Marcus Ho

How Opportunities Develop in Social Entrepreneurship

The purpose of this article was to extend existing research on opportunity identification in the social entrepreneurship literature through empirically examining this phenomenon. We used an inductive, theory–building design that surfaced patterns in social value creation across multiple case studies. The patterns showed actors seeing a social need and prospecting ideas that could address it. Data also revealed multiple, not individual, actors, dynamically engaged in interactions that nudged an opportunity into manifestation. Also, data suggested complementarities to effectuation and rational/economic processes that are divergent theoretical approaches to the study of entrepreneurship to date.

Recruiting Project Managers: A Comparative Analysis of Competencies and Recruitment Signals From Job Advertisements

This research addresses the competencies organizations use through project manager job advertisements. We develop a list of project manager job competencies; break down the competency components into knowledge, skills, and abilities; and conduct a comparative analysis of the use of these competencies. We examine the online contents of project manager job advertisements in the public domain. Analysis shows that industry job advertisements emphasize “soft skills” and competencies in a manner different than that in the literature. Additionally, differences are found across countries and between industries. Implications from the findings highlight the incongruent dissemination of project manager competencies, regional and industrial demands, and the recruitment of project managers.

The entrepreneurship-motherhood nexus

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use boundaryless career theory as a perspective from which to explore understanding related to the interplay between life-stage and career transitions in women; and, specifically, the life-stage-related event of motherhood relative to the transition from corporate employment to self-employment. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative longitudinal research design was operationalized over a four-year period and data from both primary and secondary sources were collected in relation to four New Zealand case studies. Findings – The findings highlight how life-stage events such as motherhood can have a profound influence on both the perception and enactment of careers and career transitions. In total, two primary micro-processes were identified in relation to the career transitions of the female participants into self-employment and were labeled “traditional employment” (relating to role change; integrating work and life domains; opportunity seeking; and support) a...

Pipeline to the Future: Seeking Wisdom in Indigenous, Eastern, and Western Traditions

In this chapter, we explore the ways in which the dominant wisdom, economic, and social traditions of the West can potentially integrate with some of the wisdom, economic, and social traditions of indigenous and Eastern cultures in the interest of creating a more complete understanding of links between wisdom, economics, and organizing. Western thinking tends to be based not only on a modality of constant growth but also on a worldview that is based on linear thinking and atomization and fragmentation of wholes into parts as paths that lead to understanding. These ways of thinking have resulted in the West’s putting economics, materialism, consumerism, and markets ahead of other types of values and issues. In contrast, many indigenous and Eastern traditions offer a more holistic, relationally based set of perspectives that might provide better balance in approaching issues of work, economics, and organization. Indigenous wisdom traditions, illustrated through African, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, Japanese, Māori, and Native American worldviews, offer insights into a worldview of relatedness where foundational values inform members of society on how to lead a wise life through serving others, including the environment. We believe that by integrating the perspective of wisdom traditions that offer these more holistic, interconnected, and nature-based views of the world, Western traditions could be more appreciative of the intrinsic worth and ontological differences of people and environment and that such perspectives can be very useful in our globally connected, interdependent, and, in many ways, currently unsustainable world. We offer this synthesis as a beginning of that conversation.

HRM in New Zealand biotechnology SMEs: emergence of employment systems through entrepreneurship

Biotechnology is an industry where human resources embody the knowledge and thereby the competitive strength of the firm. Strategic HRM models have established the importance of resource dependency and institutional perspectives in understanding small biotechnology firms. These models, however, have seldom included the impact of managerial agency, particularly with regard to the role of the founder-scientist. Using three exploratory case studies of biotechnology small and medium enterprises (SMEs), we examine the role of founder-scientists in addressing the requirements of institutional legitimacy and scarce resources (human and capital) in their firms.

Knowledge resources for university spinoffs: the role of the academic entrepreneur

The article discusses the commercialization of the scientific and technological knowledge that originates at universities. While this commercialization has been credited as fostering economic growth, innovation, and wealth creation, the processes by which academic entrepreneurs build organizations to create this wealth has been unexplored. The authors use a multiple-case study design on three human pharmaceutical biotechnology spinoffs to determine the ways in which university spinoffs become successful.

Becoming an entrepreneur: opportunities and identity transitions

Purpose This paper aims to report an empirically grounded theoretical framework within which to understand the role of entrepreneurial identity development in the discovery, development and exploitation of opportunity, and to elaborate on how these identity transitions both mobilise and constrain female entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study-based research design was used in this study. Primary and secondary data were collected from eight female participants (all of whom can be categorised as “mumpreneurs”) and analysed to inform the theoretical framework that is the foundation of the paper. Findings The authors describe how identity conflict, role congruence and reciprocal identity creation play a critical role in venture creation as a form of entrepreneurship. Drawing on the constructs of identification, self-verification and identity enactment, the authors build a theoretical framework for understanding entrepreneurial identity transitions in relation to opportunity-seeking behaviours. Research limitations/implications The work is theoretical in character and based on a sample that, whilst rich in the provision of theoretical insight, is small in scope. Additionally, the sample is located in one geographical context (New Zealand) which likely has implications for the way in which the key constructs are perceived and enacted. Originality/value This paper is an attempt to integrate conceptualisations of entrepreneurial identity development with opportunity-related processes in the context of venture creation. A holistic focus on identity transitions and their relevance to perception and action in relation to opportunity (the root of entrepreneurial behaviour) is novel; at this point, it is exploratory in intention and tentative in reach.

How biotechnology start-up firms transform human capital resources into dynamic capabilities

The dynamic capabilities of firms and its underlying human capital resources are thought to underlie the competitive advantage of firms. In this study we examine empirically the process whereby human capital is amassed, and combined with other resources to manifest operational, then dynamic capabilities. Our research question asks, how do new ventures amass and configure the human capital of their firms? We utilize an inductive longitudinal, multi-case study approach to reveal the micro-processes through which biotechnology start-up firms amassed and configured their human capital resources for viability and competitive advantage. Our findings reveal two important overlapping micro-processes: gathering and hunting, and potentiating. These two micro-processes converge to form organizational capabilities and outcomes for the firm. We discuss the implications of the findings in extending the literature on human capital emergence and dynamic capabilities.

Relationships in Family Business: The Paradox of Family Organizations

Anthony Washington, the scion of Pacific Wide, a well-known family business in New Zealand, pondered the email in front of him, “Are you thinking of coming back? it would be a good Lime — Dad”.