The extent and nature of opportunity identification by experienced entrepreneurs

Guided by insights from cognitive theories, this article explores the links between entrepreneurs' prior business ownership experience and their opportunity identification behavior. Hypotheses were tested using data from 630 entrepreneurs. Experienced entrepreneurs identified more opportunities and exploited more innovative opportunities with greater wealth creation potential. Entrepreneurs that had owned more than 4.5 businesses, however, identified fewer opportunities. The nature of prior business ownership experience also shaped opportunity identification behavior. An inverse U-shaped relationship was detected between the proportion of failed businesses relative to the number of businesses owned and the number of opportunities identified in a given period. Business failure experience was not associated with the innovativeness of exploited opportunities.     

Entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana: enterprising Africa

This study adopts a multi-level theoretical framework to examine data from 496 entrepreneurs in Ghana. Seven types of innovation activity are analysed against three categories of variables: the characteristics of the entrepreneur, the internal competencies of the firm, and firm location. Across all respondents, the incidence of incremental innovation was far greater than novel innovation. The extent of innovation was related to the education level of the entrepreneur. Firm size and involvement in exporting were positively related to innovation, but firm growth is less systematically so. Innovation was greater in firms located in conurbations compared to firms located in large and small towns. We conclude with suggestions for policy to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Ghana.      

Seven challenges to combining human and automated service

We introduce this special issue by addressing seven key challenges associated with managing hybrid human-automated service systems. These consist of the following:

• 1 What strategic and tactical issues arise when managing hybrid service systems?
• 2 How should the core “value proposition” be set?
• 3 What special considerations arise in the design and implementation phases?
• 4 How can service delivery be managed to identify systemic problems and to address service breakdowns?
• 5 How can communications with clients improve the functioning of service systems?
• 6 What performance measures should be used to monitor process, outputs, client perceptions, and financial outcomes?
• 7 How can we coordinate the various interdisciplinary activities needed to address the previous six issues?

We consider these challenges after first characterizing the historical evolution of service delivery, reviewing some of the literature in the administrative sciences, and proposing a conceptual framework. Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Opportunity Identification and Pursuit: Does an Entrepreneur’s Human Capital Matter?

Extending human capital approaches to entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur’s “inputs” relating to their general (i.e. education and work experience) and entrepreneurship-specific human capital profile (i.e. business ownership experience, managerial capabilities, entrepreneurial capabilities and technical capabilities) are presumed to be related to entrepreneurial “outputs” in the form of business opportunity identification and pursuit. Valid and reliable independent variables were gathered from a stratified random sample of 588 owners of private firms. Ordered logit analysis was used to test several theoretically derived hypotheses. With regard to the number of business opportunities identified and pursued, entrepreneurship-specific rather than general human capital variables “explained” more of the variance. Entrepreneurs reporting higher information search intensity identified significantly more business opportunities, but they did not pursue markedly more or less opportunities. The use of publications as a source of information was positively associated with the probability of identifying more opportunities, while information emanating from personal, professional and business networks was not. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.      

Fitting strategic resources with product-market strategy: Performance implications

Resources, strategy, and performance inter-relationships are central to strategic marketing theory. Strategic resources are key inputs to product-market strategy that form the basis of superior firm performance. However, these inter-relationships are subject to ‘fit’ requirements. This article examines the hypothesis that greater fit between the strategic resources of marketing organizations and product-market strategy encourages superior financial and customer-market performance. This fit is most important to marketing organizations exhibiting either a Defender or Analyzer strategic orientation. No significant relationship is found for fit among Prospectors.     

The impact of R&D on value added for domestic and foreign firms in a newly industrialized economy

This study compares the impact of R&D on value added between domestic and foreign firms in Singapore. The analysis is based on a comprehensive panel database from 1993 to 1999 provided by the Singapore Government. Our results found that R&D investments of foreign firms generated higher value added than those of domestic firms, and that the difference in value added contributed by R&D was moderated by the type of R&D and the technological level of industry. The study supports the argument that the ownership advantages possessed by foreign firms, relative to domestic firms, have positive effects on R&D performance.     

Firm value and its relation to equity retention levels, forecast earnings disclosures and underpricing in initial public offerings in Hong Kong

This study helps extend our understanding of the factors underlying the valuation of initial public offering (IPO) firms within the Hong Kong market context. The issues investigated are all the more important given Hong Kong's unique position in China, where free and unfettered capital markets entice global institutions wishing to partake in the ‘China investment story’. We find support for three signals of initial firm value: the fraction of equity retained by pre-listing stakeholders [Leland, H., & Pyle, D. (1977). Information asymmetries, financial structure and financial intermediation. Journal of Finance, 32, 371–387], the voluntary disclosure of a prospectus earnings forecast [Trueman, B. (1986). Why do managers voluntarily release earnings forecasts. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 53–71] and the amount of funds ‘given-up’ through IPO underpricing [see Allen, F., & Faulhaber, G. R. (1989). Signalling by underpricing in the IPO market. Journal of Financial Economics, 23, 303–323; Grinblatt, M., & Hwang, C. Y. (1989). Signalling and the pricing of new issues. Journal of Finance, 44, 393–420; Welch, I. (1989). Seasoned offerings, imitation costs, and the underpricing of initial public offerings. Journal of Finance, 44, 421–449]. Moreover, the signals appear robust to different firm valuation measures (i.e., market-to-book and Tobin's Q) and to the inclusion/exclusion of PRC state-owned H-share issuers.A number of other important contributions also emerge. First, we develop a new measurement form for the pre-listing shareholders’ equity retention level (α) by decomposing it to reflect differential effects from primary and (‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’) secondary offers. We further show that after accounting for listing rule effects—which partially drive the choice of the retained equity level in the Hong Kong setting—the equity retention-firm value relation is seen with much greater clarity.In a later stage of analysis we deepen the signal-firm value findings by relating the three signals to post-IPO earnings. We note a positive association between the fraction of equity retained by pre-listing owners and earnings growth. However, this association weakens somewhat beyond the first two accounting year-ends post-listing. Significantly, earnings appreciation appears markedly weaker for issuers going to market with a secondary offer component within their overall IPO. Finally, consistent with Jain and Kini's [1994. The post-operating performance of IPO firms. Journal of Finance, 49(5), 1699–1726] US evidence, IPO underpricing appears to have little or no association with post-listing earnings.     

Examining and identifying the determinants of travel expenditure patterns

This study examined the effects of socio‐demographic, travel‐related and psychographic variables on travel expenditures. The travel expenditure categories examined include lodging, meals and restaurants, attractions and festivals, entertainment, shopping, transportation and total expenditures. The results of the study provide a more comprehensive and holistic picture in the search of travel expenditure patterns based on multiple independent variables. This study reveals that, among the three groups of variables examined, income and trip‐related characteristics were the most influential variables affecting tourism expenditures. Discussions and implications are also provided based on the study results. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.