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11 – 20 of 44Manpreet Kaur and Sonia Chawla
The current study assesses the contribution of entrepreneurship education (EE) in strengthening entrepreneurial attitudes (EAs) and entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) among…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study assesses the contribution of entrepreneurship education (EE) in strengthening entrepreneurial attitudes (EAs) and entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) among engineering graduates in India.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional data were collected through an electronic questionnaire from 340 engineering students. Structural equation modeling was performed for hypothesis testing through SmartPLS4 software.
Findings
The findings demonstrated that EE, EA and EI are positively and significantly correlated. However, the moderation effect of gender on EE–EI linkage was found to be insignificant.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides comprehensive insights to understand EE effectiveness on students' EI and further opens the path for future researchers to investigate how the inclusion of other constructs in theory of planned behavior and human capital theory can raise the EI among students. Future research should target a larger sample size comprising students from diverse educational streams.
Practical implications
The findings of this research offer various practical contributions for educational establishments, policymakers and the government in formulating constructive educational interventions that fully trigger the student's EIs.
Originality/value
This study adds to the scarce theoretical examination of EE–EI using the human capital approach in developing countries. In addition, this study is highly relevant to the scarce theoretical and empirical support for investigating the contribution of EE in HEIs in India.
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Haniruzila Hanifah, Hasliza Abdul Halim, Noor Hazlina Ahmad and Ali Vafaei-Zadeh
Innovation performance is an issue that has a profound effect not only on Malaysian large companies but also among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) especially Bumiputera SMEs…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovation performance is an issue that has a profound effect not only on Malaysian large companies but also among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) especially Bumiputera SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the theoretical review of innovation culture pertaining to innovation performance by conducting a literature review on SME studies. The previous reference on innovation performance in Malaysian SMEs is still scarce, even though it is the key benchmark to measure firm performance. It has been demonstrated by the literature that innovation culture is significantly associated with innovation performance. Nonetheless, its effect on Bumiputera SMEs is still underexplored. Thus, this study examines the importance of internal factors (specific human capital and social capital) to innovation culture in driving innovation performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to gather data from Bumiputera SMEs. A total of 140 responses were obtained and analyses were carried out using Smart-PLS software to produce interesting findings.
Findings
The findings indicate that social capital (relational capital and social network) has a significant impact on innovation culture and indirectly impacts innovation performance. The findings also reveal that specific human capital does not have significant impact on innovation culture and innovation performance. This paper shows the importance of social capital and how it directly influences Bumiputera SMEs and innovation performance. This result will be encouraging to firms in other developing countries.
Practical implications
Although SMEs play an important role in economic development, their contribution to innovation is small and marginal. This study makes an important contribution by providing information to the Malaysian SMEs, especially those that are of Bumiputera status on the factors that could enhance innovation performance and nurture innovation culture in their organisations. Thus, it is hoped that this study will generate interest among researchers to attain more conclusive evidence about the practice of innovation culture among Malaysian SMEs.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first to address the mediating effect of innovation culture on specific human capital, social capital and innovation performance.
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Nikolaos Karfakis and George Kokkinidis
The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical conceptualisation of guilt and the depoliticization of downsizing practices. The authors begin with a critical review of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical conceptualisation of guilt and the depoliticization of downsizing practices. The authors begin with a critical review of the relevant management literature aiming to establish the discursive normalization and individualization of (un)employment. The authors then use secondary sources to reflect on the downsizing process. A process that, as the authors argue, is distinguished into three separate but interconnected phases: corporate memos (phase 1), termination scripts (phase 2) and the role of outplacement services (phase 3). By examining this process, the aim is to point to the mechanisms through which downsizing practices are neutralized and depoliticized.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual work that provides a systematic overview of the existing management literature on downsizing and guilt. Use of other secondary sources (corporate memos and termination scripts) is also employed to draw links between the discursive normalization of downsizing as identified in the relevant literature and the specific organizational processes and practices implemented by corporations during downsizing. The authors identify common ideas and themes that cut across the relevant literature and the secondary sources and aim to offer a theoretical conceptualisation of guilt and the depoliticization of downsizing practices.
Findings
This paper argues that downsizing discourses and practices contribute to the feelings of personal responsibility and self-blame, reinforcing an individualistic understanding of work and unemployment that excludes more structural ones, and that it helps in reproducing the existing structures of power.
Research limitations/implications
The study recognizes that employees’ reactions are not only unpredictable but also constantly evolving, depending on personal and social circumstances. The authors also recognize that the work is based on secondary sources much of which talk about practices in US companies, and thus the authors are and should be cautious of generalizations. The authors hope, however, that the authors will encourage further empirical research, particularly among organization studies and critical management scholars, on downsizing practices and guilt. For the authors’ part, the authors have tried to offer a critical reflection on how guilt is produced through corporate discourses and practices, and the authors believe that further empirical investigation on the three phases of the downsizing process (as identified in our work) and the lived experience of (un)employment is needed. As corporate downsizing discourses and practices frame (un)employment in strictly individualist and behavioral terms, the authors wish to emphasize the need for further theoretical investigation and political contestation. The authors, therefore, hope that the work will contribute to the relevant literature on downsizing practices and open up the discussions around layoff policies and the structural conditions of (un)employment.
Originality/value
The paper shows that downsizing practices and feelings of guilt are strongly linked to and exemplify the “individualization” of social and political issues such as work and unemployment. The authors suggest that individualization signifies, in some sense, a retreat from organized collective resistance and mobilization based upon class and that the prevalence of the ideology of individualism (and its correlative, meritocracy), over alternative explanations and solutions to such public issues, helps in reproducing existing structures of power and inequity.
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Janice A. Black, Richard L. Oliver and Lori D. Paris
Entrepreneurs are action takers. This paper presents an agent-based model illustrating entrepreneurial action choices between rhetoric and action during the very early stages…
Abstract
Entrepreneurs are action takers. This paper presents an agent-based model illustrating entrepreneurial action choices between rhetoric and action during the very early stages (pre-formal alliance) of an entrepreneur's journey. Environmental factors, inertia, entrepreneurial conation preferences, the context-for-learning, and identified opportunities are all factors that will influence action choices both separately and in configurations. In virtual experiments, we examine the length of time it takes entrepreneurs to reach the stage for opportunity commitment, based on their skills and conation profiles. From the computer simulation, we determined that certain entrepreneurial profiles do make a difference in the overall effectiveness and efficiency of reaching an opportunity commitment. In general, an entrepreneur is more effective in reaching opportunity commitment if the entrepreneur has either a high skills profile, or a high conation profile, while the combination of high-level skills and conation profiles do not provide any real advantage. A high skills profile proves to create the greatest advantage of reaching opportunity commitment in the shortest length of time.
Nathalie Duval-Couetil, Alanna Epstein and Aileen Huang-Saad
This study examined differences related to gender and racial/ethnic identity among academic researchers participating in the National Science Foundation’s “Innovation-Corps” (NSF…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examined differences related to gender and racial/ethnic identity among academic researchers participating in the National Science Foundation’s “Innovation-Corps” (NSF I-Corps) entrepreneurship training program. Drawing from prior research in the fields of technology entrepreneurship and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, this study addresses the goal of broadening participation in academic entrepreneurship.
Design/methodology/approach
Using ANOVA and MANOVA analyses, we tested for differences by gender and minoritized racial/ethnic identity for four variables considered pertinent to successful program outcomes: (1) prior entrepreneurial experience, (2) perceptions of instructional climate, (3) quality of project team interactions and (4) future entrepreneurial intention. The sample includes faculty (n = 434) and graduate students (n = 406) who completed pre- and post-course surveys related to a seven-week nationwide training program.
Findings
The findings show that group differences based on minoritized racial/ethnic identity compared with majority group identity were largely not evident. Previous research findings were replicated for only one variable, indicating that women report lower amounts of total prior entrepreneurial experience than men, but no gender differences were found for other study variables.
Originality/value
Our analyses respond to repeated calls for research in the fields of entrepreneurship and STEM education to simultaneously examine intersecting minoritized and/or under-represented social identities to inform recruitment and retention efforts. The unique and large I-Corps national dataset offered the statistical power to quantitatively test for differences between identity groups. We discuss the implications of the inconsistencies in our analyses with prior findings, such as the need to consider selection bias.
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Arpita Agnihotri and Saurabh Bhattacharya
This paper aims to explore drivers of entrepreneurial intentions of working mothers.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore drivers of entrepreneurial intentions of working mothers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a survey-based method using sample of 397 working mothers in India.
Findings
Mothers’ entrepreneurial intention is negatively associated with firms’ perceived family support policies and positively associated with perceived family support. Gains from organization and family support were further enhanced for working mothers’ entrepreneurial intention through the moderating effect of perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy.
Originality/value
Drivers of entrepreneurship intentions of mothers is scantly explored in past literature. Understanding working mothers’ entrepreneurial intentions could help firms and families provide appropriate environments and opportunities for mothers’ growth.
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Wei Shi and Matthew Weber
Entrepreneurs approach the startup process with a stock of experience and a unique range of accumulated skills and abilities. Their prior experience shapes an “information funnel”…
Abstract
Purpose
Entrepreneurs approach the startup process with a stock of experience and a unique range of accumulated skills and abilities. Their prior experience shapes an “information funnel” through which the entrepreneurs’ attention is filtered. This study aims to investigate the impact of the relatedness of prior knowledge and knowledge acquisition activities on entrepreneurs’ perceived knowledge access.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 100 early-stage entrepreneurs in the New York City metropolitan area to empirically test the proposed relationships with the method of conditional process modeling.
Findings
Findings from this study demonstrate a negative relationship between entrepreneurs’ prior experience and their perceived ability to access knowledge. However, this negative relationship can be mitigated by seeking tacit knowledge through informal channels. In addition, the relatedness of prior experience plays a positive role in influencing media use and knowledge network engagement. While media use is a positive predictor of perceived knowledge access, engagement within knowledge networks shows no direct influence on perceived knowledge access.
Originality/value
This study sheds light on the dimensions of entrepreneurial knowledge and recognizes perceived knowledge access as an important concept in forming an entrepreneurial intention and adds to the current dialogue on the interpretation of entrepreneurs’ prior experience. For practitioners, this study offers insights into the formation of founding teams and the approaches to obtaining valuable information.
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Hazman Shah Abdullah and Jasmine Ahmad
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the fit between values underpinning the ISO 9000 standard and selected managerial and organisational factors.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the fit between values underpinning the ISO 9000 standard and selected managerial and organisational factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a conceptual one relying on the literature on the selected strategic factors and also the standard. The values of institutionalisation, explicitation, systematisation, delineation and Taylorisation underpinning ISO 9000 standards were distilled from the origin and the principles of ISO 9000 and the ISO 9000 certification practices. The values are juxtapositioned with the imperatives of control and creativity, knowledge management and organisational structure to understand the consequent synergism or tension.
Findings
It is postulated that the more mechanistic and explicit knowledge based organisations will enjoy ISO 9000 certification while the more organic and tacit knowledge based organisations will experience tensions arising from lack of fit. Hence, conceptually, the standard will work best in a more mechanistic and routine knowledge based settings. Creativity oriented strategies will find the standard quite dysfunctional while control and operation‐based strategies are likely to benefit most from the certification.
Originality/value
Most ISO 9000 related studies are weak on conceptualisation of the relationships examined. Despite the growing volume of studies on ISO 9000, the values of the standard have not been explicitly outlined. Consequently, discussion of the efficacy of the standard has focused on the explicit requirements of the standard rather than the instrumental values it promotes. Based on the explication of the standard's values, the article examines the possible synergies and contradictions between the standard and, management orientation (control vs creativity), knowledge orientation (explicit vs tacit) and structure (organic vs mechanistic).
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Árni Halldórsson, Ceren Altuntas Vural and Jessica Wehner
The purpose of this paper is to explore the sustainability of waste supply chains regarding the energy efficiency of first-mile waste collection systems and quality of waste…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the sustainability of waste supply chains regarding the energy efficiency of first-mile waste collection systems and quality of waste. Roles of actors in the waste service triad are considered, particularly focusing on households.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data are collected from respondents including municipality officers, waste service providers (WSPs) and households through brainstorming sessions, semi-structured interviews, site visits and a focus group. Secondary data are collected from official reports for validation.
Findings
Findings reveal tension between the energy efficiency of waste collection logistics and the quality of waste collected. Households are co-producers of logistic services providing important inputs in the form of sorting and moving waste and raw materials into new cycles of goods circulating in logistics systems. Other actors in the logistics service triad are the municipality as regulator and the WSP acting as a reverse-logistics service provider.
Practical implications
This study provides principles for policymakers and practitioners to evaluate the energy efficiency of waste management options, considering the quality of waste. Also, “logistics services” and “quality of waste” as concepts might provoke new thoughts on how to involve the consumer in resource recovery.
Originality/value
Few studies have focused on the end-consumer’s role in waste supply chains. By considering waste as a resource and the consumer as the supplier of this input, this study provides a new way to think about logistics services for waste collection.
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