Rachida Justo

Temporary Contracts and Work—Family Balance in a Dual Labor Market:

A well-established finding in the literature is that self-employment enables mothers to accommodate work and family needs better than when they are engaged in organizational employment. With this result in mind, the authors investigate within a dual system of job protection if women under temporary contracts face greater work-family conflicts than those under permanent contracts. The authors use data on womens work and fertility histories from the Spanish Continuous Sample of Working Histories to analyze whether women under temporary contracts transition to self-employment upon motherhood more than those who are under permanent contracts. Analyses show that being under a temporary contract increases womens likelihood of transitioning to self-employment upon childbirth. Supplementary analyses show that this is partly the result of voluntary transitions and not an employers decision to terminate a temporary contract upon motherhood. Overall, these findings reveal a hidden cost of temporary contracts: the greater difficulty in balancing work and family.

Entrepreneurs' Perceptions of Success: Examining Differences Across Gender and Family Status

Our study examines to what extent female and male entrepreneurs differ in the way they perceive and assess entrepreneurial success, measured by extrinsic or intrinsic dimensions. Our results indicate a number of similarities between men and women entrepreneurs but also reveal interesting gender-based differences related to family status. Rather than assuming that women entrepreneurs are a homogeneous group, we found that family factors, and especially parental status, play a key role in shaping fundamentally different perceptions of entrepreneurial success amongst different types of women entrepreneurs.

Indicators of entrepreneurship activity: some methodological contributions

Using a model-based approach, this paper reexamines the measurement of entrepreneurial activity at the national level. Our contribution centres on two main aspects. First, our study allows for the measurement of the likelihood of entrepreneurial behaviour, or entrepreneurial propensity. Second, utilising the social network theory, we introduce the social entrepreneurial environment as a key indicator of the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity. Using the data provided by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project, we provide an alternative measure of entrepreneurial activity, which includes entrepreneurial social environment, assumes the existence of a continuum in entrepreneurial behaviour and provides a measure of entrepreneurial propensity. Results indicate that our model provides support for the combined use of entrepreneurial propensity and the entrepreneurs social context.

Portfolio Entrepreneurship as a Mixed Gamble: A Winning Bet for Family Entrepreneurs in SMEs

We conceptualize portfolio entrepreneurship (PE) decisions as a “mixed gamble” in which family entrepreneurs weigh potential gain and loss outcomes and analyze the unique socioemotional wealth tradeoffs implied by this strategic decision. Our theory suggests that, in small and medium enterprises contexts, family entrepreneurs will be more likely to engage in PE than non‐family entrepreneurs. In addition, our framework explores the amplifying effect of age, gender and ethnic origin on the likelihood to take the PE gamble.

Mecca‐Cola: message in a bottle

Purpose – This paper aims to describe how Taoufik Mathlouthi created Mecca‐Cola, a beverage designed as an alternative to major American colas. It is intended to raise students consciousness about the fact that good opportunities can be driven by political and social changes. Second, it aims to bring them the opportunity to reflect about their own definition of a social entrepreneur and understand the challenges behind pursuing multiple objectives that is, trying to blend and integrate non‐profit goals with rigorous venture development practices.Design/methodology/approach – To write this case, two complementary methodologies were relied on: interviews with founder and employees and use of secondary information such as press articles.Findings – The case describes how what began as a venture for French Muslims, garnered international appeal, with markets opening up in 54 countries in less than two years. However, despite this success, the following stage of transforming Mecca‐Cola into a sustainable busin...

Entrepreneurial Activity and Entrepreneurial Environment? A Reexamination of the GEM's Approach

In this paper we re-examine the measurement of entrepreneurial activity and provide a model-based approach at measure. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project has been a key addition to our ability to measure and compare rates of entrepreneurial activity. But even though there is consensus about the importance of measuring entrepreneurial activity, researchers differ about the appropriate ways to measure the breadth of entrepreneurial activity.

When Do Women Make a Better Table? Examining the Influence of Women Directors on Family Firm’s Corporate Social Performance

Our paper seeks to further understand the influence of gender board diversity on firms’ corporate social performance (CPS) in the context of publicly held family firms. Grounded on corporate governance and family firm literature, we argue that the influence of women directors on CSP will be contingent on their relative power and legitimacy within the board, and that such dynamics are particularly important in family firm boardrooms. Our empirical results show that increases in CSP associated with the presence of women in the boards of family firms are due mainly to the presence of outsider nonfamily and insider family women directors. Implications for the theory of family firms are discussed.

A Gendered Look at Entrepreneurship Ecosystems

Entrepreneurship ecosystems are attracting significant interest, both practically and academically. Despite the extolled benefits of participating in ecosystems, there is evidence that women entrepreneurs’ participation, access to resources, and outcomes in ecosystems, vary significantly from those of men. In addition, emerging theoretical ecosystem frameworks have not explored where gender might matter conceptually. This panel symposium will explore current theories, data and methods that researchers are using to study entrepreneurship ecosystems and the findings that have been generated to date. The goal of the panel is to bring together a set of researchers, each of whom uses a different perspective to examine women’s participation in ecosystems, and explore where in ecosystems gender might matter.

Sustainable Luxury Fashion: The Entrepreneurs’ Vision

Luxury depends on cultural, economic or regional contexts. This transforms luxury into an ambiguous concept (Low, undated). Godart and Seong (Sustainability luxury: managing social and environmental performance in iconic brands. Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, p 12, 2014) show us that the relationship between luxury and fashion is quite an ambiguous one, as fashion does not fully belong to the luxury world, but overlaps with luxury in its most expensive and exclusive segments. On one hand, sustainability within fashion means that the development and use of something or process are not harmful to people or the planet, and once put into action, such thing or process can enhance the well-being of those people who interact with it, and the environment it is developed and used within. One other hand, sustainable luxury would not only be the vehicle for more respect for the environment and social development, but it will also be synonym of culture, art and innovation of different nationalities, maintaining the legacy of local craftsmanship (Gardetti in Conference dictated at the seminar sustainable luxury and design within the framework of the MBA of IE. Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, 2011). This chapter shows the results and analysis of a study conducted with fifteen entrepreneurs of different nationalities with sustainable projects in the luxury fashion and fashion accessory sector. All these entrepreneurs participated in the IE Award for Sustainability in the Premium and Luxury Sectors. Some of them won in the category “fashion and accessories” and others reached the final stages of the award. The purpose of this study is not only to get to know what entrepreneurs understand by sustainable luxury and, particularly sustainable luxury fashion, but also to learn their vision about the future of this sector. The methodology used was a survey with closed and open questions. These surveys also included semi-structured interviews.

The boundary conditions of gender diversity in top teams

Purpose In this study, the authors aim to extend previous research and examine the phenomenon of gender diversity on firm performance in the context that of community-based enterprises (CBEs). The study builds on gender role theory and analyzes three factors that affect the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance: the overall percentage of women in the business, the level of participative decision-making and top management team (TMT) compensation. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study were obtained from the Solidarity Economy Enterprise Database. The Brazilian Government created the database to gather information regarding the status of the Solidarity Economy in the country. Findings The authors argue and find support for the idea that gender diversity in TMT positively influences firm performance. However, there is a point where higher presence of women in the business starts to be detrimental for firm performance. That is, the authors find that there is a curvilinear relationship between gender diversity in TMT and firm performance. Moreover, they found strong empirical evidence for the influence of compensation in strengthening the effect of gender diversity on firm performance. Research limitations/implications The great potential that this study offers applied to the CBEs relies on the fact that these businesses are naturally oriented toward equality, so understanding how the unbalance in gender diversity may affect the firm performance could help us to understand if there is a disconnection between the theory and the practice in terms of how women are positioned. Practical implications The paper has important implications for corporate boards and policy-makers, suggesting the importance of increasing the number of women in boards of directors to benefit from the diversity in value, perspectives, background and skills they bring to TMTs. This study focuses on an under-researched context in terms of TMTs – CBEs. Social implications This work shows that gender diversity in top on boards of CBE’s is positive which is aligned to the orientation toward equality that these businesses have. However, at the same time even although having more women is positive for financial performance, there is a saturation point from when the influences starts to be detrimental. Originality/value The authors consider that this study raises areas for further consideration in efforts to understand what are the boundary conditions of gender diversity in top teams.