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Entrepreneurship is a social role, suggesting that different communities and societies will hold different typical expectations for who the entrepreneur should be (i.e., personal characteristics) and how an entrepreneur acts (behaviors). In this chapter, we describe the results of two studies that elucidate the content of the entrepreneur’s role and assess its generalizability and cultural uniqueness in three cultures: the United States, China, and Taiwan. We do so by examining the prototypes, or culturally shared implicit theories or schema that individuals hold about the attributes and behaviors characterizing the entrepreneur’s role. We suggest that the entrepreneur prototype has overlapping content across these three cultures, and that they also reflect cultural uniqueness due to different political, economic, and social histories and conditions. First, we conducted an initial inductive study designed to elicit a comprehensive list of representative characteristics and behaviors that are commonly recognized in each society as typical of an “entrepreneur,” resulting in an inclusive list of 87 prototypical/anti-prototypical items. These items were subsequently used in a survey-based study to assess the specific content that each culture endorses as prototypical of an entrepreneur, the extent to which those prototypes varied across the three cultures, and relationships of prototype evaluation with individuals’ personal values and exposure to entrepreneurship. Results showed that prototypes were distinct in each culture, but with some overlap of attributes, especially between China and Taiwan. Results showed some support for the relationship between top-ranked prototypical attributes and individuals’ exposure to entrepreneurship as well as openness-to-change values and conservation values, but also interesting differences in these relationships in the three cultures. The findings highlight that role prototype formation processes across these cultures were etic, but that the content of the role may well be emic or culturally specific.

This study evaluates the architectural status of circular prototype mosques in Kuwait. The argument is that the once dominant and powerful image of mosques is now merely a repetitive reproduction through the prototype scheme. The study focuses on the circular prototype design, which has been constructed in many of Kuwait's recent residential areas. It evaluates qualitatively the worshipers' experiences of these mosques.

The research methodology is qualitative. The main question is how well the circular prototype mosques are received by worshipers and local communities. Various research methods were used, including walk-through survey and group interview with worshipers and semi-structured interview with key informants in Public Authority for Housing Welfare and Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. Purposive sampling was chosen to select for key informants. Time-location sampling was selected for worshipers' group interview.

Circular prototype presents several weaknesses. The community did not receive the circular design well as it deviates from the traditional and modern rectangular mosque design prevalent in Kuwait. This research highlights the importance of considering traditional design principles, community preferences and functional requirements while designing a mosque. It also emphasizes the need for an extensive evaluation of prototype designs to identify potential weaknesses before proceeding with the final design.

It is recommended that future mosque design projects in Kuwait consider traditional design principles; community preferences; and financial, functional and sustainability requirements. In addition, the findings of this study can be used to inform future mosque design projects in Kuwait and to ensure that they are functional, cost-effective and well received by the community.

This research provides an informative and comprehensive analysis of Kuwait's prototype mosque designs from the 1950s to the present day. It focuses on the current circular prototype, critically examining its advantages and disadvantages. This research is the first to evaluate the history and design improvements over the years. As such, this research offers invaluable information to those interested in Kuwait's religious architecture and cultural history.

This research aims to aid product development managers to estimate the expected cost associated with the development of cost-intensive physical prototypes considering transitions associated with pertinent states of quality of the prototype and corresponding decision policies under the Markovian setting.

The authors evolve two types of optimization-based mathematical models under both deterministic and randomized policies. Under the deterministic policy, the product development managers take certain decisions such as “Do nothing,” “Overhaul,” or “Replace” corresponding to different quality states of prototype such as “Good as new,” “Functional with minor deterioration,” “Functional with major deterioration” and “Non-functional.” Under the randomized policy, the product development managers ascertain the probability distribution associated with these decisions corresponding to various states of quality. In both types of mathematical models, i.e. related to deterministic and randomized settings, minimization of the expected cost of the prototype remains the objective function.

Employing an illustrative case of the operator cabin from the construction equipment domain, the authors ascertain that randomized policy provides us with better decision interventions such that the expected cost of the prototype remains lower than that associated with the deterministic policy. The authors also ascertain the steady-state probabilities associated with a prototype remaining in a particular quality state. These findings have implications for product development budget, time to market, product quality, etc.

The authors’ work contributes toward the development of optimization-driven mathematical models that can encapsulate the nuances related to the uncertainty of transition of quality states of a prototype, decision policies at each quality state of the prototype while considering such facets for all constituent subsystems of the prototype. As opposed to a typical prescriptive study, their study captures the inherent uncertainties associated with states of quality in the context of prototype testing, etc.

This study aims to examine factors that may explain the status of women in management by exploring the linkages between leader anti-prototypes and prototypes to gender stereotypes.

Samples from two populations described either a “bad manager” (representing leader anti-prototypes) or a “good manager” (representing leader prototypes) on two instruments that assessed masculinity and femininity.

On each instrument, masculinity was endorsed more than femininity in both leader prototypes and anti-prototypes. Both masculinity and femininity were endorsed more in leader prototypes than leader anti-prototypes but only when the purpose of the instrument was disguised rather than transparent.

Limitations of a single data collection method, the nature of the samples and a newly designed scale for purposes of the study are acknowledged. Further attention to the linkages of leader anti-prototypes and prototypes to gender stereotypes and the outcomes of these linkages is recommended.

Individuals who make managerial selection and promotion decisions may devote more attention to the presence or absence of masculine traits in candidates than to the presence or absence of feminine traits, thereby leading to female candidates being passed over and male candidates receiving greater scrutiny in determining who gets ahead.

The study suggests cognitive mechanisms that may influence the status of women in management.

The study incorporates leader anti-prototypes and leader prototypes to explain the low status of women in management.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the structure, implicit attitude and consequences of followers' implicit followership theories in the Chinese cultural context through three studies. Study 1 explores the structure of followers' implicit followership theories. Study 2 examines the implicit attitude of followers towards followers' implicit followership theories. Study 3 verifies the impact of followers' implicit followership theories on the quality of collegial relationships.

The data for study 1 (n = 321) and study 3 (n = 243) were collected through an online self-report questionnaire, and the data for study 2 (n = 30) were collected through the go/no-go association task.

The structure of followers' implicit followership theories includes two dimensions: positive followership prototypes and negative followership prototypes. Followers' implicit attitudes were more likely to match positive followership prototypes than negative followership prototypes. Positive followership prototypes had a significantly positive impact on the quality of collegial relationships, whereas negative followership prototypes had a significantly negative impact on the quality of collegial relationships.

The psychology and behaviour of employees can be better understood by exploring followers' implicit followership theories.

Employees hold a relatively positive implicit attitude towards followers. Therefore, managers should provide positive feedback to improve employees' positive self-cognition so that employees can better serve the organization and better promote its development.

The paper is one of the few studies to explore followers' implicit followership theories in the Chinese cultural context.

This paper presents an analysis of several issues that are preponderant for the work-wear design. The purpose of this paper is to create a prototype of a women’s base upper body garment, based on the information gathered.

All the necessary information was collected through questionnaires, anthropometric measurements and evaluation of compression forces between the different prototypes.

It was possible to conclude that to create a better design some alterations need to be made in the standard base pattern design, such as measurements across the back length.

Despite the fact that these design changes have a great impact on the stretch ability and on the compression forces, using softer fabric, such as cotton, is always better for an increased comfort. However, in more professional situation where these fabrics should not be used, these design changes can really make a difference.

A test with a set of compression sensors showed that the simple alteration of one measurement in the design of the base patterns highly reduces the compression forces.

These simple alterations allow the garments to adjust to the users’ needs, promoting higher levels of comfort and lower levels of limitations of movement.

The designs presented in this paper can be easily adapted to a variety of garments, such as jackets or dresses, both for leisure or professional activities.

Functional testing with rapid prototypes is confined to certain areas due to a number of issues: the lack of a reliable similarity method that can solve distorted similarity problems; limited material choices; range of prototype sizes; and distinct material structures between prototypes and actual products. Methods are thus needed to expand the application of functional testing with rapid prototypes, and thus potentially impact the performance and cycle times of current product development processes. In this context, an improved similarity method that utilizes a geometrically simple specimen pair is developed in this paper. A realistic numerical simulation and an experimental mold design example (using a selective laser sintering prototype) demonstrate the validity and impact of the new method.

This study aims to reveal the room-temperature effect of a superconducting gravimeter prototype, which will guide its subsequent optimization to improve its gravimetric measurement accuracy.

Without leveling, the prototype output signal, tilt data and room temperature were measured under steady operating conditions. After analyzing the correlations of the three data sets, the residuals of the prototype’s output signal were compensated using the tilt data and the geodynamic effects (ocean tide loading, atmospheric loading and the gravitational effect of polar motion) were then corrected.

The remaining residuals after correction may be caused by small tilt variations that are due to the sensor chamber temperature and radiation shield temperature changes. These small tilt variations were submerged in the tilt signal noise. Although the peak-to-peak noise of the tiltmeter does not exceed 15 µrad, it can still produce gravimetric deviations above 60 µGal when the prototype is significantly tilted.

This study analyzes in detail the room-temperature effect of a superconducting gravimeter prototype, introduces the tilt effect of the relative gravimeters to compensate for the gravimetric deviations and emphasizes that the improvement of fine leveling and the accuracy of the tiltmeter are key requirements for the prototype to perform high-accuracy gravity measurement tasks.

In order to mass‐customize clothes, it is essential to create prototype pattern according to individual body shape. The purpose of this paper is to present a new method to generate prototype pattern based on individual three‐dimensional (3D) virtual dummy for further study on apparel customization.

The symmetrized preprocessing and convex hull method are employed to create a dress‐like virtual dummy based on 3D body scanning data. The corresponding structure lines of 2D prototype pattern are defined on the 3D dummy in advance and 3D dummy surface (only half) is cut into ten zones. Based on the characteristics of each surface, further subdivision was made in each zone to create 3D wireframe of garment prototype by calculating the intersection curves between the dummy surface and local planners. Via flattening geometrically 3D wireframe of each zone, final pattern of the prototype is got. Moreover, during the course of flattening of each zone, define constrained lines in advance so as to ensure the position and direction of each cutting pattern beforehand.

The paper finds that 2D cutting patterns of the prototype have been constructed from the computerized 3D dummy. The length of major structure lines for both 3D model and 2D cutting pattern remain the same. The seven out of ten of cutting patterns have area error within ±1 cm² compared to 3D surface. Only two cutting have relatively larger error but controlled within 3 cm².

The most outstanding property of the method developed is the possibility of geometrical transformation of 3D surface to 2D pattern through constructing 3D wireframe of the prototype garment, with no need to define physical‐mechanical properties of fabric used. The newly created 2D cutting patterns have the coincident construction and shape with conventional prototype and are of outstanding quality and preciseness.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses associated with physical and virtual prototyping and propose an approach that utilises a real‐time integration of both methods through an automated process.

Following a literature review, the paper presents the results of a survey investigating the current use of prototyping. It then discusses a series of trials that were developed for the proposed tool.

Physical and virtual prototypes are not competitive but rather complementary. An integrated real‐time system would reduce cost and shorten the product design process.

This paper provides recommendations on how real‐time integration of both physical and virtual prototypes could potentially streamline the new product development process.