Search results

Extant theories suggest that entrepreneurs' personal characteristics have substantial impacts on their firm's performance. From a resource‐based view, the paper considers an entrepreneur's personal characteristics to be a unique resource endowment to their firm. The paper seeks to discuss these issues.

Data were collected through a national survey of owners and senior managers of small‐ to medium‐sized Canadian manufacturing companies. Mediation relationships were tested with hierarchical regression analyses.

Consistent with the authors' hypotheses, it is found that entrepreneurs' personal characteristics, such as need for achievement, need for cognition, and internal locus of control, have positive influences on firm performance. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that their strategic orientations mediated these influences. The data indicate that entrepreneurs with higher levels of internal locus of control are more likely to adopt an entrepreneurial orientation than a market orientation.

This paper helps to better understand why entrepreneurs make different strategic decisions under seemingly similar competitive environments. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs do not simply react mechanically to external environmental changes. Instead, how they seek and interpret information and formulate organizational strategies is partially influenced by their personal characteristics. Entrepreneurs develop their own ways of utilizing the human capital that they bring to their firms.

The aim of this paper is to argue that quality alone is not enough; pharmacies need to develop a rapport with their customers and convey sincerity. Community (retail) pharmacy is an increasingly competitive industry. Service quality has been considered one of the key factors for pharmacies to differentiate and develop competitive advantage. The customers’ perception of the sincerity of the pharmacies mediates the relationship between quality and trust.

Through consumer intercept, we collected survey data from 150 customers in a western Canadian city who had filled a prescription at the pharmacy in the previous six months. Data were analyzed using structure equation modeling.

Our data revealed that while overall service quality has a positive influence on customer trust, perception of sincerity has a more immediate impact. The relationship between quality and trust was completely mediated through sincerity perception.

Service quality has been introduced to pharmacy management and produced many good results. However, the measurement of service quality has historically emphasized on physical evidence. The element of human interaction and subjective affective perceptions has been largely ignored because it is difficult to measure, hence difficult to reward and implement. Our study highlights the importance of personal interactions in the context of pharmacy quality management.

The community pharmacy industry is an increasingly competitive sector, where independent pharmacies must compete with national and multinational chains for market share. Each pharmacy seeks to differentiate and earn customer trust. The purpose of this paper is to seek to better understand the effectiveness of differentiating via developing a unique corporate brand personality in the pursuit of customer trust.

A survey was conducted in a small city in Western Canada. Patients who have recently filled a prescription were asked to assess their perceptions about the brand personality of the pharmacy they last visited, and evaluate how much they trust the pharmacy. Data were analyzed using SPSS and structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results indicated that significant brand personality differences exist among various types of pharmacies. Customers rated independent pharmacies slightly more trustworthy than multinational mass merchandise and national chain pharmacies. SEM analysis revealed that sincerity and competence have the most significant impact on building customer trust.

The findings suggest that independent pharmacies may be able to differentiate themselves by developing a brand personality that is competent and sincere, whereby they earn the trust from their customers. The authors' findings also suggest that a sophisticated appearance might be an expensive option that does not provide satisfactory return on the investment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategic responses of multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries in China toward a unique institutional characteristic – the structural discrimination against rural migrant workers.

Based on surveys of 181 firms and 669 rural migrant workers, as well as a case study of eight firms in Jiangsu and Shanghai, the authors examined and compared the human resource management (HRM) policies of MNE subsidiaries and domestic Chinese firms toward rural Chinese migrant workers.

This study found that MNE subsidiaries are more likely to accept local discriminatory HRM practices when managing migrant workers. In response to the institutional environments of host countries, MNE subsidiaries tend to share similar behavioral characteristics with local firms and are reluctant to show leadership in initiating institutional change in host countries.

This study is important since it enables investigation of some prevailing assumptions in the literature. Contrary to common wisdom that MNEs are change agents that proactively engage in institutional entrepreneurship in host countries, this study found that MNEs’ responses to the institutional environment of host countries are shaped by their entry modes and the institutional environment in their home countries. MNEs are as diverse as their home countries and far from forming a unified organizational field with similar behavioral characteristics.

The current research aimed to investigate the external enablement role of Digital Infrastructures (DI) in the interplay of entrepreneurial cognitions and innovation.

Data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) were used for analyses. This yielded a sample of 8,601 Generation Z entrepreneurs operating in 25 European countries.

Applying hierarchical moderated regressions showed that socio-cognitive components of an entrepreneurial mindset (self-efficacy, risk propensity, opportunity identification) affect innovation among Generation Z entrepreneurs. More importantly, DI plays an external enablement role in the interplay of cognitions and innovation among Generation Z entrepreneurs.

This study contributes to the socio-cognitive theory of entrepreneurship by integrating an external enablement perspective into the study of cognitions and entrepreneurial outcomes (here, innovation). It contributes to the digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship by connecting the conversation about the socio-cognitive perspective of entrepreneurship regarding the role of cognitions in innovation to the conversation in information systems (IS) regarding technology affordances and constraints. This study extends the application of the external enabler framework to the post-entry stage of entrepreneurial activity and integrates a generational perspective into it.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this study is to focus on simulation of wire mesh demisters in multistage flash desalination (MSF) plants. The simulation is made by the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software.

A steady state and two-dimensional (2D) model was developed to simulate the demister. The model employs an Eulerian-Eulerian approach to simulate the flow of water vapor and brine droplets in the demister. The computational domain included three zones, which are the vapor space above and below the demister and the demister. The demister zone was modeled as a tube bank arrange or as a porous media.

Sensitivity analysis of the model showed the main parameters that affect demister performance are the vapor velocity and the demister permeability. On the other hand, the analysis showed that the vapor temperature has no effect on the pressure drop across the demister.

The developed model was validated against previous literature data as well as real plant data. The analysis shows good agreement between model prediction and data.

This work is the first in the literature to simulate the MSF demister using CFD modeling. This work is part of a group effort to develop a comprehensive CFD simulation for the entire flashing stage of the MSF process, which would provide an extremely efficient and inexpensive design and simulation tool to the desalination community.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of human resource management (HRM) reforms on job-related well-being of academics in Chinese universities. It also tests the mediating effect of work intensification (WI) and affective commitment (AC), and the moderating effect of perceived organizational justice (OJ) on the HRM‒well-being relationship to understand the influence mechanisms and boundary conditions.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in 25 Chinese universities, obtaining 638 usable questionnaires. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as the analytical technique to examine the model fit and test hypotheses.

The findings reveal that the relationship of HRM and well-being is neither direct nor unconditional, and a win‒win scenario for both management and employee well-being is possible when organizations pursue HRM innovations.

The limitations of this study are that data were collected at once and at a defined time, with no time lag being involved. In addition, all variables were self-reported.

Commitment-oriented HRM practices can create a win‒win scenario; when control-oriented HRM practices are necessary, managers should ensure OJ to offset their negative influence on employees.

This study is among the first to examine the impact of HRM on employee well-being in the context of Chinese higher education, contributing to the limited studies on HRM in Chinese public sector and the on-going debate on the nature of HRM in China.