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Aims to understand the managerial implications of the perceptions hospital physicians and nurses hold toward the introduction of electronic medical records (EMRS). In‐depth interviews were used with 18 hospital physicians and eight nurses from several different hospital wards at a large government‐run, university‐affiliated hospital in Israel, where EMRs were gradually introduced over the last 20 years. Physicians identified six different domains of impact. Senior physicians, most of whom held managerial roles, tended to emphasise managerial outcomes and to view these as positively affecting their organisations. Junior doctors emphasised mostly negative occupational effects of the EMR on their work – including limits to professional autonomy, heavier administrative burdens, and reinforcement of existing professional hierarchies. Nurses identified different domains and saw benefits for quality and administration of patient care.

In the process of starting new ventures, entrepreneurs typically reallocate existing resources to new uses. These resource reallocations challenge the status quo, and are therefore often viewed with suspicion by others (Aldrich & Fiol, 1994). Thus, entrepreneurs need to convince others that the actions required of their new venture are desirable, proper and/or appropriate – they need to gain legitimacy. Institutional theory holds that new ventures have to conform to institutional pressures in order to gain legitimacy. Legitimacy is essential for the new ventures’ chances of survival (cf. Aldrich & Auster, 1986; Aldrich, 1999; Stinchcombe, 1965; Singh, Tucker, & House, 1986). For example, a new venture's reputation facilitates its entry into business networks, which enhances growth (Larson, 1992) and an individual's associations with government agencies and community organizations have positive effects on business founding and survival (Baum & Oliver, 1996). Consequently, institutional theory may lead us to expect that those new ventures that adapt most to institutional pressures would have the greatest chances of success.

This eighth volume in the series Advances in Entrepreneurship, Firm Emergence and Growth focuses on international entrepreneurship. We are fortunate to draw on scholars both new to the field as well as some of those who founded this unique specialty. International entrepreneurship, perhaps more than any subfield of entrepreneurship, is a product of our particular zeitgeist. The last quarter of the 20th Century brought about one of the periods of the greatest internationalization in all phases of business.