Hasil untuk "Small and medium-sized businesses, artisans, handicrafts, trades"

Grace Chun Guo, Ximeng Chen, Valerie L. Christian et al.

PurposeUsing firsthand insights from nonprofit executives, our study aims to contribute to a refined understanding of innovation within nonprofit organizations, particularly in the aftermath of a disruptive event – the COVID pandemic.Design/methodology/approachWe adopted an inductive, qualitative approach based on in-depth personal interviews with executives of ten nonprofit organizations operating in the Northeast of the United States.FindingsOur study uncovers the main challenges facing nonprofit organizations in the aftermath of the global pandemic. Our findings provide empirical evidence of how nonprofit organizations responded to these challenges through innovative efforts. We also have identified the innovation-enabling factors and types of innovation that allowed nonprofit organizations to sustain their services and social mission in the aftermath of this disruptive event.Originality/valueBy capturing the perspectives of nonprofit leaders, we contribute to the literature on how nonprofit organizations and nonprofit leaders pursue innovation after a disruptive event that dramatically alters routines and established practices.

Liudmila Sycheva, Antonio J Verdu-Jover

Cultural small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and cultural tourism share a symbiotic relationship, with each depending on the vitality of the other. Yet the core cultural sector has traditionally struggled with digitalization and innovation. Because vibrant cultural tourism relies on active, innovative cultural enterprises as key stakeholders, understanding how to foster innovation within these firms is crucial. Although cultural tourism can empower such enterprises, the mechanisms linking managers’ empowerment to their innovative work behavior (IWB) remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates how psychological, social, political, and digital empowerment combine to shape IWB among managers of cultural SMEs. Data were collected from 202 Spanish managers through a survey and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The findings reveal complex configurational pathways leading to high IWB. Psychological, social, and digital empowerment consistently appeared in effective configurations, typically working in combination, suggesting that no single dimension alone is sufficient to drive IWB. By contrast, political empowerment was often absent or negatively related in pathways that produced high IWB, indicating potential constraining effects in this context. Overall, fostering IWB in cultural SMEs requires nuanced, multi-dimensional empowerment strategies that move beyond single-factor approaches and acknowledge the complex, interactive, and sometimes paradoxical roles that different forms of empowerment play in supporting managerial innovation.

María Luisa Saavedra García, Angélica Riveros Rosas, Karen Gisel Velázquez Rojas

The literature on entrepreneurial intention among university students has largely been grounded in attitudinal models that rely on instruments with limited multidimensional coverage and contextual sensitivity. This study proposes and validates a scale that integrates psychological, educational, and social dimensions. The instrument was administered to a sample of 1,141 students from the Faculty of Accounting and Business Administration at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Exploratory factor analysis identified six factors accounting for 65.78% of the variance. The findings highlight the need to strengthen entrepreneurial competencies within the university context. The study also examines the influence of the family environment and offers practical implications for curriculum design and entrepreneurship education.

Julius Sechang Mboli, John G. O. Marko, Rose Anazin Yemson

The explorations and applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various domains becomes increasingly vital as it continues to evolve. While much attention has been focused on Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, this research examines the readiness of other LLMs such as Google Gemini (previously Google BARD), a conversational AI chatbot, for potential business applications. Gemini is an example of a Generative AI (Gen AI) that demonstrates capabilities encompassing content generation, language translation, and information retrieval. This study aims to assess its efficacy for text simplification in catering to the demands of modern businesses. A dataset of 42,654 reviews from distinct Disneyland branches was employed. The chatbot's API was utilised with a uniform prompt to generate simplified re-views. Results presented a spectrum of responses, including 75% successful simplifications, 25% errors, and instances of model self-reference. Quantitative analysis encompassing response categorisation, error prevalence, and response length distribution was conducted. Furthermore, Natural Language Processing (NLP) metrics were applied to gauge the quality of the generated content with the original reviews. The findings offer insights into Gen AI models performance, highlighting proficiency in simplifying re-views while unveiling certain limitations in coherence and consistency since only about 7.79% of the datasets was simplified. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse on AI adoption in business contexts. The study's out-comes provide implications for future development and implementation of AI-driven tools in businesses seeking to enhance content creation and communication processes. As AI continues to transform industries, an understanding of the readiness and limitations of AI models is essential for informed decision-making, automations and effective integration.

Jung-Ho Kim, Sudo Yi, Sang-Hwan Gwak et al.

To understand how fluctuations arise and are distributed in international trade, a question crucial for economic risk assessment and policymaking, we analyze strong adverse fluctuations-collapsed trades-defined as individual trades with sharp annual volume declines. Adopting a hypergraph framework for a fine-scale trade-centric representation of international trade, we find that collapsed trades (hyperedges) are clustered and their occurrence decays algebraically with trade volume (weight), which suggests inhomogeneous, epidemic-like spreading of collapse in the international trade hypergraph. Modeling collapse propagation as a contagion process and analyzing its dynamics, we show that a positive degree-weight correlation and a volume-decaying collapse rate synergistically suppress the onset of global collective collapse. Notably, the degree-weight correlation persisted but the volume-decay of the collapse rate weakened during the 2008-2009 global economic recession, resulting in a broader collapse spread. Our study shows how the interplay between structure and dynamics stabilizes complex systems.

Gemechu Kaba, Azmera Belachew

This study focuses on the issue of profitability within the small and medium wood industries in Ethiopia. Profitability stands as a cornerstone for the advancement of contemporary industries and is a pressing concern for policymakers. The primary aim of this study is to determine the level of profitability and the factors influencing it in small and medium-scale wood enterprises. To conduct the study, four key cities - Addis Ababa, Bahir Dar, Hawassa, and Jima - were purposively selected. Data were gathered from 170 industries across these cities and subjected to analysis, yielding pertinent results. As expected, the wood industries in Ethiopia lacking profitability and among the 170 surveyed, 59.4% industries were not profitable. This is because majority of workers in Ethiopia's wood industry lack formal or on-the-job training both prior to and during employment. Moreover, the machinery and equipment they operate are outdated, and they lack the necessary skills for their proper utilization. Additionally, challenges such as insufficient raw materials, limited capital, and poor market connections were identified as significant obstacles to profitability. To tackle these challenges and bolster profitability, continuous technical and managerial training for workers, financial assistance for acquiring modern machinery, enhancements in production processes, sales strategies, and market linkage facilitation are recommended.

Evangelos Katsamakas

The simulation hypothesis suggests that we live in a computer simulation. That notion has attracted significant scholarly and popular interest. This article explores the simulation hypothesis from a business perspective. Due to the lack of a name for a universe consistent with the simulation hypothesis, we propose the term simuverse. We argue that if we live in a simulation, there must be a business justification. Therefore, we ask: If we live in a simuverse, what is its business model? We identify and explore business model scenarios, such as simuverse as a project, service, or platform. We also explore business model pathways and risk management issues. The article contributes to the simulation hypothesis literature and is the first to provide a business model perspective on the simulation hypothesis. The article discusses theoretical and practical implications and identifies opportunities for future research related to sustainability, digital transformation, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Johannes Lehmann, Michael Beckmann

Using novel survey data from Swiss firms, this paper empirically examines the relationship between the use of digital technologies and the prevalence of performance incentives. We argue that digital technologies tend to reduce the cost of organizational monitoring through improved measurement of employee behavior and performance, as well as through employee substitution in conjunction with a reduced agency problem. While we expect the former mechanism to increase the prevalence of performance incentives, the latter is likely to decrease it. Our doubly robust ATE estimates show that companies using business software and certain key technologies of Industry 4.0 increasingly resort to performance incentives, suggesting that the improved measurement effect dominates the employee substitution effect. In addition, we find that companies emerging as technology-friendly use performance incentives more frequently than their technology-averse counterparts. Both findings hold for managerial and non-managerial employees. Our estimation results are robust to a variety of sensitivity checks and suggest that Swiss businesses leverage digital technologies to enhance control over production or service processes, allowing them to intensify their management of employees through performance incentives.

Adrienne Callander, Johanna K. Taylor, Paul Bonin-Rodriguez et al.

We invited past, present, and future Artivate editors to contribute to a glossary collectively, futurecasting the central ideas advancing our field. Their provocations shared here help us build forward together.

Adrienne Callander, Johanna K. Taylor

Bhaso Ndzendze

This paper investigates whether foreign investment (FDI) into Africa is at least partially responsive to World Bank-measured market friendliness. Specifically, I conducted analyses of four countries between 2009 and 2017, using cases that represent two of the highest scorers on the bank's Doing Business index as of 2008 (Mauritius and South Africa) and the two lowest scorers (DRC and CAR), and subsequently traced all four for growths or declines in FDI in relation to their scores in the index. The findings show that there is a moderate association between decreased costs of starting a business and growth of FDI. Mauritius, South Africa and the DRC reduced their total cost of starting a business by 71.7%, 143.7% and 122.9% for the entire period, and saw inward FDI increases of 167.6%, 79.8% and 152.21%, respectively. The CAR increased the cost of starting businesses but still saw increases in FDI. However, the country also saw the least amount of growth in FDI at only 13.3%.

Adam Tornhill, Markus Borg

Code quality remains an abstract concept that fails to get traction at the business level. Consequently, software companies keep trading code quality for time-to-market and new features. The resulting technical debt is estimated to waste up to 42% of developers' time. At the same time, there is a global shortage of software developers, meaning that developer productivity is key to software businesses. Our overall mission is to make code quality a business concern, not just a technical aspect. Our first goal is to understand how code quality impacts 1) the number of reported defects, 2) the time to resolve issues, and 3) the predictability of resolving issues on time. We analyze 39 proprietary production codebases from a variety of domains using the CodeScene tool based on a combination of source code analysis, version-control mining, and issue information from Jira. By analyzing activity in 30,737 files, we find that low quality code contains 15 times more defects than high quality code. Furthermore, resolving issues in low quality code takes on average 124% more time in development. Finally, we report that issue resolutions in low quality code involve higher uncertainty manifested as 9 times longer maximum cycle times. This study provides evidence that code quality cannot be dismissed as a technical concern. With 15 times fewer defects, twice the development speed, and substantially more predictable issue resolution times, the business advantage of high quality code should be unmistakably clear.

Shurui Gao, Weidong Meng

PurposeCloud-based technologies are reliably improving Information Technology (IT) environment incorporating changes and modifications to the present business structure. Cloud computing enables small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to organize and exchange pertinent data and information in real time. This study checks out the influence of cloud-based services (IT infrastructure, expenses of cloud services, cloud data security and IT knowledge of human resources) on customers' satisfaction in SMBs.Design/methodology/approachCloud computing offers a way to coordinate and share organizational and personal information and data. The adoption of cloud services is one of the most emerging technological advances in the current competitive business environment. Cloud-based services allow start-ups or SMBs to take advantage of technological advancements and respond more quickly to changing consumer demands. In the available literature, cloud computing has received a lot of attention. However, there is also a research gap in creating a paradigm that links the value development drivers in the electronic industry with the leveraging impact of cloud and intercloud computing resources for start-ups and SMBs. A hypothetical model was constructed based on a literature review, and the associations between the latent variables were investigated utilizing structural equations.FindingsFindings from the study confirmed the validity of the proposed model for customer satisfaction assessment. Besides, the results showed that customer satisfaction is affected by cloud-based services in SMBs. The results illustrated that IT infrastructure influences customer satisfaction significantly and positively, with a T-value of 2.42. Also, the results confirmed that the cost of cloud services with a T-value of 2.68 affects customer satisfaction significantly and positively. Cloud data security also impacts customer satisfaction with a T-value of 5.20. The results also showed that the IT knowledge of human resources affects customer satisfaction with a T-value of 3.01.Originality/valueThe main originality of this research is proposing a new conceptual model to assess the impact of cloud-based services on the satisfaction of the customers in SMBs.

Jessica Voigt

Book Review of The entrepreneurial artist: Lessons from Highly Successful Creatives (Rowman & Littlefield) by Aaron Dworkin

Guillermo Angeris, Akshay Agrawal, Alex Evans et al.

The rise of Ethereum and other blockchains that support smart contracts has led to the creation of decentralized exchanges (DEXs), such as Uniswap, Balancer, Curve, mStable, and SushiSwap, which enable agents to trade cryptocurrencies without trusting a centralized authority. While traditional exchanges use order books to match and execute trades, DEXs are typically organized as constant function market makers (CFMMs). CFMMs accept and reject proposed trades based on the evaluation of a function that depends on the proposed trade and the current reserves of the DEX. For trades that involve only two assets, CFMMs are easy to understand, via two functions that give the quantity of one asset that must be tendered to receive a given quantity of the other, and vice versa. When more than two assets are being exchanged, it is harder to understand the landscape of possible trades. We observe that various problems of choosing a multi-asset trade can be formulated as convex optimization problems, and can therefore be reliably and efficiently solved.

Mohammad Keyhani, Safaneh Mohaghegh Neyshabouri, Abbas Hosseini Amereii

This study presents a comprehensive exploratory and descriptive analysis of Canadian theatre projects on the Kickstarter platform, using both quantitative and qualitative data. In the country-level analysis, comparative statistics are provided with Kickstarter projects based in the United States. Our quantitative analysis finds that many theatre projects in Canada are successfully raising funds on Kickstarter, with the success rate being similar to that of theatre projects in the US, but on a relatively smaller scale in terms of the amount of money raised. Only Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta, have more than three theatre projects on Kickstarter and of these, only Quebec has a proportion of Canadian theatre projects (and successful projects) on Kickstarter that are lower than its proportion of Canada’s population. In our qualitative analysis we find that theatre crowdfunding in Canada has a strong philanthropic component, and highlight limitations with Kickstarter data and the challenges of measuring success in crowdfunding more generally.

Caroline E.W. Glackin, Steven E. Phelan

Purpose – A recent paper by Morris et al. (2013b) presented evidence that students can develop entrepreneurial competencies through international fieldwork. This paper explores whether the same results can be developed in a traditional classroom setting. Design/methodology/approach – The study is a systematic replication of the Morris study with the addition of a matched pair, quasi-experimental design, with a self-replication. Data were collected on 13 self-reported competencies at the start of a semester from two groups using the Morris instrument. The treatment group was exposed to a curriculum designed to teach entrepreneurial competencies, and both groups were re-surveyed at the end of the semester. The process was then repeated with a different cohort, one year later, to replicate the initial study. Findings – Five competencies saw significant increases in the first treatment group. However, only three of these competencies increased more in the treatment group than the control group. In the replication study, only one competency was significantly higher in the treatment group, and that competency was not one of the original three. Practical implications – Educators and policymakers should select a curriculum that is valid and reliable. Entrepreneurship educators and policymaker should devote more time to evaluating the effectiveness of different pedagogical techniques for improving entrepreneurial competencies. Originality/value – To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies in entrepreneurship education to undertake a matched pair, quasi-experimental design with an in-study replication. The results indicate that serious inferential errors arise if simpler designs are used, even though such designs are the norm in entrepreneurship research.

Antonio Miguel Gil Salmerón

Almeria's horticulture has experienced extensive growth that is sustained by the main macroeconomic variables: an acceleration of the agricultural income, broadly-speaking, a positive commercial balance throughout the first quindenium of the century and a GDP that on the whole represents the 16.69% of that accounted by all the province, without taking the agricultural auxiliary industry into account. This trend leads to an asymmetric process of deagrarianization which registers the whole of the Spanish economy and acts as a source of competitive plus point in comparative terms with the development of the social welfare of its territory. A linear regression analysis crosses two variables to assess the degree of coincidence that exists between the growth registered by Almeria's horticulture industry and the quality of life of its citizens. On the one hand, the productivity of the sector is used (average in tonnes of production per hectare) whilst, on the other hand, per capita GDP -because economic growth theories go against GDP as an indicator of social welfare. There is evidence that GDP per capita follows a parallel or symmetrical pattern to the citizens' perception of happiness. It has been categorically confirmed that the horticulture industry of Almería intervenes as a competitive advantage through its productivity, as it stands above all as a long-term determinant of the standard of living of any territory

Can Kizilkale, Rakesh Vohra

Trades based on bilateral (indivisible) contracts can be represented by a network. Vertices correspond to agents while arcs represent the non-price elements of a bilateral contract. Given prices for each arc, agents choose the incident arcs that maximize their utility. We enlarge the model to allow for polymatroidal constraints on the set of contracts that may be traded which can be interpreted as modeling limited one for-one substitution. We show that for two-sided markets there exists a competitive equilibrium however for multi-sided markets this may not be possible.

Víctor Manuel Castillo Girón, Manuel Machuca Martínez, Suhey Ayala Ramirez

Si bien antes de los años 1990 ya había participación de grandes empresas minoristas en México, la llegada de empresas transnacionales, como Wal-Mart, generó una reconfiguración en la distribución de alimentos y, con ello, una expectativa del impacto directo sobre algunas variables del sector. Nuestro objetivo es determinar si la presencia de Wal-Mart implica una mayor productividad por trabajador. Para ello se construyó un modelo de probabilidad logística ordinal cuyos resultados a nivel municipal muestran una relación positiva y estadísticamente significativa, es decir, la probabilidad de encontrar un mayor nivel de productividad aumenta con una mayor presencia de dicha empresa.