Calvin Wang

Women and work‐life balance: is home‐based business ownership the solution?

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore self‐employment through home‐based business ownership as a potential solution to the inter‐role conflict experienced by women attempting to balance dual work and family roles.Design/methodology/approach – Home‐based businesses (n = 626) were surveyed in Western Australia as part of a larger national study. Data were collected on operator and business characteristics, and specific home‐based business issues (e.g. reasons for preferring a home‐base, management and planning, growth facilitators and barriers). Four‐way comparisons investigating the dynamics of home‐based business ownership between male and female operators and operators with and without dependants were made.Findings – The attraction of home‐based business ownership is driven predominantly by the flexibility afforded to lifestyle and the ability to balance work and family. While these advantages were more salient for women than for men, gender per se was not a determining factor in why operators started a ...

Waste recycling: local methods for successful interaction with small business

Environmental management practices are common in large companies, but rare in small businesses even though, collectively, their environmental footprint is substantially greater. There is, therefore, a crucial need to engage small businesses in practices that reduce their environmental impact and assist sustainability. However, the management of environmental issues in small business is the domain of the owner-manager who is often resource poor, both financially and in the amount of time available to implement new sustainable practices. A survey of 139 small businesses in a light industrial area has provided an indication of the environmental footprint of small business by showing the volume of waste generated compared to the amount recycled. An intervention programme to increase recycling in this area and reduce the negative impact of these businesses has produced positive results. These results demonstrate that engaging small business in environmental management can be a catalyst both for reducing the environmental impact of small businesses, and for the implementation of local initiatives. Of critical importance in the success of the intervention was direct consultation from the outset with small business owner-managers. This consultation meant that when a barrier to recycling was identified with a particular waste item the owner-manager was provided the opportunity to agree on a solution and cooperate in the efforts to implement beneficial changes. As a consequence of the research and intervention, an increased awareness of waste disposal, recycling issues and opportunities has been created, with improved communication and cooperation between small businesses, recycling contractors and local environmental organisations. The results achieved in this pilot project could be used to direct policy to encourage and support others in this important business sector to implement effective environmental practices.

The effect of embedded managerial values on corporate financial outcomes

Abstract This paper explored the relationship between the embeddedness of a firm’s managerial values and corporate financial performance in Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by developing a conceptual maturity model of managerial values (MM-MV). The MM-MV articulates the extent to which managerial values are embedded within organizations, allowing the analysis of the interrelationship between the degree of values-embeddedness and financial performance in SMEs. The findings suggested that as managerial values become more embedded, financial performance increases; therefore, SMEs exhibiting highly embedded managerial values such as customer-minded, team spirit, innovation-driven reliability, persistency, competency, and engagement tend to financially outperform SMEs that have not fully embedded managerial values throughout the firm.