Product Innovation in Family versus Nonfamily Firms: An Exploratory Analysis

How family firms manage product innovation remains an overlooked topic in existing business research. This happens despite the fact that family businesses play a crucial role across all economies, and they often use technological innovation to nurture their competitive advantage. By drawing upon the resource‐based view of the firm as well as agency, stewardship, and behavioral theories and using empirical evidence gathered through a multiple case study, the paper studies how and why the anatomy of the product innovation process differs between family and nonfamily firms. The analysis shows that family businesses differ from nonfamily ones as regards product innovation strategies and organization of the innovation process.     

What does it mean to “shop local”? Examining the experiences of shoppers and store owners within the framework of downtown revitalization

The purpose of this study was to explore what it means to “shop local” and to investigate the extent to which store owners and their customers support the broader community by participating in the revitalization of a downtown area through their efforts. An interpretive design was used for this study, more precisely ethnographic methods. Specifically, participant observation, field notes, in-depth and field interviews, photography and online data collection were employed. 30 in-depth interviews and 49 field interviews were conducted with shoppers, store owners, and downtown development representatives. Findings highlight the complex nature of local shopping through the functional, social, economic, aesthetic and communal factors involved with the practice. Local shopping and local retail business ownership create positive changes within the community that contribute to downtown revitalization. Considered via practice theory, these factors provide a measure of activism and empowerment in the ways that they contribute to economic and social support for the area. This study is limited to a single city which has been in the process of revitalization for more than a decade, therefore findings may not be generalizable to cities at different stages in the revitalization process. This study provides valuable contributions concerning local retail businesses who operate within revitalizing downtown areas. For example, locallyowned retailers should consider the practical needs of the community while providing the more unique products typically offered in such stores. Further, shoppers are willing to support locally-owned businesses because they view them as integral to the community. Existing research has not addressed the reasons shoppers support locally-owned retail businesses and why store owners choose to operate in a revitalizing downtown. This paper attempts to fill that research gap.     

Green governance? Local politics and ethical businesses in Great Britain

One of the least understood aspects of the world‐wide “greening of markets” is the emergence of local “ethical marketplaces” and the subset of alternative business models described as “ethical businesses.” But previous research has demonstrated the ability of local politicians to encourage their regions toward more ethical marketplaces. This paper explores the impact radical centrist third party representation has on the emergence of ethical businesses across Great Britain. To understand this relationship, we utilize a novel data set of organizations with membership in Ethical Junction, the United Kingdom's largest network for ethical businesses. We use a zero‐inflated Poisson regression to model the connection, and find a meaningful relationship, between third‐party political representation on British local councils and the presence of ethical businesses within local authorities. This presents an example of the way in which radical political change may be part of a wider social movement toward greening markets.     

互联网商业生态系统动态演化仿真研究——以阿里巴巴为例

文章尝试将商业生态系统理论与互联网相结合，解释互联网商业生态系统内部结构的静态和动态演化过程，从理论上深度探索了互联网商业生态系统内部生态发展的内在机理和运行机制，并运用计算机仿真方法模拟了互联网商业生态系统的内部演化过程。研究发现：互联网生态结构的演化过程经历了萌芽期、成长期、繁殖期、分化期四个主要阶段，商圈发展经历了平台、商家、消费者三主体到平台、商家、消费者、专业服务商、增值服务商五主体的进化过程，并不断进化和繁殖生成新的专业服务商和增值服务商，随之产生新的互联网商业生态系统。最后，文章以阿里巴巴电子商务生态系统为案例从经验上对其内部生态系统的发展和演化构成进行了分析。     

The Effects of Initial Location,Aspirations, and Resources on Likelihood of First Sale in Nascent Firms*

The formation of a new venture includes initial choices that affect the process of start‐up. Primary among these decisions is the choice of location whether to start from home or from an away location. This paper examines the impact of initial firm location choices and aspirations of the entrepreneur on the resource assembly process and the likelihood of first sale. Results show that home‐based businesses assemble different types of resources from their away‐based counterparts. Higher aspirations were associated with greater accumulation of organizational resources. The combined influence of location and aspirations showed that home‐based firms with high aspirations were less likely to achieve first sale. A post hoc analysis examined these affects within a subgroup of service firms and confirmed the previous results. This study suggests that in the initial stages of the new venture, there are processes and routines that home‐based businesses engage in that lead them to achieve first sales in a timelier manner than those businesses that are located away from home. Furthermore, high aspirations are associated with greater scale of organizational resources but not necessarily with achievement of sales. Implications are discussed.     

Female consumers as agents of change for transforming the environmental sustainability landscape

Faith in others (FIO; governments and businesses) can be seen as society's predisposition to handle environmental problems. The article examines whether women, who undertake a large majority of household purchases, can influence change in consumption practices so as to contribute to sustainability initiatives. Understanding women's character in this manner is informative, it helps us to consider how a women's role as a household purchasing agent is an important nexus to environmental sustainability. The study found that FIO has an influence on women's purchasing decisions. The study provides additional support to strengthen women's role in environmental matters. Not all women were found to be sustainability‐minded. In the challenges faced by women with respect to their influence, evidence from this research suggests that if women have more faith in governments and businesses it would make them more eco‐savvy to act as agents of change for transforming the environmental sustainability landscape.     

Social support timing and persistence in nascent entrepreneurship: exploring when instrumental and emotional support is most effective

This paper investigates how the timing of social support, both emotional and instrumental support, affects entrepreneurial persistence of nascent entrepreneurs. Drawing on social support theory, we hypothesize that the effectiveness of support depends on when, during the venture development process (number of gestation activities completed), it is provided. We also propose that the impact of social support depends on when during the entrepreneur’s life stage (age) that support is made available. Testing our hypotheses using a longitudinal dataset of nascent entrepreneurs, we find that emotional support is most relevant earlier on during venture development, while instrumental support is most relevant for entrepreneurs who begin their businesses in earlier life stages.     

Exploring the drivers of new product success for businesses in Asia: a meta-analysis

Even though a large amount of research has investigated how different factors impact new product performance in different contexts, little attention has been paid to exploring the drivers of new product success for businesses in Asia. This study therefore focuses on this issue by using a meta-analytic approach to aggregate the empirical findings of studies published before 2011. By controlling several contextual factors (product type, unit of analysis and time), the results from generalized least-squared analyses show that the predictor–performance relationships are stronger for Asian firms when the predictors are market orientation, marketing synergy, technological synergy, product advantage, product innovativeness, cross-functional integration, top management support, pre-development proficiency, technological proficiency, market potential and technological turbulence. In addition, the results also reveal that most of the performance effects of the predictors are different between low-technology and high-technology products.     

Information Technology Adoption in Small Business: Confirmation of a Proposed Framework

This paper investigates which drivers affect information technology (IT) adoption and which factors relate to a successful IT implementation in small businesses, where the adoption rate is traditionally low and the failure rate is high. The findings from this study suggest that customers are the main driving force of IT adoption. When it comes to IT implementation, our results suggest that managers/owner–managers must engage with five factors: organization, internal IT resources, external IT consultants, supplier relations, and customer relations. These findings give further insight into IT adoption in small businesses and highlight the importance of customer relations in the adoption process.     

Green IT: practices of leading firms and NGOs

The key to becoming a green low-carbon society consists of cutting back the use of fossil fuels and developing new and renewable sources of energy. This long-term goal should be accompanied by the immediate solutions; some of which, such as Green IT practices, are already available. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the importance of sustainability and the role of IT (Information Technology) in it by providing specific examples of how to green IT and greening with IT that some of the leading firms and non-profit organizations have already undertaken. The paper also introduces some strategies and initiatives undertaken by international environmental organizations for establishing standards and increasing green IT awareness. Finally, the study suggests some guidelines, for businesses, governments, and individuals, to increase the efforts for Green IT and its awareness.     

Small Firms in Regional Clusters: Local Networks and Internationalization in the Southern Hemisphere

This paper reports on a three‐country comparative study examining the internationalization of family winemakers in distinct regional wine clusters of Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand. In‐depth interviews were conducted with owner–operators, to understand the drivers and barriers to internationalization of their businesses. Key findings reveal that while size and age are not determinants of the ability or propensity to export wine, the existence of an independent industry body has a positive impact and greatly speeds up the internationalization process, providing an effective route for small firms to establish their very often, relatively unknown brand(s) in lucrative foreign markets.     

Long‐run macro drivers of citizens’ mood in European institutions: An empirical assessment

The aim of the paper is to detect, through dynamic panel data techniques, the long‐run macro drivers of citizens’ mood toward European institutions and to support the existence of an inverse relationship both in the short and in the long‐run between trust on one side and the rate of unemployment and the discretionary fiscal policy measures on the other. This is valid in the whole Eurozone and in particular in peripheral countries. This outcome gives support to the conclusion that the process of institutional consolidation should pass through a greater political sensibility toward some specific economic variables.     

Intangible Resources and Plural Form as Drivers of Franchise Internationalization: Examination within a Two‐Country Perspective

This study focuses on drivers of franchise network internationalization, namely, intangible resources and plural form. Intangible resources refer to those that the franchisor acquires over time and are deemed instrumental to firm success, namely, brand name, monitoring, and know‐how transfer abilities. Plural form refers to the coexistence of franchised outlets and company‐owned outlets within the same network. The empirical study involves 853 U.S. and French networks. Findings indicate that the percentage of company‐owned outlets in international networks is lower than that in purely domestic networks, and this holds for both the combined data sample (United States and France) and the U.S. sample on its own. Moreover, U.S. franchisors are shown to be much more internationalized, with a smaller percentage of company‐owned outlets than their French counterparts. The intangible resource that most strongly affects franchise internationalization is brand‐name recognition, whereas there is partial support for the impact of two other intangible resources, namely, monitoring and know‐how transfer ability. The results of the logistic regression models underscore the importance of intangible resources in franchise network internationalization as well as the significant and negative impact of percentage of company‐owned outlets. Finally, the drivers of internationalization are not found to be statistically different between both countries.     

Training for creativity and innovation in small enterprises in Ethiopia

Policy makers recognize the role of small businesses in bringing about economic growth and reducing or eliminating poverty, and training can contribute significantly to this process. The present study adds to the small firm literature by examining whether training encourages small firms to be more creative and innovative. It does so by investigating the extent of creative and innovative activities in small enterprises (SEs) that have undertaken training with support from the Ethiopian technical and vocational education and training system. SEs for the purpose of the study are businesses with fewer than 30 employees. The term includes micro‐enterprises, which are defined in Ethiopia as having fewer than six employees. Quantitative methodology was used to compare and contrast these enterprises with similar enterprises which had not had training support. Data were collected from 146 randomly selected small firms by means of interviews with owners and employees. Interviews were also conducted with technical, vocational education and training experts. The study examined five predictors of creativity and innovation activities that training support would be expected to encourage and found significant differences in two of them: creative thinking and motivational attributes. Differences in other creativity and innovation variables, however, were not significant. The researchers conclude that education and training for creativity and innovation should be prioritized to enhance the performance of small firms, in particular by increasing their expertise, improving their motivation and ability to surmount challenges and developing their creative thinking in the search for new business ideas.     

An integrated competency‐based approach to management education: an Italian MBA case study

Several studies have analysed the impact of competency‐based methodologies on human resource management, with special emphasis on their applications to management education and development. As concerns management education, however, these studies have usually focused on one or few separate aspects, never proposing a consistent application of competency‐based methodologies throughout the entire educational process. This paper shows how it is possible to design, deliver and monitor a management education programme that uses, in an integrated manner, a multiplicity of competency‐based tools in all the stages of the process, and discusses the application of such an integrated approach to an Italian MBA programme. This study provides a multiple constituency framework that integrates educational institutions, students and the companies that hire them in the design, implementation and control of effective, competency‐based, management education.     

The Sustainability of Social Capital within Ethnic Networks

This paper examines informal networks that support the British Asianbusiness community. Ethnic communities have been crucial to facilitatingthe economic development of their migrant members, as they make thetransition from economic refugees to citizens. The basis of thisinformal support is the notion of social capital offered to kinsmen whoarrived with finite resources. However, as successive generations havebecome more integrated with the wider community reliance on theseresources is forecast to decrease. Research has shown that subsequentAsian generations are developing complex relations in their attitudesand reliance towards their ethnic community (Janjuha-Jivraj and Woods,2002) it is still an area that is very active in providing crucialinformal business support. There is however, a distinct difference inattitudes between first and second generations in terms of acceptingbusiness support from the ethnic community. This issue is furthercompounded by difficulties among external support agencies inpenetrating ethnic businesses. This leads to the following questions: ? What forms of social capital are evident and how important are they in sustaining relationships within the religious-ethnic community? ? How crucial is the ethnic community in providing an infrastructure to offer support. This paper is based on a network of businesses that are members of a sub-group across Greater London. It is anticipated that the findings will help to unravel the impact of migratory bonds on community members. This in turn will provide useful information for service providers when considering how to successfully target ethnic businesses.     

基于社会资本理论的平台企业与合作伙伴的动态合作演化研究——菜鸟网络纵向案例研究

生态合作关系的建立与良性运转能够有效调动各方资源解决行业发展困境、共同互助提升。基于社会资本理论，研究探索了平台企业与合作伙伴如何识别不同阶段发展瓶颈、应对措施、产生结果等生态合作演化过程。以菜鸟平台作为案例研究对象，解锁了生态合作不同阶段的动态合作演化路径与规律。研究发现：（1）平台企业与合作伙伴共经历基于需求与供给的绑定、基于价值获取与能力提升、基于共生共赢的合作三个阶段；（2）三阶段分别着重于建立伙伴间连接与信任、提升伙伴能力与协同配合、增强伙伴责任共担、贡献自身的意识；（3）各阶段均形成以“瓶颈—策略—结果”为内在逻辑的合作演化路径，最终建立生态合作演化整合模型。研究通过拓展对社会资本理论的认知，深化了对平台生态系统领域内合作演化过程的理解。     

Culture‐Led Discrepancies and Negotiating Conflicts in Strategic Outsourcing Alliances

Outsourcing and alliance collaboration have become prominent features of the global economy. Empirical studies demonstrate that outsourcing alliances are often not as successful as their initiators expect them to be. National cultural differences are frequently viewed as a crucial factor when such alliances fail. While empirical studies are abundant, theoretical frameworks that explicate the role of national cultural differences in shaping the dynamics of outsourcing alliances are rare. This article builds on Kumar and Nti's (1998) discrepancy model to specify how culture affects the dynamics of outsourcing alliances. We suggest that national cultural differences give rise to process and outcome discrepancies in outsourcing alliances. Notably, outsourcing alliances evolve through three stages–formation, operation and outcome–with discrepancies arising in each of these stages (Das & Teng, 2002). We develop a framework to link discrepancy management to these different stages, and to the notions of task‐oriented and relationship‐oriented cultures. Our study has a number of implications for future research and managerial practice. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Socially responsible consumption in Russia: Testing the theory of planned behavior and the moderating role of trust

This paper adopts a multilevel approach to explore how socially responsible consumer behavior (SRCB) is shaped by a combination of micro‐level psychological drivers and specifics of the institutional context in which the behavior is performed. The model first applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to test the effects of TPB‐based behavioral predictors on the SRCB. Broad‐scope trust in business (BST) is then applied to the model as a variable that characterizes quality of an informal institutional environment, hypothesizing that BST moderates the relationship between TPB‐based behavioral antecedents and SRCB. The paper is based on a survey of 466 Russian consumers. Data were collected by self‐administered questionnaires completed by students and alumni of a large public university in Moscow. Results show that BST moderates the effects of TPB‐based predictors on SRCB. This implies that consumers who believe that the business is overall trustworthy are more likely to take company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) into account when making purchasing decisions. This study contributes to the multilevel research on SRCB and CSR and adds to the literature on public trust in business as a nascent area of study. Its findings are especially relevant for companies operating in low‐trust environments, including postsocialist economies.