Entrepreneurship and Management of Innovation

This paper discusses an alternative conceptualization of Entrepreneurial Marketing that can be understood as "marketing with an entrepreneurial mindset". By combining the definition of marketing of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and two conceptualizations of entrepreneurship (entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial management), we arrive at a definition of Entrepreneurial Marketing as the the organizational function of marketing by taking into account innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness and the pursuit of opportunities without regard for the resources currently controlled. This definition must not be restricted to young and small ventures, but can equally be applied to larger firms. We illustrate the concept of Entrepreneurial Marketing by highlighting Guerrilla Marketing, Buzz Marketing and Viral Marketing.

Incubation has recently attracted increased attention as a model of start-up facilitation. Venture capitalists see incubators as a means to diversify risky investment portfolios, and would-be entrepreneurs approach incubators for start-up support. Incubators face the challenge of managing both investment risks and entrepreneurial risks. More than a thousand incubators have been established in the last few years, most of them as regional business incubators. But new types of incubators are emerging. These incubators pursue different strategic objectives, apply different skills and competencies, and serve different markets. As a consequence, they have developed a new understanding of their sources of competitive advantage and business models. Based on 41 interviews with incubation and R&D managers, this paper outlines five incubator archetypes: the university incubator, the independent commercial incubator, the regional business incubator, the company-internal incubator and the virtual incubator. We describe a generic incubator business model, which is refined for different value propositions to customers and other major stakeholders. We conclude that whether an incubator is for profit or not, it should be run as a business. We also summarise some implications for operational and strategic management of incubators, as well as policy and strategy considerations for universities, venture capitalists, municipalities, corporations and other parent institutions of incubators.

Innovation facilitates how SMEs respond to market changes and maintain their competitive advantage. This paper analyses the relationship between the degree of innovation (measured as innovation in products, processes and administration systems) and performance among 1,091 Spanish manufacturing SMEs. The results show that innovation positively impacts SMEs performance in low and high technology industries. Innovation was more important to achieving a competitive advantage to high technology firms than low technology firms. These results support innovation as being important to a firm's sustainable competitive advantage.

Business incubators have a 25-year history in the US. Today they number more than 800. Most are non-profit entities, many associated with universities. This article provides a general overview of business incubation in the US and provides a case study of the award-winning Austin Technology Incubator whose companies have generated over $1.4 billion in revenues and created some 3,000 jobs. The authors conclude that business incubators must accomplish five tasks well in order to succeed: (1) establish clear metrics for success; (2) provide entrepreneurial leadership; (3) develop and deliver valueadded services to member companies; (4) develop a rational new-company selection process; and (5) ensure that member companies gain access to necessary human and financial resources. Dr. Wiggins' current responsibilities include all aspects of incubator operations, planning, expansion, company recruitment and staff management. He also provides strategic direction in making the Incubator an 'experiential learning laboratory' where students, faculty, and global researchers can study high-tech entrepreneurship. Dr. Wiggins has also directed the student development programs of the incubators, coordinated the Institute's community relation activities in the university and local communities, and provided consulting services for the ATI companies. Dr. Wiggins holds a PhD in Communication from The University of Texas at Austin where he received numerous awards including a University Fellowship and the Jesse H. Jones Endowed Centennial Fellowship from the College of Communication.

University entrepreneurial activity strives to deliver commercial value from university research. Entrepreneurial education, while having the same fundamental purpose, focuses on the stimulus of the individual. Recognising a gap in the literature between the fields of university entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education, this paper proposes a venture creation approach to learning within an integrated environment. A study of Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship shows how university entrepreneurship, in the form of incubation, and entrepreneurial education, can be integrated. This integration provides both opportunities and challenges, both of which are addressed by utilising conventional problem-oriented and solution-focused learning philosophies in tandem. The venture creation approach builds upon combined learning philosophies in order to allow students to 'test the water' while reflecting upon real-life situations and explore entrepreneurial behaviours when creating new ventures. The paper concludes that actors engaged in combined entrepreneurial education and venture creation need to recognise, adapt to, and appreciate the tension and dynamics of the integrated environment.

Due to the importance of family firms for the economy, researchers have begun to embrace family firms as a research object. This article seeks to summarise and to structure family firm research based on an extensive survey of the literature. Important research foundations such as the definition of family firms, a theoretical foundation in the resource based view and in entrepreneurship and research topics such as performance differences of family firms, their goal structure, psychological ownership and business succession are outlined and discussed.

As customers demand easier access to individualized products and services, companies now face an ongoing problem of how to deliver flexible and innovative solutions while maintaining efficiency and competitiveness. In this environment, the only sustainable form of competitive advantage rests in the ability to learn faster than the competition (de Geus, 1988). The article returns to the somewhat forgotten concept of the learning organization and explores how its principles can be applied with the use of dynamic business process management (dynamic BPM). Enabling in this concept individual or team-based limited experimentation and providing conditions for learning though experience in the course of performing business processes allows for the constant creation of practical knowledge. This article provides examples of how dynamic BPM facilitates the constant creation and verification of practical knowledge, with the aim of improving and adapting processes to maintain the competitive advantage of the organization.

This paper aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the important factors explaining small firm growth contextualised in a very unique transition economy -Kosova. Although the small business literature suggests that there is a range of complex factors explaining small business growth, there is still scarce evidence on whether these interpretive frameworks are sufficient in explaining small firm growth in a transition context. For this purpose, this paper uses survey data from a randomly selected sample of 350 Small-and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Based on this data set, the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression is employed in order to compare the impact of the three sets of factors (the firm, the entrepreneur and the business environment) on the growth of new versus the more established small firms. Our findings generally refute Gibrat's Law and support Jovanovic's Learning Theory. We also find that a multiplant firm, the separation of ownership and management, the age of the entrepreneur at the startup and entrepreneurial teams exert a positive effect on firm growth. The findings support the view that the prior unemployment status of the entrepreneur is negatively linked with growth. The paper provides some important conclusions and implications for policymakers and entrepreneurs.

A rapid growth of technologies supporting user interaction on the internet, such as social networking sites and other virtual communities, can be seen today. These virtual communities have been shown to be of great value to companies who want to involve users in their innovation processes. However, in order to guide organisations on how to utilise their virtual communities, more knowledge is needed regarding who their users are and their motivational drivers for participating in a community. The aim of this paper therefore is to explore user characteristics and motivations to contribute to innovation processes in an innovation intermediary community. The main findings of our study indicate that users' motivation to participate is influenced by community type as well as technology adoption type. This study show that in innovation intermediary communities, one important motivational factor for users is learning.

Innovation is an inherently risky and uncertain process. Many of the broader challenges to innovation in general are both mirrored and exaggerated in clean technology innovation. The development of environmental technologies is further complicated by the public goods nature of knowledge, environmental externalities, and uncertainty. This study on clean technology focuses on recent work on the role of uncertainty, the participation of emerging and developing nations, the controversy surrounding intellectual property rights, and the variety of market actors and strategies in place. The paper also considers the policy instruments that are available, the cost, benefits and consequences of their use. As scholars continue to analyze when, where, why and how clean technology innovations are developed and adopted, it is essential that government policymakers aim to reduce uncertainty and risk, incentivize innovation with effective intellectual property rights, and foster transparency in the market. This continues to be a field of increasing future importance, and a rich area for continued academic study and analysis. Consumers, government policymakers and innovators would all benefit from a greater understanding of the process of technological change in the development, diffusion and financing of clean technologies.

Entrepreneurial activities of the Diaspora attracted increased research attention in the recent years, as the phenomenon of migration is rapidly growing. The Diaspora refers to the migrants and their descendants who maintain a strong relationship with their country of origin . The previous research has, however, predominantly focused on diaspora entrepreneurs from developing or emerging economies and those who originate from developed countries are almost invisible, even though they are empirically observable (cf. Elo, 2013;. In fact, their entrepreneurial activities have mostly been neglected by previous research in diaspora as well as international entrepreneurship. This study coins a new concept 'Descending diaspora entrepreneurs' for the entrepreneurs from developed countries who migrate to less developed ones and explores their entrepreneurial activities through the network perspective. The literature review on entrepreneurial networks as well as diaspora networks identifies three potentially significant benefits of networks on entrepreneurial activities: (i) opportunity recognition, (ii) access to resources and (iii) motivation sustainment. Explorative multiple case studies with Japanese diaspora entrepreneurs in emerging economies (Philippine, Guatemala and Argentina) was conducted and the empirical findings were descriptively analyzed in line with the identified network benefits. Finally, the model of network dynamics for Descending Diaspora Entrepreneurs is developed based on the findings.

The aim of the paper is to study the role of absorptive capacity for the company growth and competitive advantage through open innovations. The case of Frauenthal Automotive Toruń is used to explore how the routines and best practices associated with the firm absorptive capacity contribute to its success. The case study is to validate the thesis that through developing skills to recognize valuable knowledge in the environment, acquire this knowledge, assimilate, transform and develop it companies are able to apply and benefit from open innovations in order to grow and strengthen their competitive advantages. In order to achieve the aim of the paper the following research objectives have been set: (1) to identify the lessons and best practices applied in Frauenthal Automotive Toruń in relation to the company absorptive capacity; (2) to analyze the relationships between the concepts of absorptive capacity and open innovation; (3) to exemplify and discuss the outcomes of the company absorptive capacity in regard to innovations, company growth and competitive advantage.

, focused on building an internationallyrecognised programme of research and education on innovation processes and policies that are fundamental to the development of a knowledge-based economy. CISC is one of the four major research institutes within NUI, Galway and it is aligned to the Applied Social Science and Public Policy thematic research priority. Established in 2002, CISC was initially awarded competitive funding under the third Irish Government's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI 3). Since then CISC has been awarded significant additional competitive funding both nationally and internationally and has developed a distinguished record in scholarship and research innovation and structural change. The core focus of CISC is providing multidisciplinary insights into innovative change. CISC is an umbrella research institute, offering a common ground where researchers from different disciplines and backgrounds can meet and debate, where they can consider processes and issues from different perspectives. Innovation happens at cross-over points whereby CISC provides a forum for the formal and informal interactions necessary to enable an interdisciplinary community of researchers to flourish. The exchange of ideas and the challenging of knowledge generate an intellectual energy and a spirit of enquiry. This collaborative environment fosters new approaches and the synergy generated aligns best practice in innovation research with current policy, business and management practice thinking. These new approaches and insights are disseminated and shared with a wide variety of national and international stakeholders. Research at CISC can be divided into five key research areas, with some research initiatives spanning more than one area. The core research areas are:

Three dimensions are proposed as a conceptual framework for entrepreneurship education: context, behaviours and process. Entrepreneurship educators have focussed more on the behaviours of entrepreneurs and less on the process of entrepreneurship. In doing so, they have also tended to avoid challenging the context of other disciplines such as marketing. If however we examine important aspects of marketing through the behaviours of entrepreneurs, we find that they do not conform to the standard concepts of marketing as portrayed in widely used learning materials. The increasingly well travelled 'pragmatic' road, which encourages the development of enterprising behaviours and skills, is contrasted with the less travelled 'conceptual' road, where our understanding of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship in contexts such as marketing, is challenged and explained. We suggest that unlike the poet's 'traveller' -who cannot take both roads, entrepreneurship education can benefit most by reaching the fork in the road and taking it.

Existing theories of public sector entrepreneurship lack a sense of entrepreneurial discovery ubiquitous in human action. Instead, existing theories emphasise rational calculation in a public sector setting. Existing theories of public sector entrepreneurship, therefore, are inadequate to account for the observed entrepreneurial behaviour in political and bureaucratic settings. The purpose of this paper is to redress the limited theories of public sector entrepreneurship by integrating Kirznerian and Schumpeterian theories of entrepreneurship with Buchanan and Tullock's constitutional political economy to move toward a theory of public sector entrepreneurship. The following analytic definition is offered: Public sector entrepreneurship occurs whenever a political or governmental actor is alert to, and acts on, potential political profit opportunities, thus equilibrating the policy subsystem in which the actor is embedded and moving it toward a new equilibrium.

In today's complex, knowledge and innovation-driven economy, innovating business models and their architecture is in growing demand. Innovating business models to become network-based is a complex venture, but critical for the survival of many companies. Business model innovation is not widely researched, though. This paper examines the development of new business models in three networks and focuses on the challenges related to that.

This research examines differences between family and non-family firms with respect to new venture creation processes. We invoke a social embeddedness explanation of differences between family and non-family firms with respect to opportunity identification processes and outcomes and new venture development processes. In a sample of 183 family and non-family firms, we find that family firms are less likely to report an opportunity identification process that is sudden, spontaneous and creative. The new opportunities thus identified are less innovative than those identified by non-family firms. Finally, family firms are somewhat more likely to follow effectuation processes and significantly less likely to follow causation processes during new venture creation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Our study focuses on family farm firms as an important and yet under-researched type of family firms. We explore the entrepreneurial growth behavior in the context of family farm firms by focusing on the role of pluriactivity. By integrating the literature of family business strategies, EO, and growth intentions, this study of 1618 Finnish family farms seeks to understand the idea of pluriactivity as a strategic orientation of family farm firms leading towards the growth and renewal of their prevailing and future domains. Our study revealed that pluriactivity is associated with growthorientation and perceived strengths of the family farm firms. We identified four types of growth groups (Established, Growth-Driven, Experimenters, StandStills) and found differences in their pluriactive orientation. We suggest that pluriactivity as a strategic orientation affects the growth-intention of the family entrepreneurs and the business renewal processes of the family farm firms. Entrepreneurs need to have capabilities (knowledge, skills, experience) and willingness to change (motivation, attitude, volition) when using pluriactivity as a strategic orientation as they affect growth behavior (EO). Lastly, we discuss with our results and make some suggestions for future research avenues in family business strategy research.

Using survey data of electronics firms in the three major electronics clusters in Spain, we examine whether those engaged in networking tend to be more innovative and whether local and extra-regional networking have different effects upon innovativeness. We find a positive relation between different types of network relations and innovativeness. In particular, our findings suggest that subcontracting relationships are a way of exchanging technological know-how and are a potentially important element in the innovation process ...

Biotechnology is seen as one of the key growth areas of the emerging knowledge-based economy. In recent years the innovation process in this industry has become a subject of major interest to scholars from different disciplines, but there is still little consensus on the precise nature of knowledge interactions in the innovation process. The nature of knowledge links and their particular geography remains a highly disputed issue.

The theory of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has been developed almost exclusively from the study of large deals by large firms. In this paper we argue that the behaviour and success of M&As by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) may be significantly different. Accordingly, we revisit established M&A theories, and develop a theoretical framework, and several testable hypotheses, regarding the distinctive features of SME M&As. Our empirical results support our expectations and show that, compared to large firms, acquiring SMEs: rely more intensively on external growth via M&As; are more likely to be withdrawn, suggesting that SMEs are more flexible, and more able to avoid deals that turn sour; and, finally, SME M&As are more likely to be financed with equity rather than debt, indicating that the influential financial pecking order theory is of less relevance to SMEs.

The influence of globalization in telecommunication companies has greatly increased the level of competition in the industry and they are forced to be competitive to survive. Different types of strategies are put in place in order to be profitable and competitive. All these strategies are directed to attract, retain and maintain customers for continuous profitability. However, majority of them hardly measure the impact of their strategic innovation on their customers. The paper seeks to explore the influence of competitive strategies embarked upon by selected telecommunication companies in Nigeria on their performance. The paper also examines how competitive strategies could be implemented for improved customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty. Three null hypotheses were postulated to test the relationship between lower prices and customer satisfaction, uninterrupted trunk services and customer loyalty, and customer complaint handling and retention. Only customers using telephone service were selected as respondents from Lagos State. The state was stratified in to 20 local government council area and questionnaires were distributed to 125 respondents in each of them. The completion rate of the questionnaire in each of them is between 103 and 110. Survey research design was adopted to carry out the study. A structured questionnaire was designed and validated through the construct validity and tested for confirmation using the KMO measure of sampling adequacy. It was also made reliable using Cronbach's Alpha test. From the study, findings revealed relationship between competitive strategies and customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty. The findings revealed that there is a relationship between competitive strategies, its constituents and performance of telecommunication companies. It is recommended that universal mobile telecommunication services (UMTS) operators should adopt the culture of competitive strategies since it can impact on their performance for achieving competitive advantage.

The authors explore the role played by science and technology parks (STPs) as regional platforms for incubating science- and technology-based businesses. Using multiple case studies of the more established US and French STP facilities, they provide an analysis of the contributions made by STPs as regional drivers of innovative entrepreneurship. The paper concludes that successful STPs can act as platforms for incubating science and technology businesses. If modern STPs are to emerge as sustainable platforms of incubation, their business models must be responsive to changing contextual needs through the pursuit of realistic goals, providing high-quality value-added services, employing professionally competent management and maintaining financial strength.

Intermediary mediated crowdsourcing (CS) has become a widely adopted open innovation approach for idea generation in various companies of different industries. Despite many success stories and a large body of literature in the fields of idea generation, online competition and open innovation, little is known about the intermediary mediated CS process in the early stage of the innovation process. An explorative, qualitative and quantitative multi-case study research design was applied to extract the longitudinal data that were analysed in this research. Based on 12 CS projects executed by nine Swiss companies from four industries on the Swiss intermediary CS platform atizo.com, five important phases of the intermediary mediated CS process were identified and described. Additionally, important tasks within each phase which ought to be considered by companies when engaging in an intermediary mediated CS project for idea generation were elaborated.

Since the 1990s several new indices, including the Index of Economic Freedom, Doing Business and the Global Competitiveness Index, have been created to achieve progress in modernizing the business climates of developed and developing countries alike. These indicators, however, are focused largely on ameliorating burdens for current business, addressing issues with property rights, processes, etc. While necessary in the public effort to improve economic incentives and create employment, they remain insufficient to foster the economic essence of development: entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship policy are not merely about small business, or even at times about business at all; rather, they are about creating environments in which people are able to perceive entrepreneurial opportunities to improve their lives and in which they are empowered to act on their visions. While much has been written about the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and increasingly about the...

Entrepreneurship has become a defining business trend around the world, especially in economies transitioning towards free market systems. The Middle East, specifically the Gulf Region is a growing, lucrative marketplace that has captured the interest of the world for political, economic and cultural reasons. This research explores the impact of Islam on the cultural, geo-political and economic dimensions which shape and influence entrepreneurship and private enterprise development in the Middle East.

This study profiles the characteristics, attributes and growth orientations of Lebanese entrepreneurs including the relationships, roles and contributions that family and culture play in the development of private SMEs. Drawing on a sample of 112 entrepreneurs' psychographic motives, demographic attributes and business activities are revealed. Family and enterprise relationships related to employment, investment and active family participation and growth orientations are empirically tested. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs are motivated by the need for independence and flexibility. Entrepreneurs were found to rely heavily on family member participation to establish, develop and grow their enterprises.

In the last decade, the Finnish economy has shown an unprecedented recovery, after being hit by a deep crisis in the early 1990s. This paper views and interprets this successful transformation process based on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) from an evolutionary perspective. Although, the rapid pace of the restructuring of the Finnish economy suggests a break with the past, this remarkable recovery was firmly rooted in its economic history. In addition, Finnish public policy played its role in turning Finland into a knowledge economy. Although, a master plan for the Finnish economy was lacking, many policies worked out quite well together over an extended period. Building on education, research and technology policy initiatives taken in the 1970s and 1980s, the deep economic crisis in the early 1990s paved the way for new policy directions, with a focus on network-facilitating innovation policies.

Our knowledge-based society is pressing universities to transform from monastic scholarly enclaves into producers of new technologies and incubators of start-up firms. However, converting scientists' curiosity-driven discoveries into commercially viable innovations has proven so difficult that observers liken the journey to crossing a 'Valley of Death'. We conceptualise the challenges of commercialising university inventions in terms of three gaps: the technology discovery gap, the commercialisation gap, and the venture launch gap. We chronicle the inception and evolution of a technology commercialisation programme at the University of Oregon, relating how the university confronted and dealt with the three gaps, and describing the intra-organisational partnerships developed to address them. We find that negotiating the gaps requires assimilation of a technology commercialisation mission into the traditional academic missions of education and scientific discovery. To do this, universities must confront fundamental contradictions between learning, discovery, and commercialisation.

The article is an evaluation of the economic, organizational and social theory of Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello’s The New Spirit of Capitalism 15 years after its publication. The role of network capitalism, state capitalism, and aesthetic capitalism in French social life is analysed. The article concludes that flexible network capitalism was largely a chimera of the 1990s and that French political and economic life today is dominated by an ailing state capitalism.

This paper presents the results of case study research into the organisational culture issues underpinning the successful implementation of an open innovation (OI) strategy for multinational corporations. The results of this research are drawn from the series of single company case studies supported by data captured at multi-company workshops. The research highlights the different issues facing both 'blue sky' R&D and applied R&D, as well as those service functions established specifically to support the implementation of OI. For the 'blue sky' R&D, issues can be overcome by leveraging the scientists' motivation for research by setting up spaces for interaction with external organisations, and by reducing the barriers and obstacles of the more 'mundane tasks of external interactions. For applied R&D, issues can be overcome by setting specific targets for cooperation with the external organisations, showing the benefits of an OI approach by demonstrating its strong problem solving potential, and using budget constraints to induce the outsourcing of research.

This multi-country study used role models to boost perceptions of entrepreneurial feasibility and desirability. The results of a structural equation model based on a sample comprising 426 individuals who were primarily from Austria, Finland and Greece revealed a significant positive influence on perceived entrepreneurial desirability and feasibility. These findings support the argument for embedding entrepreneurial role models in entrepreneurship education courses to promote entrepreneurial activities. This direction is not only relevant for the academic community but also essential for nascent entrepreneurs, policymakers and society at large.

Globalisation is a new challenge for European small and medium enterprises; indeed, on one hand, it represents a threat, since new emerging companies are entering their domestic market, but on the other hand, it represents the opportunity to enter new emerging and growing markets. In order to win this challenge, European SMEs need to play the networking card; in fact, it is well acknowledged that networking can improve SMEs effectiveness and efficiency which is absolutely necessary to win the globalisation battle. Many public regional institutions are thinking about how to improve the networking capacity of their SMEs through specific programs and investments. This paper reports the results of an ongoing research project aiming at improving the networking capacity of SMEs through an innovative conception of the business ecosystem idea. The paper shows how the innovative networking business ecosystem has been conceived and how it works for pursuing this aim.

In today's network world, advancement in new product development (NPD) is being driven by different types of networks, joint ventures, alliances, outsourcing and mergers. Managing the integration of an NPD process in this increased organisational complexity requires a sophisticated organisation design to facilitate and support the coordination of activities and the flow of information across the networks. This paper investigates the impact of the organisational design of the 'network lead company' (the main company in the network) on the integration of the NPD process across a network of strategic partners, and the subsequent effects on project performance. We adopt the project level of analysis and focus on NPD project organisation. Our conceptual model suggests that four organisational attributes -hierarchical levels, centralisation, formalisation and team empowerment -have an effect on the integration elements (communication and coordination), which ultimately improve project performance.

This study analyzes the behavior of the companies in the index of México's Precios y Cotizaciones (IPC), with respect to measures of financial performance and its relationship with the two main approaches of innovation, according to the Bogota and Oslo manuals; assessing their impact on the stock price. The data is used on a quarterly basis from January 2000 to December 2011. It also makes reference to the impact of having the distinction "Socially Responsible Company" (Corporate Social Responsibility), in the Mexican stock market price reaction. Our main interest is to be pioneers in the search for relationships between topics that are currently treated as "alien" (CSR and Innovation) in formal academic publications, but we intuitively know that they are related inside organizations.

The objective of our research is to determine what factors at the firm level influence access to external capital for new technology-based firms (NTBFs) and what influences the rank ordering of applying to different sources. Furthermore we investigate whether NTBFs differs from other SMEs. Through an empirical analysis of determinants on UK NTBFs financing, we confirm the existence of a hierarchy between internal and external finance and verify the classic pecking order theory (POT) (preference for banks over venture capital (VC) financing). NTBFs appear more capital demanding than other SMEs. They make significant approaches to banks and are only slightly more credit rationed than other SMEs. The data also confirm that VCs are approached significantly more by NTBFs. Nevertheless, the detailed analysis of the determinants of NTBFs' fund raising process (demand side) reveals that they do not differ from other SMEs. Our paper terminates with the development of an expert system (Bayesian network) shaped on the empirical evidences collected, which acts as a decision support system for high-tech entrepreneurs engaging in fundraising.

The Case Study section of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation serves two purposes. First, the case studies presented are concerned with problematical issues that are pertinent to students of entrepreneurship. Thus they constitute appropriate teaching and learning vehicles on a variety of postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. Each case study is accompanied by a set of guidelines for the use of tutors. Second, it is envisaged that those engaged in entrepreneurial activities will find the cases both interesting and useful. This case study focuses on Domaine de Mourchon, a niche producer of Côtes du Rhône Villages, Séguret Wines in France, owned by the Scottish McKinlay family. The case explores the role of entrepreneurial marketing in helping small independent wine producers to craft strong niche positions in a mature industry. Over the last two decades, French wine producers have been faced with changing consumption and production patterns and fiercer com...

Entrepreneurship research on decision making under uncertainty has focused largely on the effect of uncertainty on the entrepreneurial actions while attempt at the individual level particularly, from the cognitive framework seeks to explain why actions differ. Scholarly efforts have also been made on what informs entrepreneurial actions from the perspective of the entrepreneur's personal attributes. However, no integrated approach is offered in the literature to study how cognitive skills and personality traits complement each other. In this paper, we consider how cognitive skills and personality traits affect an entrepreneur's decision to discover or create opportunities under uncertainty. Specifically, we examine the complementary role of personality traits and cognitive skills towards opportunity decisions. We provide a conceptual basis for a broader perspective on behaviors and cognitions that motivate or hinder entrepreneurial actions while at the same time positioning the entrepreneur's decision at the core of the decision theory. Propositions regarding the application of some selected personality traits and cognitive skills and their complementarity are presented and discussed.

The increasing volatility of the global economy, coupled with the pace of technological innovation, presents new challenges for family-owned businesses. The complex business dynamics and business inertia of family-owned business require a comprehensive perspective when developing the capability to manage transformations in the face of a business context such as this. This article draws on literature from the field of organisational change and development, organisational behaviour and family business, and proposes an integrative framework. The study is embedded in a collaborative research project with an Italian fashion design company, and portrays a five-year Leading transformation in a family-owned business 55 transformation process, starting with the family's decision to hire an external CEO for the first time in its hundred-year history. What has been learned from the case serves as the foundation for a further advancement of the proposed process-model for the management of a transformation in a family-owned business. The implications for research and practice are discussed.

The field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been embraced globally by modern corporate entities of all shapes and forms. Advocates of the field argue that corporations that are perceived by society as being socially responsible are likely to derive enormous benefits from being so. They argue that most stakeholders whether primary or secondary, internal or external, local or national offer their support of the actions of these socially responsible corporations. Most would agree that corporate responsibility is an excellent idea, but from where did the ideology of CSR originate? An examination of the literature has given no conclusive evidence as to whether CSR is a capitalists' doctrine; in fact the literature is unusually silent in this respect, perhaps it is assumed that we all know. However, after examining the activities that stem from the ideology and considering the presence of the word 'social' in its very name one may deduce that CSR is a socialist doctrine. What history has preceded the evolution of CSR in today's corporation? Why are multinational corporations from these capitalists' states now exporting the ideology throughout the world? Is CSR representative of a new form of capitalist ideology? These are some of the issues that this study will explore in depth in order to establish the origins of CSR practiced by capitalist corporations in the 21st century.

Based on a multiple case study research, the paper aims at providing some first evidence on the phenomenon of 'born global' companies (BGCs), i.e., companies that internationalise their activities from inception or shortly thereafter, founded by young entrepreneurs, by analysing those age-related factors that facilitate or hinder young entrepreneurs to start a BGC. An in-depth qualitative analysis has been performed based on eight BGCs founded by Italian young entrepreneurs. Results highlight that young entrepreneurs, being more financially constrained than old entrepreneurs, tend to move towards countries where those resources are more easily and widely available. Moreover, we found that young entrepreneurs seem to invest heavily on their social capital to countervail the young age effect. Finally, results suggest thatfor young entrepreneurs -prior experience abroad has amplified relevance in the internationalisation process of a company.