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Resiliency is essential for achieving the necessary level of performance and ensuring the survival of a new business during difficult times. However, neither this characteristic nor its antecedents have been exhaustively studied. Using a configuration approach, this study aims to analyze the neuropsychological and business-related characteristics of entrepreneurs that may explain their resilience during the business development process.

Using the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), the authors investigated distinct characteristics of Costa Rican agro-entrepreneurs with high levels of entrepreneurial resilience. The fsQCA methodology identifies combinations of causal measures that result in the outcome.

From the mixture of configurations, the authors found four combinations of individual’s characteristics that explain the profile of a resilient agro-entrepreneur.

This work contributes to the literature on agricultural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial resilience. This study identifies four distinct combinations of entrepreneurs’ characteristics that produce entrepreneurial resilience in the agricultural industry. Moreover, it incorporates individuals’ business-related attributes into examining characteristics combinations that affect resilience. Also, this research offers agro-entrepreneurs’ stakeholders, valuable insights to develop more resilient entrepreneurs.

La resiliencia es esencial para lograr el nivel de rendimiento necesario y garantizar la supervivencia de un nuevo negocio en tiempos difíciles. Sin embargo, ni esta característica ni sus antecedentes han sido exhaustivamente estudiados. Empleando un enfoque de configuración, este estudio busca analizar las características neuropsicológicas y empresariales de los emprendedores que pueden explicar su resiliencia durante el proceso de desarrollo empresarial.

Utilizando el análisis cualitativo comparativo de conjuntos difusos (fsQCA, por sus siglas en inglés), investigamos distintas características de los agroemprendedores costarricenses con altos niveles de resiliencia emprendedora. La metodología fsQCA identifica combinaciones de medidas causales que originan un fenómeno o resultado.

A partir de la mezcla de configuraciones, encontramos cuatro combinaciones de características del individuo que explican el perfil de un agroemprendedor resiliente.

Nuestro trabajo contribuye a la literatura sobre emprendimiento agrícola y resiliencia emprendedora. Este estudio identifica cuatro combinaciones distintas de las características de los emprendedores que producen resiliencia emprendedora en la industria agrícola. Además, incorpora las características empresariaes de los individuos al examinar las combinaciones de características que afectan la resiliencia. También, nuestra investigación ofrece a los públicos de interés información valiosa para desarrollar emprendedores más resilientes.

A resiliência é essencial para alcançar o nível de desempenho necessário e garantir a sobrevivência de um novo negócio em tempos difíceis. Porém, nem esta característica nem seus antecedentes foram exaustivamente estudados. Empregando uma abordagem de configuração, este estudo busca analisar as características neuropsicológicas e empresariais de empreendedores que podem explicar sua resiliência no processo de desenvolvimento de negócios.

Usando a análise comparativa qualitativa do conjunto difuso (fsQCA), investigamos características distintas de agroempreendedores costarriquenhos com altos níveis de resiliência empreendedora. A metodologia fsQCA identifica combinações de medidas causais que causam um fenômeno ou resultado.

A partir da mistura de configurações, encontramos quatro combinações de características individuais que explicam o perfil de um agroempreendedor resiliente.

Nosso trabalho contribui para a literatura sobre empreendedorismo agrícola e resiliência empreendedora. Este estudo identifica quatro combinações distintas de características dos empreendedores que produzem resiliência empreendedora na indústria agrícola. Além disso, incorpora as características de negócios dos indivíduos ao examinar as combinações de características que afetam a resiliência. Adicionalmente, nossa pesquisa oferece às partes interessadas dos agroempreendedores insights valiosos para desenvolver empreendedores mais resilientes.

The understanding of how to mitigate opportunism in construction projects is still limited and conflicting. The complexity of causalities and interdependence among antecedents of opportunism (transaction characteristics and governance mechanisms) is the major obstacle to current research. This study takes a holistic perspective to explore the different combinations of conditions that lead to high opportunism and low opportunism in project management.

Through 2 phases of the interview and questionnaire survey, the 91 valid survey data were collected from the buyer–seller relationships in construction projects and analyzed by adopting fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

A single transaction characteristic is rarely sufficient to explain opportunism, and combinations of different transaction characteristics and governance mechanisms (performance ambiguity, asset specificity, buyer's requirement certainty, informal control, and formal control) have different effects on opportunism. In the case of extremely unsatisfactory transaction characteristics, even the combination of formal and informal control cannot prevent high opportunism. The combination including low-formal control and high-asset specificity easily leads to high opportunism. Besides, performance ambiguity is a vital factor in mitigating high opportunism or achieving low opportunism.

Previous studies have always addressed the role of one or some factors independently and separately. This study is one of the first to explore the different combinations of conditions that result in high opportunism and low opportunism in project management based on transaction costs economics and agency theory.

The purpose of this paper is to guide companies in conducting benchmarking studies of their manufacturing processes by viewing across industries, locations and products. In particular, the proposed framework can help corporate decision makers in terms of production footprint and site location studies. The level of benchmarking performance can be measured by evaluating defined benchmarking evaluation profiles.

This paper develops a tool to operationalize value-added manufacturing processes for benchmarking evaluations. In this context, an object-oriented database structure has been developed for the business areas such as product development, manufacturing and assembly. This paper focuses on manufacturing processes. Furthermore, a framework for applying high-performance benchmarking has been developed and applied in a case study.

This paper shows that object class-oriented modeling approach can be applied to manufacturing processes. The higher the degree of independence in terms of locations, industry sectors and products, the more powerful thus a higher performance of benchmarking is achieved. The performance level of benchmarking has been defined by proving and demonstrating higher and lower performance levels. The high-performance benchmarking tool has been successfully applied to a production footprint case study.

This paper takes up the superiority of process benchmarking that has been the focus of numerous research papers on benchmarking techniques in the past. The potential of process benchmarking has been enhanced and operationalized as a tool. A classification logic for benchmarking evaluation profiles has been developed and integrated in the overall tool set. The model helps decision makers to configure their benchmarking studies tailored to their strategic entrepreneurial questions and to guide them to achieve a higher benchmarking performance level.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the possible reasons behind gender pay disparities, focussing on the unique features of male and female human capital and their wage returns. Despite increasing convergence of male and female human capital attainments, substantial differences remain. Extraction of human capital components non-overlapping across genders provides more profound explanation of the unexplained wage gap of men and women.

Starting with the non-parametric matching-based decomposition technique, the authors extend the pay gap estimation framework and focus on males and females having no counterpart in a set of characteristics within the opposite gender. The authors identify gender-unique human capital in terms of differences in distribution of individual characteristics across men and women and gender-specific combination of human capital characteristics. Wage returns to gender-specific profiles are evaluated applying wage regression on both full distribution of earnings and wage quantiles. The research relies on the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) database for Estonia, which incorporates both formal education and cognitive skill records.

The study identifies sets of characteristics and competencies exclusive for both genders, proving that male and female profiles cannot be directly compared. The results suggest that men possess high individual and combined abilities in numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environment, not always reached by females. This potentiates men’s higher earnings in spite of their generally lower formal educational attainments. Wage gap analysis over the full distribution of earnings shows even larger “glass ceiling” effect for females, possessing woman-specific human capital.

The authors raise a research from a novel perspective towards a role of human capital in gender wage inequality. Instead of usual reference to observable gaps in male and female characteristics, the authors identify the gender-specific human capital profiles, to a large extent non-reached by the opposite gender. Analysed associations between gender-specific characteristics and earnings provide an insight to possible effects of gender-unique human capital on a male-female wage disparity.

The decline in the share of agriculture in both output and employment is a central feature of structural transformation. The authors present the distinct features between developed and developing countries in the process of agricultural share decline and dig into the real changes that occurred in the agricultural sector during the rapid decline in the agricultural share.

Taking the declining share of agriculture as a clue, the authors depict heterogeneous characteristics in the declining share of agriculture in developed and developing countries. Secondly, by criticizing the factor substitution hypothesis, the authors argue that the essence of agricultural transformation is the process of agricultural industrialization characterized by the combination, reconstruction, and continual changes of agricultural production factors. Finally, based on the theory of agricultural industrialization, this paper analyzes the combination of factors in different stages of declining agricultural share in typical economies.

In this paper, the authors find that the rapid decline in agricultural employment share is accompanied by an increase in the returns to agricultural production in developed economies. In contrast, the decline in agricultural employment share in developing economies lags, and agricultural production efficiency is way much poorer than that of developed economies. Taking the United States and Japan as examples, the authors find that the agricultural sector underwent agricultural industrialization, featured by reconstruction and upgrades of production factors combination.

The authors systematically reveal why huge changes occurred in the agricultural sector in developed economies during structural transformation, and also provide further thoughts and lessons for developing countries to accomplish agricultural modernization.

The purpose of this paper is to test alternative conceptualizations of the relationship between systems of human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational effectiveness. The authors describe a framework suggesting a complex relationship between HRM practices and organizational effectiveness, test this approach empirically in a large sample of US motor carriers, and compare the results to those derived using other approaches prevalent in the strategic HRM literature.

The study used a large scale cross-sectional survey design. In a sample of US motor carriers, questionnaires completed by senior HRM department staff were used as the primary data. The data were supplemented by organizational effectiveness data reported by motor carriers to the US Government.

The results support the general hypothesis that HRM practices enhance organizational effectiveness, provide some evidence that HRM practices can enhance each other’s effectiveness, and underscore the value of theory driven methodological approaches. Specifically, the authors found that HRM system comprising practices that ensure selectivity in staffing, performance-based pay, and enhanced employee opportunity through participation in decision-making result in higher levels of organizational effectiveness. Additionally, the effects of other combinations of these practices varied.

This study highlights the need for HRM departments and organizations to approach the strategic management of employees with a systems perspective. The optimal design of an HRM strategy must take into account the various components.

This study is one of the first to test the main assumptions of the systems perspective in strategic HRM using multiple measures and empirical approaches for combining HRM practices into systems. Comparison of these different approaches in a single study offers insight into how researchers can test the relationship between HRM practices and organizational effectiveness and provide practitioners more useful approaches for designing HRM systems.

This paper has two purposes. First, it evaluates the extent to which different failure processes are present in failed UK SMEs, by considering non-financial metrics including director characteristics, in addition to the financial ones. Second, it analyses the determinants of the transition to failure in relation to the different failure processes that have been identified.

The study is based on a sample of failed UK SMEs. The data covers financial ratios, board characteristics, the macroeconomic environment, sectoral details and regional information. First, failure processes are identified using a combination of factor analysis and cluster analysis. Second, the determinants of firms' transition to failure for the whole sample and in the individual failure clusters are analysed using panel data analysis.

Four different firm failure processes were identified. Director characteristics differ between firm failure processes. We find evidence that director characteristics including director age and board gender structure, affect the transition to failure of UK SMEs. We also find that different factors affect the different failure processes.

The paper is the first to analyse the reasons for failure of UK SMEs in the firm failure process context by considering non-financial metrics such as the characteristics of the firms' directors. In addition the paper also identifies a number of different determinants that affect the various failure processes. This finding is important because it suggests that policies designed to reduce the incidence of firm failure should take account of the different failure processes.

The goal of this article is to show that memetics is particularly useful to predict the adoption of major innovations.

Describes how TNO Telecom, an applied research institute in The Netherlands, adopted the theory of memetics to develop an instrument that predicts the adoption of major innovations. Explains and defines relevant aspects of this focus.

Initial results are encouraging and suggest that the approach may provide qualitatively better results than the existing methods when applied to major innovations.

Describes for the first time how the theory of memetics can be used to gain a real insight into the market adoption of major innovations as well as to focus and optimise product development.

The literature considers the big five personality traits and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) to be important individual-level factors that determine entrepreneurial intention. However, little is known about the profiles of personal characteristics of individuals who express a high level of entrepreneurial intention. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a comparative analysis of personal characteristics that contribute to new business start-up intention.

Using survey data from two samples, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was performed to extract patterns of personal characteristics (i.e. the big five personality traits and ESE) that impact entrepreneurial intention.

The outcomes of the analyses demonstrate that a high level of entrepreneurial intention can be realized through multiple configurations of the big five personality traits and ESE.

This paper can inform practice on entrepreneurship education. Specifically, the paper includes implications for the development of ESE, and for understanding multiple configurations of personal characteristics that lead to a high level of entrepreneurial intention.

This paper addresses an identified need to understand how personal characteristics operate conjointly and among individuals.

Although experts agree on the importance of service quality, sales force management practices are often far from conforming to their recommendations. The current use of sales contests with quantitative objectives on turnover or profit margin is evidence of this divergence. Sharma notes the need for a better understanding of the impact of such incentives on quality of service. In response to this call, the concept of “service climate” as an internal indicator of customer perception of service quality is studied. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to consider which type of sales contest best preserves service climate.

Four characteristics of sales contests are examined through an experimental approach. Salespeople's perception of service climate are measured. Hypotheses are tested with ANOVA.

The study shows that sales contest can have a negative impact on the service climate. The results give indications as to which incentives are optimal in terms of service climate. Surprisingly, selective contests, with a ranked competition and few winners, would affect service climate to a lesser extent.

The findings of this study are unexpected and indicate that sales managers need to pay attention not only to sales contest's characteristics but also their interaction. The sales contest is not an addition to but a combination of modalities.

This study has both managerial and research implications for design and implementation of sales contest.