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Literature on organizational commitment of employees has long established that quality of work life (QWL) is a significant determinant. However, the strength of the relationship between organizational commitment and QWL is more complicated given the diversity of employees and the broad scope of organizational commitment as a construct. The researchers break down organizational commitment into three distinct measures as extant literature suggests and then explore the role played by gender in a culturally rich context as in Egypt.

This paper is based on a sample of 117 respondents from small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Items used in the survey were extracted from previous research studies. The survey consisted of 39 questions to measure the three research variables. QWL was measured using Zin’s (2004) developed questionnaire. The items covered seven dimensions: growth and development, participation, physical environment, supervision, pay and benefits, social relevance and workplace integration. The reported Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was 0.93. Items were measured on a five-point Likert scale.

The researchers empirically found that gender plays only a minor and moderating role in the relationship between QWL and affective commitment. The researchers conclude the study with implications for policy, practice and future research.

This study had several limitations. First, the sample size was relatively small. Second, the sample composition (singular focus on SMEs in Egypt) was not diverse enough. Third, the tools used in collecting the data were not adjusted to the national cultural context. Fourth, the study lacks an experimental design which is a limitation (Shadish et al., 2002). These limitations, taken together, limit the generalizability of the results and conclusions from the study. Thus, the results are suggestive rather than definitive. Additionally, only the association between variables was investigated, and the researcher did not clearly explore the cause–effect relationships. Whether QWL is the antecedent or the consequence is another research question yet to be explored.

It is recommended for future researchers to enlarge and diversify the sample. Additional investigations of the role of gender as a mediator or moderator need to be explored. Researchers should also study the roles of other demographic variables to highlight behavioural and attitudinal variables that significantly affect QWL.

While the primary relationship between “perceived quality of work life” and “organizational commitment” is well established in existing literature across many organizational contexts, there is a paucity of research on the moderating and/or mediating effects of third attitudinal variables on this primary relationship. Hence, the main focus of this study was to empirically test the moderating and/or mediating effects of gender on the relationship between “perceived quality of work life” and “organizational commitment.” The researchers examine organizational commitment more granularly in terms of its components, namely, affective, continuance and normative commitments.

Despite the important role that exploitation plays in innovation and new product development (NPD), research on the relative impact of internal organisational stocks of existing knowledge on subsequent exploitation is largely absent. In particular, there is lack of clarity within the extant literature regarding the associations between organisational exploitation and, respectively, the distal-proximal technological experience and radical-incremental innovative experience generated by multiproduct firms. Thus, this study seeks to further enhance researchers’ theoretical understanding on the relationship between organisational exploitation and internal knowledge stocks categorised along two dimensions of organisational experience accumulated by multiproduct firms that have not previously been considered jointly.

This paper pursues a focussed literature review approach and applies the underlying theory of exploitation to develop a theory explaining the possible relationships between organisational exploitation and internal knowledge stocks.

Based on the theory of exploitation, this paper proposes a new direction in studying the various internal knowledge stocks and their respective impact on subsequent organisational exploitation.

The proposed research direction suggests an emerging framework of possible relationships between exploitative new radical products development in firms, and respectively, proximal and distal technological experience, and radical and incremental innovative experience, accumulated in multiproduct firms. This novel framework can guide further research on this topic.

To fill a research gap regarding the possible relationships between subsequent exploitative endeavours and two dimensions of organisational experience that have been traditionally associated with the exploration-exploitation construct, this paper proposes and develops a novel typology of knowledge stocks categorised along two dimensions of organisational experience accumulated by multiproduct firms that have not previously been considered jointly in the literature.

Social enterprises are organizations striving to address social issues. These enterprises sell products to be self-sustainable. Social entrepreneurial success depends on the intention of consumers to purchase social enterprise products. This study aims to assess and understand the consumer intention to buy social enterprise products.

This descriptive study integrates consumers’ emotional values with the theory of planned behaviour as a framework. The intention is to investigate the role of customer emotion in mediating the relationship between predictor and predicted variables. A mixed sampling technique is adopted to select sample units from the consumers with a consideration for regional balance. Data from 336 respondents were collected using a survey instrument administered online.

Structural equation modelling shows that among the three predictor variables, only attitude has a direct impact on consumer’s purchase intention, while subjective norms have an indirect impact through the mediating variable (emotional value). Behavioural control showed no effect on consumer’s purchase intention of products sold by social enterprises.

The results of this study have theoretical as well as practical implications. The success of social enterprises depends on the acceptance of their products by consumers. The social enterprise can strategize its marketing communications to strengthen the emotional values, attitudes and subjective norms of the consumers so that the market acceptance for these products can be increased.

Using Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation as a theoretical basis, this study aims to test the relationship between female entrepreneurial efficacy, entrepreneurial ambition and nascent entrepreneurial drive, accounting for the potential barriers of race and minority disadvantage.

The sample included 950 respondents comprising 213 Black women and 737 White women living in the state of Alabama, USA, who expressed an intention to starting their own business.

The results indicate that race and perceptions of minority disadvantage are perceived barriers in the mediated relationship between female entrepreneurial efficacy, entrepreneurial ambition and entrepreneurial drive. However, the findings suggest that, unlike race, minority disadvantage is not perceived as a significant factor in the mediated relationship between entrepreneurial confidence, entrepreneurial ambition and entrepreneurial drive.

Limitations of this study include the lack of an experimental design and the use of cross-sectional data.

Results are discussed in terms of the context of the history of racial and gender discrimination within the state of Alabama, USA.

The results show that the direct effects of minority disadvantage on entrepreneurial ambition are significantly higher for the Black women compared with the White women in our sample.

The results of this study show that the direct effects of minority disadvantage on entrepreneurial ambition are significantly higher for the Black women compared with the White women. For the subgroup of Black women, the greater the perception of minority disadvantage, the greater the entrepreneurial ambition reported.

The self-employed are an essential segment of society who contribute to economic growth and stabilisation in their communities. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate whether they enjoy a work–life balance (WLB) and life satisfaction (LS), which are two separate concerns of the self-employed in this study. Existing literature indicates that household income (HI) is a significant determinant of WLB and LS. This study investigates the levels and relationship of WLB and LS among the self-employed in the USA and the possible influence of HI on this relationship.

Data are from an online panel survey of 435 self-employed persons residing in the USA. The authors test the hypotheses via regression analysis and ANOVA.

This study revealed that WLB is a significant predictor of LS for the self-employed. Further, it showed that HI has a statistically significant direct effect on LS and moderates the relationship between WLB and LS. Among the control variables, only firm size was seen to contribute positively to a high level of LS. Gender, education, age, the number of dependent children, industry and hours worked were not found to be statistically significant. The study also found that WLB was most important in predicting LS of the self-employed followed by HI and then firm size.

This study is among the first to investigate the relations between WLB and LS among the self-employed and extends the scant existing scholarship on this issue.

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to examine the relationship between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions and to test the moderating roles of entrepreneurial education and physical proximity to the office of the US Small Business Administration.

The study adopts a quantitative methodological approach. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 1,245 respondents who intend to start a business in the state of Florida. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to identify the relationship between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions.

The hypotheses are supported by the results. The study found a positive and significant relation between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions. It also establishes the moderating effects of entrepreneurial education and proximity to office of the US Small Business Administration on the relationship between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions, i.e. our results show not only that higher levels of social support are associated with higher entrepreneurial intentions but that this association becomes stronger with entrepreneurial education and proximity to the office of the US Small Business Administration.

This is the first empirical study that highlights the role of entrepreneurial education and physical proximity to the US Small Business Administration in moderating the relations between social support and social entrepreneurial intentions. The study contributes to the understanding of factors that influence social entrepreneurial intentions.

For women entrepreneurs, personal wealth is seen as a promoter, but lack of affordable child care is viewed as an inhibitor. Based on data from 1,284 nascent women entrepreneurs in the state of Alabama, the authors aim to investigate the linkage between personal wealth and barriers to start a business for women entrepreneurs in the state of Alabama. The mediating effect of affordable child care is also examined. Results reveal that lack of personal wealth can thwart business start-ups, and lack of affordable child care mediates this adverse relationship. The authors conclude their study with implications for policy makers and future research.

This is a quantitative survey-based study. This is the largest survey ever done in any state in the USA on the subject of nascent women entrepreneurs. The sample size is 1,284 aspiring women entrepreneurs. (Baron and Kenny 1986) method is used for testing mediating effects. Main effects are tested using regression and ANOVA analyses.

Results reveal that lack of personal wealth can thwart business start-ups, and lack of affordable child care mediates this adverse relationship. The mediating effect is strong and, thus, becomes a focus for any proposed structural reforms that are suggested in the discussion section of the paper.

No experimental design. Findings pertain to the state of Alabama and hence generalizability is low. Variables are measured as perceptions of respondents.

To mitigate the lack of personal wealth, policy makers should increase resource allocations that will increase external funding for women entrepreneurs through such mechanisms as small business administration grants, minority purchase programs, guaranteed loans, government subsidies, angel investments and venture capital, capturing the amount of capital available to start a business (Jennings et al,, 2013). Even infrastructural support such as incubators and university based entrepreneurial programs would reduce the barriers to start a new business. Affordable child care, via its mediating effect, is another issue that needs to be looked into to promote women entrepreneurship in state of Alabama. Less-expensive community-based child-care programs could provide the necessary fillip to encourage women entrepreneurships to take the initial leap into entrepreneurship. Government funded incubators should include onsite child-care facilities to mitigate the concern about affordable child care.

Promoting women entrepreneurship is an integral part of promoting entrepreneurship in the state of Alabama. This study suggests some directions for structural reforms to promote women entrepreneurship in the state of Alabama.

The largest survey on aspiring women entrepreneurs in any state in the USA. In total, 1,284 women completed responses from the survey. This paper provides empirically rooted suggestions for structural reforms to promote women entrepreneurship in the state of Alabama. This paper corroborates a priori hypotheses drawn from extant literature.

Consider the case of Procter and Gamble (P&G), when it ships carloads combining diapers and other paper products. It saves transportation costs (about 10% of sales) relative to a firm that sells only diapers. This is one example of synergies among divisions that seem to explain the superior performance of companies like P&G. Examples of other related companies are General Foods, General Mills, Pillsbury, Dupont, 3M, Westinghouse etc., each of which try to exploit some form of synergy or other. But at the same time, managers also find that there are several conglomerate firms comprised of unrelated business units which are also performing well. Examples of conglomerates in this category include ITT, Rockwell International, Dart Industries, Signal Companies, United Technologies, Gulf and Western Industries, Tenneco, Textron, USX etc. An erudite manager is thus faced with a dilemma. Are synergies real? If they exist, why are they not ubiquitous? Why and when is unrelated growth pattern an attractive alternative?

In recent times the term “industrial policy” has sparked a lively American debate. The apparent decline of America's competitive position in the world economy, widespread concern over the deterioration of such basic industries as steel and automobiles (also called “Rust belt industries”), and increasing concern about the potential of U.S. to main‐tain its lead in high technology have led to renewed reap‐praisal of government's role in economic life.

China, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, has become a major trading partner with the USA. However, trading with Chinese involves major cultural barriers. The Chinese and US cultures differ widely in their values, which produces different attitudes and behaviors. This study purports to add to the existent knowledge on the managerial values in the USA and China by empirically comparing and contrasting these values along several dimensions.

This empirical investigation examines the differences in managerial values between US and Chinese managers through independent sample t‐tests based on survey responses from 1,741 US and 982 Chinese managers.

The findings indicate that significant cultural differences exist between the two samples. Results show that US managers are more individualistic than their Chinese counterparts. The managerial values of the US sample are also characterized by lower power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and work ethics than the Chinese sample.

The findings provide support for the conventional wisdom regarding the differences between the US and Chinese cultures.

The large sample sizes in the research study provide strong empirical support to existent theory.