Multidisciplinary Group Case-Based Learning Environment

Technological, economic, and social developments represent dynamic changes for businesses across industries, creating opportunities for young entrepreneurs to build profitable companies. A key consideration relates to the need to recognize market opportunities and understand when and how to capitalize on them, whether starting a new type of business or growing on existing ideas; entrepreneurial thinking is a central attribute in cultivating an answer to this consideration. This chapter examines the impact of case-based learning introduced in a multidisciplinary undergraduate course, “Management of Innovation and Technology,” at the University of Nicosia. A core element in this process are the students' and lecturers' experiences, benefits, and challenges of cultivating entrepreneurial thinking. The findings can be useful for academics teaching entrepreneurship-related topics and seeking ways to incorporate innovative approaches in their teaching and learning processes in order to motivate students towards the development of entrepreneurial thinking in their professional engagements.

UX (User Experience)-Driven Website Design Utilizing Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Multi-Attribute Decision Modeling

The success of an organization's website is determined by the user's experience (UX). Yet many organizations continue to struggle to find tools to strategically analyze the UX's satisfaction with their websites and overall online presence. While there have been numerous studies offering “best practices” for website design, most of these are dated and do not take into consideration UX's experience and social media tools that come into the market. In this chapter, over 900 surveys were conducted on Inc. Magazine's Top 500 list (2011-13) of fastest growing companies in the United States. The analysis of these surveys resulted in a list of shared elements (best practices) common to the websites surveyed. Through the use of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) multi-attribute decision model, the authors developed a measure by which companies can assess their customer's experience and compare it to these best practices model. This model provides an internally consistent, robust model against which to measure an organization's website based on the user's experience (UX).

Theorizing Virtuality in Enterprise Social Systems

This chapter has built on research on today's modern organizations to lay the foundations for a comprehensive and systematic theorization of enterprise social systems. Theorizing virtuality marks a fundamental transformation in space-time parameters in communications. This is especially so in the context of rapid current advancements in IT such as cloud computing, as well as numerous other technological fronts. Current IT trends show that increased spatio-temporal plasticity heightens the effectiveness and the efficiency of modern enterprise social systems. In particular, subject-oriented asynchronous communications experience greater inferred plasticity and event-oriented synchronous communications experience greater referred plasticity. Finally, enterprise social systems vary in their degree of virtuality based on the perspective of the relevant stakeholder group considered.

Formal Verification of Secure Payment Framework in MANET for Disaster Areas

In this chapter, the authors propose a secure payment framework in mobile ad hoc network for disaster areas. In order to enable transactions in a disaster area using existing payment systems, we need infrastructure to communicate such as wired networks and base stations for cellular networks which are damaged by natural disasters. The authors propose to use mobile agent technology and digital signature with message recovery (DSMR) mechanism based on ECDSA mechanism to enable transactions in a disaster area using ad hoc networks.

The Divergence of Entrepreneurial Landscapes in the European Union

Understanding the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship to economic growth and stability, the European Union has implemented policies and programs to create a more uniform context for cross-border business activities within the EU. While initial efforts led to a more unified European region, they did not lead to a more uniform one. Over the past five years, dramatic changes in Europe resulting from the financial crisis, the Eurosceptic movement, and the Syrian refuge crisis have incented nations to create their own national innovation and entrepreneurship efforts. This chapter explores the results of those diverging national programs on entrepreneurial outcomes. Specifically, the research explores national landscapes created as a result of differing endowments, regulatory regimes, tax systems, and venture funding levels. Results indicate that differences in these factors create significantly different entrepreneurial outcomes as measured by patent applications and new business registrations.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Commerce in China

This chapter further considers the tax aspect of the internet commerce transaction, which found that the Chinese government imposes a value-added tax at a rate of 17%. The system to impose value-added is extremely complicated. The first buyer pays tax. The tax is transferred to the second buyer, so on and so forth until the last buyer. It requires detailed records. It makes the tax administration highly burdensome. On the contrary, in the United States, the sales tax rate is only 7% and is imposed only on the final consumer. There are no sales between the first buyer and the last buyer. The taxing system is much simpler than its counterpart in China.

Entrepreneurship Education in Engineering Curriculum

Entrepreneurship education programs are commonly offered in business schools, but recently, the educationists have started recognizing the need for such programs in engineering education. This chapter is targeted to empirically explore the suitability of entrepreneurship education in engineering curriculum from the perspective of students. The study attempts to unearth the levels of willingness of engineering students to take entrepreneurial activities and investigate the factors that motivate them and the factors that deter them to go for entrepreneurship. The analysis revealed that the students are highly interested in taking entrepreneurship as a career option because of some intrinsic motivating factors such as being their own boss, chasing their dreams. They consider decision-making skills, risk-taking capacity, creativity, communication skills, and ability to prepare business plan are the most important skills. However, lack of experience and funds deter them. The right kind of entrepreneurship education programs can promote more entrepreneurial activities among the engineering students.

Attracting the Right Employees?

This chapter investigates effects and issues associated with social media and recruitment and whether it is effective as an innovative e-entrepreneurship method of attracting the right employees for enterprises from a multi stakeholder perspective. Human resources management professionals have been using different methods of social media in their recruitment strategies with varying degrees of success. By examining social media and its effect, this can support the development of a more effective human resources recruitment strategy. Additionally, increased communication channels might enable the development of a more positive internal enterprise culture. The study was conducted using both primary and secondary data. Professionals, recruiters, and employees have been questioned on their views of Social Media from a personal and a professional perspective through a variety of methods including focus groups and questionnaires. This chapter provides a framework that can be used by enterprises in order to create their own social media recruitment cycle.

Entrepreneurs and Technology

Technology disruption as well as changing economies have brought new opportunities and threats to the global entrepreneurial models and transformed societies all over the world. Entrepreneurship as a dynamic phenomenon is being analyzed as a tool for bearing the risk of market uncertainty, innovation, competition, and restructuring, and generating new knowledge. Despite continued analysis of the entrepreneur phenomena, how emerging technologies influence generation of business ideas and business formation is still unexplored. The aim of this chapter is to explore this relationship by analyzing women entrepreneurs. Specifically, the authors ask the question, Does the use and access of emerging technology trigger generation of business ideas which leads to business formation? Also, do demographic characteristics of entrepreneurs play a role in knowing and using emerging technology?

Knowledge Sharing in Distributed Teams

Recent trends in the world economy, including globalization and advances in ICTs and social media, have enabled networking as a business model. As a result, distributed teams have emerged. This chapter provides a basis for discussion and analysis of knowledge sharing between distributed team members working in a global context in different organizational and national cultures. Cultural dynamics influencing knowledge sharing in different cultural settings is examined by investigating the different cultural values and perceptions related to knowledge sharing. The aims are to make the human and cultural dynamics that bear on knowledge sharing and knowledge management success more explicit. The use of the cultural and organizational diversity evaluation (CODE) model is proposed for assessing the fit between national and organizational culture. The objective of using the CODE model is to raise awareness of the cultural values and attitudes in distributed teams and to help ensure an effective quality management process, and foster a knowledge sharing culture within distributed teams.