infonet-economy

How do organizations adapt to turbulent environments? Possible answers to that question can be found in research on strategic initiatives which has moved to the center of attention of strategic management researchers, as initiatives can offer ways for organizations to engage in explorative learning while simultaneously improving their existing capabilities. While today we have a good understanding of which contextual factors and which behavioral patterns facilitate initiative performance, there is only limited knowledge about the micro processes that determine opportunity identification as a basis of initiative emergence in established firms.

Based on qualitative data from three medium-sized companies in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, the purpose of this grounded theory study therefore was to shed light on these micro processes. Four behavioral patterns are identified as prerequisites of opportunity identification: (1) solution-driven search, (2) slack search, (3) networking, and (4) regeneration, all of which improve access to and availability of information. Findings also indicate that the availability of information facilitates opportunity identification only through an interaction with actors´ sensemaking activities. Furthermore, for strategic initiatives to emerge, organizational members have to engage in issue selling activities to gain the necessary attention and resources to pursue the initiative. Based on these findings, this study develops a model of strategic initiative emergence in established firms.

Organizational improvisation has a peculiar status in the field of strategic management, even though it is an appealing subject for study, as it melds processes of cognition and action. Our paper hence strives to introduce improvisation into strategy process research as a potentially powerful tool for organizations to
create competitive advantage. Improvisational actions can serve as unplanned experiments which can then arouse autonomous strategic initiatives as a major source of variation out of which organizations can select new products and markets. Our paper develops a simple model of how organizational improvisation
can lead to strategic initiatives and how this relationship is moderated by organizational memory and horizontal knowledge flows. A set of testable hypotheses is provided and the research project is de-scribed afterwards.

While the roles of top management teams and middle level managers have been widely acknowledged in the strategic management literature, the role of front-line employees has barely been discussed so far. Addressing this topic, we argue that boundary-spanning organizational members through their continuous interaction with customers can play a central role for the development of an entrepreneurial mindset within an organization. We argue that improvisation based on sound organizational knowledge is a way to enhance the identification of unfulfilled customer needs. Based on this insight, organizations are able to constantly adapt to changing markets and hence can gain competitive advantage. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between front-line improvisation and opportunity recognition in organizations. We explain, which factors facilitate improvisation and how the impact on opportunity identification is influenced by organizational memory and the internal influence of boundary-spanning actors. We present our findings in a research model and a set of testable propositions. Furthermore, questions for future research will be identified.

Ambidextrous designs are organizational forms which are able to manage contradictory forms of organizational learning simultaneously. Superior performance is expected based on the ability to both explore new opportunities and exploit old certainties. While most research to date has focused on organizational structures, context and coordination mechanisms as internal antecedents for ambidexterity, there has also been some work including aspects of external organizational contexts. However, the role of environmental competitiveness for ambidexterity has remained quite unclear. Hence, this proposal focuses on the role of competitiveness environments for the ambidexterity concept. Different dimensions of exploration and exploitation are considered and testable hypotheses developed to enhance the understanding of the moderating role of environmental competitiveness on the ambidextrous organization.

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PART 1 The nature of small business and entrepreneurship.

CHAPTER 1 Entrepreneurship: definition and evolution.

CHAPTER 2 The personality of entrepreneurs.

CHAPTER 3 Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

CHAPTER 4 Small business: definitions and characteristics.

PART 2 Getting into business.

CHAPTER 5 Options for going into business.

CHAPTER 6 Market research and strategy formulation.

CHAPTER 7 Preparing a business plan.

CHAPTER 7 APPENDIX Sample business plan.

CHAPTER 8 Legal issues.

CHAPTER 9 Financing new and growing business ventures.

CHAPTER 10 Accessing business advice and assistance.

CHAPTER 11 Marketing.

CHAPTER 12 Operations management.

CHAPTER 13 Human resource issues in new and small firms.

CHAPTER 14 Financial information and management.

PART 4 Selected topics.

CHAPTER 15 ICT as a business tool .

CHAPTER 16 Managing growth and transition.

CHAPTER 17 Corporate entrepreneurship.

CHAPTER 18 Contemporary issues in small businessand entrepreneurship.

Now in its 4th Asia-Pacific edition, the internationally acclaimed author team of Entrepreneurship and Small Business have revised their market-leading text with a simple pedagogy and a clear purpose.

Starting and running your own enterprise is one the most rewarding - and challenging - journeys towards developing a business career. This text provides students with the theoretical and practical knowledge required to successfully own and manage a new, small or growing business venture.

ESB 4th Asia-Pacific edition is abundant with insightful real world case studies and opportunities for experiential learning. It provides comprehensive information about small business management and entrepreneurship in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong; providing students with a genuinely international perspective.

The text includes a bolstered section on family business start-ups and integrated coverage of the impact of sustainability and social media. Yet again, the author team have brought to life what successful small business owners actually do, not just what they think or the theoretical concepts behind their strategy.

This study develops an expressive understanding of shareholder dissent. In this view, shareholder dissent is not only about the voting outcomes of proposals put to the vote, but also expresses an evaluation of the firm's corporate governance set-up. We hypothesize that shareholder dissent expresses an agency theoretical evaluation of corporate governance, but that the degree to which the capitalist system of a country is a coordinated market economy (CME) leads shareholders to evaluate corporate governance more in team production terms. We test our theoretical model using multilevel techniques on a sample of 12,513 proposals voted on in 717 firms listed in 15 Western European countries and find support for our predictions. Our study not only contributes to a better understanding of the corporate governance role of shareholder dissent, but also shows that what shareholders express through dissent differs across national contexts.