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Article
Publication date: 22 April 2000

Jack T. Marchewka and Lynn Neeley

Strategic alliances between academic and corporate partners can provide exceptional benefits and reveal new opportunities for shared value. Benefits and opportunities include…

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Abstract

Strategic alliances between academic and corporate partners can provide exceptional benefits and reveal new opportunities for shared value. Benefits and opportunities include alternative sources of funding to support academic programs, more effective and efficient matching of students with prospective employers, applied research for faculty, innovative and mutual learning environments, and improved business practices. The focus of this paper will describe how three corporate‐alliance relationships with Northern Illinois University’s College of Business were initiated and developed. Other schools and companies looking to develop similar relationships may hopefully benefit from the College of Business’s experience. Moreover, corporate and academic alliances provide a potentially rich area of research.

Details

American Journal of Business, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1935-5181

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 2 November 2023

Margaret Fitzsimons, Teresa Hogan and Michael Thomas Hayden

Bootstrapping is a practitioner-based term adopted in entrepreneurship to describe the techniques employed in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to minimise the…

Abstract

Purpose

Bootstrapping is a practitioner-based term adopted in entrepreneurship to describe the techniques employed in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to minimise the need for external funding by securing resources at little or no cost and applying strategies to effectively use resources. Working capital management (WCM) is a term used in financial management to define a set of practices used to manage business resources, including cash management. This paper explores the overlap and divergence between these two disciplinary distinct concepts.

Design/methodology/approach

A dual methodology is employed. First, the usage of the two terms in prior literature is analysed and synthesised. Second, the study uses factor analysis to explore how bootstrapping practices described by owners of 167 established MSMEs relate to the components of WCM in financial management.

Findings

The factor analysis identifies two main bootstrapping practices employed by MSMEs: (1) delaying payments and owner-related bootstrapping and (2) customer-related bootstrapping. Delaying payments is an integral practice in trade payables management and customer-related bootstrapping includes practices that are integral to trade receivables management. Therefore, links between bootstrapping practices and WCM practices are firmly established.

Research limitations/implications

The study is not without limitations. Based on cross-sectional evidence for established firms in Ireland only, future studies could explore cross-country longitudinal panel data to fully examine life cycle and sectoral effects, as well as other external shocks (for example, COVID-19) on bootstrapping and WCM practices. This study does not explain why some factors (for example, joint utilisation and inventory management) are present in some bootstrapping studies and not in others; further case study research might help explain this. Finally, changes in the business environment facing start-ups and established enterprise, including increased digitalisation, online trading, self-employment, remote hub working and sustainability, offer new avenues for bootstrapping research.

Originality/value

This is the first study to comprehensively explore the conceptual and empirical links between bootstrapping and WCM. This study will enable researchers and practitioners in these two distinct disciplines to learn from each other. Accounting researchers and practitioners can broaden their understanding of how WCM “works” in MSME settings. Similarly, entrepreneurship researchers and practitioners can deepen their understanding of how bootstrapping can be adopted by businesses to manage resources effectively.

Details

Journal of Applied Accounting Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0967-5426

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Jessica L. Robinson, Karl Manrodt, Monique Lynn Murfield, Christopher A. Boone and Paige Rutner

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a dual pathway model whereby addressing the question, “What are the effects of supply chain orientation and organizational…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a dual pathway model whereby addressing the question, “What are the effects of supply chain orientation and organizational identification on internal integration and supplier integration?”.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey design was performed to collect data from supply chain professionals regarding their organization’s supply chain orientation (SCO), organizational identification (OI) and achieved states of both internal and supplier integration. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling was performed to test the dual mediating pathways.

Findings

The results show that internal integration partially mediates relationships between SCO and supplier integration and for OI and supplier integration. In comparing the mediating effects to test competing theories, the SCO path yields stronger complementary partial mediation. This supports the proposition that SCO and OI mutually exist within an organization and influence achieved integrative behaviors. Additionally, results suggest the behavioral spillover effect exists for an internally integrated organization that has also achieved supplier integration.

Originality/value

This research makes several contributions to extant literature, including finding that SCO contributes to levels of achieved integration. Also, this research theoretically integrates literature on the social dilemma associated with supplier integration and the behavioral spillover effect, suggesting that SCO allows for positive internal integrative behaviors to spillover to integrated suppliers. Finally, this research contributes to research on OI by finding achieved integration is an outcome, which refutes a dominate theory that explains OI facilitates negative behaviors toward external organizations.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 29 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 January 2012

Andrew Atherton

This paper seeks to understand the dynamics of new venture financing across 20 business start‐ups.

7199

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to understand the dynamics of new venture financing across 20 business start‐ups.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 20 cases were explored, via initial discussions with the founder(s), and follow‐up contact to confirm sources of financing acquired during new venture creation. This approach was adopted because of the challenges associated with acquiring full details of start‐up financing, and in particular informal forms of new venture financing.

Findings

Significant variation in, and scale of, new venture financing was identified. In multiple cases, funding patterns did not tally with established explanations of small business financing.

Research limitations/implications

The primary limitation of the analysis is the focus on a small number of individual cases. Although this allowed for more detailed analysis, it does not make the findings applicable across the small business population as a whole. New ventures acquired very different forms of finance, and in different configurations or “bundles”, so creating a wide range of start‐up financing patterns and overall levels of capitalisation. This suggests that multiple factors influence founder decisions on start‐up funding acquisition. It also indicates the wide divergence between highly capitalised and under‐capitalised start‐ups.

Practical implications

Many of the new ventures were started with low levels of capitalisation, which as the literature suggests is a strong determinant of reduced prospects for survival. This suggests a possible “financing deficit”, rather than gap, for a proportion of business start‐ups.

Originality/value

The paper provides an alternative methodology for considering new venture financing, and as a result concludes that standard, rational theories of small business financing may not always hold for new ventures.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 December 2023

Christopher Lee and Lynn Kahle

The purpose of this paper is to introduce emulation marketing as an important strategy to consider for services marketing researchers and practitioners, given the ability to plant…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce emulation marketing as an important strategy to consider for services marketing researchers and practitioners, given the ability to plant an aspirational goal in consumers' minds. Building on theories of lifestyle, values, self-concept and others, this conceptual paper presents the case for emulation marketing as an important consideration within services marketing.

Design/methodology/approach

To explore mechanisms that will define service research in the future, this conceptual paper reviews the literature across the spectrum of social comparison and learning, social adaptation, conformity, values, persuasion and role modeling. The authors analyze existing theories while proposing a new mechanism, emulation, to advance research in service literature.

Findings

This paper suggests mechanisms to promote emulation in services marketing through the consumer decision process. A research agenda for future work is provided with emphasis on lack of emulation, emulation and status, emulation and aging, emulation and technology, emulation and linguistics and the dark side of emulation. Within each area, a series of considerations are discussed.

Originality/value

This paper introduces emulation as an important mechanism within services marketing. It offers a research agenda focused on a variety of emerging areas in the field. The paper contributes to services marketing and future research by proposing a novel approach, via emulation, to services marketing.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 38 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1998

V.‐W. Mitchell

The high cost and importance of organisational professional services together with the often uncertain outcomes can evoke significant risk in their purchase. Using the…

1474

Abstract

The high cost and importance of organisational professional services together with the often uncertain outcomes can evoke significant risk in their purchase. Using the appointment of planning consultants by a public organisation as an example, the article explores the potential of a new risk framework for measuring risk perceptions and developing risk‐based segmentation for organisational purchasers of professional services. The approach proved to be effective and identified three distinct risk segments which varied demographically and in their attitudes towards risk. It is suggested that risk‐based segmentation may be useful for purchasers and providers of other organisational professional services and other high‐risk organisational purchasing contexts.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 March 2011

David Pickernell, Gary Packham, Paul Jones, Christopher Miller and Brychan Thomas

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, and in what areas, graduate entrepreneurs are significantly different from non‐graduate entrepreneurs, both generally and in…

4958

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, and in what areas, graduate entrepreneurs are significantly different from non‐graduate entrepreneurs, both generally and in terms of external resources (advice, finance and public procurement contracts).

Design/methodology/approach

The available literature was evaluated to identify issues affecting enterprise generally, and external resource access and use and educational attainment specifically. The data used were generated from the 2008 UK Federation of Small Businesses Survey, providing over 8,000 usable responses for this analysis. Quantitative analysis identified significant general characteristics of graduate entrepreneurs compared with non‐graduate entrepreneurs. Factor analysis was then used to identify the sets of advice, finance and public procurement customers of greatest interest, with independent samples t‐tests used to compare graduate and non‐graduate use thereof.

Findings

Graduate entrepreneur‐owned firms were statistically significantly more likely (than non‐graduate‐owned firms) to have younger owners, be younger and more export‐oriented businesses, in high knowledge services, to have intellectual property, make more use of web sites and be of high growth potential. In terms of external resources, graduate‐owned businesses were more likely to have received beneficial business advice from informal networks/trade associations, government business services, friends and family, customers and suppliers, and to have public procurement customers at the national/international level.

Originality/value

The study provides important empirical baseline data for future quantitative and qualitative studies focused on the impact of enterprise education specifically.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1998

V.‐W. Mitchell

Despite the importance of professional services to organisations, relatively little is known about the way they are purchased. This study details the risks perceived and…

2253

Abstract

Despite the importance of professional services to organisations, relatively little is known about the way they are purchased. This study details the risks perceived and risk‐reducing strategies employed by purchasers in local government and examines how these vary with buying‐phase and buy‐class. Risk varied little, but some of the 36 risk‐reducing strategies identified varied across the buying phases and were more useful in the modified‐rebuy situation. The results are discussed in the context of risk measurement and implications for purchasers and providers of professional services.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 13 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 September 2022

Deepak Chawla, Shikha Bhatia and Sonali Singh

Parents are the first and leading socialization agents for young adults. It is vital to recognize the influence of perceived parental financial behaviour in shaping the financial…

1554

Abstract

Purpose

Parents are the first and leading socialization agents for young adults. It is vital to recognize the influence of perceived parental financial behaviour in shaping the financial literacy and investment behaviour of their children. In this context, this paper aims to test the perceived parental influence on financial literacy. Additionally, the direct and indirect influence of financial literacy on investment behaviour of young adults is examined.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses survey-based cross-sectional data. The partial least squares-structure equation model has been used to estimate and test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

Perceived parental financial behaviour has been found to significantly impact the level of financial literacy. In turn, financial literacy positively influences the investment behaviour of young adults. Moreover, the young adults’ perception of confidence over ability to take right financial decisions drives their decision to invest.

Social implications

The results of this study imply that there is a need to have planned interventions from policymakers to ensure that young adults are financially literate. This may require introduction of planned programmes or workshops at middle or senior school levels. These programmes should help young adults understand the need for focused and long-term investing in the absence of social benefits.

Originality/value

This study is one of the preliminary works to examine the perceived parental influence on young adults’ financial literacy and further linking these with actual investment behaviour.

Details

Journal of Indian Business Research, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4195

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2018

Santosh Kumar Pandey and Amit Mookerjee

Emotions in business-to-business (B2B) interactions are relatively unexplored when compared with business-to customer (B2C) industry wherein sufficient evidence implicating the…

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Abstract

Purpose

Emotions in business-to-business (B2B) interactions are relatively unexplored when compared with business-to customer (B2C) industry wherein sufficient evidence implicating the role of emotions in decision-making is available. This study aims to explore the role of emotions in B2B decision-making, and a customer experience model is suggested for the B2B industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative research methodology using structured and semi-structured interviews along with a repertory grid technique was followed during the study. Purposive sampling was done to identify respondents who were involved in the vendor choice process either as a buyer or a seller in their respective organizations.

Findings

Exploratory research conducted during this study supports the presence of five dimensions of customer experience – sensory, emotional, relational, behavioural and intellectual – in a B2B context. The study further indicates that the experiential value for B2B decision-making is derived from functional, symbolic, emotional and cost values which are assessed by the buyer during their interaction with the product or the service ecosystem and has an impact on the purchase intentions of an industrial buyer.

Originality/value

This paper identifies the role of specific customer experience dimensions in a B2B environment and proposes the role and mechanism of emotional factors affecting the decision-making process in B2B exchange.

Details

Journal of Indian Business Research, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4195

Keywords

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