Corporate entrepreneurship: teaching managers to be entrepreneurs

In good and bad economic times, innovation is a requisite for companies seeking to remain competitive especially in uncertain and turbulent times. Many organizations are increasingly looking to “corporate entrepreneurship” as a way of combating the lethargy and bureaucracy that often accompany size. But can mangers, who are expected to act like entrepreneurs really be trained to do so? The purpose of this study, then, was to determine whether large companies, through management education and action learning projects, could indeed turn mangers into corporate entrepreneurs. Four large organizations, that had embarked on formalized “corporate entrepreneurship” management development programs formed the basis for this field research. Results indicate that many managers can indeed be trained to act like entrepreneurs and that these actions can result in significant new value creation. However, companies who embark on corporate entrepreneurial development programs also need to be aware of the pitfalls and problems that can happen, when newly trained corporate entrepreneurs re‐enter the organization.

Organization structure as a moderator of the relationship between procedural justice, interactional justice, perceived organizational support, and supervisory trust

Organizational justice researchers recognize the important role organization context plays in justice perceptions, yet few studies systematically examine contextual variables. This article examines how 1 aspect of context--organizational structure--affects the relationship between justice perceptions and 2 types of social exchange relationships, organizational and supervisory. The authors suggest that under different structural conditions, procedural and interactional justice will play differentially important roles in determining the quality of organizational social exchange (as evidenced by perceived organizational support [POS]) and supervisory social exchange (as evidenced by supervisory trust). In particular, the authors hypothesized that the relationship between procedural justice and POS would be stronger in mechanistic organizations and that the relationship between interactional justice and supervisory trust would be stronger in organic organizations. The authors' results support these hypotheses.

Resource-based and strategic group influences on hospital performance

Uncovering the determinants of the performance of health care organizations is a key concern of managers and scholars alike. Using a regional sample of 85 hospitals, this study examines the effects of organizational resources, strategic group membership, and the interaction of these factors on performance. Our results show that managers' attention needs to be focused on different areas depending on what aspect of performance needs improvement.

Negative self-efficacy and goal effects revisited

The authors address the verification of the functional properties of self-efficacy beliefs and document how self-efficacy beliefs operate in concert with goal systems within a sociocognitive theory of self-regulation in contrast to the focus of control theory on discrepancy reduction. Social cognitive theory posits proactive discrepancy production by adoption of goal challenges working in concert with reactive discrepancy reduction in realizing them. Converging evidence from diverse methodological and analytic strategies verifies that perceived self-efficacy and personal goals enhance motivation and performance attainments. The large body of evidence, as evaluated by 9 meta-analyses for the effect sizes of self-efficacy beliefs and by the vast body of research on goal setting, contradicts findings (J. B. Vancouver, C. M. Thompson, & A. A. Williams, 2001; J. B. Vancouver, C. M. Thompson, E. C. Tischner, & D. J. Putka 2002) that belief in one's capabilities and personal goals is self-debilitating.

Developing a Coherent Enterprise Support Policy: A New Challenge for Governments

The role and importance of entrepreneurship and new business creation to the economy have been the subject of increased attention in recent years. Indeed, it is now widely recognised that the promotion of entrepreneurship is not only necessary for a healthy economy, but also critical for sustaining prosperity and creating new jobs. The authors discuss the debate on intervention in the business creation process, and pay particular attention to one aspect of such intervention, namely entrepreneurship training. The issue of the effectiveness of this type of training is also addressed, and the results of a comparative study of eight enterprise training programmes in five European countries, are presented. In addition to the intercountry comparison of entrepreneurship training programmes, the research undertaken comprised a three-year longitudinal study of participants in one of these programmes (CCNEA). The combination of the analysis of the comparative study with the more in-depth case study, has highlighted a number of issues which should be of particular interest to enterprise policymakers throughout Europe. These include the need for early stage awareness-raising through the education system, and the importance of providing secure funding for programmes; for pre-programme screening; for evaluation; and the need to ensure wide access.

LOCUS OF CONTROL, nAch AND VALUES OF COMMUNITY ENTREPRENEURS

Over the last two decades social scientists have paid greater attention to the phenomenon of the creation of companies and, especially, to the personality of entrepreneurs. This article examines the prevalence of a range of psychological attributes in a sample of entrepreneurs from Andalusian cooperatives. These attributes are locus of control, assessed by a version of the I-E Rotter Scale (1966); need of achievement, using Lynn's Achievement Motivation Questionnaire – LAMQ – (Lynn, 1969) and Values, assessed by the Rokeach (1973) Value Survey. We have analyzed the similarities and differences of this kind of entrepreneurship compared with other entrepreneurs who do not operate within the community economy. Our results show the double profile of the cooperative entrepreneur, halfway between the manager and the qualified worker.

Knowledge clusters of technological innovation systems

One of the main producers of wealth and prosperity of industrialized countries is the existence of sustainable systems, capable of converting technological innovation assets into substantial levels of industrial productivity, wealth and global competitiveness. However, very little has been capitalized from these cases for less developed regions. A framework is proposed (5Ls model), capable of empowering firms from industrial sectors of developing countries to: reach competitive Leverages; to Link and aLign these industrial clusters to their empowerment external drivers (academia, banking, complementary industries and government); to benchmark the cluster performance, against the best practices and Learn from the gaps; and, finally, to Lead and integrate the well performing clusters into world class value systems. To achieve these performances, a knowledge system architecture is proposed, which includes the 5Ls model supported by an effective structure of technological innovation systems (TIS), designed to administrate the collaboration network of diverse organizations, aligned to a common goal: the economic, social, political and cultural development of developing regions.

Targeted Support for High-Growth Start-ups: Some Policy Issues

Launched in 1999/2000, the new high-growth start-up programme is part of a shift in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policy in the United Kingdom away from a narrow focus on supporting established businesses with growth potential, to include start-ups and other types of SME. In this context, the authors consider some of the policy issues surrounding the design, development, and implementation of the new programme, with the aid of results from in-depth research in the East Midlands region. After a brief description of the new enhanced support programme for high-growth start-ups, and the policy context in which it was introduced, the authors review the support needs of this type of business and how the new programme might contribute to addressing these. In the final section they consider some of the wider policy issues raised by the programme in terms of the extent to which: first, effective regional models can be developed to encourage widespread participation by appropriate private sector organisations; second, access to appropriate finance, including seedcorn and venture capital, can be increased for high-growth-potential start-ups; third, universities are able to contribute to the generation of new business activity and become integrated into regional business support infrastructures; and fourth, the enhanced support programme is tuned to the needs of the target group and is effectively delivered.

Growing Primacy of Human Agency in Adaptation and Change in the Electronic Era

The extraordinary advances in electronic technologies and global human interconnectedness present novel adaptational challenges and expanded opportunities for people to shape their social future and national life. The present article analyzes these pervasive transformational changes from an agentic theoretical perspective rooted in the exercise of perceived personal and collective efficacy. By acting on their efficacy beliefs, people ply the enabling functions of electronic systems to promote their education, health, affective well-being, worklife, organizational innovativeness and productivity and to change social conditions that affect their lives. Technology influences, and is influenced by, the sociostructural nature of societies. The codetermining sociostructural factors affect whether electronic technologies and globalization serve as positive forces that benefit all or divisive ones in human lives.

Influence of prior involvement on employees' ratings

Surveys show that the majority of firms provide merit pay to outstanding employees. Despite the widespread use of merit pay programs, there is no consensus as to their effectiveness. While some plans have been successful in motivating employees to achieve higher performance, others have caused employees' dissatisfaction and discouragement. One previously unexplored area in the implementation of merit pay systems is the effect of the decision-maker's prior involvement with the employee on the decision to grant merit. The purpose of this paper was to examine whether hiring an employee leads to larger merit allocations despite evidence that the standards for merit were not met. 101 accounting students participated to assess the influence of hiring on subsequent merit allocations. Analysis indicated that prior involvement does bias ensuing merit decisions.

Occupational dreams, choices and aspirations: adolescents' entrepreneurial prospects and orientations

The present study examined possible early antecedents of entrepreneurship of 14-17-year-old 10th grade students (n=320). We hypothesized that Entrepreneurial Orientation (interest and self-efficacy), together with Willingness to Expend Effort, would be an important predictor of an adolescent's Entrepreneurial Prospects, i.e. prospects of becoming self-employed in the future. Furthermore, personality and the model of self-employed family were expected to predict the level of Entrepreneurial Orientation. The same relationships were investigated separately for students who were more or less willing to expend effort. Among students more willing to expend effort, levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation were higher for those who were conscientious, self-efficient, open to new experiences, and low in agreeableness. Among students less willing to expend effort, a high need for social recognition predicted higher levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation. In addition, parents' model for them was connected with lower levels of Entrepreneurial Orientation. A moderating effect of Willingness to Expend Effort was supported by the results for parents' model and need for social recognition.