Search results

Exposure to a public health threat of significant proportions made current models inadequate to explain the failure phenomenon in small businesses. Hence, the need to reimagine the phenomenon. Borrowing from the principles of biology, this study extended theoretical and empirical perspectives on the failure phenomenon by unpacking its constituent elements and the measurement metrics using the regeneration lens.

Based on a cohort tracked over time, the study estimated the survival probabilities of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) with and without regeneration using the Kaplan–Meier method. The study investigated the factors that predict enterprise regenerative capacity using the multivariate Cox proportional hazard ratios.

Rates of interruption in business activity, by month, ranged between 0% and 18% during the follow-up period. True mortality rates hovered between 0% and 4% over the same period. Over three in five SMEs that experienced interruption in business activity without ceasing operations regenerated at some point in time during the follow-up period. The survival probabilities beyond the follow-up period were 0.85 and 0.44 with and without regeneration effects, respectively. Fresh capital injection (+), the introduction of new/improved processes or products/services (+), perceived business outlook (+) and the presence of debt (−) influenced the capacity to regenerate.

The cohort was followed for only six months. There is a need to continue interrogating the failure phenomenon in other contexts over longer periods using the regeneration lens. Bringing on board academia, financial institutions and other SME-related ecosystem players will be strategic.

The approach provides a more nuanced understanding of the life and well-being of enterprises under conditions of disruption. Improving the precision and validity of failure-related statistics enhances their utility in policy and remediation-related discussions.

The results did not show significant differences in SME mortality rates between male and female-owned enterprises. The results provide further evidence that the failure phenomenon is ungendered. As such, financial institutions and the SME ecosystem at large must eliminate perceptual gender biases in the financing and other support to SMEs.

The study used the principles of biology to reimagine the failure phenomenon in small businesses. The approach breathes life into entrepreneurship research and policy.

The developing field of entrepreneurial marketing reflects input from both marketing and entrepreneurship. Since the early 1980s, it has evolved heterogeneously, without a coherent theory, leading to complex scholarly views. Therefore, this literature review aims to shed light on the recent developments, reveal various research perspectives related to entrepreneurial marketing and derive future research avenues.

To account for recent scientific contributions and establish a more transparent view of divergent insights, the systematic literature review reported herein covers 207 peer-reviewed journal articles published after the “Charleston Summit” over 12 years (2010–2021) and details their contributions based on descriptive and inductive thematic analysis.

First, a descriptive analysis illustrates recent scientific developments indicating that entrepreneurial marketing is a vibrant research field with a continuous increase in publications worldwide and a wide range of research methods applied. Second, the thematic analysis suggests a three-part classification into entrepreneur, business and market perspectives. The authors present the most frequent themes and subthemes within this literature domain, as well as offering a critical assessment of the field that reveals key directions for expanding existing research.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first comprehensive review systematically examining entrepreneurial marketing literature while conducting an in-depth thematic analysis. It enhances current knowledge of the field by extending previous narrative and bibliographic reviews and discussing research directions. Aside from specific research questions, an alternative way to narrow down the multiple research objects is elaborated by critically debating the perspectives.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how inter-firm cooperation and firm age moderate the relationship between family ownership and productivity.

We first estimate the total factor productivity (TFP) of a large sample of Italian firms observed over the period 2010–2018 and then apply a Poisson random effects model.

TFP is, on average, higher for non-family firms (non-FFs) than for FF. Furthermore, inter-organizational cooperation and firm age mitigate the negative effect of family ownership. In detail, it is found that belonging to a network acts as a moderator in different ways according to firm age. Indeed, young FFs underperform non-FF peers, although the TFP gap decreases with age. In contrast, the benefits of a formal network are high for older FFs, suggesting that an age-related learning process is at work.

The study provides evidence that FFs can outperform non-FFs when they move away from Socio-Emotional Wealth-centered reference points and exploit knowledge flows arising from high levels of social capital. In the case of mature FFs, networking is a driver of TFP, allowing them to acquire external resources. Since FFs often do not have sufficient in-house knowledge and resources, they must be aware of the value of business cooperation. While preserving the familiar identity of small companies, networks grant FFs the competitive and scale advantages of being large.

Despite the wide but ambiguous body of research on the performance gap between FFs and non-FFs, little is known about the role of FFs’ heterogeneity. This study has proven successful in detecting age as a factor in heterogeneity, specifically to explain the network effect on the link between ownership and TFP. Based on a representative sample, the study provides a solid framework for FFs, policymakers and academic research on family-owned companies.

This paper explores the connection between capital structure and financial performance within European listed firms. The primary objective is to demonstrate an inverse U-shaped relationship between these two variables and pinpoint an optimal debt-equity mix.

In this study, we adopt a dynamic modeling approach to investigate the relationship between a firm’s capital structure and financial performance. Drawing on well-established theories and prior empirical studies, our model examines 3,121 dividend-paying firms from 41 European countries over 14 years, from 2008 to 2021. To enhance the reliability of our findings, we employ two distinct estimation techniques: the fixed effect model (FE) and the system generalized method of moments (System-GMM).

This study reveals an inverse U-shaped relationship between the firm’s financial performance, measured by the return on equity (ROE) and its capital structure (total liability to total assets ratio). Furthermore, an optimal capital structure of about 29% is determined for all firms in the sample, and about 21%, 28% and 41% industry-specific capital structure for manufacturing, real estate and wholesale trade, respectively.

This paper contributes to existing knowledge by empirically determining an optimal capital structure for listed firms across various industries in Europe, which very few studies have attempted to do in the past. An optimal capital structure is an invaluable benchmark for managers and other stakeholders, informing their decision-making.

Many individuals start a new firm each year, mainly intending to become independent or improve their financial situation. For most of them, the first years of operations mean a substantial investment of time, effort and money with highly insecure outcomes. This study aims to explore how entrepreneurs running new firms perform financially compared with the established ones and how this situation influences their well-being.

A questionnaire survey was completed in 2021 and 2022 by a representative sample of N = 1136 solo self-employed and microentrepreneurs in the Czech Republic, with dependent self-employed excluded. This study used multiple regressions for data analysis.

Early-stage entrepreneurs are less satisfied with their financial situation, have lower disposable income and report more significant financial problems than their established counterparts. The situation is even worse for the subsample of startups. However, this study also finds they do not have lower well-being than established entrepreneurs. While a worse financial situation is generally negatively related to well-being, being a startup founder moderates this link. Startup founders can maintain a good level of well-being even in financial struggles.

The results suggest that policies should focus on reducing the costs related to start-up activities. Further, policy support should not be restricted to new technological firms. Startups from all fields should be eligible to receive support, provided that they meet the milestones of their development. For entrepreneurship education, this study‘s results support action-oriented approaches that help build entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy while making them aware of cognitive biases common in entrepreneurship. This study also underscores that effectuation or lean startup approaches help entrepreneurs develop their startups efficiently and not deprive themselves of resources because of their unjustified overconfidence.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the financial situation and well-being of founders of new firms and, specifically, startups. The personal financial situation of startup founders has been a largely underexplored issue. Compared with other entrepreneurs, this study finds that startup founders are, as individuals, in the worst financial situation. Their well-being remains, however, on a comparable level with that of other entrepreneurs.

Adapting to external and internal transformations is a difficult task that managers and scholars must face while attempting to keep their organisations alive and well-established. This chapter explores the various decision-making tools that can assist practitioners and scholars to improve their understanding of the external scenario to determine the contemporary appropriateness of these approaches for analysing the environment and their implications for various types of organisations. The chapter investigates the barriers and drivers of these methods and proposes existing alternative paradigms created by academics and practitioners to analyse and comprehend the context. It demonstrates how these decision-making tools can be implemented by providing examples and case studies.

The circular economy (CE) promotes the recovery of value from waste while also working towards achieving long-term environmentally sustainable goals. The goal of this research is to explore the challenges, opportunities, future scope and green practices that small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) face as they move from the linear economy to the CE.

Based on a structured questionnaire, a survey was conducted with representatives from 163 SMEs in India. The data were analysed using co-variance based structural equation modelling technique.

This research identifies various challenges, including consumer acceptability, worries about awareness, recyclability issues, financial constraints and the absence of a defined management plan for SMEs in adopting the CE. Further, strong management will, innovation, technical up-gradation, training of employees, employee motivation and appropriate guidelines are recognized as essential possibilities for CE implementation.

While there has been some work on CE, no studies have directly compared these efforts with the goal of shifting from a linear economy to a CE. Given the transient nature of many archives, it is critical that the efforts put into them and the opinions of those who work in them be recorded so that communities can benefit from a shared linear economy in making decisions about their own history.

The purpose of this study is to address a significant gap in the understanding of entrepreneurship at the microfoundation level. It focuses on how individual entrepreneurs, specifically Hongbang entrepreneurs in China from 1896 to 1949, shape and transform their contexts. The aim is to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that facilitate entrepreneurial success.

The study adopts a microhistorical approach, investigating the case of Hongbang entrepreneurs in China during 1896-1949. It involves an in-depth examination of historical records to explore the strategic interactions between these entrepreneurs and core stakeholders such as consumers, financial intermediaries, government regulators, and human resources. The research methodology emphasizes a process-oriented view, examining the evolution of personalized networks into extensive connections.

The research reveals that Hongbang entrepreneurs successfully reshaped their unfavorable embedded contexts by strategically collaborating with key stakeholders. They influenced consumer tastes, allied with financial intermediaries, negotiated with governments on regulation policies, and developed human resource stocks. The transformation was facilitated by the evolution of their networks from personalized to extensive connections. These findings highlight the localized strategies such as cronyism in resource acquisition within China’s private property development industry.

This study contributes to the field by offering insights into entrepreneurial contextualization and networking. It sheds light on the complex interplay between entrepreneurs and their contexts, providing a nuanced understanding of localized strategies in the Chinese context. The findings add value to the discourse on entrepreneurship by elucidating the strategic and processual acts through which entrepreneurs engage with stakeholders and reshape their environments.

This study examines the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the investment-cash flow sensitivity (ICFS) of Indian manufacturing firms.

This study uses the fixed-effect method to investigate the effect of EPU on ICFS from 2004 to 2019.

This study finds that EPU increases ICFS, which is more (less) during the crisis (before and post-crisis) period. The authors also find that the effect of EPU on ICFS is more for smaller, younger and standalone (SA) firms than the larger, matured and business group affiliated (BGA) firms. This study also reveals that EPU reduces corporate investment (CI). Further, the authors find that cash flow is more significant for the investment of financially constrained firms and the negative effect of EPU is more for these firms.

This study considers the Indian manufacturing sector. Therefore, this study can be extended by analyzing the relationship between EPU and ICFS for the service sector.

First, this study can be useful for corporates, academicians and government bodies to understand the effect of EPU on ICFS and CI. Second, this study will help corporates to focus on internal funds to finance corporates' investment during the crisis period because EPU increases the cost of external finance which may increase ICFS and reduce CI. Third, lending agencies, investors and stakeholders should also focus on the firm's nature, ownership, size and age because these factors play a crucial role to reduce or increase the negative effect of EPU on ICFS. Fourth, the Government should make appropriate policy measures in terms of concessional interest rates to increase the easy availability of external finance for SA, small size, and young firms to reduce the negative effect of EPU on CI because these firms are considered as more financially constrained firms.

This study adds new inputs to the current literature of EPU in several ways. First, this study is one of the main studies focused on the relationship between EPU and ICFS (CI). Especially in emerging countries like India, examining this relationship extends previous research. Second, this study also examines the impact of EPU on ICFS for BGA, SA, small, large, matured and young firms as well as crisis and non-crisis periods. Third, this study uses the sample of the Indian manufacturing sector which has emerged the qualities to become a global manufacturing hub and attracting global investors. Therefore, examining the effect of EPU on ICFS for these firms will be more interesting.