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The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that illustrates how resource-based countries, such as those in the Gulf Cooperation Council, can move their economies towards a more sustainable diversified model, through creating and fostering institutions that are conducive for opportunity entrepreneurship.

Several key variables pertaining to formal and informal institutions which impact opportunity entrepreneurship are presented in a conceptual framework based on a comprehensive, non-systematic literature review.

Findings from the comprehensive literature review suggest that institutions play a moderating role between opportunity entrepreneurship and economic development. Institutions can stimulate entrepreneur’s behaviour leading to economic growth and subsequently development. Proposals worth pursuing in empirical studies in the future are presented based on the review of the literature.

This framework offers a model for oil-based countries in resolving structural problems in fostering entrepreneurship when responding to economic challenges.

The proposed framework in this study takes into consideration a comprehensive set of formal and informal institutional factors, rarely discussed in the existing literature, that link opportunity entrepreneurship and economic growth and development. Insights offered by this study have implications for government policy changes in developing effective institutions.

Resource mobilization has come to dominate contemporary discourse on the making and survival of social enterprises (SEs). Emphasizing the socially constructed nature of idiosyncratic firm resource environments, this study integrates bricolage and social exchange theory to explore the means at hand and the kinds of practices SEs in China employ to mobilize resources to address persistent social problems.

Adopting a qualitative multiple case design, the research contribution is developed in the context of four SEs based in two cities in China selected through a two-stage process. The main data for the inquiry come from 21 face-to-face, semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants in 2018 and 2019. The authors supplemented this with secondary data about each SE curated from social media platforms and publicly available documentary sources, including press statements, reports and popular press video interviews.

The research findings suggest that SEs in China tend to follow a two-step resource mobilization process: fraternize and exchange. Leveraging the means at hand – “social practice know-how” and the practice of “proactiveness,” SEs strategically engage with actors in their environment (fraternize) to understand and explore the possible sources of the resources they require. Nevertheless, fraternization alone is not sufficient; SEs must demonstrate exchange values (social, economic, functional and regulatory) to convince resource owners to either directly release resources (funds, the right of use of empty spaces, technologies, time and efforts) or offer them indirect support (certification, government procurement). The process of fraternizing within the contingencies of organizing, intertwined with social exchange practices, constitutes the success of resource mobilization. The combination and reconfiguration of the expanded repertoire of mobilized resources provide opportunities for the SEs to make do and, in return, help them maintain their status as valued SEs in China.

This study extends the understanding of bricolage through a social exchange lens to unpack the process through which SEs in China mobilize appropriate resources for their businesses. Emphasizing the importance of the social dimension of bricolage in resource mobilization, a two-step model, comprising fraternization exhibited in the form of social practice know-how and proactiveness and social exchange, is presented as an essential mechanism in SEs’ resource mobilization in China.

Corruption has been shown to discourage entrepreneurship in both developed and developing countries. However, it is less clear to what extent corruption affects the development of institutions’ impact on entrepreneurial activity in the context of emerging economies, such as those in the post-communist countries. The purpose of this study is to use institutional economics as a conceptual framework to analyse the moderating effect of control of corruption (informal institution) on the relationship between formal institutions (such as the number of procedures, education and training [TEDU], access to finance and technology absorption) and entrepreneurial activity.

The study used panel data of 14 post-communist countries and different secondary databases from the years 2006-2016.

The main findings showed the importance of the institutional environment (formal and informal) on encouraging the rates of entrepreneurial activity. Overall, corruption showed that it behaves as a moderator between formal institutions and entrepreneurship. In particular, the evidence from this study showed that formal institutions, such as the number of procedures and TEDU, are more likely to encourage individual’s choice to become an entrepreneur and start a new business activity in post-communist economies that have a perception of lower levels of corruption.

This study has several implications from both theoretical perspectives (advancing the application of institutional economics for the study of entrepreneurship) and from the practical point of view (providing insights for governmental policies interested in fostering higher levels of entrepreneurial activity).

The paper aims to analyse the interplay between formal and informal institutions' and their impact on entrepreneurship rates in emerging economies.

This study expands previous research in examining the moderating effect of control of corruption on the relationship between formal institutions and the development of the entrepreneurial activity. The study utilizes longitudinal analyses of a dataset from 41 emerging economies over 11 years (2006–2016).

Findings provided robust support for the study's hypotheses. The results suggested lower levels of corruption positively moderate the effects of a country's number of procedures and education and training on the rates of entrepreneurial activity, while negatively moderating the effects of firm-level technology absorption on the rates of entrepreneurial activity.

The study has considered only one particular aspect of high-growth entrepreneurship, which is newly registered firms with limited liability. Although newly registered firms are recognized as one of the critical drivers of entrepreneurial activity. Future research should seek to examine other aspects of growth-oriented entrepreneurship such as activities involving a high level of innovation, corporate entrepreneurship or technology developments.

This study advanced the existing theories in the field of entrepreneurship and institutional economics as it merged the two theories as a driving framework in the design of the study in the context of emerging economies.

The study tested a theoretical model by expanding the number of emerging economies in the study and found comparable findings that explain factors that may influence the likelihood of individuals entering entrepreneurship.

This article adds to the current literature as it highlights the importance of the interplay of formal and informal institutions in determining their impact on entrepreneurship rates in emerging economies. This is of particular importance to policy-makers, and the business world as the empirical results of this study show the benefits of control of corruption in boosting entrepreneurial rates in these economies, which strive for economic diversification in their developmental endeavours.

The purpose of this paper is to achieve stable grasping and dexterous in-hand manipulation, the control of the multi-fingered robotic hand is a difficult problem as the hand has many degrees of freedom with various grasp configurations.

To achieve this goal, a novel object-level impedance control framework with optimized grasp force and grasp quality is proposed for multi-fingered robotic hand grasping and in-hand manipulation. The minimal grasp force optimization aims to achieve stable grasping satisfying friction cone constraint while keeping appropriate contact forces without damage to the object. With the optimized grasp quality function, optimal grasp quality can be obtained by dynamically sliding on the object from initial grasp configuration to final grasp configuration. By the proposed controller, the in-hand manipulation of the grasped object can be achieved with compliance to the environment force. The control performance of the closed-loop robotic system is guaranteed by appropriately choosing the design parameters as proved by a Lyapunove function.

Simulations are conducted to validate the efficiency and performance of the proposed controller with a three-fingered robotic hand.

This paper presents a method for robotic optimal grasping and in-hand manipulation with a compliant controller. It may inspire other related researchers and has great potential for practical usage in a widespread of robot applications.

This chapter provides a synthesis of the research project which investigated whether or not the most recent mathematics curriculum reform has reached the classroom and influenced classroom practice and student learning in the mainland China. Three types of evidence for change as a result of the curriculum reform were examined. These included the beliefs and perceptions of teachers about learning and teaching mathematics, the cognitive features of learning tasks and of classroom interaction that were implemented in classroom, and student learning outcomes. Two groups of elementary math teachers and their students participated in the study. One group had participated in the reform implementation in classroom for several years, and the other group had used the conventional curriculum when the project was conducted in 2005. About 150 videotaped class sessions were analyzed from 58 classrooms of the two groups. Survey methods were used to probe the changes in the beliefs and perceptions of teachers about teaching and learning mathematics. The student learning outcomes were assessed for three times with multiple measures of mathematics achievement. Findings of the project provide the converging evidence that the curriculum reform has resulted in some of the expected changes. Reform teachers were more likely to hold a dynamic view of mathematics and to indicate the importance to provide students the learning opportunity to hypothesize, to proof, and to communicate in learning mathematics. The reform classrooms used more learning tasks with higher cognitive demands. The teachers in the reform classrooms asked more questions that required students to describe procedures leading to their answers and the students in the reform classrooms raised more questions in learning mathematics. Students of the reform classrooms showed to have achieved a relatively more balanced development in different cognitive areas of mathematics achievement.

Tingting Qi's chapter titled, “Moving toward Decentralization? Changing Education Governance in China After 1985,” provides the historical and policy context for the volume. This chapter integrates the post-1978 Chinese educational reforms into the socioeconomic context of China. The special contribution of this chapter is that it explores the complexity of educational decentralization in China through an in-depth analysis of changes in education finance, administration, and curriculum. Qi reviews prior studies, government documents, laws, and regulations related to Chinese education reform since 1978 within the context of education decentralization in China. Qi also demonstrates that China's educational policy reforms are moving China toward “centralized decentralization” because decentralization is driven by a common, centralized national goal of economic modernization. The chapter presents evidence that “centralized decentralization” is a strategic maneuver that maintains centralized control while providing the reform legitimacy of decentralization. By focusing on decentralization as the core of Chinese educational policy reforms, this chapter situates the following chapters within the social, cultural, and political context of post-1978 China.

As China's educational policy and reforms continue to evolve and adjust to shifting social, economic, and political conditions, this chapter provides a template for conceptually framing education research on and in China. To do so this chapter first identifies focus areas in comparative education research related to China, which reflect researcher perspective, perceived advantage, and demonstrated resistance to these educational policy reforms. The authors develop a conceptual framework for comparatively understanding education research on and in China, which focuses on the intersection of comparative education themes, institutional change agents or methods, and Chinese educational reform topics. This conceptual framework specifically accounts for overlap, complexity, and the evolving nature of educational policy reform in China. This chapter concludes by emphasizing the importance of comparative education researchers, national policymakers, and consumers of the research using new data and methods as they become available to continue to revise understandings of Chinese educational policy and reform.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the conceptualisation of entrepreneurial preparedness (EP), and study how EP occurs in new venture creation and management.

The paper primarily draws evidence from an exploratory case study of two Chinese high-tech private enterprises operating in the healthcare industry in Beijing, following a two-stage sampling process: informal, purposive sampling; and formal, theoretical sampling. Qualitative data collected from multiple semi-structured interviews within each firm were analysed using a thematic analytical framework.

The paper advances the conceptualisation of EP as a cumulative, social and purposeful learning process. Accordingly, the paper highlights the roles of experiential learning, social learning and entrepreneurial goals (both performance and learning goals) as mechanisms that enable EP in entrepreneurial management.

The findings reveal idiosyncrasies of EP in a particular context. Future research may investigate different types of entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial firms. Furthermore, this study uses triangulation of retrospective interview data with concurrent interview and secondary data. Future research may pursue concurrent longitudinal case study data to unpack real-time events in entrepreneurial management.

The findings have practical implications for entrepreneurs and “would-be” entrepreneurs to better understand their learning needs and how they can prepare themselves for entrepreneurial challenges.

EP as an emerging concept within the entrepreneurial learning (EL) literature requires conceptual and empirical development. The paper advances the conceptualisation of EP, supported with empirical evidence. By articulating the cumulative, social and purposeful nature of EP, the paper contributes to the understanding of the human and social dynamics of EL.