Gerard McElwee

Women entrepreneurs in Oman: some barriers to success

This study presents a preliminary report of an exploratory, qualitative investigation of the role of Omani women entrepreneurs in Muscat. It establishes the factors that motivate women to become entrepreneurs. Opportunities for the growth and expansion of women’s entrepreneurship in Oman as well as barriers women encounter are discussed. Suggestions as to how women’s entrepreneurship in Oman might be encouraged are presented; questions for future research are suggested.

Developing the entrepreneurial skills of farmers; some myths explored

Purpose – Entrepreneurship is currently at the focus of much theoretical, practical and political interest. In Europe, agriculture has faced dramatic pressures for restructuring, and facilitation of the entrepreneurial skills of farmers and stronger entrepreneurial orientation in the rural areas have been hailed as possible solutions for the emerging problems. The aim of this paper is to use this nexus of agriculture and entrepreneurship as an illustrative example, through which the nature of entrepreneurial skills and the elements underpinning their adoption can be examined.Design/methodology/approach – The task is carried out by reflecting theoretically on the concept of entrepreneurial skills and on their embedded nature, before demonstrating the usefulness of the concept as a tool in understanding the case of an enterprising Finnish farmer, active both in conventional farming and in diversified business.Findings – The theoretical and case study analyses reveal that the concept of entrepreneurial skill...

Diversification and the Entrepreneurial Motivations of Farmers in Norway

A series of significant pressures but also new opportunities face the agricultural sector in developed economies. Farm diversification is presented as a political solution and a viable business strategy and highlights the entrepreneurial side of farmers. This paper is a unique attempt to address the question of motivation for farm diversification using Norwegian data. The results demonstrate that social motivations are as important as economic motivations, that is, there are substantial differences in which motivations underpin different types of diversification. This suggests, first, that the literature could gain from engaging more in the variation of motivational drivers than general trends, and second, that farmers need different forms of support to develop their entrepreneurial skills. With a data set derived from a large survey (N = 1607) of Norwegian farm holdings, we use a multinomial logistic regression model to analyze how six farm diversification categories are differently influenced by different types of motivations and other background variables.

The split entrepreneurial identity of the farmer

Purpose – This research shows that entrepreneurship is currently at the focus of much theoretical, practical and political interest. In Europe, agriculture has faced increasing pressures for restructuring: facilitation of marketing and entrepreneurial skills of farmers and a stronger entrepreneurial orientation have been suggested as a possible solution for the emerging problems. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of entrepreneurial capability of farmers to diversify. The central focus of this article is on the entrepreneurial identity of portfolio farmers in Finland and the extent to which the differences between portfolio farmers, other farmers, and non‐farm rural businesses can be explained.Design/methodology/approach – The subjects of the study were rural small‐business owner‐managers and farmers in Finland. The authors carried out a survey of random samples from three populations, each representing a broad cross‐section of relevant industries, including a sample of non‐farm rural ent...

Situating community enterprise: A theoretical exploration

This paper argues that enterprises can be understood primarily in terms of their social bases and that the social base of community enterprise lies in community of some kind. It reviews current conceptualizations in this area such as ‘community-based enterprise’ (CBE) and ‘social enterprise’, and argues that CBE is only one form of community enterprise. Community entrepreneurs are understood in terms of their position on a continuum of community participation, as economic/social/political activists, and community enterprise is explained largely in terms of the balance of social capital functions served by its overall activity. The relationship between membership of a community enterprise and membership of a community is explored, and represented in terms of two criteria: the pool from which enterprise members are drawn and the rule by which such members are selected from the pool. This paper illustrates its arguments in relation to two English community enterprises, Coin Street Community Builders based in London and The Eldonians based in Liverpool.

An emergent entrepreneur?: A story of a drug‐dealer in a restricted entrepreneurial environment

Purpose – The identification and exploitation of opportunities requires specific entrepreneurial skills. The purpose of this paper is to present the activities of a drug‐dealer in a provincial town in the UK.Design/methodology/approach – Adopting a qualitative approach, specifically a narrative history, an examination of the key motivations and business functions carried out by the dealer is provided. The personal circumstances and entrepreneurial characteristics of the dealer are explored and compared with existing typologies of entrepreneurial individuals.Findings – The paper concludes by suggesting that social research of this kind is not value free, and nor should it attempt to be so. The drug‐dealer outlined in this account exhibits clear and well‐defined entrepreneurial characteristics.Originality/value – The paper develops a more detailed understanding of the nature and function of drug‐dealing activities and how these correlate with an contradict existing theoretical contributions.

A cross‐national comparison of knowledge management practices

Purpose – A distinguishing feature of the successful “post‐Network Age” enterprise is its intrinsic entrepreneurial character that manifests itself in key organizational knowledge practices relating to organizational culture, processes, content and infrastructure. The purpose of this article is to explore organizational knowledge‐based practices.Design/methodology/approach – The article reports on the outcome of field research in which entrepreneurial firms in four geographic regions were analyzed with the help of a diagnostic research tool specifically developed for profiling organizational knowledge‐based practices. The diagnostic tool was applied in firms located in Silicon Valley in the USA, Singapore, The Netherlands and Israel.Findings – Key practices that were found to be common to leading‐edge firms in all regions included: a propensity for experimentation; collective sharing of knowledge, and collective decision making. The paper describes the research in terms of a cross‐cultural comparison of t...

Upward Appraisal in Practice: An Illustrative Example Using the Qualed Model

The quality of the services provided by educational institutions has largely been undefined and under‐researched. Reports on some of the insights obtained in a preliminary investigation of quality in a university business school using upward appraisal. It demonstrates how the SERVQUAL model, developed for application within the financial services sector, has been redesigned to measure those components of service in higher education which generate student (customer) satisfaction.

Publication trends and patterns in entrepreneurship: The case of The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Purpose – This paper considers the models, methodologies, techniques and data utilised in articles published in The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation over the period 1999‐2003, in an attempt to determine theoretical and methodological trends and themes emerging from within the literature. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers articles published in the journal from multiple perspectives including: methods of data analysis, epistemological frameworks deployed, dominant academic disciplines and geographical location of the authors. Topic areas and keywords associated with each article are examined in order to identify particular foci for publication and to broadly determine the “topography” of published output. Findings – The broad publication profile was of more quantitative than qualitative papers, with some consideration of policy issues. Research limitations/implications – Analysis is confined to an example of one journal in the field and thus its comparative validity is limited. Practical implications – A very useful account of publication trends in the discipline. The article is of value to academics who are seeking to publish. Indicates the methodological trends that are utilised in the discipline. Originality/value – This is an innovative investigation into publication trends in the discipline.

Value-adding and Value-extracting Entrepreneurship at the Margins

Abstract Empirical data is reported from two case studies on the methods used to establish and grow thebusinesses of two entrepreneurs operating in very different environments: one legitimate, the other illegitimate. Both utilize strong social skills to legitimize their behaviours but neither can be considered as mainstream or conventional entrepreneurial actors. The findings suggest that, despite the very different outcomes associated with their actions, both entrepreneurs exhibit similar enterprising skills and managerial capabilities as found inentrepreneurs engaged in non-marginal activities.