Internationalisation strategies of technology-driven small- and medium-sized enterprises

SMEs are increasingly active in international markets. Absence of sufficient resources limits the strategic options available to SMEs. This study examines SMEs’ use of the cooperation strategy to internationalise, both from a cross-sectional and longitudinal perspective. An analysis of data collected in 54 multinational SMEs operating in technology-driven industries suggests an inverted U-shaped relationship between SMEs’ size and their tendency to cooperate with partners to internationalise. In addition, SMEs’ internationalisation strategies are relatively inert. The results of the paper suggest that SMEs can make more effective use of different internationalisation strategies by acquiring knowledge of the pros and cons of the different strategies and by evaluating their choices on a periodical, structural basis, using their resource position as a guiding parameter.     

Empirical Business Ethics Research and Paradigm Analysis

Despite the so-called ‘paradigm wars’ in many social sciences disciplines in recent decades, debate as to the appropriate philosophical basis for research in business ethics has been comparatively non-existent. Any consideration of paradigm issues in the theoretical business ethics literature is rare and only very occasional references to relevant issues have been made in the empirical journal literature. This is very much the case in the growing fields of cross-cultural business ethics and undergraduate student attitudes, and examples from these fields are used in this article. No typology of the major paradigms available for, or relied upon in, business ethics has been undertaken in the wider journal literature, and this article addresses that gap. It contributes a synthesis of three models of paradigms and a tabulated comparison of ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions in the context of empirical business ethics research. The author also suggests the likely (and usually unidentified) positivist paradigm assumptions underlying the vast majority of empirical business ethics research published in academic journals and also argues for an increased reliance on less positivist assumptions moving forward.     

Teachers’ views about technical education: implications for reforms towards a broad based technology curriculum in Malawi

Internationally there has been concern about the direction of technical education and how it is positioned in schools. This has also been the case in Malawi where the curriculum has had a strong focus on skills development. However, lately there has been a call for enhancing technological literacy of students, yet little support has been provided for teachers to achieve this goal. This paper reports from a wider study that looked at teachers’ existing views and practices in technical education in Malawi. The article focuses on the findings from interviews that were conducted with six secondary school teachers to find out about their understanding of the meaning and rationale for technical education. It is also discussed how the teachers view technical education as involving skills development for making things and their thoughts on the benefits of such knowledge. It is argued that teachers’ views about technical education were strongly linked to the goals of the curriculum vacationalization policies adopted at the dawn of political independence. Besides skills training they saw the potential to impart thinking skills related to design and problem solving, and the need for essential pedagogical techniques to support learning in technical education. Examination requirements, inadequate opportunities to conduct practical activities and a lack of supportive policy were seen as limiting factors. This article claims that teachers’ views were shaped by their expectations and beliefs about the nature of technical education and what they perceived students may gain from such learning. Their views were also influenced by contextual factors which may have implications on reforms towards broader notions of technology education.     

Hybrid value creation: a systematic review of?an?evolving research area

This systematic review analyses literature on the work of hybrid value creation, i.e. the process of generating additional value by innovatively combining products (tangible component) and services (intangible component). A state of the art report on hybrid value creation is delivered by first systematically identifying and then analyzing 169 publications focusing on hybrid value creation. The identified publications are clustered into eight categories based on their links and interactions and thus a mapping of this evolving field is suggested. A discussion and reflection of the findings with respect to the pervasiveness of literature and the research methodologies used is provided. The paper concludes by identifying some dominant strategic gaps in the overall research landscape and provides directions for future research.     

Innovation without me: why employees do (not) participate in organizational innovation communities

A key issue in community research is the set of motivations stimulating individuals to participate and contribute voluntarily to communities. This article examines the motivations of employees, who are traditionally not involved in the innovation process, to (not) participate in organizational innovation communities. Building on an in‐depth single case study, we aim to answer the following research questions: (1) What motivates participants of organizational innovation communities to participate? and (2) What motivates nonparticipants of organizational innovation communities to not participate? We find and categorize multiple factors that motivate non‐research and development employees to participate and to not participate. Moreover, we find an overlap as well as differences in the set of motivations of participants and nonparticipants. With nonparticipants normally being a large but barely explicitly recognized group, we argue that the found deviations contribute to the understanding of motivations in the context of organizational innovation communities and allow for direct design implications for innovation managers.     

Top athletes’ psychological characteristics and their potential for entrepreneurship

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - The role of personality traits as predictors of entrepreneurial intention and success has been widely researched. This article investigates...     

Franchised and Small,the Most Beautiful of All; HRM and Performance in Plural Systems

Franchising is particularly present in industries in which human resources play a vital role. However, little is known about human resource management (HRM) in a franchising context. This study investigates HRM behavior and performance using a sample of 171 units within one plural retailing system. The results lend support to the agency and entrepreneurial perspectives; franchised units have a relatively low HRM intensity but superior HR performance. We also find a negative relationship between unit size and performance, moderated by type of unit ownership. We conclude that when it comes to HR performance, the units that are franchised and small are the most beautiful of all.