William J. Baumol: An Entrepreneurial Economist on the Economics of Entrepreneurship

William J. Baumol is the 2003 winner of the International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research. Throughout his career Baumol has urged the profession to pay attention to the instrumental role of entrepreneurship in economic renewal and growth. At the same time he has insisted that economists continue to use their usual tool box when the purview of analysis is extended to entrepreneurship. Hence, Baumol can be characterized as a revolutionary from within. In this article we present and discuss Baumol's research contribution in the areas of entrepreneurship and small business economics, notably from a growth perspective. In addition to placing his work in these areas into the wider context of his full contribution, we emphasize Baumol's findings that growth cannot be explained by the accumulation of various factors of production per se; human creativity and productive entrepreneurship are needed to combine the inputs in profitable ways. As a result, an institutional environment that encourages productive entrepreneurship and human experimentation becomes the ultimate determinant of economic growth.     

The Economics of Entrepreneurship Policy: Introduction to the Special Issue

This paper introduces the special issue on the economics of entrepreneurship policy. It is argued that important differences in the perspective on and approach to entrepreneurship policy that are found in the literature are rooted in different conceptions. The Schumpeterian conception of entrepreneurship that provides a focus on innovation and firm growth is the most useful definition for entrepreneurship policy in developed countries. In addition focused summaries of the contributions are presented. The paper concludes by emphasizing the main contributions of economics to the study of entrepreneurship policy.     

独立不迁,岁岁峥嵘--我与《消费经济》杂志

在主编尹世杰教授的主持下,《消费经济》杂志走过了20年不平凡的历程。艰难困苦,玉汝于成。《消费经济》杂志从创刊时起就一直奋进在马克思主义消费经济理论研究的前沿阵地。经过20年的艰辛磨炼和不断发展,今天她已成为引领消费经济理论研究的一面旗帜,一支号角,一个阵地。作为     

Efficiency and profitability: An inverse relationship according to the size of Austrian firm?

This paper tries to shed some light on the Austrian situation of the efficiency of firms according to their size class. For total Austria we find that large firms seem to be more efficient with respect to value-added per employee, but small firms are more efficient with respect to the gross residual quota and to profitability (= (value added — wages)/(value added)). On the other side a similar analysis for Upper Austria does not show this result. Here firms with the size of 500 employees or more seem to be the most efficient with respect to efficiency and profitability, and only the employment cost efficiency criteria reveals the picture, the smaller the firm, the more cost effective it seems to be. Hence, the result obtained from most studies in Europe, that at least the biggest firms are not the most efficient, can only be confirmed to a limited extent for (Upper) Austria.     

Consumer ethics: An empirical investigation of the ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers

Business and Marketing ethics have come to the forefront in recent years. While consumers have been surveyed regarding their perceptions of ethical business and marketing practices, research has been minimal with regard to their ethical beliefs and ideologies. In addition, no study has examined the ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers even though Austria maintains a unique status of political neutrality, nonalignment, stability, economic prosperity and geographical proximity to the East- and West-European countries. This research investigates the relationship between Machiavellianism, ethical ideology and ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers. The results indicate that Austrian consumers are mostly situationists who, while rejecting moral rules, judge the ethics of a behavior by the consequences and outcomes of the situation. Mohammed Y.A. Rawwas is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Northern Iowa. His research has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Marketing Educational Review, Advances in International Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Hospital Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly, Medical Marketing and Media,among other journals and proceedings.     

Consumer Adaptation Strategies: From Austrian Shilling to the Euro

On 1st January 2002, in 12 countries of the European Union, euro notes and coins replaced existing national currencies. The currency changeover required citizens to adapt in various ways. They had to learn to handle new coins and notes, and evaluate prices in the new currency. Data on how these tasks were performed by Austrians are presented. In particular, Austrian consumers applied four different strategies to establish price intuition for the euro: a conversion strategy, an intuitive strategy, an anchor strategy, and a marker value strategy. Data on these strategies show that their application varies across socio-demographic characteristics, differs with purchase situations, relates to euro attitudes, and changes over time. Although the introduction of the euro took place about 5 years ago, the adaptation process is still ongoing.     

资源瓶颈条件下人民币升值的经济学分析

在中国资源约束条件下,人民币升值降低了进口资源密集型产品的成本,可以缓解能源等资源压力;但人民币升值又在一定程度上抑制出口,对外部均衡造成负面影响.文章在内外均衡框架下对人民币汇率变动做了尝试性的分析,导出了一个内外均衡条件下汇率水平的经济学逻辑模型,提出了几点不成熟的宏观政策建议.     

An Examination of Entrepreneurship Centers in the United States: A National Survey

This study fills a gap in previous research by performing an in-depth analysis of 146 entrepreneurship centers in the United States. This two-part study looks at the characteristics of the entire sample of entrepreneurship centers and then examines the differences between top-ranked centers and nonranked centers. The findings indicate that top-ranked centers have three times as many endowed chairs as nonranked centers. Top-ranked centers also offer more comprehensive graduate programs. Overall, top-ranked centers have more resources and personnel. The findings of this study will assist students, faculty, staff, administrators, directors, and other stakeholders of entrepreneurship centers.     

Health Care Entrepreneurship in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: An Exploratory Study

In this empirical study, the authors explore entrepreneurship in the health care business in the Eastern Kasai Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) using cross-cultural literature and the resource-based view to ground its analyses. The data were collected using a questionnaire targeted toward the health care entrepreneurs in Mbuji Mayi, the capital city of the Eastern Kasai Province in July 2010, which yielded 68 responses. The results indicated that the entrepreneurs were predominantly middle-aged Congolese men with backgrounds in the health services field who had raised their startup capital mostly from personal savings or friends and family. Their businesses, which were mostly in the form of sole proprietorships, were likely to be located in areas underserved by public medical facilities and usually provided both curative and preventative medical services.     

A Career Approach to Entrepreneurship: The Case of Thomas B. Thrige

Thomas B. Thrige was one of the most successful Danish manufacturers of all time. If there are entrepreneurs in the Schumpeterian sense behind the growth of the Danish economy, he certainly looks like one of them. This article gives a brief survey of Thrige's professional life and of his contribution to industrialisation in Denmark. His case is discussed in relation to debates about entrepreneurship.     

Antecedents of Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship in New Zealand: An Intergroup Comparison

This paper traces the antecedents of entrepreneurship across ethnic minority groups as reflected in their different rates of business formation in New Zealand, an ethnically diverse nation. The study contrasts the experiences of the Dutch, Chinese, Indian, and Pacific Peoples, groups who have historically exhibited different levels of entrepreneurship. A grounded theory approach led to a model with four linked embedding constructs—migration, settlement, identity, and business—sufficient to interpret longstanding intergroup differences in business formation rates. The findings give new insight into the nature of ethnic minority embedding and an original substantive theory of the antecedents of ethnic minority entrepreneurship.     

腐败现象的经济学分析

从经济学的角度对社会上存在的腐败现象进行剖析 ,并从制度上提出反腐败对策 ,通过制度创新能抑制中国的腐败现象。     

Small Business Entrepreneurship in the High Technology Services Sector: An Assessment for the Edge Cities of the U.S. National Capital Region

The Washington D.C., National Capital Region is surrounded by a series of edge cities. These edge cities developed rapidly in the 1980s and are tied to extensive commercial and retail centers within the larger urban field. Economically they focus on the delivery of high technology information-oriented services and are populated by small and medium sized firms. The region has been recently titled "The Capital Netplex" because of its concentration on advanced information network technologies. An examination of the intra-regional differential associated with firm size, start up rates and industrial composition is evaluated. An assessment of the economic impact of the Netplex firms on the regional economy and selected policy issues are examined.     

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics to Oliver E. Williamson: Recognition of the Influence of Transaction Cost Economics on Business Research

This article provides an introduction to the Journal of Retailing Special Issue dedicated to Oliver Williamson and transaction cost economics. The paper briefly outlines transaction cost economics contributions to marketing and related social sciences.     

Entrepreneurship in the EU: To Wish and not to be

The entrepreneurial capacity in an economy is a key determinant of economic growth and productivity improvements. This paper uses survey data from the 15 EU Member States and the US to investigate two aspects of entrepreneurial capacity: latent and actual entrepreneurship. Latent entrepreneurship is measured by the probability of a declared preference for self-employment over employment. Other than demographic variables such as gender, age and education level, the set of explanatory variables used includes country specific effects, the perception by respondents of administrative complexities and of availability of financial support and a rough measure of risk tolerance. The most striking result is the lack of explanatory power of the perception of lack of available financial support in the latent entrepreneurship equation.     

Innovations in service business. An introduction to the special issue from the Global Entrepreneurship and Services Conference, Taiwan, 2011

Services tend to be intangible and not visible (Cherubini 2001), which make them very different from production-oriented industries. Hence, we need different approaches to solving problems in services. This special issue invites five papers from the 2011 Global Entrepreneurship and Services Conference held in Taichung, Taiwan, from August 29 to 31, 2011. These papers cover various industries including finance, manufacturing, and Internet. Meanwhile, these papers cover many CSFs for services including brand equity for financial services, customer satisfaction on an auction website, the effects of social networking, the servitization for manufacturers via R&D, and the comparisons of the internal service quality for three Chinese subcultures including Taiwan, China, and Singapore. All these papers contribute to innovations in service business from different perspectives.     

Scientific Background: Oliver E. Williamson's Contributions to Transaction Cost Economics

In a seminal paper in 1971, and an ensuing book, Markets and Hierarchies, 4 years later, Oliver Williamson developed a detailed theory of the firm in the Coasean spirit. For reasons to be explained below, Williamson claimed that organizing transactions within firms is more desirable when transactions are complex and when physical and human assets are strongly relationship-specific. Since both complexity and specificity can be usefully measured, Williamson's theory had the required empirical content.     

Creation and Pursuit of Entrepreneurial Opportunities: An Evolutionary Economics Perspective

Considerable debate surrounds the concept of entrepreneurial opportunities. This paper approaches the opportunity concept from an evolutionary market process perspective. It argues that new opportunities for entrepreneurial activity frequently emerge as by-products of market competition. Agents may deliberately or unwittingly create opportunities. Organizational development and the evolution of industries are additional sources of new entrepreneurial opportunities. At the same time, they enable agents to acquire the skills required to exploit these opportunities.      

Entrepreneurship and Family Firm Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of An Emerging Field

This work carries out a comprehensive and systematic review of academic research on entrepreneurship in family firms applying bibliometric indicators. We review the literature published on these topics on the database ISI Web of Knowledge's Social Sciences Citation Index. The results provided show that it is a relatively recent field of study, highly interconnected with high co‐citation between authors, which verifies compliance with Lotka's Law, and where the most productive authors and journals do not necessarily coincide with those most cited. Finally, the co‐word analysis has identified research topics classified into widely developed issues and specialized peripheral issues.