Search results for: returns to social entrepreneurship
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 9685

Search results for: returns to social entrepreneurship

9415 Entrepreneurial Predisposition and Intention of Students from the IFRN – Mossoró, Brazil

Authors: Giovane Gurgel, Cristina S. Rodrigues, Filipa D. Vieira

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IFRN – Mossoró is a Brazilian technical education institute that develops several activities to encourage entrepreneurship, such as a curricular discipline about enterprise management and the existence of a business incubator. Despite efforts, the business incubator does not produce the expected effects. Therefore, what predisposes students to start their own business? If literature review explores determinant factors like the family and personal characteristics, it can be sustained that entrepreneurship skills can be taught since primary level, until university level. This paper presents the results of research project “Empreende IFRN” to understand the entrepreneurial predisposition and intention of the students from technical level courses. Data from 365 students from technical level courses reveal an increased entrepreneurial intention of students during time (from a 2 years period to someday in the future). The entrepreneurial behaviour of parents affects students’ perception about starting their own business. Students also present a cautions behaviour, preferring bank deposit and investment fund instead starting a business.

Keywords: Brazil, entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurship, secondary technical students

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9414 Partnership Brokering as a Driver of Social Business

Authors: Lani Fraizer, Faiz Shah

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Extreme poverty continues to plague the world. Forty-seven million people live well-below the poverty line in Bangladesh, enduring poor quality of life, often with no access to basic human needs like shelter and healthcare. It is not surprising that poverty eradication is central to the mission of social change makers, such as Muhammad Yunus, who have demonstrated how enterprise-led development initiatives empower individuals at the grassroots, and can galvanize entire communities to emerge out of poverty. Such strategies call for system-wide change, and like a number of systems leaders, social business champions have typically challenged the status quo, and broken out of silos to catalyze vibrant multi-stakeholder partnerships across sectors. Apart from individual charisma, social change makers succeed because they garner collaborative impact through socially beneficial partnerships. So while enterprise-led social development evolves in scope and complexity, in step with the need to create and sustain partnerships, Partnership Brokering is emerging as an approach to facilitate collaborative processes. As such, it may now be possible for anyone motivated by the idea of social business to acquire the skills and sophistication necessary for building enriching partnerships that harness the power of the market to address poverty. This paper examines dimensions of partnership brokering in the context of social business, and explores the implications of this emerging approach on fostering poverty eradication.

Keywords: poverty, social business, partnership brokering, social entrepreneurship, systems change, enterprise-led development, change making

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9413 The Importance of Entrepreneurship for National Economy: Evaluation of Developed and Least Developed Countries

Authors: Adnan Celik

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Entrepreneurs are people who attempt to do a business and do not hesitate to do so. They are involved in the production of economic goods and services through factors of production. They also find the financial resources necessary for production and the markets where the production will be evaluated. After all, they create economic values. The main function of the entrepreneur in contemporary societies is to realize innovations. From this point, the power of the modern entrepreneur is based on her/his capacity to innovate and transform his innovations into tangible commercial products. In this context, the concept of an entrepreneur is used to mean the person or persons who constantly innovate. Successful entrepreneurs take on the role of the locomotive in the development of their countries. They support economic development with their activities. In addition to production and marketing activities, it also has important contributions to employment. Along with the development of the country, they also try to make the income distribution more balanced. Especially developed country entrepreneurs intensely perform the following functions; “to produce new goods and services or to increase the quality and quality of known goods and services; ability to develop and apply new production methods; establishing new organizations in the industry; reach new markets; to find new sources from which raw materials and similar materials can be obtained”. Entrepreneurs who fully implement business functions are easier to achieve economic efficiency. Thus, they provide great advantages to the business and the national economy. Successful entrepreneurs are people who make money by creating economic values. These revenues are; on the one hand, it is distributed to individuals in the business as wages, premiums, or dividends; It is also used in the growth of companies. Thus, employees, managers, entrepreneurs and the whole country can benefit greatly. In the least developed countries, the guiding effect of traditional value patterns on individuals' attitudes and behaviors varies depending on the socio-economic characteristics of individuals. It is normal for an entrepreneur with a low level of education, who was brought up in a traditional structure, to behave in accordance with traditional value patterns. In fact, this is the primary problem of all countries in the development effort. The solution to this problem will be possible by giving the necessary importance to the social dimension as well as the technical dimension of development. This study mainly focuses on the importance of entrepreneurship for the national economy. This issue has been handled separately in terms of developed and least developed countries. As a result of the study, entrepreneurship suggestions were made, especially to least developed countries, with the goal of national economy and development.

Keywords: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, national economy, entrepreneurship in developed and least developed countries

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9412 Entrepreneurship Education Revised: Merging a Theory-Based and Action-Based Framework for Entrepreneurial Narratives' Impact as an Awareness-Raising Teaching Tool

Authors: Katharina Fellnhofer, Kaisu Puumalainen

Abstract:

Despite the current worldwide increasing interest in entrepreneurship education (EE), little attention has been paid to innovative web-based ways such as the narrative approach by telling individual stories of entrepreneurs via multimedia for demonstrating the impact on individuals towards entrepreneurship. In addition, this research discipline is faced with no consensus regarding its effective content of teaching materials and tools. Therefore, a qualitative hypothesis-generating research contribution is required to aim at drawing new insights from published works in the EE field of research to serve for future research related to multimedia entrepreneurial narratives. Based on this background, our effort will focus on finding support regarding following introductory statement: Multimedia success and failure stories of real entrepreneurs show potential to change perceptions towards entrepreneurship in a positive way. The proposed qualitative conceptual paper will introduce the underlying background for this research framework. Therefore, as a qualitative hypothesis-generating research contribution it aims at drawing new insights from published works in the EE field of research related to entrepreneurial narratives to serve for future research. With the means of the triangulation of multiple theories, we will utilize the foundation for multimedia-based entrepreneurial narratives applying a learning-through-multimedia-real-entrepreneurial-narratives pedagogical tool to facilitate entrepreneurship. Our effort will help to demystify how value-oriented entrepreneurs telling their stories multimedia can simultaneously enhance EE. Therefore, the paper will build new-fangled bridges between well-cited theoretical constructs to build a robust research framework. Overall, the intended contribution seeks to emphasize future research of currently under-researched issues in the EE sphere, which are considered to be essential not only to academia, as well as to business and society having future jobs-providing growth-oriented entrepreneurs in mind. The Authors would like to thank the Austrian Science Fund FWF: [J3740 – G27].

Keywords: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions, entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial narratives

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9411 Fintech and Democratization of Finance: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Authors: Lawrence Ngalim

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In this paper, we investigate whether the adoption of recent technological advancements in delivering financial services, such as crowdfunding, assists the financially excluded across twenty-seven Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) through entrepreneurship. Results show that even after addressing potential endogeneity issues as much as possible, crowdfunding and entrepreneurial-ventures are strongly associated i.e., crowdfunding translates a 5 – 9 percentage increase on incumbent/prospective individuals who borrowed to enhance/embark on a venture across SSA economies between 2014 to 2017. The study has some implications for regional financial alliance if economies adopt this recent financial technology which offers another financing opportunity that’s unrestricted by territorial boundaries.

Keywords: fintech, finance, entrepreneurship, SSA

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9410 Signaling Theory: An Investigation on the Informativeness of Dividends and Earnings Announcements

Authors: Faustina Masocha, Vusani Moyo

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For decades, dividend announcements have been presumed to contain important signals about the future prospects of companies. Similarly, the same has been presumed about management earnings announcements. Despite both dividend and earnings announcements being considered informative, a number of researchers questioned their credibility and found both to contain short-term signals. Pertaining to dividend announcements, some authors argued that although they might contain important information that can result in changes in share prices, which consequently results in the accumulation of abnormal returns, their degree of informativeness is less compared to other signaling tools such as earnings announcements. Yet, this claim in favor has been refuted by other researchers who found the effect of earnings to be transitory and of little value to shareholders as indicated by the little abnormal returns earned during the period surrounding earnings announcements. Considering the above, it is apparent that both dividends and earnings have been hypothesized to have a signaling impact. This prompts one to question which between these two signaling tools is more informative. To answer this question, two follow-up questions were asked. The first question sought to determine the event which results in the most effect on share prices, while the second question focused on the event that influenced trading volume the most. To answer the first question and evaluate the effect that each of these events had on share prices, an event study methodology was employed on a sample made up of the top 10 JSE-listed companies for data collected from 2012 to 2019 to determine if shareholders gained abnormal returns (ARs) during announcement dates. The event that resulted in the most persistent and highest amount of ARs was considered to be more informative. Looking at the second follow-up question, an investigation was conducted to determine if either dividends or earnings announcements influenced trading patterns, resulting in abnormal trading volumes (ATV) around announcement time. The event that resulted in the most ATV was considered more informative. Using an estimation period of 20 days and an event window of 21 days, and hypothesis testing, it was found that announcements pertaining to the increase of earnings resulted in the most ARs, Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) and had a lasting effect in comparison to dividend announcements whose effect lasted until day +3. This solidifies some empirical arguments that the signaling effect of dividends has become diminishing. It was also found that when reported earnings declined in comparison to the previous period, there was an increase in trading volume, resulting in ATV. Although dividend announcements did result in abnormal returns, they were lesser than those acquired during earnings announcements which refutes a number of theoretical and empirical arguments that found dividends to be more informative than earnings announcements.

Keywords: dividend signaling, event study methodology, information content of earnings, signaling theory

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9409 Economic Stability in a Small Open Economy with Income Effect on Leisure Demand

Authors: Yu-Shan Hsu

Abstract:

This paper studies a two-sector growth model with a technology of social constant returns and with a utility that features either a zero or a positive income effect on the demand for leisure. The purpose is to investigate how the existence of aggregate instability or equilibrium indeterminacy depends on both the intensity of the income effect on the demand for leisure and the value of the labor supply elasticity. The main finding is that when there is a factor intensity reversal between the private perspective and the social perspective, indeterminacy arises even if the utility has a positive income effect on leisure demand. Moreover, we find that a smaller value of the labor supply elasticity increases the range of the income effect on leisure demand and thus increases the possibility of equilibrium indeterminacy. JEL classification: E3; O41

Keywords: indeterminacy, non-separable preferences, income effect, labor supply elasticity

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9408 Entrepreneurship And Heritage Tourism: Identifying Opportunities Around Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site

Authors: O. Nthoi-Molefe, V. Makwinja

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In the North West district of Botswana, Heritage tourism has the potential to offer tremendous economic and social opportunities for local communities in terms of supporting Tourism product development and entrepreneurship. This paper Identifies that Cultural Heritage Entrepreneur brings to the market goods and services, organizes and runs cultural heritage in a commercial or non-profit manner depending on characteristics of cultural resources identified. Data was collected through a series of focus group discussions that included sixteen village community members within the region. Data collected was transcribed and then further analyzed thematically to bring forward results to be analysed. Using Tsodilo Hills World Heritage Site as a case study, the researchers acknowledged that Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurs in that area should use a creative approach in order toidentify suitable solutions for financing different tourism activities starting with sponsored events, grant funds, donations, including the benefits of financial opportunities brough be foreign visitors and domestic tourists alike. The researchers also identified a need for specialized training for the identified entrepreneurs in order to maintain quality services of tourism products and sites (interpretation), information for tourists, visitation services, diversification, and upgrading of the heritage experience. The research reveals that the identified Cultural Heritage Entrepreneurs prefer economic motivation, exploitation over the cultural value of their resources, further calling for recommendations of the research that emphasize on the need for detailed training on how to valorize their cultural resources for the growth of Tourism in the area.

Keywords: education, community development, entrepreneurship, cultural tourism

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9407 Effect of Rural Entrepreneurship in Rural Development in Nigeria: A Study of Selected Entrepreneurs in Ikwuano Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria

Authors: Ifeanyi Charles Otuokere, Victoria Nneoma Nnochiri

Abstract:

Entrepreneurship generally and specifically within the rural communities in Nigeria is a fast means of bringing development within the communities. This is made possible by utmost maximization and management of available local resources to develop rural areas through good management of these local resources. This study anchors on the rural development paradigm and the integrated rural development theories to understudy the knowledge of rural entrepreneurs on rural economic development. The research study made use of surveys and descriptive analysis. The assessable population for the study, which was randomly selected, is 100 rural entrepreneurs from ten rural communities within the Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. The study made use of both primary and secondary as a source of data collection with much emphasis on a primary source, although secondary data such as journals, textbooks electronic sources were also utilised. A carefully structured questionnaire drafted to extract raw data was administered to selected entrepreneurs. The findings of the study showed that developments within rural communities can only be achieved through rural entrepreneurship. This is evidenced in increased output, job creation, and most importantly, reduction of rural to urban migration, among other things. Recommendations were also made based on these findings; the researchers recommended that infrastructural developments should be made available in the rural communities and government policies should create enabling environments along with other assistance to help these rural entrepreneurs achieve their sole aim.

Keywords: economic developments, rural communities, rural development, rural entrepreneurship

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9406 Women's Entrepreneurship in Mena Region: Gem Key Learnings

Authors: Fatima Boutaleb

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Entrepreneurship proves to be crucial for the economic growth and development, since it contributes to job creation and the improvement of the overall productivity thus generating a positive impact upon society at various levels. Promoting entrepreneurship stimulates therefore economic diversity that is key to the betterment and/or maintaining of the standard of living. In fact, recent research suggests that entrepreneurship contributes to development by creating businesses and jobs, stimulating innovation, creating social capital across borders, and channeling political and financial capital. However, different research studies indicate that among the main factors impeding the entrepreneurship are politico-economic as socio-cultural problems, with an intensity for those related to young people and to women. In the MENA region, discrimination inherent in gender is alarming: Only one woman in eight runs her own business against 1 in 3 men. In most countries, young women and young men are facing problems involving access to finance, inadequate infrastructure, lack of support and, in general, an ecosystem that is rather unfavorable. According to the International Labor Organization, North Africa and the Middle East has the highest unemployment rate in all other regions of the world. In other hand, nearly a quarter of the population under 30 is unemployed and youth unemployment costs more than $40 billion each year to the region. In the current context, the situations in the Middle East and North Africa region are singular, both in terms of demographic trends and socio-economic issues around the employment of a large and better trained youth, but still strongly affected by unemployment and under-employment. According to a study published in 2015 by McKinsey, the world gain 26% of additional GDP (47% in the MENA region), more than 28 trillion dollars by 2025, if women came to participate, as well as men, to the economy. Promoting entrepreneurship represents an excellent alternative for the countries whose productive fabric fails to integrate the contingent of young people entering the job market each year. The MENA region, presenting entrepreneurial activity rates below those of other regions in terms of comparable development, has undoubtedly leeway at this level, even though the region displays large national heterogeneity, namely in the priority given to the promotion of entrepreneurship. The objective of this article is therefore to examine the women entrepreneurial vocation in the MENA region, to see to what extent research on the determinant of gender can provide information on the trend of the emerging entrepreneurial activity whether driven by necessity or by opportunity and, on this basis, to submit public policy proposals for the improvement of the mechanisms of inclusion among the youth women people. The objective is not to analyze the causality models but rather to identify the entrepreneurial construct specific to the MENA region via the analysis of GEM data from 2017 to 2019 among adults belonging to 10 countries of the MENA region. Notably, the study shows that inclusion of young women may be enhanced. These disadvantaged segments frequently intend to become entrepreneurs, but they tend not to enact their vocational intentions.

Keywords: economic development, entrepreneurial activity, GEM, gender, informal sector

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9405 Studying Growth as a Pursuit of Disseminating Social Impact: A Conceptual Study

Authors: Saila Tykkyläinen

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to pave the way for more focused accumulation of knowledge on social enterprise growth. The body of research touching upon the phenomenon is somewhat fragmented. In order to make an effort to create a solid common ground, this study draws from the theoretical starting points and guidelines developed within small firm growth research. By analyzing their use in social enterprise growth literature, the study offers insights on whether the proven theories and concepts from small firm context could be more systematically applied when investigating growth of social enterprises. Towards this end, the main findings from social enterprise growth research are classified under the three research streams on growth. One of them focuses on factors of growth, another investigates growth as a process and the third is interested in outcomes of growth. During the analysis, special attention is paid on exploring how social mission of the company and the pursuit of augmenting its social impact are dealt within those lines of research. The next step is to scrutinize and discuss some of the central building blocks of growth research, namely the unit of analysis, conceptualization of a firm and operationalizing growth, in relation to social enterprise studies. It appears that the social enterprise growth literature stresses the significance of 'social' both as a main driver and principle outcome of growth. As for the growth process, this emphasis is manifested by special interest in strategies and models tailored to disseminate social impact beyond organizational limits. Consequently, this study promotes more frequent use of business activity as a unit of analysis in the social enterprise context. Most of the times, it is their products, services or programs with which social enterprises and entrepreneurs aim to create the impact. Thus the focus should be placed on activities rather than on organizations. The study also seeks to contribute back to the small firm growth research. Even though the recommendation to think of business activities as an option for unit of analysis stems from there, it is all too rarely used. Social entrepreneurship makes a good case for testing and developing the approach further.

Keywords: conceptual study, growth, scaling, social enterprise

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9404 Marketing Social Innovation: Finding Competitive Advantage in Social Enterprise Methodology

Authors: Ted Gournelos

Abstract:

Marketing approaches in practice and academic literature usually foreground the importance of product and brand awareness in strategy. Decisions emphasize justifications and promotions of existing projects, which has the unintended consequence of pushing marketing, public relations, and other communications to secondary strategies and tactics rather than as inherent pieces of organizational development. In other words, marketers implement what others have already decided. This is a challenge not only for the communications field, but also for the organizations themselves, since integrated communications employees are often the primary, if not the only, touchpoints for client/customer/user research and interaction. Organizations thus become increasingly out of touch, raising the risk of public or human resources crisis and decreasing the focus on opportunities for development and growth. This paper will discuss the potential for social entrepreneurship to refocus marketing and communications professionals on primary strategy, and suggest best practices for developing initiatives not only to impact marketing efforts themselves, but also the guiding organizational approaches to project management, human resources, corporate social responsibility, and research. It will provide a comparative analysis of social media marketing efforts conducted by food security non-governmental organizations from several countries, pointing out both flaws and areas of opportunity for integration with for-profit organizational strategy, and discuss the implications of descriptive, proactive, and interactive messaging.

Keywords: social enterprise, strategy, innovation, social media

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9403 Uplift Modeling Approach to Optimizing Content Quality in Social Q/A Platforms

Authors: Igor A. Podgorny

Abstract:

TurboTax AnswerXchange is a social Q/A system supporting users working on federal and state tax returns. Content quality and popularity in the AnswerXchange can be predicted with propensity models using attributes of the question and answer. Using uplift modeling, we identify features of questions and answers that can be modified during the question-asking and question-answering experience in order to optimize the AnswerXchange content quality. We demonstrate that adding details to the questions always results in increased question popularity that can be used to promote good quality content. Responding to close-ended questions assertively improve content quality in the AnswerXchange in 90% of cases. Answering knowledge questions with web links increases the likelihood of receiving a negative vote from 60% of the askers. Our findings provide a rationale for employing the uplift modeling approach for AnswerXchange operations.

Keywords: customer relationship management, human-machine interaction, text mining, uplift modeling

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9402 Studies on Optimizing the Level of Liquid Biofertilizers in Peanut and Maize and Their Economic Analysis

Authors: Chandragouda R. Patil, K. S. Jagadeesh, S. D. Kalolgi

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Biofertilizers containing live microbial cells can mobilize one or more nutrients to plants when applied to either seed or rhizosphere. They form an integral part of nutrient management strategies for sustainable production of agricultural crops. Annually, about 22 tons of lignite-based biofertilizers are being produced and supplied to farmers at the Institute of Organic Farming, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka state India. Although carrier based biofertilizers are common, they have shorter shelf life, poor quality, high contamination, unpredictable field performance and high cost of solid carriers. Hence, liquid formulations are being developed to increase their efficacy and broaden field applicability. An attempt was made to develop liquid formulation of strains of Rhizobium NC-92 (Groundnut), Azospirillum ACD15 both nitrogen-fixing biofertilizers and Pseudomonas striata an efficient P-solubilizing bacteria (PSB). Different concentration of amendments such as additives (glycerol and polyethylene glycol), adjuvants (carboxyl methyl cellulose), gum arabica (GA), surfactant (polysorbate) and trehalose specifically for Azospirillum were found essential. Combinations of formulations of Rhizobium and PSB for groundnut and Azospirillum and PSB for maize were evaluated under field conditions to determine the optimum level of inoculum required. Each biofertilizer strain was inoculated at the rate of 2, 4, 8 ml per kg of seeds and the efficacy of each formulation both individually and in combinations was evaluated against the lignite-based formulation at the rate of 20 g each per kg seeds and a un-inoculated set was included to compare the inoculation effect. The field experiment had 17 treatments in three replicates and the best level of inoculum was decided based on net returns and cost: benefit ratio. In peanut, the combination of 4 ml of Rhizobium and 2 ml of PSB resulted in the highest net returns and higher cost to benefit ratio of 1:2.98 followed by treatment with a combination of 2 ml per kg each of Rhizobium and PSB with a B;C ratio of 1:2.84. The benefits in terms of net returns were to the extent of 16 percent due to inoculation with lignite based formulations while it was up to 48 percent due to the best combination of liquid biofertilizers. In maize combination of liquid formulations consisting of 4 ml of Azospirillum and 2 ml of PSB resulted in the highest net returns; about 53 percent higher than the un-inoculated control and 20 percent higher than the treatment with lignite based formulation. In both the crops inoculation with lignite based formulations significantly increased the net returns over un-inoculated control while levels higher or lesser than 4 ml of Rhizobium and Azospirillum and higher or lesser than 2 ml of PSB were not economical and hence not optimal for these two crops.

Keywords: Rhizobium, Azospirillum, phosphate solubilizing bacteria, liquid formulation, benefit-cost ratio

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9401 The Role of Microfinance in Economic Development

Authors: Babak Salekmahdy

Abstract:

Microfinance is often seen as a means of repairing credit markets and unleashing the potential contribution of impoverished people who rely on self-employment. Since the 1990s, the microfinance industry has expanded rapidly, opening the path for additional kinds of social entrepreneurship and social investment. However, current data indicate relatively few average consumer effects, opposing pushback against microfinance. This research reconsiders microfinance statements, stressing the variety of data on impacts and the essential (but limited) role of reimbursements. The report finishes by explaining a shift in thinking: from microfinance as a strictly defined enterprise finance to microfinance as a more widely defined home finance. Microfinance, under this perspective, provides advantages by providing liquidity for various requirements rather than just by increasing income.

Keywords: microfinance, small business, economic development, credit markets

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9400 An Interpretive Study of Entrepreneurial Experience towards Achieving Business Growth Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a Lens

Authors: Akunna Agunwah, Kevin Gallimore, Kathryn Kinmond

Abstract:

Entrepreneurship is widely associated and seen as a vehicle for economic growth; however, different scholars have studied entrepreneurship from various perspectives, resulting in multiple definitions. It is surprising to know most entrepreneurship definition does not incorporate growth as part of their definition of entrepreneurship. Economic growth is engineered by the activities of the entrepreneurs. The purpose of the present theoretical study is to explore the working practices of the successful entrepreneurs towards achieving business growth by understanding the experiences of the entrepreneur using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a lens. Ten successful entrepreneurs in the North West of England in various business sectors were interviewed using semi-structured interview method. The recorded audio interviews transcribed and subsequently evaluated using the thematic deductive technique (qualitative approach). The themes were examined using Theory of Planned Behaviour to ascertain the presence of the three intentional antecedents (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control). The findings categorised in two folds, firstly, it was observed that the three intentional antecedents, which make up Theory of Planned Behaviour were evident in the transcript. Secondly, the entrepreneurs are most concerned with achieving a state of freedom and realising their visions and ambitions. Nevertheless, the entrepreneur employed these intentional antecedents to enhance business growth. In conclusion, the work presented here showed a novel way of understanding the working practices and experiences of the entrepreneur using the theory of planned behaviour in qualitative approach towards enhancing business growth. There exist few qualitative studies in entrepreneurship research. In addition, this work applies a novel approach to studying the experience of the entrepreneurs by examining the working practices of the successful entrepreneurs in the North-West England through the lens of the theory of planned behaviour. Given the findings regarding TPB as a lens in the study, the entrepreneur does not differentiate between the categories of the antecedents reasonably sees them as processes that can be utilised to enhance business growth.

Keywords: business growth, experience, interpretive, theory of planned behaviour

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9399 Role of Business Incubators and Social Capital on Innovation and Growth of Firms: Evidence from Ethiopia

Authors: Hailemariam Gebremichael Gebretsadik, Abrham Hagos Tesfaslasea

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To satisfy the high need for ICT entrepreneurship and rectify the weak entrepreneurial culture in Ethiopia, the country has established ICT Business incubation centers with the intention of preventing business failures, promoting innovation, and accelerating the growth and success of firms. This study investigates the role of business incubators and social capital on the innovation and growth of firms in Ethiopia. In this research, innovation and growth of firms were considered as dependent variables, whereas business incubation and social capital were treated as independent variables. The researcher employed an e-mail survey among 137 tenant Firms (Firms that joined and/or graduated to/from the Business incubation centers available in Ethiopia) to collect the data and obtained 113 responses that were appropriate for this research. The result of this study reveals that the dimensions of business incubation (physical resource, business support, and networking) have a significant effect on the innovation of Firms, but these dimensions of business incubation do not show a significant effect on the growth of firms. On the other hand, the dimensions of social capital (structural, cognitive, and relational) show a significant positive impact on the likelihood of Firms' growth but not on the innovation of firms. Moreover, the result of this study indicates that the dimensions of business incubation and social capital together have a significant effect on the likelihood of tenant firms innovating and growing.

Keywords: business incubation, innovation, social capital, tenant firms

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9398 An Investigation of Entrepreneurial Intentions, Drivers, and Challenges among Final Year Students in Jigawa State Polytechnic, Nigeria

Authors: Muhammad Umar Usman

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This study investigates the entrepreneurial intentions, drivers and challenges of starting a business among final year students in Jigawa State polytechnic. Nigeria. Final year students of Jigawa State Polytechnic from the department of accounting, business administration and management and public administration were used as a case study. The study became necessary due to the alarming rate of graduate unemployment in Nigeria. The study adopted a holistic case study approach involving a multiple methods of questionnaires involving (182) Higher National Diploma (HND) and National Diploma (ND) final year students and a telephone interview with two lecturers teaching entrepreneurship in the college. The findings clearly indicate that exposer to entrepreneurship education increases students’ entrepreneurial intentions. The result found that desire for independence, confidence and strong intention are the most important factors that influence students’ entrepreneurial intention. The study identified 3 key drivers of students’ entrepreneurial intentions. These are to earn a living, to seek job security and provision of employment. The result again identified 4 factors namely lack of support, finance, insecurity and erratic power supply as the major challenges in starting a business in Nigeria. It was also revealed that the current entrepreneurship education programme prepares students on how to open up a business not becoming an entrepreneur. The study concluded entrepreneurship helps students toward building and driving their intention to venture into business. However, the challenges of entrepreneurship in Nigeria need to be addressed in order to enable individuals to become an entrepreneur and create employment opportunities that will lead to the development of Nigerian economy. Thus, the government should provide adequate support particularly the issue of infrastructures. The Federal Government of Nigeria in collaboration with the National Board for Technical Education should fashion out the curriculum thereby making it more practically-oriented so that students may become more interested. Polytechnics should develop an internship programme for students to work in firms so as to put theory learnt in the class to practice. Students should try to align the theory learnt in college with the practical application in dynamic economic environment. Hence, this will help in building their capabilities toward entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.

Keywords: entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial drivers, challenges, entrepreneurial education

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9397 Entrepreneurial Practice and Corruption in Tourism Sector: A Study of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Organizational Corruption in Nepali Star Hotels

Authors: Prabin Raj Gautam

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Entrepreneurship in tourism sectors, particularly hotel entrepreneurship has contributed to Nepalese Gross Domestic Production (GDP). The tourist standard and star hotels in developing countries have not only been generating revenues but also providing international hospitality to the guest in the local areas. For doing so, these hotel enterprises must need to implement different business strategies to enhance and maintain their international business benchmark. The Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) is core for making business strategies. Meanwhile, the corruption is labeled as negative factor for economic development. This paper presents the relationship between EO of Nepalese star hotels and organizational corruption. The study employed questionnaire survey as data collection tool under the quantitative methodology. Five hypotheses are developed and tested. After gathering the data form 216 questionnaire distributed to CEOs/Managers of the sample hotels, the findings show that out of five dimensions of EO, only autonomy, pro-activeness, and innovativeness are not significant to organizational corruption; however, risk-taking and competitive aggressiveness are found significant contributor. The descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling are employed to describe the data and fit the model.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial orientation, organizational corruption, dimensions

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9396 The Role of Creative Entrepreneurship in the Development of Croatian Economy

Authors: Marko Kolakovic

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Creative industries are an important sector of growth and development of knowledge economies. They have a positive impact on employment, economic growth, export and the quality of life in the areas where they are developed. Creative sectors include architecture, design, advertising, publishing, music, film, television and radio, video games, visual and performing arts and heritage. Following the positive trends of development of creative industries on the global and European level, this paper analyzes creative industries in general and specific characteristics of creative entrepreneurship. Special focus in this paper is put on the influence of the information communication technology on the development of new creative business models and protection of the intellectual property rights. One part of the paper is oriented on the analysis of the status of creative industries and creative entrepreneurship in Croatia. The main objective of the paper is by using the statistical analysis of creative industries in Croatia and information gained during the interviews with entrepreneurs, to make conclusions about potentials and development of creative industries in Croatia. Creative industries in Croatia are at the beginning of their development and growth strategy still does not exist at the national level. Statistical analysis pointed out that in 2015 creative enterprises made 9% of all enterprises in Croatia, employed 5,5% of employed people and their share in GDP was 4,01%. Croatian creative entrepreneurs are building competitive advantage using their creative resources and creating specific business models. The main obstacles they meet are lack of business experience and impossibility of focusing on the creative activities only. In their business, they use digital technologies and are focused on export. The conclusion is that creative industries in Croatia have development potential, but it is necessary to take adequate measures to use this potential in a right way.

Keywords: creative entrepreneurship, knowledge economy, business models, intellectual property

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9395 Drivers of the Performance of Members of a Social Incubator Considering the Values of Work: A Qualitative Study with Social Entrepreneurs

Authors: Leticia Lengler, Vania Estivalete, Vivian Flores Costa, Tais De Andrade, Lisiane Fellini Faller

Abstract:

Social entrepreneurship has emerged and driven a new development perspective, and as the literature mentions, it is based on innovation, and mainly, on the creation of social value, rather than personal wealth and shareholders. In this field of study, one of the focuses of discussion refers to the distinct characteristics of the individuals responsible for socially directed initiatives, named as social entrepreneurs. To contribute to this perspective, the present study aims to identify the values related to work that guide the performance of social entrepreneurs, members of enterprises that have developed themselves within a social incubator at a federal institution of higher education in Brazil. Each person's value system is present in different facets of his life, manifesting himself in his choices and in the way he conducts the relationship with other people in society. Especially the values of work, the focus of this research, play a significant role in organizational studies, since they are considered one of the important guiding principles of the behavior of individuals in the work environment. Regarding the method of the study, a descriptive and qualitative research was carried out. In the data collection, 24 entrepreneurs, members of five different enterprises belonging to the social incubator, were interviewed. The research instrument consisted of three open questions, which could be answered with the support of a "disc of values", an artifact organized to clearly demonstrate the values of the work to the respondents. The analysis of the interviews took into account the categories defined a priori, based on the model proposed by previous authors who validated these constructs within their research contexts, contemplating the following dimensions: Self-determination and stimulation; Safety; Conformity; Universalism and benevolence; Achievement; and Power. It should be noted that, in order to provide a better understanding of the interviewees, in the "disc of values" used in the research, these dimensions were represented by the objectives that define them, being respectively: Challenge; Financial independence; Commitment; Welfare of others; Personal success; And Power. Some preliminary results show that, as guiding principles of the investigation, priority is given to work values related to Self-determination and stimulation, Conformity and Universalism and benevolence. Such findings point to the importance given by these individuals to independent thinking and acting, as well as to novelty and constant challenge. Still, they demonstrate the appreciation of commitment to their enterprise, the people who make it and the quality of their work. They also point to the relevance of the possibility of contributing to the greater social good, that is, of the search for the well-being of close people and of society, as it is implied in models of social entrepreneurship coming from literature. With a lower degree of priority, the values denominated Safety and Realization, as the financial question at work and the search for satisfaction and personal success, through the use of socially recognized skills were mentioned aspects with little emphasis by social entrepreneurs. The Power value was not considered as guiding principle of the work for the respondents.

Keywords: qualitative study, social entrepreneur, social incubator, values of work

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9394 A Conceptual Analysis of Teams’ Climate Role in the Intrapreneurial Process

Authors: Georgia C. Kosta, Christos S. Nicolaidis

Abstract:

The present paper discusses the role of teams’ climate in the intrapreneurial process. Intrapreneurship, which corresponds for entrepreneurship in existing organizations, puts special emphasis on climate as an influential factor of the intrapreneurial behavior. Although climate exists at every level and in every subgroup of the organizational structure, research focuses mainly on the study of climate that characterizes organization as a whole. However, the climate of a work team may differ radically from the organizational climate, and in fact it can be far more influential. The paper provides a conceptual analysis of organizational climate from the intrapreneurial point of view, and sheds light upon teams’ climate role in the intrapreneurial posture.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, innovation, intrapreneurship, organizational climate, teams’ climate

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9393 Valuation of Entrepreneurship Education (EE) Curriculum and Self-Employment Generation among Graduates of Tertiary Institutions in Edo State, Nigeria

Authors: Angela Obose Oriazowanlan

Abstract:

Despite the introduction of Entrepreneurship education into the Nigerian University curriculum to prepare graduates for self-employment roles in order to abate employment challenges, their unemployment rate still soars high. The study, therefore, examined the relevance of the curriculum contents and its delivery mechanism to equip graduates with appropriate entrepreneurial skills prior to graduation. Four research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The survey research design was adopted for the study. An infinite population of graduates of a period of five years with 200 sample representatives using the simple random sampling technique was adopted. A 45-item structured questionnaire was used for data gathering. The gathered data thereof was anlysed using the descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, while the formulated hypotheses were tested with Z-score at 0.5 level of significance. The findings revealed, among others, that graduates acquisition of appropriate entrepreneurial skills for self-employment generation is low due to curriculum deficiencies, insufficient time allotment, and the delivery mechanism. It was recommended, among others, that the curriculum should be reviewed to improve its relevancy and that sufficient time should be allotted to enable adequate teaching and learning process.

Keywords: evaluation of entrepreneurship education (EE) curriculum, self-employment generation, graduates of tertiary institutions, Edo state, Nigeria

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9392 Opportunity Development and Entrepreneurial Process

Authors: Abosede Mosunmola Odeseye

Abstract:

The sustainability of nations’ economies today have proven to be unrealistic in a constantly changing world without appropriate accordance to entrepreneurship role and its processes. This role has therefore proven to be a product of the available and discoverable opportunities by an individual/organisation in any pattern – innovation, discovery, diffusion, imitation amidst possible challenges. In light of these, this paper examined the relationship between opportunity development and entrepreneurial processes as well as the factors determining individual’s opportunity development and the success of entrepreneurial processes. Systematic review method was adopted for selecting relevant academic materials. The theoretical base of this paper was anchored on Schumpeter’s entrepreneurial innovation model and Drucker and Stevenson’s opportunity-based entrepreneurship theory. Based on the reviewed literature, it was discovered that rough business idea “opportunity” in any form – techniques/product encounter various obstacles to achieve its development, acceptability and sustainability. In essence, the findings revealed that the birth of every opportunity is as a result of the individual/organisation and environmental factors to be able to scale through the whole process successfully. Due to the outcome of this paper, it was recommended that the organisations/government should endeavour to create an enabling environment for a rough business idea to come to life amidst the hurdles of the entrepreneurial process.

Keywords: entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurship, opportunity, opportunity development, organisation, sustainability

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9391 Women Entrepreneurship in Poland and Its Impact on the Country’s Economic Development

Authors: Sabina Klimek

Abstract:

In general, entrepreneurs are viewed as agents of change whose goal is to ensure that resources are efficiently utilized. They are very important in the global economy; they create wealth and provide jobs. At the same time, many policymakers say that women entrepreneurs are a ‘special group’ worthy of their own research and policies. The status of Polish women has been changing as well, even though, to a large extent, it is still defined by the double role that women are expected to fill according to the dominant stereotypical model of family life. However, in the past decade, Polish women’s economic activities have experienced rapid growth and today are at a high level. In the article, the author presents the results of a survey conducted among women entrepreneurs in Poland concerning the functioning of their enterprises, motivation in setting up a company, and barriers that hinder them in business. The questionnaire (300 questionnaires were provided) and case studies carried out by the author have proven that female entrepreneurs in Poland are characterized by commonalities. Mostly they run small or micro-enterprises, operate in larger cities, are well-educated, and run service companies. Their main motivation to run their own business is mostly indicated by their need for independence. However, one of their biggest barriers and hesitations is the apprehension of non-payment. Entrepreneurs want to develop their companies, go to foreign markets and implement new solutions. They are not afraid of the future; they are only trying to create it. Detailed hypothesis, which reads as follows. The author additionally conducted a macroeconomic analysis calculating what part of GDP in Poland is produced by female entrepreneurs. The results of the study presented in this article prove that female entrepreneurship in Poland has a stable impact on the economy of the country, and women entrepreneurs produce over 13% of the national GDP. After years of growth in the number of female entrepreneurs in Poland, there has been a period of stabilization. However, there has also been a reduction in the number of self-employed people as well as the number of women in total employment. In the article, the author analyses the reasons for decreasing number of self-employed women and the total employment of women in Poland and provides suggestions for steps and incentives that should be made in order to encourage female entrepreneurship to grow in the country.

Keywords: women entrepreneurship, women in business, women entrepreneurship in Poland, Poland, GDP of Poland

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9390 Contextual Sentiment Analysis with Untrained Annotators

Authors: Lucas A. Silva, Carla R. Aguiar

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This work presents a proposal to perform contextual sentiment analysis using a supervised learning algorithm and disregarding the extensive training of annotators. To achieve this goal, a web platform was developed to perform the entire procedure outlined in this paper. The main contribution of the pipeline described in this article is to simplify and automate the annotation process through a system of analysis of congruence between the notes. This ensured satisfactory results even without using specialized annotators in the context of the research, avoiding the generation of biased training data for the classifiers. For this, a case study was conducted in a blog of entrepreneurship. The experimental results were consistent with the literature related annotation using formalized process with experts.

Keywords: sentiment analysis, untrained annotators, naive bayes, entrepreneurship, contextualized classifier

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9389 An Automated Stock Investment System Using Machine Learning Techniques: An Application in Australia

Authors: Carol Anne Hargreaves

Abstract:

A key issue in stock investment is how to select representative features for stock selection. The objective of this paper is to firstly determine whether an automated stock investment system, using machine learning techniques, may be used to identify a portfolio of growth stocks that are highly likely to provide returns better than the stock market index. The second objective is to identify the technical features that best characterize whether a stock’s price is likely to go up and to identify the most important factors and their contribution to predicting the likelihood of the stock price going up. Unsupervised machine learning techniques, such as cluster analysis, were applied to the stock data to identify a cluster of stocks that was likely to go up in price – portfolio 1. Next, the principal component analysis technique was used to select stocks that were rated high on component one and component two – portfolio 2. Thirdly, a supervised machine learning technique, the logistic regression method, was used to select stocks with a high probability of their price going up – portfolio 3. The predictive models were validated with metrics such as, sensitivity (recall), specificity and overall accuracy for all models. All accuracy measures were above 70%. All portfolios outperformed the market by more than eight times. The top three stocks were selected for each of the three stock portfolios and traded in the market for one month. After one month the return for each stock portfolio was computed and compared with the stock market index returns. The returns for all three stock portfolios was 23.87% for the principal component analysis stock portfolio, 11.65% for the logistic regression portfolio and 8.88% for the K-means cluster portfolio while the stock market performance was 0.38%. This study confirms that an automated stock investment system using machine learning techniques can identify top performing stock portfolios that outperform the stock market.

Keywords: machine learning, stock market trading, logistic regression, cluster analysis, factor analysis, decision trees, neural networks, automated stock investment system

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9388 Accelerating Entrepreneurship among Young Women in Sabah Malaysia

Authors: Imelda Albert Gisip, Tarisah T. Z. Taman

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In Asia, particularly in Malaysia, women entrepreneurs contribute substantially to economic growth. This paper presents a review of women entrepreneurs’ program, focusing on Creating Millionaires among Young Women Entrepreneurs (CREAM@YWE) program in Sabah Malaysia, which aims to accelerate entrepreneurship among young women in Sabah Malaysia. Entrepreneurs are seen as essential for growth, job creation, and social progress, and the virtues of small business for Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ), the Sabah state government Sabah State development plan for the year 2021-2025. SMJ guides the direction of the government's policies and programs, further guiding the implementation in a planned and strategic manner to achieve targets and goals that coincide with the development needs of the state. One of the government’s agendas is to put more effort into ensuring that women entrepreneurs are well supported and enhanced. Thus, The CreaM@YWE Program was developed in 2018 with the main objective is to produce competitive young women entrepreneurs in Sabah and achieve "millionaire" status. CreaM@YWE Program is an innovation process specifically developed to accelerate the entrepreneurship sector, particularly for women entrepreneurs in Sabah, by incorporating strategic partnerships and collaborations with government agencies and industry players. Being the first of its kind in Sabah, the novelty of this project is providing a supportive ecosystem, including six months of intensive courses guided through "hands-holding”, collaborations with strategic partners, and easy access to government assistance. Since its inception, the program has significantly impacted society’s wellbeing, particularly in empowering young women entrepreneurs in Sabah for the past six years, and has produced many successful women entrepreneurs with “millionaire” status. Generally, improving the women’s enterprise sector in Malaysia needs an overall environment that provides development opportunities for women entrepreneurs, including access to resources and support services. Since achieving the goal of women's entrepreneurship policy requires effective partnerships and inclusiveness, Cream @YWE Program has managed to practice these in assisting small entrepreneurs among young women in Sabah in accessing public goods and business opportunities. This proves that achieving women’s economic empowerment requires sound policies, a holistic approach, and long-term commitment. Thus, this paper presents how the Cream@YWE Program has been supporting Sabah young women entrepreneurs by reforming the business environment to help create opportunities for women while addressing the few existing gender-specific hurdles.

Keywords: young, women, entrepreneurs, Sabah, Malaysia

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9387 Characteristics of Technology Infrastructure in Small Firms

Authors: Davinder Singh, Jaimal Singh Khamba, Tarun Nanda

Abstract:

Growth of the Indian economy has accelerated to 8% and efforts are on to further propel it to 10%. Undoubtedly, all the segments of the economy, viz. agriculture, industry and services have to improve their contribution to the economy. Growth of Micro-small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) is a sine qua non for the growth of industry, exports and other segments of the economy. Furthermore, promotion of entrepreneurship is also vital for sustenance and upward movement of the current growth trajectory of the economy. The MSME sector acts as a catalyst in upholding and encouraging the creation of the innovative spirit and entrepreneurship in the economy, thereby helping in laying the foundation for rapid industrial development. In this competitive world, they need to be able to confront the increasing competition from developed and emerging economies and to plug into the new market opportunities.

Keywords: characteristics, management, MSMEs, technology infrastructure

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9386 Existence of Systemic Risk in Turkish Banking Sector: An Evidence from Return Distributions

Authors: İlhami Karahanoglu, Oguz Ceylan

Abstract:

As its well-known definitions; systemic risk refers to whole economic system down-turn movement even collapse together in very severe cases. In fact, it points out the contagion effects of the defaults. Such a risk is can be depicted with the famous Chinese game of falling domino stones. During and after the Bear & Sterns and Lehman Brothers cases, it was well understood that there is a very strong effect of systemic risk in financial services sector. In this study, we concentrate on the existence of systemic risk in Turkish Banking Sector based upon the Halkbank Case during the end month of 2013; there was a political turmoil in Turkey in which the close relatives of the upper politicians were involved in illegal trading activities. In that operation, the CEO of Halkbank was also arrested and in investigation, Halkbank was considered as part of such illegal actions. That operation had an impact on Halkbanks stock value. The Halkbank stock value during that time interval decreased remarkably, the distributional profile of stock return changed and became more volatile as well as more skewed. In this study, the daily returns of 5 leading banks in Turkish banking sector were used to obtain 48 return distributions (for each month, 90-days-back stock value returns are used) of 5 banks for the period 12/2011-12/2013 (pre operation period) and 12/2013-12/2015 (post operation period). When those distributions are compared with timely manner, interestingly; the distribution of the 5 other leading banks in Turkey, public or private, had also distribution profiles which was different from the past 2011-2013 period just like Halkbank. Those 5 big banks, whose stock values are monitored with sub index in Istanbul stock exchange (BIST) as BN10, had more skewed distribution just following the Halkbank stock return movement during the post operation period, with lover mean value and as well higher volatility. In addition, the correlation between the stock value return distributions of the leading banks after Halkbank case, where the returns are more skewed to the left, increased (which is measured in monthly base before and after the operation). The dependence between those banks was stronger under the case where the stock values were falling compared with the normal market condition. Such distributional effect of stock returns between the leading banks in Turkey, which is valid for down sub-market (financial/banking sector) condition, can be evaluated as an evidence for the existence of contagious effect and systemic risk.

Keywords: financial risk, systemic risk, banking sector, return distribution, dependency structure

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