Search results
1 – 10 of over 1000Meredith Woodwark, Alison Wood and Karin Schnarr
Building on research about entrepreneurship and social capital, the purpose of this paper is to explore how women founders of technology-based ventures in Canada access and use…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on research about entrepreneurship and social capital, the purpose of this paper is to explore how women founders of technology-based ventures in Canada access and use formal external entrepreneurial networks to build their companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws on 25 semi-structured interviews with women founders of technology firms and leaders of formal networks.
Findings
The authors demonstrate the positive impact of women only networks (WON) for founders including increasing entrepreneurial diversity, access to financing, and founder credibility and sponsorship. The authors show how women founders use mixed gender and WON to build their businesses and conclude that membership in WON can be a vital step.
Research limitations/implications
The sample size is small and most participants reside in highly urban areas, which may limit generalizability. Findings may not generalize beyond Canada due to cultural and structural differences.
Practical implications
The research suggests that external WON should be encouraged as important resources for founder identity work which may enable positive change.
Social implications
This research can assist in designing initiatives that support women entrepreneurs and promote gender parity.
Originality/value
The authors draw on research in women's leadership development to explain how WONs for entrepreneurs help founders create overlapping strategic networks – a unique form of social capital – and serve as identity workspaces for the identity work women founders must complete. The authors argue that the identity work in WONs can be a mechanism by which gender structures are challenged and eventually changed.
Details
Keywords
Vanda Papafilippou and Christina Efthymiadou
While there is vast research on expatriate adjustment, it is still known very little on how self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in particular might cope with identity conflicts and…
Abstract
Purpose
While there is vast research on expatriate adjustment, it is still known very little on how self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in particular might cope with identity conflicts and how they engage with identity work. What is more, although there is some literature on the existence of expatriate bubbles, this does not cover how these bubbles might impact identity work. The purpose of this paper is to explore identity work that is taking place within expatriate bubbles and thus advance our knowledge on both expatriate bubbles and expatriate adjustment.
Design/methodology/approach
The study reports on the analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interview data collected from 37 self-initiated expatriate engineers from Greece, Spain and Italy, currently residing in Bristol, UK.
Findings
Previous studies have argued that expatriate bubbles impede adjustment. The study analysis, however, shows that expatriate bubbles can be not only a powerful mechanism for coping with foreignness and strengthening their sense of belonging but also act as identity workspaces where SIEs engaged with identity work and navigated identity conflicts.
Originality/value
The present study addresses two empirical gaps: the paucity of literature on the identity work that self-initiated expatriates engage with and the paucity studies on self-initiated expatriate engineers. The study also has a theoretical contribution as, drawing upon a Goffmanian dramaturgical framework sheds light on the back regions of performance taking place within expatriate bubbles. Thus, showing how SIEs relax but also rehearse their performances in order to reduce any identity gaps triggered by the new organisational and national context.
Details
Keywords
Iris De Been and Marion Beijer
– The aim of this research is to determine whether the type of office environment has an impact on satisfaction with the office environment and productivity support.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to determine whether the type of office environment has an impact on satisfaction with the office environment and productivity support.
Design/methodology/approach
Three office types that are most common in The Netherlands were distinguished: individual and shared room offices, combi offices and flex offices. 11,799 respondents filled out a questionnaire measuring satisfaction with the work environment and its contribution to productivity.
Findings
Regression analysis was used to investigate whether these factors were influenced by office type. Results show that office type is a significant predictor. While in combi and flex offices people can choose to work at diverse workspaces, people evaluate productivity support, concentration and privacy less positive than people working in individual and shared room offices. In combi offices, but not in flex offices, people are more satisfied with communication than in individual and shared room offices.
Practical implications
Nevertheless, satisfaction with the organization explains the most variance with regard to satisfaction with the office environment and productivity support.
Originality/value
In The Netherlands, there are a lot of office buildings with a combi or flexible office concept. The large dataset on which the comparison is based, is a real plus for the research.
Details
Keywords
Muhammad Nizam Zainuddin, Rahayu Tasnim and Dzulkifli Mukhtar
This paper aims to examine how the construction of entrepreneurial identity in a cross-disciplinary postgraduate entrepreneurship education program influence students’…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how the construction of entrepreneurial identity in a cross-disciplinary postgraduate entrepreneurship education program influence students’ entrepreneurial passion progression as they enact different role identities and concurrently deal with competing microidentities.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the interpretative phenomenological analysis approach, an in-depth study of postgraduate students’ accounts of their lived experiences is conducted.
Findings
Construction of entrepreneurial identity influences students’ entrepreneurial passion progression through a process of “identity ecdysis” that occurs deep within students’ microfoundations as they make sense of the entrepreneurial identity role while simultaneously accommodating their anticipated entrepreneurial life journey. During the transition stage, they begin to let go of their present personal identities and recast new ones based on the revised personal entrepreneurship action agenda. The motivation to change results from the underlying future moral obligation, via a quest to uphold entrepreneurial virtues toward their significant immediate social circles as the aspiring professionals with newly equipped entrepreneurship proficiency. Entrepreneurial passion deepens as they come to grips with their new personal identities as well as new roles and responsibilities.
Research limitations/implications
While this study establishes a foundation for understanding how entrepreneurial passion progresses and is encouraged within an educational framework, it has the potential to be tested on actual entrepreneurs in the macro identity workspace.
Practical implications
Entrepreneurship education programs’ learning experience structure should be designed based on the sources of entrepreneurial passion and is flexible enough to allow for in-depth exploration and self-introspection that supports the enactment of entrepreneurial characteristics that can benefit postgraduate students in their next career move by focusing on the internalization of entrepreneurial virtues, which enables the organic, autonomous construction of entrepreneurial identity. This approach may enable people’s entrepreneurial passions to evolve organically yet profoundly.
Social implications
The provision of entrepreneurial knowledge should be consistent with the goal of enabling students to organize and develop their own identities in pursuit of their next career trajectory.
Originality/value
The study highlights a phenomenon that happens deep inside people’s microfoundations, demonstrating the intensive interplay that exists between dialogic and identity workspaces at one of the established entrepreneurial universities.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to explore the ways in which entrepreneurship education may serve as an identity workspace.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the ways in which entrepreneurship education may serve as an identity workspace.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual/theoretical paper based on previously completed empirical work.
Findings
The paper makes the connection between worldmaking, experience, action and identity.
Practical implications
The paper furthers understanding of entrepreneurship education and its potential effect on the identity of participants. It stresses the importance of offering entrepreneurship education participants the opportunity to take entrepreneurial action. It has implications for the existing state of entrepreneurship education, e.g. the focus on business plans in the absence of an exploration of the identity of participants.
Originality/value
The paper is an original exploration of the linkage between entrepreneurship education and identity and has implications for both pedagogy and practice.
Details
Keywords
Organisations use “space” to support the profitability of their business. The workplace and the space that organisations occupy is continuously evolving and transforming. There…
Abstract
Purpose
Organisations use “space” to support the profitability of their business. The workplace and the space that organisations occupy is continuously evolving and transforming. There has been a general trend globally to provide less assigned space and more shared space for employees at higher occupational density. Studies have shown that the workplace setting can contribute to an employee's sense of well-being and increased productivity. The purpose of this paper is to permit a deeper understanding as to how knowledge workers evaluate their workspace within this changing environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper describes an integrated conceptual framework developed from a range of literature within the disciplines of property, psychology and facilities management. In order to investigate the pertinence of this framework a case study is undertaken comprising five one-to-one in-depth interviews with knowledge workers from an organisation that had recently relocated. The key changes between the original and newer premises in terms of space usage were the move from a more traditional layout incorporating larger desk space and eye-level partitioning to one incorporating a fit-out providing for a higher occupational density and a wider range of communal spaces.
Findings
The findings identify a number of evaluative criteria including workability, comfort, occupational density, the need for privacy, control over the environment, adjacency to colleagues and functionality, all previously identified in the literature. A further two criteria, location and customisability were also identified.
Research limitations/implications
The study although incorporating a wide ranging literature review concentrates on employees within one company and given the makeup of employees the interviewees were all male thus not able to pick up gender differences.
Practical implications
The study provides stakeholders such as organisations, workplace consultants and design professionals with information about what knowledge workers value most in their workplace environment.
Originality/value
Most extant literature investigating the link between employees and their workplace has focused on specific aspects of the relationship. This research contributes to understanding workplace by taking an overall perspective and providing knowledge worker employees with an opportunity to compare two distinct workplace settings.
Details
Keywords
Dustin K. Grabsch, Lori L. Moore and Kim E. Dooley
Identity has emerged as a compelling force in understanding leadership. Situated within the identity approach to leadership, this study explored identity within the context of…
Abstract
Identity has emerged as a compelling force in understanding leadership. Situated within the identity approach to leadership, this study explored identity within the context of leadership for both assigned (i.e., positional) and emergent (i.e., nonpositional) student leaders. Findings from this study suggest that a distinct set of a leader’s identities is active in college student leadership and that personal identities are most salient to leaders. By making connections between identity and leadership, educators and practitioners may strengthen their understanding of how their curriculum and workshops may serve as identity workspaces for leaders.
Muhammad Nizam Zainuddin and Dzulkifli Mukhtar
The purpose of this study is to examine postgraduate students' reflexive narratives about their entrepreneurial passion (EP) experience as a result of their direct participation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine postgraduate students' reflexive narratives about their entrepreneurial passion (EP) experience as a result of their direct participation in a series of hand-selected experiential learning events within the curated identity workspace (IW) of a cross-disciplinary postgraduate entrepreneurship education programme.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative exploratory design using interpretative phenomenological analysis with a group of graduate students from a cross-disciplinary postgraduate entrepreneurship education program at an entrepreneurial university.
Findings
This study discovers that students’ EP experience is developed through the internalisation of an entrepreneurship learning activity into their personal identity through the harmonisation and reorganisation of their competing micro-identities of professional and entrepreneurial identity, prompting them to create a new identity that enables them to act entrepreneurially without relinquishing their existing professional identity.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates how entrepreneurial education programmes function as an IW and posits a theoretical model illustrating the hidden connections between entrepreneurial activity, personal identity and entrepreneurial learning experience that collectively influence individuals' entrepreneurial behaviour.
Details