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Logistics and supply chain management has been elevated to a strategic level whereby firms can simultaneously achieve differentiation and low cost for sustained competitive advantage. Empirical studies have often concentrated on logistics management in developed Western countries, displaying a bias towards the USA. This study applies the competency approach to explore logistics in Taiwan. A survey of 1,200 manufacturing firms was undertaken in order to examine the relationships between logistics competency, logistics performance, and financial performance, using exploratory factor analysis and the structural equation modelling technique. Four logistics competencies, namely, integration and knowledge competency, customer focused logistics competency, measurement competency, and agility competency were identified. The research findings revealed that (1) logistics competency was significantly related to logistics performance but not significantly associated with financial performance, and (2) logistics performance was positively associated with financial performance. These findings also implied that logistics competency has an indirect effect on financial performance through logistics performance. This finding confirmed the “world-class” logistics competencies (i.e. positioning, integration, agility, and measurement) as identified by MSUGLRT (1995). In addition, it suggests that logistics competency in a huge geographic area such as America can have the same effect in a smaller geographic area such as Taiwan.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding regarding how managers attempt to make purposeful use of innovation management self-assessments (IMSA) and performance information (PI).

An interpretative perspective on purposeful use is used as an analytical framework, and the paper is based on empirical material from two research projects exploring the use of IMSA and PI in three case companies. Based on the empirical data, consisting of interviews and observations of workshops and project meetings, qualitative content analysis has been conducted.

The findings of this paper indicate that how managers achieve a purposeful use of PI is related to their approach toward how to use the specific PI at hand, and two basic approaches are analytically separated: a rule-based approach and a reflective approach. Consequently, whether or not the right thing is being measured also becomes a question of how the PI is actually being interpreted and used. Thus, the extensive focus on what to measure and how to measure it becomes edgeless unless equal attention is given to how managers are able to use the PI to make knowledgeable decisions regarding what actions to take to achieve the desired changes.

Given the results, it comes with a managerial responsibility to make sure that all managers who are supposed to be engaged in using the PI are given roles in the self-assessments that are aligned with the level of knowledge they possess, or can access.

How managers purposefully use PI is a key to understand the potential impact of self-assessments.

The paper introduces a new conceptualisation of entrepreneurship that promotes a broader perspective of the phenomenon. The purpose of the paper is to re-conceptualise the act of entrepreneurship so as to reduce it to the fundamental behaviours and processes.

The paper sets out the motivations for and challenges in establishing a broader definition of entrepreneurship. Following this, current approaches to defining entrepreneurship are reviewed. In light of these, a definition of entrepreneurship is offered that captures a new perspective in understanding entrepreneurship. A critique of the offered definition is offered with regards to promoting theory development, empirical research, quality predictions and a distinctive research domain.

The authors argue that a definition of entrepreneurship that is focussed on the development and validation of ideas provides a thought-provoking re-conceptualisation of entrepreneurship. Extant perspectives on entrepreneurship as business/organisation creation, uncertainty, innovation, value creation and opportunity recognition/creation are drawn on to demonstrate the applicability of the definition.

The pursuit for an encompassing definition of entrepreneurship has been both extensive and earnest, which has inadvertently resulted in a sizable pool of definitions. The authors offer a re-conceptualisation of entrepreneurship with the intent to provide a broad yet coherent definition that encompasses all acts of entrepreneurship. A benefit of this conceptualisation is the establishment of the endpoint of the entrepreneurship process that delineates it from the domain of management.

This study investigated the effects of an intercultural communication (IC) course on Emirati university students' intercultural sensitivity (IS).

The participants were 89 Emirati students. The course required student involvement in a variety of tasks and activities, both inside and outside the classroom. The development of the students' IS was tracked using two instruments: the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) and a reflective writing task.

The difference between the students' overall pre-test and post-test scores was at a statistically significant level. The data from the reflective writing papers showed that the course developed the students' IS with a particular effect on their awareness of other cultures, barriers to effective communication and self-confidence.

In an increasingly globalized world, the findings of this study highlight the importance of a course designed to enhance university students' IS and therefore intercultural competence. They also indicate the need for more experiential learning to bridge in-class and out-of-class experiences which facilitate the development of students' intercultural competence.

At perhaps all levels of education, strong leadership skills are often equated with the ability to engage in critical thinking, and effective oral and written communication. The purpose of this study was to identify the self-perceived expansion of animal health interns’ leadership, critical thinking and communication competencies using the University of Florida – Engagement, Cognitive Maturity, and Innovativeness (UF-EMI) and Leadership Skills Inventory (LSI) assessments. For the UF-EMI, the total mean score of the pre-critical thinking disposition of all interns was 104.73; post-critical thinking disposition was 114.46, an increase of 9.73. Results of the LSI indicate just 70% accept who they are and don’t see themselves as good listeners.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between generational persona, adaptability tendencies and entrepreneurial behavior. The paper also aims at testing the mediating role of adaptability tendencies in the relationship between generational persona and entrepreneurial behavior among millennial entrepreneurs in an African setting.

The study adopts a quantitative methodological approach with a cross-sectional, questionnaire survey and correlational design where hypotheses were statistically tested using Structural Equation Modelling based on survey data (n = 382) from millennial entrepreneurs in Kampala Uganda.

Drawing on the sample of 382 millennial entrepreneurs in Kampala, findings show that both generational persona and adaptability tendencies are positively and significantly associated with entrepreneurial behavior. Results further indicate that adaptability tendencies partially mediates the relationship between generational persona and entrepreneurial behavior among millennial entrepreneurs.

This study focused only on millennial entrepreneurs in Kampala Uganda ignoring other equally important groups of entrepreneurs like the baby boomers, generation Xers, generation Y and others. As such, the findings of this research do not entirely apply to all entrepreneurs in the country and this may have affected the generalizability of the results. Therefore, future studies can be done on the entrepreneurial behavior focusing on all entrepreneurs from all generations. Also, the study used a quantitative approach, future studies should consider a mixed methodology, which may give a more holistic understanding of entrepreneurial behavior.

In practice, millennial entrepreneurs may use the results of the study to see how they can improve their performance for their businesses to benefit. Specifically, they ought to focus on adaptability, and generational persona to exhibit those entrepreneurial behaviors which will generally lead to the improvement of their businesses.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study provides a shred of initial empirical evidence on the relationship between generational persona, adaptability tendencies and entrepreneurial behavior using evidence from a low developed African country Uganda. Mostly, this study provides initial evidence of the mediating role of adaptability tendencies in the relationship between generational persona and entrepreneurial behavior. This study incorporates the Generational Cohort Theory and the Complex Adaptive Systems Theory into an applied theoretical framework that explains entrepreneurial behavior. More still, this study answers the call for more empirical studies on entrepreneurial behavior.

Following the call for strengthening the third pillar of knowledge in entrepreneurship as well as work-applied management contexts constituted by pragmatic design principles, we present a case study on an insurtech for insurance firms specialized in smart contract insurance solutions such as flight delay or ski resort insurance.

Design science.

This not only serves as a pointer for how insurances may master their digital transformation while remaining competitive. But moreover, on the meta level, we find that the adoption of entrepreneurial design principles by the students, whose experiential project represents our case study, does not necessarily require continuous support or foundational knowledge to be delivered beforehand. However, for a deeper or more holistic assessment of the case sketched in their project, it makes sense to introduce them to newer developments such as the simple, practical framework of the Entrepreneur's Question Index.

Innovative teaching method on innovative topics.

This concluding chapter summarizes the critical insights that changemakers ought to consider in their attempt to lead and manage cocreation processes and enhance their impact. The chapter also addresses three crucial challenges to the advent of a sustainable future: the need to rethink the assumptions of mainstream economics, the need to secure political stability in times of rapid societal change; and the demand for the deepening democracy. Finally, the chapter argues that local efforts to build a sustainable future will only succeed if key economic, political, and democratic challenges are effectively dealt with at the global and national levels.

This study analyses the relationship between the use of work–family benefits and job satisfaction (JS). Furthermore, it proposes that work-to-family conflict (WFC) and work-to-family enrichment (WFE) play a mediating role in this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

Data are gathered from 1,051 employees of Colombian organisations. Partial least squares path modelling is used.

The results show that the perception of WFE to a greater extent and the WFC perception, to a lesser extent, are significant mediators in the relationship between the use of benefits and JS.

This study justifies investments and initiatives on the adoption and promotion of work–family benefits. Moreover, it provides practical clues on how to boost JS: WFC and WFE are variables to be considered.

This study proposes a multiple mediation model to analyse the relationship between the actual use of work–family benefits and JS from a family perspective. It contributes to the literature in examining antecedents of JS, highlighting the role of WFE.

Elite interviewing is a well-established area of interview research methods. Nevertheless, the actual casting of an “elite” has been generally conducted in a prima facie or broad manner. A consideration of entrepreneurs and owner-managers as “elites” has been less profiled and received less attention, therefore the paper views the entrepreneurs and owner-managers as constituting a form of “local elite” within given and varying sectorial, regional and community boundaries. The authors argue that a consideration of entrepreneurs as “local elites” and transferring knowledge from an elite interviewing perspective may strongly support scholarly research in the entrepreneurship field.

The study conducts a comprehensive narrative literature review of elite interviewing literature and transfers key methodological insights to the entrepreneurship field. The methodological contribution based on literature is complemented by experiences and observations from an extensive inductive interview study with over 30 entrepreneurs of German manufacturing Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs) and are used to reflect on, and refine, interview research approaches with entrepreneurs.

The reflections and discussions in this paper provide valuable insights for other researchers conducting research in entrepreneurship domains regarding the power dynamics of negotiating access, procedural issues of interviews and thereby enhancing the quality of data.

The contribution to knowledge is mainly of a methodological nature. While the paper takes a novel act of recasting elite interviewing in the SME and entrepreneurship context, the paper methodologically contributes to the entrepreneurship and elite interview literature thereby facilitating higher quality interviews.