Search results

The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of organizational culture processes aimed at promoting innovation in small businesses

The empirical study was conducted in Israel on a sample of 202 businesses in face-to-face interviews.

The study demonstrated that small businesses in the industry sectors that seek to promote innovation must implement processes for developing an innovation culture. Interestingly, these processes contribute mainly to product and process innovation and less to marketing and organizational innovation.

The study may contribute in a practical manner to assisting small businesses in the development and implementation of appropriate organizational culture processes for promoting innovation, and as a result, contribute to overall economic growth.

This research expands the body of knowledge on organizational culture processes for promoting innovation in this group of businesses, which has rarely been the focus of studies on innovation. The use of face-to-face interviews as a research tool facilitated obtaining knowledge that is generally not readily accessible.

The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of sharing knowledge processes aimed at promoting innovation in small businesses.

The empirical study was conducted in Israel on a sample of 202 businesses in face-to-face interviews.

The study demonstrated that small businesses in the industry sectors that seek to promote innovation must implement processes for sharing knowledge. Interestingly, these processes contribute mainly to product, marketing and organizational innovation and less to process innovation.

The study may contribute in a practical manner to assisting small businesses in the development and implementation of appropriate sharing knowledge processes for promoting innovation, and as a result, contribute to overall economic growth.

This study enriches the body of knowledge on managerial processes and on sharing knowledge processes for promoting innovation in this group of businesses, which has rarely been the focus of studies on innovation. The use of face-to-face interviews as a research tool facilitated obtaining knowledge that is generally not readily accessible.

The utilization of social networks is known to have an impact on micro-enterprise success. This study aims to examine the contribution of social networks in acquiring resources and their role in the enterprise’s success.

A business’s success is influenced by its network structure and the network’s resources. The authors examine whether unique religious-cultural characteristics affect the social networks contribution to a business’s success. This model examines the network utilization of women entrepreneurs who own micro-enterprises in ultra-religious groups. The sample consists of 123 surveys completed by Jewish ultra-Orthodox women entrepreneurs in Israel. Data collection was conducted between February and June 2013. The authors used a snowball sampling approach where interviewees were asked to refer us to other entrepreneurs. In the hour-long interview, a questionnaire was used with open and closed questions.

Findings indicate that strong personal ties provide a micro-enterprise with social legitimacy, emotional support and assistance in the management and operation of daily activities. However, contrary to the existing literature, network utilization did not contribute to enterprise success. That is, in religious communities in particular, social networks enable the existence of businesses, but do not contribute to their success.

The practical implications of this paper are the mapping of the social network resources used by the business owner, such as financial consultations or professional assistance, as well as distinguishing between strong and weak ties, which reflect the intensity of the contact for better use of the social network by the entrepreneurs.

This study examined social networks’ contribution to the acquisition of resources, as well as the part they play in the success of ultra-orthodox women micro-entrepreneurs and perhaps other religious and minorities groups.

The literature documents a shortage in the supply of external funding to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in general and to innovative SMEs in particular. This study separates cognitive from financial constraints on innovative SMEs’ growth opportunities. Using data gathered through in-depth interviews with the CEOs of 115 SMEs, we reveal that over and above a problem with supply, there exists a twofold problem on the demand side. Specifically, we document that there is a tendency for these companies to avoid approaching external funding sources, especially ones that gear their investments toward innovation. Our results reveal a cognitive bias (over-pessimism) affecting the entrepreneurs’ (lack of) demand for external financing over and above other firm-specific factors. CEO tenure — our proxy for human and social capital — is significantly lower (higher) in firms that did (did not) pursue external funding. This finding may provide some support for our hypothesis regarding the cognitive bias and over-pessimism of the more veteran CEOs who have had negative experiences regarding recruiting external resources. The impact of this entrepreneurial cognition is shown to be economically detrimental to the enterprise. Nevertheless, the negative effects are not limited to the micro level, but have implications at the macro level as well, due to under-realization of the potential for employment, productivity, and growth of the firms comprising the vast majority of the economy.

In 2008, the world had undergone a global economic crisis. Since women always face greater difficulties in obtaining capital than men, the economic crisis had a greater effect on them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the global crisis for women's entrepreneurship, from the perspective of equality, diversity and inclusion.

The paper reviews studies on gender differences in entrepreneurship, focusing on 2007 and 2008 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) studies that examined the rates of entrepreneurship in 43 countries.

The data show that in all 43 countries, the rates of women's entrepreneurship are lower than men's. Furthermore, the percent of women entrepreneurs is higher in countries where the general income per capita is small and where women have no other option for making a living.

This surprising finding has been explained as a result of the difference between “necessity” and “opportunity” entrepreneurship, with necessity entrepreneurship found to be more prevalent among women in poor countries, thus pointing to the role played by inequality and exclusion in women's entrepreneurial inferiority.

From the perspective of diversity, equality and inclusion, entrepreneurship can be viewed as a means for inclusion of women and other marginalized groups in countries, especially low‐income countries, in which they suffer from lack of equal opportunities and social exclusion.

The paper usefully shows how, especially in times of a global crisis, the role played by inequality and exclusion in women's entrepreneurial inferiority has important implications; such as the need to create special funds for women and the importance of establishing social and business networks for women entrepreneurs.

Few studies address the gender of small business owners (SBO) and those that do report inconsistent results. These inconsistencies are related to a controversy regarding gender differences in management: Are men and women managers similar or different and why? Four theories address this question: evolutionary, psychoanalytic, social role, and social construction. The purpose of the paper is to test the contradictory predictions derived from these four theories in the case of men and women SBO in Israel.

A sample of 101 Israeli SBO responded to a specially designed questionnaire.

All four theories received some support. The findings that men SBO described themselves as more motivated by status and were more concerned with competition support evolutionary theory. The findings that the most SBO were first born and had fathers who were business owners support psychoanalytic theory. The findings that more women SBO did not serve in the army whereas more men were commanders support social role theory. However, the most overwhelming support was for social construction theory. In every aspect studied, gender similarities were far greater than the differences: in demographic characteristics, characteristics of work and of business, and motivation for starting it.

Future studies will need to replicate these findings with larger samples, other types of businesses, and different cultures.

For the training and support of women and men SBO.

The paper is theory‐driven focuses on a widely debated topic (gender differences in management) in the context of a particular group (SBO) and a particular culture (Israel).

While the numbers of, and research on, women entrepreneurs have accelerated radically in recent years, the rates of women entrepreneurs remain significantly lower than men's. Research has shown that subjective perceptual variables have a crucial influence on the entrepreneurial propensity of women and account for much of the gender differences in entrepreneurial activity. The paper aims to describe three studies that addressed gender differences in entrepreneurial perceptions, testing predictions derived from Schneider's Attraction Selection Attrition (ASA) model.

Each study focused on a different subject population with different entrepreneurial activity. The first was a national telephone survey that involved 514 Israeli adults. The second involved 313 Israeli management students who responded to a self‐report questionnaire. The third involved interviews with 101 Israeli small business owners.

The results of the first study showed few gender differences in entrepreneurial traits and values. The results of the second study showed large gender differences in the willingness to start a business among management students and smaller differences among students who intend to start a business. Gender differences were far smaller among actual business owners. Alone and together the three studies support Schneider's ASA model.

The practical implications of these findings are addressed.

The paper provides valuable information on gender differences in entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this study is to examine the dimensions of organizational learning (OL), entrepreneurial orientation (EO), personal value toward the firm performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in North Sumatera, Indonesia.

This study used a quantitative methodology using Smart partial least squares of the structural equation model. A survey is done by distributing the questionnaires to the respondents (owner-managers) of SMEs across sectors. Using a convenient sampling technique, 128 respondents are selected. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 11 hypotheses are tested.

It is found that the innovativeness of EO and personal value both have a significant relationship with firm growth. While OL is significantly related to the innovativeness of EO, risk-taking of EO and proactiveness of EO. Then, both innovativeness of EO and proactiveness of EO significantly mediate the relationship of OL and firm growth. However, OL, proactiveness of EO and risk-taking of EO are insignificantly related to firm growth, while risk-taking of EO also insignificantly mediates the relationship of OL and firm growth.

EO (innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness) is deemed a crucial factor in running businesses by SMEs, while OL and personal value play a significant role in creating a competitive advantage that is needed for growth.