The effect of social networking relationships, firm-specific managerial experience, and their interactions on performance between family owned and nonfamily firms are studied. Using data from 106 ...organizations in Ghana, the findings show that family owned firms benefit more from networking relationships with bureaucratic officials than do nonfamily firms. However, nonfamily firms benefit more from networking relationships with community leaders and firm-specific managerial experience than do family owned firms. Networking relationships with politicians impede performance for nonfamily firms. Nonfamily firms are better able than family owned firms to use their firm-specific managerial experience to manage the resources and capabilities obtained from networking relationships with community leaders to create value. Moreover, firm-specific managerial experience attenuates the detrimental effects of networking with politicians for both types of firms.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has acquired an unquestionably high degree of relevance for a large number of different actors. Among others, academics and practitioners are developing a wide ...range of knowledge and best practices to further improve socially responsible competences. Within this context, one frequent question is according to what theory should general knowledge of CSR be developed, and in particular the relationship between CSR and small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). This paper suggests that research on large firms should be based on stakeholder theory, while research on CSR among SMEs should be based on the concept of social capital. This paper first provides a theoretical and practical perspective on CSR today; the focus then shifts to the specific literature on CSR and SMEs; some data and information follow on SMEs in Europe and Italy; finally, some conclusions and questions for future research are suggested.
Corporate sustainability confronts managers with tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social issues. Drawing on the literature on managerial cognition, corporate sustainability, and ...strategic paradoxes, we develop a cognitive framing perspective on corporate sustainability. We propose two cognitive frames—a business case frame and a paradoxical frame—and explore how differences between them in cognitive content and structure influence the three stages of the sensemaking process—that is, managerial scanning, interpreting, and responding with regard to sustainability issues. We explain how the two frames lead to differences in the breadth and depth of scanning, differences in issue interpretations in terms of sense of control and issue valence, and different types of responses that managers consider with regard to sustainability issues. By considering alternative cognitive frames, our argument contributes to a better understanding of managerial decision making regarding ambiguous sustainability issues, and it develops the underlying cognitive determinants of the stance that managers adopt on sustainability issues. This argument offers a cognitive explanation for why managers rarely push for radical change when faced with complex and ambiguous issues, such as sustainability, that are characterized by conflicting yet interrelated aspects.
Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of ethnic minority small businesses (EMSBs) and its antecedents and consequences are under-researched. Grounded in ethnic entrepreneurship theory and the social ...embeddedness approach, this article examines the relationships of EMSBs’ access to various networks, their EO and firm growth. Drawing on quantitative data collected through 258 face-to-face structured interviews with Chinese- and Turkish-owned EMSBs in London, UK our findings reveal that family and co-ethnic advice and labour do not have a significant impact on firms’ EO. Instead, both access to co-ethnic products and access to co-ethnic suppliers of utilities and facilities have a significant impact on firms’ EO, which in turn has a significant positive effect on employment growth. Moreover, Chinese-owned EMSBs demonstrate a higher level of EO and pursue different paths to growth (that is, they are more likely to grow through acquiring more business premises) compared with Turkish-owned EMSBs. The findings have important implications for the understanding of growth patterns of EMSBs, particularly the role of EO in the EMSBs’ break-out strategies and growth.
Sexing the Caribbean Kempadoo, Kamala
2004, 20041201, 2004-12-01, 20040101
eBook
This unprecedented work provides both the history of sex work in this region as well as an examination of current-day sex tourism. Based on interviews with sex workers, brothel owners, local ...residents and tourists, Kamala Kempadoo offers a vivid account of what life is like in the world of sex tourism as well as its entrenched roots in colonialism and slavery in the Caribbean.
Kamala Kempadoo is a Professor at York University in Ontario. She was the Acting Director and Lecturer at the Centre for Gender and Development Studies at the University of West Indies--Mona in Jamaica. She is the editor of Global Sex Workers (Routledge, 1998) and Sun, Sex and Gold (1999).
This paper analyzes small firm performance in relation to efficiency and flexibility strategies. Using configuration theory, the authors propose that small firms that pursue efficiency strategies or ...flexibility strategies outperform those that attempt to pursue both. Additionally, size is used as a configurational attribute to develop competing hypotheses on whether efficiency strategies or flexibility strategies are better suited for small firm performance. In two samples of 200 and 144 privately-held small firms, firms that mixed efficiency and flexibility strategies significantly underperformed. No significant performance differences were found between firms utilizing only efficiency strategies and those utilizing only flexibility strategies.
This handbook provides a comprehensive and unparalleled reference point for studying continuous business transformation. Asserting that change will be the new normal and highlighting the fact that ...business transformation can never be complete, this important resource is a tool for coping with ongoing change in order to become and stay resilient, the predominant concern of executives across industries. Containing case study material to illustrate issues and solutions, The Palgrave Handbook of Managing Continuous Business Transformation takes an interdisciplinary approach weaving together strategic concepts with real-life experiences, connecting human resource issues with shifts in information technology and linking customers with the businesses from which they buy. Structured into four parts; transformational shifts, achieving customer centricity, dealing with new technology and leading the change, this handbook is crucial reading for academics, scholars and practitioners of business transformation.
Essential guidance for the financial auditor in need of a working knowledge of IT If you're a financial auditor needing working knowledge of IT and application controls, Automated Auditing Financial ...Applications for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses provides you with the guidance you need. Conceptual overviews of key IT auditing issues are included, as well as concrete hands-on tips and techniques. Inside, you'll find background and guidance with appropriate reference to material published by ISACA, AICPA, organized to show the increasing complexity of systems, starting with general principles and progressing through greater levels of functionality. - Provides straightforward IT guidance to financial auditors seeking to develop quality and efficacy of software controls - Offers small- and middle-market business auditors relevant IT coverage - Covers relevant applications, including MS Excel, Quickbooks, and report writers - Written for financial auditors practicing in the small to midsized business space The largest market segment in the United States in quantity and scope is the small and middle market business, which continues to be the source of economic growth and expansion. Uniquely focused on the IT needs of auditors serving the small to medium sized business, Automated Auditing Financial Applications for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses delivers the kind of IT coverage you need for your organization.
The Barriers to Growth in Ghana Robson, Paul J. A.; Obeng, Bernard A.
Small business economics,
04/2008, Volume:
30, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This paper presents the results of ordered logit regression models of the problems faced by 500 entrepreneurs from six regions of Ghana against the characteristics of the entrepreneurs and their ...businesses and whether these were systematically related to a list of 37 factors that they perceived as limiting their ability to achieve their objectives in the period 2002-2005. The results show that the education, but not the sex or age of the entrepreneurs were related to business barriers. Family Businesses, growing businesses, those providing training and those which did not spend money on R&D were more likely to encounter business barriers. The findings of the research also revealed that in general firms in conurbations were more likely to encounter barriers.
