observation and experimentation.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on only ten entrepreneurs. Research is planned with a larger numbers of subjects.
Practical implications
Competence assessment needs to be provided for entrepreneurs in the sector as a tool for deeper self‐reflection, and further performance improvement.
Originality/value
Much research on skills development and workplace learning is about employees in large organisations. However, employers in small and medium‐sized companies are also an interesting professional group to study, since they create working and learning places for employees. Not much is know about their competence development. This study addresses that target group.
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Ali Uyar, Cemil Kuzey, Ali Haydar Güngörmüs and Ruth Alas
– This study aims to investigate the influence of ethical theories, religiosity and seniority on the ethical awareness of accountants.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the influence of ethical theories, religiosity and seniority on the ethical awareness of accountants.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected by using a questionnaire survey completed by 219 accountants located in various locations in Turkey. To investigate the relationship between constructs, the partial least square structural equation model was implemented.
Findings
The findings indicated that seniority in the profession and religiosity have a positive influence on ethical awareness. Within the theoretical approaches, deontology has a positive influence on ethical awareness, whereas egoism has a negative one.
Research limitations/implications
The study has some implications regarding enhancing the ethical awareness of accountants: accountants who are in the early stages of their career development should be made aware of the ethical issues they face in their professional life; accountants should be taught laws and regulations of accountancy profession from the entry level throughout their working life; through professional associations, some initiatives may be taken to involve accountants in social responsibility programs to curb selfish behavior and improve empathy. However, a questionnaire survey does not permit an investigation from a qualitative perspective (the whys and hows of the answers); thus, further case studies might be necessary to make detailed investigations.
Originality/value
This study is unique in that it tries to answer what factors comprehensively influence the ethical awareness of accountants in an emerging market context.
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Saeid Karimi, Harm J.A. Biemans, Thomas Lans, Mohammad Chizari and Martin Mulder
This paper aims to, drawing on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), explore the effects of entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurial intention (EI) and its antecedents and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to, drawing on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), explore the effects of entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurial intention (EI) and its antecedents and examines the question of whether the effects vary by gender.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a sample of 331 students at seven universities in Iran. Structural equation modelling and bootstrap procedure were used to analyse the data.
Findings
Consistent with the TPB, our results show entrepreneurial role models to indirectly influence EIs via the antecedents of intention. No gender differences in the relationship between perceived behaviour control and EIs were found, but gender did moderate the other relationships within the TPB. Attitude towards entrepreneurship was a weaker predictor and subjective norms a stronger predictor of EIs for female students than for their male counterparts. Furthermore, perceived behaviour control and attitudes towards entrepreneurship were more strongly influenced by role models for females as opposed to male students.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies should go beyond examining the mere fact of knowing entrepreneurial role models to examine the mechanisms underlying the relationship between role models and EIs.
Practical implications
The results of this study have clear implications for both educators and policymakers.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by incorporating entrepreneurial role models and gender into the TPB and investigating their mediating and moderating effects within the model.
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Eagle Industrial Paints of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, has appointed Miss Melanie Pursglove as joint managing director.
For more than 12 years Prestige, one of the country's biggest names in the manufacture of kitchen products, and Crown Paints Industrial Finishes have enjoyed a successful…
Abstract
For more than 12 years Prestige, one of the country's biggest names in the manufacture of kitchen products, and Crown Paints Industrial Finishes have enjoyed a successful association in the development of non‐stick bakeware. In that time the companies, both with strong roots in the North West, have been involved in the outstanding growth of the Prestige Skyline non‐stick bakeware range, recognised for many years as one of the best sellers on the market, and, more recently, the development of high quality and distinctively coloured ‘own brand’ ranges for major superstores and departmental stores with premises in every High Street.