Search results

1 – 10 of over 6000
Article
Publication date: 9 July 2021

Tesfaye Leta Tufa, Aselefech Hailgiorgis Belete and Ashwinkumar A. Patel

The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct and indirect role of autonomy on firm performance. It also determines the role of professional experience in the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct and indirect role of autonomy on firm performance. It also determines the role of professional experience in the relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyzed data collected from 124 small firms in Addis Ababa city using the ordinary least square (OLS) regression and hierarchical regression analysis.

Findings

The result of the OLS regression revealed that autonomy directly and indirectly (through entrepreneurial engagement) influences the firm's performance. Besides, professional experience moderates the relationship between autonomy and performance, as well as the relationship between autonomy and entrepreneurial engagement.

Practical implications

Entrepreneurs should tend to engage in the works that they have professional experience than involving in jobs that they have no experience.

Originality/value

This study examines the relationship between autonomy and firm performance in established firms. It is among the first studies that tested the moderation influence in the relationship. That is, determining the role of professional experience is a novel contribution of this study, which is forgotten previously.

Details

African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-0705

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 September 2019

Gorkan Ahmetoglu, Lauren Scarlett, Sonia-Cristina Codreanu and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Research examining the influence of organizational factors on entrepreneurial tendencies and performance within organizations is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to…

Abstract

Purpose

Research examining the influence of organizational factors on entrepreneurial tendencies and performance within organizations is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of organizational structure and work autonomy on entrepreneurial tendencies, locus of control and performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were obtained online using validated self-report questionnaires in a sample of 181 currently employed individuals.

Findings

The results showed organizational structure components to be related to work autonomy and performance, but not to individual-level variables. However, work autonomy related to entrepreneurial tendencies and locus of control, indicating potential indirect effects of organizational structure on individual-level variables via work autonomy. Entrepreneurial tendencies and locus of control were positively related to performance.

Originality/value

Whilst the mediating effect of a number of individual-level traits has been examined in the past, very little research has looked at how organizational factors may influence entrepreneurial tendencies. Fostering entrepreneurial tendencies in employees may facilitate corporate entrepreneurship and performance within organizations.

Details

Evidence-based HRM: a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-3983

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 November 2018

Abdullah Al Mamun and Syed Ali Fazal

This study aims to examine the effect of creativity and innovativeness, risk taking propensity, proactiveness and autonomy on entrepreneurial competency and performance among…

9867

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effect of creativity and innovativeness, risk taking propensity, proactiveness and autonomy on entrepreneurial competency and performance among micro-enterprises in Kelantan, Malaysia.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting a cross-sectional design, the authors collected data from 403 micro-entrepreneurs who were registered under “Majlis Amanah Rakyat” and “Majlis Agama Islam dan Adat Istiadat”. Quantitative data were collected through structured interviews from September 2017 to December 2017.

Findings

The findings revealed that creativity and innovativeness, proactiveness and autonomy had a positive influence on entrepreneurial competencies. In addition, autonomy and entrepreneurial competencies had a positive effect on micro-enterprise performance. Then, entrepreneurial competencies showed a mediating effect on the relationships between creativity, innovativeness, autonomy and micro-enterprise performance.

Originality/value

The findings contributed to resource-based view and enriched the entrepreneurship literature, particularly in the context of small businesses in emerging economies. This study recommended underlying organizations to pay attention to the improvement of creativity and innovativeness, proactiveness, autonomy and entrepreneurial competencies among low-income entrepreneurs through useful policies and training programs, which were expected to improve micro-enterprise performance and encourage poor households to perform entrepreneurial activities for better socio-economic conditions.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-7812

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2018

Martin Mabunda Baluku, Matagi Leonsio, Edward Bantu and Kathleen Otto

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how autonomy, moderated by employment status, impacts the relationship between entrepreneurial mentoring (EM) and entrepreneurial…

1242

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how autonomy, moderated by employment status, impacts the relationship between entrepreneurial mentoring (EM) and entrepreneurial intentions (EI) among three countries (Germany, Kenya, and Uganda); as informed by both theory of planned behavior and self-determination theory.

Design/methodology/approach

A convenient sample of 1,509 youth from Germany, Kenya, and Uganda consisting of final-year university students, wage-employed, and unemployed was identified and studied. A multi-group analysis was conducted to test for differences in the impact of EM and autonomy on EI.

Findings

The findings indicate that mentoring and autonomy are positively correlated with EI. EM and intentions were lower among German participants than for the East African countries. The moderated moderation results revealed that EM is related to higher EI among students and the unemployed, and when individuals have higher levels of autonomy. Country-level analysis showed the effects of EM and autonomy are highest in Germany and lowest in Uganda.

Practical implications

Mentoring and self-determination play an important role in the development of EI. Entrepreneurship mentors should specifically support their protégées to develop the ability to act autonomously as an important entrepreneurial competence. The results further indicate that effectiveness of EM varies according to employment status and among countries. This is particularly important for targeting and designing of EM interventions. EM resources should be applied to youth with high autonomy, who are in either in insecure wage employment or who have no jobs. Protégés with low levels of autonomy should be supported to appreciate autonomy and develop the ability for autonomous action. Future EI research should also examine the impact of the availability of attractive positions in wage employment; and the effects of the availability of social safety nets on the need for autonomy.

Originality/value

A major challenge in EI research is the predominant focus on student populations. Using a multi-group analysis, the present paper tested for differences in the impact of EM and autonomy on EI. EM and EI were lower in German participants that in Kenyan and Ugandan participants. Whereas EM was generally positively correlated to EI, the moderated results showed that EM is related to higher EI among students and the unemployed, and when participants have higher autonomy. The study implies that EM and EI are highly correlated when participants need to work but have not or cannot find work or whey they do not need salaried employment to survive.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 25 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2018

Philippe Zgheib

American and Lebanese women may feel they have different needs and therefore have different wants. This distinction brings to the fore the importance of an integrative analysis of…

1014

Abstract

Purpose

American and Lebanese women may feel they have different needs and therefore have different wants. This distinction brings to the fore the importance of an integrative analysis of forced and voluntary (push-pull) factors that influence entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to compare Lebanese and American women to determine their push-pull drive for entrepreneurship. Background: women entrepreneurship is developing in various cultural settings internationally as well as domestically. This research paper attempts to address the inference of autonomy, creativity, and non-conformity in comparing American and Lebanese women entrepreneurs with respect to the push-pull framework of entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

An interpretive analysis of 102 extensive in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs from the USA and Lebanon allows the exploration of the relevance and salience of the proposed push-pull gender related entrepreneurship framework. Contrasting American and Lebanese women responses explains why the number and rate of women entrepreneurs is greater in the USA than in the Arab world, and attempts to answer why American women are more entrepreneurial and how the environment impacts them.

Findings

Emerging patterns of female business entrepreneurship in this analysis demonstrate that forced push entrepreneurship is more prevalent among women from a developing economy such as Lebanon than in industrially advanced USA. By contrast voluntary pull entrepreneurship claims more global validity as discovered in the US business culture. Entrepreneurial dimensions analyzed include autonomy, creativity, and non-conformity.

Originality/value

The dynamic interplay of micro, meso, and macro levels of the integrated framework of gender entrepreneurship is taken into further depth by exploring the gender autonomy debate, and highlighting creativity and non-conformity within the push-pull framework of entrepreneurship. This research contributes to reach scopes of practice and research. At the practice level the results show that the economic need is more than the self-satisfaction need to the initiation of new start-up business enterprises for Lebanese women compared to American women. This research sheds a new light on the balancing act of women entrepreneurs between tradition and modernity, between Oriental and Western cultures, and between Americans and Lebanese Arabs.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2020

Yaser Hasan Salem Al-Mamary, Mohammed Abdulrab, Mohammed A. Alwaheeb and Naif Ghazi M. Alshammari

This research intends to contribute to the literature of entrepreneurial intentions through determining the factors impacting the entrepreneurial intentions among students in…

1786

Abstract

Purpose

This research intends to contribute to the literature of entrepreneurial intentions through determining the factors impacting the entrepreneurial intentions among students in different academic programs. This is in order to enhance and improve entrepreneurship-related procedures within relevant universities.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted by a structured survey questionnaire on 261 students in the University of Hail. The questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The proposed hypotheses were tested by the use of the structured equation modeling (SEM) via using Amos software.

Findings

The results of the current study support the theoretical integration of the model as most of the hypotheses have been accepted. The results of the survey also show that attitudes toward behavior, self-efficacy, autonomy, risk-taking, pro-activeness and competitive aggressiveness are expressively related with entrepreneurial intention. Yet, social norms and innovativeness are not considerably connected with entrepreneurial intention.

Research limitations/implications

This study seeks to contribute to the relevant literature by integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the entrepreneurial orientation model (EO). This is in order to identify the factors impacting the intention of entrepreneurship among Saudi university students. As the case in many studies, this present study has some limitations. The main limitation lies in that it would not be possible to generalize the study's findings. This is due to the fact the research is the outcome of examining and studying one Saudi university. Therefore, it would be better to conduct similar studies in other Saudi universities in order to generalize the findings of the study.

Practical implications

The study's results could be of value to policymakers and university administrators in Saudi Arabia universities by which they could be enabled to allocate resources, develop strategies and provide all requirements for the sake of improving entrepreneurial skills among university students. This comprehensive model can be used as a tool for planning and prioritizing resources in bid for providing the required support as this support would reinforce the entrepreneurial opportunity of university students. As such, students would have better thinking about entrepreneurial work and thus would be assisted in achieving their professional goals and the broader goal of nation building.

Originality/value

Since today's youth are viewed as the potential future entrepreneurs, they should be encouraged to achieve the Saudi Kingdom's goals through creating suitable employment opportunities for them by supporting entrepreneurship. Therefore, pointing out the factors impacting the entrepreneurial intention of students will contribute to developing the field of entrepreneurship among young people in Saudi Arabic in general. In addition, realized outcomes would create an exciting new knowledge with regard to the entrepreneurial intention among the youth at the university level.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 62 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2020

Abbas Doulani, Sepideh Sahebi and Mohammad Karim Saberi

The purpose of this study is to carry out the demographic evaluation and analysis of the entrepreneurial orientation of librarians in Iranian public libraries using the Lumpkin…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to carry out the demographic evaluation and analysis of the entrepreneurial orientation of librarians in Iranian public libraries using the Lumpkin and Dess model.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a structured questionnaire of entrepreneurial orientation was used. The research population consisted of 5,000 librarians of Iranian public libraries who were selected using Krejcie and Morgan table (95% confidence level and p-value of 5%) and stratified the random sampling method. A total of 365 individuals were selected as the study sample. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics (frequency, percent, mean, standard deviation and standard error mean) as well as inferential statistics (Pearson correlation, one-sample t-test, independent samples t-test and ANOVA.

Findings

The results showed that the mean level of entrepreneurial orientation of librarians was 2.92 with an average level (µ = 3). Librarians were at an average level (µ = 3) in terms of components of innovativeness (2.98), risk-taking (2.93) and proactiveness (3.02). The status of the autonomy component (2.53) was at an undesirable level (3 < µ), and only the competitive aggressiveness status (3.12) was at the desirable level (3 < µ). The analysis of the librarian’s entrepreneurial orientation based on demographic characteristics indicated that the male librarian’s entrepreneurial orientation was higher than the female librarian’s (p-value = 0.039). Meantime, librarians with library and information science degrees have less entrepreneurial orientation than the librarians with other (non-librarian and information science) degrees (p-value = 0.01). Also, the higher the librarian’s degree, the lower their entrepreneurial orientation will be (p-value = 0.000). In addition, there was no significant relationship between librarians’ age (p-value = 0.14), marital status (p-value = 0.15) or work experience (p-value = 0.388) and their entrepreneurial orientation.

Practical implications

Entrepreneurial orientation is one of the significant concepts in entrepreneurship of organizations. Accordingly, studying the concept of entrepreneurial orientation and formulating an appropriate strategy is of great importance in improving the performance of libraries because libraries can be more useful and appealing to library members by enhancing the entrepreneurial orientation of librarians, delivering new, unique and tailor-made services to users’ needs.

Originality/value

Not much research has been carried out on entrepreneurship in library and information sciences. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the entrepreneurial orientation of librarians based on their demographic characteristics.

Details

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, vol. 69 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9342

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 June 2020

Steve Kihm and Rashiqa Kamal

Management theorists suggest that entrepreneurially oriented firms manifest higher risk levels than more conservative companies, but executives of such firms and their consultants…

Abstract

Purpose

Management theorists suggest that entrepreneurially oriented firms manifest higher risk levels than more conservative companies, but executives of such firms and their consultants argue that the opposite is true. The purpose of this paper is to explore this issue and examine the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and idiosyncratic risk of firms.

Design/methodology/approach

Content analysis is applied to the 2018 third-quarter earnings call transcripts for 992 companies to measure five factors attributed to entrepreneurially oriented firms: autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, innovation, proactiveness and risk-taking, and their relationship to firm-level idiosyncratic risk. Multivariate regression analysis is used to examine the effect of these factors on measures of idiosyncratic risk obtained from the Wharton Research database Service's Beta Suite.

Findings

Results show that firms whose executives frequently use terms related to risk-taking tend to manifest higher levels of idiosyncratic risk, but those firms whose executives stress innovation-related terms tend to have lower levels of idiosyncratic risk. The degree to which executives use words related to the three other entrepreneurial orientation factors show no associations with idiosyncratic risk.

Practical implications

The results might suggest to managers which of the individual components of entrepreneurial orientation, if adopted, are likely to affect firm-specific risk and in what way.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to attempt to bridge the gap between the management concept of entrepreneurial orientation and the financial concept of idiosyncratic risk by studying the possible relationship between the two. The research also uses the novel methodology of applying content analysis to earnings call transcripts, which is uncommon in finance research.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 47 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 11 July 2023

Mariusz Soltanifar, Mathew Hughes, Gina O’Connor, Jeffrey G. Covin and Nadine Roijakkers

While extant literature has advanced our understanding of senior and middle managers in corporate entrepreneurship, studies have only recently attended to the role of…

2549

Abstract

Purpose

While extant literature has advanced our understanding of senior and middle managers in corporate entrepreneurship, studies have only recently attended to the role of non-managerial employees (NMEs). These organizational members bring ideas, resources and energy to the pursuit of innovative opportunities, yet the determinants of their entrepreneurial behavior are poorly understood.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors performed a systematical literature review on the subject of NMEs in corporate entrepreneurship to identify gaps and recommend an agenda for future research.

Findings

The review revealed gaps regarding (1) the distance of NMEs from decisions on corporate strategic intent, (2) agentic choices made by NMEs to use their subject matter expertise for their employers' benefit, and the influences of (3) job characteristics and (4) organizational infrastructural support of entrepreneurial behavior.

Originality/value

The authors present a theoretical framework and directions for future research.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 29 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 November 2018

Enrico Colla, Maria Eugenia Ruiz-Molina, Catherine Chastenet De Gery, Maryline Schultz, Martine Deparis and Laurence Lemmet

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of participative franchising on performance from the franchisee perspective. In particular, the paper analyses the impact of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of participative franchising on performance from the franchisee perspective. In particular, the paper analyses the impact of the franchisee autonomy – in human resource management and marketing decisions – affective commitment to the network and network innovativeness on the franchisee relative performance.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey answered by 226 franchisees in France allowed to estimate a structural equations model through partial least squares regression analysis to test the hypothesised relations between autonomy, affective commitment, innovativeness and performance.

Findings

According to the authors’ findings, franchisee’s autonomy in commercial policies, mediated by to franchisor’s ability to innovate and acknowledge innovations stemming from the franchisees, and the affective commitment to the network, emerge as strong determinants of the franchisee’s performance.

Research limitations/implications

The results confirm the conclusions of other research, but extend and integrate them, providing evidence that the role of participative franchising should not be neglected.

Practical implications

The results obtained provide evidence about the importance of bidirectional communication instruments in the relations between franchisor and franchisee, and participation tools for the identification, recognition and support to the innovative successful practices developed by franchisees to be quickly implemented by other franchisees in the network.

Originality/value

This paper looks at franchisee autonomy, affective commitment and innovativeness as potential determinants of franchisee’s performance, being the latter an underexplored topic.

Details

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 47 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-0552

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 6000