It's twenty not out

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research

ISSN: 1355-2554

Article publication date: 26 August 2014

270

Citation

Jones, P. (2014), "It's twenty not out", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 20 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-08-2014-0157

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited


It's twenty not out

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Volume 20, Issue 6.

This current issue includes four papers and three book reviews. I would encourage the submission of future book reviews to the journal as it is an important feature of all progressive journals to comment on the latest texts within their respective disciplines. Within this issue the paper by Wadid, Sarfraz and Fayolle considers how social skills enable nascent entrepreneurs to enact perseverance strategies in the face of range of challenges? The findings suggest that entrepreneurs must optimize the development of their networks in order to gain emotional support and attain self-regulatory strength. The study by Balodi and Prabu explores and compares causal recipes for high performance among young Indian and the UK firms in high-tech industries. In all five configurations identified in the UK context, firms adopted high external integration, and employed inorganic development strategies, exhibited high internal integration, or did not operate in a highly competitive industry. These firms carved out specific niches, enjoyed strong linkages with supply-chain partners, and had strong enough reputations that their environment was not highly competitive.

The third paper by de Villiers Scheepers, Verreynne and Meyer develops contemporary entrepreneurial configurations of small firms and relates them to performance using cluster analysis and ANOVA analysis on a sample of 320 small New Zealand firms. The findings demonstrate how young, small firms enhance their performance practically by aligning the key dimensions of an entrepreneurial configuration. These firms potentially benefit from early formalisation of systems and structures, a high entrepreneurial orientation, and by using a generative strategy-making approach. The study by Jones, Beynon, Packham and Pickernell investigated student motivations for undertaking a European funded entrepreneurship education programme and the relationships between motivation characteristics and their ultimate employment and self-employment aspirations using a novel data mining technique (CaRBS). The study considers what relationships certain motivation characteristics have to students’ aspirations, specifically in terms of their intention to be self-employed or employed. The most strongly contributing characteristics were motivations to undertake a business start-up, interest in the subject matter and intent to achieve the qualification. Knowing applicant aspirations should inform course design, pedagogy and its inherent flexibility, and recognise the specific needs of certain student types. The journal would like to encourage the submission of novel data analysis techniques from the academic community.

It feels appropriate on the closure of Volume 20 to consider the impact of IJEBR towards the entrepreneurship discipline. The journal has seen considerable development in its near 20-year history to become an established and well respected journal. It has published papers from all the leading entrepreneurial academic experts (without naming names) during its history including special issues on a diverse range of topics including female entrepreneurship, family business and social entrepreneurship.

Research impact is a highly relevant topic and it is worth reflecting on some of the IJEBR's most cited works. Table I presents a top ten of IJEBR papers by Google Scholar citation as of the end of August 2014. As mentioned previously in my previous editorial, the discipline remains fairly new in comparison to other business subjects. The titles of the papers below suggest that the popular works are those that evaluate the key entrepreneurial questions. For example, motivations for entrepreneurial behaviour, entrepreneurial learning and determinants of growth within SMEs. These subjects remain extremely relevant and are often the subject of new research studies. Indeed, three of the papers (Cope and Watts, 2000; Sullivan, 2000; Rae, 2000) all emanate from the same volume and issue 6(3) which provided an initial insight into the experience of entrepreneurial learning back in the year 2000. The highest ranked paper by Cope and Watts (2000) presents some of the early research and insights by the late and great Jason Cope.

Table I. Most cited articles International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research

Moving into its 21st volume, there must be an opportunity for IJEBR to reflect on some of these significant works, to consider what has changed for better or worse and develop new future research agendas. On behalf of the journal, Emerald and the editorial team I would like to thank the many academics who have contributed articles, book reviews, acted as guest editors and reviewed papers for the journal too date.

In conclusion, we thank all the authors and reviewers for their efforts in developing these studies to a satisfactory outcome. Looking forward, we draw readers attention to the open call for a Special Issue on “Entrepreneurial learning within the small business experience: a context for change”, which builds on the growing interest in this topic evidenced from the recent ISBE conference track and Special Interest Group. We invite readers to submit contributions for this issue, as well as regular issues. Please do not hesitate to contact me or other members of the editorial board if you feel you can contribute to the further development of the journal.

Paul Jones

References

Cope, J. and Watts, G. (2000), “Learning by doing " an exploration of experience, critical incidents and reflection in entrepreneurial learning”, IJEBR, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 104-124

Rae, D. (2000), “Understanding entrepreneurial learning: a question of how?”, IJEBR, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 145-159

Sullivan, R. (2000), “Entrepreneurial learning and mentoring”, IJEBR, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 160-175

Further reading

Glancey, K. (1998), “Determinants of growth and profitability in small entrepreneurial firms”, IJEBR, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 18-27

Hansemark, O. (1998), “The effects of an entrepreneurship programme on need for achievement and locus of control of reinforcement”, IJEBR, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 28-50

Jack, S.L. and Anderson, A. (1999), “Entrepreneurship education within the enterprise culture: producing reflective practitioners”, IJEBR, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 110-125

Littunen, H. (2000), “Entrepreneurship and the characteristics of the entrepreneurial personality”, IJEBR, Vol. 6 No. 6, pp. 295-310

Morrison, A. (2000), “Entrepreneurship: what triggers it?”, IJEBR, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 59-71

Segal, G., Borgia, D. and Schoenfeld, J. (2005), “The motivation to become an entrepreneur”, IJEBR, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 42-57

Smallbone, D., Leigh, R. and North, D. (1995), “The characteristics and strategies of high growth SMEs”, IJEBR, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 44-62

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