52 research outputs found
Mum or bub? Which influences breastfeeding loyalty
No full textThe need for social marketing research in the area of breastfeeding is highlighted by the failure of campaigns to increase breastfeeding rates over the past two decades in developed countries. This is despite evidence of the health benefits of longer breastfeeding duration to both baby and mother, and the high levels of expenditure on these campaigns. Whilst past campaign approaches typically focus on baby-oriented factors, breastfeeding is a complex behaviour that for many women involves barriers that influence their commitment to continued breastfeeding. Using social marketing, this research investigates the role of mother-centred factors on loyalty to breastfeeding. A sample of 405 Australian women completed an online survey. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling, which revealed that mother-oriented, rather than baby-oriented, factors influence attitudinal and behavioural loyalty to breastfeeding
Entrepreneurial marketing: a strategy for the twenty‐first century?
No full textPurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the author's view of the role of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) as a strategy to address the dynamic marketing environment of recent times.Design/methodology/approachThe author reflects on some significant marketing changes and provides some contemporary example of companies that have successfully adopted EM approaches and challenged traditional marketing wisdom.FindingsEM is best conceived not as a nexus between marketing and entrepreneurship, but as an augmented process, where both the entrepreneur and the customer are the core actors, co‐creating value within the marketing environment.Originality/valueWhile this is an opinion piece, the paper provides evidence of how EM can be adopted and applied by entrepreneurial firms and challenges marketers to create and control their own‐marketing environment.</jats:sec
Country of origin as a source of sustainable competitive advantage: the case for international higher education institutions in New Zealand
No full textThe lucrative higher education market has intensified the competition among higher education providers as they aggressively promote their institutions to international students. In this study, we explore the factors which are important to Chinese international students when deciding on a study destination and higher tertiary education (ITE) institution. The results of this study provided the impetus to understand the factors which can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage for New Zealand and its ITE providers in the highly competitive Chinese market. Strategically, the results revealed New Zealand must maintain its position as a provider of quality higher education and build upon two unique distinctive capabilities: its comparatively low cost and reputation of being a safe country. Additionally, it would be strategically advantageous to build close collaborations between the Government and the institution to attract overseas students. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
How habitual entrepreneurs engage in opportunity search and recognition
No full textMany successful ventures start with opportunity search and recognition. This is regarded as a major stage in the entrepreneurial process. While 'opportunity' has been a popular area of research for entrepreneurship scholars, not much is known about how habitual entrepreneurs undertake this process. Habitual entrepreneurs are different from novice or other single-venture entrepreneurs primarily because they are involved in multiple businesses. MacMillan (1986) observed that although they continue to own the business, they prefer to employ professional management and then turn and start other ventures. This process is then repeated many times throughout their entrepreneurial careers. Since these habitual entrepreneurs have had the opportunity to learn how to efficiently and swiftly overcome the stumbling blocks they encountered in their first efforts, MacMillan argues they build an 'experience curve' in entrepreneuring. He then issued a challenge that 'to really learn about entrepreneurship, let's study habitual entrepreneurs.
Portfolio entrepreneurs: pathways to growth and development
Get PDFEarly entrepreneurship studies have often regarded entrepreneurs as a homogeneous group. More recently, scholars have recognised that entrepreneurs have different ownership propensity. Portfolio entrepreneurs, a sub-type of the habitual entrepreneur, are involved in a number of businesses simultaneously. By their very nature, these entrepreneurs are more experienced than their novice counterparts and studying them should enhance understanding of entrepreneurship. This thesis aims to explore why and how some individuals become portfolio entrepreneurs. The investigation is guided by a conceptual framework that explores the theoretical antecedents (e.g., human and social capital, motivation and risk) to portfolio entrepreneurship, how they engage in the entrepreneurial processes (e.g., opportunity search and recognition, entry and operational strategies) and the outcomes (e.g., business and personal) of their entrepreneurial activities. This is a qualitative study using a multiple case approach. Fifteen cases of portfolio entrepreneurs were selected and interviewed in-depth. Results show that portfolio entrepreneurs do have a distinct combination of human and social capital endowments, motivation and risk propensity. These antecedents allow them to formulate strategies that pave the way to portfolio development. While the reasons for the pursuit of the portfolio model vary across the different portfolios, it is evident that the portfolio is a result of the entrepreneur's opportunity and growth-seeking pursuits and a way to spread the risk inherent in business. The study reports strategies and heuristics that these entrepreneurs employ to manage the dynamics of a portfolio structure. At the business level, outcomes indicate that individual business benefit from being part of a portfolio. At a personal level, successful portfolio entrepreneurs do become high net worth individuals. Although financial motivation is evident at the early stages of their careers, money no longer features in later stages. Their satisfaction levels are high, and regrets are almost non-existent. They enjoy being in business and thrive in the many challenges that new products, systems, solutions and ways of doing things bring to the market and society
Portfolio Entrepreneurs: Structure, Strategy and Management of Business Groups
Get PDFThis paper draws on the experiences of portfolio entrepreneurs and develops new insights
into this important mode of business development. Portfolio entrepreneurs own and
manage multiple businesses simultaneously, providing an alternative growth process and
the prospect of enduring entrepreneurship. Previous research has focused on either the
genealogy of businesses in a portfolio or the human capital attributes that determine who
becomes a portfolio entrepreneur and how they perform relative to other types of
entrepreneurs. Key issues involving the structure, strategy and management of portfolios
need further exploration and development. This multiple-case study conducted in New
Zealand features eleven entrepreneurs with portfolios of different ages and sizes, each
reflecting a series of opportunistic responses to different situations. Our results show that
some entrepreneurs use structure as an internal seedbed to spawn new ventures, others
seek opportunities to acquire more businesses, while some use both means to build and
maintain their business groups. Structure is the dominant construct, providing a flexible
canvas upon which entrepreneurs enact growth ambitions by creating and re-creating
their portfolios over time. We found no evidence of portfolio-level decision making or
performance measurement with the lead entrepreneur’s attention largely focused at the
business unit level
Opportunity-based new venture creation: an opportunity, outcome and process (O-O-P) framework
Get PDFThe Role of Entrepreneurial Networks in the Exploration and Exploitation of Internationalization Opportunities by Information and Communication Technology Firms
No full text This article investigates the role of entrepreneurial social and business networks in the internationalization of high-technology firms. The authors present case study evidence from born-global information and communication technology firms that shows that established and newly formed social networks can be instrumental in exploring internationalization opportunities. These social networks potentially lead to collaborative cooperation and form part of an entrepreneur's broader business network that facilitates exploitation of internationalization opportunities culminated by successful entry into foreign markets. The study incorporates contemporary literature and offers an internationalization opportunity exploration–exploitation model emanating from the entrepreneur's network configuration. In doing so, it takes a process approach and provides much needed qualitative evidence in network research. </jats:p
The role of serendipity in opportunity exploration
No full text
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the distinctive role of serendipity in opportunity exploration. The study specifically explores how serendipity happens and the pattern of its occurrence. The paper attempts to break new ground in the study of serendipity within the entrepreneurship area. Serendipity is quite established in scientific literature and investigating this concept in the context of entrepreneurship contributes towards the discourse on why some firms are able to discover and realise opportunities that seem to present themselves sometimes out of nowhere.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses multiple case studies, cross-country approaches and the causal mapping method.
Findings
The findings suggest that serendipity is likely to take place at the early stages of firm formation. In addition to the three patterns of serendipity that are well-known in accidental scientific discoveries, the authors identify and introduce “entrepreneurial serendipity” as a distinctive pattern in entrepreneurship, whereby entrepreneurs look for any opportunity to start a business and explore an appropriate opportunity that comes along.
Research limitations/implications
This research has several limitations that offer new opportunities for future research. Further research can be undertaken to compare successful fast-growth firms with unsuccessful firms to determine how entrepreneurs were exposed to serendipity and to what extent they were able to exploit and realise opportunities. A comparative study would also enhance the authors’ interpretation of the role of serendipity in these two types of firms and demonstrate the different levels of serendipity they are potentially exposed to. The debate on serendipity could benefit from quantitative research and some tangible measures of serendipity can be developed.
Practical implications
The findings help entrepreneurs understand elements involved in opportunity exploration. The role of serendipity and its sources offer some suggestions on how entrepreneurs can potentially expose themselves to serendipity. The role of networks is crucial to doing business, and entrepreneurs should be aware of expanding their personal and business networks. Being engaged in friendly, professional and academic networks helps in finding new opportunities. Perseverance, being alert to changes in the environment and commitment to clients in terms of high-quality products and services are other elements that may open new windows of opportunity.
Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence that serendipity does play an important role in nearly every investigated business, regardless of their size and age. Serendipity potentially leads to new opportunities and entrepreneurs can explore them to achieve growth. By investigating grown firms in New Zealand and Iran, the authors identified a new pattern of serendipity in terms of opportunity discovery. This unique pattern, entrepreneurial serendipity, is characterised by finding an unspecified opportunity through an orderly or haphazard search, which could happen with either high or low levels of knowledge.
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An investigation into the digitalisation of New Zealand general practice services during COVID-19
Get PDFaim: This study investigates the digital transition initiated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the factors that enabled
the digitalisation of general practices (GPs) in New Zealand.
method: Using a multiple case study design, we conducted 86 in-depth interviews with staff from 16 GP centres in New Zealand.
results: The critical enablers of digital transition in response to the pandemic were support from the community, agility and
adaptability of GP medical centres and the ability to pragmatically create external operational processes to ensure business continuity
and to meet patient expectations. Major barriers to digitalisation at the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (28 February to 30 August
2020) included lack of organisational leadership, financial support availability, systems management collaboration, and patient
and staff knowledge and preferences. Digitalisation was characterised by the GP centre’s ability to provide telehealth services using
existing systems and technology, embracing e-prescription, e-referrals, e-lab and video-only consults.
conclusion: The decision to adopt digitalisation had a significant impact on GP centres, disrupting the norm but also allowing
continued access to health services to patients who were the most vulnerable during the pandemic. The pandemic forced GP medical
centres to change to digitalisation and led to significant changes in GP medical centres' business models. However, it remains to be
seen how the rapid change effected at this time correlates with patient satisfaction and how the digitalisation capabilities that have
been built impact on future primary care services. This study suggests that changes brought about by COVID-19 may pave the way to
an expansion of GP telehealth services, which has the potential to permanently change the primary care landscape
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