Fernando Lourenço

Promoting sustainable development: the role of entrepreneurship education

A new educational approach to sustainable development is emerging in the entrepreneurship literature. However, because business schools encourage a ‘profit-first mentality’, critics question their ability to deliver sustainability-related education programmes. This article adapts the theory of planned behaviour to examine attitudes to an entrepreneurial form of sustainability education. The relationship between nascent entrepreneurs’ intentions to exploit learning and the extent of a profit-first mentality is examined. The study utilises data from 257 nascent entrepreneurs participating in a business start-up programme. Structural equation modelling is used to test a series of hypotheses which examine links between sustainability education and nascent entrepreneurs’ attitudes. The results indicate a strong relationship between perception of learning benefits and intentions of nascent entrepreneurs to exploit those benefits. Although a profit-first mentality is negatively related to perceptions of benefit, learning itself is not affected. The results have implications for research, policy and the practice of entrepreneurship education.

Integrating “education for entrepreneurship” in multiple faculties in “half‐the‐time” to enhance graduate entrepreneurship

Purpose – This paper seeks to highlight the role of entrepreneurship education in encouraging the growth of graduate entrepreneurship in the UK to help overcome the over‐supply of university graduates in a very difficult employment market. This paper aims to discuss the design principle for entrepreneurship education that facilitates graduate entrepreneurship, and the design methodology that allows multi‐faculty collaboration in the provision of entrepreneurship programmes.Design/methodology/approach – This paper begins with the conceptualisation of design principles and frameworks based on current concepts found in the literature, followed by practitioner‐based reflection to shed insights into the process of developing entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions (HEIs).Findings – The authors have developed the “30/70 methodology” to guide the future design of entrepreneurship education, and the “80/20 methodology” to support cross‐faculty entrepreneurship programmes to serve non‐business ...

Marketing in SMEs: a “4Ps” self-branding model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which traditional marketing theory and practice can be applied in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and consider how owner-managers perceive their own role in marketing within a small business setting. Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative exploratory approach using semi-structured in-depth interviews amongst owner-managers of SMEs in the UK. Findings – SME marketing is effective in that it embraces some relevant concepts of traditional marketing, tailors activities to match its customers and adds its own unique attribute of self-branding as bestowed by the SME owner-manager. Research limitations/implications – The study was limited to the UK and to a small sample of SMEs and as such the findings are not necessarily generalisable. Originality/value – A “4Ps” model for SME self-branding is proposed, which encompasses the attributes of personal branding, (co)production, perseverance and practice.

Experience of entrepreneurial training for female farmers to stimulate entrepreneurship in Uganda

– The purpose of this study is to evaluate the success of a scheme, supported by the Ugandan Agribusiness Initiative Trust, to fund gender and entrepreneurship training for women farmers in the north of Uganda (Gulu District and Lira District). Moreover, this paper reflects upon our experience of delivering training for women farmers and highlights key observations related to women’s entrepreneurship in Uganda. , – A practitioner-based reflection which shares the experiences of the process of developing and delivering gender and entrepreneurship training for women in Uganda. , – Through the experience of running gender and entrepreneurship training for women farmers in Uganda, a series of barriers to female rural entrepreneurs are highlighted: lack of access to credit, gender inequality, poor infrastructure, lack of access to knowledge and education, negative attitudes towards women and few initiatives to facilitate economic and business success. , – This paper provides reflection of the experience gained from the delivery of training and interaction with women farmers and entrepreneurs in Uganda.

Entrepreneurship, self-employment and retirement

Chapter 1. Retirement Planning, Financial Literacy and Small Business Owners Chapter 2. One Size Does Not Fit All: Uncovering Older Entrepreneur Diversity Through Motivations, Emotions And Mentoring Needs Chapter 3. Entrepreneurship in a Context of Pending Retirement: The Lived Experience of Older Entrepreneurs Chapter 4. Becoming an Entrepreneur after Retirement: Results from a Longitudinal Study in the Netherlands Chapter 5. What Drives Post-Retirement Age Knowledge-Based Self-Employment? An Investigation of Social, Policy and Individual Factors Chapter 6. Entrepreneurship in Mid-Career Chapter 7. Self-Employment Among Canadian Seniors: Trends And Financial Well-Being Chapter 8. Hybrid Entrepreneurship during Retirement: Comparison of Motives and Aspirations Chapter 9. Self-employment around Retirement Age

Email subject lines and response rates to invitations to participate in a web survey and a face-to-face interview: the sound of silence

This paper investigates the relationship between blank and non-blank email subject lines on levels of response to a solicitation to participate in an interview, and on participation in a web survey. Email use has grown substantially in recent years, presenting significant opportunity to the empiricist seeking research respondents. However, response to emails may be low because growth in the sheer volume of messages that individuals receive per day has led to a sense of ‘email overload’, and faced with the challenge of personal email management, many recipients choose to ignore some messages, or do not read them all fully. Drawing on information gap theory, we expected that sending an invitation with a blank subject line would induce a sense of curiosity in recipients that would improve email response and willingness to participate in research studies. However, findings from research with two samples with different propensities to participate in research (academics and business owners) revealed that an email invitation with a blank subject line does not increase overall response rates to a web survey and a face-to-face interview over either an informative subject line or a provocative subject line, but that it does prompt a greater number of active refusals. Based on this finding, recommendations for researchers are outlined.

Work satisfaction of the self-employed The roles of work autonomy, working hours, gender and sector of self-employment

Studies on segregation in employment are suggestive of higher levels of job satisfaction in female-dominated occupational settings. This research investigates whether this effect is replicated in self-employment. We explore whether satisfaction differentials are related to differences in autonomy and working hours. Our hypotheses are tested using data from the European Social Survey. The final sample consists of 1079 males and 326 females. Our research suggests that differences in job satisfaction among self-employed men and women should not be attributed to gender but to gender composition of sector. Our study contributes to our understanding of gender within a sectoral perspective and the significance of work autonomy and level of working hours to improve work satisfaction of the self-employed.

Educating graduates for marketing in SMEs: an update for the traditional marketing curriculum

Purpose – Despite rising graduate unemployment in the UK, there are insufficient numbers of graduates employed in small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs). The literature suggests that a teaching emphasis on large organisational business models in higher education institutions, particularly in the teaching of marketing theory, renders the SME sector unattractive to graduate employment and conversely, it is perceived that graduates lack additional “soft skills” vital for SME development and growth. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of how SMEs define marketing and to compare student perspective on marketing within a SME context. This paper also examines the need to improve the conventional marketing curriculum with additional teaching solutions that consider the reality of UK SME ownership and student employment prospects. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research approach was adopted using in-depth interviews amongst ten SME owners and 20 undergraduate marketing students of a...

Does Ethicality Wane With Adulthood? A Study of the Ethical Values of Entrepreneurship Students and Nascent Entrepreneurs

The authors examined the following questions: Does gender influence the ethicality of enterprise students to a greater extent than it does nascent entrepreneurs? If this is the case, then is it due to factors associated with adulthood such as age, work experience, marital status, and parental status? Sex-role socialization theory and moral development theory are used to support the development of hypotheses. A total of 128 undergraduate business enterprise students and 204 nascent entrepreneurs participated in this study. Ordinary least squares regression was used to produce estimates to support hypothesis testing. The findings suggest implications for entrepreneurship education and future research in this area.

Introduction: Pre- and Post-Retirement Self-Employment: Broadening Existing Horizons

The prolongation of life expectancy, concomitant with the shrinking of the younger population, has brought about a shift in old-age dependency ratios and placed an unprecedented level of pressure on already fragile pension systems in many developed economies (Watkins-Mathys 2012; OECD 2013). In the context of a rapidly ageing workforce, impending skills shortages, a tightening labour market, upwards shifts in the minimum age at which individuals become eligible for pensions and the gradual degradation of both private and public pension schemes and in an effort to avert the impeding “pensions crisis”, governments have adopted strategies such as encouraging delayed retirement (Orenstein 2011; Watkins-Mathys 2012). For instance, in the United Kingdom, the Default Retirement Age (DRA) was fully abolished in 2011 (Flynn et al. 2014), while the Japanese government has raised the mandatory retirement age twice since the 1990s (Wood, Robertson and Wintersgill 2010). Such developments have in turn brought about considerable debate in academic and policy circles on ways to prolong the working life of productive older workers (Taylor et al. 2012; Baruch, Sayce and Gregoriou 2014).