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1 – 10 of over 7000Jack L. Winstead, Milorad M. Novicevic, John H. Humphreys and Ifeoluwa Tobi Popoola
The purpose of this paper is to explore the congruencies and incongruences between the moral and entrepreneurial accountabilities of Lillian McMurry to provide insights for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the congruencies and incongruences between the moral and entrepreneurial accountabilities of Lillian McMurry to provide insights for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. Ms McMurry was the entrepreneurial force behind the founding of Trumpet Records, a unique, Mississippi Delta Blues record label in the 1950s.
Design/methodology/approach
The examination of this historical case study is grounded in the theoretical examination of the tensions between Lillian McMurry’s felt moral and entrepreneurial accountabilities. Using an analytical archival historical method, a narrative explanation of how these tensions influenced the success and, ultimately, the failure of Trumpet Records are developed.
Findings
The accounting records highlighted a number of issues hampering the commercial profitability of Trumpet Records. Moreover, the archival and documentary sources examined also proved revealing as to conflicts between Ms McMurry’s personal character and mercantile determination as an entrepreneur.
Research limitations/implications
The approach of using analytically structured historical narrative as a research strategy is but one method of explaining the tensions between the moral and entrepreneurial accountabilities of Lillian McMurry.
Practical implications
The proponents of virtue ethics suggest that this Aristotelian personal character perspective is more fundamental than traditional, act-oriented consequentialist teleological and deontological ethical decision-making approaches. A perspective of moral accountability exceeding the norm of the obstructionist stance is required to maintain a sound balance between entrepreneurial accountability and moral accountability.
Originality/value
This paper adopts a mercantile perspective, using the accounting and related business records of Trumpet Records, to examine the leadership characteristics of Lillian McMurry. Practical lessons learned for entrepreneurs facing the moral dilemma of competing accountabilities and advance questions to spur future research in this area are drawn.
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Madeleine Besson, Philippe Jacquinot, Rémi Jardat and Jean-Luc Moriceau
This article of exploratory research provides a critical perspective on accountability, focusing on three characteristics: transparency, asymmetry and individual agency. An…
Abstract
Purpose
This article of exploratory research provides a critical perspective on accountability, focusing on three characteristics: transparency, asymmetry and individual agency. An experimental method is developed, calling for an ethics of accountability.
Design/methodology/approach
Four entrepreneurs have given accounts of themselves and their projects in life cycle interviews. This article applies Devereux's approach (1967), which allows for opacity (the “unconscious”) to oneself and to others with symmetry between analysts and analysed, and a lack of demarcation between the observer and the observed.
Findings
A tragic entrepreneurial accountability trap of continuous self-justification was discovered, which pertains both to the entrepreneurs and the researchers. Nonetheless, the researchers as inspired by Devereux's method were able to realize a form of accounterability.
Social implications
This article shows that the demands for transparent, asymmetrical and agentive accountability call for ethical reflection. The request for accounts, as resulting in the accounts given and the research conducted into accountability, are all sources of constraints. Differing the accountability situation may lessen the constraints.
Originality/value
This study introduces Devereux's method as an investigative tool in accountability research, opening up new perspectives on communication and analysis. This article shows the researcher as situated both inside and outside of the accountability mechanisms. This article explores a singular form of accountability; that of entrepreneurs who seemingly only account for the future, thereby disconnecting them from others.
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Aikaterini Balasi, George Iordanidis and Eleni Tsakiridou
To improve school organisational performance and innovativeness, and meet diverse student needs, school leaders should be innovative, risk-takers and proactive, thus applying…
Abstract
Purpose
To improve school organisational performance and innovativeness, and meet diverse student needs, school leaders should be innovative, risk-takers and proactive, thus applying entrepreneurial practices/strategies and market mechanisms. This study aims to investigate, from a schoolteacher's perspective, the degree of entrepreneurial leadership behaviour (ELB) applied by school principals in European primary schools. Given that school autonomy is perceived as an important predictor of leaders' entrepreneurship, this study investigates the impact of educational macro (autonomy and accountability) and micro (demographics) contexts on ELB by comparing centralised and decentralised European school systems with the highly centralised Greek school system.
Design/methodology/approach
This comparative study was conducted in Greece (630 participants) and in 14 European countries (972 participants). Thornberry's Entrepreneurial Leadership Questionnaire was used, comprising general entrepreneurial leader (GEL), miner (MIN), accelerator (ACC), explorer (EXP) and integrator (INT) behaviours.
Findings
The results revealed that ELB is a multi-dimensional concept, and that all participating teachers perceived ELB application moderately, with more focus on the internal (than external) school environment. Furthermore, the dual-directional macro-contextual influence found in applying ELB indicates that high school autonomy and accountability activate ELB owing to the school's freedom to engage in entrepreneurial ventures, while low autonomy/accountability still activates ELB, but only for organisational survival within hierarchical-bureaucratic school environments. This feature differentiates “intrapreneur/intrepreneur” from “entrepreneur” school principals.
Originality/value
The theoretical basis of entrepreneurial leadership (EL) in education should include entrepreneurial multi-dimensional leadership aspects (competencies, behaviours, skills) and educational context (macro and micro). Implications for school leadership research and practice are also discussed.
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John Darling, Mika Gabrielsson and Hannu Seristö
The contemporary business arena continues to hold great promise for dramatic innovational developments unheard of in previous eras. The purpose of this paper is to suggest ways to…
Abstract
Purpose
The contemporary business arena continues to hold great promise for dramatic innovational developments unheard of in previous eras. The purpose of this paper is to suggest ways to achieve organizational excellence through entrepreneurship in today's dynamic environment of opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors' research has focused on the foundation of successful entrepreneurial management leadership in the achievement of organizational excellence. Data were collected primarily from well‐known entrepreneurs identified during the past ten years in various publications.
Findings
Research shows that the major reflections of operational excellence in organizational entrepreneurship revolve around the care of customers, constant innovation, committed people and managerial leadership.
Research limitations/implications
Many relatively creative ideas regarding entrepreneurial management and leadership have been put forward in this treatise, which clearly require further validation by future research.
Practical implications
Successful leadership has been found to be based upon four key strategies: attention through vision, meaning through communication, trust through positioning, and confidence through respect. Research further suggests that at the heart of successful leadership strategies rest a concern for people and the interpersonal values of joy, hope, charity and peace. These values provide a new paradigm of interactive cues and a foundational core for the successful fulfillment of those key strategies.
Originality/value
This research contributes by developing a model of keys to organizational excellence, and leadership strategies and values. Furthermore, this paper may benefit companies that are trying to reinvent themselves by fostering innovativeness within their organizations.
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The relationship between education and training and the currently popular theme of “enterprise culture” is explored. The expression “enterprise culture”, is at present…
Abstract
The relationship between education and training and the currently popular theme of “enterprise culture” is explored. The expression “enterprise culture”, is at present ill‐defined, if defined at all. The confusions surrounding this expression relate in turn to the failure to make proper distinctions between entrepreneurship, enterprise and small business. These terms are defined in this context, as well as “intrapreneur”. Entrepreneurs are defined in terms of a set of attributes, some of which can be measured. Small business is defined in terms of ownership and task structure. Enterprise is seen to be something that means the exercise of entrepreneurial attributes in a wide range of different situations. Intrapreneurship is the exercise of entrepreneurial attributes within a large company or bureauracy. The relationship between these redefined concepts is explored and the issue of whether entrepreneurship can be socially engineered through education and training is addressed. A definition of what constitutes “enterprise culture” is then related to education and training. This link is discussed, both in general terms and particularly in respect of university and management education. It is argued that many of the values and structures pervading in university education and university business schools may be the antithesis of entrepreneurship. In this respect, the links between entrepreneurship as practised in small business and as fostered under the “intrapreneurship” banner in large companies is explored. Finally, policy objectives in fostering entrepreneurship, small business and intrapreneurship, particularly in respect of education and training, are reviewed.
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Gideon D Markman, Robert A Baron and David B Balkin
Shane and Venkataraman (2000) and Venkataraman (1997) suggest that the field of entrepreneurship seeks to understand how opportunities are discovered, created, and exploited, by…
Abstract
Shane and Venkataraman (2000) and Venkataraman (1997) suggest that the field of entrepreneurship seeks to understand how opportunities are discovered, created, and exploited, by whom, and with what consequences (italic added). Surprisingly and despite the fact that the person – the entrepreneur – is central to the creation of new ventures, entrepreneurship scholars are reluctant to explicitly include individual differences in formal models of new venture formation. For example, notwithstanding the important role that entrepreneurs play in forging new wealth and creating new jobs, research to identify cognitive processes, attitudes, behaviors, traits, or other characteristics that distinguish entrepreneurs from others who opt to work as employees remains somewhat marginal. Indeed, only very few studies on individual differences have been published in leading management journals. One possible explanation for this reluctance is that in the past researchers might have classified most individual differences as traits research and thus criticism spilled over to include all individual difference research, regardless of whether the focus was trait, cognitions, emotions, attitudes, behaviors, or other characteristics.
Comparative administrative study lacks agreed‐upon concepts for cross‐national analysis. This essay suggests “administrative culture” as a useful concept which has been…
Abstract
Comparative administrative study lacks agreed‐upon concepts for cross‐national analysis. This essay suggests “administrative culture” as a useful concept which has been overshadowed by two related concepts, “organizational culture” and “political culture.” The American experience is highlighted in its public personnel dimension and administrative sub‐cultures are introduced to characterize the enormous diversity of values, beliefs, and attitudes in the public sector. An evolutionary perspective is used to show change over time from the earliest “Government by Gentlemen” period to the current emphasis upon merit, modified by affirmative action and demands for accountability, flexibility, and entrepreneurial behavior. Sources of administrative culture are also discussed to reveal the unique origins of the system which, nevertheless, has been exported to numerous other nation‐states.
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This paper examines the operating environment of non‐metropolitan urban water authorities in Victoria, Australia. It analyses the policy framework within which the industry…
Abstract
This paper examines the operating environment of non‐metropolitan urban water authorities in Victoria, Australia. It analyses the policy framework within which the industry operates and demonstrates that this framework generates inconsistencies between central agency driven economic outcomes and local politician driven social efficacy outcomes. The paper poses a solution based in a new leadership mindset of entrepreneurially driven core business centres providing co‐ordination rather than direct services and the adoption of an approach recognising discontinuous change rather than the parameters founding “new managerialism” driven by Australian public sector reform agencies. The author asserts that these businesses will be required to paradigm shift ‐ to move from service providers to service managers, to develop networks and strategic alliances with service providers and to embrace mindsets beyond the structured “new managerialism” of the 1980s. The paper draws on studies concerning network organisations, loosely coupled clusters and quality, customer focused solutions. It analyses the need for the implementation of the mindset underpinning these organisations into the sector.
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