Entrepreneurship, developing countries, and development economics: new approaches and insights

This paper provides an introduction to this special issue of Small Business Economics dealing with the (long-postponed) integration of entrepreneurship into the discipline of development economics and casting a formal light on the role of entrepreneurship in developing countries. The paper departs from the premise that with more than a billion people living in absolute poverty, it is of great practical importance to understand if and when entrepreneurship is a binding constraint on economic development and catching up in developing countries. This in turn requires at least a deeper theoretical modeling of the entrepreneur in development economics. This special edition contains a number of contributions emanating from the UNU-WIDER project on Promoting Entrepreneurial Capacity, which integrates the disciplines of entrepreneurship and development economics. These contributions model and explore the role of the entrepreneur in key areas of concern for development economics, such as structural change and economic growth, income and wealth inequalities, welfare, poverty traps, and market failures. This introduction discusses and contextualizes these various contributions and their implications for further theoretical and empirical work.     

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.     

Sustainable development and entrepreneurship: Past contributions and future directions

This article discusses the emerging research concerned with sustainable development and entrepreneurship, which is the focus of this special issue of the Journal of Business Venturing. Entrepreneurship has been recognized as a major conduit for sustainable products and processes, and new ventures are being held up as a panacea for many social and environmental concerns. However, there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the nature of entrepreneurship's role and how it may unfold. We begin with an overview of sustainable development and the role of entrepreneurship and outline recent contributions exploring this role. We then summarize the papers presented in this special issue and conclude with suggestions for further research.     

Resource interaction in inter-organizational networks: Introduction to the special issue

This article introduces the special issue of Journal of Business Research on the topic of resource interaction in inter-organizational networks. Both networks and resources receive considerable attention in the field of business studies. As companies specialize further and rely on cooperative agreements with external parties, the importance of networks is gaining increasing recognition. Resources are typically a key factor for identifying a company's competencies, or its sources of growth, profitability, and sustained competitive advantage. This special issue takes a novel approach by directing attention toward the processes of interaction in which companies combine and recombine resources at the network level. This approach provides new insights into the development, production, exchange, and use of resources. The introductory article also reviews the 13 articles in this special issue and concludes by discussing their contributions to the fields of marketing, innovation, entrepreneurship, and logistics.     

Christian Ethics and Spirituality in Leading Business Organizations: Editorial Introduction

Christian ethics applied to economics and business has a long tradition. This dates back at least to the thirteenth century, with noteworthy developments in the four following centuries and again in the last century. Christian faith and reason intertwine to bring about principles, criteria, and guidelines for action and a set of virtues with relevance for economic activity. Christian spirituality, with 2000 years of history, has been embedded in Christianity from its beginning, but the application to modern business activity is relatively recent. This article introduces a special issue which, we hope, will make its own small contribution to the developments of both Christian ethics and spirituality in the leading business organizations. After a short historical overview and a consideration of the current situation of Christian ethics and spirituality in business, we introduce the papers selected for this issue.     

Writing bold,broad, and rigorous review articles in entrepreneurship

Despite the importance of review articles in entrepreneurship, specific guidance to authors remains limited. Alongside JBV's rolling annual review issue, we provide authors practical tips for preparing review articles. Building on widely accepted principles employed in general management review articles, we tailor our guidance to the “entrepreneurship” way of writing review articles in entrepreneurship. Specifically, we call on authors to write bold, broad, and rigorous reviews that exemplify JBV's mission to publish and disseminate high-quality entrepreneurship research.     

Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets: New Insights and Directions for Future Research

In recent years, the entrepreneurship and emerging markets research streams have intersected. Emerging markets provide an opportunity to examine entrepreneurship in different contexts and forms. This article discusses the current literature that interconnects both research streams in general, comments on the contributions of the articles published in the special issue on entrepreneurship and emerging markets in particular, and sketches out future avenues for research. These contributions span several theoretical lenses, including institutional theory, internationalization theory, transaction cost economics, and the resource‐based view, as well as multiple geographic regions, including China as the largest emerging economy and other countries in East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. We weave a discussion of the extant literature and these contributions inside three key themes: Emerging Markets and China's Uniqueness, Entrepreneurship in Emerging Markets, and Future Research on Emerging Markets Entrepreneurship. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Developmental management: Theories,methods, and applications in entrepreneurship,innovation, and sensemaking

This paper summarizes the best papers of the Global Innovation and Knowledge Academy (GIKA) conference, which took place in July 2013 in Valencia, Spain. The Journal of Business Research has published a special issue entitled “Developmental management: Theories, methods, and applications in entrepreneurship, innovation, and sensemaking”. All of them went through many rounds of double-blind reviews and revisions. Theories, methods, and applications are the three pillars to solve the issues in entrepreneurship, innovation, and sensemaking. Entrepreneurship contributes to the quality and future hopes of a sector, economy or even a country. The role of the entrepreneurs is crucial in creating value. Innovation has become important as the global economy seeks to escape from a period of major recession. In organizations, sensemaking consists of cognitive strategies for interpreting reality. It is interesting to examine how these three issues interacting with each other. And these papers contribute to various perspectives of these interactions in different countries.     

老年经济学与老龄化经济学

作为新兴的经济学分支学科,老年经济学和老龄化经济学还有一些基础理论方面的问题需要研究.老年经济学和老龄化经济学是两个彼此独立又相互联系的经济学分支学科,它们彼此之间在研究对象、研究内容、基本假设和原则,以及理论支持体系等方面都存在着差别.对这些差别的认识将有助于我们对老年经济学和老龄化经济学分析的深入.     

Economics and Management Theory: New Developments in France

Management theory, initially mostly concerned with establishing a set of normative principles aiming to train practicing managers, has developed a substantial body of theory and several original strands of research. It has traditionally drawn its inspiration largely from economic theory, but has integrated elements of sociology, law and social psychology, among other disciplines. In France, a set of relevant recent and innovative approaches come from recent developments in economic theory gathered generally under the label of 'economics of conventions. 'The paper attempts to characterize the main features of the'economics of conventions' and the ways in which it is relevant and provides fruitful new approaches to management theory.     

盈余管理的基本特征与计量方法梳理

盈余管理不同于会计造假,它已经成为会计乃至金融、经济、管理领域的重要研究课题。本文旨在对盈余管理的基本特征与计量方法进行梳理,以期能把握近年来盈余管理计量方法研究的主要现状与趋势,为规范盈余管理提供了建议。     

Start-up incentives: Entrepreneurship policy or active labour market programme?

As several European governments develop new start-up programmes during recessions, the appropriateness of these policies recently has become a hot policy issue. This study suggests that the contribution of these incentives is dubious, if aimed to combat economic and jobs crises as part of the entrepreneurship policy, and can be shaped by various country-specific factors, such as the economic situation and the stringency of labour laws. To provide support for these claims, this paper investigates the underlying determinants of an individual's decision to switch from unemployment to self-employment in Europe and stresses the need to devote special attention to the role of three essential dimensions: (i) the existing heterogeneity within self-employment, by considering self-employed individuals who hire employees (employers) and self-employed individuals without personnel (own-account workers) as separated groups; (ii) the effects of different measures of social capital and network contacts, as forms of micro level institutional factors; and (iii) the explanatory power of cross-country differences in the state of the economy, expenditure on start-up incentives, and the stringency of labour laws, as forms of macro level institutional factors. This study has useful theory and policy implications for entrepreneurship development.     

Creativity or Coercion: Alternative Perspectives on Rights to Intellectual Property

Part one of this paper considers the question of property rights in general and asks how such rights can be justified, contrasting Consequentialist with other approaches and concludes that it is impossible to avoid a broadly Consequentialist approach. Part two considers the question of intellectual property (IP) and asks how property rights justifications apply to it. The basic economics if IP is indispensable in this discussion. Finally, part three, considers IP in the light of modern technological developments. I conclude that the real dangers lie more in the specific ways government and special interests respond to this technology than from the nature of IP rights themselves. Peter Lewin is a Clinical Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Dallas, School of Management. His research and publications are varied but usually contain aspects of policy analysis. His recent work focuses on the use of knowledge by the business firm.     

传统经济学忽视的几个环境问题的研究

随着人类经济活动的扩展,环境系统对经济发展的制约作用日益明显。而传统经济学却表现出在解决环境问题上的不足。从经济活动的前提、本利分析法、社会进步的评价三个方面探讨传统经济学忽视的环境问题,并从生态经济学的角度提出一些弥补的方法。     

享年次高的诺贝尔奖得主——新制度经济学大师罗纳德·科斯

1991年诺贝尔经济学奖得主、英国和美国(双重国籍)经济学家和法学家罗纳德·科斯是交易成本理论、科斯定理和科斯猜想的首创者,法律经济学和新制度经济学的开山鼻祖,产权理论和产权经济学的奠基人,他开启了产权理论、法律经济学和新制度经济学三个领域的研究方向。科斯是国际经济学界的泰斗级大师和巨匠,他在阐述经济组织产生的原理、交易成本分析以及推动法学、经济史和组织理论的发展方面作出重要贡献,发展了新古典经济学,开创了现代企业理论。科斯一生都关切和热爱中国,一直密切关注着中国的经济改革,其经济理论和深邃思想对中国的经济改革影响巨大而深远。     

International issues in entrepreneurship

In recent decades, there has been a substantial increase in private and public investment in entrepreneurship. This trend has important managerial, financial, and public policy implications. There is also considerable interest in understanding the financial practices of early stage companies. The recent global resurgence of leveraged buyouts and the concomitant rise of “private equity” markets have also heightened interest in entrepreneurship (e.g., Cumming et al. 2007). In this essay, we provide focused summaries of the papers in this special issue, which address these issues.      

Towards an Interdisciplinary Theory of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is one of the least understood topics in economics. The rising significance of small companies and especially of start-ups for the creation of new jobs has been an intensively discussed subject for nearly one decade. But there is still no theory of entrepreneurship.First this paper reviews the role of the entrepreneur in the history of economic thought and concludes that there is no agreed upon definition of what an entrepreneur does or is. The unsolved problem is the non-rational human behavior. Schumpeter and Kirzner have developed economic models of the role of the non-maximizing entrepreneur in the price-mechanism. But they did not develop a theory of entrepreneurship.In the second part of the paper entrepreneurship is understood as the pursuit of opportunites without regard to resources currently controlled (Stevenson, Roberts, and Grousbeck). Based on that definition the contributions of economic decision theory, sociological system theory, psychoanalytical research and behavioral studies are reviewed and an interdisciplinary approach to the development of an entrepreneurship theory is proposed.     

Entrepreneurship and well-being: Past,present, and future

Entrepreneurship research typically emphasizes firm-level outcomes such as growth and performance. However, people pursue entrepreneurship for deeply personal, idiosyncratic reasons. Therefore, as in other self-organized human pursuits, how entrepreneurship relates to fulfillment and well-being is of utmost importance. In this paper, we provide an overview of the well-being concept, related research, and its connection to entrepreneurship. We define entrepreneurial well-being as the experience of satisfaction, positive affect, infrequent negative affect, and psychological functioning in relation to developing, starting, growing, and running an entrepreneurial venture. We explain this definition of entrepreneurial well-being and review significant developments in our field and the broader field of well-being. Highlights of social, technological and institutional trends illustrate key areas for future research that can enhance our understanding of these phenomena. The eight papers in this special issue focus on entrepreneurial well-being each offering a specific perspective on how scholars can theorize and study the antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurship related to well-being.     

Financial socialism: The role of financial economics in economic disorganization

A growing body of research shows evidence that financial economics played a significant role in recent financial crises, such as the subprime mortgage crisis, Enron and Long-Term Capital Management. This track record is a wake-up call for managers and investors who employ financial economic models. This paper demonstrates how financial economics decouples market prices from the valuation by customers and resource owners in a systematic way. As an organization principle, financial economics replaces value-driven investment by a theory-driven ruling of anonymous financial markets – a scenario warranting the title “financial socialism”. Implications for customer valuation, financial accounting, and a maxim for the sound application of financial economic models are presented.     

New developments in global consumer behavior and marketing strategy: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features ten articles selected from the papers presented during the seventh meeting of the Royal Bank International Research Seminar which took place in Montreal (Canada), September 22–24, 2011. The papers cover topics relating to new developments in online research, acculturation/socialization research, research methodology, and marketing strategy.