Digital Innovations in MSMEs during Economic Disruptions: Experiences and Challenges of Young Entrepreneurs

The spike in COVID-19 cases all over the world poses a massive impact on various sectors of society. The global economy is no exception, for it has been severely affected by the unprecedented public health crisis leading businesspeople to shutdown commercial establishments and dramatically shifting businesses into digital platforms. Immense challenges brought by the pandemic have turned into great opportunities among entrepreneurs from different parts of the globe. In pursuit of the recovery path, they considered digital tools to be instrumental to surviving the crisis and even thriving in the long term. This study explores drivers and barriers to digital innovations in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) during economic disruptions from the perspective of Filipino young entrepreneurs. Researchers employed a qualitative method for the conduct of in-depth interviews with 46 online entrepreneurs in the Philippines and transcribed them for Inductive Content Analysis to generate themes. Results found the adverse effects of the pandemic, which reinforce entrepreneurial innovations of shifting businesses to digital platforms, categorized into intrinsic (e.g., personal and professional growth) and extrinsic (e.g., mobility restrictions, market conditions, and household economic status) motivations. Participants described the barriers to digital entrepreneurship, including skills needed for doing online business, market-related problems in digital platforms, availability of quality internet infrastructures, and the pandemic restrictions. The findings of this study contribute to the entrepreneurship literature and areas for an empirical investigation to develop programs that support entrepreneurs during economic disruptions. This would serve as a guidepost in the formulation of government policies and strategies for economic recovery through digital entrepreneurship while considering the perspectives of young entrepreneurs. This further recommends future related researches to empower entrepreneurs, particularly those in the developing economies during the pandemic and beyond.

Socio-Psychological Mechanisms of Entrepreneurial Activity in the Youth Environment

Entrepreneurship in Russia and the Chuvash Republic is undergoing new phases of development, a new generation of entrepreneurs has appeared, the one that formed under contemporary socio-economic conditions. The article examines the results of the undertaken empiric research on psychological peculiarities of young entrepreneurs, socio-psychological mechanisms of entrepreneurial activity in modern environment, economic and psychological as well as socio-psychological phenomena in modern entrepreneurship. Features of value sphere, subjective economic wealth, professional types of personality, socio-psychological setup of young entrepreneurs, engaging in entrepreneurial activity in the Chuvash Republic and Russia.

A system of values and economic behaviour models of young entrepreneurs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of values with individual economic behaviour, identifies the correlation between personality values that are conditioned upon the culture, and evaluations of economic behaviour situations on the example of Russian culture. Design/methodology/approach This study involved 222 people of Russian nationality, young entrepreneurs employed in the commercial field, developing their own business. The following methods were used in the study: the methodology for measuring the values of an individual and cultural level; Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire, a scenario methodology for economic behaviour, which is a short behavioural scenario (model of behaviour), taken from real life. The statistical processing of experimental data was carried out using the IBM SPSS Statistics Version 21 software package. Findings The values with correlated progressive and regressive economic forms of behaviour were identified for modern Russian society. The correlation of factors with progressive and regressive economic behaviour was also identified. Practical implications The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of applying the results obtained not only in the system of economic education but also in programs to support the business activity of young entrepreneurs. Originality/value The value of this study is determined by the fact that it can be placed in a broader context of research into the relationship between the levels of human consciousness and his behaviour.

Health Software Product or Software as Medical Device

The number of software products in the field of health and medicine increases excessively. Self-tracking, fitness, health advice, dose calculation, and analysis of physiological data - apps are popular and commonly used. Some of the products are affected by the medical device regulation, consciously or unconsciously. For young entrepreneurs, it is difficult to recognize and understand the distinction between software as medical product and health software products. A product-related orientation guide could help start-ups to understand the difference and to find the right strategy for placing their product on the market. All relevant information were collected and analyzed. Input came from a systematic literature research, an evaluation of the CHARISMHA study and a consideration of the medical device regulation as well as the relevant standards (e.g. IEC 62304 and IEC 82304). The guide was adapted to the particular situation of start-ups and microenterprises, inter alia having regard to missing regulatory affairs competences. A product-related orientation guide for young entrepreneurs was developed, which helps to identify whether products are affected by the medical device regulation or not. The guide uses a few simple questions, and it allows the entrepreneurs to estimate the related effort. Furthermore, it provides an overview of relevant standards and needed competences for the chosen path. The guide brings certainty and can help young entrepreneurs to identify the upcoming workload at an early stage. Due to the decision tree concept, it is easy to adapt the product-related strategy and see the consequences. This might help entrepreneurs to find the right strategy for placing their product on the market. Nevertheless, field testing with the guide is necessary to validate its benefit.

Innovation Strategy of Cultivating Innovative Enterprise Talents for Young Entrepreneurs Under Higher Education

A time series model is designed based on the backpropagation neural network to further optimize the innovation and development of new ventures. The specific situation of two factors is primarily analyzed as follows: the supply and demand ratio of enterprise talents and the state of entrepreneurship in the development of new ventures. The results show that the potential demand of future enterprises for big data talents can be obtained by fitting prediction sequences. Based on the Backpropagation–Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model, the post modeling and prediction are carried out, and the coefficient 0.6235 is obtained by substituting the equation of Pearson's correlation coefficient. The analysis results suggest that the matching needs to be strengthened between the cultivation of innovative talents in universities and the demand trend of big data-related positions in enterprises. Moreover, there is a mismatch between the cultivation of innovative talents and the demand for innovative talents. Meanwhile, the mental health level of young entrepreneurs is concerned. The mental health status of young entrepreneurs is compared with the national norm data through the questionnaire survey and statistical data analysis. The results reveal that the mental health level of young entrepreneurs is significantly lower than that of the national norm, and the proportion of anxiety and depression is 29.4% and 27.5%, respectively. Considering the professional characteristics and competitive environment of young entrepreneurs, busy work and the multiple missions given by society to entrepreneurs are the major reasons for their pressure, and mental health problems are serious.

SURVIVAL CAUSAL PATTERNS OF SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN SPAIN

This research aims at analysing the influence of a holistic configuration of factors related to industry and the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the business, on the survival of social and commercial entrepreneurial initiatives in both, new and consolidated companies. The sample ranges from 2,851 to 2,109 firms, according to the period considered, and has been obtained from the reports of the projects submitted to the Assistance Programme to Young Entrepreneurs, promoted by the Valencian Institute of Youth. Other sources of information have been the Institute’s own reports and the Chambers of Commerce. A configurational analysis is performed using the Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The results obtained show that there is no necessary condition by itself and that there are several sufficient solutions that explain a considerable percentage of survival cases. They also show how the solutions vary significantly and, consequently, the relevance of the different causal antecedents, when the company acquires greater maturity.

Analysis of Entrepreneurial Motivation on Entrepreneurial Psychology in the Context of Transition Economy

This study aims to explore the connotation of entrepreneurial motivation in the context of a transitional economy. The actual situations of 135 young entrepreneurs are investigated based on questionnaire surveys and case analyses. The influences of different entrepreneurial motivation factors on entrepreneurial psychology are analyzed. Results demonstrate that the item of “gain wealth” on the entrepreneurial motivation scale has the highest score of 3.98 points. In contrast, the scores of opportunity motivation and survival motivation are basically the same, with great differences between different individuals. The dimensions of policies, regulations, and government functions on the entrepreneurial environment scale have high ranks and levels, while the support of industry associations needs to be strengthened. Generally, the entrepreneurial psychology scale has high scores; most of the items score above 3.45 points, indicating that entrepreneurship not only improves the quality of work and life for young entrepreneurs but also promotes the personal growth of entrepreneurs. The multiple stepwise regression analysis reveals significant correlations between survival and opportunity motivations of young entrepreneurs and their subjective psychology and social psychology. The results can provide experimental and useful reference materials for the following investigations.