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This paper aims to examine the effect of financial bootstrapping strategies (FBS) and strategic improvisation (SI) on business performance (BP). The study enriches our understanding of the contributions of bootstrapping and improvisation strategies toward resource-constrained small businesses during real economic downturns and crises. The potential moderating effect of SI on the relationship between FBS and its dimensions and performance were also examined.

Using the convenience snowball sampling technique, data were collected from entrepreneurs in Tripoli, Libya. Structural equation modeling by means of partial least square bootstrapping resampling was used for the hypotheses testing of the 147 useable responses.

Statistically significant positive relationships were found in the direct relationships between bootstrapping and improvisation with performance. However, there was no significant association found between the delaying payment related bootstrapping and the owner-related bootstrapping with performance. The moderating effect of improvisation had a significant relationship between bootstrapping as an aggregate construct and its dimensions and performance.

Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study which used a small sample that was randomly selected, generalization to the entire population of business ventures should be made with caution.

The negative moderation effect of improvisation on FBS-BP association suggests that entrepreneurs need to be careful in balancing the two strategies so that efforts are no wasted.

While business performance has been studied in various organizations, its examination with financial bootstrapping strategies as a predictor and strategic improvisation as a moderator contribute nascent theoretical insights.

The aim of this paper is to make sense of the “funding gap” by exploring how and why informal entrepreneurial finance is made available to entrepreneurs. By challenging the epistemological and ontological assumptions of the “funding gap”, an enactment perspective of entrepreneurial finance, supported by a social constructionist stance, is proposed in this paper.

The study on which this paper reports was conducted through a longitudinal fieldwork process. Networks in two Chinese cities, Shanghai and Hong Kong, were chosen because of their differences in institutional context yet exceptionally high level of entrepreneurial activities.

This paper highlights the active role entrepreneurs play in managing their financial needs in the process of new venture creation. The results show that entrepreneurs are actively managing the demand as well as supply of entrepreneurial finance to narrow the “funding gap”. Furthermore, individuals work to fill the funding gap by creating required start‐up capital. In other words, the “funding gap” is not static or concrete; rather it is dynamic, manageable and in many cases is within individuals' power and ability to overcome.

The findings of this paper are particularly important to all stakeholders, including policy makers, educators, researchers, entrepreneurs and nascent entrepreneurs.

This paper contributes to the conceptual, methodological and practical knowledge in advancing understanding of the “funding gap”. First, it provides insight into the relationship between entrepreneurs and their environment that shapes the “funding gap”. Second, the findings suggested that a positive, supportive enterprise culture can be particularly useful in driving individuals towards entrepreneurship. Third, in terms of methodology, the author argues that an “inside‐looking‐lout”, interpretive, multi‐stage fieldwork and network as unit of analysis is particularly distinctive in revealing the complex process of managing entrepreneurial finance in the process of new venture creation.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Entrepreneurship is key to economic revivals after significant downturns. Financial bootstrapping can be a method of boosting entrepreneurial success.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This study examines the significance of the hybrid offerings of servitization by manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study also examines why and how hybrid offerings matter for manufacturing SMEs. The study also investigates the moderating role of risk-taking ability (RA) and technology turbulence (TT) on manufacturing SMEs' performance.

This study has used literature from the areas of servitization, hybrid offerings and internationalization related to SMEs. Also, with the help of theories and literature, a model has been developed conceptually. This model has been validated using a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique on survey data collected from manufacturing SMEs.

This study finds the significance of manufacturing SMEs' servitization for internationalization effort. Also, this study highlights the moderating impacts of RA and TT on the performance of manufacturing SMEs.

This study provides valuable inputs to the management of SMEs, especially practitioners that are involved in formulating strategies for hybrid offerings, including servitization activities for the manufacturing SMEs. This study also contributes to the overall body of literature on hybrid offering and servitization.

The study adds values to the overall body of literature for both servitization and internationalization. This study focuses mainly on the significance of hybrid offerings, including servitization by the manufacturing SMEs. Few studies have dealt with such hybrid offerings by manufacturing SMEs as part of the SMEs' internationalization effort. Thus, this study can be considered unique. Moreover, the study investigates the moderating role of RA and TT for SME performance, which adds value toward the body of knowledge in the extant literature.

This study aims to analyze the effect of entrepreneurs’ improvisational behavior on business risk-taking and opportunity recognition, as well as to analyze its subsequent impact on firm performance. Moreover, this study examined whether the effect of entrepreneurs’ improvisational behavior on business risk-taking and opportunity recognition could be moderated by firm size and the business experience of entrepreneurs.

Online survey data were collected from 304 firms in Thailand that were randomly selected from a business directory. The data were assessed using partial least squares structural modeling.

The results confirmed that entrepreneurs who exhibited high levels of improvisational behavior tended to report that their firms engaged more actively in risk-taking and opportunity recognition. Moreover, risk-taking and opportunity recognition played a chain mediating effect in explaining the association between the improvisational behavior of entrepreneurs and firm performance. Regarding the moderating effects, this paper found that firm size negatively moderated the effect of improvisational behavior on risk-taking and opportunity recognition, while business experience of entrepreneurs only positively moderated the effect of improvisational behavior on risk-taking.

This study provided new knowledge by showing that improvisational behavior of entrepreneurs should be integrated with other firm advantages determined by firm size and the business experience of entrepreneurs to strengthen the ability to be more effective at risk-taking and opportunity recognition.

Social Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship modules of undergraduate programs. The case was developed for undergraduate students taking courses or modules on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and social entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on how social enterprises evolve in emerging markets. It may also be used to teach MBA students taking similar courses.

This case highlights the challenges NGOs face in emerging markets and provides motivation for transitioning into social entrepreneurship. The setting of the case is Nigeria where the World Bank estimates the poverty rate to be about 46 per cent. Innovative solutions, especially those originating from socially oriented organisations, are desperately needed to overcome the myriad social challenges facing Nigeria, all of which are direct or indirect consequences of poverty. Social entrepreneurship is gradually becoming a viable career option, especially as interested organisations absorb the teeming graduates from Nigerian universities, thereby themselves contributing to the mitigation of the undesirable consequences of unemployment. NGOs that primarily relied on donors are also beginning to look inwards because of the harsh economic climate in the country. With donors gradually reducing and, in some instances, withdrawing financial support, NGOs may have to look to other options for raising the needed capital to achieve set goals. Beginning in 2008, and driven primarily by spiritual and altruistic ideals, Tolulope Sangosanya (Tolu) walked the filthy streets of Ajegunle, a notorious ghetto in Lagos, where the inhabitants lived in shanties built on heaps of refuse. Shortly after that, she established an NGO – LOTS Charity Foundation – supported mainly by generous donors and her small-scale trading business. LOTS, an acronym for Love on The Streets, began to care for the physical and educational needs of the residents of this slum that she named Dustbin Estate. Though LOTS would go on to feed and educate hundreds of children, in December 2014, a major donor cancelled two weeks before a major charity event – Christmas For Every Family. This dealt a devastating blow to Tolu’s efforts, and she had to seriously consider how the organisation would continue to sustain itself in the future. Faced with mounting challenges, she began contemplating either giving up or transforming the Foundation into a full-fledged social enterprise capable of financing its activities.

The key learning points from the case study are as follows: to understand the dilemma NGOs in Nigeria (and perhaps some other emerging markets), face, and how transitioning into a social enterprise may become a viable option. To analyse the impact of social–cultural and economic context under which NGOs operate and how social enterprises evolve in emerging markets. To identify the key determinants of entrepreneurial behaviour and some of the business skills needed to resolve social problems successfully in developing countries. To explicate the key theories and concepts underlying the case study: the asset-based community development and social bricolage theories.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This research examines whether mentoring is a predictor of entrepreneurial intentions. It also explores how intent translates into action through implementation intentions. The study tests if the mentoring-intentions association is mediated by self-efficacy. The potential moderating effect of achievement motivation on the relationship was also investigated.

PLS-SEM was used to test the hypotheses of the 242 valid responses collected from final-year students from Libyan public universities.

Results show that self-efficacy partially mediated the mentoring-intentions association, while motivation negatively moderated the relationship. Entrepreneurial intentions had a significantly strong effect on implementation intentions.

The results verify mentoring as a practical socializing instructional approach. Therefore, universities should implement structured mentoring programs, offering emotional guidance, counsel and networking opportunities. Also, mentors should undergo training, and progress tracking is essential for improvement.

Examining entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediator and achievement motivation as a moderator in the mentoring-intentions association is unprecedented. The findings narrow the search for antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions and pinpoint intervention points.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate relationships between financial condition and the use of bootstrapping in small firms.

A total of 901 manufacturing firms were selected from a comprehensive financial database containing income statement and balance sheet records. Surveys were sent to each of these firms and 186 firms returned usable surveys. Survey responses on bootstrapping techniques were compared with financial data for these 186 firms. Both the initial financial status and the financial status of these firms two years later were analyzed.

The results indicate that highly levered, illiquid, and underperforming firms were more likely to use certain bootstrapping methods than other firms, and that the methods they used may have been detrimental to future firm performance.

The findings support a resource dependence model and raise questions as to why financially constrained firms chose to use particular bootstrapping methods. Generalizability of the study is limited due to the homogeneous sample of manufacturing firms and due to the sample and recall biases associated with surveys.

Small business owners should understand the options available for bootstrapping as well as the importance of proactive as opposed to reactive financial strategy.

This is one of the first empirical studies that investigates the relationship between financial condition and bootstrapping, and it provides insight into how and when small firms bootstrap as well as some potential implications of bootstrapping on firm outcomes.

Bootstrapping is a practitioner-based term adopted in entrepreneurship to describe the techniques employed in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to minimise the need for external funding by securing resources at little or no cost and applying strategies to effectively use resources. Working capital management (WCM) is a term used in financial management to define a set of practices used to manage business resources, including cash management. This paper explores the overlap and divergence between these two disciplinary distinct concepts.

A dual methodology is employed. First, the usage of the two terms in prior literature is analysed and synthesised. Second, the study uses factor analysis to explore how bootstrapping practices described by owners of 167 established MSMEs relate to the components of WCM in financial management.

The factor analysis identifies two main bootstrapping practices employed by MSMEs: (1) delaying payments and owner-related bootstrapping and (2) customer-related bootstrapping. Delaying payments is an integral practice in trade payables management and customer-related bootstrapping includes practices that are integral to trade receivables management. Therefore, links between bootstrapping practices and WCM practices are firmly established.

The study is not without limitations. Based on cross-sectional evidence for established firms in Ireland only, future studies could explore cross-country longitudinal panel data to fully examine life cycle and sectoral effects, as well as other external shocks (for example, COVID-19) on bootstrapping and WCM practices. This study does not explain why some factors (for example, joint utilisation and inventory management) are present in some bootstrapping studies and not in others; further case study research might help explain this. Finally, changes in the business environment facing start-ups and established enterprise, including increased digitalisation, online trading, self-employment, remote hub working and sustainability, offer new avenues for bootstrapping research.

This is the first study to comprehensively explore the conceptual and empirical links between bootstrapping and WCM. This study will enable researchers and practitioners in these two distinct disciplines to learn from each other. Accounting researchers and practitioners can broaden their understanding of how WCM “works” in MSME settings. Similarly, entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners can deepen their understanding of how bootstrapping can be adopted by businesses to manage resources effectively.

This study aims to provide one of the first empirical investigations of market efficiency for developed markets during the recent global financial crisis.

Using the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) country indices as proxies for national stock markets, the study conducts a battery of econometric tests in assessing weak-form market efficiency for the developed markets.

The inferential outcomes are consistent among the different tests. Specifically, the study finds that the majority of developed markets are weak-form efficient while the USA is the sole equity market to be commonly diagnosed as weak-form inefficient across the different tests when using full period data spanning the January 2008-November 2011 period. However, when basing the analysis on one-year subsamples over the identical time period, this study fails to reject weak-form market efficiency for all of the developed markets and presents evidence consistent with the Adaptive Market Hypothesis as described by Urquhart and Hudson (2013). When applying technical analysis for the case of the USA over the full study period, the results indicate that the return predictabilities can be exploited for some horizon of variable length moving average (VMA) trading rules.

This study provides one of the first empirical investigations of market efficiency for developed markets during the recent global financial crisis using an extended set of econometric tests. The study contributes to the existing body of empirical research that formally assesses the impact of a financial crisis on stock market efficiency and underlines the significance and relevance of examining market efficiency through subsample analysis.