Middle Tennessee State University: Journals@MTSU
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Innovation as competitiveness driving force through the resources and capacities of SMEs in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic
Get PDFLiterature reflects that Latin America and the Caribbean register more SMEs and produce more entrepreneurial activity than any other place in the world. Using the Theory of Resources and Capabilities, this research explored how SMEs in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic managed the heterogeneity of their entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, social and human capital resources and their impact on innovation capacity and competitiveness. With a survey of 467 SMEs and the analysis of data with the use of PLS-SEM & PLS-MGA, this study contributed new information based on resources and capacities that showed the maximum set of possible variables analyzed for a theoretical understanding and practice of the heterogeneity of resources. The results reflected a positive impact on the proposed hypothesis through the structural model. The data highlight market orientation as the most valuable resource that facilitates innovation and competitiveness in SMEs analyzed. The results revealed and contributed to the new lines of research on how differences and the degree of importance in managing resources generated high competitiveness through their capacity for innovation
Financial preferences of listed SMEs in India: An empirical study
Get PDFSmall and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a very significant role in boosting sustainable economic growth and development of any country. The present study examines various firm-specific determinants that have an impact on the financing choice of the listed Indian SMEs. It also studied the financing practices of the listed SMEs in India and tried to find out if their financing pattern follows the established theories of Corporate Finance. The study selected 113 SMEs listed on the NSE Emerge Exchange for the period between 2014 and 2018. To examine the problem, empirical analysis is done with the help of panel data regression. The study finds that for meeting financial requirements of listed SMEs, they prefer current liabilities first, then total reserves, thereafter short-term borrowings and lastly the long-term borrowings. Among the independent variables chosen based on an extensive literature survey, most of them are statistically significant but are depicting lower explanatory power. Hence, it leads to the possibility of some other firm-specific factors or macroeconomic factors being more relevant in deciding the listed firm’s financing choices. The study concludes that no single theory like Pecking Order Theory (POT) or Trade-Off Theory (TOT) can explain the financing behaviour of listed SMEs completely. It contributes to the extant literature on listed SMEs by attempting to examine the impact of listing on the financing patterns of the SMEs
The effect of marketing mix perception on the intention of online merchant financing
Get PDFWith a large number of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Indonesia has an opportunity to pioneer the development of new digital services, especially advanced mobile financial service and e-commerce. Therefore, the government recommended e-marketplaces as a channel to provide micro-financing MSME registered as an online merchant. Financial Institutions are more secure in offering credit facilities to merchants in e-marketplaces because it is easier to verify borrower status and transaction records. This paper aimed to examine the role of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) perceived in submitting microcredit’s online application. Research on the intention of online merchants in e-marketplaces used the modified Decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior (DTPB) model approach. Data were collected from Indonesian online seller associations using a convenience sampling approach, and the research hypotheses were tested by applying structural equation modeling. The results showed that besides having a significant effect on online financing intention, the marketing mix’s perception could also be developed by mediating subjective norms
An Overview of Rural Entrepreneurship and Future Directions
Get PDFPrior research shows that rural entrepreneurship has its own distinct elements and deserves additional attention within the research community. The frameworks and methodologies from studies focused on high-growth and technology-based entrepreneurship are often used to explore rural entrepreneurial activities. This incongruence limits our understanding of the true impact entrepreneurship can have on rural communities. The articles in this special issue help advance our knowledge of rural entrepreneurship as a distinct field of study, and add to our understanding of its impact in the rural context. Additional research avenues are suggested
Teacher-Child Interactions and Dramatic Play: Stories from Three Continents and Three Cultures
Get PDFDramatic play involves children choosing roles and acting them out. Teachers assume a variety of roles in providing an environment wherein children pretend to be a different people, in different roles, or even something that is not a person. The benefits of dramatic play revealed in previous research include improvements in children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory (1994; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2007) and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (1978; 1986) frame the current discussion. Children become empowered through dramatic play as they learn to consider the perspectives of their classmates, and as they negotiate and balance ideas from other children. This paper focuses on the design, development, and enhancement of dramatic play in early childhood settings in three different countries within three different continents (Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United States). The authors provide stories within classrooms from these countries and describe how each situation reveals cultural differences in play, and how the new understandings impacted both the teachers and the children’s subsequent actions and thinking. Conclusions describe the bi-directional benefits of play for children and teachers
Digital new ventures: Assessing the benefits of digitalization in entrepreneurship
Get PDFNew ventures must rigorously manage their resources because they suffer from the liabilities of newness and smallness. Digitalization, traditionally associated with resource savings, higher operational efficiency and more flexibility, implies great benefits for new ventures; however, this effect has not been empirically proven. Implementing the resource-based view, this article uses a survey with 102 new ventures to investigate how new ventures benefit from digitalization. We clustered the new ventures in three groups according to their degree of digitalization (low, medium or high) and conducted an analysis of variance to compare the benefits of digitalization among these groups. Our results show that a higher degree of digitalization in new ventures does not result in direct resource savings such as decreased human capital or office space needed; rather, it results in indirect savings through increased operational efficiency. It also leads to considerably greater market flexibility. Our findings assist founder and founder support initiatives in evaluating the necessity of investing in digitalization given the benefits realized
Analysis of the Airline Pilot Shortage
Get PDFThe pilot shortage in the United States currently affects airlines and pilots drastically. The airlines have been forced to implement new solutions to recruit and retain pilots. These solutions include dramatic pay raises and cadet programs. One of the most significant causes of the pilot shortage is the aviation industry’s rapid growth. Other factors include the aging pilot popula-tion and high flight training costs. In addition, regional airlines, a major source of pilots for major airlines, have a historically low pay rate, which deters pilots from wanting to work for them. This situation is compounded by a lack of hiring in the 2000s for various reasons. The effects of the pilot shortage include decreased flights, loss of revenue, and closing of some re-gional airlines. Airlines have implemented various solutions aimed at increasing the number of pilots. These include an increased pay rate, job pathway programs through universities, and guaranteed interviews or jobs. The solutions proposed will likely prove their effectiveness in minimizing the pilot shortage over the next decade.
Note: This research was correct prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected the airline industry
LOCKE VERSUS HOBBES: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
Get PDFSecure property rights and the rule of law are crucial for economic growth, a topic included in every economics principles textbook and many upper division elective courses. SCOTUS decisions regarding property rights provide useful material for discussing these issues. Seventeenth century political philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke offered very different views of the role of the state and therights of man. While also of historical interest, this framework sets the stage for debate regarding the proper role of the state, the judiciary, philosophical influences that determine judicial decisions and the implications for takings under the Fifth Amendment. This article provides a detailed outline of their views with a focus on their treatment of individual liberty and property rights. To facilitate instructor preparation for classroom discussion, extensive references to the original texts are included
Towards SMEs’ digital transformation: The role of agile leadership and strategic flexibility
Get PDFDigital transformation in SMEs has become a necessity in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 era. The ASEAN Economic Community will be more established if SMEs are able to take the benefit of information technology advancement in its business process. This research aims to test the role of agile leadership and strategic flexibility to improve digital transformation in SMEs among ASEAN countries. The data from this research were from 539 SMEs in Indonesia and Malaysia as representatives of ASEAN community and tested using Smart PLS 3. A total of 519 usable surveys were collected. Data testing results showed that agile leadership becomes the key to success in implementing digital transformation. Moreover the strategic flexibility, which comes from workforce transformation and dynamic capability, is also the determining factor in the creation of digital transformation in SMEs. The fast response of the leader followed by strategy flexibility, play a significant role to the success of digital transformation implementation
Changing with the time: New ventures’ quest for innovation
Get PDFNew ventures are often based on new ideas and innovation. For creating and improving the innovation new ventures can draw on internal and external resources, to which they often have limited access. Our study analyses how new ventures can improve their innovation search by entering collaborative workspaces, so-called co-working spaces. In our qualitative study, we use participative observation and analyze 8 cases of new ventures operating in a coworking-space. Key findings are that forms of innovation search differ with respect to the venture’s life cycle. The new ventures search focus alternates between internal and external search, depending on the current stage of the venture. In general, the co-location of ventures in collaborative workspaces offers rich opportunities for social interactions, information exchange, and collaboration which are especially important for early-stage ventures