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Transitional entrepreneurship in distressed economies is a fairly new concept with respect to new ventures in such challenging economic environments. Formal institutional voids are sometimes held up as a reason for the difficulties present in distressed economies, along with exogenous shocks and other upheavals. In this research, the authors seek to contribute empirically and theoretically as to ways in which formal institutions voids can be filled by a culture developed by transitional entrepreneurs. Indeed, in transition economies, formal institutions need to be enhanced by informal institutions to control corruption and other misbehavior by authorities. Iranian economists emphasize these essential reforms to be able to manage current difficulties, yet top down policies cannot help transitional entrepreneurs benefit from the country’s value-adding cultural heritage to informally address this. To study this, qualitative research methods were used to interpret transitional entrepreneurs’ ideology and ethical routines as the ingredients of a commercial culture that can establish soft law that substitutes for formal institutions. This helps to reduce the disfunctionality of formal institutions in distressed economies.

A thematic analysis interviewing key Iranian entrepreneurs and economists is conducted. Also based on an interpretive paradigm, a hermeneutic cycle has been carried out on selected texts. Results have been verified throughout related literature as to come up with a solid synthesized interpreted outcome.

This paper contributes to theory from a new perspective by discussing transitional entrepreneurship and navigating a distressed economy; in which, ideology and ethics as the ingredients of soft law (Newman and Posner, 2018) are discussed as the base to further develop a commercial culture that fills voids of formal institutions. The formal–informal institutional cycle in distressed economies as the major difficulty entrepreneurs face (Peng and Luo, 2000) is important, because they try to increasingly enhance their move toward a market orientation (Bruton et al., 2008). The authors contribute as to how transitional entrepreneurs can complete this process of adaptation and also the fact that those informal institutions do actually respond to those adaptations. The other contribution is to enrich theories about institutions from the point of view of culture. Knowing these facts helps transitional entrepreneurs, because in distressed communities, formal institutions’ function has an important effect on economic performance (Amorós, 2009). This research’s contributions shed light to help government leaders understand the pros and cons of their actions forced on the industry. As it has been characterized in this research, it can turn in to new formal set of legitimacies (Ahlstrom et al., 2008) to root out corruption and help set the economy on a path to innovation and new venture creation.

Transitional entrepreneurs can depend on the less formal cultural-cognitive aspect of ethics and ideology. These entrepreneurs can be working on the burgeoning private sector, who want to connect with the outside effectively to overcome an economy in distress. Transitional entrepreneurs may face governmental institutional intermediaries as a barrier. Formal intermediaries tend to benefit from inefficiencies caused by hierarchal orders and will improve informality in order to overcome difficulties. In this research, institutional theory from the third pillar of the cultural-cognitive sheds light on transitional entrepreneurship in distressed economies, where inquiry is to fill voids of formal institutions as a process of possible linking between new generated soft law derived by beliefs, ideology and professional morality in order to influence (old) legitimacies. The research’s focus evolves on values transitional entrepreneurs utilize to build informal institutions and then impact further on formal institutions to handle distressed communities. This theoretical background expands on subsections to define conceptual building blocks for the study, essential aspects such as individuals as transitional entrepreneurs, the values they utilize to generate soft law, informal institutions and soft law, to manage voids in formal institutions and legitimacy building aspects in policy agenda setting for transitional entrepreneurship in distressed economies.

This study aims to explore the role played by a formal cluster initiative in supporting small firms' internationalization processes. Taking a public–private interaction perspective, this study aims to understand interaction mechanisms within an internationalization project implemented by a formal cluster initiative.

This study uses a qualitative approach based on a case study of a Swedish formal cluster initiative involved in an internationalization project. The case is analyzed through the industrial marketing and purchasing approach, relying on the Actors–Resources–Activities (ARA) framework.

The analysis highlights the role of formal clusters as supporters and “accelerators” of internationalization processes. Based on the ARA framework, the roles of the public and private actors emerge: the cluster plays the role of orchestrator, supporter and financer, while on the businesses' side, participants assumed the role of customers, displaying various degrees of interest and commitment and giving rise to a leader–follower pattern. Activities occurred at multiple levels, interorganizational, intraproject, interprojects, through different timings and typologies. The main resources at stake were the combination of knowledge, complementary capabilities and financial incentives.

This empirical study provides novel empirical evidence and theoretical development over the phenomenon of formal clusters. This study contributes to the current debate on public–private interaction mechanisms and to the upgrading and circulation of international business knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively examine the influence of formal and informal institutional differences on enterprise investment margin, mode and result.

This paper is based on 2,440 micro samples of large-scale outbound investment from 609 Chinese enterprises from the years 2005 to 2016.

The study has found that formal institutional differences have little impact on investment scale, but significantly affect investment diversification. In order to avoid the management risks brought by formal institutional differences, enterprises tend to a full ownership structure. However, the choice between greenfield investment and cross-border mergers and acquisitions is not affected by formal institutional differences. In contrast, the impact of informal institutional differences is more extensive. Both formal and informal institutional differences significantly increase the probability of investment failure. Further research found that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) bridges the formal institutional differences.

The study concludes that developing the BRI, especially cultural exchanges with countries alongside the Belt and Road, will help enterprises to “go global” faster and better.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between control mechanisms and marketing performance based on a sample of marketing managers. To that end, this paper focuses on the relationship between the types of controls used in marketing and the market and business results.

This study collected the data through a survey among marketing professionals with experience and decision-making capacity involving marketing budgets and plans, in practical terms a sample of 97 marketing managers and analyzed the data via a structural equation model using Smart PLS 3.

The findings confirm that marketing control mechanisms have a significant impact on business results, demonstrating the relationship of formal controls with market results and the relationship between informal controls with financial results. Likewise, the authors were able to prove that there is a relationship between formal and informal control.

The implementation of the control mechanisms should be based on the development of a detailed evaluation system of the activities carried out by the marketing employees and an analysis of their capabilities and abilities. In addition, managers should integrate formal control decisions into their marketing strategy to improve organizational results.

The results of this study help explain the relationship between marketing control mechanisms and organizational results and allow to understand what the level of influence is that marketing control mechanisms have on market and financial results.

Examinar la relación entre los mecanismos de control y los resultados a partir de una muestra de directores de marketing. Con ese fin, el documento se centra en la relación entre los tipos de controles utilizados en marketing y los resultados de mercado y financieros.

Los datos fueron recolectados a través de una encuesta entre profesionales del marketing con experiencia y capacidad de toma de decisiones sobre presupuestos y planes de marketing. Contando con una muestra de 97 gerentes de marketing. Los datos se analizaron mediante un modelo de ecuación estructural (SEM) utilizando Smart PLS 3.

Se confirma el impacto significativo de los mecanismos de control de marketing sobre los resultados organizacionales, demostrando la relación del control formal con los resultados de mercado, y la relación entre el control informal con los resultados financieros. Asimismo, se pudo comprobar que existe una relación entre el control formal e informal.

Los resultados ayudan a explicar la relación entre los mecanismos de control de marketing y los resultados organizacionales, y permiten comprender cuál es el nivel de influencia que tienen los mecanismos de control de marketing sobre los resultados de mercado y los financieros.

La implementación de los mecanismos de control debe basarse en el desarrollo de un sistema de evaluación detallado de las actividades realizadas por los empleados de marketing y un análisis de sus capacidades y habilidades. Además, los gerentes deben integrar las decisiones de control formal en su estrategia de marketing para mejorar los resultados organizacionales.

Control formal, Control informal, Resultados de mercado, Resultados financieros, Departamento de marketing, Calidad del producto, Cobertura de mercado, Precio relativo, Valor de la marca, Lealtad, Marketing digital

Tipo de artículo – Trabajo de investigacion

基于对营销经理的抽样调查, 研究控制机制与营销业绩之间的关系。为此, 本文着重研究了市场营销中使用的控制类型与市场和经营结果之间的关系。

我们通过对具有涉及营销预算和计划的经验和决策能力的营销专业人员的调查来收集数据, 实际上是对97名营销经理的抽样调查, 并通过使用Smart PLS 3的结构方程模型（SEM）来分析数据。

研究结果证实, 营销控制机制对商业结果有重大影响, 证明了正式控制与市场结果的关系, 以及非正式控制与财务结果的关系。同样, 我们也能够证明正式控制和非正式控制之间存在着关系。

本研究的结果有助于解释营销控制机制与组织结果之间的关系, 使我们能够了解营销控制机制对市场和财务结果的影响程度如何。

控制机制的实施应该建立在对营销员工所进行的活动制定详细的评估体系, 以及对他们的能力和水平进行分析的基础上。此外, 管理者应将正式的控制决策纳入其营销战略, 以提高组织结果。

正式控制；非正式控制；市场结果；财务结果；营销部门；产品质量；市场覆盖率；相对价格；品牌价值；忠诚度；数字营销

纸张类型 – 研究论文

In the developing countries, formal credit has dominant role for the development of agriculture sector. It increases the farmer's purchasing power for better farm inputs and agricultural technology for high crop productivity. The main purpose of this study is to examine the influence of socioeconomic characteristics of smallholder farmers for credit demand in Sindh, Pakistan.

A cross-sectional data set randomly collected from 90 smallholder farmers in Thatta district, Sindh, Pakistan, is examined. Descriptive statistics, correlation and the OLS regression method were used to demonstrate the important factors affecting the demand for formal credit.

The results revealed that formal education, experience of farming, landholding size, road access and extension contacts positively and significantly influenced the demand for formal credit.

This study is the first, to the best of authors' knowledge, to demonstrate the influence of various socioeconomic characteristics of smallholder farmers on demand for formal credit in Sindh, Pakistan. It also illustrates the imperative contribution to the literature regarding credit access and demand to improve the agricultural productivity.

The purpose of this study is to address a timely research question by clarifying whether formal planning is a worthy approach for hotels. In so doing, the authors developed a theoretical model that extends prior research by exploring how the formal planning process influences organizational capabilities and decision-making style. The model also examines the impact of the three identified factors on planning effectiveness.

Data were collected from 175 hotels located in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The study concludes that the practice of formal planning in the tourism sector does matter and both organizational capabilities and decision-making style are important factors in predicting planning effectiveness.

Generalizations to organizations operating in other sectors, such as manufacturing or government sectors, should be drawn cautiously.

Taking into account oil price volatility and serious political crises in the region, this study provides several insights to hotel managers into how the formal planning process can influence planning effectiveness.

The findings enrich the debate on the role of formal planning in the tourism sector, which has been relatively devoid of similar studies.

Recent changes in the UK to the regulation and modes of work in the formal and informal economies are considered. Research in this field has tended to remain in silos (treating formal economy working conditions separately from research on the informal economy). The question is whether the means of work and benefits to the worker for formal and informal work are now as different as the former images of formal and informal economy work imply under a “jobs-for-life” economy. The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the current aim of government regulation of the informal economy – to formalise it – is actually of benefit to workers, as might be supposed.

This paper considers recent research findings on the formal and informal economy, using official government statistics for the UK and more detailed European studies on the informal economy.

This paper argues that formal employment in the UK is becoming more casualised, with less associated benefits to employees. Though it is still of benefit to the state to formalise informal work (to increase tax take), some of the links between formalisation and a good working environment for workers are being broken, which may lead to the informal economy becoming more popular and requiring different priorities in its regulation.

This paper argues that we need to change our assumptions and image of work in the formal economy, compared to that in the informal economy.

This study examines the connection between different digital-twin characteristics and organizational control. Specifically, the study aims to examine whether the digital-twin characteristics exploration, guidance and gamification will affect formal and social control.

The study is based on an analysis of survey results from 139 respondents comprising applied university students who use digital twins.

The results offer an interesting contribution to the literature. The authors consider the digital-twin characteristics exploration, guidance and gamification and investigate their contribution to two types of organizational controls: formal and social. The results show that two characteristics, exploration and gamification, affect the extent to which digital twins can be utilized for social control. Exploration and guidance’s role is significant concerning the extent to which digital twins can be utilized for formal control.

This study contributes to literature by considering multiple digital-twin characteristics and their contribution to two different control outcomes. First, it diverges from previous technical-oriented research by investigating digital twins in a human context. Second, the study is the first to examine digital twins’ effects from an organizational control perspective systematically.

During the transition from socialist to post-socialist regimes, many Central and Eastern Europe societies have developed a broad sector of informal work. This development has caused substantial economic and social problems. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper aims to answer two questions regarding European countries with a relatively weak economy and welfare state: what are the differences in the social characteristics between workers in formal and informal employment? And how might they be explained? According to the main assumption, a key reason why people work in undeclared employment in such countries is that they are in particularly vulnerable positions in the labour market. This paper uses the example of Moldova. The empirical study is based on a unique survey data set from the National Statistical Office of Moldova covering formal and informal employment.

The findings show that, in informal employment, workers in rural areas, workers with a low level of education, young workers and older workers – in the final years of their careers and after the age of retirement – are over-represented. It seems that a significant reason why these workers are often engaged in informal employment is the lack of alternatives in the labour market, particularly in rural areas, compounded by limited social benefits from unemployment benefits and pensions.

Research about social differences between workers in formal and informal employment in the countries of the European periphery is rare. This paper makes a new contribution to the theoretical debate and research regarding work in informal employment.

This paper aims to depart from the premise that human capital investments and human capital outcomes are often tacit – an aspect, which is often neglected in the current literature on entrepreneurial human capital. The idea of this conceptual paper is to shed light on the social process of how human capital investments and human capital outcomes can be valued and made visible through the validation of prior learning. Thus, this study conceptualises the validation of prior learning as a post hoc, the reflective process through which an aspiring entrepreneur is guided.

This paper is conceptual and introduces a process model.

Findings indicate that the process of the validation of prior learning is well-suitable to inform aspiring entrepreneurs of their investments into human capital and their human capital outcomes. The process results in a (partial) certified qualification that provides entrepreneurial legitimacy.

Thus far, the model is conceptual and should be validated via interviews and further empirical studies in the field.

Literature in the field of entrepreneurial human capital suggests that human capital outcomes are more important for success than inputs. Furthermore, context-specific knowledge, skills and abilities are more important than generalised outcomes. These findings have implications for the design of validation procedures.

Human capital has only been recently conceptualised as consisting of human capital investments and outcomes of human capital investment. However, thus far the literature falls short in acknowledging the tacit nature of human capital investments and human capital outcomes. This paper contributes a structured process of how human capital investments and human capital outcomes are linked and assessed. In so doing, this study extends a recent model of human capital investments and outputs (Marvel et al., 2016, p. 616).