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Gina Vega reviews The New Pioneers: The Men and Women Who Are Transforming the Workplace and Marketplace by Thomas Petzinger Jr.

Gina Vega interviews Jerry Ellis, Founder and CEO, Building #19

This article advances a conceptual typology delineating the differences and similarities between business- and social-sector new venture creators. Our classification scheme differentiates business and social entrepreneurs, considering characteristics of social entrepreneurs in a larger entrepreneurial context.Within a conceptual 2x2 typology based on two dimensions: drive (passion vs. business) and desired return (financial ROI vs. social ROI), we identify and classify 80 examples of new venture creators into one of the quadrants of an enterprise model of entrepreneurs. Preliminary results reveal similarities between social and traditional entrepreneurs and differentiate social entrepreneurs in terms of traits, goals, tendencies, and motivational sources.

David Hartstein started KaBloom in 1998 with the goal of creating “the Starbucks of Flowers.” He successfully built brand recognition for the gardenlike shops, but problems plagued the young organization. Nearly three years and one recession later, KaBloom failed to live up to Hartsteinʼs forecast of exponential growth. This case has been designed for a graduate-level course in entrepreneurship/innovation. Students can compare franchising with other business models, examine the impact of organizational structure and leadership styles on business effectiveness, relate issues of supply chain management and logistics to environmental changes, and recognize the impact of innovation on business sustainability.

Management control over production has often meant control over one means of production: people. There is evidence of the use of social isolation to control human behavior throughout recorded history. Traces the development of social isolation through the multiple lenses of management, economics, psychology, sociology, engineering technology, social psychology, and communication science and presents a taxonomy of perspectives for discussion. The taxonomy is further elucidated through the assignment and distribution of 13 organizational factors for both the objective state and subjective feelings of social isolation as linked to advances in telecommuting and other off‐site “open collar” work.

The purpose of this paper is to bring together a strategic choice perspective and an institutional perspective in order to address the key research questions: how do Russian founder-CEOs perceive the institutional environment when succession issues are taken into consideration?; how do the perceived characteristics of different formal and informal institutions affect the founder-CEO’s decision to delegate authority to a professional CEO?; and what are the main barriers to founder-CEO succession in threshold firms in emerging markets such as Russia?

Using a data set of 500 entrepreneurial companies from fast growing industries in Russia, the paper defines and studies threshold firms and analyses how various perceived characteristics of the institutional environment in emerging markets influence the likelihood of transition from founder management to professional management.

Institutional factors such as poor security of property rights and dependence of the business on relationships with government officials have a negative impact on the likelihood of founder-CEO succession in threshold firms in emerging markets. At the same time, the perception of contract law as insecure increases the likelihood of transition from founder management to professional management.

Most research on initial succession deals with internal organisational factors and does not consider external environments and their influence on founder-CEO departure and willingness to exit from company management. This study is unique in its focus on the external environment and institutional factors and their impact on management transitions in threshold firms in emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ability of Russian firms to develop strategic entrepreneurship (SE) as a source of sustainable competitive advantage in a turbulent and hostile business environment. It aims to suggest a model of SE that includes two components – exploration and exploitation – and to test this model on 500 Russian small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) which show the influence of these components on firm performance. It also aims to address one of the most fundamental questions confronting the international business (IB) field: “What determines the success and failure of firms around the world?”.

The paper presents empirical research with a regression analysis of 500 Russian SMEs operating in Moscow and St Petersburg in three major industries: information technologies and communications (ICT), hotels, restaurants, and cafes (HoReCa) and wholesale/retail.

The Russian firms show a positive influence of exploration and exploitation on firm performance. Moreover, the influence of specific elements of exploration and exploitation was analyzed and entrepreneurial values, investments in internal resources, knowledge management and developmental changes were determined to be significant factors constituting SE and having a positive relationship with firm performance.

The research is limited by its sample, which includes only three industries and the number of dependent variables tested. Further research can focus on other performance indicators, industries and different settings.

The paper contributes to the existing literature on entrepreneurship and IB in two ways. The theoretical contribution in entrepreneurship literature is linked to development and testing of the SE model. It also contributes to IB literature by proposing that SE is one of the possible sources for creating a successful firm in an emerging economy context such as in Russia.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the following expatriate issues as related to the hospitality industry, from the perspective of practitioners: the most important management skills hotel expatriates should possess, whether these skills vary by the country of origin of the expatriate and parent company, and the most effective cross‐cultural training activities provided by hotel companies.

Data for this exploratory study was obtained from a sample of 66 respondents from lodging organizations with membership in the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH & RA). Data was collected by means of self‐administered, web‐based surveys.

Participants in this study indicate that expatriate management skills vary in importance for hotel expatriates. The results of the analysis of variance demonstrate that the importance placed on the different expatriate management skills varies based on country of origin of both the expatriate and the parent company. Respondents and companies originating in different countries place more importance on certain expatriate management skills than others. Analyses also indicate that seven of nine cross‐cultural training activities provided by the parent company are perceived to be effective for the success of an expatriate assignment.

This study suggests that opportunities do exist for international hotel companies to better prepare hotel expatriates for foreign assignments by integrating more effectively issues of cultural awareness into their preparation programs. Additionally, although it may appear counter‐intuitive for a future expatriate to focus on the structure and processes of the home company before embarking on a foreign assignment, the results of this study suggest that such knowledge is very valuable.

While studies investigating expatriation management in the mainstream literature have been growing recently, only a handful of published studies have explored the issue in the hotel industry. Answers to the research questions that guided this study add to our knowledge and enhance our understanding of the issues related to expatriation management within the context of the hotel industry. The present study generated fruitful avenues, especially with regard to the issues related to the variation of management skills according to the country of origin of participants and parent company.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of financial anxiety and convenience on the relation between cashier-less versus traditional checkouts and purchase intentions among Saudi Arabian consumers.

In an online experiment, 329 Saudi participants were randomly assigned to one of two checkout conditions (traditional vs. AI-enabled) in a between-subjects design and indicated their financial anxiety. Through moderation-of-process design, the authors examine and showcase that the effect of convenience leads to higher purchase intent for AI-enabled checkouts. Moreover, the authors examine financial anxiety as an underlying mechanism and show that for high-convenience consumers, this enacts higher purchase intent.

The effect of AI-enabled checkouts depends on consumers' convenience perception. High-convenience consumers prefer AI-enabled checkouts over traditional ones, whereas low-convenience consumers are indifferent. Based on the Roy adaptation model theoretical framework, this occurs because high-convenience consumers experience greater financial anxiety when using AI-enabled checkouts, which in turn leads to higher purchase intent.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the reactions of Saudi Arabian consumers toward cashier-less stores versus traditional stores. Interestingly, their intent to purchase increases, due to the financial anxiety they experience while encountering AI-enabled transactions. Due to the limited research of retailers going cashier less, little is known about consumer reactions and how they may differ culturally.