Kirk C. Heriot

Which State Policies Lead to U.S. Firm Exits? Analysis with the Economic Freedom Index

This research investigates the relationship between public policy and firm deaths in the U.S. states. Policies that promote firm births may increase or decrease firm deaths. We use components of the Economic Freedom of North America index as a metric to evaluate the relationship between increased government size and firm deaths for the 50 states during 1989–2004. Elements of economic freedom are significantly related to firm deaths but in conflicting directions. We find that in the relevant range, some increases in state policy lead to firm death more than others. The paper also discusses our results and the implications for both future academic research and public policy.

Applying for Initial AACSB Accreditation: An Exploratory Study to Identify Costs.

The authors identified the type and magnitude of costs colleges and schools incur when seeking Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International accreditation. This issue is important to the 156 schools and colleges currently seeking initial accreditation by AACSB and to the thousands of schools worldwide that could seek accreditation. Although the changes in the AACSB accreditation standards opened the door to many smaller teaching-oriented schools, the revised standards may induce schools with limited resources to seek accreditation. The authors identify significant costs in becoming accredited and a considerable increase in annual operating costs to maintain accreditation. The 10 schools in the present study experienced 1-time initial expenditures and increased annual expenses. Business school deans and university administrators need to be aware of the initial costs of accreditation along with the increased annual costs.

AACSB International’s 2013 accreditation standards: Speculative implications for faculty and deans

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of the 2013 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Accreditation Standards for both business faculty and their deans who are responsible for implementing these changes. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a speculative viewpoint on the implications of the 2013 AACSB standards by a set of a co-authors that include AACSB deans who are active in accreditation reviews and serve as mentors to schools in the accreditation process and senior faculty who have written self-studies for AACSB and served as consultants for schools seeking AACSB accreditation internationally. Findings – The implications of the 2013 AACSB business accreditation standards are arguably positive for active scholars holding a relevant doctoral degree. For example, active and engaged scholarly faculty should appreciate the ability to use additional indicators of the impact of their career’s intellectual contributions (IC) including, but not li...

Searching For Wortman'S Rural Economic Development Zones: A Case Study Of Three Rural Electric Cooperatives

This study uses Wortmans Rural Economic Development Zones (Wortman, 1990a) and more recent work by Lyons (2002) as a point of departure to demonstrate entrepreneurship development suited to rural locations. We describe the current literature and rural electric cooperatives. Using a case method research design (Yin, 1994), we demonstrate the efforts of three modern rural electric cooperatives in the area of entrepreneurial development. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications to public policy makers, electric cooperative executives and researchers in the field of entrepreneurship.

Omitted Variable Bias in the Link Between Planning and Performance

This article argues that existing research poorly specifies the link between planning and performance because of omitted variable bias. Researchers agree planning is a critical part of creating any new venture. Many researchers assess planning by whether a small firm has a written business plan. Unfortunately, efforts empirically to validate this relationship have been inconclusive. This article proposes that researchers should assess business plans both on the quality of the plan (and the planning process that produced it), and on the quality of the underlying business opportunity. Failure to account for both aspects of a business plan amounts to omitted variable bias, frustrating attempts to accurately estimate the true relationship.

State Regulatory Spending: Boon or Brake for New Enterprise Creation and Income?

This article addresses a public policy question: Does state government regulation foster or deter economic development? The authors estimate a system of simultaneous equations for income growth, regulation growth, and growth in the number of new enterprises. It is found that regulation does not provide efficient solutions to conflicts and, therefore, does not foster economic development. It is also found that new enterprise formation does not necessarily indicate income growth and economic development.

Creating Active and High-Impact Learning Moving Out of the Classroom with Field-Based Student Consulting Projects

Active learning has attracted considerable attention in higher education in response to concerns about how and what students are learning. Many pedagogies may be categorized as active learning, although most are classroom-based. The authors propose an alternative to ‘active learning in the classroom’, which they characterize as ‘active learning outside of the classroom’, and present in the form of field-based student consulting projects. Field-based consulting forces students to engage in active learning. By participating in consulting teams, they are moved into a new realm of learning. In undertaking consultancy, rather than receiving information in a somewhat passive manner, students evaluate a real-world business problem and must themselves decide on a solution. For the student, the benefits of consulting include gaining experience in dealing with business owners and offering a professional opinion on a real business problem. The authors propose a framework for this design, describe how other instructors could arrange for their students to conduct consulting projects, and then identify possible directions for future research.

Evaluating the legitimacy of entrepreneurship and small business as a field of study: An exploratory study in the USA

Purpose – The paper aims to clarify a debate about the legitimacy of entrepreneurship as a field of study. Katz and Kuratko continued this discussion by evaluating the legitimacy as an academic discipline. Their work extends the earlier contributions of Stephenson, Meyer, Finkle et al., and Fiet. Their research focused on the use of secondary data to consider this research question. This study uses an empirical evaluation of the actors that form the basis of this field of study, the faculty that teach entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach – This study used an online survey to ascertain the academic background, dissertation subject, doctoral course work, teaching assignments, and research output of individuals that described themselves as entrepreneurship faculty. Findings – The results show that a significant percentage of the sample of college instructors did not have a doctorate in entrepreneurship, nor did they study entrepreneurship in their curriculum thereby potentially undermining perceptio...

Goodbye Columbus: Accommodation Taxes and OTAs

In 2006, the community of Columbus, Georgia, filed a lawsuit over uncollected accommodation taxes aimed at online travel agencies [OTAs]. Defendants included companies such as Expedia and Orbitz. In retaliation for the lawsuit, the OTAs delisted the city’s hotels from their sites. Several years later, the lawsuits were settled and normalcy returned. The delisting period provided an interesting set of circumstances that allowed exploration of the power balance between OTAs and municipalities. It also provided, using nonexperimental “real-life” data, some insight into an issue that has received significant trade and academic attention—the influence of OTAs upon hotel occupancies and rates. The results provided should be of interest to communities and their tourism officials in disputes similar to that experienced by Columbus. Hoteliers, the third party caught in the crossfire of these disputes, will also find the research results of value.