Do Business Graduates Intend to Adopt the Social Business Model? A Perspective of Developing Country

Social business model (SBM) although presumed to be a saviour of businesses and the world in terms of reach, frequency and impact on society, is yet to be adopted by countries around the world including the developing countries, which potentially could enjoy the greatest benefits from adopting this business model. This study contributes to this end by testing the adoption intention of SBM by applying the theory of planned behaviour from a developing country perspective that happens to be the birthplace of SBM. Drawing on the data collected from the largest university of a developing country that houses over 40,000 students and the future business leaders, this paper presents the underlying psychological drivers behind adopting SBM. Findings show that SBM adoption intention is facilitated by attitude and subjective norms; however, constrained by perceived behavioural control, which contrasts the existing entrepreneurial intention-based findings. Explanations and implications of such findings are provided.

How Do CEO Values Influence IPO Speed? A Conceptual Analysis from the Upper Echelons Perspective

The present article addresses the important, but widely neglected subject of initial public offering (IPO) speed that indicates how rapidly a firm develops from its foundation to be publicly listed. We argue that the time that elapses between start-up and going public depends on characteristics of the CEO who tends to largely influence the timing of the IPO decision. Based on conceptual analyses that combine upper echelons theory and the five-factor model of personality traits, we reveal a complex set of propositions about the direct effects of certain CEO values on IPO speed as well as about CEO- and firm-related variables that moderate these relationships. More specifically, we propose that the degrees of the CEO’s emotional stability, extraversion, openness to experience as well as risk propensity tend to be positively associated with IPO speed, whereas the CEO’s agreeableness and conscientiousness tend to decelerate the pace of going public. These effects tend to be stronger when the CEO is the founder of the firm, holds also the position of a chairperson (CEO duality) and/or owns substantial stakes of the company’s equity. Firm size and the size of the top management team tend to weaken these direct relationships.

Startup Entrepreneurial Creativity and Impact in Armenia: Case Study (2015–2018)

The entrepreneurial creativity (EC) is an important factor for measuring the health and the well-being of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in any country. The purpose of our study was to examine the status of the Armenia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through entrepreneurial creativity (EC) framework. The ‘Entrepreneurial Creativity and Growth’ (EC&G) model developed by Petrakis and Kafka (2016) was adopted. This model puts forward seven factors affecting the entrepreneurial creativity (EC), therefore, no other factor outside this framework was considered. Partial least square (PLS) methodology was applied to construct a predictive model of the seven factors dependencies on the (EC) and on each other. To increase granularity of the model, two to four sub-factors were constructed for each factor sufficient to affect the main dependent variable, the EC. Only two of the factors ‘Culture and Personal Characteristics of the entrepreneurs’ ( p = 0.001) and the ‘Availability of Relevant Institutions’ ( p = 0.007) were shown to have significant effect on the EC. The ‘Culture and Personality’ of entrepreneurs was significantly and positively correlated to the EC ( b = 0.444), which indicated that flexibility and risk-taking is the highest characteristics of Armenia’s entrepreneurs; thus, more creative. This article reports these findings and more of a study aimed at analysing the EC among the Armenian startup founders who established businesses within the years 2015–2018.

Information Overload and the Entrepreneurs’ Behaviour: Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy

Undoubtedly, the entrepreneur is the key to the initiation of the entrepreneurial process and firm performance. Since entrepreneurs vary in their background and abilities, researchers have examined the factors impacting their performance. Previous results show that personality characteristics and self-efficacy of entrepreneurs had a positive impact on their performance. In this study, we consider that entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy (ESE) is a multi-dimensional concept and identify six inherent dimensions. Further, we include two other variables that have not received adequate attention in the literature so far, namely, entrepreneurial information overload (EIO) and entrepreneurs’ human resources management (HRM) behaviour. To undertake empirical analysis, we developed a conceptual framework that proposes a negative impact of entrepreneurial information overload on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurs’ HRM behaviour. Responses from 403 entrepreneurs of a large emerging economy were subjected to path-based multiple regression analysis. The results reveal that information overload has a direct impact on all the ESE dimensions, except on planning tasks. Although there is no direct effect of EIO on entrepreneurs’ HRM behaviour, there is an indirect effect through the mediating role of ESE. These results suggest the need for appropriate strategies to help entrepreneurs to deal with information overload and ways to improve specific dimensions of ESE as necessary. Further, this study provides a platform for empirical research for future studies.

Assessing the Service Quality Attributes Affecting the Satisfaction of the Northern Railway Passengers: An Empirical Study

The present study aims to assess the intangible attributes of the service that have an impact on customer satisfaction. The Intangible attributes attached to the service, are difficult to determine. The Indian Railway network is one of the largest railway networks in the world. It is spread over 115,000 km having 21,617 passenger trains carrying 23 million passengers every day. In terms of revenue generation, it is a major contributor to the Indian economy but even then, the service level is very poor as compared to the other parts of the world. Due to increased competition in the modes of transportation, the Service attributes of Indian Railway acts as a strong influencer on Passenger Satisfaction. Indian Railways has a huge potential in terms of economic benefits if their service quality is improved. Various studies have tried to identify the important attributes regarding the Service Quality of Indian Railway. The SERVQUAL model provided important insights into the service attributes. The study attempts to identify the gap that exists in the service level, that is, service offered by the Indian Railway and expectation of the customers. In the study, only internal aspects like facilities (attributes) which make the journey comfortable and the absence of these attributes makes the passengers’ journey uncomfortable are included. The result indicates that there exists a considerable gap in Reliability and Assurance dimensions of Railway service quality and the most important factors determining satisfaction of passengers are basic facilities, safety and security, cleanliness and employee behaviour towards passengers.

The Effect of Market Orientation on the Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Case of Amhara Region, Ethiopia

The study investigated the effect of market orientation on the performance of small and medium enterprises in case of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Primary data was collected from a total of 250 owners/managers of small and medium enterprises using structured questionnaire. A multivariate data analysis technique of structural equation modelling was employed to analyse the data. The result indicated that customer orientation and interfunctional coordination dimensions of MO are significantly and positively affected small and medium enterprises performance. However, competitor orientation dimension was not found to have a positive and significant effect on the performance. The findings revealed that small and medium enterprises need to be more market oriented to realize superior performance. In addition, the different beta coefficient of market orientation indicated that new business ventures are highly recommended to conduct a market orientation profile and take care in investing their scarce resources. Moreover, the mixed results indicate that firms are advised to replicate market orientation to score superior performance with due care in considering the contexts and time in the industry they are operating and match strategies with their internal resources and core competencies. Finally, this study contributed to the almost wholly overlooked research on market orientation and performance linkages in Ethiopian case and the empirical context of this study is quite novel and helpful for developed nations firms who are trying to operate in emerging economies such as Ethiopia.

Characterizing and Distinguishing ‘Innovative Start-ups’ Among Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)

Start-ups are entrepreneurial ventures, having a high risk of failure (Bortolini et al., 2018; Spender et al., 2017). The risk of failures of Start-ups can be minimized if they are characterized well, and the appropriate macro- and micro-level policy interventions can be introduced. Our literature review (LR) on Start-ups reveals that they are addressed by different names, namely, Hi-Tech firms, University spin-offs, Innovative Start-ups (ISs), Lean Start-ups, Silicon Valley Start-ups and New Technology-Based Firms (NTBF). (Tripathi, Seppanen et al., 2018; Silva et al., 2020; Wiesenberg et al., 2020). It is also observed that Start-ups are referred to as small business and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). A systematic literature review (SLR) of Start-ups is presented here and used as the basis for characterizing them. We propose (proposition-1) that these Start-up firms, addressed by different names, as referred above, can be grouped, characterized and identified as ISs. Based on a robust characterization of ISs, this article proposes that ISs are a subset of MSMEs. From a comparative study of ISs and MSME, we propose (proposition-2) a framework that shows MSMEs can be conceptually split into ISs and Conventional MSMEs (C-MSMEs), with an intersection between ISs and C-MSME. This study has also identified four new research areas related to Start-ups and MSMEs. The above characterization and differentiation of ISs from other entrepreneurial ventures will help policymakers, entrepreneurs, and investors to understand ISs and C-MSMEs better and develop suitable policy interventions and risk mitigation strategies.

Family Business in India: Performance, Challenges and Improvement Measures

Existing literature on family businesses brings out their significance globally. The prevalence of family businesses is a phenomenon that is universal and found in most countries worldwide, although their relative impact on economies does vary. This article reviews papers in the accounting and finance literature on family businesses around the world and shows that the involvement of family members in the business may have a positive, negative or no impact on its financial performance. In the Indian context, the literature review indicates that India’s rich and ancient history seems to be interrelated with the family-run businesses as the principal means of business organization. The paper gives a glimpse of the status of family businesses in India since independence and the distinct characteristics of Indian family businesses. In the next section, we try to find out how family firms are performing in India in comparison to non-family firms by studying companies listed in the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) 500 Index for a period of 5 years ranging from 2014 to 2018. The results show that family businesses are not performing significantly better than non-family firms in the Indian business scenario. We try to highlight the reasons for the same by underlining the issues faced by family businesses and suggest measures to overcome these issues. The study concludes with a discussion on the lessons that new family business ventures can take from family business groups in India that have made a mark in the Indian and the world business scenario because of their ability to face and successfully overcome challenges faced by family firms.