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In this article we define, validate, and propose a construct of entrepreneurial intensity, or the degree of entrepreneurship in firms. First, in defining the construct, we explore theoretical differences between entrepreneurial intensity and orientation in order to distinguish it. Second, we empirically validate a measure of entrepreneurial intensity using data based on a sample of 563 entrepreneurs. Third, we propose avenues for research on how entrepreneurial intensity distinguishes entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial action. Finally, we detail theoretical implications of using entrepreneurial intensity as an antecedent and outcome.

Entrepreneurship and the development of new business continue to be the forefront of socioeconomic development in virtually all economies today. Despite evidence of increasing research into entrepreneurial growth, the existing research is limited by the fact that most studies define entrepreneurial growth as a unidimensional construct and operationalize it as “realized” growth relying on financially based measures. Consequently, this article has two objectives: (1) to develop a set of accurate and comprehensive entrepreneurial growth measures; and (2) to test a series of hypotheses regarding precursors of growth intentions‐more specifically, to what extent, infrastructure factors affect entrepreneurial growth intentions. These two questions were examined using Entrepreneurial Profile Questionnaire (EPQ) in the context of Romania.

Results from factor analysis revealed refined patterns of entrepreneurial growth, including resource aggregation, market expansion, and technological improvement. The relationships between infrastructure and entrepreneurial growth were tested using a multiple regression model. Overall, it was posited that infrastructure is positively related to entrepreneurial growth. However, in most of the cases, the opposite proved to be true. These findings suggest that the Romanian entrepreneurs would pursue expansion plans in spite of the obstacles thrown into their path. Perhaps they have already developed strategies about overcoming those obstacles and in that process have developed the strength, ingenuity, and confidence to grow their new business ventures. Perhaps the many years that Romanians were confronted with numerous political and economical obstacles have prepared them to be much more flexible and adaptive.These counter-intuitive findings reflect on the hardiness and perseverance of the Romanian entrepreneurs.

This study investigates the effects of corporate restructuring – scale and scope, on the financial performance and long‐term competitiveness during the 1980s in a data set of 107 manufacturing firms. Hypotheses were tested using Ordinary‐leastsquare (OLS) Regression model. Overall, this study found that: (1) corporate restructuring scope is inversely associated with firms’ performance, as expected; (2) the effects of restructuring scope on changes in competitiveness offer partial support for our hypotheses; (3) there was no support for the hypothesized relationships between restructuring scale and performance, and between restructuring scale and changes in competitiveness. Implications for future research in corporate restructuring are discussed.

Though supply chain integration has emerged in the past several decades as a major foundation for corporate competitiveness, there is a paucity of research devoted to the theory linking the corresponding strategic management notion of vertical integration with the applied concept of supply chain integration. Built on the work of Harrigan, this paper delineates supply chain integration as a multidimensional construct and proposes a model in which environmental turbulence and strategic orientation have a direct impact on the degree, stages, and breadth of supply chain integration. Contributions, limitations, and implications are offered.

This conceptual paper aims to examine the notion that supply chain integration is an extension and application of vertical integration theory.

The paper initially defines a foundation in the supply chain and vertical integration literature, with particular attention to the seminal works of Harrigan in vertical integration and Hayes and Wheelwright in product life cycles. The paper then offers an assessment of the state of the supply chain integration literature. Subsequently, the stage of product/process life cycle and environmental variables such as complexity and munificence are examined in detail and are the basis for the theoretical model and propositions.

This study argues that the stage of life cycle variables is associated with the various dimensions of supply chain integration, and that environmental complexity and munificence have significant moderating effects on the relationships. The paper posits that, for efficiency and success, a strategic fit must exist between environmental, strategic and operations variables, and that specific dimensions of integrative effort are appropriate for given situations. That fit would attenuate bullwhip inefficiencies, either of inventories and other mechanical decisions, or of the less tangible human and structural interaction.

As such, this paper represents a cross‐functional and interdisciplinary approach to operations and strategic management theory by identifying and facilitating appropriate operations decisions pertaining to the contingencies of the supply chain.

To interpret and explain evolution in entrepreneurial thought, using the application of history to unify the extant and wide‐ranging concepts underlying the field to detect a conceptual foundation.

A conceptual approach is taken, the paper undertaking a delineation of how past theory has brought about the field's current state and an identification of some conceptual areas for future advancement.

The importance and impact of the entrepreneurship field is increasing in academic and practical settings. A historical view on the conceptual development of entrepreneurial thought provides a lens for scholars as well as practitioners to interpret and explain their own entrepreneurial activity or research and formulate new questions.

The paper aids scholars and researchers to interpret and explain entrepreneurial activity.

We argue that claims of an entrepreneurial miracle as a description of private sector development in post-communist Europe conflates entrepreneurship with self-employment. The difference between the two hinges on the Weberian distinction between enterprise- and household-centered businesses. We then present two paradigms, the entrepreneurial that emphasizes the first and the post-Fordist that stresses the importance of the second business type, and provide data on businesses and individual motivation of business owners. We find more support for the post-Fordist approach. Then we show that business forms, primarily associated with self-employment have different recruitment patterns and rewards than other, more entrepreneurial forms. We end with a plea to disaggregate the various forms of independent, private sector activity in future research.

This paper aims to study the evolution of innovation-based dynamic capabilities in informal copycat-style firms. As a kind of informal economical organizations, copycat-style firms in many emerging economies play an important role in their development of the economics. The development of Shanzhai firms, Chinese-style copycat firms, from imitation to innovation has become an important micro-foundation of China’s economic growth and the manufacturing development. With the cluster development of the Chinese mobile phone industry as the macro and industrial environment background, this paper chose Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co. Ltd as the typical example of innovation in Shanzhai firms and studied the evolution of innovation-based dynamic capabilities in this company.

This paper chose Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co. Ltd as the typical example of innovation in Shanzhai firms and studied the evolution of innovation-based dynamic capabilities in this company by adopting the leading-edge dynamic capability theory, innovation theory and industrial cluster theory. The authors further discussed how to improve the dynamic capabilities in Shanzhai firms in China.

It is finally suggested that Shanzhai firms should reduce innovation failures and lower damage degree of dynamic capabilities through consistent innovation and paying attention to their innovation improvement.

It will be very significant to research the survival or diminishing of Shanzhai firms from a theoretical perspective, which will eventually enhance property right protection and innovation development in China.

Visual object tracking plays a significant role in intelligent robot systems. This study aims to focus on unlocking the tracking performance potential of the deep network and presenting a dynamic template update strategy for the Siamese trackers.

This paper presents a novel and efficient Siamese architecture for visual object tracking which introduces densely connected convolutional layers and a dynamic template update strategy into Siamese tracker.

The most advanced performance can be achieved by introducing densely connected convolutional neural networks that have not yet been applied to the tracking task into SiamRPN. By using the proposed architecture, the experimental results demonstrate that the performance of the proposed tracker is 5.8% (area under curve), 5.4% expected average overlap (EAO) and 3.5% (EAO) higher than the baseline on the OTB100, VOT2016 and VOT2018 data sets and achieves an excellent EAO score of 0.292 on the VOT2019 data set.

This study explores a deeper backbone network with each convolutional network layer densely connected. In response to tracking errors caused by templates that are not updated, this study proposes a dynamic template update strategy.

Expert systems are computer-based systems that mimic the logical processes of human experts or organizations to give advice in a specific domain of knowledge. Fuzzy expert systems use fuzzy logic to handle uncertainties generated by imprecise, incomplete and/or vague information. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of the methods and applications in fuzzy expert systems.

The authors have carefully reviewed 281 journal publications and 149 conference proceedings published over the past 37 years since 1982. The authors grouped the journal publications and conference proceedings separately accordingly to the methods, application domains, tools and inference systems.

The authors have synthesized the findings and proposed useful suggestions for future research directions. The authors show that the most common use of fuzzy expert systems is in the medical field.

Fuzzy logic can be used to manage uncertainty in expert systems and solve problems that cannot be solved effectively with conventional methods. In this study, the authors present a comprehensive review of the methods and applications in fuzzy expert systems which could be useful for practicing managers developing expert systems under uncertainty.