Uncovering the factors behind new ventures’ international performance: Capabilities,alertness and technological turbulence

This research is based on the perception that the explanation of International New Ventures' (INVs) performance demands a process view, going deeper than the standard approach, in empirical papers, of testing a direct relationship between company-level antecedents and performance. A three-tier model was developed to investigate the process leading to INVs international performance, emphasizing the role of entrepreneurial alertness. Based on the dynamic capabilities framework, entrepreneurial alertness was envisaged as the mediating element between firms' capabilities and their international performance. Empirical research confirmed the hypothesized model. Firms' capabilities (entrepreneurial orientation, foreign market knowledge, and absorptive capacity) significantly influence the level of entrepreneurial alertness, which impacts on the levels of self-reported satisfaction with the company's international performance. The paper makes four contributions to International Entrepreneurship literature. First, it highlights the key role played by entrepreneurial alertness in explaining INVs' international performance. This is convergent with the dynamic capabilities view on firms' ability to sense and seize specific international business opportunities. Second, this study considers entrepreneurial alertness as a capability that is not limited to the entrepreneur, but it is an organizational capability. Third, it shows that entrepreneurial alertness does not exist in the vacuum, is based on a set of base capabilities, namely entrepreneurial orientation, foreign market knowledge, and absorptive capacity, that simultaneously leverage the INVs to sense possible opportunities and constrain the focus of opportunities to international markets, as a key element to foster INVs' higher performance. Fourth, it underlines the role of technological turbulence as a moderator of the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness and INVs' international performance.     

Entrepreneurial leadership vision in nonprofit vs. for-profit organizations

This paper explores the role that entrepreneurial leadership vision plays in the entrepreneurial process of nonprofit and for-profit ventures. The results indicate significant differences in the meaning of vision articulated for each type of venture. Differences between ventures were also found with regard to the relationship that vision has with the ventures' strategies and performance. In the nonprofit organizations vision was associated with a wide-range strategy as well as the ventures' performance and growth. In addition, wide-range strategy partially mediated the relationship between the ventures' vision and its performance and growth. In business enterprises, vision directly predicted only a differentiation strategy, which also mediated the relationship between vision and the ventures' performance and growth. In contrast, a wide-range strategy in these organizations actually reduced growth. These findings contribute both to the literature on vision as well as to the literature on entrepreneurship.     

创业者个体学习、组织学习如何交互影响企业创新行为？——基于整合视角的纵向单案例研究

社会经济的不断发展促使分工愈发精细,对个人与组织间的技术隔离也愈加明显,亟待创业者个体及组织开展跨层次的交互学习以构建组织创新优势。基于此,本文援引学习理论与意义构建视角,从"行动"与"解释"出发,采用纵向单案例研究方法,基于"个体-组织"整合性分析框架,探究了不同创业阶段内跨层次行动主体间的学习互动模型,揭示了其对企业创新的影响路径。研究发现:创业者个体学习与组织学习间的互动,表现为渐变初期个体利用式学习经"自上而下"团队互动主导形成组织单环式行动;而在调整转变期,个体学习与组织学习发生交互影响,包含个体探索式学习经"横向协同式"团队互动主导形成组织双环式行动,以及组织双环式行动转换为单环式之后,经由持续反思与质询,刺激形成创业者个体利用式学习;最后,在发展突变期,个体利用式学习经"制度化统筹式"团队交互合作促成组织单环式行动,同时个体探索式学习经"跨越层次自主式"团队交互激活组织双环式学习。此外,在不同创业阶段,3种互动逻辑与意义构建框架下的创新决定机制呈现出以个体创意激发与扩散、信息整合与匹配以及平衡矛盾与冲突3种不同的影响路径展开的态势。本研究为创业学习理论和创业实践过程贡献了新的启示。     

破解男权资源垄断

全球创业观察项目（GEM）对40个国家和地区的创业情况调查显示,中国女性创业活动指数高达11．16％,高出平均指数4．26个百分点,有意味的是,在女性创业或担任领导人的中国企业中,仅有1．5％的企业亏损,98％的企业赢利。这表明,中国女性在当今复杂的环境中,具有比男性更强的商业把控能力。     

工作经验对社会企业创业资源整合的影响

很多成功的社会企业创建者都有着丰富的先前工作经验,且工作经验对创业过程有着重要的影响。对此,在结合了资源基础理论、知识转移理论的基础上,运用扎根理论,通过收集分析典型社会企业的案例资料,构建出"社会企业创建者的先前工作经验对创业资源整合的影响"的理论框架,并分析了先前工作经验对社会企业创业资源整合的影响机制。研究结果表明,社会创业者的先前工作经验对创业资源的整合能力有正向的影响关系。     

Relationship marketing: Its key role in entrepreneurship

The authors argue that relationship marketing can readily be adopted by a small entrepreneurial business but it will need to be adapted to the entrepreneurial environment into which it is introduced. Results from initial research suggest that entrepreneurial enterprises employ relationship marketing more effectively than less entrepreneurial organisations and they derive commercial benefits such as higher growth rates and fewer customer defections. The authors argue that entrepreneurship can be learned and so less entrepreneurial firms have the potential to learn from more successful entrepreneurs. They offer some specific recommendations but they recognise that the task is not easy because the SME has to create an internal culture that is capable of both embracing relationship marketing and being alert to opportunity.     

Successful entrepreneurship in Hong Kong

The business performance of Chinese firms throughout the world is generally regarded as outstanding. It is also generally accepted in the literature that entrepreneurial business firms play a significant role in economic development of countries at every level of industrialization. Even though entrepreneurship is a major influencing factor for economic growth and development, the interpretation of this factor is still debatable. This paper examines the following factors which might influence the emergence of entrepreneuship: (1) economic; (2) non-economic; and (3) psychological. It then relates these factors to Chinese culture in an attempt to explain the apparent outstanding entrepreneurial skills of the Chinese people. As for economic factors, in Hong Kong the free open market and voluntary exchange provide freedom for distribution of income which in turn allows business practitioners to retain profits and accumulate wealth. Non-economic factors in Hong Kong include is blocked upward mobility in political channels in the colonial environment. This causes the Chinese to use economic mobility as an alternative. Psychological factors include the viewpoint that Chinese are more concerned about a sense of personal or individual achievement, power and influence than other cultures. This causes the Hong Kong Chinese to shift their achievement drives to business success and this encourages entrepreneurship.     

What’s in a face? Facial appearance associated with emergence but not success in entrepreneurship

Facial appearance has been associated with leader selection in domains where effective leadership is considered crucial, such as politics, business and the military. Few studies, however, have so far explored associations between facial appearance and entrepreneurship, despite the growing expectation that societies project on entrepreneurs for providing exemplary leadership in activities leading to the creation of disruptive start-ups. By using computer vision tools and a large-scale sample of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs from Crunchbase, we investigate whether three geometrically based facial characteristics - facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), cheekbone prominence, and facial symmetry - as well as advanced statistical models of whole facial appearance, are associated with a) the likelihood of an individual to emerge as an entrepreneur and b) the performance of the company founded by that individual. We find that cheekbone prominence, facial symmetry and two whole facial appearance statistical models are associated with the likelihood of an individual to emerge as an entrepreneur. In contrast to entrepreneurship emergence, none of the examined facial characteristics are associated with performance. Overall, our results suggest that facial appearance is associated with the emergence of leaders in the entrepreneurial endeavor, however, it is not informative about their subsequent performance.     

More than just two offices.

Some believe that there is an entrepreneur inside every one of us just waiting to get out (and get rich!). Others counter with the old saw that physicians make poor businessmen and businesswomen. Although we tend to laugh at old saws, they often provide significant insight. Thus, when considering becoming an entrepreneur, perhaps one should begin by pondering the business and philosophical differences between a medical practice and an entrepreneurial endeavor.     

中国创业背景中的信任

本文通过分析创业背景和一般意义上信任概念的差异,以及创业背景下中西方信任概念的差异,根据创业过程思路和多层次多维度思路,提出了中国创业背景中的信任构思。在企业家个体层面上包含特殊信任和普遍信任两个维度,在组织层面上包含基于声誉、特征、制度的信任三个维度。在创业的不同阶段,不同层面上的信任具体内涵和维度会表现出不同的内容。最后根据访谈研究的结果提出了初步结论。     

生命周期视角下的金字塔底层创新策略选择:一个多案例研究

金字塔底层(BoP)群体意指与全球化经济相脱离、未能分享经济成长成果的低收入群体,群体中蕴含着大量未被运用的人力资源和其他资本。如果BoP群体中的这些资源能够被企业有效利用,一方面可以帮助BoP群体提高收入,摆脱贫困,另一方面可以帮助企业获得难以模仿的资源优势和效率优势。由于BoP群体在能力特征、认知特征及所处的外部环境方面与成熟经济中的其他群体有很大区别,企业以BoP群体作为资源提供者时会面临一些特定的挑战。这些挑战与企业所处的生命周期阶段相关,不同发展阶段的企业所关注的商业挑战重点不同,从而导致企业在不同的发展阶段需要采用不同的创新策略。因此,本文运用多案例研究方法对BoP群体作为资源提供者的企业进行研究,分析其在不同发展阶段面临的商业挑战,并针对不同商业挑战制定出相应的创新策略,帮助开展BoP群体作为资源提供者的商业活动,以真正解决贫困问题。     

基于质量努力和管理努力的风险投资金融契约设计与学习机制

在风险投资中,企业家付出的努力对企业的内在价值起决定性作用,为了研究如何更好地激励企业家提升企业的内在价值,本文将企业家付出的努力分为：质量努力和管理努力。首先,本文在单期静态模型下设计最优金融契约,并研究了两种努力的效率对激励效果的影响,研究表明：在单期模型中,激励企业家付出质量努力比激励其付出管理努力更加复杂,且与企业的内在价值波动有关。进一步,在多期动态模型中引入风险投资家对企业信息的学习过程,研究表明随着企业内在价值波动率单调减小,契约的激励效果越来越显著,且学习机制的加入会激励企业家降低努力的成本系数,同时更多地提升质量努力的效率。     

创业型家族企业政府交往能力的归因研究——以日本三井公司与河北大午集团为例

针对转型经济背景下创业型家族企业成长中的政企关系问题,运用扎根理论,以日本三井公司与河北大午集团为例,探讨了影响该类企业政府交往能力的深层次因素。研究结果表明,在家族人脉累积、企业家个体特质、创业导向3个政企关系要因的综合作用下,创业型家族企业会依赖自身的政府交往能力使企业具备一定的构筑良好环境界面的能力,最终实现可持续竞争优势的获取与维系。研究结果发现,政企关系要因中单一要素的强化不足以构筑长效的政府交往能力;不同外部环境下政府交往能力表现是有所差异的。在经济环境趋于规范的过程中,创业型家族企业处理与政府关系的样式应该变"非正当性的寻租"为"正当性的影响",由"违规"到"合规"。     

O2O商业模式的创新导向:效率还是价值?——基于O2O创业失败样本的实证研究

商业模式创新是创业企业实现价值创造和竞争优势的重要路径。本文立足于O2O创业失败这一中国典型商业实践,基于服务主导逻辑和互联网经济学的理论基础,从商业模式创新及价值创造视角剖析O2O创业失败归因,并以实证研究方法重点探讨商业模式创新导向与O2O创业失败的关系。首先,引入效率型和价值型商业模式作为O2O商业模式的两类创新导向,在创业环境和行业竞争的调节作用下,构建其与创业失败的理论框架;然后,选取存续时间为2013~2016年的部分O2O创业失败企业作为研究样本,通过清科、Wind、投中等数据库以及IT桔子等互联网渠道获取大量样本信息,借鉴文本挖掘及案例调查法进行数字化评级以准确测度相关构念,并建立层次回归模型对理论假设进行实证检验。研究表明：O2O商业模式的效率性和价值性越高,新创企业就越不容易失败;创业环境越好,采用效率型商业模式的企业就越不容易失败;行业竞争强度越高,采用价值型商业模式的企业就越不容易失败,而采用效率型商业模式的企业却更容易失败。本文在进一步丰富商业模式创新类型及创业失败归因相关研究的同时,对O2O新创企业降低创业失败风险也具有一定启示作用。     

企业家人力资本的自我甄别与市场配置--企业家人力资本的理论模型及其涵义

以往的企业家理论主要集中在对企业家的行为特征进行研究.但是企业家理论的关键是企业家个体怎样向市场传递其企业家信息并被市场选择.张维迎博士提出的"个人财富--企业家能力"模型在此做了开拓性的研究,提出了个人财富是企业家能力信息的市场显示的原理,但在许多方面还需要讨论.本文在该模型基础上,通过引入企业家人力资本的概念,提出企业家的人力资本模型.这一模型把企业家的选择分为两个阶段企业家人力资本的积累和企业家人力资本的配置.在企业家人力资本积累过程中个体完成了企业家资格的自我甄别,其中个体的先天心理特质和制度环境起着重要作用.企业家人力资本的配置是企业家人力资本的市场甄别,即市场对个体传递的企业家人力资本信号--学历、经历与业绩、个人资本和社会资本--进行甄别,以发现"真正"企业家人力资本,并完成企业家人力资本的配置.其中个人财富只是一个重要信号,而不是唯一信号.     

家族企业海归继承人创业学习过程研究——基于文化框架转换的多案例分析

继承人成长模式是目前中国家族企业理论和实践的热门议题,也是保障和提高家族企业跨代持续发展的首要问题。在家族企业传承和转型的关键时期,作为创业的主力军,家族企业海归继承人的多元文化经历和文化框架转换为其创业学习过程提供了独特资源和路径,本文基于文化心理学的动态建构主义视角,以6个家族企业的海归继承人为研究对象,采用探索性多案例研究方法,通过扎根理论的数据处理程序提炼基于文化框架转换的海归继承人创业学习关键过程要素,包括海外获取性创业学习、创业动机促发、实验性创业学习(直觉和编译创业学习)3个创业学习阶段中,文化构念网络可用性、通达性和情境适用性的构建策略及其与创业学习过程的互动协同机制,试图在家族企业传承背景下构建基于文化框架转换的家族企业海归继承人创业学习过程理论模型,从文化心理学视角解读文化框架转换对家族企业海归继承人创业学习方式、路径选择和创业能力形成的微观作用机制,为家族企业海归继承人这一独特创业群体的成长提供富有前景的答案,为家族企业传承和跨代创业提供启迪和借鉴。     

经营能力、协调治理与企业绩效:基于中国数据的实证研究

在解释企业绩效差异性时,无论是委托代理理论还是能力理论都存在一定的片面性。而结合治理机制与经营能力以探讨企业的竞争力,可以为深入理解企业的性质和成长差异性提供更为丰富的解释。本文立足于企业家要素,以能力理论和委托代理理论为基础,并基于国内283份企业数据,从经营能力和协调治理机制的单因素、多因素以及它们的相互作用三个方面统计检验了企业绩效差异性的渊泉。本文的研究结果表明,当对经营能力、协调治理分别进行考察时,这些因素的不同指标都在一定程度上影响到企业的绩效;当对这些因素进行综合考察时,经营能力的贡献则明显高于治理因子的作用;经营能力与协调治理之间存在较弱的互补性,并且这种作用主要体现为改进市场潜力而不是投资净收益。     

基于战略风险投资的融资契约设计及融资决策

初创企业融资过程中, 融资的对象以及合同的设计会对初创企业的经营状态以及社会福利水平产生重要影响.本文将融资的对象分为仅仅追求货币收益的风险投资家和同时追求货币收益及战略目标的战略投资者, 并基于此在阶段性融资背景下考察了单个投资者、多个独立投资者以及辛迪加组织这三类融资方式中融资对象的选择和融资契约的设计, 最后以社会福利水平最优为首要目标、企业预期收益最大为次要目标为企业家提供最优的融资决策.通过分析表明一个最优的融资决策应当包含最优的融资方式和最优的融资对象.关于融资方式, 辛迪加组织提供融资可行时, 企业家应寻求辛迪加组织融资且这种融资方式总是社会有效率的;辛迪加组织提供融资不可行时, 企业家应寻求多个独立的投资者融资, 但这种融资方式无法实现最优的社会福利水平.关于融资对象, 企业家应选择努力水平与一阶最优努力水平最为接近的投资者.     

工作嵌入对科技型员工离职创业活动的影响

目前,高科技企业与大学、科研机构员工离职创业的现象越来越普遍,这类企业家群体正在社会经济中发挥越来越重要的作用.本文围绕科技型员工离职创业活动的主题,根据创业过程前三个阶段的特点,从先前工作经历的"嵌入性"出发,对离职创业动机的形成、创业机会的识别和开发进行分析,进而揭示工作嵌入因素如何影响高科技人员离职创业决策的形成,并通过典型个案分析对上述结论做了进一步的验证,期望能为科技型员工提高创业成功率提供科学的理论依据.     

In pursuit of a new 'enterprise' and 'entrepreneurship' paradigm for learning: creative destruction, new values, new ways of doing things and new combinations of knowledge

The paper argues for a new approach to the study of entrepreneurship and a new paradigm as a basis for entrepreneurship education. It also argues that such an approach is unlikely to come from university business schools. It needs an organisational revolution which, however, can be managed within a university as a whole. The paper is divided into two parts. The first explores the political imperative in Europe for development of the ‘enterprise culture’ and attributes this mainly to pressures for greater international competitiveness. The educational response is then examined and, with the help of a number of recent surveys, some of the key issues pertaining to the development of entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions in the UK and Europe are reviewed. The second part attempts to address the imperative at a more conceptual level. The pursuit of entrepreneurial behaviour is seen as a function of the degree of uncertainty and complexity in the task and broader environment and/or the desire of an individual, in pursuit of an opportunity or problem solution, to create it. It is argued that the key trigger for the growing interest in entrepreneurship is globalization. The way in which this has impacted on the role of the state, the organization of business activity and public services and on individuals to create greater uncertainty and complexity in the environment is explored. This leads to a conclusion that a wide range of stakeholders are being confronted with the need for entrepreneurial behaviour, for example, priests, doctors, teachers, policemen, pensioners and community workers and, indeed, potentially everyone in the community. Entrepreneurship is therefore not solely the prerogative of business. It follows that the traditional focus of entrepreneurship education on business, and new venture management in particular, provides an inadequate basis for response to societal needs. Moreover, the pervasive ideology of the ‘heroic’ entrepreneur can be seen as a dysfunctional when viewed against the needs of a wider community. The wider notion of ‘enterprise’ is therefore introduced as a means of moving away from the hitherto narrow paradigm. How this relates to the development of the individual and the design of enterprising organizations is explored. The paper explores the challenge of this broader context by reference to a number of issues central to the globalization debate including: culture, market liberalization, forms of governance and democracy. It then links these with the ontological and epistemological challenge to education. It concludes with discussion as to how this relates to the traditional concept of a university and argues that universities as a whole are in a much better position to respond to the challenge than are business schools.