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This study aims to explore how entrepreneurial firms' networking logics may change under different types of perceived uncertainty. The arrival of new knowledge from the entrepreneurial firm's network may alter the perceived technology and market uncertainty that in turn determines how the firm adopts or combines the two opposing logics of causation and effectuation. Focusing on the roles of external advisors recruited by the firms, the study probes the details of the cyclical process and the mechanism through which networking logics are altered.

In this study the authors conducted a 3-year longitudinal multiple case study of 12 United Kingdom (UK) high-tech start-ups from prefounding to A-round funding with 54 semistructured interviews and meeting observations.

The knowledge of external advisors with distinct experience often reshapes the entrepreneurial firm's perceptions of uncertainty, leading to logics change in network development. The authors identify two types of knowledge brought by external advisors and discover how these can influence three networking logic pathways under different levels of technology and market uncertainty.

The study is one of the first to map the paths of changing logics along with different types of uncertainty in the context of entrepreneurial network development. The study unpacks one of the key mechanisms of networking logic changes: the knowledge and expertise of those advisors recruited by the entrepreneurial firms. The process model of changing logics contributes to the effectuation literature and entrepreneurial network research.

The aim of this research was to understand how governmental stakeholder engagement facilitates the sustainability of industrial engineering (IE) projects. A model for governmental stakeholder engagement activities is presented.

The authors relied on a single-case study of a mining project in Northern Europe, where a novel collaboration and engagement approach with governmental stakeholders was piloted in the project's front-end phase. The analysis focused on the collaborative practices through which the IE project investor engaged governmental stakeholders during the project's front-end phase and how the engagement contributed to solving challenges in the early planning and permitting process and achieving project plans that balanced economic, social and environmental aspects.

The findings show how four collaborative engagement practices reduced uncertainty and equivocality related to the legal sustainability requirements, enabled the development of sustainable design solutions and overall accelerated the permitting process without compromising the quality of final project plans.

The findings can be used to plan governmental stakeholder engagement and understand related challenges that need to be overcome. The study highlights the need to develop established practices and guidelines for governmental stakeholder engagement.

This study complements prior research on stakeholder engagement and project sustainability by developing an understanding of how governmental stakeholder engagement can be a key mechanism enabling the sustainability of IE project's end product. This research contributes to stakeholder theory by elaborating on a new stakeholder role, intermediary stakeholder.

Building on the institutional theory perspective on corporate governance change and based on interviews with investor relations (IR) managers in large Japanese companies, this study aims to examine Japanese IR managers’ perceptions of the influence of foreign shareholders on Japan’s corporate governance reform and stakeholder-based system. The paper examines tensions, conflicts and collaborations among different stakeholders involved in corporate governance changes in Japan, especially in the areas of firm ownership, employment relations and boards of directors. The paper explains why convergence does not happen in some large Japanese companies by investigating Japanese managers’ responses to and perceptions of foreign shareholders in multiple corporate contexts.

The author conducted in-depth interviews with ten IR managers at large, listed Japanese companies in Kyoto and Tokyo and two managers at foreign investment banks in Tokyo, between 2018 and 2021.

This paper explores five themes that emerged from my interviews: Chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) mixed perceptions of foreign investors, the effectiveness of CEO compensation and outside directors, managers’ reluctance to accept stock price-driven business strategies, foreign investors’ engagement vs investments in index funds and gender patterns, including the effectiveness of token female outside directors. The Japanese companies the author looked at incorporated foreign shareholders as consultants and adopted a few major shareholder-based customs, such as CEOs communicating with investors, having outside directors, increasing CEO compensation and slimming down unprofitable parts of the business via restructuring and downsizing. Simultaneously, they resisted a few major shareholder-based practices. Foreign shareholders’ pressure revealed tensions and contradictions between the Japanese stakeholder system and shareholder primacy-based customs.

This paper is one of the few qualitative studies that explores Japanese IR managers’ responses to and perceptions of foreign shareholders in corporate governance reform, with a particular focus on ownership, employment relations and board members. This paper provides examples of tension, conflict and cooperation between Japanese managers and foreign investors, as seen through the eyes of Japanese IR managers. Examining changes in Japan’s stakeholder-based system of corporate governance reform enables us to better understand the processes by which, with vigorous pressure from government and foreign shareholders, a non-western country like Japan may adopt shareholder-based customs and how such a change may also lead to institutional changes.

The business angels market dramatically changed the modus operandi and nature of business angels’ activity, evolving from lone investors to angel groups managed professionally. This paper aims to analyze the impact of angel perceived career development on angel satisfaction and, consequently, on their intention to continue investing.

A model was tested through covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS based on data collected from 336 business angels from seven European countries.

The results highlight that: the perception of personal development is a decisive factor in pursuing the career of business angel; personal development has a higher explanatory power in angel career development than fostering innovation; and the perception of career development has positive impacts on angels’ job satisfaction and reinvestment intention. The paper ends with implications and guidelines for angels, gatekeepers and entrepreneurs, which may increase satisfaction with the angel experience and contribute to enriching business angel work.

Cross-sectional self-reported data were used to analyze the results of this study.

To paper extends the body of knowledge of business angels’ perceived career development, with implications for business angels, which may increase satisfaction with angel experience and, therefore, contribute to enhancing business angels’ activity. Thus, this study provides a consistent reference for forthcoming studies regarding the career of business angels and their relationship with entrepreneurs.

This study aims to analyze the contribution of business angels (BAs), defined as wealthy individuals who provide risk capital to entrepreneurial firms without family connections, in Estonia, an emerging country in Eastern Europe.

This study compared the data of the financial and non-financial performance of BA-backed firms with that of “twin” non-BA-backed firms, extracted from all Estonian unlisted firms using propensity score matching.

The results of the comparative analysis showed that BAs were patient enough to allow their investees to spend for future growth rather than squeezing profit from increased sales. This is not patience without options for a BA in a situation in which the investee's sales are deteriorating, but rather deliberate patience in the presence of options for a BA where the investee's sales growth is increasing, contrary to conventional investor behavioral principles. It also showed that BAs' post-investment involvement did not make a direct contribution to their investees' sales, although BAs contributed to the sales increase through BA funding itself.

This study has two unique research contributions. First, it shows that the patience of BAs was not a by-product but was intentional, and adds to the debate on whether BAs are patient investors. Second, there are only a few studies on the contribution of BAs to their investees in emerging countries; this study aims to help fill this research gap using the case of Estonia.

There is a pressing need to increase investments in sustainable infrastructure to promote low carbon economic growth and ensure environmental sustainability. Consequently, this study examines the socio-political factors underlying the adoption of green bond financing of infrastructure projects.

Primary data was gathered from experts with advanced experience in, or knowledge of green bonds in the Kumasi Metropolis. To identify respondents with pertinent knowledge that is relevant to the study, purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used. One-sample t-test and relative importance index were used in this study's statistical analysis.

‘Training and experience with sustainable finance’ was seen as the most important social factor underlying the adoption of green bond financing of infrastructure projects by the respondents and ‘Governmental tax-based incentives’ was rated as the leading political factor.

This pioneering research attempts to ascertain the socio-political factors affecting the adoption of green bond financing of infrastructure projects. Emergent results of analysis and concomitant discussions add knowledge to fill a void in literature on the social and political factors affecting the adoption of green bond financing of infrastructure projects in developing countries.

The negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic situation, especially in certain countries, have compelled organizations to shrink their hierarchies, reduce working hours, freeze hiring, and rely on gig workers to perform tasks. While these circumstances may be seen as a threat, certain vulnerable labor groups, such as women, seized the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills and launch their own firms. Others addressed smart platforms to engage in gig economy activities. This research investigates the aspects that drive women to be entrepreneurs, exploring the relationships between the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the gig economy, and women's entrepreneurship in a developing country.

Data were collected from 300 female entrepreneurs in Lebanon through questionnaires that measured the indicators and variables of the proposed model, which was tested applying partial least square.

The results show a positive influence of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and gig economy on women's entrepreneurship, stronger in the case of entrepreneurial ecosystem elements and almost similar for opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship.

This research achieves empirical evidence on the relationship between the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the gig economy, and women's entrepreneurship in the case of a developing country. The originality of this paper lies in its empirical and gendered approach, considering together the effects of entrepreneurial ecosystem factors and gig economy practices on women's entrepreneurship, especially relevant in a regional context like Lebanon, where digital economy may constitute an opportunity for economically vulnerable groups.

This paper aims to investigate and examines Sweden's overall entrepreneurship performance (ecosystem) by applying the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) while benchmarking the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Sweden with that of Finland and Norway.

In terms of subindices, pillars and component factors, this research analyzes the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Sweden using the GEI supplemented by the Penalty for Bottleneck (PFB) approach utile for identification of bottlenecks. In addition, the Swedish ecosystem is benchmarked against its Finnish and Norwegian counterparts drawing on data collected between 2015 and 2018.

Using data drawn from the GEI, Sweden manifests a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem with a GEI score of 72.7 out of 100. However, fledgling start-up skills, insufficient human capital, and slow and erratic growth undercut otherwise solid entrepreneurial aspirations drawing on well-developed institutional variables. On a macrolevel, Sweden evinces greater capacity for entrepreneurship and innovation than either Norway or Finland but, on a microlevel, several discontinuities manifest in terms of subindices, pillars and component factors to the advantage of Norway and/or Finland and, conversely, to the detriment of Sweden.

Policymakers should fund a mix of programs and institute regulatory reforms designed to promote entrepreneurial systemic development in Sweden by remediating entrepreneurial gaps depressing GEI scores. Crucial policy interventions are required to accrete start-up skills and human capital and engender high growth. Incremental funding of 47% over current levels budgeted to buoy entrepreneurial activity are mandated for Sweden to approach its GEI potential.

Insights are derived from extracting data drawn from a new methodology for gauging entrepreneurial activity incorporating individual and institutional variables into a single model that combines PFB and GEI analysis with a view to identifying, through the PFB approach and weak aspects of Sweden's entrepreneurial performance.

Institutional venture capitalists (IVCs) and corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) deploy analogous activities but adopt different approaches to financing innovation and value creation for venture-backed firms. Thus, this paper aims to investigate their potential ambidexterity as a result of knowledge management (KM) strategies and processes.

After a focused literature review showing evidence of KM behaviors as a source of potential ambidexterity for IVCs and CVCs, descriptive, inferential and discriminant analyses on the 15 most active IVCs and CVCs in the world in 2019 are presented. Correlations between numbers of deals, prevailing entrepreneurial intensity and potential ambidexterity are investigated.

Specific differences are analyzed from a KM perspective, revealing that the number/percentage of operations per round can result as a misleading criterion of knowledge accumulation. Finally, a theoretical model for ambidexterity for venture capitalists is developed.

The study shows that IVCs act with greater investment capacity because of their organizational structure and purpose and focus on financial goals; moreover, they are ambidextrous, although their exploration may more frequently entail exploitation than “real” exploration. CVCs tend to invest in sectors related to their core business, coherent with their strategic purpose and more oriented with KM strategies for accumulating intellectual capital.

This study aims to investigate and point out the variations of agency theory in the context of Sharīʿah governance in Islamic banking operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

The study followed the approach of quantitative Corporate Governance Index (CGI) by computing the Gov-index (Gompers et al., 2003) and the Gov-score (Brown and Caylor, 2004; Saffieddine, 2009) to examine corporate governance (CG) issues using primary as well as secondary data. The primary data was generated from three full-fledged Islamic banks (IBs) and nine traditional banks with Islamic banking wings, all operating in the KSA. The approach was to provide an insight into the agency structure in the context of Islamic banking, which may lead to a trade-off between the conformity of Sharīʿah (Islamic law) rules and processes followed in safeguarding the rights of investors.

The majority of the Islamic banking services that are surveyed in this study acknowledge the significance of Sharīʿah governance and have implemented the fundamental methods, in conformity with this system. Certain flaws in Sharīʿah governance principles pertaining to audit, control and transparency are reported.

The research outcomes will be invaluable to IBs aiming to improve existing SG practices. It also has implications for IB managers to design strategies while complying with regulations and to protect the interests of all investors without breaching the ethics of Sharīʿah.

This paper adds original value to the body of knowledge on agency relationship by analysing the dynamics of agency theory in the unique and complex context of Sharīʿah governance of IBs or those offering Islamic products in the KSA. The results can be used as a valuable feedback for improvement of Sharīʿah governance in the banking system in the KSA and the Gulf region at large.