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Entrepreneurship is an activity of recognised economic and social interest, leading scholars to examine contextual factors that justify variations between economies and governments to configure more favourable conditions to entrepreneurial activity. In this sequence, this study aims to analyse the effect of reforms produced in the business environment on entrepreneurial rates of a set of 18 high-income economies.

A panel data (2010–2019) methodology was adopted using 10 Doing Business indicators from World Bank and Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

In the light of institutional theory, the study shows that improving the business environment for entrepreneurs does not ensure an increase in TEA. Specifically, only the indicators Dealing with Construction, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts positively impacted the TEA.

This is the first study that monitors and provides evidence regarding the effectiveness of business environment reforms towards entrepreneurship. The authors provide considerable theoretical-practical implications for scholars, entrepreneurs and policymakers to restructure public policies to support entrepreneurial activity.

Engaging in international business (IB) is a particular challenge to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), representing a condition to ensure growth and longevity. Due to their limitations of tangible resources, these companies make use of their levels of knowledge and capabilities to reach new markets. This study seeks to ascertain the role, the typologies of the knowledge and capabilities required for access to IB, and how benefits may arise for SMEs from their international experience.

To achieve these objectives, the authors ground the insights on a qualitative study that gathered data from ten semi-structured interviews with leading entrepreneurs engaged in IB. The data were analysed resorting to the QSR Nvivo software.

The results demonstrate how (1) knowledge and the development of dynamic capabilities all represent determinant facets to engaging in IB and that (2) the knowledge and learning capabilities acquired and developed in IB context also result in positive returns in domestic markets.

Despite the rising of IB studies, the interaction between knowledge and capabilities from the perspective of accessing international markets has not received attention enough from scholars. The authors argue that both constructs must act together to reach and maximize the IB of SMEs and provide evidence that engagement abroad brings several other advantages beyond economic returns.

International entrepreneurship (IE) has received a considerable amount of attention in the recent decades as a result of globalization enabling access to new international markets and business opportunities. Despite the growing increase in academic publications, IE still faces certain inconsistencies, with doubts remaining as regards its boundaries and the thematic groups making up the field. The purpose of this article is to systematically analyse the IE, mapping the intellectual territory and the evolution of the field.

Indexed to Web of Science( WoS) database until 2021, from 52 journals, 130 articles were selected, applying content analyses techniques to identify the main research lines.

The results reveal that IE presents four conceptual themes/clusters: (1) international business networks and opportunities; (2) institutional environments; (3) the characteristics and motivations of entrepreneurs; and (4) internationalisation drivers and processes. Extant analysis show that IE has progressed immensely, concentrating a good diversity of subtopics and research trends. An integrative framework bringing together 27 years of publications and 67 future research lines, detailed by cluster, were also presented in this study to improve understanding and guide future studies.

This review makes a broad contribution to the IE literature, assisting in consolidating the academic field, expanding and complementing the results of previous theoretical–conceptual studies. We reflect and individually discuss the state of the art of the four streams that characterize IE to identify key themes, points of convergence and advance new subfields.

Entrepreneurship is a phenomenon strongly associated with economic growth, development and employability, leading countries to compete and often produce reforms to ensure good levels of entrepreneurship. In this sequence, this study aims to know which types of economies present favourable institutional environments for entrepreneurs, exploring the link between the ease of doing business and the three levels of economic development (innovation-driven, efficiency-driven and factor-driven) of 137 economies.

A quantitative methodology through an analysis of variances was adopted, gathering data from the ten pillars proposed by the World Bank in the Doing Business 2019 – training for reforms report, and economic development levels, provided by Global Competitiveness Report (2017–2018).

In the light of institutional theory, the results showed that innovation-driven economies are more competitive, presenting more robust institutional environments for entrepreneurs than factor-driven and efficiency-driven. There is only one exception in the Getting Credit pillar.

This study clarifies some assumptions in the previous literature that developed economies have better business environments, being the first one to establish this relationship directly. Some practical implications, especially for international entrepreneurs in the decision-making phase on which type of economies to carry out their investments and policymakers and researchers, were provided in this study.

In recent years, the craft beer (CB) industry has gained impetus and has experienced significant growth in scientific publications. This study aims to present a systematic review of the literature on CB in areas related to economic and business sciences.

Based on the data from Scopus, Web of Science and a set of articles not indexed to these databases until June 2021, a total of 132 articles were included for analysis, using bibliometric and content analysis techniques.

The study allowed us to identify that CB has four main clusters/themes of research, namely, CB industry and market, marketing and branding, consumer behavior and sustainability. Detailed information on the clusters is provided. In addition, the results showed that publications addressing CB have grown significantly from 2015 onwards and are dispersed across many journals, with none assuming a clear leadership. Quantitative approaches account for more than half of publications.

This study is a useful guide for academics intending to develop studies with CB. It provides a framework to structure future research by identifying existing literature clusters and proposes several research propositions.

The findings from this study are useful for CB companies to get an overview of the main issues affecting the CB industry and market to be able to adapt their strategies and stay aligned with market tendencies in the four main clusters identified.

This is the first systematic review of CB. Therefore, it provides a significant contribution to frame and strengthening the literature on CB and serves as a reference for future research. Based on the content analysis and cluster identification, the findings portray the status of current research. Accordingly, a set of research opportunities are offered.

This study aims to explore the psychological effects of lockdown during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic on people living in an Italian prison. The suspension of family visits and most activities, along with the difficulties in applying social distancing to this vulnerable population was associated with increased psychological distress. Riots broke out over two days in more than 22 prisons across Italy at the beginning of March 2020, highlighting the negative psychological impact of the pandemic and the country’s emergency policies.

The research involves 17 men (Italians and foreigners) detained in a Lombardy prison from 1 March to 4 May 2020, corresponding to the lockdown phase in Italy. The qualitative content analysis (CA) of 27 posts, written by participants during that period and published on the blog “L’Oblò”, were analysed. The analysis allowed the identification of topics and subtopics that are related to two major categories of content: cognitions and emotional connotations about the COVID-19 lockdown in prison.

Analysis showed that blog post content was predominately negative in terms of emotional connotations. The most frequent coded negative emotional connotations were: missing, worry, psychological pain and fear, whilst the most frequent coded positive emotional connotations were: hope and gratitude for the support they received from prison workers. The rest of the blog content was coded as “cognitions”. Cognitions were coded as descriptions of lockdown effect on detention; prison during the COVID-19 emergency; the pandemic situation in general; and comparison between inside and outside prison.

The current study is original as it describes through blog CA the psychological condition of prisoners during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the most affected region in Italy.

Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Minister of Health, speaking at a luncheon given by the Provision Trade Section of the London Chamber of Commerce, on November 24th, said that anyone who occupied his office must in doing his duty take whatever steps might seem to be necessary in order to preserve and to maintain the public health. It might be that in the execution of those measures it was necessary to inflict some inconvenience, and even some hardship, upon individual members of the community, but he had always found that those who were so affected, if they could be convinced that the action taken was necessary in the interest of the community, were willing to accept those hardships and to make the sacrifices necessary without complaint. On the other hand, it was his duty to recognize public spirit of that kind, and to do all that was in his power to minimize the hardship, to remove inequalities, and to take away as far as possible the objections that might be made to him by those concerned. As one who was a trader for a good many more years than he had been a politician, he looked upon any measures which might be likely to interfere with trade with a particular desire to make them as easy as possible, because the very last thing they wanted to do today was to reduce employment or to make trade and industry more difficult. The question of the harmfulness of preservatives in food had received a great deal of attention both in this country and in other countries for a good many years, but up to the present this country bad not gone so far in the matter as others. When it was decided to set up a new committee to investigate the question afresh in this country, great care was exercised to constitute the committee of men who were competent by reason of their training and their experience to pronounce authoritatively upon the matters submitted to them. The committee divided preservatives into three groups, arranged in order of harmfulness to health. In the first group they placed formaldehyde and hydrofluoric acid: in the second, boric and salicylic acid: and in the third, benzoic acid and sulphur dioxide. They came to the conclusion that the preservatives in the first two groups should be prohibited altogether, and those in the third group should be permitted only to a limited extent. As a result of discussions that had taken place between the London Chamber of Commerce and the officers of his department, a very large number of concessions were made, but the department felt that in considering the objections they must not lose sight of the main principles which underlaid the committee's report, and in particular they did not see their way to remove the prohibition of boron compounds, which really formed the crux of the difficulties. These compounds were poisonous; they did not add anything to the nourishment of the human body, but they were very readily soluble and were conveyed by the blood stream to every part of the body. Moreover, they were cumulative in effect. They certainly should not lose sight of the fact that during the last forty years, in which the use of boric acid bad been gradually increasing, there had been a very considerable increase in the prevalence of certain digestive disorders. In certain countries the use of these preservatives was absolutely prohibited, and it seemed to him that as Minister of Health he could not go on defending a system which was clearly open to the accusation that it was injuring the health of the people, even if it could not be clearly proved that it could be done without. Another point was that by the use of preservatives it was possible to mask the signs of putrefaction. Time was being allowed traders, importers and manufacturers to make the adjustments in their business and equipment that were necessary on account of the new regulations, and he felt confident that he would have their co‐operation in carrying them to a successful conclusion.

Brighton will remain pleasantly in the memory of those who attended the Library Association Conference there. The meeting was well‐organized from the business and social points of view; and a generous hospitality extended by those in authority there gave a real delight to every day, indeed every hour, spent in the sea‐side city. The beautiful weather that prevailed added much to the event. On the purely technical side the conference compared favourably with any of recent years. The remarkable advance in the roll of members ; the progress of the net books question ; a new and keen interest shown in co‐operation, the immediate first‐fruit of which is to be union catalogue of London's municipal reference libraries ; the interest of the exhibitions, that of the Library Association being a promise of real excellence in the future; and the trade exhibition being one or the best we have examined—these were memorable features of a memorable conference. Our gratitude may perhaps be added to that expressed more officially at Brighton to all who had the arrangement of a most successful affair.

What if we were to take an explicit relational perspective on organizing? What if we put our organizational conversations and interactive practices right in the middle of our scholarly focus on organizations? In this contribution, I wish to document how the concept of “relational practices” can be formulated as a generative approach to organizing in emergent and multiplex organizational contexts. Starting from the main concern of developing “actionable knowledge” about organizing, I will compare and contrast a relational constructionist approach with a mere instrumental approach to organizing. Beyond the purposive coordination of the means to attain intended goals, organizing will be considered as an essentially relational activity. Actors acknowledge mutually meaningful contributions and, at the same time, mutually enact organizational membership through joint engagement in “relational practices.” Relational organizing is as much a goal in itself as a means to an end.

In the last‐issued volume of his monumental History of the Novel, Dr. E. A. Baker remarks that librarians do not expect to be thanked for their services and then, characteristically, proceeds to thank some dozen or so. Whatever our expectations are, we are none the less appreciative when a writer does express his debt; it helps us, it justifies our work. Few tributes of late have been more graceful than this paid by Mr. J. D. Griffith Davies in his useful and attractive Honest George Monk, which has lately come from Mr. John Lane: “What I should do without the kindly help of my friend, R. J. Gordon, Librarian of the Leeds Public Libraries, I really don't know. Like some fairy godmother he produces for my use the rarest books; and his keen personal interest in all forms of research, and the unfailing courtesy of his colleagues, makes the Reference Library at Leeds one of the homeliest places for work.” It is worth while to compare the expression here with the words Mr. Berwick Sayers has written at the end of his preface to the 1937 edition of Brown's Manual.