Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management: Can We Afford to Neglect Them in the Twenty-first Century Business School?

This article reviews the case for business schools becoming more seriously involved in teaching and research in the field of entrepreneurship and small business. It begins by reviewing some of the global pressures that underpin the need for management schools to devote more serious attention to these phenomena. It then argues the central case for a clear conceptual stance to be taken on the relationship between small business and entrepreneurship as a basis for core programme and pedagogical design. It finally reviews the key issues of change that will confront business schools wishing to move into this area under the three headings of: involvement with the community; teaching and research; and organization design.     

家族企业跨代资源整合与组合创业

跨代创业是家族企业传承和永续经营的核心问题,涉及到两代企业家之间的资源整合和传承创新.现有研究大多关注家族企业的独特资源对创业的影响,但忽视了家族企业资源在代际之间形成的异质性结构及其在传承过程中的动态变化,二代涉入带来的资源异质性及其与一代资源之间的整合是组合创业的资源基础,也是推动跨代创业的动力.本文从资源基础观的角度出发,探究家族跨代资源异质性及其整合对家族企业创业行为的影响.基于1999年-2012年中国上市家族企业的数据进行回归分析,结果显示:家族二代异质性的知识资源对家族企业组合创业有显著的促进作用,而家族一代社会资本与二代异质性资源的整合也会正向影响家族企业的组合创业行为.分析结果还表明,地区市场化水平会负向调节知识资源异质性与家族企业组合创业的关系.本文结论对资源观在家族企业研究中的应用以及转型经济背景下的组合创业研究有重要贡献.     

Small Business Social Responsibility: A Critical Multilevel Review,Synthesis and Research Agenda

Small‐business social responsibility (SBSR) related research is rapidly increasing in quantity, but is found in divergent literatures and disciplines. It is time to offer a comprehensive review that identifies, synthesizes and integrates previous research, and highlights the knowledge gaps and the way forward. This methodical search of the literature helped to identify 115 multidisciplinary peer‐reviewed academic articles appearing in high‐quality journals over the 1970–2016 period. Using a systematic and in‐depth content analysis technique, the authors reviewed the articles and identified the theories used, the national contextual focus and the methodological orientations in these articles. They also identified the predictors, outcomes, mediators and moderators of SBSR at the institutional, organizational and individual levels of analysis. This review helps to identify significant knowledge gaps in terms of the theoretical orientation, the national contextual focus, the core content under study, and the methods used. The authors offer numerous suggestions across these topics to help address the knowledge gaps and raise important questions for future research. The primary contributions of this paper are: delineating and summarizing a multilevel analysis of an emerging literature on SBSR; integrating contributions from a wide range of management disciplines and geographical contexts; extracting the potential theoretical contributions in this field; and informing directions for future research. The authors propose a research agenda that is theoretically relevant and innovative, and call for context‐ and size‐aware research on SBSR, using small‐business‐specific methodologies and measurements.     

Corporate Political Activity: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

This paper reviews the diverse literature on corporate political activity (CPA) and develops a framework that details and integrates existing research in this field. A systematic analysis of extant CPA literatures is conducted to order them into domains that have implications for organizational performance. The paper is structured into three such domain emphases, which require further research investigation: resources and capabilities focus; institutional focus; and political environment focus. The contribution of each to an understanding of CPA in pursuit or defence of corporate competitive advantage is discussed. The authors also suggest that the internationalization of business, including the more recent emergence of developing country economies and companies, presents scholars with the challenge of understanding CPA in more varied institutional settings. CPA practices continue to expand as commerce goes increasingly global and, consequently, involves a wider array of political actors and institutions. The paper contributes by increasing the clarity of CPA classification, reflecting on the implications of a multi‐polar world for CPA research and advancing future agendas for scholars in this research community.     

The Effects of Personality and Management Role on Perceived Values in Business Settings

This paper examines the effects ofpersonality variables and functional management role,either entrepreneur, manager in an entrepreneurialfirm, manager in a traditional firm, or small businessowner, on perceived business values. Functionalmanagement role had minimal discernible effects;personality variables differentiated entrepreneursfrom managers and produced many effects for ratings ofbusiness values. Results are discussed in terms ofMBTI and DISC theoretical constructs and theirimplications for entrepreneurship and management.     

Heuristics in international business: A systematic literature review and directions for future research

This paper aims at depicting the status of research on heuristics in the international business domain to understand the main topic areas in which heuristics are addressed and delve into the types of heuristics used by managers and entrepreneurs when dealing with international business activities. These are characterized by a high degree of uncertainty, drawing attention on the adoption of heuristics for decision-making. To this aim, the paper systematically reviews studies published in top-ranked international business journals between 1997 and 2018. The systematic literature review shows that the main research areas in which heuristics are developed concern foreign market entry, post-entry international expansion, foreign market selection, and international entrepreneurship. The paper also discusses the type of heuristics that are utilized by decision-makers when dealing with the uncertainty related to the internationalization process. The results of this study show that the international business literature develops the concept of heuristics in very various ways, tending to develop a plurality of approaches, without recurring or dominant forms. It is, however, possible to identify the types of heuristics and heuristically-based decisions, and a significant subset of the analyzed studies show a positive view on their effectiveness in the uncertainty of internationalization processes.     

Role of Cognitive Styles in Business and Management: Reviewing 40 Years of Research

In line with increased attention on the application of cognitive approaches to industrial, work and organizational psychology, the last 40 years have witnessed a growing interest in application of the cognitive style construct to the field of business and management. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we wish to advance understanding of cognitive styles research by elucidating trends and perspectives related to business and management. Second, we identify gaps in the literature and promising areas of research that can be further developed. This is accomplished by means of a review of papers published between 1969 and 2009. Eight themes emerged from our analysis: (a) vocational and occupational issues; (b) national culture; (c) teamwork and interpersonal relationships; (d) learning; (e) decision making; (f) creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship; (g) sales and marketing; and (h) management information systems, information management and use. Third, we identify valid and reliable methods of assessment of cognitive style for use in business and management settings. Finally we draw a number of conclusions regarding the current state of cognitive styles research and promising directions for future research.     

SMEs and Marketing: A Systematic Literature Review

This paper presents a systematic review of recent academic literature analysing the role, organization and management of marketing activities in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end, 310 articles published between 2006 and 2015 in 69 main journals devoted to small firms/entrepreneurship and management/marketing fields were analysed. This review shows that SMEs’ marketing has received great attention in both management and marketing literature in recent years. Findings reveal, on the one hand, the emerging role of networks and information and communication technologies in marketing behaviour by SMEs, and on the other hand a research gap in terms of specific marketing practices. Entrepreneurial marketing has been used as the main conceptual framework in reviewed studies, even if findings overall still point out a distance between the theoretical bases of reviewed contributions and the study of SMEs’ marketing behaviour and practices. Therefore, future research on the role of resources, relationships and networks could benefit from the combination of theories developed within the field of entrepreneurship with other approaches such as the resource‐based view, the dynamic capabilities theory and the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) framework.     

E‐Business: A Review of Research Published in Production and Operations Management (1992–2008)

We review, classify, consolidate, and synthesize the contributions to the expanding field of e‐business that have been published in Production and Operations Management. We classify e‐business research in the following four categories: (1) e‐auctions, (2) radio frequency identification, (3) e‐business system design, and (4) competition, conflict, collaboration, and coordination (C⁴ in e‐business). We identify important research themes, research methodologies, and research techniques within each of these categories. We also provide directions for future research and discuss the managerial implications of the e‐business research reported in our paper.     

Using knowledge within small and medium-sized firms: A systematic review of the evidence

This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use and acquire knowledge. The review was undertaken as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Evolution of Business Knowledge Programme. The paper describes the systematic review protocol and provides a detailed explanation of the methods used. From the review, it is evident that SME knowledge research concentrates primarily on the acquisition and use of knowledge, treating it as an asset that is transferred by routines. The findings suggest that research is focused in three main areas. First, on the influence and abilities of the entrepreneur to extract, use and develop knowledge resources. Secondly, on firm-wide systems and the social capital that facilitates knowledge exploration and exploitation. Thirdly, on the provision of knowledge and learning experiences through government policy. From a practical perspective, the review concludes that policies encouraging entrepreneurship and economic regeneration need to be more flexible and sensitive to the often complex contexts within which knowledge is used by SMEs. From a research perspective, and given the flexible, opportunity-oriented and often novel nature of SMEs identified in these studies, there is a need to consider the relational and embedded qualities of knowledge by which these characteristics are framed; qualities that resist conceptualization as some form of separable, material asset.     

Entrepreneurship and Epistemology: The Philosophical Underpinnings of the Study of Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Abstract

Two approaches to studying opportunities have emerged in the entrepreneurship literature. This paper shows that the first of these approaches—which focuses on how alert entrepreneurs discover objective opportunities formed by exogenous shocks in an existing market—adopts a critical realist perspective. The second approach—which focuses on opportunities that are endogenously enacted by the actions of entrepreneurs themselves and do not have an existence independent of those human actions—adopts an evolutionary realist perspective. Differences between these epistemological assumptions have an important impact on opportunity research in the field of entrepreneurship, and thus are likely to have an important impact on the evolution of research, practice, and teaching in the field of entrepreneurship as a whole.     

What makes search fund entrepreneurship different in Europe?

Ownership transition is an increasingly relevant decision in small businesses because millions of owners in the largest world economies are reaching retirement age without a successor. As a result, entrepreneurship through acquisition—becoming an entrepreneur through the acquisition of an existing business and growing it much like a startup—is likely to accelerate in the coming years. In contrast to traditional entrepreneurship, where the entrepreneur comes up with an idea and then grows it into a company, the idea of entrepreneurship through acquisition is embedded in the acquired company. In this article, we share our findings from a research project that tracked first-time entrepreneurs looking to acquire businesses in four European countries. These entrepreneurs put in “sweat equity” and used the “search fund” model, whereby investors funded their search expenses and provided funds for an acquisition. However, implementing the search fund model, originally created in the United States, was not straightforward in Europe. Search funders faced novel challenges in investor-entrepreneur (i.e., principal-agent) relationships and the search process. Our study identifies these challenges, the responses from our search fund sample, the lessons learned, and a novel framework to conceptualize a search fund playbook specific to Europe. These experiences hold valuable lessons for those who pursue entrepreneurship through acquisition and help stimulate new research questions for scholars.     

中国企业管理人员对创业的态度

本文调查了三组中国企业管理人员的态度。内容涉及他们对创业的兴趣以及他们对于创业成功机会的预期,并试图通过此类调查找到一些普遍性。这些将对企业家领域的政策制定者有所帮助。     

Subsidiary Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Opportunity: An Institutional Perspective

A subsidiary's ability to identify opportunities in the host country and to subsequently exploit these opportunities could create competitive advantages for the Multinational Corporation. While research on subsidiary entrepreneurship has focused primarily on subsidiary-specific resources and capabilities, as well as environmental factors, the type of opportunities that the subsidiaries may find in the host environment has been underexplored. Drawing on the subsidiary entrepreneurship literature, institutional perspectives, and entrepreneurship research, this paper suggests that subsidiaries embedded in institutional contexts that are different from those of their home country have unique advantages that enable the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities. Accordingly, a theoretical framework is proposed, based on contingency perspectives on the different views of entrepreneurial opportunities in relation to business processes in the host country's institutional environment, vis-a-vis uncertainty levels and legitimacy requirements. In addition, appropriate strategic approaches are suggested, through which subsidiaries can exploit these entrepreneurial opportunities.     

Motivating proactive subsidiary innovation: Agent-based theory and socialization models in global R&D

An integration of agency theory and socialization models is developed and used to explain the types of governance and organizational structures associated with self-initiated subsidiary innovation. This theorizing suggests that: 1) The hub structure is the greatest user of behavior-based contracting and engenders the fewest self-initiated innovations; 2) The federation structure is the greatest user of outcome-based contracting and engenders the most self-initiated innovations, but these are primarily oriented to business level strategy rather than corporate; and, 3) The network structure is the greatest user of goal internalization and is the strongest generator of self-initiated innovations which are oriented to corporate-level strategy. The empirical evidence from extant studies of other researchers in the field is consistent with these propositions. Implications for management practice, research and theory are discussed in the paper.     

坚持还是放弃? 基于前景理论的新生创业者承诺升级研究

坚持或者放弃创业是新生创业者面临的重要且艰难的抉择。已有研究主要基于理性决策的假设分析个体特征、创业活动以及创业环境对坚持或者放弃创业的影响。与已有研究不同,本文认为新生创业者的坚持不是完全理性的决策,其中存在承诺升级现象。研究基于前景理论(框架效应和反射效应)分析了坚持创业中的承诺升级,识别了可能的影响因素:前期投入时间、前期投入资金、创业计划的规范性、技术创业和心理预算,并利用面向中国新生创业者的动态跟踪调查数据(Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics,CPSED)进行了实证检验。针对两类样本(所有273个样本、没有盈利的182个样本)的实证研究取得了一致的结论 :前期投入的时间越多,新生创业者越倾向于坚持创业;前期是否投入资金以及创业计划的规范性对是否坚持创业的影响不显著;存在心理预算负向影响新生创业者的坚持;与非技术创业者相比较,技术创业者更倾向于坚持创业。     

Strategy-as-practice: A review and future directions for the field

This review maps and critically evaluates the rapidly growing body of research in the strategy-as-practice field. Following an introduction on the emergence and foundations of strategy-as-practice, the review is structured in three main parts, based on the terminology, issues and research agendas outlined in the field. First, the paper examines the concepts of practitioners and praxis. A typology of nine possible domains for strategy-as-practice research is developed, based on the way that different studies conceptualize the strategy practitioner and the level of strategy praxis that they aim to explain. Second, the paper reviews the concept of practices, which has been adopted widely but inconsistently within the strategy-as-practice literature. While there is no dominant view on practices, the review maps the various concepts of practices that inform the strategy-as-practice field and outlines avenues for future research. The final section attends to the call for strategy-as-practice research to develop and substantiate outcomes that may better explain or inform strategy praxis. Five categories of outcomes are found within existing empirical studies, and an agenda for building upon this evidence is advanced. The paper concludes with a summation of the current state of the field and some recommendations on how to take strategy-as-practice research forward.     

From Rocking the Boat to Wagging the Dog: A Literature Review of Subsidiary Initiative Research and Integrative Framework

This literature review on the topic of subsidiary initiatives discloses a certain lack of conceptual clarity concerning the phenomenon. After providing an overview of the research field, the paper applies a conception of entrepreneurship inspired by Schumpeter (1912) as a basis for refining our understanding of just what a subsidiary initiative is and of the different kinds of subsidiary initiative. A framework is developed with a view to the current and anticipated growing importance of highly populated countries like China and India which are bound to raise the MNC-internal profile and weight of subsidiaries serving these national mega-markets. The framework distinguishes between organizational disequilibrium and market disequilibrium as a way to classify different types and different degrees of subsidiary initiative. It is argued that prior conceptions of subsidiary initiative in practice reveal a bias towards organizational disequilibrium and tend to overlook important MNC subsidiary initiatives involving market disequilibrium, generally neglecting the entrepreneurial dimension that Birkinshaw (1997) associated with the term when he initiated this research stream. Metaphorically speaking, although Birkinshaw was always clearly interested in MNC subsidiary initiatives that “wag the dog,” most follow-up research examines initiatives that merely “rock the boat.” Our framework helps capture the distinction and anticipates more dog-wagging by MNC subsidiaries in the future.     

International business thought: A 50-year footprint

As international business marks 50 years of its establishment as a distinct domain of academic research, discussions on both the major contributions of the field and its future research directions have drawn great interest in the current literature. The arrival at a clear consensus on these issues, however, has been set back by the lack of resolution in the search for a unifying, integrative framework of international business. Drawing on theories of knowledge organisation and on extant reviews of international business research, this paper proposes an emergent international business research framework anchored around four unifying themes expressed as broad international business research questions. A content analysis of 1689 studies in the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) from its maiden issue in 1970 to 2008 and studies classified as international business in nature done prior to 1960 confirms the trajectories of international business research along the four themes. It is suggested that these major research themes serve as the main research pillars that define the international business domain, framing research done so far, and driving future research in the field. Areas of research intensity and opportunity are identified along with implications for international business research and theory-building.     

The role of organismic integration theory in marketing science: A systematic review and research agenda

Researchers have repeatedly applied the same models/theories to predict consumer behaviour, whereas theories that have been extensively used to promote motivation are disregarded in marketing science. For instance, organismic integration theory (OIT) is a prominent theory of human motivation that provides a framework for categorizing customers’ regulatory styles into different forms of motivational regulations, which could be used in marketing as customers can be motivated to engage in behaviour for a diverse array of reasons. Therefore, we aim to enrich the field of marketing by reviewing extant knowledge on OIT, noting tensions and inconsistencies, and identifying important gaps with reference to how the constructs underpinned by OIT have been applied and what research themes, contexts, and methodologies have been carried out. With this aim in mind, we reviewed three decades of research between 1991 and 2020, outlined underdeveloped and emerging marketing issues, and set comprehensive research agendas (presented as testable propositions).