An Investigation of Entrepreneurial Intention Among University Students Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and Parents' Occupation

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the entrepreneurial intention of university students using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and parents' occupation. A questionnaire based survey was employed for the data collection. A total of 1244 students participated in the survey. The sample was a convenience one given that the resources available were limited. The size of the sample allows us to proceed with reliable statistical analyses and produce valid conclusions. The findings of our research showed that perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, attitude and parents' occupation are important variables influencing entrepreneurial intention. The variable that affects entrepreneurial intention the most is attitude. The findings led support to the theory and the hypotheses proposed. These findings indicate that the recommended model can be used to explain a large part of variation in entrepreneurial intention. This study, contributes to the entrepreneurial intention literature providing empirical evidence to help formulate policies encouraging university students' entrepreneurship practices, attracting the interest of both educators and policy makers. This evidence will become increasingly important, as research in the field of entrepreneurship continues to place models of entrepreneurial intentions at the center of our understanding of the entrepreneurial process. Future studies could investigate the validity of the findings reported here, in different contexts using more variables, not included in this study and inquire the potential existence of latent variables which may be confounding the relationships discussed in this paper.

Enhancing Entrepreneurship

One of the major roles of governments is to create a favorable business environment for fostering entrepreneurial activities, including good infrastructure and a culture that encourages the adoption of technologies. In such a policy context, the Greek National Electronic Public Procurement System (ESIDIS) was developed. The use of ESIDIS is mandatory for the employees, and its success depends on users' satisfaction. The chapter investigates the factors influencing employees' satisfaction when using the system. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use, perceived risk, and willingness to learn were investigated using empirical research. Structural equation modeling was used for the analysis of the data. Perceived usefulness has the most significant role in determining user satisfaction while risks importance is diminished when users understand the usefulness of the system for their job performance. Managers and policymakers should take these factors into consideration in order to improve users' satisfaction and consequently maximize the added value of the system for the entrepreneurs.

Profiling Small and Medium Enterprises' Innovativeness During Periods of Economic Crisis

The role of innovation as a vital driving force of entrepreneurship and economic development has been widely acknowledged. Especially in an era of economic turbulence, innovation can be seen as the only realistic strategy that can lead enterprises out of the crisis. Based on the innovation taxonomies identified in the Oslo Manual, namely organizational, marketing, process, and product innovation, a survey was carried out in a Greek region adapting the fourth Community Innovation Survey questionnaire in 43 SMEs, capturing the effects of economic recession on the firms' innovativeness, and drawing a profile of the entrepreneurship innovation in the region of Western Macedonia, Greece. By applying a strategic group's approach, the authors come up with some interesting findings concerning the type of SME innovativeness and results of innovation during a period of financial crisis.

Social Skills and Competencies as the Driving Force of SME Development in Russia

This chapter provides an overview of social skills contributing to SME development in the Russian Federation. Building upon prior research and using the data collected by the most recent World Bank Enterprise Survey, the author summarizes the main social skills demonstrated by Russian SMEs. The indicators published by the 2012 and 2019 Enterprise Survey are further supported by analysis of entrepreneurial “success stories” of entrepreneurs published by Russian web-based media. Social skills required to run a successful SME correspond to those identified from the Enterprise Survey data, and they are evenly distributed among skills comprising the “ways of thinking” and the “ways of working.” The chapter concludes with directions for future research and implications for practice.

Asian Entrepreneurship in Tourism and Hospitality

Entrepreneurs in tourism constantly find business a challenge, especially when competing with well-established players in the industry who have huge capital and large market shares. More often than not, these entrepreneurs must constantly innovate and come up with new ideas on travel booking and new ways to enhance travel experiences. Focusing on entrepreneurs in Asia, very few countries proactively fund aspiring entrepreneurs who often struggle like their American counterparts with credit card debts and huge loans. This chapter reviews Asian entrepreneurs in tourism, with a focus on accessibility to state support and funds, identifying research areas for future studies. Using systematic literature review and country-specific profiling of India, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, the study examines the extent governments support entrepreneurs and the sustainability of their business. This research is intended to trigger insights for both industry practitioners and policymakers and to form an awareness to create a sustainable environment for budding entrepreneurs in tourism.

Local Authorities' Incubator as a Tool Supporting the Synergies Between Companies That Apply Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Enterprises

The local authorities' incubator for social enterprises should be supporting the connection of local companies that apply CSR with social enterprises that are trying to succeed social value. The research in this chapter relied on a systematic literature review. After reviewing the literature, a methodology has been developed that describes the process of designing and implementing a local authorities' incubator and the synergies with social enterprises and CSR. The benefit of a local authorities' incubator in the field of social entrepreneurship is the facilitation of new social enterprises to overcome knowledge barriers and implement best business practices. Finally, in this chapter, it is suggested that the cooperation between local companies that apply CSR and local social enterprises under the guidance and support of local authorities' incubator could create synergies and produce new local certified PGI (protected geographical indication) or PDO (protected designations of origin) social/ethical/green/fair-trade products and services and promote the local economy.

Re-Envisioning Formal and Informal Family Businesses in Nigeria

This chapter discusses the evolution, opportunities, succession model, and sustainability challenges of formal and informal family businesses in Nigeria. Using qualitative research method, while relying on content analysed secondary data, the chapter found that the family businesses that evolved in Nigeria laid the foundation for socio-economic development, and they contributed immensely to employment generation, stimulation of indigenous entrepreneurship, mobilization of idle savings, and growth of gross domestic product. Family businesses in Nigeria prefer relay succession planning for transferring control to family members. The major sustainability challenges include poor succession planning, harsh macro-economic environment, conflict of interest, emotional family problems, parochial family vision, absence of mentoring, competition from multinational corporation, poor access to funding, inadequate entrepreneurial knowledge, weak financial management, bad governance, and a host of others. The chapter concludes with research implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research.

Communication and Entrepreneurship in Romania

The entrepreneurs need to create a good impression in order to act in the business environment. A bad impression affects the communication and implicitly the collaboration that can turn into unintended results. Thus, they access information on how to make a good impression by using several sources: specialty literature, training guides, and courses and online shows promoted by business sites. The main objectives of this chapter are to clarify the notions and the relations between communication and entrepreneurship in the Romanian context and also to present the main results of a research that aimed to identify if the first impression of a person in the Romanian business context is dissimulated or not. The implications for entrepreneurs consist in the degree of promotion of achieving a good first impression and the manipulative or persuasive value of the negotiation techniques applied in the Romanian business environment.

Orientation to Organizational Learning and Its Effects on Innovation and Performance

This research demonstrates how the orientation to organizational learning affects the innovation and performance of the Colombian micro, small, and medium (MSMEs) enterprises, based on a study with 403 Colombian MSMEs, pretending that the results allow the government sector and the academy to design strategies maintain or improve, as appropriate, innovative and learning practices within these organizations. Two hypotheses were raised: 1) learning orientation positively influences business performance and 2) learning orientation positively influences business innovation. The two hypotheses are demonstrated after performing a multiple regression analysis and a broadly significant relationship was evidenced both between the orientation to learning and innovation and in each of the dimensions that make it up: innovation in products/services, processes, and management.

Cyber Threats in the Healthcare Sector and Countermeasures

Healthcare is one of the most targeted industries by cybercriminals. The healthcare sector is far behind in cybersecurity as compared to other organizations. The vulnerabilities in the system open the door for cybercriminals to exploit it and get unauthorized access into the system or network to do a malicious activity. Healthcare should have to take cyber threats seriously and follow a security framework that detects and mitigates cyber threats. This chapter presents all cyber threat actors that exist in the healthcare sector, common cyber-attacks that can be launched against all actors, and real incidents that took place during the past years. Based on these, the authors propose in a tabular form a set of recommendations that can be used as countermeasures against any type of attack.