Sibylle Heilbrunn

Impact of Gender on Difficulties Faced by Entrepreneurs

During the last decade, women have been recognized as successful entrepreneurs, and the constantly rising number of women-owned businesses all over the world has led to an increasing number of studies on the differences between male and female entrepreneurs and their businesses. Womens entrepreneurship is characterized by structural constraints such as family responsibility and a relative lack of relevant resources such as social capital. Following the resource-based perspective, this study investigates whether women entrepreneurs face different difficulties from their male counterparts and are indeed disadvantaged as to resources such as management experience, business and technical skills, raising capital, etc. The results of the study show that womens ventures are smaller, service-oriented and ‘cheaper’ to finance. Compared with their male counterparts, women entrepreneurs perceive their lack of management experience and business skills as a major constraint.

Financial Funding of Immigrant Businesses

This study investigates differences in financial funding between immigrant and non-immigrant businesses and delineates factors influencing financial funding of immigrant businesses. Data for the study were collected in Israel between 2000 and 2005. By combining convenient and snowball samples, 214 native Israelis and 153 FSU immigrant entrepreneurs answered a questionnaire. We classified financial sources for immigrant businesses according to their affiliation to the ethnic community, and according to their relation to official financial institutions. Our study revealed that the scope of funding of immigrant businesses is significantly smaller than that of non-immigrant businesses. Immigrant entrepreneurs are more likely to finance their businesses from informal sources but they use fewer loans from family and friends than non-immigrant entrepreneurs. We found that immigrant entrepreneurs who deal with co-ethnic clients do not use more ethnic sources of capital for financing their businesses: the share of co-ethnic clients does not influence the ratio of ethnic financial sources for both setting up and expanding immigrant businesses. Our study revealed that governmental support in the terms of designated loans is the most salient factor influencing financial funding of immigrant businesses. The results suggest important implications for public policy.

Juggling Family and Business Work–Family Conflict of Women Entrepreneurs in Israel

This article investigates work–family conflict of women entrepreneurs in Israel. On the basis of the resource theory maintaining that class, ethnicity and gender interact in various combinations for different groups, the article explores factors influencing the intensity of work–family conflict of Arab, immigrant and Israeli-born Jewish women.2 Data were collected in 2007 through a questionnaire administered to a convenient sample of 111 women entrepreneurs in Israel. Degree of family support influenced intensity of the work–family conflict for all three groups of women entrepreneurs, but those from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) experienced the lowest intensity of the conflict, which can be explained in terms of particularities of gender status in their country of origin. Work—life balance remains a major issue for self-employed women.

The impact of organizational change on entrepreneurship in community settings

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of organizational change upon entrepreneurship in communities such as the Israeli kibbutz, which underwent during the last two decades a process of crisis and change. Based on a theoretical model that identifies how cultural orientations of individualism versus collectivism affect the entrepreneurial process, attempt is made to analyze whether and how the move from organizational collectivism towards organizational individualism influences the volume and type of entrepreneurship in community settings.Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive questionnaire has been administered to a sample of 60 kibbutzim in 1997 and in 2004. The questionnaire includes issues of organizational culture, structure and business orientation, as well as reports on the ventures initiated during the relevant years. The data received by means of the questionnaire are analyzed by quantitative statistical methods. In‐depth interviews with office holders in a small ...

Entrepreneurial opportunities in changing communities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate entrepreneurial opportunities in changing communities via the development of a conceptual model, drawing on Hudsons concepts of places and spaces. It also aims to explore the scope and variety of entrepreneurial opportunities in Kibbutzim located within a conceptual model of four clusters based on availability of economic and social capital.Design/methodology/approach – The sample for this study consists of 81 Kibbutzim representing 29 per cent of the Kibbutz population (277 Kibbutzim). Data were collected via official sources of the kibbutz movement and analyzed using Anova models comparing groups.Findings – The findings reveal that both scope and variety of entrepreneurship vary within the four clusters of kibbutz communities and point to a positive influence of availability of economic and social community capital on entrepreneurial opportunities.Originality/value – The paper presents the development of a conceptual model more sensitive to the hete...

Factors influencing entrepreneurial intensity in communities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors influencing entrepreneurial intensity. More specifically the study addresses the following objectives: propose a way to measure entrepreneurial intensity within the community context in order to determine entrepreneurial activity over a period of ten years, detect the factors influencing the entrepreneurial intensity, and finally locate Kibbutz communities on the entrepreneurial grid.Design/methodology/approach – Kibbutz communities are the level of analysis. Using a comprehensive questionnaire, a sample of 60 Kibbutzim – constituting 22 percent of the population of Kibbutz communities in Israel – was investigated over a period of ten years. The same questionnaire was administered to the same sample Kibbutzim (Kibbutzim is the plural of Kibbutz) in 1994, 1997 and 2004. Collected data include number and types of enterprises, economic strength, organizational size and age, and features of organizational structure and culture.Findings – Quantitati...

Transformational Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior in the Arab Educational System in Israel: The Impact of Trust and Job Satisfaction.

The present study aims to extend and integrate previous research on the mediating effects of trust in supervisor and job satisfaction on the relationship between transformational leadership style and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Drawing on previous research, we argue that transformational leadership impacts OCB directly and indirectly via employees’ trust in supervisor and job satisfaction. Our sample comprised of 211 Arab male and female teachers in the Arab education system in Israel. The results of structural equation modeling indicated a direct effect between transformational leadership and OCB, and an indirect effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. However, trust in supervisor did not mediate the effect between transformational leadership and OCB. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Innovation and conformity: intersection of gender and ethnicity in hi‐tech organizations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for analyzing preference for innovation of different groups of hi‐tech workers according to their culture of origin and gender.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative survey was conducted online among veteran Israelis, immigrants from North America, Western countries and immigrants from the Former Soviet Union employed in 60 different high‐tech organizations.Findings – The paper developed the application of Bourdieus concept of habitus, adopting it to migration research and to understanding preference of changes and innovativeness. The authors also developed a framework for analyzing the preference of innovation according to workers’ gender and culture of origin. Based on the Entrepreneurial Drive Theory regarding preference for innovation and nonconformity of Florin et al., the authors determined four dimensions characterizing innovativeness.Research limitations/implications – The limitation of this study was the relatively small number ...

The impact of policy on immigrant entrepreneurship and businesses practice in Israel

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine governmental support to immigrant entrepreneurs and its impact on their businesses. The study seeks to explore the needs of immigrant entrepreneurs as to government support schemes, and the impact of government policy upon mobilization of resources and growth of immigrant businesses.Design/methodology/approach – Combining convenient and snowball sample, 218 former Soviet Union immigrant entrepreneurs from all over Israel and all business spheres were surveyed via a questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted by quantitative statistical methods.Findings – Entrepreneurs who encountered more problems at business start‐up are more likely to receive government support. Receiving support facilitates mobilizing resources and compensates for fewer opportunities of initially weak businesses.Research limitations/implications – Further research might focus upon comparing the impact of policy on immigrant entrepreneurs between countries. Utilization of the findings by ...

The Role of Co-Workers’ Solidarity as an Antecedent of Incivility and Deviant Behavior in Organizations

ABSTRACT Drawing on the social exchange theory this study assesses the relationship between co-workers’ solidarity as an antecedent of incivility and deviant behavior. More specifically we hypothesize that reduced co-workers’ solidarity will increase not only incivility but also deviant behaviors of employees. An additional hypothesis predicts that incivility will enhance co-workers’ deviant behavior. Data was collected in 15 organizations of various types using an online questionnaire in 2014. We analyze the data using structural equation modeling. Our findings reveal interrelationships between all three variables. Co-workers’ solidarity reduces uncivil and deviant behaviors of employees, whereas incivility increases organizational deviance. Moreover, we found that the explained variance of property deviance by incivility was twice as high compared to production deviance.