Saudi women entrepreneurs: A growing economic segment

The purpose of this study is to explore the sources of knowledge and support for Saudi Arabian women entrepreneurs when starting or operating a new venture. The study examines factors relevant to knowledge base, family support, and external support from outside sources that may influence venture creation. The findings reveal that women are the principal in the majority (55%) of women-owned businesses. A total of 70% of the women own more than 51% of the business and 42% started the business by themselves. Saudi Arabian businesswomen are highly educated, receive strong support from family and friends, and rate themselves as excellent in people skills and innovation. Further research should focus on qualities that contribute to successful women-owned firms in Saudi Arabia. The current study contributes to the literature by focusing on Saudi women entrepreneurs. The understanding of entrepreneurship around the world grows through these findings from a Saudi Arabian context. The results show that Chang, Memili, Chrisman, Kellermanns, and Chua's (2009) model of venture creation is applicable to the broader entrepreneurial and family business population. A discussion of the implications relevant to the business environment, challenges, and opportunities in Saudi Arabian women's entrepreneurship brings this paper to a close.     

内蒙古高速公路服务区营销现状与对策分析

随着内蒙古经济的快速发展和自治区对交通基础设施投资力度的不断加大,内蒙古的高速公路建设取得了长足发展,作为高速公路重要组成部分的高速公路服务区也获得了难得的发展机遇。高速公路服务区是高速公路的配套设施,直接向司乘人员提供生活和工作服务,对高速公路服务区营销对策研究与提高高速公路服务区的服务质量和整体形象具有重要意义。本文首先介绍了内蒙古高速公路服务区的概况,分析了服务区现阶段营销中存在的主要问题,并在此基础上从发展物流园区、创建服务品牌、构建营销联盟、开展服务营销等四个方面提出了相应的对策与建议。     

Concepts of creativity in design based learning in STEM education

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Creativity is deemed as an integral part of twentyfirst century skills and is emphasized in science education curricula in Turkey as well...     

Narrow‐Framing and Risk Preferences in Family and Non‐Family Firms

Building upon prospect theory’s concept of narrow‐framing, we explore family firms’ risk preferences across multiple decisions in corporate entrepreneurship. We argue that family firms’ decisions are less likely to be narrowly framed (more likely to be made as a group rather than in isolation) compared to non‐family firms. Examining the interaction between two risky decisions (internationalization and R&D investment) in two samples of publicly traded firms in the USA and China confirms our hypotheses. Family firms appear more likely than non‐family firms to diversify risk when making multiple decisions concerning corporate entrepreneurship. However, given inferior performance, risk taking across multiple decisions in family firms is positively related.     

Knowledge-flows and firm performance

This study advances the understanding of how knowledge-flows impact on firm performance. Incorporating recent research on the knowledge-based view of the firm, this paper tests and extends the knowledge flow model by using more fine-grained measures and by proposing a nonlinear effect. This study tests the predicted effects in a longitudinal research design with data on a global sample of public biopharmaceutical firms. The results largely support the expectation that knowledge-flows largely have a nonlinear impact on firm performance. However, one traditional measure of knowledge-flows, geographical location, turns out to have no significant influence in the extended model. The paper explains the implications of these findings for practice and research.     

Infrastructure, Externalities, and Economic Development: A Study of the Indian Manufacturing Industry

If infrastructure tends to generate spillover externalities,as has been the assumption in much of the development literature,one may reasonably look for evidence of such indirect effectsin the accounts of manufacturing industries. Empirical supportfor this assumption has so far been ambiguous. This analysisof Indian data, however, reveals substantial externality effectsfrom the states’ infrastructure to manufacturing productivity.The analysis separates the direct effects of roads and electricity,as mediated by the infrastructure services purchased by manufacturingindustries along with other intermediate inputs, from the indirecteffects, as measured by the impact of infrastructure capacityon the Solow productivity residual. In the 20 years from 1972to 1992, growth of road and electricity-generating capacityseems to have accounted for nearly half the growth of the productivityresidual of India’s registered manufacturing.     

Contract Formalization and Governance of Exporter–Importer Relationships

abstract    Exporting relationships between manufacturers and foreign importers pose unique coordination problems because, on the one hand, transactions are recurrent and both firms make non-trivial relationship-specific investments, but at the same time, the exchange partners maintain separate legal entities with individual profit claims. This study examines the role of contracts as a governance mechanism in these relationships that are neither market-based discrete transactions, nor can be governed through ownership-based hierarchies. Drawing upon recent research on contract law and interorganizational relationships, we develop and empirically test a model that incorporates both the antecedents and performance implications of the nature of contract governing exporter–importer relationships.     

Does Public E-Procurement Deliver What It Promises? Empirical Evidence from Turkey

This article empirically investigates the economic effects of public e-procurement (PEP) adoption. We use a unique data set provided by the Public Procurement Authority of Turkey that covers all government procurement auctions for the years 2004–12, 588,454 auctions. We conclude that PEP adoption had adverse effects. The number of firms submitting bids in procurement auctions is significantly lower after PEP adoption. The procurement costs are significantly higher after PEP. These results suggest that policy makers should eliminate barriers to e-procurement adoption to gather the intended results of PEP.