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The purpose of this paper is to explore socio-economic implications of decentralized autonomous self-owned businesses.

The authors take the approach of a case study analysis.

Unlike dark scenarios according to which almost half of our jobs are at risk in the wake of new emerging technologies such as AI and Blockchain (Frey and Osborne, 2013), the authors envision a world of decentralized autonomous self-owned businesses, using the example of the taxi market. The authors, first, outline their characteristics and how they work. Second, they elaborate on the socio-economic implications of markets where this novel kind of business enters. Third and most important, the authors argue that so-called robo-economic systems would be tantamount to a post-capitalistic society that is enforced by applying capitalistic principles.

The presented scenario of this paper is very futuristic and furthermore reduces a complex system quite drastically to be able to focus on the two implications of interest. Therefore, we are confronted with the necessity to take assumptions on socio-technical feasibilities and individual preferences. Most of these assumptions can be challenged (see Section 6.3).

The scenario presented by the authors stands in contrast to the fear that increased automation inherently leads to increased inequality. There is a general debate going on whether automation and digitalization will lead to a massive loss of employment, because machines will replace humans in many fields of work. Frey and Osborne (2013) estimate that nearly every second job is at risk to disappear in the coming decades because of computerization. Hence, many people fear to be left behind because of this development and inequality will increase tremendously as only those who own the machines will benefit directly from the profit share. In the scenario, however, the profits are mostly distributed among the consumers via reduced prices.

The proposed scenario seems to reconcile socialism (less private property) with liberalism (a radicalization of markets) and shows an effective way to tackle market power, the problem that certain persons and firms would benefit almost exclusively from the increased profit margins promised by automation.

Current literature provides limited insights into the supply chain contexts within which e-commerce can create higher value for firms. To address this literature gap, this research explores the value potential, and thus value creation process, of e-commerce initiatives for supply chain distribution channel expansions.

Using secondary data collected from multiple sources, this research conducted an event study to examine the stock market reactions to the announcements of e-commerce initiatives of Chinese firms.

The results indicate that the e-commerce initiatives increase average firm value by CNY 295.29 million in a three-day window around the initiative's announcement date. Moreover, we find that such stock market reactions are more positive for firms with poor operating performance, and more negative when firms deploy initiatives on their own (rather than third-party) platforms. Further, companies that integrate or complement their online sales with an offline sales channel experience more positive stock market reactions.

This study provides new insights into the value creation process of e-commerce from an operation and supply chain process perspective.

Present research seeks to examine the reality of the glass‐ceiling phenomenon in South Africa's four major retail banks.

Investigates women's low numbers in their top management jobs. A total of 40 women managers were interviewed for their in‐depth responses, which were content analyzed.

Results indicate that the glass ceiling considered a myth by many, is real and is nurtured by the organizational culture, policies and strategies besides women's own inadequacies. Only the most decentralized organizations, characterized by a culture that supports women's top positions, will help in breaking down the glass ceiling, along with women's own efforts to grow, develop and empower themselves through academic and career development.

It is limited to South Africa's four largest retail banks only and provides limited awareness about certain work practices that are insufficient tools to break down the glass ceiling, hence, future research may construct such tools and examine the extent to which the glass ceiling exists in different countries and the influence of the local culture in it is formation.

The paper provides clarity for organizational leaders to identify growth barriers existing in their organizations, leading their women workforce towards a glass ceiling.

It distinguishes between a glass ceiling and a job barrier and recommends organizations to practise cultural change and decentralization to break it down. This is a research paper and clarifies the difference between common career barriers and the glass ceiling by attempting to elucidate the existence of the glass ceiling.

Sharing resources with stakeholders is the key for keystones to govern business ecosystems successfully. However, existing research has not paid further attention to how keystones share resources under the condition of resource sufficiency and how keystones balance resource sharing with complementors when they lack resources. Therefore, this paper aims to explore how keystones govern their business ecosystems under the conditions of resource sufficiency and resource insufficiency.

This paper adopts the single case study method. First, by adopting Gioia coding to analyze the relevant data of the case sample, this paper obtains the key concepts of the business ecosystem governance process. Then, it establishes the relationship between the concepts by analyzing the governance process of the case sample.

Under the condition of resource sufficiency, keystones under the condition of resource sufficiency, should make full use of resources to incubate more complementors, and further integrate the resources of the business ecosystem, to create more value for their business ecosystems. Under the condition of resource insufficiency, keystones should break the boundaries of business ecosystems and acquire external resources, to meet the resource needs of complementors. Subsequently, keystones should redeploy idle resources according to the actual needs of complementors, to meet the changing resource needs of complementors.

This study subdivides business ecosystem governance conditions and further constructs the business ecosystem governance process model, which provides a theoretical and practical reference for business ecosystem governance.

The purpose of this study is to develop empirically an international comparison of the extent of student entrepreneurship and the factors influencing it. This study explores the factors responsible for the richness of entrepreneurship in Taiwan through a comparison with entrepreneurship in Japan. Looking at factors that determine the extent of entrepreneurship, the discussion builds on previous studies based on individual traits and those that are based on environments, such as a social system or climate. This study focuses on the individual and the environment.

After identifying pertinent issues through a survey of relevant studies, a comparative study of Taiwan and Japan was undertaken. A questionnaire survey was distributed to around 20-year-old university students. Statistical analyses were performed to determine whether there is cause–effect relationship between environmental and individual factors and university students’ entrepreneurship, and to assess the significant differences between entrepreneurship in Taiwan and Japan. In addition, a qualitative case study of university politics related to entrepreneurship in Taiwan was conducted to complement the quantitative analysis.

Results of the study by country indicate that the environmental factors and individual factors that influence entrepreneurship differ.

The reciprocal complementarity of the environmental factors and the individual factors or the likelihood of co-evolution cyclic dynamism is demonstrated.

This paper aims to add to the theorization of the gender dynamic in rural areas by investigating the motives of women who join their family firm (or their spouse's family firm) and thereby defy the demographic trend of rural flight. The context of this study is the depopulation of rural areas with the closing of basic services and relocation of the younger population, and educated women in particular, to urban areas. Consequently, rural family businesses risk failing to find successors and suffering forced closure or relocation. The empirical site of the study is rural family firms in Sweden, a context characterized by a high level of gender equality in legislation and culture but gender-conservative business structures in rural regions.

The empirical case in this paper builds on a qualitative study of nine (9) life course narratives of women entrepreneurs in a rural region of Southern Sweden who have returned to rural areas to join their family business. The authors follow the view established by gender scholars that women are active agents in navigating their lives, and their life story narratives offer insight into the considerations that inform their choice to stay or return to rural locations. In Sweden, the setting for the study, gender equality is widely supported by legislation, policy and institutional frameworks and popular understanding of gender relations. In contrast to the gender-progressive policies of Sweden at large, women's entrepreneurship in rural regions of Sweden tends to follow traditional gender hierarchies and face similar constraints as in rural areas of other countries. The juxtaposition of these competing sets of ideals makes Sweden an important and interesting place to study and draw insights from the experiences of women entrepreneurs.

The findings reveal that women who choose to join rural family firms view them primarily in a positive light and see this choice as aligned with their need for professional flexibility and assertiveness, rewarding relationships, and a calm, secure, well-balanced life. Theoretically, the study implies that women choosing to engage in rural family firms seek non-material benefits, such as work–life balance and social support, and may be driven in part by a sense of psychological ownership that extends to the rural community.

The findings provide novel insights on women as active agents in navigating their lives and the intrinsic (e.g. alignment of personal values) and extrinsic (e.g. community support) motives that inform their decisions. The study also raises questions regarding how women perceive themselves as “fitting in” to rural settings and to what extent the sense of security within these settings that the women describe may be contingent upon factors such as their families' embeddedness within the community as well as their conformity to the local social norms.

– While researchers have discussed the association between career change to self-employment and job satisfaction, few have considered how the association is achieved. Therefore, in this study, the authors aim to explain this relationship from the perspective of job quality. The authors build on job design theory to propose and empirically test how fluctuations in job satisfaction as associated with the transition to self-employment can be explained by changes in job quality.

– The authors tested their propositions using a longitudinal, nationally representative database from Australia for the 2005–2019 period. The final sample included 108,384 observations from 18,755 employees.

– In line with the literature, the authors found that job incumbents experienced low job satisfaction in the years prior to their career change to self-employment and that their job satisfaction improved after the transition. More importantly, the authors found the same change pattern for job quality – measured as job autonomy and skill variety – and the statistical results demonstrated that job quality was the key determinant of job satisfaction during the process.

– This study advocates the importance of job quality in managing employee wellbeing and facilitating retention.

– The authors contribute to the literature by uncovering how job quality, represented by skill variety and job autonomy, can explain fluctuations in job satisfaction during individuals’ career change from paid employment to self-employment.

The purpose of this research is to compare the levels of EI of male and female students, EI among students of three different academic faculties: business, engineering and nursing and the degree of change in their EI over the course of study. Additionally, the authors set out to isolate and quantify the effects of gender and field of study, independent of each other.

This empirical research is based on a survey of >750 undergraduate college students, in which participants answered a host of Likert-scale questions concerning perceptions of risk, self-efficacy, career path and entrepreneurial intent (EI). The survey also contained a number of demographic questions, including academic field (major) and year of study.

Business students express the highest levels of EI, followed by engineering students and nursing students respectively. Regardless of discipline, students become no more or less entrepreneurial over their years of study. Overall, males were found to be significantly more entrepreneurial than females. However, a comparison of males and females within a given faculty yielded almost no differences in EI between the genders.

These findings suggest that students self-select into fields of study based on traits, personalities and interests. It is these same factors that regulate one's EI and not their gender or field of study. Others have analyzed the effects of gender and field of study, the authors isolated the two and analyzed each independently.

The breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments all over the globe to bring radical changes to all walks of life. Strict lockdowns are not only adversely affecting the social, economic, and psychological wellbeing of individuals but also questioning the sustainability of most businesses. In wake of the current scenario, this study is aimed at exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic is influencing the sustainability of entrepreneurship particularly from a female perspective and further providing insights into the role of Islamic financial institutions in the sustainability of businesses during COVID-19.

This is a qualitative study that takes social constructivism approach to study the underlying phenomenon. Semi-structured interviews are conducted to collect primary data. Secondary data are also utilized in this study to theoretically define various concepts relating to entrepreneurial sustainability. The application of thematic analysis revealed various risks associated with sustainability. The interviews reveal the ground realities and tell us about the hardships being faced by the entrepreneurs due to ongoing crises. The participants of the study also shed light on the role of Islamic financial institutions during the pandemic.

The study results revealed that it may look impossible for women entrepreneurs to halt or avoid the adverse consequences of the pandemic; however, a few female entrepreneurs strived to guard their existing portfolios with the help of Islamic microfinance institutions. Whereas, several women, especially those running home-based businesses, lost their income streams. Despite these rapid challenges, most female entrepreneurs are working on inventive online systems to sustain their business activities during the crisis. Finally, guidelines are suggested which can help achieve sustainability of the entrepreneurial startups.

The outcomes of this study are expedient for funding agencies, government authorities and Islamic financial institutions as well as for non-government institutions to establish sustainable and broader policies for women to become successful entrepreneurs during severe disasters like COVID-19. Moreover, the study is a helpful tool for women entrepreneurs to avert the worst impact of the pandemic with the help of Islamic microfinance institutions. The themes of this study help generate realistic information to appraise the strategies to create facilitating business environments that drive the women to carry out the entrepreneurial activity during any crisis like the COVID-19.

The results of this study provide evidence that crisis can be anticipated up to some extent if entrepreneurs become able to take proactive decisions in case of expected or identifiable threats. The study may also help the women entrepreneurs to comprehend the serious consequences of the pandemic by shifting their mode of financing to Islamic finance. Although this pandemic is a cause of physical discomfort instead this research may encourage the female entrepreneurs not to lose heart, just find the potential opportunities for their home-based and small businesses and manage funding from the Islamic microfinance institutions.

The study adds to the existing literature on entrepreneurial sustainability with a particular focus on the role of Islamic microfinance institutions for women entrepreneurs' sustainability in Pakistan. Secondly, the study employs the entrepreneurial sustainability model (ESM) that, according to the best of our knowledge, has not been used by the researchers earlier to study the given research phenomenon. Thirdly, the study findings are expedient for funding agencies, government authorities and financial institutions as well as for non-government institutions to establish sustainable and broader policies for women to become successful entrepreneurs during disasters like COVID-19.

The purpose of this article is to investigate how social integration, immigrant networks and barriers to ventureing affect the entrepreneurial activities of Brazilians in Canada, indicating how mixed embeddedness takes place in that context.

Data were collected in Toronto, through the application of a survey with 74 Brazilian entrepreneur respondents and 42 semi-structured interviews with selected subjects, thus representing a multi-method approach. The analysis included descriptive statistics from the survey data and a qualitative analysis of the trajectories and life stories of Brazilian immigrants.

Our sample comprises respondents with a high level of education and proficiency in English, coming predominantly from the southeast of Brazil, white, aged from 30 to 49. The majority of businesses are small and related to the service sector. The article contributes to the literature by discussing the elements related to mixed embeddedness, including the need for cultural adaptation and for the creation of networks as a crucial element for business venturing.

The study focuses on entrepreneurs regardless of their businesses sector or formality/informality status. It could be used as an instrument to support Canadian public policies for welcoming Brazilians and for the Brazilian government to prevent the evasion of potential entrepreneurs.

The article contributes to the body of knowledge of immigrant entrepreneurship in Canada and of Brazilian entrepreneurship overseas. The results suggest factors that may be relevant to the expansion of their business, such as social networking, cultural embeddedness and adaptation of the products/services to a wider range of target customers.