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1 – 10 of 463The goal of this work is to include the new economic-based approaches related to entrepreneurship that have been published in the literature. Based on the neoclassical and…
Abstract
The goal of this work is to include the new economic-based approaches related to entrepreneurship that have been published in the literature. Based on the neoclassical and Austrian schools, some sociological, psychological and economic theories about entrepreneurship. In this work, some unknown economic-based approaches related to entrepreneurship will be summarized, as they are included in the work of Saiz-Alvarez and García-Vaquero (2017). These approaches are: (1) The Jack-of-all-trades Theory, (2) The Mezzanine Theory, (3) The O-Ring Theory, (4) The Theory of Resources and Capabilities, (5) Entrepreneurial Bricolage, (6) The Processes’ School, (7) The Feedback Loop Theory, (8) The Theory of Effectuation, and (9) The Theory of the Optimal Triangle. All these theories will be summarized in this chapter.
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Susanne Schlepphorst, Elizabeth C. Koetter, Arndt Werner, Christian Soost and Petra Moog
Drawing on human capital (HC) and social capital (SC) as well as the Jack-of-all-trades theory, this paper aims to clarify the relationship between international assignments (IAs…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on human capital (HC) and social capital (SC) as well as the Jack-of-all-trades theory, this paper aims to clarify the relationship between international assignments (IAs) of employees and their entrepreneurial intentions. The study proposes that such IAs provide specific environmental features which may enable employees to build up diverse skills and network relations conducive to entrepreneuship.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data using an online survey, targeting professionals and managers in Germany and Switzerland. They used 223 complete responses. Before data collection, they ensured the suitability of their questionnaire by employing well-tested scales and consulted independent experts in survey design and methodology. They tested their hypotheses by applying multiple mediation modeling.
Findings
As hypothesized, the authors find empirical evidence that diverse skills and network relationships as well as poor career prospects, positively mediate the relationship between IAs and entrepreneurial intentions of employees.
Research limitations/implications
We applied simple random and the snowball sampling method. Our approach involved the use of headhunters, international employers and relocation companies as multipliers.
Practical implications
Our results have practical implications for employees and employers. Employees on international assignments can proactively pursue opportunities in order to utilize the acquired experiences and resources for taking up entrepreneurial activities. Employers can try to retain these employees to facilitate (international) corporate entrepreneurship.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study to highlight the entrepreneurial ambitions of international assignees. It thus provides initial insights into this topic.
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I suppose it is true to say that no class of person in this world has so great a respect for another as the Jack‐of‐all‐trades have for the experts. As one whose entire…
Abstract
I suppose it is true to say that no class of person in this world has so great a respect for another as the Jack‐of‐all‐trades have for the experts. As one whose entire professional life has been spent in the fields of journalism and publicity, I am clearly a good example of a Jack‐of‐all‐trades and consequently start off this evening with a giant inferiority complex.
Agnieszka Kurczewska and Michał Mackiewicz
The purpose of this paper is to identify human capital factors that pertain both to setting up and successfully running a business. To achieve this objective, the authors apply…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify human capital factors that pertain both to setting up and successfully running a business. To achieve this objective, the authors apply and extend the theory of career choice offered by Lazear (2005) that explains individual selection into entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors hypothesise that individuals with broader educational and professional backgrounds are more likely to start a business and are more likely to run a business in the long term. The authors tested the hypotheses using unique data from 800 current entrepreneurs, 800 employees who were previously entrepreneurs and 842 employees with no entrepreneurial experience, by means of a logit regression with robust standard errors and extensive robustness checks.
Findings
The authors empirically show that individuals with more diverse educational and professional backgrounds tend to have both greater chances of starting a company, as well as a higher probability of entrepreneurial success. Surprisingly, having managerial experience proved to exert a negative influence on the likelihood of starting a business while having an insignificant impact on the odds of entrepreneurial success.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are informative for those planning or pursuing an entrepreneurial career, but they are also relevant for the purpose of entrepreneurship education.
Originality/value
The author's extend the body of research supporting Lazear's (2005) theory by showing that broad education and professional experience not only contribute to a higher propensity to start a company but they are also success factors in business per se.
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Joshua J. Davis and Michael L. Birzer
The study examined rural police culture in one Kansas police agency.
Abstract
Purpose
The study examined rural police culture in one Kansas police agency.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative ethnographic approach using in-depth interviews and non-participant observations to construct and interpret the culture of rural police through the lens of officers working in one rural police agency.
Findings
Five themes were found that described the complexities rural police officers face at this research site, including the law being at the center of officers’ actions, the nature of crime, officers serving as jack of all trades, community relationships and enforcement of crimes by teenagers, and how outside pressures from the community and increased concern for citizens' safety affect officers' daily lived experiences.
Originality/value
There is a dearth of scholarly literature addressing rural and small-town policing. This study is the first known qualitative study to be conducted on rural Kansas police, allowing a snapshot of the workings of rural Kansas police.
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Elizabeth A. Martin and Lynn A. Sheehan
Library buildings are routinely reimagined, remodeled, or built new to meet the changing needs of their community. The move from collection-centric to user-centric service models…
Abstract
Library buildings are routinely reimagined, remodeled, or built new to meet the changing needs of their community. The move from collection-centric to user-centric service models has generated numerous writings about the library as place and space. The one concept lacking in the scholarly discourse is the changing roles of librarians to meet the needs of these new spaces and places. How do librarians fit in the new equation? When addressing the professional identity of librarians, which aspect of their work will need to evolve and which will need to be let go? A critical facet of sustaining services in new spaces is the need to develop the sustainable librarian – to remove the stigma of the librarian as “jack of all trades, master of none.” In order to realize this new mindset of mastering our domain we need to begin reimagining our work. Some ways, this can be accomplished by writing increased flexibility into position descriptions and creating organizational structures to better support librarians within the new spaces. With these new developments to our professional identities, librarians may learn to employ entrepreneurial skills in order to continuously anticipate services and develop skill sets to aid the library’s ability to fulfill its purpose. The authors provide a literature review to discuss the changing role of the academic librarian to meet the evolution of the library building and services. We will provide an example through findings and practices of Grand Valley State University and how it reimagined roles in the early 2000s and continues to reimagine roles in a new building and a renovated branch library. The change of spaces and places in academic libraries to accommodate user needs and perceptions has impacted how academic librarians work in these spaces and places. Library administrators need to rethink workflows, and organizational charts by examining flexible workloads, cross-training initiatives, professional development around new skills, and the letting go of obsolete practices.
Originality/value – in this chapter, the authors will discuss how library leaders are charged with translating the new roles of their librarians to meet the needs of their community in these new spaces and how library leaders may look beyond the literature of the profession for ways to facilitate change.
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Gloria L. Sweida and Morgan D. Tallman
The purpose of this paper is threefold. The first is to explore how children engage in entrepreneurship by creating a comprehensive inventory of commercial activities in which…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is threefold. The first is to explore how children engage in entrepreneurship by creating a comprehensive inventory of commercial activities in which children engage. The second is to examine the extent to which the activities and categories of activities are gendered. The third purpose is to explore if the breadth of entrepreneurial activities (i.e., balanced skillset) increases entrepreneurship chances in emerging adults.
Design/methodology/approach
A holistic approach was used to create an inventory of commercial activities in which children engage. The researchers engaged in seven iterations, including scholarly and Internet searches, think-aloud and pilot tests, before submitting the inventory of over 100 activities to 928 participants. The relationship between general experiences and business startup was analyzed using binary logistic regression with a subsample of emerging adults aged 18–29.
Findings
The results revealed that 61% of the 23 categories and 53% of the 121 activities were gendered. Girls and boys tend to gravitate to gender-stereotypical entrepreneurial endeavors. Males were more likely to engage in stereotypical male commercial activities outside of the home, such as yard work, farm work and painting structures. In contrast, females were more likely to engage in stereotypical female commercial activities inside the home or activities related to beauty, crafts or food. Results also revealed that a variety of entrepreneurial activities and a general versus specific college degree increased the odds of starting a business in emerging adults regardless of gender.
Originality/value
Research and viewpoints explaining the gendered construction of entrepreneurship have been widely discussed. However, little is known about early-age commercial activities and their gendered nature. To our knowledge, this is the first construction of a childpreneur inventory and a subsequent demonstration of a connection between childpreneur activities and gender. This study also builds on prior work with emerging adults and the jack of all trades theory by suggesting that pursuing a balanced skillset is something learned early in life. The results will be useful to other researchers in gender and entrepreneurship and support agencies that seek to encourage children's entrepreneurial aspirations.
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When I describe myself as an administrator, people immediately ask: But what do you do? Administration, it seems, is all things to all men. A common mistake I find is that people…
Abstract
When I describe myself as an administrator, people immediately ask: But what do you do? Administration, it seems, is all things to all men. A common mistake I find is that people confuse administration with management. University management is most commonly understood to be the policy‐making structure of bodies like Senate and Council, whereas the administration is the organisation which puts this policy into practice. The job content varies of course from department to department, and it certainly varies in different universities. I have heard people in my job described as clairvoyants, paragons, prophets, jacks‐of‐all‐trades, and it is even said that we can walk on water. Alas, I must admit I cannot claim to be representative of any of those people. “Measure me not by the heights to which I have climbed, but by the depths from which I have risen”.
Numerous dewatering fluids have been developed and marketed as ‘Jack‐of‐all‐trades’ products. In general terms these products are variations on the tried and tested lanolin in…
Abstract
Numerous dewatering fluids have been developed and marketed as ‘Jack‐of‐all‐trades’ products. In general terms these products are variations on the tried and tested lanolin in white spirit formulation. A new dewatering, anti‐corrosion product has now been successfully developed and marketed which gives much improved properties over the traditional types. In order to improve the performance of the fluid, especially as regards water displacement, the new fluid contains a blend of anti‐corrosion, film‐forming, dewatering and emulsifying agents in a low carbonising base fluid. The resultant fluid meets the requirements laid down in DEF. STAN. 68–10/2, PX‐24, NATO C‐634 for a ‘corrosion preventive compound, water‐displacing’.
Educational Computing Centres, certainly within further education, are of a great variety of types and size. The one thing they all have in common is that like Topsy they just…
Abstract
Educational Computing Centres, certainly within further education, are of a great variety of types and size. The one thing they all have in common is that like Topsy they just growed. Their growing applies not only to the degree of hardware provision but also to their staffing both academic and non‐academic. None appears to have had an easy birth, their origins usually being due to some enthusiast(s) having ‘acquired’, in some way, a means of card or papertape preparation and having encouraged a local industrial or commercial installation to give free computer time. ‘Cycle stealing’ refers to the bicycle that the enthusiast would borrow from the college compound in order to ferry input or output between the colleges and the computer. After this type of very shaky start courses would become established and the links with the local installation become more formalized. With luck the installation would even begin to charge the computer time and then one was able to show to the local authority that computing does cost money. The college computer usually arrives in some second or third college computing era after sufficient growth of courses and the acceptance of a ‘case’. Where though are the operating personnel ? They so often are absent and our enthusiast is still jack‐of‐all‐trades — key‐punch operator, computer operator, controller, manager and lecturer. Not all will treat their priorities in this new situation in that order, but is there any wonder that educational standards suffer? It is the difficulties encountered in establishing a computing centre that endangers professional standards.