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The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial passion for founding firms (EPFF) and persistence in venture start-ups and to examine the mediating role of searching and scanning alertness, association and connection alertness and evaluation and judgment alertness (i.e. entrepreneurial alertness).

Using a three-way parallel mediation involving searching and scanning alertness, association and connection alertness and evaluation and judgment alertness, on data from 342 serial entrepreneurs from Nigeria, the authors examined the influence of EPFF on persistence in venture start-ups, through a parallel mediation involving searching and scanning alertness, association and connection alertness and evaluation and judgment alertness.

The authors find that EPFF was not significantly related (positive) to persistence in venture start-ups, but that searching and scanning alertness, association and connection alertness and evaluation and judgment alertness mediated the path through which EPFF impacts persistence in venture start-ups. Thus, entrepreneurial alertness is relevant in explaining the relationship between EPFF and persistence in venture start-ups in Nigeria.

The findings of this study highlight the relevance of EPFF and alertness in explaining persistence in venture start-ups in Nigeria.

This study aims to explore how to overcome and address the loss of exploratory innovation, thereby achieving greater success in exploratory innovation. This phenomenon of loss occurs when enterprises decrease their investment in and engagement with exploratory innovation, ultimately leading to an insufficient amount of such innovation efforts. Drawing on dynamic capabilities, this study investigates the relationship between organizational foresight and exploratory innovation and examines the moderating role of breakthrough orientation/financial orientation.

This study used survey data collected from 296 Chinese high-tech companies in multiple industries and sectors.

The evidence produced by this study reveals that three elements of organizational foresight (i.e. environmental scanning capabilities, strategic selection capabilities and integrating capabilities) positively influence exploratory innovation. Furthermore, this positive effect is strengthened in the context of a high-breakthrough orientation. Moreover, the relationships among environmental scanning capabilities, strategic selection capabilities and exploratory innovation become weaker as an enterprise’s financial orientation increases, whereas a strong financial orientation does not affect the relationship between integrating capabilities and exploratory innovation.

Ambidexterity is key to successful enterprise innovation. Compared with exploitative innovation, it is by no means easy to engage in exploratory innovation, which is especially important in high-tech companies. While the loss of exploratory innovation has been observed, few empirical studies have explored ways to promote exploratory innovation more effectively. A key research implication of this study pertains to the role of organizational foresight in the improvement of exploratory innovation in the context of high-tech companies.

This paper contributes to the broader literature on exploratory innovation and organizational foresight and provides practical guidance for high-tech companies regarding ways of avoiding the loss of exploratory innovation and becoming more successful at exploratory innovation.

This chapter addresses one of the most crucial areas for critical thinking: the morality of turbulent markets around the world. All of us are overwhelmed by such turbulent markets. Following Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2004, 2010), we distinguish between nonscalable industries (ordinary professions where income grows linearly, piecemeal or by marginal jumps) and scalable industries (extraordinary risk-prone professions where income grows in a nonlinear fashion, and by exponential jumps and fractures). Nonscalable industries generate tame and predictable markets of goods and services, while scalable industries regularly explode into behemoth virulent markets where rewards are disproportionately large compared to effort, and they are the major causes of turbulent financial markets that rock our world causing ever-widening inequities and inequalities. Part I describes both scalable and nonscalable markets in sufficient detail, including propensity of scalable industries to randomness, and the turbulent markets they create. Part II seeks understanding of moral responsibility of turbulent markets and discusses who should appropriate moral responsibility for turbulent markets and under what conditions. Part III synthesizes various theories of necessary and sufficient conditions for accepting or assigning moral responsibility. We also analyze the necessary and sufficient conditions for attribution of moral responsibility such as rationality, intentionality, autonomy or freedom, causality, accountability, and avoidability of various actors as moral agents or as moral persons. By grouping these conditions, we then derive some useful models for assigning moral responsibility to various entities such as individual executives, corporations, or joint bodies. We discuss the challenges and limitations of such models.

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) and the dynamic capabilities view (DCV), this study investigates how circular economy entrepreneurship (CEE) drives technical capabilities (TC) in achieving greater circular economy (CE) performance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under the moderating influence of environmental dynamism. SMEs, facing resource constraints, need to promote CE due to growing stakeholder pressures. Thus, the authors recommend that SMEs via CEE can identify CE opportunities and then develop specific TC to exploit opportunities in the business environment to achieve CE performance. However, in doing so SMEs should pay attention to the varying degrees of environmental dynamism.

The RBV and DCV are used as a theoretical lens to investigate the direct and moderation effects between CEE, TC, CE performance and environmental dynamism tested via partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using survey data from 152 managers of SMEs in Nepal.

The study results show that CEE directly has a positive and significant effect on the development of TC and CE performance. Similarly, the development of TC drives SMEs to achieve improved CE performance, as evidenced by the positive and significant effect. Interestingly, the results suggest that environmental dynamism significantly improves the relationship between TC and CE performance, but this effect is strongest at high levels of environmental dynamism rather than at low and moderate levels. Additionally, the findings reveal that while environmental dynamism has a positive effect on the relationship between CEE and TC, this effect is insignificant.

Based on the arguments of the RBV and the DCV, this study explores how environmental dynamism can reduce and amplify SMEs' ability to use CEE to develop TC and improve CEP. First, this study integrates the circular economy and entrepreneurship domains to suggest essential CEP and TC benefits for SMEs via CEE. Second, this study suggests that at low levels of environmental dynamism, CEE has less effect on the SMEs’ development of TC, compared to high levels. Third, this study is conducted in the novel institutional context of Nepal, providing insights regarding how SMEs' CE entrepreneurship impacts TC and CEP.

The globalisation of markets, emerging concepts of sustainable development, and circular economy have defined the boundaries within which organisations must compete and address the needs of key stakeholders. As circumstances change, boundaries are often replaced by the relationships between companies and the communities they serve. Consequently, strategy has become a central aspect of sustainable leadership and the foundation for implementing strategic management in a dynamic system of relationships. Every company is born and grows within social and economic ecosystems. Drawing on the metaphor of biology, ecosystems are described as dynamic interconnections among various elements that influence and foster entrepreneurship. Interconnections between players (such as marketplaces, organisations, governments, and universities) create a flow of expertise, abilities, knowledge, experience, and tangible resources. Economic and social ecosystems involve various actors and components that continuously coexist and interact, leading to the creation of numerous mutual relationships. Consequently, it is crucial for managers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the internal and external environments. Various decision-making tools and strategies can be used to achieve this goal. These tools were developed to assist managers, researchers, and consultants in making informed decisions under complex scenarios. This chapter presents several decision-making strategies and tools, including the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix, General Electric (GE) matrix, Balanced Scorecard (BSC), PEST, PESTEL analysis, and SWOT analysis.

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.

This conceptual article presents a schematic for use with extended cybernetic recursion in living systems and applies it to the issue of hyper vigilance as a demonstration of its utility.

The test-operate-test-exit (TOTE) schematic of Miller et al. (1960) is critically evaluated along with other schematics, including those of ordered cybernetics, and a new schematic is proposed, a recursive test-operate-test (rTOT), which emphasizes teleological purpose and hierarchical structure. The background psychophysiology of trauma is reviewed and then rTOT is applied to hyper vigilance, a cardinal component of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Once the schematic was developed, it was applied to the behavior of hyper vigilance. Other applications are suggested.

As demonstrated, the rTOT schematic has potentially wide application because of its pragmatic and detailed structure.

The rTOT requires careful consideration of teleological purposes for its application and is simple enough, but also complex enough, for relevant utilization. Its compact nature and adjustable hierarchy scope are good mini-max complexity solutions for cybernetic, information modeling schematics.

The revealed teleological purpose of the trauma adaptation of hyper vigilance presents significant alternative formulation options for prevention and intervention.

While the rTOT schematic is derived from previous schematics, it is original in its emphasis on information processing, the teleological aspects of extended recursion and on the provision of a hierarchical structure for those recursions. It is considerably more compact than other schematics associated with the ordered cybernetics literature. The explication of the adaptation model for post-trauma consequences is significantly enhanced by the rTOT application.

This paper aims to draw on the Dynamic Capabilities View to discuss how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) use digital technologies to develop digital capabilities that will enable them to change their current business model and trajectory, that is, to pivot-within turbulent environments, and subsequently to survive and grow.

The authors collected and analysed qualitative data from 26 SMEs in South-East England that have used digital technologies to pivot during the pandemic. The data was collected via in-depth semi-structured interviews. The authors analysed the data by creating first-order concepts, second-order themes, and aggregating dimensions.

The findings suggest that (1) digital technologies enable pivoting by facilitating the creation of the following digital capability types: “digital sensing”, “digital seizing” and “digital transforming”; (2) Each of these digital capability types is underpinned by micro-foundations (sub-capabilities) and shaped by the digital culture of the organisation. (3) these capabilities are triggered by the turbulent environment and the existing digital technologies, and are shaped by the digital culture.

The authors contribute to the literature of digital entrepreneurship as the authors illustrate (1) how the micro-foundations of digital capabilities, as facilitated by digital technologies, assist pivoting; and (2) the process from key activities during pivoting to second-order themes that represent micro-foundations to digital (dynamic) capabilities for pivoting in turbulent environments. The study highlights the importance of digital pivoting for businesses in the UK Southeast that have many aspirations for growth and innovation, whilst striving to address multiple challenges including digital divide and literacy, inflation and cost of living crisis, as well as supply chain issues.

This paper investigates how companies become resilient to supply chain (SC) piracy through using transactional and relational governance mechanisms to develop strategies effective in environments characterized by weak regulative institutions and mistrust.

This study developed case studies of nine large manufacturers with operations in Brazil.

The companies employed transactional and relational governance mechanisms to learn from past incidents, anticipate, and respond to the threat of SC piracy, becoming more resilient over time. Transactional governance mechanisms reduced risk triggers through technology, while relational governance mechanisms enhanced trust between SC and non-SC members, allowing the members to build social capital.

The authors provide practical guidance for managers and policymakers in developing risk management strategies based on technology and collaboration to reduce SC piracy in environments characterized by mistrust.

SC piracy is a serious problem for global operations and SCs in many low-cost manufacturing locations. Besides the cost and service level consequences, the authors also highlight worker safety consequences, including the potential for kidnapping, psychological trauma, injuries, and death.

This study focuses on the little-researched topic of SC piracy. The authors examine the negative effects of a weak institutional environment, while most prior research focuses on the positive effects of a strong institutional environment. The authors position transactional and relational governance mechanisms as essential elements of SC risk resilience.

The aim of this paper is to answer the question: What stimulates artisan entrepreneurs to act as responsible leaders?

A qualitative research method was employed and semi-structured interviews with 30 artisans working in four different artisanal activities were used to gather the data. Thematic analysis was subsequently applied to the interview transcripts.

The findings suggest that the main factors causing artisan entrepreneurs to act responsibly are as follows: autonomy (the authority artisans exercise in managing their businesses; preserving socio-cultural identity is an artisan’s main duty; proving an individual competency in implementing society-related priorities), competence (adhering to generally accepted business practices; simplicity of developing and maintaining the social agenda of artisan enterprises; meeting the clients’ desire in exercising a social awareness) and relatedness (returning social favours; necessitating involvement with different stakeholders; contributing to the common good).

This paper contributes by filling a gap in the literature on artisan entrepreneurship, responsible leadership and research in tourism and hospitality, in which empirical studies on the responsible practices of artisan entrepreneurs have been limited so far.