The coronavirus outbreak has become a global issue with significant effects on capital markets, and the global economy; its impacts are estimated to be even more than the previous global recessions. ...In this interim, due to the impacts of this pandemic, startups are more prone to fail or succeed faster than ever before; however, the challenges they face are not yet clearly scrutinized, as the pandemic was faster than scholars. This study therefore investigates the main challenges of Iranian startups by interviewing the co-founders of fifteen well-known startups. The findings are analyzed through two-step coding, and findings were discussed in a focus group session to which startup co-founders, policymakers, and scholars were invited. It was revealed that there are six principal types of challenges to be addressed, including financial, human resources management, support measures and mechanisms, marketing, crisis management, as well as some others.
Technology-based enterprises play a paramount role in blooming a country economically. Nevertheless, according to a society's capacity to launch such enterprises in various eras, their volume is less ...than expected in many economies. Therefore, establishing such enterprises is necessary for developing any country, although its innovation system contributes to establishing them. This paper considers the impact of entrepreneurial education on technology-based enterprise development, including motivation as a mediator variable, in Esfahan Scientific and Industrial Town. Despite much research investigating the correlation between entrepreneurial education and technology-based enterprises' progress, it seems that no study has already considered this correlation with remarking the motivation as a mediator variable. This applied research follows a quantitative research design. The statistical population includes 500 enterprises in the Esfahan Scientific and Industrial Town, and for sampling, Cochran's formula was applied (n = 217). Additionally, the researcher-made questionnaire and PLS3 software were used for data gathering and analysis. The results demonstrated that entrepreneurial education elements (including entrepreneurial skill, entrepreneurial learning, and entrepreneurial intention) positively affect technology-based enterprises' development, considering motivation as a mediator variable. However, the impact of entrepreneurial intention on technology-based enterprises was not supported. It reveals that the entrepreneurial intention of motivated individuals could have a meaningful effect on the development of technology-based enterprises. Therefore, motivation is a critical issue to be considered by managers and policymakers while considering entrepreneurial education-related policies and initiatives.
The wide range of topics that the book covers are organised into sections reflecting a cradle to grave view of how entrepreneurial, innovative, and tech-savvy approaches can advance environmental ...sustainability in the fashion sector. These sections include: sustainable materials; innovation in design, range planning and product development; sustainable innovations in fashion supply chains; sustainable innovations in fashion retail and marketing; sustainable alternatives for end-of-life and circular economy initiatives; and more sustainable alternative fashion business models. ; The wide range of topics that the book covers are organised into sections reflecting a cradle to grave view of how entrepreneurial, innovative, and tech-savvy approaches can advance environmental sustainability in the fashion sector. These sections include: sustainable materials; innovation in design, range planning and product development; sustainable innovations in fashion supply chains; sustainable innovations in fashion retail and marketing; sustainable alternatives for end-of-life and circular economy initiatives; and more sustainable alternative fashion business models.
PurposeThe onset of a crisis demands that businesses respond quickly and effectively. So, it might be helpful to examine the effect of business model innovation and how to increase its impact on ...better crisis management. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned objectives.Design/methodology/approachThe present study is applied in terms of aim and a quantitative descriptive survey regarding the data collection method. The structural equation model with the partial least squares approach and Smart PLS 3 software was used for the structural analysis of the questionnaire.FindingsThe findings revealed that business model innovation could lead to better crisis management. In addition, the components of entrepreneurial capability, resilience and business performance played a mediating role.Research limitations/implicationsSome factors may mediate the effect of business model innovation on crisis management. Thus, future research can investigate them and identify their impact.Practical implicationsThe present study suggests that managers should re-examine business model processes and make them innovative to improve crisis management.Originality/valueThe present study examines the factors that affect crisis management with an emphasis on innovation, assesses the impact of mediating factors in this regard and attempts to provide a model to facilitate better crisis management.
Purpose
Startups play a significant role in improving societies. This paper concentrates on the concept of “startups” and attempts to present a more comprehensive view of this phenomenon. Also, the ...focus of this paper is on investigating enterprising communities and the startup ecosystem in Iran.
Design/methodology/approach
The existing literature is carefully reviewed, definition and views are explored and the story of this phenomenon is told from the formation to the exit stage. The author elaborates the existing stages and challenges of startups in Iran. To do so, 65 tech startup founders are interviewed. Semi-structured interviews (SI) were based on previous studies mentioning the lifecycle of the startups, and were fully recorded. Moreover, secondary sources of data (SS) were used to support the findings.
Findings
The paper classifies the extant theories of startups in two levels, i.e. macro level, and micro and meso levels. Also, it defines some steps for the formation of startups and studies the Iranian startup ecosystem. Last but not the least the paper contributes to the startup ecosystem of Iran which is changing disruptively, especially in the last couple of years.
Research limitations/implications
Findings of this research shed light on the existing ecosystem of startups in Iran, which is rarely studied in previous research. Lack of enough evidence in the existing literature of startup ecosystem in Iran was the most significant limitation of the research which increased the need for more investigation and elaboration.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to understanding the startup ecosystem in Iran, and the challenges.
This study aims to identify barriers to sustainable geotourism development in Iran with an economic view. On the national horizons of Iran in which development targets for 2025 are defined, Iran ...intends to become one of the major tourist destinations in the world, and it can make more worthwhile the importance of this research. Therefore, this research focuses on identifying the barriers to sustainable geotourism development. This study uses the AHP method with Expert Choice 10.0 software. Experts in the field of tourism economics (N = 33) with affiliation to Iran comprised the study sample. Twelve factors are determined based on the Delphi technique results. Accordingly, the main barriers include infrastructure, economic factors, social and cultural factors, and marketing. The findings demonstrate that economic factors and marketing are respectively the criteria with the uppermost and lowermost influences. Moreover, results confirm that lack of government investment in geotourism and lack of trained people to guide geotourism tourists are the highest and the lowest effective sub-criteria, respectively. Furthermore, performance sensitivity analysis based on the study objective indicates that Hormozgan Province has generally received a much higher score related to sustainable development barriers than other provinces according to the proposed criteria.
PurposeThis study explores the effect of internal branding on organisational financial performance and brand loyalty with the mediating role of psychological ...empowerment.Design/methodology/approachThe data gathered from 200 Pasargad insurance employees in Iran were analysed. Structural equation modelling and R were used to evaluate the model. Financial performance was measured by four concepts (ROI, ROE, Sales growth, ROA) based on available data from March 2010 to March 2020.FindingsThe results revealed that internal branding and psychological empowerment have no significant effect on financial performance, but both have a significant positive effect on brand loyalty. Likewise, the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the subject of the impact of internal branding on brand loyalty was confirmed. Furthermore, psychological empowerment did not play a mediating role in the impact of internal branding on financial performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study could be important for managers of organisations active in the insurance industry to highlight internal branding and enhance psychological empowerment and employee brand loyalty. Moreover, managers' perception of the effective role of psychological empowerment to enhance employee brand loyalty is another practical aspect of this research.Originality/valueConsidering the mediating role of psychological empowerment to the effect of internal branding on financial performance and brand loyalty is an innovative aspect of the present study. Meanwhile, the use of R software for VB-SEM was another point to surge the value of this paper.
This study evaluated the impact of startup technology innovations and customer relationship management (CRM) performance on customer participation, value co-creation, and consumer purchase behavior ...(CPB). This analytical study empirically tested the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling (SEM) and SmartPLS 3 techniques. Moreover, we used a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to verify the model’s accuracy. SVM algorithm uses four different kernels to check the accuracy criterion, and we checked all of them. This research used the convenience sampling approach in gathering the data. We used the conventional bias test method. A total of 466 respondents were completed. Technological innovations of startups and CRM have a positive and significant effect on customer participation. Customer participation significantly affects the value of pleasure, economic value, and relationship value. Based on the importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) matrix results, “customer participation” with a score of 0.782 had the highest importance. If customers increase their participation performance by one unit during the COVID-19 epidemic, its overall CPB increases by 0.782. In addition, our results showed that the lowest performance is related to the technological innovations of startups, which indicates an excellent opportunity for development in this area. SVM results showed that polynomial kernel, to a high degree, is the best kernel that confirms the model’s accuracy.
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