In this study across national cultures, we have found discomfort with uncertainty and the propensity for entrepreneurial behavior negatively correlated. This relationship is strongest among large and wealthy national cultures, but also exists in smaller and less economically developed national cultures when we control our measure of entrepreneurship for necessity as opposed to opportunity.

Numerous studies of the relationship of Entrepreneurship to Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) among nations have yielded mixed results; some studies showing no correlation, others show positive correlations and still others showing negative correlations.

The researchers reasoned that the relationship between Total Entrepreneurship Activity (TEA) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UA) might be different in larger, mature and wealthy economies than in economies that were either less developed economically or significantly smaller in populations. In reviewing economic data, only six nations qualified for the first phase of the study by virtue of having a population greater than 30 million people and an average GNP per capita of US$29,000 or more.

In Malaysia, the development of women entrepreneurship has been growing rapidly. Recognizing the potential contributions of women entrepreneurs to the country’s economy, the Government has made its efforts to strengthen women entrepreneurship towards realizing Malaysia’s Vision 2020. However, factors influencing the performance of women entrepreneurs are understudied especially in Malaysia and data segregation on their performance are rather scarce and difficult to obtain.

This study emphasizes on the factors affecting the performance of women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Based on the literature surveyed, the social psychological and the organizational approaches will be used to explore and analyze the relationship between the influence of women’s demographic and parental influence, personal values, their business management, business strategies, goals and motives, networking and entrepreneurial orientation towards their business performance. This resulted in the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework which provides significant insights related to women entrepreneurship practices and their performance levels in Malaysia.

The China Venture Capitalist Confidence Index (Bloomberg ticker symbol: CVCCI) is based on a quarterly survey of mainland China and Hong Kong venture capitalists. The China VC Index measures and reports the opinions of China-based professional venture capitalists in their estimation of the high-growth venture entrepreneurial environment in China over the next 6 - 18 months. In publishing a recurring confidence index of China-based venture capital investors, we intend to utilize the local knowledge and insight of our respondents to provide an on-going leading indicator of local investment in new high growth businesses in the Greater China Region. We expect that this local insight will provide a unique perspective into the dynamic Chinese entrepreneurial business environment. Further, by tracking what local venture investors project about the high growth venture environment rather than what has already occurred in terms of investment flows, we hope to provide actionable insight for all interested parties.

Most individuals are born with some degree of entrepreneurial ability, but without the necessary confidence, they will not pursue careers as entrepreneurs. For this qualitative research, interviews were conducted amongst successful entrepreneurs in New Zealand. The data was analysed and the skills needed to be successful in entrepreneurship were determined. Findings of this research affirm that individuals need to learn practical skills that will give them the confidence to pursue entrepreneurial careers. These skills include the ability to present ideas in an exciting and attractive manner, to get the attention of investors and influence decision makers. To acquire confidence, emerging entrepreneurs also need to learn skills, like the ability to develop strategies which will add value to ideas, projects or products, and to increase wealth. These skills will boost the confidence of individuals to acquire the necessary resources to become entrepreneurial.

Entrepreneurship courses are designed to foster and develop entrepreneurial mindset and skill set in students. One of the issues faced by entrepreneurship educators is how to evaluate the effectiveness of their courses. One obvious measure would be to correlate the firm-creation event with attendance at an entrepreneurship course. This measurement is problematic not only because it is logistically complex from the standpoint of longitudinal research design, but also it would be most difficult to prove that the entrepreneurship course itself was the pivotal factor that had a direct correlation to the firm-creation event.

A nationwide study of students attending all undergraduate entrepreneurship courses offered in Portugal during the spring semester of 2006 was undertaken. Over 300 students were questioned at the beginning of their entrepreneurship course and upon completion of the course. Five distinct subscales were tracked to evaluate the students’ progress regarding: knowledge, personal attraction, social norms, self-efficacy and intentions.

The authors examine Human Resource Management practices using data from two exploratory and two confirmatory case studies. The main conclusions reached in the exploratory cases were: formal HRM practices (i.e. those that are “prescribed” and “official”) although similar across organizations, can yield different social results; trust-building practices are an important element in the process of how HRM impacts organizational performance; HRM must implement a developmental process through which workers can understand and accept HRM practices in order for them to have a sustained impact on organizational performance.

The two confirmatory cases showed: a developmental process of HRM practices lead to worker involvement and commitment towards the organization (as different from commitment to the project leader and team) and increases the perceived importance and utility of the HRM function.

Constraints in the development of HRM are market competitiveness; job autonomy; internal coherence of HR systems; organizational age and autonomy level of HRM function.

This study compared, based on a national sample of small businesses, differences among minority (Black, Mexican, and Korean) and White entrepreneurs in their motivations to enter business ownership and their self-assessment of success. We examined motivations and goals that addressed both the business and the family unit. Our findings indicate that Black entrepreneurs are most likely to report having been pushed into entrepreneurship due to disadvantages in the employment-for-wages labor market, while Mexican and Korean entrepreneurs are not more likely than White entrepreneurs to report this reason for business start up. We also found extrinsic motivations of financial returns to be most important for Mexican entrepreneurs compared to other groups, but flexibility/freedom motives to be even more important for this group. Offering employment for one’s family was most important for Mexican closely followed by Black entrepreneurs. Finally, Mexican entrepreneurs were most satisfied with their business but Black entrepreneurs were least likely to report planning to quit their business.

This paper examines the impact of electrical utility industry deregulation on energy startup companies in USA, Norway, and Japan. A total of 267 entrepreneurs are surveyed on topics ranging from difficulties in startup period, and impact of deregulation, to what entrepreneurs believe best will promote entrepreneurship. Major findings from a three-way ANOVA analysis are presented; with discussions around international differences, company age, and deregulation status. Questions without statistical significant differences are also presented, as well as this research’s possible consequences for people working in this field.

Present age of globalization and liberalization has led to several challenges for small-scale industries in the form of shorter product life cycle, fast changing technology, entry of multinationals and over awareness of customers due to deep media dominance. These units are facing numerous problems resulting in their sickness and this has forced them to be competitive for their sustenance. On the other hand, to restructure and diversify, the opportunities have come in the form of access to better technology, availability of a variety of raw materials & components, and impetus to quality & efficiency. In recent years, the development of entrepreneurship programs for engineering students has gained considerable momentum. An engineer through entrepreneurship can bring in a technical revolution that can meet these challenges. Engineering education has an indomitable role in entrepreneurship development. Since entrepreneurship is a dynamic process of vision, change and creation – education provides energy and passion towards creation and implementation of new ideas on a continual basis.

This paper introduces and explains a course design that used history and inquiry-based learning to develop science students’ understanding of invention, innovation and commercialisation processes. It introduces the course design briefly explaining the rationale, structure and process of the course. Following on from the introduction a detailed case study on the development of Taxol is described which profiles student output from the course. The case study provides both an illustration of the forms of knowledge gained through the use of inquiry-based learning in entrepreneurship education and can itself be used in teaching about invention, innovation and commercialisation processes. Finally, the paper concludes by highlighting the benefits and challenges of this type of course for the students and explains how such a course may provide a different pedagogic approach for entrepreneurship education targeted at science and engineering students.

In many universities entrepreneurship is taught only in the upper division and graduate level courses. Teaching at this level is natural because the students have the necessary business background to comprehend the myriad of complex business issues that face an entrepreneur. Unfortunately by waiting to introduce entrepreneurship until this advanced level, colleges of business may be losing an opportunity to cultivate would-be entrepreneurs who cannot get into these upper division course or who have already set their career paths before realizing that being an entrepreneur is a viable option. This paper describes an initiative underway at a mid-sized Midwestern university to bring entrepreneurship training to students early in the curriculum. This paper describes a series of activities that have been successfully implemented into a large, introductory Management Information Systems course.

Based on Krueger and associates’ (2000) update of Ajzen’s (1991) model of planned behavior, this pilot study examines the entrepreneurial intent of 97 university business students. Guided by Ajzen’s model definitions, Krueger and associates’ measures, a literature review, and focus group sessions, a questionnaire was developed to address the three primary antecedents of entrepreneurial intention: attitude towards act, social norms, and perceived feasibility (self-efficacy). Only two of these primary antecedents in this model were supported (attitude towards act and social norms), and of the elements within the primary antecedent “attitude towards act” (autonomy, achievement motivation, and personal wealth), only autonomy had a significant impact on intent. Implications of these and other results are discussed.

We summarize the evolution of the literature on VCs’ investment criteria from the earliest dissertations written in the 1970s (Hoffmann, 1972; Wells, 1974) to the most recent publications (Shepherd and Zacharakis, 2002; Silva, 2004), and seek to identify significant approaches and trends that have emerged in the field in the last thirty years. We draw the following main conclusion from this survey of the extant research of the VC investment process and decision making criteria. While scholars have outlined the logical structure of the VC investment process, and examined the criteria used at its different stages, they have not yet developed an overarching theory of VC investment. Thus, research on the VC investment process and decision making criteria should be regarded as work in progress. We hope that our review of its current accomplishments and deficiencies will help stimulate more interest in this vital area of the entrepreneurship literature.

Institutions influencing entrepreneurship have been undergoing significant transformation in China. During the Mao era, private entrepreneurship was virtually eradicated and was a political taboo. As reflected in the macro-level economic data, there has been an evolution of entrepreneur-friendly institutions in the country. This paper examines forces influencing the diffusion of instrumental values promoting entrepreneurship among various groups of institutional actors in China.

In this paper we use a grounded theory-building approach to explore the processes and mechanisms of reputation-building by new ventures (NVs). Specifically, we focus on the factors that determine variations among NVs in their reputation-building efforts and outcomes. Based on exploratory interviews with experienced entrepreneurs, supplemented by secondary data on their NVs, we identify several types of activities that play the role of investments in NV reputations. We identify two paths that lead to the accumulation of two different types of reputation – direct and generalized. Which path a NV would take appears to be strongly related to the type of products that the NV offers. High levels of reputation tend to be related to better performance. However, the relationship between reputation and performance is less than perfect, which suggests that prior research using financial performance as a proxy for NVs’ reputations needs to be refined.

The United Nations estimates that approximately 5,000 groups fit its definition of indigenous and that there are between 300 million to 500 million Indigenous individuals worldwide representing as much as 80% of the cultural diversity on this planet (Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights Project, 2003). The list of nation states without an included Indigenous population is a very small one, while the list of those with such populations is large. Further, according to the World Bank “Indigenous peoples are commonly among the poorest and most vulnerable segments of society.” (World Bank, 2001) Wherever they are found, Indigenous people are engaged in a struggle to preserve their societies, retain or regain their rights, improve their socio-economic conditions and rebuild their nations on their own terms. And, albeit grudgingly, states, supranational organizations, the organizations of the civil sector, and corporations are increasingly recognizing the rights of Indigenous people to their traditional lands and resources.

New venture failure is often preceded by a series events and responses by the founding team. The events along the way to failure of each new venture pinpoint the “markers” of failure. Potentially the markers can help entrepreneurs avoid the pathways to failures. In this paper we examined the following question: What were the most frequent pathways, i.e., series of linked decisions, actions, and events that led to Internet new venture failures during the 2000 Internet bubble?

To answer this question we examined histories of six carefully selected Internet new ventures that failed during 2000-2001. The ventures were identified from the reports in Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswire, and the Barron’s magazine. For each selected venture, a log of all events and founding team’s responses to the events leading up to the failure was developed. The pathways to failure and their implications are discussed in the paper.

In light of the high rate of small business discontinuance in Jamaica, this study explored the perceptions of owner-managers about how operations strategy can help to improve firm profitability. Three research hypotheses, derived from theories of Penrose (1959) and Cyert and March (1963), were tested statistically using data collected by interviewing 101 Jamaican owner-managers. They are of the opinion that small firms should pursue a combination of competitive priorities using technology to boost labor productivity and material efficiency. Further, they seem to shun debt capital possibly because of the high rates of interest in Jamaica. The findings imply that small business owner-managers should equip themselves with the knowledge and skills necessary for building operations capabilities. This article extends entrepreneurship literature by providing systematic evidence to show the perceived importance of aligning competitive priorities and resource deployments for a successful operations strategy.

Indian pharmaceutical companies have established strong global presence by way of exporting, joint ventures, strategic alliances and establishing subsidiaries. Many sending companies have become true multinationals and generate major share of revenue from global functions. This paper is an outcome of a study looking at the global market entry strategies of three Pharma companies, namely Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Aurobindo Pharma. The paper has 3 sections. Sections I covers the case of Ranbaxy and discusses how they had gone global and grown global and built up their global business brand and functions. Section II is devoted for Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. Section III covers the case of Aurobindo Pharma.

Although the concept of organizational capabilities is well established in the organization and strategic management literature, the processes which lead to the accumulation and development of these capabilities are still not understood very well and neglected both in conceptual and empirical research. In this paper we try to fill this gap by presenting results from a recent survey on the management of capability development in young Biotechnology companies in Germany. Drawing on the literature of capability development, organizational and entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurship we analyze the impact of CEOs educational background and management experience on the management of capability development.

The distribution of venture capital funding is known to be uneven within counties, with certain regions taking large shares of the total national investment. In the US concentrations of investment activity have been shown to be located in regions with a strong presence of financial or research and development activity. In the UK Government policy has been aimed towards the encouragement of venture capital to support the development of innovative technologies such as biotechnology and to use public funds to stimulate the development of venture capital across all regions.

In this paper we test whether the factors described in the literature which are expected to encourage regional venture capital, are relevant in the UK. We develop a model based on these factors to determine the influence of regional variables on the availability of investment, and examine whether there are different relationships shown between biotechnology and the remaining sectors investment.

This paper takes the well-known consumer-producer economy and makes explicit the role of the entrepreneur. Without assuming entrepreneurial behavior is driven by a monopoly profit incentive (instead assuming perfectly competitive markets), entrepreneurs are shown to actively create profit (rather than take profit). Furthermore, one does not have to assume the individual is any different from any other individual except the entrepreneur has an idea for an improvement and a probability of success. With this simple set-up, the entrepreneur is shown to add a dynamic element to the micro economy that can, when successful, create economic growth; but if unsuccessful there is economic contraction. Using this tool, propositions are generated that explain many of the observed facts of entrepreneurship. This framework opens the avenue for a host of future analytical and empirical investigations into entrepreneurship as assumptions are tailored to answer specific questions.

This paper explores the founding interactions, conditions and decisions of the creation and funding of new ventures. We consider the preliminary stages up to the starting point or close to it. New firms are the locus of the transformation of business ideas into action. The triggering mechanism of a new firm creation is catalyzed by the exchange and commitment of knowledge and other resources, especially financial. The transactions and the relations take place between two main groups: the investors of capital and the entrepreneurs (investees). The study takes a grounded theorizing approach in analyzing data drawn from ten cases of entrepreneurial process. The events examined support a dynamic view where investor and investee’s behaviour changes as a consequence of their interaction: the exchange of credible commitments. The research delivers a description of the concept of commitment in the context of entrepreneurial process.

Entrepreneurship education and curriculum is a topic linked to both economic development and university outreach. In this paper, 60 programs are reviewed and classified as to academic level, academic prerequisites required, type of certificate, and number of credits if any, length in weeks, the sponsoring unit, and the target audience. The Montana Business Development Initiative is presented as a unique program that bridges the academic study of entrepreneurship and business development.

This paper discusses the role of educational institutions in promoting entrepreneurship and risk taking, particularly in conservative communities and cultures. Two main topics are discussed in this paper. The first is tailoring the academic program and all activities supporting it to serve the goal of promoting entrepreneurship. The second topic is to construct a particular form of incubators suitable for emerging economies which is financial resources bound. These incubators serve multiple functions, therefore, in addition to the traditional role of incubating potential-businesses; the other roles are serving as a training site for business-related and soft skills topics for students and serving as an expert house for the industry. This would promote the universities’ role in serving and prospering their communities impacting positively the emerging economy. Efforts related to these topics by a Jordanian University will be discussed as the case study.

Research on female entrepreneurs is extensive in developed countries, especially the USA and Canada. These studies developed a body of knowledge from which theories are emerging and prescriptions for success are derived. However, studies of female entrepreneurs in developing countries and in emerging economies are very scarce. This presents a problem in understanding female entrepreneurship, in these different settings, as the role female entrepreneurs’ play in modernizing developing economies as well as facilitating enterprise development in transition economies is of increasing importance. This lack of information is very challenging, since the social structures, work, family, and organized social life varies widely in developing countries.

Turkey is one developing country where women seek self- employment as a means of overcoming occupational isolation and participation in economic life. For this purpose, a new model explaining the relationship between the various factors, personal attributes and entrepreneurship- that is based current theories and existing models- will be developed.

The importance of social networks to entrepreneurial efforts has been identified and explored by many scholars. However, a better understanding about knowledge creation concerning deployment of social networks in entrepreneurial process is needed. We address the research question of ‘how do ethnic entrepreneurs benefit from their networks to create knowledge necessary for successful business?’ Therefore, we review ethnic and transnational entrepreneurship literature, along with social networks literature. We carry out a case study of a successful Japanese-Brazilian enterprise and conclude that knowledge will be created from raw information available in social interactions, and that knowledge will further be used by the entrepreneur to enact business activities.

The concept of a Metaverse, a shared immersive virtual environment, has moved from science fiction to contemporary reality, in a form that is already becoming a venue for entrepreneurial activity. We assert that this Metaverse entrepreneurship, while sharing most of the characteristics of starting successful businesses in the traditional marketplace, is distinct and different in significant ways from both bricks-and-mortar entrepreneurship and from e-commerce, operating in its own type of marketspace. This paper examines entrepreneurship in the Metaverse of Second Life, noting the impact of open user content creation on who becomes entrepreneur and how low initial cost, risk, and production and marketing costs combine to provide increasing returns. We conclude that a distinctive Metaverse Entrepreneurship can be identified and defined.

This study investigated the Factors that Determine the Level of Savings Mobilized by Small-Scale Manufacturing Enterprises in Kenya A questionnaire based on review of previous measures was used in data collection .The sample was composed of 120 SSMEs owners drawn from the four main Jua-Kali centres of Kisumu. Regression analysis was used to predict the variability of the dependent variable (savings amount per month) based on its covariance with the independent variables (amount of seed capital, value of assets, and sales volume). The results indicated that the amount of seed capital, value of the assets acquired and sales volume had significant influence on amount of savings mobilized ( R2adj =0.37; F (3,112) = 23.22; p<. 05). The results also showed significant differences in the amount of savings mobilized between SSMEs operated by a full time entrepreneur and those operated by a moonlighting entrepreneur {t (119) = 3.06, p<.05}.

Performing an in-depth analysis of six cases we provide a review of the neglected area of the dynamics of outside boards in academic spin-outs. Drawing on resource-dependency and social network theory, we explore how board members are attracted to outside boards, what they bring to the team, and how the availability of different networks of the founding team affect the changing nature of heterogeneity in the board. We provide an important extension to previous research by taking a dynamic perspective that covers different phases in the new venture development. In particular, we take into consideration the timing of new addition to the board by employing the temporal entrainment theory and the theory of interruptive events. Our findings reveal key internal and external pacers of young research-based start-ups that operate in outside board membership change.

This paper is about the entrepreneurial challenges facing Somalia as it recovers from a devastating civil war and statelessness which have lasted for more than a decade and half. The paper will attempt to suggest some business and economic policies that the new government of Somalia might consider in order to put the country back on the path to a successful economic reconstruction and development. The proposed policies are derived from a critical reassessment the crucial role of entrepreneurship plays in today’s integrated and interdependent world economy. The paper will also integrate a number of newly published research on the topic, and suggests policies for creating a business and investment climate that regulates but does not stifle the entrepreneurial spirit of the Somali people which has flourished for the 15 years despite (or perhaps, because of) the absence of any form of government.

The urban informal sector now constitutes a major part of the indigenous private sector in Africa, and has become the focus of increasing debate and controversy in African development discourse. The main policy concern appears to be how best to support and regulate the urban informal sector and informal settlements in a way that promotes employment, shelter and livelihood for the poor. and at the same time ensures a safe, healthy and socially acceptable environment. Many advocates present the sector in romantic terms as a form of popular development, a vital source of employment and income for the poor, a seedbed of local entrepreneurship, and a potent instrument in the campaign to alleviate poverty. On the other hand critics, including trade union leaders, employers of labour and government planners dismiss the sector as an anomaly, a source of disorder, and an obstacle to the development of a modern market economy.

The study deals with the question how personality characteristics and the cultural and social context exert an influence on the intention to start a business. An empirical study among 489 German and American business students is conducted. These were asked about their intention to start a business. Furthermore, personality characteristics that are supposed to have predictive power with respect to becoming an entrepreneur were presented to the students. In addition to that, students were asked to indicate how failed entrepreneurs are treated in their countries and societies respectively from the students’ opinion.

The findings imply that the personality characteristics have an influence on long term entrepreneurial activity, in terms of “Established entrepreneurial activity”, whereas, the socio-cultural environment has an influence on “Nascent” entrepreneurial activity. This influence is exerted through the intention to start a business. The findings have severe implications for policy makers and researchers. Limitations of the study are acknowledged.

In defining and explaining many issues surrounding the notion of uncertainty management, I introduce a typology for flexibility that leads to the development of the Flexibility Theory™. Corporations need to go beyond real options analysis to fully take advantage of exogenous and endogenous opportunities, particularly when there is a high degree of uncertainty and complexity.

Risk management should start at the strategic level of decision making, where policy makers should set rules and guidelines regarding the “risk taking behavior” of the corporation. In this spirit, all risk-related concepts are tackled in a coherent and “completing” framework, called Decisive Risk Management™. This enables the corporation decide (1) how much risk to take on to achieve the return objective, and (2) what kind of “risk handling” is desired operationally. Finally, I discuss the core-satellite approach within the context of strategic and tactical risk budgets, which emphasize the significance of entrepreneurial activities in the implementation of strategic plans.

This study seeks to identify the determinants of international human capital, the human capital which enables a firm to compete successfully in the global market. The detailed relationships among KM-related human resource management (HRM hereafter), global knowledge management (KM hereafter) strategy, and international human capital are explored. Specifically, we examine the relationship between a firm’s KM-related HRM (careful selection, KM-related training, and KM-related compensation) and its international human capital system (competency of top management team, input-based international human capital, transformational international human capital, and output-based international human capital). The moderating effects of a firm’s global KM strategy (technology-centered or people-centered) are also considered. It is found that the better the alignment between a firm’s HRM-KM strategy, the better KM-related HRM contributes to a firm’s international human capital. It is hoped that this model will provide guidance for future empirical studies on international human capital management.