The business plan as a project: an evaluation of its predictive capability for business success

Although there is extensive research aimed at identifying the main success factors for new ventures, efforts directed at evaluating the real effect of the existence and quality of a business plan on a firm's survival chances have been limited. This study attempts to fill this gap by analyzing to what extent the quality of a business plan, measured according to its economic, financial and organizational viability, constitutes a good predictor of business survival; and how other variables related to the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the business can affect the predictive capability of the model under consideration. Hypotheses are tested using data collected from 2142 service firms. The results show that none of the three variables that evaluate business plan quality (economic, financial and organizational viability) seems to have a determining influence on survival chances. Adding essential characteristics related to the entrepreneur and the business (education and training, experience, kind of motivation, number of employees and start-up capital) does little to increase the model's predictive capabilities.     

关于财务管理概念框架的几个问题探讨

财务管理概念框架是财务理论的最高层次,是对财务理论的总结、抽象、凝练和升华;研究财务管理概念框架应该以财务本质为起点。在制订该概念框架要素时,应尊重、遵循已有的研究成果,根据财务固有的属性和特点,寻找反映财务管理内在规律性的本质要素。财务管理概念框架可分为三个层次:第一层次是财务的本质;第二层次是财务的职能和特征、假设和原则;第三层次是财务要素。业界公认的管理内容和管理方法应纳入该要素体系之中。建议由相关权威机构组织财务管理概念框架的制订工作,同时展开对财务理论的研究。     

Transferring human resource practices from the United Kingdom to China: the limits and potential for convergence

Substantial effort has been devoted to exploring the transfer of human resource management practices within multinational companies. Particular attention has been paid to countries with ‘strong’ HRM traditions, to transfers between economically developed countries and to firms in the manufacturing sector. This paper addresses the transfer of a British-owned retail firm's HRM practices from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China. From a variety of perspectives the expectation might be that the transfer of parent-country practices in this instance would be limited: HRM has not been considered a particular strength of UK firms; retail firms operate in a multi-domestic context directly serving local customers rather than as part of an integrated international production network; and there is a high cultural distance between the UK and China. When this multinational retailer entered the China market the express intention was to replicate as nearly as possible the management style of its UK stores. This paper examines the extent to which the firm's parent-country HRM practices, which the company increasingly considers as a key source of competitive advantage, have in fact been transferred to the Chinese stores. The paper seeks to provide fresh insights on the phenomenon of transfer by adopting a qualitative case study approach. This study also focuses on shopfloor employees' perspectives rather than purely the view of managerial staff, as has tended to be the case. Several aspects of HRM transfer are explored briefly: communication with the workforce, work pattern, age composition of the workforce, reward system, training, and employee representation. Attention then focuses on the transfer of the firm's relatively flat organizational structure to a country which is perceived to place a high value on hierarchy, and where hierarchies tend to be quite rigid and clearly demarcated. This provides useful insights into the nature of the transfer process. It is suggested that structural dimensions such as the country of origin, the degree of international production integration and the nature of product markets appear to have less utility in explaining the transfer of HRM practices than institutional and cultural features of the host-country environment and, above all, specific firm-level practices and the presence of expatriates in key management roles.     

Social responsibility in new ventures: profiting from a long‐term orientation

Socially responsible activities help create business value, develop strategic resources, and insure against risks, but also cost money and distract management. These prior findings are mainly based on established corporations and may not extend to new ventures in which the liability of newness may suppress some positive effects and amplify some negative impacts of socially responsible activities. New ventures whose strategic decisions have a long‐term orientation, however, are able to counteract their liability of newness and thereby generate net positive economic returns. We tested these relationships by surveying the chief executive officers and presidents and studying the signature Web sites of 149 new ventures. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Management of Sino-Sino Joint Ventures

Abstract

Since China's implementation of its open-door policy in 1979, the most effective way to obtain a foothold has proved to be to create joint ventures (JV) with a Chinese business partner. The foreign partner provides the transfer of technology, management skills, financing and access to international markets, whilst the Chinese partner contributes a production base with cheap land and labor, contacts with central and local government officials and access to the domestic Chinese market. The Chinese economy has benefited to a large extent from the creation of joint ventures in the past two decades. Hong Kong firms have used China as a production base for many years, usually with great success and to the mutual benefit of both. However, although Hong Kong firms had considerable experiences in running business and manufacturing operations in China, several have suffered substantially from their investment in joint ventures with Chinese partners. This paper evaluates various issues relating to the performance of equity joint ventures in China. The evaluation is based on a case study of four Sino-Hong Kong joint venture manufacturing firms in the electronics industry, and the findings of this paper indicate that there are number of important factors affecting the stability of joint ventures in China. Foreign investors' experiences in other areas may not be applicable to their investment in China because the operation of a joint venture in China is inevitably faced with a variety of problems that the foreign firms may not have encountered before.     

The impact of early imprinting on the evolution of new venture networks

Given the argued importance of networks to new ventures, this paper is intended to fill a noted gap in the literature pertaining to the factors that influence the evolution of new ventures' alliance networks. Drawing on the imprinting literature, we propose that one has to look beyond the first partner per se, and instead focus on the extant relationships the initial partner has with other firms. More specifically, we argue and find that the network size and centrality of a new venture's initial alliance partner influence the subsequent size of the new venture's network.     

Control,innovation and international joint venture performance: The moderating role of internal and external environments

This study aims to analyze how parent control strategies affect the degree of innovation in international joint ventures (IJVs) and how different types of innovation strategies - divided into radical and incremental innovation strategies - influence the performance of IJVs. This study uses the most widely adopted definition and operationalization of control in IJVs by Geringer and Hebert (1989), including the three dimensions: mechanisms, focus, and extent of control. These relationships are further analyzed by integrating internal and external moderating factors and their connections with IJV performance. Our theoretical analysis proposes that various control strategies differently influence an IJV’s innovation activities under various internal environmental moderating factors. These, in turn, differently influence the IJV performance. Furthermore, we suggest that the external environmental factors moderate the relationship between innovation strategies and performance of IJVs.     

走行：旅游学的逻辑起点

一门学科逻辑起点的确立事关该门学科的发展与成熟,目前仍处于前学科阶段的旅游学逻辑起点的研究和探讨几近空白。首先总结和归纳其他学科的学者对于逻辑起点的共识性的定义和规定性,继而以此为标准,运用历史与逻辑的方法,探讨和论证了＂走行＂作为旅游学逻辑起点的合理性,最后提出此逻辑起点对于旅游学研究的学术意义和实践意义。     

创业实训在高校创业教育中的作用研究

创业实训是从创业培训向创业和就业过渡的一个重要环节,是创业培训的一种实战模式。加强创业实训,要有针对性地加强对大学生的创业辅导,使其深入了解具体创业项目,增强创业感性认识,提升创业能力,降低创业风险,提高创业成功率。