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17TH NORDIC CONFERENCE ON SMALL BUSINESS RESEARCH

A B S T R A C T V O L U M E

HELSINKI, FINLAND MAY 23 – 25, 2012

ContentsoftheabstractvolumeConference details ............................................................................................................................................ 1

Programme ........................................................................................................................................................ 2

Start‐up and Growth Entrepreneurship Forum ................................................................................................. 3

Aaltonen, Satu and Akola, Elisa: Lack of Trust – The Main Obstacle for Immigrant Entrepreneurship? ........ 4

Ahlin, Branka; Drnovšek, Mateja and Hisrich, Robert D.: Exploring Moderating Effects of Proactivity on the

Relationship between Market Information and Innovation Performance ............................. 5

Alsos, Gry A. and Clausen, Tommy: Closing the Gender Gap? Entrepreneurial Training and Entrepreneurial

Intentions among Male and Female Youth ............................................................................... 6

Alsos, Gry A. and Isaksen, Espen J.: Closing the Gender Gap? Entrepreneurial Training and Entrepreneurial

Intentions among Male and Female Youth ............................................................................... 7

Alsos, Gry A. and Ljunggren, Elisabet: Closing the Gender Gap? Entrepreneurial Training and

Entrepreneurial Intentions among Male and Female Youth .................................................... 8

Autio, Erkko; Heimonen, Tomi; Kiuru, Pertti and Rannikko Heikki: Growth Challenges across Industries:

Investigating ‘Teecian’ Heuristics ............................................................................................. 9

Bager, Torben; Schøtt, Thomas and Evald, Majbritt Rostgaard: Relative Prevalence of Intrapreneurship and

Independent Entrepreneurship in Scandinavian, Anglo‐Saxon and Continental Countries . 10

Bogren, Maria: Unexpected Relations in the Expected Network .................................................................. 11

Cajanus, Anna: Partnerships between SEs and large firms ............................................................................ 12

Chantanaphant, Jirayuth; Un Nabi Noor Md. and Dornberger, Utz: The Impact of Technological

Capability on the Export Performance of SMEs in Thailand ............................................ 13

Eickhoff, Matthias and Dyczkowski, Tomasz: Creative in Diversity: Developing Entrepreneurial Talents in

European University Networks – Experiences from an Intercultural, (Blended‐) Team‐

Learning Opportunity .............................................................................................................. 14

Elenurm, Tiit: Integrating Online Learning and Field Projects in Entrepreneurship Education .................... 15

Elfving, Jennie: Innovative Entrepreneurs or Entrepreneurial Innovators ‐ Does the Difference Matter? .. 16

Farny, Steffen: New Concepts in Post‐Disaster Development: Learning from Social Entrepreneurs in

Northern Haiti .......................................................................................................................... 17

Greenman, Andrew: Localizing Institutional Logics and Variation in Micro and Small Enterprises ............. 18

Gustafsson‐Pesonen, Anne and Kiuru, Pertti: Evaluation on Entrepreneurship Education Projects ............ 19

Handelberg, Jari: Entrepreneurial Top Management Team Demography, Process and Organizational

Performance: an Institutional Explanation ........................................................................... 20

Havumäki, Heidi: Entrepreneurial Chain Marketing in a Retail Chain .......................................................... 21

Heimonen, Tomi; Närhi, Marja; Kauppi, Jussi and Gustafsson‐Pesonen, Anne: Entrepreneurship in Golden

Years – Creative Opportunity or not ...................................................................................... 22

Heinonen, Jarna and Hytti, Ulla: Gender in Family Firms: A Literature Review ............................................ 23

James, Lowellyne; Theodoraki, Eleni and Kumar, Maneesh: Capital Cooling Ltd – A Case study of

Perceptions of the Contributions to Growth and Critical Success Factors of Carbon

Footprint Measurement .......................................................................................................... 24

Kantanen, Maisa: Yes South‐Savo’s Practices in Entrepreneurship Education ............................................ 25

Keese, Detlef; Philipp, Ralf and Rüffer, Niclas: Determinants for the Application Decision for Innovation

Subsidies .................................................................................................................................. 26

Ketolainen, Mari and Eriksson, Taina: “We should have done it differently” – SME Internationalization in

Retrospect ............................................................................................................................... 27

Klapper, Rita and Upham, Paul: Myths of Value‐Creation in Entrepreneurship Studies: Patent Strategies,

Societal Disbenefits and an Illustration from the Energy Sector ........................................... 28

Kujala, Irene: Business Network Relationships and Impact in the Internationalization Process of African

SMEs – The Case of the Ghanaian Clothing and Textile Industry .......................................... 30

Kurczewska, Agnieszka; Kyrö, Paula; and Abbas, Amal: Comparative Morphogenetic Study on the

Structure ‐ Agency Interplay of Entrepreneurship Education in Egypt and Finland ............. 31

Kyrö, Paula and Mattila, Johanna: Towards Future University by Integrating Entrepreneurial and the Third

Generation University Concepts – Case Aalto University from Finland ............................... 32

Lappalainen, Jaana: Do Family Firms and Non‐Family Firms Differ in Investing? Evidence on Finnish SMEs

.................................................................................................................................................. 33

Lehtinen, Ulla; Puente, Julia and Ahokangas, Petri: Internationalization of Small Finnish Food Companies

through Event Marketing ........................................................................................................ 34

Ljunggren, Elisabet and Roaldsen, Ingrid: Open Innovation: a case from the food value chain …………………35

Miettinen, Marika and Littunen, Hannu: Factors Contributing to the Success Measured by two Dimensions

or Multi Dimensions in Micro Startup Firms .......................................................................... 36

Nielsson, Ulf: Do Less Regulated Markets Attract Lower Quality Firms? Evidence from the London AIM

Market ..................................................................................................................................... 37

Norrman, Charlotte and Johansson, Christer: Entrepreneurship against All Odds: Tool to Create Social

Cohesion, Inclusion and Jobs .................................................................................................. 38

Närvä, Margit; Rantamäki‐Lahtinen, Leena and Ryhänen, Matti: Family Farm Diversification from the

Strategic Point of View ........................................................................................................... 39

Omorede, Adesuwa: Where Does the Spirit Come from and What Keeps Them Going? A Qualitative

Approach to Understanding Passion for Social Entrepreneurship ........................................ 40

Prebil, Miha and Drnovšek, Mateja: The Innovative Team Structure: The Effect of Team Structure,

Proposed by Kelley, on Innovation ......................................................................................... 41

Qing, Cao: Intellectual Property Management in China: Case Study on a Finnish Engineering Company .. 42

Roaldsen, Ingrid and Clausen, Tommy: The Effects of Strategy Formation from the Business Model: A

Longitudinal Analysis .............................................................................................................. 43

Römer‐Paakkanen, Tarja: Lessons Learned from Connecting Doctoral Studies and Research on

Entrepreneurship into Teacher’s Work at University of Applied Sciences ........................... 44

Soininen, Juha; Puumalainen, Kaisu; Sjögren, Helena and Syrjä, Pasi: What Drives EO in Small Firms? Roles

of Owner‐Manager and Financial Conditions ......................................................................... 45

Solesvik, Marina Z.: Entrepreneurial Competencies in Emerging Economy Context ................................... 46

Sten, Jan: Are Finnish Family Businesses Fostering Innovation or not? ...................................................... 47

Suoranta, Mari and Jones, Rosalind: Leveraging Resources by Using Networks and Relationships –

Entrepreneurial Marketing in Small Software Technology Firms .......................................... 48

Swanson, Lee A. and Zhang, David D.: Cornerstones of Northern Development ......................................... 49

Torikka Jenni: Entrepreneurial Decision Making Processes of the Franchisee Training Program Graduates

.................................................................................................................................................. 50

Varamäki, Elina; Joensuu, Sanna; Viljamaa, Anmari and Tornikoski, Erno: A Longitudinal Panel Study of

Entrepreneurial Intentions of Higher Education Students in Finland ................................... 51

Venesaar, Urve and Kallaste, Marianne: Student’s Entrepreneurship in Europe: a Comparative Study ...... 52

Westerlund, Mika and Leminen, Seppo: In Praise of Entrepreneurial Marketing: A Study on Entrepreneur‐

Led Firms ................................................................................................................................. 53

Zabala Berriozabal, Kristina and Zubiaurre Goena, Arantza: Entrepreneurship in the Context of a Research

Institution in the Basque Country ........................................................................................... 54

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Conference Details Conference Venue Aalto University School of Economics, Runeberginkatu 14 ‐ 16, Helsinki Registration and Conference Desk Registration and Conference Desk is located in the lobby of the Main Building. Registration will be open as follows: Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012: 10.00 – 12.00 and 17.00 – 20.30 Thursday, May 24th, 2012: 8.00 – 18.00 Friday, May 25th , 2012: 8.00 – 12.00 Parallel sessions All the sessions are held in the main building. You will find the detailed program of parallel sessions from your Conference Bag. Transportation Information about public transportation can be found from http://www.hsl.fi/EN/. You may order taxi from the number 0100 0700. Session chairs Chairs are invited to enter the lecture hall 10 minutes before the start of the session. Their task is to introduce the topic and the speakers and guide the session giving each presenter equal time and chair the discussion accordingly. Presentations of the papers Please, enter the lecture hall 10 minutes before the start of the session and download your presentation before the start. The total time allocated for each paper will be 30 minutes. Please, plan your presenta‐tion so that there will be at least 5 – 10 minutes time for questions and discussion. Internet access Unsecured Aalto Open network will be available in the campus of School of Economics. You may also try your Eduroam connection. Conference chair and secretary

Chairman of the conference Professor Markku Virtanen Aalto University, School of Economics Small Business Center Lönnrotinkatu 7, FIN‐50100 Mikkeli Tel. +358 40 754 5539 [email protected]

Secretary of the conferenceLaura Ahtikoski Aalto University, School of Economics Small Business Center PL 21285, 00076 AALTO Tel. +358 40 353 8440 [email protected]

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PROGRAMME Wednesday May 23 10.00 – 12:00 Registration 11.00 – 16.00 Doctoral consortium on Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Lecture Hall A‐306

Tor Aase Johannessen, Hans Landström, Elisabet Ljunggren and Markku Virtanen 17.00 – 20:30 Registration

19.00 – 21.00 Welcome reception, Aalto University of School of Economics Main Building

Restaurant Rafla

Thursday May 24

08.00 – 18:00 Registration

09.00 ‐ 10.45 Opening Plenary Session and Keynote, Main Hall

Welcome to School of Economics, Dean, Professor Ingmar Björkman, Finland

Welcome to Aalto University, Vice Rector, Professor Hannu Seristö, Finland

Welcome to Helsinki, Finland, Minister Jyri Häkämies, Ministry of Employment and the Economy, Finland

Professor Kalevi Ekman, Aalto University Design Factory, Finland

“Passion Based Learning”

Professor Hans Landström, Lund University, Sweden

"That is interesting! Formulating interesting research questions in entrepreneurship"

10.45 ‐ 11.15 Coffee break

11.15 ‐ 12.45 Parallel sessions and Start‐up and Growth Entrepreneurship Forum

12.45 ‐ 14.00 Lunch




19.00 ‐ 22.00 Conference Dinner, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma

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Friday May 25

08.00 ‐ 12:00 Registration

09.00 ‐ 10.20 Keynote speeches, Lecture Hall Nokia

Professor Pier A. Abetti, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

“Enterprise Support Systems and Business Incubation: Thirty Years of Experience in Twenty

Countries”

Professor Erkko Autio, Imperial College Business School, London

”National Systems of Entrepreneurship: What Are they and How Do They Work?”


10.40 ‐ 11.20 Professor Friederike Welter, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden

"Contextualising entrepreneurship - Challenges and Opportunities"

11.30 ‐ 13.00 Parallel sessions and workshop on Social Innovators and Social Sncubators

13.00 ‐ 14.15 Lunch

14.15 ‐ 15.45 Parallel sessions and workshop on Social Innovators and Social Incubators

Start‐up and Growth Entrepreneurship Forum

Thursday May 24 Lecture Hall C‐350 (Wihuri)

11.15 ‐ 12.45 Start‐up and Growth Entrepreneurship Forum, Chairman William Cardwell

Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship, William Cardwell

Aalto Entrepreneurship Society: Venture Garage and Start‐up activities, Nils Paajanen

Aalto Start‐up Center: Incubator and other activities, Pentti Mustalampi

12.45 ‐ 14.00 Lunch

14.00 ‐ 15.30 Start‐up and Growth Entrepreneurship Forum, Chairman William Cardwell

Mukava Music, Hanna Toivonen

Tuubio, Jens Sørenssen

Dealdash Oy, William Wolfram


16.00 ‐ 17.30 Start‐up and Growth Entrepreneurship Forum

StudentWork, Heikki Karimaa

Zef Solutions Oy, Jaakko Alasaarela

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LACK OF TRUST – THE MAIN OBSTACLE FOR IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

Aaltonen, Satu, Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku, [email protected]; Akola, Elisa, Turku School of Economics at the University of Turku, [email protected]

Aim of the paper This study aims to establish a context sensitive understanding of what are the most essen-

tial skills and resources needed by immigrant entrepreneurs in a new country and how these re-sources are build. Also the push and the pull factors to entrepreneurship among immigrants, the role of the family as a context of socialization and source of support as well as the networks needed for success are briefly discussed in this paper.

Contribution to the literature Despite of the growing importance of immigrant entrepreneurship in Finland the studies of

self-employed immigrants are quite rare. The existing studies are mostly concentrated on certain ethnic groups (Wahlbeck 2008, Jumpponen et al 2007) or some entrepreneurship in specific geo-graphical areas (Sjöblom and Immala 2006, Heinonen 2010). Our study covers several ethnic groups and geographical areas. The paper will apply social capital theory and its three dimen-sions: the structural, the relational, and the cognitive (Nahapiet and Ghoshal 1998). As stated in the previous literature (e.g. Welter and Kautonen 2005) personal trust is important during the start-up phase. The further away the culture of an immigrant is from the local culture, the more challenging it might be to build social capital and trust.

Methodology The data consists of 50 interviews conducted among self-employed immigrants in Finland.

The topics of the interviews included the reason for immigration, the motives for starting up a business, the start-up process, the role of the family both as a role model and in running the busi-ness, and the challenges faced in their business ownership. Content analysis was used in inter-preting the data. The interviewed business owners came from 28 different countries. The majori-ty of interviewees had micro enterprises in the service sector, which were located mostly South-ern Finland and Oulu region. Almost half of them had a higher education but on the other hand eight of them had neither vocational nor higher education. Also the time lived in Finland varied considerably – between three and 42 years.

Results and implications The results show that specific challenges for immigrant business owners are the lack of

language skills and cultural knowledge as well as the distrust of locals. Those challenges are interrelated. For many interviewees getting better language skills and cultural awareness eased the building of trust among potential customers and business partners. Many sorts of networks – both private and professional – were regarded very helpful for building trust as well as learning to know the culture and the language. The strong role which the concept of trust gained in the talk of immigrant entrepreneurs when describing the start-up phase is well in line with previous literature (e.g. Welter & Kautonen 2005). Our results indicate that in the context where there is a lack of collective and institutional trust (due to cultural strangeness) the personal trust becomes important not only between businesses but also between the start-up company and its (potential) customers. Participants of the study emphasized the importance of networking both among im-migrant entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in general as a way to gain new skills. They wished they had more opportunities for this kind of networking. The findings of the research will benefit all SMEs interested in entering international markets as well as local policy makers designing services and training for immigrant entrepreneurs.

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Exploring moderating effects of proactivity on the relationship between market infor-mation and innovation performance

Msc. Branka Ahlin, Tomplast d.o.o., Slovenia, E-mail: [email protected] Dr. Mateja Drnovšek, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, E-mail:

[email protected] Dr. Robert D. Hisrich, Thunderbird School of Global Management, United States of America

Due to the important role which SMEs play in economic and technological development,

their innovation performance has received much interest in literature. At present, however, rela-tively little direct evidence exists concerning mechanisms through which individual entrepre-neurs encourage innovation in their companies {Baron, 2011 #638}. The present research seeks to add to current knowledge on innovation processes in SMEs by investigating the impact of two individual level variables (market information generation and proactivity) on firm level innova-tion performance.

The empirical data used to test the hypotheses were drawn from a mail survey conducted in 2010 in among SMEs the United States and Slovenia.

The data provided support to our hypotheses. The main effect model showed that both

market information generation and proactivity were significantly and positively related to prod-uct and process innovation. When moderating effects of proactivity was added to the model, the explained variance increased and beta coefficients indicated support for moderating effect of proactivity through market information generation on product innovation. The results indicated partial support for process innovation (the moderating effect was positive and significant for Slovene sample, while beta coefficient for the US sample was positive but non-significant).

In this study we contribute to the literature by proposing a conceptual model of proactivi-ty’s moderating effect on the relationship between market information generation and innova-tion, and second, by empirically testing proposed relationship in a cross-cultural sample. The results of our study show that proactivity represents an important boundary condition when mar-ket information leads to higher innovation. The results of our study extend current knowledge on relationship between individual level entrepreneur’s characteristics (proactivity) and important firm-level output (innovation performance) (e.g. Magni et al., 2009; Baron and Tang, 2011; Hmieleski, 2009 #1263).

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PRODUCT INNOVATION AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH CAUSATION AND EFFECTUATION: THE CASE OF SMALL FIRMS IN THE SERVICE SECTOR

Gry Agnete Alsos, Bodø Graduate School of Business, Norway

Tommy Høyvarde Clausen, Nordland Research Institute, Norway

Principal topic Inspired by Schumpeter’s (1934) seminal analysis of the importance of entrepreneurs carrying out “new combinations” for economic development, later research has documented that young and small firms is a key source of new product innovations in the economy, and increasingly so (Acs & Audretsch, 2003). However, new and small firms may approach product innovation in different ways, some of them being markedly more innovative than others. Differences may be a result of different strategies or logics adopted by the entrepreneurs in creation and further devel-opment of their ventures. This study is motivated by recent research which has suggested that causation and effectuation represent two fundamentally different approaches for how new firms come into existence (Sarasvathy, 2001). Causation process takes a particular effect as given and focuses on selecting between means to create that effect while effectuation process refers to the choice between possible effects that can be created with given means. The purpose of this paper is to further examine the intersection between product innovation, and the logic entrepreneurs follow during business creation. Method A survey was administered to new and small firms operating within tourism industry in Northern Norway. Measures of effectuation and causation were taken from Chandler et al., (2011). A fac-tor analysis was performed in order to validate the use of the causation/effectuation dimensions. Poisson regression has been used to explore the relationships between causation, effectuation and product innovation. Results and implications Results indicate that entrepreneurs following an effectuation approach have introduced signifi-cantly more product innovations the last 3 years. Further, examining the type of product innova-tion, we find that firms following an effectuation approach have introduced a significantly higher number of incremental product innovations, while firms following a causation approach have introduced a significantly lower number of radical as well as incremental product innovations. Thus, it seems that the ways in which new firms are created have a prolonged influence on the number and type of product innovations after entry. Consequently, the relevance of the concepts of effectuation/causation goes beyond new venture creation to also include strategic management and small business management.

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CLOSING THE GENDER GAP? ENTREPRENEURIAL TRAINING AND

ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS AMONG MALE AND FEMALE YOUTH Gry A. Alsos and Espen J. Isaksen

Bodø Graduate School of Business at the University of Nordland, 8049 BODØ, NORWAY. E-Mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] The purpose of this study is to examine whether involvement in youth enterprises among upper secondary school pupils have an influence on their development of entrepreneurial intentions. We are taking a gender perspective, particularly focusing on the influence of entre-preneurial training on female and male pupils. We use Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behav-iour (TPB) in order to derive hypotheses. TPB predicts that the individual’s intention is the key concept positively influencing subsequent actions, and focus on how intentions are developed. Moreover, intentions are determined be three key antecedents: (1) attitude toward the behaviour, (2) subjective norm and (3) perceived behavioural control.

Some previous studies have shown that participation in entrepreneurial training programs

has been associated with changes in attitudes and intentions towards entrepreneurship (Peterman & Kennedy, 2003). By addressing the gender issue related to entrepreneurial intentions, this study builds further on this knowledge and examine whether entrepreneurial training influences on the observed gender differences when it comes to entrepreneurial intentions. This contributes to the literature in at least two ways. First, a gender perspective can bring new insights into the knowledge on the results from entrepreneurial training by examining possible gender related differences in the way entrepreneurial training influences on entrepreneurial intentions. Second, the study aim at a better understanding of the attitudes, social norms and behavioural control related to entrepreneurship among young women and men and how they are developed.

Data for this study was gathered from 252 upper secondary school pupils, whereof 137

had experience from youth enterprises and 115 had no such experience. A web-based question-naire was designed to measure business start-up intentions, attitudes towards new business start-up, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. We adopted previous operationalized and tested measures, but adapted some of these slightly to fit the target group. Respondents filled in the questionnaires during a school lesson, resulting in a high response rate (nearly 100%). On-ly pupils who submitted complete data sets for the selected variables were included in the anal-yses, reducing the sample to 215 pupils, 113 reporting to have obtained experience from youth enterprises and 102 reporting no such experience. Of the sample, 121 are female and 94 are male. Data was analysed using t-tests and multiple regression analyses performing separate anal-yses for the samples of female and male pupils.

The findings indicate that for the group of female pupils, but not for the group of male pupils, entrepreneurial intentions are significantly stronger for those participating in youth enter-prise compared with those not participating. Moreover, results indicate that for female pupils, youth enterprise experience has an indirect positive effect on entrepreneurial intentions trough its effect on subjective norm and perceived behaviour control. Thus, entrepreneurial training at the upper secondary level may seem to be important to stimulate entrepreneurship among young women.

8

Gender and trustworthiness in entrepreneur-investor relationships

Gry Agnete Alsos, Bodø Graduate School of Business, University of Nordland, Norway Elisabet Ljunggren, Nordland Research Institute, Norway

Principal topic and aim Most business ventures with high degree of innovation and high growth potential require signifi-cant amounts of external funding to reach their potential. Risk capital is often sought obtained from informal and formal risk capital investors, such as business angles, seed capital funds or venture capital funds. The Diana Project has demonstrated that risk capital investments are high-ly gender skewed, and that women business owners seldom acquire sufficient funds to grow their businesses aggressively and to reach their full potential (Brush, et al., 2006). It has been suggest-ed that it is the combination of stereotypical ascriptions and poorer accumulation of social and human capital which leads to gender-based barriers in business financing (Carter & Marlow, 2007). Literature on venture capitalist has investigated the criteria used in investment decisions. As the-se decisions by definitions rely on the investors’ confidence in future results, trustworthiness is a critical ingredient for entrepreneurs seeking investor capital (Maxwell & Lévesque, 2011; Ebbers & Wijnberg, 2011). The aim of this study is to explore trustworthiness as a central concept to understand gender biases related to risk capital investment. We argue that gender may play a role in the trust that is potentially built in an investor-entrepreneur relationship, and hence in the in-vestment decision. Trustworthiness may be influenced by social and human capital, as well as based on stereotypical ascriptions. The venture and the similarity in experience between entre-preneur and investor may also be important for creating trust. Thus, trustworthiness is a result of both demand side and supply side factors. Our research question is: How does gender influence on trustworthiness of entrepreneurs as perceived by potential investors? Method Data for this study is gathered from formal investors (investment funds) and informal investors (business angles) in Norway. The project has received access to investment decision documents from an investment fund, including background material and decision documents prepared for all investment decisions made by the fund board. Each case map has been read and analyzed by a member of the research team resulting in field notes from each case, as well as a filled in analyti-cal protocol covering central aspects of the study Results and implications Investors’ experience of trustworthiness of entrepreneurs is important in investment decisions. Signs of trust or lack of trust can be found in investors’ analysis of potential investment cases. Demonstrated human and social capital, in particular previous experience and achievements of entrepreneurs, seems important for trustworthiness. Gender is not directly described as important for trustworthiness. However, preliminary analyses find gender as embedded in the cases, influ-encing the experience of trustworthiness indirectly. Further, actual behaviours of entrepreneurs play an important role in generating the trust necessary for further investment.

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GROWTH CHALLENGES ACROSS INDUSTRIES: INVESTIGATING ‘TEECIAN’ HEURISTICS

Autio Erkko: Imperial College Heimonen, Tomi; Kiuru, Pertti; Rannikko Heikki: Aalto University Small Business Center

Aim of the paper We explore factors that may explain variation in economic returns to innovation, as appropriated by small high-technology start-up firms. We do so by investigating the heuristic originally pro-posed by Teece (1986). This heuristic identified asset co-specialization, asset availability, and the strength of the IP regime as important determinants of appropriability. Drawing inspiration from this model, we focus our examination on fine-grained aspects of appropriability regimes, the dominant design paradigm, and the availability of complementary assets. Doing so, we seek to answer the following research questions: 1) Why do innovating small high-tech firms often fail to obtain significant economic returns from an innovation?; 2) How do regimes of appropri-ability, dominant design paradigm, and the availability of complementary assets explain varia-tion of economic returns from an innovation received by small high-tech firms?

Contribution to the literature

This study contributes to previous discussions on innovation and industrial organization (Acs and Audretsch, 1988; Coad, 2007; Coad and Rao, 2008, Teece, 1986), innovation and perfor-mance (Audretsch, 1995; Bhide, 2000; Calvo, 2006; Freel and Robson, 2004; Roper, 1997; Thornhill, 2006) and innovation and growth policy interventions (Archibugi, 1988; Covin et al., 1999; North and Smallbone, 2000; Santarelli and Piergiovanni, 1996; Venkataram, 2004). For example, Coad and Rao (2008) found that the returns to IPR are highly skewed and the dis-tribution of growth rates is heavily tailed. The preliminary finding suggest that besides innova-tion, attention needs to be paid in other areas of venturing as suggested by ‘Teecian’ heuristic in order to understand the skewed nature of IPR returns.

Methodology

In this paper panel regression analysis was utilized. The sample was drawn from the data-base that has been collected as a part of the longitudinal evaluation project of firms that have been financed by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. In summary, the data collection has resulted in a panel data-base including 2380 firms for each of which at least some information exists. This data-base is used to test the ‘Teecian’ heuristic on small high-technology start-up firms.

Results and implications

As an answer to the first research question the entrepreneurship literature suggests that innova-tions do not turn as such to economic profit; an important ingredient in this process may be en-trepreneurship. Preliminary results from studying ‘Teecian’ heuristic in a sample of new tech-nology-based firms support this view: a direct association is found between entrepreneurship and performance (growth) while between innovativeness and growth such association was not found. Through an interaction model it is found that under industry conditions where the dominant de-sign has been achieved (paradigmatic stage) and complementary assets are available the effect of innovativeness on growth is stronger than otherwise. While preliminary, the results strengthen the belief that Teece heuristic is useful platform to study innovativeness – performance relation-ship. However, more work needs to be done in order to fully capture the richness of the model in applied empirical work.

10

Relative prevalence of intrapreneurship and independent entrepreneurship in Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon and Continental countries

Torben Bager, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Entrepreneurship and Rela-tionship Management, Engstien 1, 6000 Kolding, Denmark, email: [email protected], corre-sponding author. Thomas Schøtt, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Entrepreneurship and Rela-tionship Management, Engstien 1, 6000 Kolding, Denmark, email: [email protected] Majbritt Rostgaard Evald, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management, Engstien 1, 6000 Kolding, Denmark, email: [email protected]

Aim of the paper: 'Entrepreneurial activity' comprises two specific forms: 'intrapreneurship' as entrepreneurial work within existing businesses and 'independent entrepreneurship' as upstart of new businesses. New empirical evidence indicates that people’s pursuit of intrapreneurship ver-sus independent entrepreneurship is influenced by institutional context in their country. In this paper we search for possible explanations of the finding in GEM 2011 that the Scandinavian countries have the highest level of intrapreneurship in the world combined with a comparatively low level of independent entrepreneurship.

Contribution to the literature: We theorise, drawing on neo-institutional theory, that the voca-tional choice made by entrepreneurially inclined people between intrapreneurship and independ-ent entrepreneurship is influenced by the regulatory, normative and cultural cognitive institutions in their country. Furthermore, we consider selected macro-level theories, notably the work by Esping-Andersen on welfare state models, and the cultural values framework by Hofstede.

Methodology: The paper draws primarily on Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data, and particu-larly the 2011 measurement of Entrepreneurial Employeee Activity which for the first time measures intrapreneurship levels comprehensively in a large number of countries and opens for comparison of the rate of intrapreneurship relative to independent entrepreneurship across coun-tries.

Results and implications: The empirical evidence on the prevalence of intrapreneurship and independent entrepreneurship confirms that some relationship exists between macro-level institu-tions in societies (welfare state model and macro-level culture) and the prevalence of different forms of entrepreneurship, mediated by job-autonomy levels, management traditions and work culture. For the three forms of welfare societies identified by Esping-Andersen, we find that the level of entrepreneurial work by employees is very high in Scandinavian countries, moderate in Anglo-Saxon countries and low in Continental countries while the level of independent entrepre-neurship is high in Anglo-Saxon countries, low in Scandinavian countries and moderate in Con-tinental countries.

Acknowledgement

The Danish 2011 GEM study was financed by a grant from the Danish Industry Foundation, In-dustriens Fond.

11

Unexpected relations in the expected network

Maria Bogren, Mid Sweden University, Dept of Social Sciences, SE-831 25 Östersund, Sweden, [email protected]

The aim of this paper is to explore what kind of network relations women build within a supportive constructed network aimed at developing the women’s enterprises and also to discuss how such constructed networks should be organized. The research questions are concentrated around development programs and the networking development within such a program. The first two questions center on development programs with the aim to stimulate networking among women entrepreneurs: Does a development program benefit women´s networking? How should a development program be designed to support networking? The third and fourth research ques-tions explore what happens in a development program that could be seen as a form of construct-ed network: What network relationships are present in a constructed network? Who are the women networking with and about what, within the constructed network?

This study contribute to earlier studies by Hill et al. (1999) and Greve and Salaff (2003) in the area of network development and to Granovetter´s (1973, 1982) ideas about strong and weak ties between actors in networks. Overall this is a contribution to women’s entrepreneurship theo-ry, especially on issues regarding the way networks develop over time with an emphasis on women entrepreneurs’ networking in constructed networks.

A qualitative approach was used to study a development program comprised of 24 women entrepreneurs. Surveying was threefold: First, a short questionnaire was handed out twice query-ing the entrepreneurs regarding network contacts important for business development. Second, the entrepreneurs wrote reflective answers to questions regarding their participation in mixed network groups (with participants from both countries and from different branches): did they develop new ideas about networking that they would like to test themselves or see tested by oth-ers? Finally, participant observations were made at meetings in the development program.

The results show that new relations emerge over country borders and business borders as well as within and outside the program. Initially the networking was about advice and support. There were also some business relationships forged crossing the national border and within the same branches. The entrepreneurs have gradually realized the value of networking and have seen the benefits of developing their network with more professional contacts. It is not possible to organize everything around networking but we can facilitate with theoretical and practical exam-ples in development programs.

12

Partnerships between SEs and large firms

Anna Cajanus Aalto University

[email protected]

New and innovative solutions are needed to solve the present social and environmental prob-lems. The private sector could offer new approaches aside of the public sector. Social enterprises exist to solve these problems but they, as other nascent SMEs, often lack resources to effectively do so. One way to overcome the resource constraints are partnerships between SEs and large firms. For large firms, providing SEs skills, technology and finance is one of the main ways they can contribute to the Millennium Development Goals of United Nations (Nelson & Prescott, 2008), and� to fulfill their corporate social responsibility in order to re-gain their legitimacy to operate. Partnerships between SEs and large firms are rapidly growing, but there is only little academic research of the topic (see Nelson & Jenkins, 2006; Seelos & Mair, 2004)� . The aim of this paper is to provide a framework of the different ways of partnering between social enterpris-es and large firms to start filling this gap. It hopes to facilitate and foster the emergence, and to increase awareness of such partnerships. It also offers insights on how large firms see the differ-ent ways and partnering with SEs in general.

The paper provides a review of the partnering continuum literature and explains the different stages of this continuum. It is one of the first to apply this theory to the social entrepreneurship context. The framework can be used as a basis for future research, and each of the ways can be studied individually. The framework is formed based on several international examples, and on the little literature that exists of the topic. Literature of partnerships and collaboration between large firms and SMEs, and large firms and NGOs is also taken advantage of. Eight CSR managers of large firms operat-ing in Finland were interviewed in semi-structured interviews to find out their opinions of part-nering with SEs in general, and of the different ways identified in particular. Four different ways of partnering with increasing levels of integration were identified from the examples. At the lowest levels of integration (1) SEs are suppliers of large firms' support or pri-mary activities. The cooperation stage (2) includes non-strategic partnerships which include the development of SEs' capabilities by providing them financial, physical, social or human capital. At the collaboration stage, (3) SEs and large firms form strategic partnerships in order to create new products or services, to develop new business models or to enter new, un-served markets. This can end up in coalescence where the mission is mutual and the people involved feel like being part of the same team. It is also possible to (4) exercise social entrepreneurship within the large firm either via social intrapreneurship activities or by acquiring a social enterprise. The large firm can also launch a joint venture individually or together with an other party. There appears to be a willingness in the large firms to develop their CSR activities towards a more strategic direction. They see the potential of working with SEs, but emphasize that the type of partnership should be decided case-by-case depending on the individual characteristics of the actors. As large firms are often busy with their daily routines, the initiative should come from the SE and it should be professional and have clear benefits for the large firm.

13

IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITY ON THE EXPORT PERFORMANCE

OF SMES IN THAILAND

Jirayuth Chantanaphant1,2, Md. Noor Un Nabi3, and Utz Dornberger4 1and 2 PhD Candidate, International SEPT Program, University of Leipzig, Germany. Faculty of Liberal Arts and Management Science, Prince of Songkla University, Surat Thani Campus, Thailand. 2 Post-doc Researcher, International SEPT Program and Center for Area Studies (CAS), University of Leipzig,

Germany. 3 Professor, International SEPT Program, University of Leipzig, Beethoven Str. 15, 04107 Leipzig, Germany. E-mail: [email protected], Corresponding author.

Aim of the paper

Technological capability (TC) is widely regarded as source of growth and wealth for the nations and the firms (Manopoloulos et al, 2009). Researches on the role of technology on economic development have emphasized two main issues. Firstly, they paid attention to the emerging market countries adapting the imported technologies have become a decisive factor in their ability to catch up. These studies empha-sized on the industry and country phenomena, where the firm-level phenomena have not much empha-sized (Caniels and Romijn, 2003; and Archibugi and Coco, 2004). Secondly, researches on the relation-ship between TC of the emerging market countries small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their export performance are required to generate better understanding (Figueiredo, 2002; and Guifu and Hongjia, 2009).


Thailand is ranked 6th developing country exporter by The World Bank. 99% of the enterprises in Thailand are SMEs (OSMEP 2010). They are dominant players in some of Thailand’s major export sec-tors namely Apparel, Agricultural, Jewery, Plastic among others. Plastic industry is the only technology-intensive sector in which SMEs are responsible for 50% of export turnover. Therefore, this study attempts to examine: the impact of TC on export performance of SMEs in Thailand using the Plastic Industry as the main subject.

The positive relation between TC and export performance has been supported by various arguments. Firstly, firms with superior TC can secure greater efficiency gains by pioneering process innovations and can achieve higher differentiation by innovating products in response to the changing market environment (Tsai, 2004). Secondly, firms with greater presence in global markets require more proactive and aggres-sive technological capabilities (Figueiredo, 2002; and Lefebvre, Lefebvre and Bourgault, 1998). Lastly, TC plays an outstanding role in ensuring the firms to achieve a higher level of international performance and to compete successfully in foreign markets (Flur and Oltar, 2005; and Guifu and Hongjia, 2009). This study contributes to the literature by providing better understanding of the relationship between TC of the emerging countries SMEs and their export performance.

Methodology and methods

This is a quantitative study where data is gathered by personal and telephone interviews with 111 SMEs in plastic industry in Thailand, who export. The descriptive and multiple regression analyses were used to examine the impact of TC and export performance.


The findings of this research suggest that the improvements of manufacturing processes and of prod-uct design are critical for the SMEs to successfully compete in the international markets. These improve-ments are based on accumulative technological knowledge acquiring from internal and external sources. These findings contribute to the understanding of how SMEs in the emerging market countries use the available technologies to improve firm performance and integrate them to the global economy.

14

Creative in Diversity: Developing Entrepreneurial Talents in European University Net-works – Experiences from an Intercultural, (Blended-) Team-Learning Opportunity.

Matthias Eickhoff, University of Applied Sciences Mainz, School of Business, [email protected], corresponding author University of Applied Sciences Main, Lucy-Hillebrand-Str. 2, 55128 Mainz, Germany T +49.170.2382859, F +49.6131.628-93273 Tomasz Dyczkowski, Wroclaw University of Economics, Department of Controlling, [email protected]

Abstract

The initial idea behind the concept which the paper will introduce was to offer students a learning opportunity to develop entrepreneurial skills on European level. A survey of the EFER (Wilson 2004) pointed out substantial deficits in the areas of action-oriented innovative approaches and in the creation of cross-border offers to support entrepreneurship and innovation. The concept COEUR which was launched as a 1-week workshop for European students stands for “Competence in EuroPreneurship”.

The paper introduces the three pillars of COEUR, which are crucial for future

entrepreneurial success: Process Orientation, the focus on the early stage of idea generation: Business Creativity and the emerging of a European entrepreneurship-culture: EuroPreneurship. It outlines the development of the COEUR workshop with particular attention to the evaluation of the methodology used.

The success of the COEUR workshops delivered a solid basis not only for the growth of

the COEUR network but also for further development of innovative learning opportunities. With the support of the EU, the workshop-experience was built into the COEUR Business Creativity Module, enabling the partners to offer the entrepreneurial challenge – develop a value proposition with visionary strength and European scope – into regular university curricula on broader scale. COEUR BCM as blended learning course generated new challenges and solutions which the paper exemplifies in the view of Wroclaw University of Economics, which in September 2012 will be hosting the 10th COEUR workshop.

Though COEUR had always focused on intercultural cooperation and diversity as a core

issue and a constitutive attribute, the extension of the workshop-experiences to China and Brazil gave a new dimension to the idea of the existence and significance of a regional entrepreneurial culture – between global and local – and thus deepened the understanding of entrepreneurial development processes.

Going beyond the evaluation which has regularly been made after every single workshop

since the start in 2004 a career tracking has been started to find out how former participants are evaluating the lessons learned with a distance and how this has influenced their further professional development. The paper highlights the relevance of COEUR for SMEs as a contribution to develop competences which will become strategic success factors for SMEs in the near future. It invites universities to join the COEUR network and it is offering strategic partnership to enterprises to bring forward innovative entrepreneurial learning.

15

INTEGRATING ONLINE LEARNING AND FIELD PROJECTS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

Tiit Elenurm Estonian Business School

[email protected] Aim of the paper

The paper analyzes the role of field projects and the role of different types of online learning activities in preparing students for identifying new business opportunities and for developing co-creative entrepreneurship skills. Opportunities to create synergies between field projects and online learning and challenges that have to be overcome when integrating these learning envi-ronments in the entrepreneurship education are studied.

Contribution to the literature The paper connects literature dealing with identification and development of entrepreneurial op-portunities (Ardichvili et al., 2003, McMullen et al. 2007) and knowledge management (Smith et al., 2009) with challenges of understanding and developing entrepreneurial motivation (Carsrud and Brännback, 2011). In this paper entrepreneurial behaviour that is related to technological opportunities and commercialization in small technology-based enterprises by using international marketing channels (Pellikka and Virtanen, 2009) is discussed from the point of view of apply-ing student teams as gatekeepers that enhance business information monitoring capabilities of entrepreneurs. The paper also presents a modification of the experiential learning cycle of Kolb and Kolb (2005) in order to reflect the personal knowledge management of students in the entre-preneurial opportunity identification process taking into consideration inputs from online net-working and field projects.

Methodology and methods Field projects focused on assisting start-up entrepreneurs in developing and internationalizing their business have been used as the empirical basis of the paper. The paper reflects action re-search in these field projects and training activities that supported student teams.

Results and implications Different modifications of the experiential learning cycle can be applied depending on the readiness of students to pursue their own business idea or to contribute to co-creative entre-preneurship as a team member. Field projects based on developing and implementing student’s own business idea and field projects, where students assist start-up entrepreneurs in the role of business information gatekeepers are both useful in the entrepreneurship education. Involvement of business students to international student teams that assist small technology-based enterprises to broaden their business opportunities at the same time encourage students to follow more inno-vative paths both for business opportunity discovery and creation. Such projects also enhance critical thinking about entrepreneurship prospects and knowledge gaps.

16

INNOVATIVE ENTRPRENEURS OR ENTREPRENEURIAL INNOVATORS ‐ does the difference matter?

Jennie Elfving Central Ostrobothnia University of Applied Sciences

Runeberginkatu 8 FIN ‐ 68600 Pietarsaari

e‐mail: [email protected] mobile: +358 400 903929

Aim of the paper

The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how the use of critical realism as a methodological ap‐proach can help us to understand the differences and linkages between entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as give us a better understanding of the entrepreneurial process. The paper reveals blind spots in previous research and builds a new framework to deepen our under‐standing of entrepreneurial and innovative behavior.


Landström et al. (2012) recently called for a greater integration between the fields of entrepre‐neurship and innovation studies. Baron and Tang (2011) point out how little we know about the role of the entrepreneur in encouraging innovations. In the entrepreneurship literature it is often assumed that being entrepreneurial also includes being innovative, and vice versa (Ste‐venson and Jarillo, 1989). This paper argues that entrepreneurship and innovation are closely related, but not synonyms. They need to be treated separately in order to further our under‐standing of entrepreneurial behavior. Moreover, we do not know enough about how entrepre‐neurial behaviour changes throughout the entrepreneurial process. Despite the fact that many scholars recognize entrepreneurship as a process (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000; Landström et al. 2012), much of the research has focused merely on mechanisms and outcomes (Styliowicz and Galvin, 2010). We know less about how they mechanisms are linked together and what actually spurs the outcomes.


The paper is an explorative study introducing critical realism as an alternative research ap‐proach. Previous research on entrepreneurship and innovations is revised through the lenses of critical realism.


Entrepreneurial activities are a result of a variety of social interactions. Therefore the field would benefit from studying entrepreneurship as a process. Although entrepreneurship and innovations are closely linked, they constitute of different structures and mechanisms from the point of view of critical realism. Innovations require, at least partly, different mechanisms and different causal powers than entrepreneurship. In other words, a structure which has a causal power to generate entrepreneurship looks different than a structure which has a causal power to generate innovations. The results show that new insight can be reached in the field of entre‐preneurship research by using critical realism as a methodological approach.

17

New Concepts in Post-Disaster Development: Learning from Social Entrepreneurs in Northern Haiti

Steffen Farny - Aalto University School of Economics [email protected]

Aim of the paper: This study aims to address entrepreneurial solutions to a post-disaster context. So-

cial entrepreneurship seems a promising way to acknowledge social opportunities, while apply-ing business practices in a sustainable manner. The question raised is how social entrepreneurs can support the development of post-disaster Haiti?

Contribution to Literature: Three schools of thought govern the landscape of Social Entrepreneurship (Bacq and Janssen, 2011). Varieties in definitions (e.g. Zahra et al., 2009; Dacin et al., 2010) indicate that the strength of social entrepreneurship is its dynamic flexibility and little isomorphic pressures. However, the interplay between the entrepreneur, the organization and the society are hardly studied. This study contributes by analysing the dynamics between the elements.

Methodology: Through an ethnographic study in-depth data has been collected – partly via vide-

ography. The empirical data has been analysed through a practice theoretical lens with a critical realist epistemology. An edited film shows the results of the data analysis by following the mod-el of the effectuation logic.

Results and Implications: The findings indicate that action-oriented social entrepreneurs are effective in

addressing and solving the local social obstacles, because they are well embedded in the environment. Legitimization of their action by the society occurs only partly as two incompatible practices interfere with each other. They primarily follow an effectuation logic to exploit the opportunity. However the international community follows a rational logic that offsets the effect. This study suggests a shift in development policies towards a stronger commitment and capability support of local entrepreneurs, instead of continuing with the linear and sequential opportunity process. To achieve a greater impact the entrepreneurs require a stronger effectual stakeholder commitment. Keywords: Social entrepreneurship, videography, effectuation, post-disaster

18

Localizing Institutional Logics and Variation in Micro and Small Enterprises

Andrew Greenman, University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation, University of Nottingham Business School. B31, Business School South, Jubilee Campus, Nottingham,

NG8 1BB, UK. [email protected]

Many entrepreneurship researchers argue that integrating action, context and process are vital for continued development of the field. To achieve this concepts cable of addressing multiple-levels of analysis are often cited as a solution. This article responds by drawing upon an institutional logics perspective. This is applied to examine how variation emerges between Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs). Variation is attributed to two events through which institutional logics are localized during venture creation and development. The localization of supra-organizational (ie.., societal level) logics is examined through two sub-process: the founders’ identification and the creation and re-shaping of organizational designs intended to guide collective action. The paper examines how these sub-processes both enable and constrain entrepreneurial action. This is be-cause institutional logics are treated as a basis for reducing uncertainty, but also of exerting limi-tations over the possibilities for entrepreneurial action. The key contribution of the paper is to examine how founders of MSE’s localize multiple and conflicting institutional logics at the level of the organization. Material from an ethnography conducted to get closer to the everyday reali-ties of owner-founders of MSEs in the design sector is presented. Participants’ accounts are ana-lyzed using four ideal-type institutional logics (corporation, market, community and profession). The analysis shows how these logics were localized which is then used to explain variation be-tween participants’ accounts. The study concludes with two typical types of variation or orienta-tions. These were venture-orientated and collaboration-orientated. This separation has an imme-diate use for helping to distinguish between different types of MSEs in the cultural industries, which are often labeled as ‘lifestyle businesses’. The wider contribution is that institutional logics perspective can be usefully employed to further explanation of how variation between MSEs emerges. This has relevance for practice and policy making as interventions, such as en-terprise education and training), could be personalized according to how institutional logics are localized within specific MSEs. This would also enable policy makers to target and cultivate different mixtures of firm types based on their orientations. Keywords: Institutional Logics, Organizational Design, Micro and Small Enterprises, Ethnogra-phy, Cultural industries.

19

EVALUATION ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION PROJECTS

Anne Gustafsson-Pesonen, [email protected] and Pertti Kiuru, [email protected]

Aalto University School of Economics Small Business Center

Aim of the paper The aim of the paper is to briefly describe the results of the evaluation research of

entrepreneurship education projects, later YKOONTI. The idea of YKOONTI is to gather up and evaluate the partly ESF-funded projects related to the theme of entrepreneurship education carried out in 2000-2010. The research problem during the YKOONTI is to evaluate qualitative and quantitative successes and permanent regional changes related in entrepreneurship educa-tion. The reason for the YKOONTI is to create a model and recommendations for linking entre-preneurship education to all school levels, to teacher training and to give recommendations for the future projects of entrepreneurship education. The far-reaching aim is to find new innovative entrepreneurial pedagogic for the use of teachers and educators. The distribution of the writers was: Anne Gustafsson-Pesonen works as the project manager and researcher and she has written the, introduction, frame of the research, collecting and analyzing the qualitative data and sum-mary of the paper. Pertti Kiuru has worked as the other researcher of the project and he has col-lected the quantitative research results presented in the paper.

Contribution to the literature The contribution of the study is based on the conducting of evaluation research on entrepreneurship education. The framework of questionnaire YKOONTI is based on the ideas presented by Alain Gibb (2005b) Entrepreneurial Behaviors, Attributes and Skills. Gibb has ear-lier (1993) said entrepreneurship education and whole term entrepreneurship should not be in schools business studies but entrepreneurship should be the ability to operate confidently in situ-ations of uncertainty. Several researchers sign these ideas (Young & Sexton 1997; Deakins & Freel 1998; Rae & Carswell 2001; Rae 2000; Rae & Carswell 2001; Rae 2004a, Rae 2004b, Politis 2005; Harrison & Leitch 2005; Diensberg 2008; Gibb 2005a, Fayolle 2007, Kyrö & Car-rier 2005; Diensberg 2008). The project evaluation is important. For example M. Q. Patton (1982, 1997, 2002, 2004; House 1993; House & Howe 1999; Raivola 2000a, 2000b; Keränen 2003, Keränen 1999; Mark, Henry & Junles 2000 ) have been said, if evaluation is not done, success cannot be distinguished from failure. If success or failure is not pointed out, we cannot learn from them, either. If the results are not evaluated and monitored accurately, it is difficult to achieve more wide-ranging support for the measures.

Methodology and methods The YKOONTI project is carried out from September 2010 to October 2012. The

data were collected a) a survey in the webropol environment in February-May 2011(whole study group was 1160 and N=471) and b) theme interviews on the phone (N = 72) in April-June 2011. The study population consisted of project players, target- and interest groups. Developing evalu-ation workshops there were three on March 2010, May 2011 and December 2012.

Results and implications We found the projects were help the participants fulfill the goals which are im-

portant talking entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial learning. Unfortunate it is still had to far contend with the same problems as previously. The real support that teaching staff needs for their work is still remain very low and on the other hand still among the teaching staff are people who see entrepreneurship education is too complicated and too time-consuming. The compilation and evaluation on entrepreneurship education projects still continues. The most cen-tral, preliminary results of the project are presented in NCSB2012.

20

ENTREPRENEURIAL TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM DEMOGRAPHY, PROCESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: AN INSTITUTIONAL EXPLANATION

- Jari Handelberg, Aalto University, School of Economics

Aim of the paper

Relationships have been identified between various aspects of top management teams and firm outcomes and performance, especially in high velocity venturing conditions. However, the findings regarding whether specific team aspects have positive or negative relationships with firm outcomes and performance have not been consistent. This study seeks to provide a more fine-grained framework for understanding the emergence of a specific business organization: the formation of top teams with specific demographies, resources, structures, and processes and the emergence and existence of specific relationships between team aspects and firm performance and growth. Since the emergence and formation of organizations with demographies, resources, structures, processes and their relationships always take place in specific social contexts (cf. Weick, 1995), it is important to identify and analyze the specific accumulated social/institutional conditions and settings where the organization and team and relationships between team aspects and firm performance and growth take place (i.e., to which social context specific organizations and relationships are related).


This study draws on institutional theory (and on the assumptions of scientific realism), which argues that for understanding organizations, performance, and relationships, it is im-portant to determine to which institutional/physical developmental condition the emergence, ex-istence, and meaningfulness of the phenomena, organizations and relationships studied are relat-ed and what is the position of the sample/population or case studied within this institution-al/physical development. The study hypothesizes how accumulated institutional conditions and developmental settings and the position of the sample/population studied therein provide further explanations for a specific organization and the emergence and existence (or non-emergence and non-existence) of the relationship between top team aspects and firm performance.


The starting point of this study was our prior survey, which did not find strong relation-ships between top management team demographies, processes, and firm performance and growth, although several contextual issues were included in the analysis in the sample represent-ing young, technology-based firms in Finland. A thematic and open-ended interview study was carried out in the same population and sample. The author conducted a total of 81 thematic open-ended, face-to-face in-depth interviews with top managers from 63 companies. The purpose of the study was to draw from institutional theory and explain in more depth the conditions that allow business organization and top management teams with specific demographies, resources, structures, and processes to emerge and develop and especially the emergence and existence of a link between team aspects and firm performance and growth as part of the development of the competitive environment and conditions.


The study suggests that institutional analysis may provide new insights into the process of organization and the emergence and existence of a link between top management team aspects and firm performance – and thus, of the link between the demographies, processes, and organiza-tional performance of top management teams. The implications for theory and practice are also discussed.

21

ENTREPRENEURIAL CHAIN MARKETING IN A RETAIL CHAIN Heidi Havumäki

Jyväskylän yliopisto [email protected]

The aim of the paper

Retail chain can be defined as a central unit and retail outlets which act according to the uniform chain concept (Kautto & Lindblom 2004, 2005). The aim of my study is, on grounds of marketing management and entrepreneurial literature as well interviews of the retailers to find out how much and how the retailers take part in the strategic decision making in the chain and how do they reveal entrepreneurial orientation in their actions. By doing that I try to define the concept of entrepreneurial chain marketing more specific and formulate a model of entrepreneurial chain marketing as a way to get competitive advantage. The aim of the paper is to describe the study process as well as some results. The research questions are as follows:

1) How do retailers run chain marketing in their retail units? 2) What is retailers' role in decision making on strategic and operative marketing questions ? 3) Can the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation be noticed in the actions of the

retailers. The research context is made up of retail chains with a uniform chain concept, but where the retailers own their retail stores.

Contribution to the literature . Kautto et al have studied the chain marketing phenomenon as a part of chain management, which can be seen as a part of strategic planning literature. In my study the chain marketing is also seen as a part of a chain management, but I examine this phenomenon from the point of view of the retailer while the point of view of Kautto et al is that of the organization The entrepreneurial orientation literature will be the theoretical background to study the entrepreneurial orientation of the retailers' (e.g Miller 1983,. Lumpkin & Dess, 1996, Morris et al 2002). The purpose is to create a framework for entrepreneurial chain marketing. The theoretical contribution will be the defining the concept of entrepreneurial chain marketing

Methodology My study takes qualitative abductive case study approach. The main empirical data has been collected by in-depth interviews of retailers and a couple of former chain leaders during the years 2007 -2011. The themes for the interviews have been formulated on the grounds of the theoretical background. The cases in my study are independent retailers and their marketing activities and decision making, eleven cases all together, which all represent small companies, ranging from little markets with under ten workers to hypermarkets with some 50 workers. The analyses of the data is still under process. The data will be processed using both cross case and within case analyses.

Results and implications The preliminary analyses of entrepreneurial orientation have revealed that all the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation can be found within the empirical material in some degree and that the intensity of the entrepreneurial orientation differs quite a lot between the retailers. It has also revealed that although the chain takes quite a lot of initiative in the strategic marketing decisions of the whole chain, the retailers still can make quite a lot of marketing decisions themselves. (concerning their own retail unit?) and can really affect the strategic lines of the chain by participating in the chains central units where there are representatives from both retailers and chain leaders. The practical contribution will be the development of competitive advantage of the retail chain and small companies. The educational contribution will be to promote entrepreneurial aspects in business education of the retailers.

22

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN GOLDEN YEARS – CREATIVE OPPORTUNITY OR NOT

Tomi Heimonen, Marja Närhi, Jussi Kauppi and Anne Gustafsson-Pesonen

School of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Small Business Centre, Aalto University

Aim of the paper

The aim of this paper is to increase understanding of older age entrepreneurship and policy op-portunities for supporting entrepreneurship in golden years. The study analyses older aged peo-ple (50+) thoughts to be self-employed and items influencing their choice and opportunities to start a business of their own. The following questions were upraised:

1) Why older people want to become entrepreneurs? 2) What kind of factors may influence on the opportunity recognition and exploitation when

the older people want to become entrepreneurs? 3) How in practice the older people entrepreneurship and start-up initiatives could be sup-

ported? Contribution to the literature

This paper contributes to the prior literature and empirical studies of older age people en-trepreneurship. Previous studies have upraised economic (Singh and DeNoble, 2003), individual characteristics and resources (Curran and Blackburn, 2001), psychological (McClelland, 1961; Rotter, 1966; MacPherson and Holt, 2007), socio-cultural (Ajzen, 1988) and societal elements (Kautonen et al., 2011; Kyrö et al., 2012) role in the process of being self-employed. Moreover, this paper examines factors that support and/or prevent start-up initiatives (Weber and Schaper, 2004), also performance (Peters, Storey and Cressy, 1999) and life-style aspects (Weber and Schaper, 2004) were included in the research design. Finally, the role of institutions, cultural in-fluence (Kyrö et al., 2012) and focus group thinking (Curran and Blackburn, 2001) where studied as a part of activities supporting older aged people entrepreneurship.


This study is an explorative research which utilizes a case of development project support-ing and developing older age entrepreneurship (Senior entrepreneurship SYTY 50+ -project). The purposive sampling strategy has been the main strategy to acquire the data (Miles and Hu-berman, 1994). The data is based on four thematic interviews of individual person who have tak-ing part of the project initiatives and actions. The content was analysed by using thematic con-structs that are based on the focus themes derived from prior theoretical backgrounds and empir-ical studies.


Results showed that there exist several reasons to be self-employed. Both pull and push factors have influenced motives and intentions to be self-employed. The role of innovation and growth as the main sources and competitive advantages of business opportunities seems to be very low. Secured and flexible self-employment is more important than providing jobs for other people. The building blocks of entrepreneurship in older age are life and work experience, longi-tudinally develop of know-how, personal networks, flexibility and current personal life situa-tions. Moreover, social aspects such as belonging to a community and opportunities to create and maintain social contacts were found to be important drivers of entrepreneurship in golden years. Economic gains are upraised but not in the sense of the most important item of motivation to be self-employed and/or start a business in older age.

23

GENDER IN FAMILY FIRMS: A LITERATURE REVIEW Jarna Heinonen & Ulla Hytti, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku

Aim of the paper Despite a growing interest on gender in new venture activity, gender is largely unexplored

in case family firms (Sonfield and Lussier, 2009). This may be linked to the unit of analysis – the family firm which is put at the heart of the research rather than the individuals. In the studies that investigate the individual, emphasis is placed on the owner-manager (Hamilton, 2006), even if family business research generally acknowledges the different roles an individual may occupy in the family business (business, ownership or family) (Taguiri and Davis, 1981). There is a need for a thorough literature review to explore and outline how gender issues are tackled within fami-ly business research.

Contribution to the literature There have been methodological calls within family business research to investigate the

complex and interconnected relationships between the family, individual members and the busi-ness (Habbershon, Williams and MacMillan, 2003). This study focuses one particular aspect – of gender – that needs to be further investigated. By highlighting the existing focus on gender in family business research we are able to suggest gaps and areas for further research in the area. By analysing questions about gender we are able to discuss the division of roles and responsibili-ties in the household and the business, and related decision-making process.


The research material is conducted by analyzing all “family business” (or “family firm”) articles published in major entrepreneurship journals between the years 2000 and 2011 (Entre-preneurship: Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Venturing, International Small Business Journal, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Small Business Economics, Journal of Small Business Management, and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal). This list was adopted from the Grade Four and Three Journals in the most recent ABS (Association of Business School) Academic Journal Quality Guide. Then all the family business articles identified were screened against our propositions. This process resulted in 170 articles identified of which 44 articles included at least some information on gender. In the analysis, the particular strategy to-wards gender and the main results of the study were recorded. This process was split between two researchers. In the next phase the review will be extended to cover also “Family Business Review” (Grade Two) due to its specific focus in family businesses.

Results and implications The contribution of the study is to demonstrate how gender is included in family business

studies. We identify that most of the studies give no information on the gender. Implicitly those studies focuses only or primarily on men and the women are invisible in the studies (Hamilton, 2006). The minority of the studies addressing gender either explicitly or implicitly are informa-tive on the different strategies applied in the family business research. Gender is applied as a characteristic (variable) when some differences and similarities between women and men family business owner-managers with regard to their firm performance are reported (Vega, 1999; Son-field and Lussier, 2005). Only a few studies assume a gender as a process approach by analyzing the complexities of the dynamics of family business and a deeper understanding of the role of women (Hamilton, 2006; Lewis & Massey, 2011). Accordingly, we are able to outline the re-search gaps and suggest further avenues for family research and gender studies. Our findings support Sarasvathy’s (2004) suggestion of explicitly researching the individual and the firm also in family business research. We argue that family business research faces methodological prob-lems of focusing primarily on firms with male owner-managers as informants and the gendered processes as well as the core of family business research, i.e. the notion of familiness, are ne-glected.

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1 Capital Cooling Ltd – A Case study of perceptions of the contributions to growth and critical success factors of carbon footprint measurement

Lowellyne James, George Stonehouse, Eleni Theodoraki, Edinburgh Napier Business School, Maneesh Kumar, Cardiff Business School

Aim of the paper This paper explores perceptions of the critical success factors in the adoption of Sustaina-

bility tools such as the carbon footprint and its contribution to SME growth. The importance of Sustainability Footprints is fuelled by the enactment of legislation by governments concerning greenhouse gas emissions (United States Environmental Protection Agency 2009). Emerging sustainability philosophy has influenced the development of reporting schemes that use sustaina-bility footprint as indicators of effective environmental and social governance (McKinsey 2009). Sustainability Footprints comprise the use of carbon footprint, water footprint, ecological foot-print and the emerging concept of social footprints to evaluate the present non-financial conse-quences and future risk implications of strategic decisions (Lash and Wellington, 2007) (Hog-gart, 2008) (Gell, 2008) (McElroy et al., 2008).

Contribution to the literature Prior studies into the use of sustainability footprint tools have focused on its adoption by

listed companies with limited research into its use within the SME sector SMEs (Carbon Disclo-sure Project, 2010) (FTSE Carbon Disclosure Project Index, 2010). Critically firms are unable to quantify the benefits of adopting sustainability footprint tools such as the carbon footprint (De-mos 2006) when compared to the cost of the undertaking which in most cases is prohibitive ex-cept for firms with near monopolistic profits (Hicks, 2010). Despite considerable investment by organisations in terms of both financial resources and non-financial resources such as manage-ment time in footprint measurement for reporting indices such as the Global Reporting Index it provides no indication of an organisation’s state of sustainability (Gray and Bebbington 2005). This inability of sustainability footprint measurement tools to determine an organisation’s state of sustainability or incorporate views of future generations is due to the historical nature of the data (Holland 2003)

Methodology and methods Using data collected from semi-structured interviews (Ellram 1996) (Yin 2003) with man-

agement and employees of Capital Cooling Ltd, perceptions of sustainability footprint strategy are explored in four key areas Innovation Impact, Cost Impact, Environmental Impact and Stake-holder Impact. With triangulation of secondary data such as Corporate Greenhouse Gas Reports and Environmental Reports being used to corroborate whether the perceptions of Sustainability Footprint methodology are borne by the reality of its contribution to overall strategic success (Forman 2006) (Seuring 2008) (Oliver 2004) (Murillo and Lozano, 2006; Arenas et. al., 2009; Amaratunga et. al., 2001).

Results and implications Results of this case study indicate that sustainability footprint measurement was adopted by the firm for the following eight reasons legal, leadership, pre-empt future taxation, benchmarking, to be green, cost reduction, corporate responsibility and policy forming part of the organisation’s continuous improvement ethos. Overall interviewees perceive sustainability footprint measure-ment as a good investment that creates value. However the adoption of sustainability footprint tools is perceived as being costly and is an area which policy makers can assist by creating a fair competitive marketplace, provide incentives such as grants, tax relief, training, guidance and enforcement. This research highlights opportunities for both managers and policy makers to in-fluence perceptions of sustainability footprint tools within SMEs through communication, train-ing and incentives.

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YES SOUTH-SAVO’S PRACTICES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

Maisa Kantanen Aalto University School of Economics, Small Business Centre,

The aim of this paper is to present YES South-Savo as part of YES Network and the practices

and methods which are used in our region. The paper will present the YES South-Savo’s opera-tion model and some cases where entrepreneurship education is connecting with the contents of teaching and curricula.

YES South-Savo is part of Finnish network force in entrepreneurship education. YES Net-work includes almost 20 regional offices in different part of Finland. Aalto University Small Business Center coordinates YES South-Savo and is also part of YES Metropoli (Helsinki dis-trict). YES South-Savo offers concrete entrepreneurship education services from the pre-primary level up to higher education and creates networks between different educational institutions and enterprises. The two most important services are organizing local entrepreneurship education trainings and events for teachers and enhancing school-business co-operation which is done mostly with local entrepreneurs.

In our operation model we are trying to get contacts to every school, so we could have possi-bilities to achieve every teacher at least once and offer them help to use entrepreneurship educa-tion as part of their daily job. Schools that get interested in entrepreneurship education can get more training for teachers and help to create their own projects of entrepreneurship education. This is usually done together with local SMEs. The purpose of this work is to accomplish schools’ own operation models for entrepreneurship education so that it will be seen as an im-portant part of schools functions and every day work as well as surrounding society. The goal is to create wide variety of purposeful ways to implement entrepreneurship education in the best possible manner for each school.

This paper contributes to the prior literature of entrepreneurship (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000; Rae 2011), entrepreneurship education (Gibb, 2005; Kyrö, 2005; Carrier, 2005; Lehtonen 2010; Remes 2003), where it gets it background and basic thoughts. This paper takes into account factors that are in context with entrepreneurial learning (Rae 2000; 2004) and learning evaluation (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2006).

This paper is a case study. Study is descriptive and it analyses this project and the phenome-non behind it. The phenomenon is studied holistically. The data has been gathered for example through interviews of teachers who have been taking part of this project or our former entrepre-neurship education projects. We have also used observation, different kind of feedback surveys and previous evaluation studies of our former projects. There are also some elements from action research, like the continuing reflection of the project and sometimes active participation. The analysing of data is still in process. The purpose of this case study is to represent the situation as it is now and find out what would be important to look at more extensively in future actions and projects.

We have created the operation model for YES South-Savo and have put it into operation. There have been many cases with schools where we have developed the practices of entrepre-neurship education and the contents of teaching and curricula. In this paper I will represent one example, village school of Ihastjärvi, where we carry out “Week of Entrepreneurship Education” –project in spring 2012. The actual results from the study are yet to come, but as an implication, we are already getting signals that the holistic view of entrepreneurship education and broad ranging operation model will have positive effects in schools.

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Determinants for the Application decision for Innovation Subsidies Detlef Keese, Ralf Philipp, Niclas Rüffer

University of Mannheim Aim of the paper and contribution to the literature

Theoretical rationales in favour of a strategy to promote private R&D projects are undisputed. A large literature on market failures causing underinvestment in R&D and Innovation has devel-oped and was complemented by a literature on Innovation Systems that discusses system failures as a rationale of political actions. The practical implications remain less clear. The discussion has evolved around the question of whether in a real world setting subsidies can enhance business R&D or if they crowd out private investment. Recent studies usually take a selection bias into account. The source of a possible selection bias, the allocation process of subsidy programs, has been largely ignored by the literature. There are only few papers on the allocation process. Identifying and discussing the incentives of firms, politicians and bureaucrats involved and eval-uating the outcomes of different methods of allocation is in our view essential for the design and effectiveness of future subsidy programs. In our view the question of whether public funds crowd out private investment depends crucially on the allocation process. In Rüffer and Keese (2011) we discuss the allocation processes of R&D promotion programs theoretically using a framework by Heckman and Smith (2004) decompose the steps political promotion programs have to go through into Eligibility, Awareness, Application, Acceptance and Enrolment. The aim of this paper is to analyze the steps Awareness and Application theoretically and empirically.

Methodology We develop hypotheses regarding the determinants of the Application decision and test them with a data set consisting of all applications for an R&D promotion program for small firms (with up to 100 employees) in South-West Germany (“Innovation Vouchers”). The data were matched with data on the basic firm population and with data on the regional socio-economic structure. Furthermore, data on the information efforts of the administrative agency in charge of the program were used. The likelihood of applying for a subsidy was used as the dependent vari-able in several logistic regression models.

Results and implications Firms from the fields of mining and agriculture as well as those from the manufacturing sector have a significantly higher probability of applying than firms from the field of company-related services while firms from other services and those from the construction sector have a signifi-cantly lower probability. Furthermore regarding the size of the firms applying we find that the larger the firms are the higher the likelihood to apply. A regional innovativeness index, however, has a highly significant positive influence on the likelihood of application while firms from areas within which the innovation index is growing have a lower probability of applying. The promo-tion events per district seem to have no influence on the likelihood of applications from the dis-trict. Policy makers and bureaucracies in charge of the program under examination need to be clear of the self-selection processes that take place within the program and that are partly revealed in our paper. The scheme seems to be much more interesting for companies from the manufacturing sector than e.g. for companies from the construction sector and for companies from highly inno-vative areas in comparison with firms from such regions with lower innovation activities. Revealing the self-selection and active targeting processes in subsidy programs can lead to a deeper understanding of the effects of promotion programs. An R&D subsidy that is open to all companies in all areas does not necessarily equally promote innovation in all sectors and areas.

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WE SHOULD HAVE DONE IT DIFFERENTLY” – SME INTERNATIONALIZATION IN RETROSPECT

Mari Ketolainen, University of Turku School of Economics, [email protected] Taina Eriksson, University of Turku School of Economics, [email protected]

Aim of the paper

This study, which initiated from an empirical observation, focuses on the issue of rapid and intensive entry to international markets from the perspective of an SME that already has accumu-lated international experience in its past operations. The aim of the study is to analyze the real-ized internationalization of the SME and discuss different theoretical approaches to international-ization in retrospect.


The study questions the suitability of rapid internationalization models for smaller manu-facturing firms. Therefore it is an attempt to shed light on the feasibility of the new international-ization models, through showing some gaps in our knowledge with regard to their basic assump-tions. Additionally, this study has striven for reminding scholars of the viability of traditional approaches to internationalization, which seem to be forgotten after the emergence of the new models.


This is a qualitative single-case study that utilizes primary interview data and secondary data. The study was in fact inspired by the interview data. In the qualitative analysis the tran-scribed interview data and the secondary documents were coded for themes. Through the qualita-tive data this study analyses the internationalization of the case company retrospectively.


The empirical data indicates that the case SME was not able to benefit from its previous in-ternational experience to successfully implement rapid internationalization with the novel busi-ness concept. Although previous literature strongly emphasizes the significance of managers’ international outlook and international experience as success factors for rapid and extensive in-ternational entry, this study shows that these are not always sufficient for succeeding in rapid internationalization. It is crucial to consider the relevance of the managers’ international experi-ence; some aspects may be relevant regardless of the context, yet many aspects are context-specific.

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Myths of value-creation in entrepreneurship studies: patent strategies, societal disbenefits and an illustration from the energy sector

Dr Rita Klapper, Associate Professor, Rouen Business School, France. [email protected] Dr Paul Upham, University Senior Research Fellow, University of Leeds and Visiting Professor,

Finnish Environment Institute. [email protected] The ongoing global financial and economic requires different ways of thinking, different ways of acting and different ways of doing capitalism. A key feature of contemporary capitalism is the role of multinational corporation (MNC) in economic growth and wealth creation, and to a lesser extent the small firm. Critical voices such as Patel & Zavodov (2010: 95) observe that the glob-alisation, that is in turn an intrinsic attribute of the MNC, offers not only ‘an extension of oppor-tunities from the national to the world level’, but also presents numerous challenges to existing economic, social and political systems and reduces the ability of different stakeholders to inno-vate single-handedly in certain key areas.

This paper takes a critical perspective of what we describe as the myth of value creation through innovation, as realised through patenting and illustrated with respect to ‘clean’ energy technology, specifically biofuels. Theoretically, we connect the Schumpeterian logic of Creative Accumulation and Creative Destruction to Bruyat’s entrepreneurial value theory and Gartner’s four variable model of the entrepreneur, focusing particularly on the small-large firm relationship. We argue that entrepreneurial value creation, in particular in times of economic crisis, and as en-visaged by Bruyat (1993) and Bruyat & Julien (2001), may be substantially impeded by contem-porary strategies such as patent hoarding, patent stacking and the inherent creation of knowledge transfer barriers by multinationals. We argue that creative accumulation based on multinationals’ market and purchasing power may thus impede societal recovery and hence well-being, particu-larly vital in times of economic and financial crisis. We draw in detail on supporting theory and illustrate the thesis with discussion of alternative scenarios for knowledge flows in the biofuel sector.

Aims To construct a conceptual challenge to the myth that there is necessarily a positive asso-

ciation between innovation, patent filing and societal benefit through value creation. To draw on Schumpter’s later thesis of creative accumulation tending towards the stultifying effects of trusti-fied capitalism, as a challenge to assumptions of innovation dynamics. To illustrate this through use of secondary material relating to the biofuel sector, as a precursor to further, primary data analysis. To lay the theoretical groundwork for empirical investigation.

Contribution Rather than taking a generalised view of the merits of MNCs in comparison with small

business, the stance taken here is that the current and future challenges in the global economy are best solved in part through a better understanding of the multinationals’ and small business’ re-spective value creation contribution to society in terms of Schumpeter’s creative destruction and creative accumulation, both of which are multidimensional and non-exclusive concepts (Filippetti et al, 2009). To date, aside from Filippetti et al (ibid) there has been little work on conceptualising the link between multinationals and small business, innovation and Schumpeterian logic (the latter developed from similar ideas proposed by Marx and Engels, 1848/2002). We take a critical per-spective of the myth of value creation through innovation, reflected in multinationals’ patenting

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by connecting Schumpeterian logic of Creative Accumulation (CA) and Creative Destruction (CD) to Bruyat’s entrepreneurial value theory and Gartner’s four variable model. We specifically address the issue of what we term ‘value hoarding’ by MNCs, particularly in terms of innovation and patent acquisition. We propose a conceptual model, illustrated by the case of biofuel technol-ogy, in which MNCs frustrate or thwart the process of creative destruction by entrepreneurial market entrants (Schumpeter, 1942). While we thus, to some extent, challenge a central tenet of Schumpeterian thought, we also acknowledge that Schumpeter was well aware of the capacity for market power to stymie innovation, reflected in his (1942) notion of ‘trustified capitalism’.

Methodology The paper is primarily conceptual and draws on secondary material to illustrate the thesis

and its implications. Results and implications

The structure of the paper is as follows: after an introduction we review relevant literature on the small-large firm relationship and discuss the Schumpeterian concepts of Creative Destruc-tion (CD) and Creative Accumulation (CA) and their relevance to innovation. In part two we crit-ically investigate the myth of value creation by proposing a model that is based on Bruyat (1993) and Bruyat and Julien’s (2001) conceptualisation of entrepreneurship as value creation. The latter followed Gartner’s (1985) four variable model of the entrepreneur, the organisation, the process of firm creation and his/her interactions with the environment, which allows the researchers to build a complete picture of the firm development (Anderson et al. 2007). In part three we develop propositions arising out of the theoretical framework and in part four we apply our theoretical model to the ‘clean’ energy sector, particularly biofuels. Part five concludes and points to future avenues for primary empirical investigation.

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Business Network Relationships and Impact in the Internationalization Process of African SMEs – The Case of the Ghanaian Clothing and Textile Industry

Irene Kujala Äbo Akademi University , Turku Email:[email protected],

Address: Kangenmiekantie 14, 21310, Vahto- Rusko

Abstract The objective of the study is ‘To develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of network development and the impact of network relationships on SMEs internationalization process in a Ghanaian clothing and Textile industry context’. The Research Questions guiding the objective are as follows: 1. How can we understand SME internationalization from developing markets by using the business network approach? 2. How have the focal network relationships of the stud-ied Ghanaian clothing and textile SME developed over time and how have they impacted the firm’s Internationalization Process? 3. What critical events have shaped the Internationalization process of the studied SME? 4. What are the theoretical, managerial and policy implications for developing international business of SME firms in developing markets? This study by concentrating on business networks contributes to the network literature by providing a theoretical and empirical understanding of a network development process and the impact of network relationships in an African context.By focusing on SMEs, this study contributes to the advancement of SME internationalization research by providing rare empirical insight and empirical examination of SME internationalization in an African market context and in a setting where SMEs are internationalizing from a developing economy to developed market economy. Methodologically, the study contributes by providing a description, analysis and use of a longitudinal process for studying this new area of research. Methodologically, the research design is based on a single case study approach and the research process follows the logic of abduction. Accordingly the worldview of this study is constructionist. It is a longitudinal research process involving a retrospective historical reconstruction of data and event follow up analysis which covers a period of time from 2002-2013. The expected conclusions and results from this study may also benefit the policy makers and practitioners within the industry. In a managerial context, the study may provide insight for SMEs practitioners within the Ghanaian region on how to enhance, manage network involvement and use business network to lock into global business. For policy makers, it may provide insight if they are to assess / opt for competitive policies to help promote trade with and in Ghana. For researcher; may be useful for generating new ideas, discover relevant research issues, facilitate comparisons etc. Keywords: Business Networks, relationships, SMEs, Internationalization, Africa

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Comparative morphogenetic study on the structure - agency interplay of en-trepreneurship education in Egypt and Finland

Paula Kyrö, Aalto University School of Economics Agnieszka Kurczewska, University of Lodz

Amal Abbas, Cairo University

Mole et Mole (2010) argue that entrepreneurship should focus on the interplay between the

structures of a society and the agents within it. For Archer (1995, 2003) to analyse such interrela-

tions it is useful to understand structure and agency as independent, because it makes it possible

to analyse the interrelations between the two sides. Since this analytical dualism - a separation

between agency and structure allows us to cross culturally investigate interplay between struc-

ture and agency in entrepreneurship education that is the reciprocity nature of society, its educa-

tional system and the understanding of individual students, we follow Archer’s approach. By

adopting Archer’s morphogenetic theory (1995, 2003) the paper tries to deepen comprehension

on how students’ understanding of entrepreneurship education varies in two different cultural

settings. To achieve that aim we first follow both societies with their educational institutions

(structure) and try to indicate the role of entrepreneurship education. Then we investigate agents’

response to existing structures that is individual students’ understanding of entrepreneurship. The

study is comparative in focus. By applying etic-emic approach of Brislin (1976), we compare

two societies and educational systems, of Finland and Egypt, and analyse Finish and Egyptian

students’ views on entrepreneurship in order to study dynamics of the interplay between society,

educational system and individual students’ understanding of entrepreneurship. Data on students’

understanding of entrepreneurship were collected at two major universities, one in Finland (Aal-

to University) and one in Egypt (Cairo University).

Key words: structure and agency, entrepreneurship education, cross-national comparative study;

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TOWARDS FUTURE UNIVERSITY BY INTEGRATING ENTREPRENEURIAL AND THE THIRD GENERATION UNIVERSITY CONCEPTS – CASE AALTO UNIVERSITY FROM

FINLAND

Paula Kyrö, Aalto University, School of Economics Johanna Mattila, Lappeenranta University of Technology, School of Business

Aim of the paper This paper focuses on analyzing the two interrelating concepts of the entrepreneurial university and the third (3rd) generation university. We argue that by understanding their similarities and differences we can learn to develop the practices of future universities. By indentifying the key factors in this process this paper also investigates how the development of Aalto University re-flect the potentials of “entrepreneurial 3rd generation university”. We believe that adopting en-trepreneurship in university transitions is not only related to the understanding of entrepreneur-ship but also related to the institutional and structural changes as well as the interplay between strategy, curriculum, pedagogy and teaching. The aim is to make sense of the differences in how entrepreneurship is understood or adopted in research of entrepreneurial university and conse-quently in university practices.

Contribution to the literature According to Etzkowitz (2004) the second academic revolution, integrating a mission for eco-nomic and social development is transforming the traditional teaching and research centred uni-versity into an entrepreneurial university. Wissema (2009) on the other hand approaches the cur-rent transformation through the concept of the 3rd generation university. According to Wissema the universities are changing in a fundamental way due to the increasing competition of funding, students and academics as well as government demands for technology based economic growth. In this paper entrepreneurship and change/transformation are conceptually seen as inherently tied together. The concept of 3rd generation university and entrepreneurial university both strive to understand the fundamental changes of the higher education institutes by adopting the concept of entrepreneurship as a catalyst and driving force for the university transition. However, even they share this ambition, we argue that they still have some fundamental differences in their premises and focus that need to be reflected in order to better understand the problems and opportunities universities meet in adopting entrepreneurship in the current transition.

Methodology and methods Our theoretical comparison is followed by a single case study in the Finnish context by using Aalto University as a case. It has been openly stated that the case organization's transformation is aiming at creating a more innovative and entrepreneurial university. The data for the single case study has been gathered through participant observation, group interviews and document analy-sis by two researchers. The data has been collected upon a period of time 2009-2010 and the analysis has continued throughout the year 2011. We report our results according to our theoreti-cal frame of reference and then in conclusions summarize our analytical generalization based on the interplay between our theoretical frame and empirical findings.

Results and implications According to our findings both concepts value the research as a key component of the fu-

ture university. 3rd generation university sees the research as a source of innovations to be com-mercialized. Entrepreneurial university on the other hand is based on the research as the human core of education for innovative people with entrepreneurial mindset. Entrepreneurial university appreciates entrepreneurship research and entrepreneurship education not just education of future entrepreneurs. 3rd generation university includes entrepreneurship in the curriculum whereas the entrepreneurial university is concerned about how to teach and learn entrepreneurship in an en-trepreneurial way. Aalto University can be seen as an example of the future university being transformed in the transition period at hand. The case study shows the possibilities to develop Aalto University towards either of the concepts.

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DO FAMILY FIRMS AND NON-FAMILY FIRMS DIFFER IN INVESTING?

Evidence on Finnish SMEs

Jaana Lappalainen University of Eastern Finland [email protected]

Aim of the paper The aim of this study is to examine whether family firms and non-family firms differ in invest-ment behaviour. More precisely, I investigate whether family ownership has an impact on whether a firm rejects investments or not, and whether family ownership has an influence on the amount of investment.

Contribution to the literature My findings contribute to the current literature by adding understanding on the relationship be-tween family ownership and investment behavior in small and medium-sized private family and non-family firms.

Methodology Because of the quantitative nature of the data, I use panel data estimation models in this study.

Results and implications My results suggest that family firms and firms with higher family ownership are less likely to pass up an investment than non-family firms do. Furthermore, although family ownership has a negative influence on the rejection of investments, family ownership does not have any signifi-cant impact on the amount of invested. These results could imply that when firms have made investment decision, ownership of family does not decrease or increase the amount of invest-ment.

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INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SMALL FINNISH FOOD COMPANIES THROUGH EVENT MARKETING

Ulla Lehtinen1, Julia Puente, Petri Ahokangas

University of Oulu, Oulu Business School, Department of Management and International Busi-

ness, Box 4600, 90014 University of Oulu 1 Corresponding author: [email protected], phone +358 8 553 2926

Aim of the paper This paper aims to provide a better understanding for small companies in the food sector to de-velop their internationalization effort through event marketing. The main research question of the study is: What is the role of event marketing in the internationalization of small food companies? The theoretical background combines the export development process with the role of event marketing that creates the framework for the study. The empirical study consists of interviews that highlight internationalization through event marketing covering the following themes: Barri-ers to internationalization, the role of Christmas markets as event marketing and support needed for event marketing.

Contribution to the literature According to Allen et al. (2005) events are celebrations of special occasions that are planned to accomplish determined objectives. We highlight that event marketing is an export development tool (Wilkinson and Brouthers, 2006; Evers and Knight, 2008) that support the process in a sense that a gradual involvement in internationalization can be achieved by participating in different types of events. In the paper, the relationship between event marketing and export development process is presented in a matrix that combines the different export development stages (Leonidou and Katsikeas, 1996) with the types of events that can be used in each phase.

Methodology and methods The study is an object of a qualitative analysis which helps to answer the research question. Christmas markets in Germany are the specific type of events chosen for the empirical study. The primary data collected originates from the answers obtained from the semi-structured inter-viewees carried out in the spring 2011. The five respondents of the interviews represent five small food companies with some experience from using event marketing. Secondary data was obtained from Internet visiting the web paged for food SMEs involved in event marketing, and of the tourist offices, documents published online, statistics accessible online, books, and journal articles.

Results and implications The study contributes to the knowledge on the role of event marketing in the export development process of small companies. The paper provides a basis for exploring the role of event marketing in the small firm internationalization. The results indicate that event marketing has the advantage of being a sales tool that combines different promotion activities in a single place and in that sense results in cost effective. The identified goals of the companies for participating in events can be expressed as increasing sales, promoting the company and the products, and networking. For an event marketing project the support from funding institutions and regional public entities are needed.

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FARMERS AND RESTAURANTS – AN OPEN INNOVATION APPROACH TO THE FOOD VALUE CHAIN

Elisabeth Ljunggren & Ingrid Roaldsen, [email protected] Nordland Research Institute, N-8049 Bodø, Norway

Aim of the paper The Nordic cuisine has become the eye of attention of restaurants and cafés as well as food con-sumers. Within the tourism- and service industry, the meal-time and food offered at the tourist destination by local restaurants and cafés play an important part in providing the tourist the total experience of the destination in question. In addition, this is the intersection of the young and emerging experience industry and the mature food industry struggling to overcome the obstacles of the agro-co-operatives in Norway with little or no contact between the food producers and the customers (i.e. the restaurants). The aim of the present paper is to explore innovation processes (models) in the food value chain with an emphasis on the contact and knowledge exchange be-tween the producers of vegetables and berries, representing the mature part of the industry, and the restaurants being part of the experience-based tourism industry, representing the emerging part of the industry. More precisely the research question under scrutiny is: How is innovation carried out in the food value chain, more specific in the intersection of the mature food produc-ing industry and the emerging experience industry, i.e. restaurants?

Contribution to the literature Our paper contributes to the growing body of literature on innovation, more precisely the notion on open innovation. With regard to the food value chain struggling to overcome obstacles hall-marking the mature food industry, the use of the open innovation concept enables the SMEs in question to treat intellectual property as a new kind of assets. To date, open innovation has pri-marily been studied in large, high-tech, multinational enterprises (Van de Vrande et al., 2009), and the question on whether this is a concept applicable also for low tech or mature industries remains to be answered (Chesbrough, 2006). This study addresses this gap of knowledge by fo-cusing on SMEs in a common value chain which represents both a mature and a young industry context. Early work in the field indicates that SMEs do adopt to open innovation practices pri-marily for market-related purposes (Vrande et al., 2009).

Methodology and methods Case studies were chosen as the research design of our study. We applied a theoretical sampling frame consisting of producers with different degrees of innovation together with the three inno-vative restaurants. Data was gathered during two 5 hours focus group interviews between differ-ent actors (8-9 participants each time) in the food value chain. The data from the meetings where audio-recorded and transcribed afterwards, and a résumé was sent to the participants. In addition we conducted in-depth telephone interviews with one farmer and one restaurant ca. 8 weeks after the meeting took place. The data where analyzed by using the computer-based software Nvivo, for generating analytical categories.

Results and implications The findings of our exploratory study indicate that the paradigm of open innovation may prove fruitful when investigating smaller firms in a low-tech mature industry setting. In the food value chain both the producers of high quality local berries and vegetables, and the restaurants offering the tourists a menu to supplement their total experience of the high north, agreed upon the de-mand side of the value chain being satisfactory, underlining that there are always room for more producers. With regard to the distribution side of the value chain, the situation is not ideal with a system not developed to maintain quality dimensions of an abstract character such as geographic origin.

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FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUCCESS MEASURED BY TWO DIMENSIONS OR MULTI DIMENSIONS IN MICRO STARTUP FIRMS

Marika Miettinen. Researcher, University of Eastern Finland, Department of Business, P.O Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland, [email protected]

Hannu Littunen, Professor at the University of Eastern Finland, Department of Health and Social Management, P.O Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland, [email protected]

Generally the success studies have used two dimensional performance models (success vs. fail-ure). However, it has been shown that the predictors of performance vary depending on whether we use two leveled or multileveled performance (Cooper, Gimeno-Gascon, and Woo, 1994; Dahlqvist, Davidsson, and Wiklund, 2000). Literature of multileveled success research has re-mained very scarce. Especially the relationship between different factors and success measured by creditworthiness is unknown. Our objective is to contribute to small business research by providing a more comprehensive understanding of the success (credit worthiness) in multileveled performance for genuinely new ventures. This paper investigates potential success of start-up small firms with Finnish data. The data has been collected at establishment time. We employ variables that investigate the type of funding used, background of the entrepreneur and other non-accounting variables of the firm. To generate a two dimensional success model, we apply logistic regression model, whereas for mul-tidimensional success model we apply ordinal (logit) regression model. For ordinal regression we apply both three dimensional and six dimensional success. In the latter case, the method iden-tifies the factors distinguishing the five survival (in terms of credit risk) categories and the failure category. We find that the contribution of the variables differs if the performance is measured on more than two dimensions in our sample. The models showed that there are more differences than sim-ilarities between the models. An increase in equity investments by the owners, and increase in loan amount increases the likelihood of success as well as multidimensional success i.e. it de-creases the credit risk of the firms. Age of the founder, gender, business experience, education and wheatear the firm was founded by a team were only statistically significant in the multidi-mensional models. In addition, the variable Employment status has different outcomes in the models. In the two-dimensional model a person who was unemployed before starting a firm has a higher probability of success. In contrast, in the six dimensional model firms which are lead by persons who were working before starting a firm have a higher likelihood of being part of a bet-ter credit risk category. As a conclusion we can say that modelling multileveled performance needs more indicators overall to indicate the different levels. The analysis and the results obtained can be useful to financial institutions, prospective entrepre-neurs, investors, auditors, academics, and policy makers. If the lenders’ ability to predict small business success improves, it may encourage them finance more relatively opaque and risky small firms at start-up stages. Moreover, the findings may steer a new venture’s to create the preconditions for successful firm development.

37

Do Less Regulated Markets Attract Lower Quality Firms? Evidence from the London AIM Market

Ulf Nielsson, Copenhagen Business School Aim of the paper

This paper examines whether less regulated markets are at a disadvantage in attracting high quality firms. In particular, the paper investigates whether newly established and relatively less regulated capital markets – which often are viewed to offer less attractive listing environments than e.g. more reputable U.S. stock markets – primarily cater to lower quality firms? The focal point of the study will be on a market segment named the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), which is a London based growth market governed by the London Stock Exchange that primarily attracts small and newly established firms. Another key distinctive feature of AIM is its relative-ly light touch on regulation and listing requirements. The study compares the AIM market with leading stock markets in the U.S. and continental Europe and analyses how firm quality (profita-bility, growth, leverage, etc.) differs across various listing venues.

Contribution to the literature There is evidence that the relative standing of U.S. capital markets has weakened over as

other listing venues have become more competitive (Piotroski and Srinivasaan, 2007; Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, 2006; Marosi and Massoud, 2008; Fernandes and Giannetti, 2010; De Nicoló et al, 2008;Zingales, 2006). However, in a recent paper Doidge et al. (2009) argue that it is not the relative attractiveness of the U.S. market that has decreased, but rather the customer pool is different. The implication is that the success of other exchanges (such as AIM) is explained by their ability to attract specific firm types (primarily small firms) that would not have chosen to list in the U.S. anyway. In contrast to this, the key contribution of this paper is to show that the AIM market performs at least as well – or even better – than other markets. In par-ticular, after controlling for size, the firms listing on AIM are not systematically different than those listing in U.S. or continental Europe markets.

Methodology and methods The paper investigates whether less stringent admission criteria on AIM is reflected in i) the

firm quality (profitability, growth, leverage, etc.) of listed firms, ii) the delisting choice of firms, iii) the valuation premium (Tobin’s q) associated with exchange listing and iv) the amount of capital firms manage to raise. For this purpose the study employs annual firm-, exchange- and country level data. The sample period used in the analysis is 1995-2009 and the study includes firms listed on NASDAQ, NYSE, London Stock Exchange, Euronext and Deutsche Börse, as well as for private (non-listed) firms. This data is quantitatively analysed using multivariate re-gression techniques, such as a standard multinomial logit analysis.

Results and implications The paper finds that firms listing on AIM are of no lower quality than similar sized firms that

choose to list in the U.S. or in continental Europe. Also, the proportion of delistings from AIM which can be classified as failures is comparable to the involuntary exit rate at other exchanges. AIM listed firms also tend to have a relatively higher valuation premium than firms listing else-where and raise relatively more capital. Hence, the AIM market manages to capture an important and profitable clientele (albeit smaller in size), which defies the notion that a strict regulation environment is necessary to facilitate stock market prosperity.

38

Entrepreneurship against all odds: tool to create social cohesion, inclusion and jobs

Charlotte Norrman, Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, [email protected] (Corresponding)

Christer Johansson, Linköping University, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, [email protected]

Aim of the paper

Large sums have during the recent years been allocated towards the European Social Fund (ESF) goals of job creation, inclusion and social cohesion. Entrepreneurship has been launched as im-portant tool for ESF-projects to reach the desired outcomes. The aim of this paper concerns en-trepreneurship and is divided into following four questions; (1) Is the entrepreneurship stated to be present, really present in the context of the investigated ESF programs (2) How it is constitut-ed and, (3) by whom it is carried out. (4) If entrepreneurship is detected, does it really leads to social cohesion, inclusion and an increased number of jobs.

Contribution to the literature The paper takes its departure in the entrepreneurship litterature, e.g. Schumpeter (1934) and then takes in different perspectives coupled to the characteristics of the entrepreneur, to the entrepre-neurial process, and to the results of entrepreneurship (Davidsson 2003). We also make central distinction between commercial and social entrepreneurship (Austin, et al., 2006), and necessity- and opportunity driven entrepreneurship (Reynolds, et al., 2002). This is then combined with literature on labor, unemployment, social exclusion and cohesion.

Methodology This study takes a national perspective and is based on a sample of 8 ESF-projects located all over Sweden. The data comprises interviews with all project managers and a survey to 101 re-spondents in five projects. For one project, in-depth interviews in the form of “life stories” were conducted with seven individuals in the project target group.

Results and Implications The findings show that there was entrepreneurship present, if a wide definition is applied, in most of the projects studied, however, this issue is complex. We also found that the entrepre-neurship was differently constituted and carried. With the exception of two projects, we found that that the entrepreneurship never spilled down to the project participants – instead it was car-ried by the project management. The project participants were employed in new generic ven-tures, and in social ventures. Those who started generic ventures were rather close to the labour market, while those within the social ventures resided in deeper social exclusion stages. In these cases the entrepreneurship was carried out by the project managers. Entrepreneurship works as tool to fight social exclusion and for the creation of jobs and cohesion. Both jobs and inclusion were created, but it was temporary and thereby not sustainable on its own merits. I.e. it cannot be reached without a continuous support or through new projects to continue were earlier projects are winded up. To create sustainability, policy decisions and statements on a central level is needed along with regional stakeholder commitment.

39

FAMILY FARM DIVERSIFICATION FROM THE STRATEGIC POINT OF VIEW

Margit Närvä, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, [email protected] Leena Rantamäki-Lahtinen, MTT, [email protected]

Matti Ryhänen, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, [email protected] Aim of the paper

Changes in the agricultural production environment and market bring farmers the need to analyze in which business areas they will practice and which extent, farming, dairying, ranching and non-agricultural business areas as adequate solution. Diversification is by no means a novel phenomenon for farmers but they are only a few studies how diversified farms have developed and managed to combine farming and non-agricultural business.

The aim of the study is to examine the diversification of family farms from the strategic point of view. In this study the following research questions are answered: Which factors have affected the farmer's decision to start and continue to practice the non-agricultural business be-sides farming and forestry? How have she/he allocated resources to agriculture and non-agricultural business? How the development of non-agricultural business has affected the devel-opment of farming (vice versa)?


The findings of Carter (1996) and Carter and Rosa (1998) suggest that farmers adjust to changing conditions in similar ways to other small business owner-managers and one way to ad-just to a changing economic environment in farming is to diversify. In the literature has presented farmers’ motivations to diversify (e.g. Vik & McElwee 2011; Nickerson, Black & McCool 2001). Strategic entrepreneurship proposes that entrepreneurial and strategic actions are at the core of wealth creation (e.g. Hitt, Ireland, Camp & Sexton 2001; Ireland, Hitt, Camp & Sexton 2001; Ireland, Hitt & Sirmon 2003.) This paper contributes to the literature by giving information about factors that effects farmers’ strategic decisions to start non-agricultural business and continue or not diversification strategy.


Three data sets were utilized in this paper; a postal survey in 2001, and follow-up surveys in 2006 and 2012. In this descriptive longitudinal study, we use panel data from 173 diversified farms which have responded each survey years (2001, 2006 and 2012). Of those 173 farms that were diversified in 2001, total of 102 were still diversified in 2012, total of 21 were operating only in their non-agricultural business, 20 had focused solely on farming, and 30 farms had quit all their activities. Data were analyzed by explorative factor analysis. Variance analysis, Krus-kall-Wallis non-parametric test, and 2 -test were used to test differences between groups.


Diversification strategy has been the attempt to some of the farms to respond to the chang-es, and for some farms diversification has been intentionally chosen long term opportunity driv-en strategy. Diversified farms have planned resource allocation in the period of medium length. Study shows that choice of the strategy is not dependent only economic factors.

This longitudinal study offers good insight to the development of diversified farms. This study gives information about the strategy choices of diversified farms that can be useful among entrepreneurs, policy makers and researchers.

40

Where does the spirit come from and what keeps them going? A qualitative approach to understanding passion for social entrepreneurship

Adesuwa Omorede Luleå University of Technology

Aim of the Paper The purpose of the paper was to provide a better understanding on what drives individu-

als towards social entrepreneurship and also their persistence for creating sustainable social change.

Contribution to the literature Although studies on issues such as the definition of social entrepreneurs (Austin, Steven-

son and Wei-Skillern, 2006; Bacq and Janssen; Shaw and Carter, 2007), what differentiates so-cial entrepreneurs from traditional entrepreneurs (Austin, Stevenson and Wei-Skillern 2006; Da-cin, Dacin and Matear, 2010; Van Ryzin et l. 2009; Zahra et al. 2009), and how opportunities are identified/recognized, (Korsgaard, 2011; Murphy and Coombes, 2009; Zahra et al. 2008) are present, a key issue is to understand what drives individual entrepreneurs to start addressing so-cial problems and continue with tackling unmet socio-economic needs of communities and so-cieties. This paper contributes to the literature by pointing out specific drivers for social entre-preneurial initiations and reasons for their persistence.

Methodology We identified individual social entrepreneurs and other informants that they have encoun-

tered before and/or during their entrepreneurial process. Data was collected through interviews, organizational documents, and archival records. We used coding to identify motivational catego-ries and key events that drive individuals to engage in social entrepreneurship, from which sev-eral possible drivers emerged. This is presented with illustrative quotes and the aggregation into themes of the suggested drivers.

Findings and research implications The findings of this study advance the research on social entrepreneurship in a number of

ways. First, regarding the question on “why individuals start social enterprises”, two aggregated themes emerged: (1) compassionate contextual reasons for starting, and (2) compassionate per-sonal reasons for starting. The compassionate contextual reasons for starting a social enterprise highlights fundamental necessary circumstances surrounding the environment of such individu-als to stimulate their decisions for starting a social enterprise. The compassionate personal rea-sons for starting on the other hand indicate that individuals may have been victims of the social problems and pursuing a course to alleviate them. These findings contributes to social entrepre-neurship research by showing that we need to take into account the motives and processes behind the decision to start, in addition to studying how these opportunities are recognized (Corner and Ho, 2010; Korsgaard, 2011; Mair and Noboa, 2006; Murphy and Coombes, 2009). Second, whereas previous research have made conceptual models proposing general explanations to why people persist in these enterprises (e.g. Corner and Ho, 2010; Murphy and Coombes, 2009), this study contributes by introducing specific empirically grounded reasons such as emotional at-tachment towards the enterprise, ‘satisfying feedback’, and ‘willingness to invest’ for individual persistence. Finally, our findings demonstrate the importance of the presence of passion towards engaging in social entrepreneurial activities. It suggests that even with contextual and personal compassion, the emotional energy and drive to act upon social issues are drawn from passion and passion constantly fuels individual’s persistence to commit and continue in the social entrepre-neurial processes. This study contributes to the growing body of research on social entrepreneur-ship by presenting the passion – compassion interaction.

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THE INNOVATIVE TEAM STRUCTURE: The effect of team structure, proposed by Kel-ley, on innovation

Miha Prebil, PhD student & COBIK Centre of Excellence Slovenia, [email protected]

Dr. Mateja Drnovšek, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

In this research we aimed to bring together disparate research on the effects of team roles and why team role composition has an effect on innovation. By using experience based theory on the team composition advanced by Kelley & Littman (2005), which argues that any team should include team roles from three major domains: (1) learning, (2) organizing, and (3) building, we provide practical implications that can help firms enhance their competitiveness by identifying and validating characteristics of balanced team structure that entrepreneurs should pay specific attention to. This study seeks to determine whether team structure that includes the major roles proposed by Kelley (2005) will be more innovative than teams that encompass a random combi-nation of individuals. The research question we address in the study is “What effect does team structure have on innovation?” Our specific contribution is conceptual and empirical. First, we develop theoretical logics and proposition explaining why team structure that includes key team roles leads to better innovative performance of teams. Second, we test our proposition using experimental techniques. Third, while most of the existing research on teams was focused either on the micro-level or the macro-level, to our best knowledge not many studies focused on the meso level of research. According to Klein and Kozlowski (2000), the meso level is an important perspective when researching teams, because it allows better understanding of intra-team interactions and behaviour as well as its external influences (Glynn et al., 2010). This research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. As a research strategy, multiple experiments were selected and conducted on 3 different samples (13 teams of international students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship course, 11 teams of Engineering major students, and 10 teams of individuals, aged between 20 and 58, with diverse backgrounds). All participants volunteered in the experiment, in which teams were given a problem set to solve within a given time frame, which varied from 8 minutes up to 4 months. In the meantime, their team interaction was carefully monitored. To measure independent variable (team role score), a structured questionnaire was used. Furthermore, the dependent variable (team innovation per-formance) was assessed by experts' opinion. The results based on observation provided evidence to support our hypothesis that the number of roles influences a team’s innovative performance. Teams that had adopted more roles demon-strated higher innovativeness in their solutions. We additionally tested our hypothesis using a linear regression model of standardized coefficients and obtained the following regression coef-ficient: Innovativeness = 0,68 × Role; which denotes that innovativeness is predicted to increase by 0,68 when the role variable goes up by one. The significance level of the coefficient was 0,000 (t=5,518). The coefficient of determination (R2) was 0,46. Accordingly, teams of members covering a larger portion of the roles proposed by Kelley are more innovative than teams that encompass a random combination of members. Based on our findings we suggest that team roles should be allocated equally among members for better collaboration, member satisfaction and quick response, and within one team, one prevailing personality is optimal in terms of innova-tiveness. We propose that managers and entrepreneurs aim to include all ten suggested roles.

42

Intellectual Property Management in China: Case Study on a Finnish Engi-neering Company

By Qing Cao

Ph.D. Candidate in International Business

Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland E-mail: [email protected]

Nowadays, China has become an attractive international business center. But the reality that foreign companies must face is the problematic intellectual property (IP) environment in China. In business studies, there seems a shortage of IP management in China from SMEs point of view. In order to fill in a gap, the study is to find out how IP management is done in China in a Finnish engineering company and what SMEs can learn from the case. Two face-to-face interviews were conducted in the China Office and headquarter of the company. The empirical results indicate the importance of IP risk identification and knowledge management. Thus, IP risk identification and knowledge management are complementary to the proactive corporate IP measures in the exist-ing studies. Literature should consider IP risk identification in the risk management and the inte-gration of knowledge management and IP management.

43

THE EFFECTS OF STRATEGY FORMATION FROM THE BUSINESS MODEL: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS

Ingrid Roaldsen & Tommy Clausen Nordland Research Institute, N-8049 Bodø, Norway

[email protected] Aim of the paper

Innovations that improve existing products, and innovations that represents the generations of entirely new products are both necessary in highly competitive markets. The purpose of this pa-per is to examine to what extent the business model may be a central driving force behind firms’ ability to succeed in both exploitation and exploration in the new product development context. The following research question is asked: To what extent is the business model an antecedent of firms’ ability to succeed in the improvement of existing products (i.e. exploitation) and to suc-ceed in the development of entirely new products (i.e. exploration)?

Contribution to the literature Our paper makes the following contributions to the literature: First, we offer an empirical meas-urement of the business model construct by using survey methodology that can be implemented by other studies. Second, we examine how the business model relates to exploration and exploi-tation of new product innovations over time. Few empirical quantitative studies on the relation-ship between the business model and key organizational outcome variables have been conducted, such as product innovation. Third, drawing on our longitudinal design we examine how the changes in the business model influence product innovation. Little empirical research has been conducted on the consequences of changes in the business model, and no prior study that we are aware of has examined how changes in the business model influence product innovation.

Methodology and methods In order to examine the relationship between the business model and product innovation, we have collected survey data from R&D active firms in Norway at two points in time. The popula-tion was all businesses registered to a scheme for tax deduction of R&D costs (called Skatte-FUNN). Although the firms in our sample have R&D activity and innovation as a goal in com-mon, the sample varies in terms of industry membership (spans over 40 industries) as well as firm size and age. A web-based questionnaires with measurements of business model, resources environmental dynamism and innovation was e-mailed to 1721 enterprises in 2005, and the 1199 answering enterprises were contacted again 1,5-2 years later. 754 of the enterprises returned a filled-in questionnaire. The analysis were carried out by Seemingly unrelated regression tech-nique (SUR) due to error terms of the different equations that we will estimate may be correlated to each other.

Results and implications The results of our study reveal that the change in business model is significantly and positively related to product innovation at the second point in time (T2). The four hypotheses tested, re-ceived empirical support. This paper adds to the understanding of how the business model at one time period is related to firms ability to subsequently develop new product innovations, and fur-ther that the business model is a key organizational construct that can manage both exploration and exploitation, at least in the context of product innovation. A focus on business model devel-opment appears to be (at least part of) a solution to the problem that many companies have in their attempt to manage both exploration and exploitation.

44

Lessons learned from connecting doctoral studies and research on entrepreneurship into teacher’s work at University of Applied Sciences

Tarja Römer-Paakkanen, Dr., Adjunct Professor Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics

& HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences, Finland Aim of the paper

This paper presents a doctoral study program that aims to promote entrepreneurship by training teachers to "introduce" entrepreneurship into all teaching and training at their university. The paper is based on an on-going doctoral study project at a University of Applied Sciences. The objective of this doctoral study program is a wide understanding of entrepreneurship and the internal entrepreneurship that creates entrepreneurially orientated environment for the university students. Encouraging entrepreneurship through education is possible when we create genuine opportunities and resources for teachers to learn about the field, to deepen their knowledge and understanding of it and also to allow them to adopt creative and entrepreneurial working meth-ods.

Contribution

This doctoral study project connects theoretical studies and academic research with the participating teachers’ practical work. We talk about the triangulation of doctoral studies (= un-derstanding of entrepreneurship theories), research (= entrepreneurship research and doctoral dissertations) and practise (= implementing theories in teaching and training of entrepreneurship. This paper is intended to communicate and make a contribution in the context of teacher educa-tion and entrepreneurship education.

Methodology and methods The main target of this paper is to investigate the experiences that the doctoral students have on connecting doctoral studies and academic research on entrepreneurship to their daily teaching, training and developing work. The research questions are:

1. How doctoral students have experienced this doctoral study programme? 2. How they have implemented the studies and research to their teaching work? 3. How they have implemented their studies and research when developing their organization

and the curricula? 4. How they have implemented their studies and research to their teaching and working

methods?

In this project action research methodology is implemented, which means that I put myself as a researcher in the very environment in which the research is carried out. According to O’Brian (1998) there is a dual commitment in action research to study a system and concurrently to col-laborate with members of the system in changing it in what is together regarded as a desirable direction. This type of research can also be called a participatory research or action learning.

Results and Implications The participating teachers are now wearing the "entrepreneurial spectacles”, they observe their environment and the society from the view point of entrepreneurs and small firms. After six years the program has started the process towards more integrative, wider and more holistic en-trepreneurship education programs and curricula. Until today there are five dissertations com-pleted, 35 doctoral students are still active, and the next five dissertations will be completed until the end of this year.

45

What drives EO in small firms? Roles of owner-manager and financial conditions

Juha Soininen, Kaisu Puumalainen Helena Sjögren, Pasi Syrjä, School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology

Aim of the paper

The aim of the paper is to explore the relationship between owner-manager’s personal charac-ters, firm-level financial factors and the level of the entrepreneurial orientation. We are focusing entrepreneur’s work values and experience as entrepreneur and firm’s financial slack and finan-cial conservatism as antecedents of entrepreneurial orientation.

Contribution to the literature Our paper contributes the prior literature by investigating the role of organizational characteris-tics, resources and different type of owners as supporters of entrepreneurial orientation in small firms. We are showing that in small firms the most important antecedent of entrepreneurial ori-entation is the entrepreneur.

Methodology The empirical data used to test the hypotheses were drawn from a mail survey conducted in spring 2009 by means of a structured questionnaire. We are using principal component analysis and linear regression analysis to empirically test our hypotheses.

Results and implications The results are showing that intrinsic and status values are both positively and significantly relat-ed to the level of entrepreneurial orientation, while the extrinsic value has a negative and signifi-cant effect on EO. We also find that experienced entrepreneurs are more willing to take risks, being innovative and proactive in their businesses. The financial slack and financial conserva-tism have no significant effects on the EO signalling that neither financial resources nor financial constraints strengthen the pursuing for higher levels of entrepreneurial orientation. For the future EO research within the small firm context these findings imply that there are good reasons and needs to focus on the entrepreneur’s person. In this sense, there is a remarkable dif-ference whether we are looking for the antecedents of EO in small firms or in large corporations. The study also provides some implications for policy makers and practitioners. Entrepreneurship and small businesses play a crucial role in many national economies. Any effective public policy to promote new firm creation or entrepreneurial innovativeness of existing small businesses will have to recognize the heterogeneity of entrepreneurs and identify the potential or existing entre-preneurs who are likely to be affected by such policies.

46

Entrepreneurial Competencies in Emerging Economy Context

Marina Z. Solesvik Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo,

PO Box 1108, Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway Tel- +47-48-133-882

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Entrepreneurial competencies associated with firm’s performance and competitiveness (Man et al., 2002), business growth and success (Colombo and Grilli, 2005). Acquiring and leveraging entrepreneurial competencies is of key importance for entrepreneurs willing to achievement ori-ented entrepreneurs. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine entrepreneurial compe-tencies reported by female entrepreneurs in the Ukraine. The aim of the study is to analyze how a competitive advantage of the female-owned firms can be enhanced by the possessing entrepre-neurial competencies with reference to resource constrained and hostile environments in emerg-ing economies. This study analyzes general and specific entrepreneurial competencies with ref-erence to special context of emerging economy. Guided by the insights from the emerging dy-namic entrepreneurial competencies perspective (Man et al., 2002), this study provides fresh in-sights into what competencies entrepreneur acquire with reference to the dysfunctional institu-tional legacies in the emerging economy context. Moreover, guided by insights from the institu-tional perspective and the resource-based view (RBV), this qualitative study explores the follow-ing research questions: (1) What entrepreneurial competencies are employed by female entrepre-neurs during the venture birth, survival and/or growth (in emerging market context)? (2) How resource constrained and hostile environment shape specific entrepreneurial competencies limited to emerging economy context?

A novel conceptual contribution is the exploration of links between entrepreneurial competen-cies and formal and informal institutional factors relating to entrepreneurship. Information from eight cases is used to build theory (Zahra and Newey, 2009) relating to the entrepreneurial com-petencies in an emerging market. Several novel propositions linked to theory are proposed from the case study evidence. Practitioners need to be aware that common enterprise competencies can be mastered in enterprise education programs. Insights from the cases will enable scholars to develop survey-based research to explore entrepreneurial competencies of a wider sample of the Ukrainian and other transition countries’ entrepreneurs and facilitate policy-makers to provide support for entrepreneurs with more appropriate courses aimed to competency development. The general and specific entrepreneurial competencies highlighted in the cases may be a useful base for entrepreneurs in emerging markets to make an audit of their own entrepreneurial competen-cies and, if necessary, consider the ways to enrol to enterprise education programs in order to master some of them.

This paper is structured as follows. First, conceptual insights from prior studies that have fo-cused on entrepreneurial competencies are discussed in Section 2.1. Insights related to the Ukrainian context are highlighted in Section 2.2. Section 3 outlines the data and research meth-odology. In Section 4, the nature of entrepreneurial competencies in the Ukrainian context is dis-cussed, and findings are compared with prior studies. Finally, the implications of the study for further research and practitioners are discussed, and concluding comments are presented. Key words: entrepreneurial competencies; female entrepreneurs; Ukraine; case study

47

Are Finnish Family Businesses Fostering Innovation or not?

Jan Sten, Hanken School of Economics,

Entrepreneurship and Management

e-mail:[email protected]

Aim of the paper

The idea of this paper is to study Finnish family businesses and their level of innovativeness. Firms are expected to be innovative in order to survive in the highly competitive business life, but are family busi-nesses innovative? This research question has been attacked by focusing on InnoFinland, which is a na-tional innovation competition. During the period 1194-2011, more than 100 companies have received the InnoFinland reward, but how many of them are family businesses has never been revealed. The second purpose with this paper is to create a discussion around interpretations of empirical material. It is argued that researchers sometimes too easily focus on one possible explanation instead of presenting several different plausible explanations.


This paper has its root in the empirical material and six potential interpretations of the findings. It is evi-dent that the selection of family business definition is of high importance for the results of a study on family businesses. On the same time it is important to state that innovative products and services can be developed in any kind of organizational context. The key to successful innovative work is more depend-ent on human resources than on ownership structures of a firm or business family membership. This is an aspect that has not been discussed so much in family business literature.


This is a desk study focusing on award winning companies in InnoFinland competition during the years 1994-2011. Press releases from the organization committee and web pages of the companies have been the major information sources. The population of firms was divided into five different cate-gories: research-based companies, individual and team-based entrepreneurship, family firms, projects and big firms. The grouping of the firms into these five categories created a situation, where the results could be interpreted in at least six different ways.


The idea of this paper is to start a discussion about the level of innovativeness among Finn-ish family firms. It is evident that the choice of family business definition and selection of data set will have great influence on how one looks on family businesses and innovation. Different research approaches can render totally different results, but the results can also be interpreted in several ways. Family business researcher can improve their studies by looking more open-minded on their findings. Results can be interpreted differently and one can increase the aware-ness about this possibility by presenting not only the most obvious interpretation, but also other plausible interpretations.

48

Leveraging Resources by Using Networks and Relationships – Entrepreneuri-al Marketing in Small Software Technology Firms

Mari Suoranta1 & Rosalind Jones2

1 School of Business and Economics, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland Email: [email protected]

2 Bangor Business School, Bangor University, Wales, UK Email: [email protected]

Abstract – The literature suggests that entrepreneurial networks are fundamental to SME market-ing and entrepreneurial marketing activity. This paper reports on recent research findings and also the continuing research of Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) in small software technology firms. In the paper we discuss especially how small software technology firms use networks and relationships in their marketing, and present some preliminary results from Welsh and American empirical data. The findings of this research confirmed the importance of networks to small technology firms, and revealed some interesting differences and similarities in firm resource lev-eraging behaviors in two different country contexts. Later on we hope to contribute on describing and measuring of how and why such EM oriented behaviors may lead to sustainable firm growth. Keywords – marketing, entrepreneurship, SMEs, networks, relationships, strategic orientations.

49

Cornerstones of Northern Development Lee A. Swanson, Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, Canada David D. Zhang, Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Aim of the paper This study used a complexity theory lens to examine the challenges surrounding Northern

development, particularly in Canada and Scandinavia. The diverse and marginally connected body of literature related to Northern development draws from a wide range of disciplines and topics including anthropology, sociology, history, political science, systems theory, resilience and adaptive capacity, sustainability, environmental studies, community and economic development, ethnic entrepreneurship, and even forestry and reindeer herding. Few, if any studies have at-tempted to synthesize the findings from these diverse contexts to create a deeper overall under-standing of capacity building in remote Northern communities. This paper takes a complexity perspective while examining a range of literature categorized under four particular cornerstones of Northern development – building community-based capacity, engaging aboriginal people, cre-ating both social and economic value, and long-term environmental sustainability.

Contribution to the literature This article fills a research gap by taking a complexity theory approach while synthesizing

a wide range of literature related to Northern development and capacity building. This perspec-tive is particularly important because of the inherent complexity of Northern communities in both Canada and Scandinavia caused by the simultaneous and ever changing economic, social, cultur-al, and environmental pressures they face.

The results from this study should help inform the development of new theory, policy, and practices related to capacity building in remote Northern communities. The particular strength of this paper derives from its comparative analysis of the different social, political, and economic environments that have influenced and characterized Northern capacity building through entre-preneurship in Scandinavia and in Canada.

Methodology and methods We applied a meta-narrative method (Greenhalgh & Peacock 2005; Greenhalgh, Potts,

Wong, Bark, & Swinglehurst 2009; Greenhalgh, Robert, MacFarlane, Bate, & Kyriakidou 2004) to synthesize the relevant literature into a new perspective on Northern development. The meta-narrative approach uses interpretive synthesis, which is an extensive review of the principal lit-erature and a narrative summarizing the key findings (Greenhalgh, et al. 2009). We determined the appropriate breadth of topical inclusion needed to generate a new, meaningful, and compre-hensive perspective on Northern development by considering a wide assortment of literature from which a picture of Northern development would emerge. This picture included four key corner-stones that both characterized Northern development and were of significant strategic importance to its success; community-based capacity building, Aboriginal engagement, social entrepreneur-ship, and environmental sustainability.

Results and implications We conclude that remote Northern communities should be considered as complex adaptive

systems by those developing and implementing policies and practices to build capacity in those communities. Complexity thinking can help us better understand how to effectively build capaci-ty in these regions by simultaneously considering the social, economic, cultural, environmental, and other dimensions that are so intertwined within those communities. This approach applies non-linear thinking, accommodates uncertainty and surprise, and considers dynamic temporal change. Drawing from recent advancements in social-ecological systems studies that applied a complexity approach, we suggest that researchers studying Northern capacity building integrate knowledge from and about the many interconnected dimensions and components that comprise these unique communities.

50

Entrepreneurial Decision Making Processes of the Franchisee Training Program Graduates

Jenni Torikka

University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics [email protected]

The study reports the results of the third and last phase of the longitudinal investigation on train-ees of the Finnish franchisee training program. The unique training program was government financed and organised by a third party. It was aimed at people interested in becoming fran-chisees and the goal was to give the trainees skills and knowledge a franchisee needs. The 214 trainees who graduated from the first ten programs held in 1999-2001 comprise the initial sample of the three phase investigation. The third phase targeted the 46 respondents who in the previous phases indicated that they became either franchisees or self-employed in stand-alone businesses after graduation. In total 39 of the 46 were reached and phone-interviewed in fall 2007. The pur-pose was to find out what factors influenced their entrepreneurial decision making processes and what role, if any, the franchisee training program played in their processes. In this study franchising is seen as a form of entrepreneurship and franchisees as entrepreneurs. Research on the entrepreneurial process of franchisees is scarce as well as research considering franchising as a form of entrepreneurship and franchisees as entrepreneurs. Theoretical basis of this investigation lies in Shane’s (2003) entrepreneurial process model. Shane’s model is com-plemented with results of few other entrepreneurship studies not mentioned in his literature re-view. Investigations on the process of becoming a franchisee are employed along the Shane’s model to bring out the specific features of franchising. Measures employed in the empirical study are founded on literature. The trainees’ entrepreneurial decision making processes proved to be very dissimilar. Entrepre-neurship was a long-time dream and goal for many respondents. Some were pushed to entrepre-neurship by factors such as termination of prior employment while some were pulled to entre-preneurship by factors such as perception of a promising business opportunity or an open fran-chisee position. The program showed to be part of the respondents’ entrepreneurial decision making process, but its role and significance was seen very differently. For a majority of the re-spondents the program provided a place for information gathering, learning and exchanging thoughts about franchising and entrepreneurship. Logistic regression analysis (LRA) was performed to discover what factors could be used to pre-dict respondents’ likelihood of becoming franchisees or self-employed. Different factors ap-peared to predict the likelihood of becoming a franchisee and a self-employed. This was ex-pected even though comparative studies on the entrepreneurial processes of franchisees and self-employed in stand-alone businesses are scant. LRA models for both groups showed decent prop-erties and good explanatory power. Nevertheless, the results should be interpreted with caution, since the subgroups were small in size and since a possibility of hindsight bias exists because the data was collected at a time when respondents had already operated as franchisees and self-employed. Yet, the study has merit and it contributes to entrepreneurship and franchising litera-ture. Findings of the study provide implications for franchisors, people interested in becoming franchisees as well as for organisations planning and offering entrepreneurial training.

51

A Longitudinal Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Higher Education Students in Finland

Elina Varamäki, Sanna Joensuu, Anmari Viljamaa, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland

Erno Tornikoski, Grenoble Ecole de Management, France

Aim of the paper The aim of this paper is to present results from using the instrument for tracking the changes in entrepreneurial intentions of bachelor level students. Students in different fields of study were followed up for three years (from 1st to 3rd and to 4th study year). The objectives of this study are threefold: (1) to analyse the antecedents of intentions in three different study years of the same individuals, (2) to analyse change in entrepreneurial intentions and its antecedents from 1st to 3rd and to 4th year of study; and (3) to examine the role of gender and role models in the initial level and development of entrepreneurial intent, and the impact of higher education on the develop-ment of entrepreneurial intent in three years of time.

Contribution to the literature In order to study the relative importance of intention antecedents, we will adopt an existing in-tention model, namely the Theory of Planned Behavior by Ajzen (1988; 1991), which has be-come one of the most widely used psychological theories to explain and predict human behavior. In our Intention development model Ajzen´s antecedents of intentions (attitudes, perceived be-havioral control and subjective norm), and change in intentions and their antecedents, are ana-lyzed using multiple regression analysis. Gender and role models are included in the analysis. Intention development is analyzed using latent growth curve analysis, with gender, role models and subjective impact of studies on entrepreneurial abilities as exogenous variables.

Methodology and methods The instrument used in the study has been developed and piloted in Finland. The scales are large-ly based on Kolvereid (1996). The data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire in fall 2008, 2010 and 2011 in four different universities of applied sciences students representing six different study fields. For the follow-up of the same individuals from 1st to 3rd and to 4th year (with three measurements) 91 responses were received.

Results and implications Firstly, the impact of attitudes on intentions increases as graduation approaches. This would sug-gest that attitudes are the key antecedent for entrepreneurial intentions rather than perceived be-havioral control, which has been most commonly been the best predictor of intentions in previ-ous studies. Secondly, entrepreneurial intentions decreased slightly over time, albeit the change was not statistically significant. The only significant predictors of change in individual student’s intentions seem to be change in attitudes and change in perceived behavioral control, change in attitudes being the more important predictor. Thirdly, it was found that in the 1st year gender explains intentions significantly, but the importance of gender is reduced to insignificance in the fourth year, however. Although gender explains initial entrepreneurial intentions, it does not ex-plain change in intentions. Father’s career in entrepreneurship is the only background variable that explains intentions in the 4th year of studies. Neither gender nor role models explain change in intentions. However, the students’ perception of entrepreneurial abilities given by their studies has a strong positive influence on development of entrepreneurial intentions.

52

Student’s Entrepreneurship in Europe: a Comparative Study

Urve Venesaar and Marianne Kallaste Tallinn School of Economics and Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology The purpose of this study is to compare the entrepreneurial activities of students in various Eu-

ropean regions, covering the characteristics of student entrepreneurs, the enterprises they create, and the process by which their enterprise is created. Existing studies on the phenomenon of new venture creation have not paid enough attention to the study of student entrepreneurs and their ventures. The current article’s analysis is dedicated to determining a better understand of the main features of student entrepreneurs, the steps taken in starting up their enterprises, and their opinions of various statements that are connected with this process. The factors that are relevant for fostering entrepreneurial activities in universities will also be taken into account. The re-search questions we will answer in this study are as follows:

- what kind of student entrepreneurs are in the case regions?

- how is the venture creation process organised in these regions?

- what kind of organisations (enterprises) are created?

Several studies have given a great deal of consideration to entrepreneurial behaviour, and to the processes of how the foundations for one’s own company have been laid down by the dif-ferent types of entrepreneur, the differing organisational forms through which entrepreneurial behaviour is expressed, and the importance of external environment (Carter, Gartner and Reyn-olds, 1996; Lee and Venkataraman, 2006; Low and MacMillan, 1988; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). A conceptual framework for describing the phenomenon of new venture creation has been presented by Cartner (1985), which integrated four major perspectives in entrepreneurial activi-ties: the characteristics of the individual(s) who are starting the new venture; the organisation they create; the environment surrounding the new venture; and the process by which the new venture is created. In the current paper, Cartner’s framework for describing a new venture crea-tion is used to the extent that survey details support the characterisation of the perspectives of four dimensions in the framework.

The paper is based on the international survey, GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Student Survey), which was undertaken in 2011. This survey is administered through a common web-based questionnaire and is standardised for all participating countries based on a common study design. A total of 52,899 students of higher education institutions from sixteen European countries which participated in the study are included in the analysis that is being conducted within the current paper, divided into four groups: Northern Europe, Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Central and Eastern Europe. The contribution of the study is to improve our understanding of both the similarities and differences in student entrepreneurial activities in European countries, supplementing previous analyses (such as Fueglistaller et al, 2009; Sieger et al, 2011). The main findings of the study show the importance of family background and professional work experience for students where these are relevant to the venture before its founding. The main differences in student enterprises by countries are connected with the process in which the foundation is laid out for enterprises, the sources used for finance, and the opinions of respondents to the different statements connected with their activities.

53

In Praise of Entrepreneurial Marketing: A Study on Entrepreneur-Led Firms

Mika Westerlund*, Aalto University & University of California Berkeley, [email protected] Seppo Leminen, Laurea University of Applied Sciences & Aalto University [email protected]

Aim of the paper

The purpose of this research is to investigate the drivers and actions of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) in entrepreneur-led companies. Entrepreneurs provide an interesting research frame for the study, because their cognitive categorization and assessment of business situations is different from others and because it is the entrepreneur’s perception of the marketing environment that matters. Our objective is to explore the links between:

(i) marketing drivers that arise from the interpretation of the business environment, (ii) the company- and entrepreneur-specific aspects that characterize decision-making, (iii) marketing action and practices in entrepreneur-led companies.


Our main proposal is that an entrepreneur’s interpretation of the business environment, i.e. marketing development drivers, affects the entrepreneur-led company’s marketing practices. We conceptualize these drivers to consist of external pressure from competition, customer demand, and partner relations (Hill and Wright, 2000; Dilts and Hanlon, 2002; Hills et al., 2008). Conse-quently, we consider EM actions to comprise relationship marketing, public relations, and the development of offerings (Chaston, 1998; Lodish et al., 2001; Lin and Smyrnios, 2007). In addi-tion, we examine how company-level factors in terms of internationalization, firm size, and firm age, as well as entrepreneur-level factors in terms of growth aspirations and educational level affect the entrepreneur-led small firm’s marketing decisions. The paper contributes to the litera-ture by showing how both the contextual and situational factors influence on the EM practice and the entrepreneur’s decision-making.


We used data from the semiannual 2007 SME survey conducted by The Federation of Finnish Entrepreneurs in Finland for empirical analysis. We used PLS path modeling to test our research model and hypotheses with the residual sample of 3097 entrepreneurs. The model de-scribes how marketing development drivers that arise from the business environment and the internal factors at both the company- and the entrepreneur-levels affect the small firm’s market-ing practice and tactics.

Results and implications This study gives empirical support to the notions that EM represents an exploration of

ways in which entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviors can be applied to the development of mar-keting strategy. Our study points out that the entrepreneur’s interpretation of environmental pres-sure such as immerse needs and market changes is a key aspect in explaining the forms of entre-preneurial marketing action taken in entrepreneur-led companies. However, this only explains the choices partially, because certain company-level enablers and restraints as well as the entre-preneur’s competences and motivations are essential. We provide a set of implications to aca-demics, educators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs.

54

Entrepreneurship in the context of a research institution in the Basque Country

Authors: Kristina Zabala Berriozabal: [email protected] Arantza Zubiaurre Goena: [email protected]

University of Deusto Deusto Business School

20012 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain Aim of the paper This paper explores the incubation strategy for spinning out companies employed by a Basque Research Centre. The paper considers the question of whether the resource endowments of sci-ence-based entrepreneurial firms are influenced by the way technology transfer is organised at the parent organisation. Based on a case study, we studied a research organisation in detail (Tec-nalia Research & Innovation -Basque Country ) by questioning the managers involved in spin-out service. Contribution to the literature Different authors have proposed insight into the dynamically interrelated activities connected to spinning off ventures (Clarysse and Moray, 2004; Vohora et al., 2004; Spilling, 2004), but few have looked into the specifics of internal strategies enacted by research institutes and how these influence the commercialisation of research results by setting up ventures (see for example Clarysse et al., 2005) and understanding of the phenomenon remains limited. Following these authors` framework we try to analyse the link between these internal organizational strategies and the resources endowed to the new ventures focusing on the case of Tecnalia Research & In-novation. Methodology We interviewed senior managers involved in technology transfer policies at Tecnalia Research & Innovation. A key issue in these interviews was to gain insight in the magnitude of technology transfer activities and how the spin out trajectory is positioned in the broader research commer-cialization strategy. Results and implications Since research organizations creating successful spin-outs are important for innovation, produc-tivity, employment and economic growth, the creation of new enterprises is increasingly used as an indicator for evaluating public investment in research activities. Police-makers need to under-stand the determinants and barriers of spinning-out processes when evidence shows that com-mercial ventures involving SBEFs are sometimes not successful. Key words: Science-based entrepreneurial firms (SBEF), Public Research Organisation (PRO), Spin-off, Technology transfer

HSE Foundation

The Small Business Center Foundation

17TH NORDIC CONFERENCE ON SMALL BUSINESS RESEARCH

Entrepreneurship

- Creative Design or Destruction?

A a l t o u n i ve r s i t yS c h o o l o f E c o n o m i c sSma l l Bus i ness Cen te rpienyrityskeskus.aalto.fi /en

MikkeliLönnrotinkatu 7, FI–50100 Mikkeli

HelsinkiB.O.X 21285, 00076 AALTOArkadiankatu 28, FI–00100 Helsinki

Espooc/o Aalto ACEB.O.X 17600, 00076 AALTOMetallimiehenkuja 10, FI–02150 Espoo

St. PetersburgHelsinki-Center, Finnish HouseUl. Bolshaya Konyshennaya 8 Lit. ARU–191186 St. Petersburg

TallinnMäealuse 4 B, EE–12618 Tallinn

Start-Up CenterHiilikatu 3, FI–00180 HelsinkiEnergiakuja 3, FI–00180 Helsinkistart-upcenter.fi

Chairman of the conference Professor Markku Virtanen Aalto UniversitySchool of Economics Small Business [email protected] +358 40 754 5539ncsb2012.aalto.fi

abstract volume - aaltoncsb2012.aalto.fi/en/call_for_papers/abstracts/abstract_volume_web.… ·...

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