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The purpose of this research is to explore whether the “pecking order hypothesis” (POH) applies to the capital finance preferences of start‐up businesses.

In‐depth interviews with 20 Scotland‐based entrepreneurs were conducted in order to reveal the subtleties of the capital finance preferences which applied to a sample of start‐up firms. To ensure reliability and validity, data was analysed using a systematic schema.

Consistent with the POH we found that entrepreneurs in start‐ups turn to internal sources first, that is, their own funds. In contradiction to the POH, however, evidence in this paper finds that where external funds are required, the main source is equity rather than debt. In the majority of cases, in depth interviews show that a bridged pecking order applies in that the businesses move from self‐funding to external equity in preference to, or instead of bank finance. Two reasons for this pattern can be established. First, entrepreneurs consider debt to be a personal liability as it invariably requires to be underwritten by personal guarantees. Entrepreneurs place a self‐imposed limit on the extent to which they are prepared to mortgage their assets. Second, entrepreneurs deliberately seek out equity investment as a means of obtaining added value over and above the finance invested. Rather than the external equity being viewed as expensive, it is viewed as good value as a well‐chosen investor can add business skills and social capital in the form of commercial contacts and access to relevant networks.

Entrepreneurs searching for investment should assess the post‐investment role they wish investors to play. Successful consideration of this issue will make it more likely that a start‐up business obtains external finance and that entrepreneurs achieve good “matches” with investors, and vice versa.

The value of this paper rests in its finding that a bridged pecking order may apply to start‐up firms in that entrepreneurs move directly from self‐funding to equity.

The purpose of this paper is to advance contemporary cognisance of the leadership field and its current state, through the synthesis and development of earlier contributions. A taxonomy of evolutionary eras is tendered, from which future research opportunities can be extrapolated.

This paper conducts a narrative literature review of significant leadership literature. There is a focus on prominent contributions which are considered to have been highly influential within the field, while acknowledging other notable influences.

Leadership is found to be a multifaceted and evolving field, which continues to produce further research fields. This dynamism hinders the progression of leadership to achieve integration. Eleven interrelated eras of leadership, which hold varying research value, were found. While some eras superficially appear to be discredited, there is arguably scope for these to be developed in contemporary context. Currently, the leadership approaches which are replete with research opportunities include servant leadership, a skills approach and an entrepreneurial leadership.

Leadership is a vast research area with numerous contributions to its body of work; therefore, this review has focused on prominent contributions and has not attempted to include all available literature. The dissemination of leadership literature has allowed for research gaps to emerge and future research recommendations to be drawn.

While there is an extensive body of leadership literature, there are few reviews of the literature. A comprehensive contemporary review facilitates an examination of the current complexities and state of the leadership field.

In many countries (Nigeria inclusive), major components of job creation and economic growth, are driven by small and medium-sized businesses that are mostly family-owned. However, over 50% of such businesses fail after intrafamily leadership transition. This chapter seeks to understand and explain the strategies that owners of medium-sized family-owned businesses explore in ensuring the sustainability of their business after a leadership transition from the founder. The focus is on three business leaders who sustained their family-owned businesses after a leadership transition from their founders. The conceptual framework is based on the transformational leadership theory. Data collection was from artefacts, company documents and semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Analysis of data was supported by follow-up questions and member-checking to enhance the trustworthiness and credibility of the interpretations. Four themes that emerged were the founder's desire and support for transition, the preparation of successors or level of preparedness, trust and credibility of successors, and clarity of vision of both the founders and successors. Findings from this study may contribute to positive social change by providing leaders of African family-owned businesses with strategies for managing leadership transitions and ensuring the survival of the business after these transitions. Sustainability of family businesses might lead to job retention and creation, as well as enhance wellbeing and incomes of communities, family members and the African economy.

BEFORE everyone gets too excited over reports of declining attendances at the national museums since the introduction of entrance charges at the beginning of January, allowances should be made for the Victoria & Albert Museum's former and now discontinued habit of counting to‐and fro‐ing staff among its visitors, and the National Gallery's inclusion of the cognoscenti who were aware that it has the only public lavatories on the northern side of Trafalgar Square. Culture‐hunting has not hitherto accounted for all who passed through the portals of our national museums.

Ascientific consensus has emerged indicating that the global climate is changing due to anthropogenic (i.e., human induced) driving forces. Our previous research reformulated the well‐known I=PAT (environmental Impacts equal the multiplicative product of Population, Affluence, and Technology) model into stochastic form, named it the STIRPAT model, and used it to assess the effects of population and affluence on carbon dioxide loads. Here we extend those findings by examining the impacts of population, affluence and other factors on the emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), as well as the combined global warming potential of these two gases. We also assess the potential for “ecological modernization” or an “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC) effect to curb GHG emissions. Our findings suggest that population is a consistent force behind GHG emissions, that affluence also drives emissions, that urbanization and industrialization increase emissions, and that tropical nations have lower emissions than non‐tropical nations, controlling for other factors. Contrary to what ecological modernization and EKC theorists predict, we find that to date there is no compelling evidence of a decline in emissions with modernization. These results support both the “treadmill of production” thesis and the “metabolic rift” thesis.

The purpose of this explorative research is to analyse the resilience of the United Kingdom's (UK) healthcare supply chains from a customer’s perspective in the light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Using the capabilities of preparedness, robustness, recovery and adaptability as the foundational percept for supply chain resilience, 22 healthcare professionals in 17 of the UK's National Health Scheme (NHS) Trusts were interviewed to explore their personal and organisational approaches adopted relative to the provision of eye protection, gloves, gowns, aprons, masks and respirators. The Dynamic Capabilities View is mapped to the resilience capabilities and used to analyse the data from a transformational supply chain research perspective.

The supply chains were largely unprepared, which was not particularly surprising even though the availability of gloves was significantly better compared to the other personal protective equipment (PPE). Techniques adopted to ensure robustness and recovery revealed the use of unsanctioned methods such as extended use of PPE beyond recommended use, redefinition of guidelines, protocols and procedures by infection control and the use of expired PPE – all of which compromised customer well-being.

As the paper views resilience through the lens of customers, it does not provide the perspectives of the supply chain practitioners as to the reasons for the findings and the challenges within these supply chains.

The compromise of the well-being of healthcare workers due to the vulnerabilities of healthcare supply chains is highlighted to managers and prescriptions for post-disruption adaptability are made.

This paper introduces transformative research to supply chain resilience research by uniquely looking at resilience from the customers' well-being perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of cultural leadership factors (charismatic/value-based, team oriented, participative, humane, autonomous and self-protective) on the rates of opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship.

The study integrates insights from institutional and cultural leadership theories to provide a fresh perspective to advance comparative entrepreneurship research. To test the hypotheses, the authors conduct a multiple regression analysis with observations from 34 countries, using data (from the year 2013) from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for the dependent variable and from Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness to create leadership factors as independent variables.

The results show that all the types of leadership considered in the study have a relevant effect on entrepreneurial activity. However, charismatic leadership has a greater effect on entrepreneurial activity, particularly on opportunity entrepreneurship. The research also shows that autonomous leadership has a negative impact on entrepreneurial activity, although, when it is moderated by the humane dimension, this relationship changes.

Since the alternative dimensions facilitate or inhibit the generation of new firm creation, it is critical for researchers, teachers and leaders to learn about and to foster such leadership types.

This research covers a gap in the cross-cultural evidence presented in the literature and suggests the integration of the concepts leadership and entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the literature concerning servant leadership. The paper identifies the existing themes present within the servant leadership literature. This allows it to determine where the research concerning servant leadership lies at present and make recommendations as to further potential areas for research. It further identifies the skills necessary for servant leadership.

The paper follows a rigorous three-step systematic literature review (SLR) process to identify the relevant evidence to answer the research questions. The paper disseminates the results and presents them by way of a descriptive analysis. It also conducts a thematic analysis to further determine answers to the research questions.

The paper found that the most prominent themes in the servant leadership literature are values, literature reviews, behaviour, assessments, performance, characteristics and antecedents. Additionally, the paper finds that the skills necessary for servant leadership are empathy, listening, communication and trust. The review also identified gaps in the research both methodologically and empirically. It showed that more qualitative research is needed with regard to servant leadership. Furthermore, the development of empirically tested frameworks is necessary within the phenomenon.

Servant leadership is a phenomenon which is lacking in a reliable, validated SLR, which this paper presents. Additionally the originality of this paper lies in its recommendations for further research which are based upon the findings of a thematic analysis. As of yet, such recommendations have not yet been made within the field of servant leadership.