bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The entrepreneurial firm internationalization process in the Southern African context
Authors: Mtigwe Bruce 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe objectives of this paper are to: examine the specific process that small entrepreneurial firms follow in their internationalization; identify the key influences on the entire process; and identify the process outcomes.Design/methodology/approachFour research questions are proposed to achieve the stated objectives. A cross‐industry, cross‐sectional survey involving a judgment sample of 1,900 small entrepreneurial firms that are engaged in international business was used. A total of 494 (26 per cent) usable responses were obtained. Correlation coefficients, frequency tables, factor analysis and discriminant analysis were used to analyse the data.FindingsThere are four micro‐processes that have a bearing on the shape and pace of the internationalization process. These relate to: accelerators, export barriers, selectors of intra‐stage foreign market development and foreign market outcomes. The paper concludes that, based on the internationalization experience of small entrepreneurial firms within Southern Africa, there is a common: set of influences on the process; preference for exporting; set of intra‐stage alternatives; and set of market outcomes that modify future internationalization. Therefore, there is a common integrated model of entrepreneurial firm internationalization.Research limitations/implicationsWide generalizations cannot be made because of the localized context of the research. Therefore, the usefulness of the research is limited to the Southern African region. Future research could perhaps test the Southern African entrepreneurial firm internationalization model in other environments to facilitate comparisons.Practical implicationsEntrepreneurial firms with international ambitions must emphasize an international orientation in their recruitment and training of key managerial staff, while policy‐makers need to sharpen the focus of their interventions on profiling individuals first, and firms second, while at the same time building mechanisms that sustain small to medium‐sized enterprises (SME) international business growth.Originality/valueThe paper addresses a knowledge gap in respect of the entrepreneurial firm internationalization process in the context of Southern Africa. This knowledge is of value to academics, SMEs and policy‐makers alike. The paper also provides an integrative conceptual framework and practical advice on how SME international business growth can be encouraged, given its importance to economic growth prospects within the Southern African region.
Taking stock of small business and entrepreneurship research
Authors: Ritchie Bob , Lam Wing 
Published: January 2007

PurposeTo map and evaluate current research and policy evidence from a major conference against the seven strategic themes published in the UK's Small Business Service policy document; draw conclusions concerning the research underpinning; and provide guidance for the future direction of research.Design/methodology/approachEvidence is presented from an analysis of 180 papers and research presentations combined with expert opinions and perspectives from participants at the 28th Annual Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference in November 2005. The evaluation framework is formulated on the seven themes and includes an analysis of the research methods employed.FindingsRapid growth evidenced in volume and diversity in small business and entrepreneurship research activity. The international community of researchers is growing with a greater preparedness to share findings and experiences. The engagement of more policy makers, advisors and practitioners together with researchers may improve the utility and effectiveness of research in terms of policy development and the communication of best practice.Research limitations/implicationsA wide‐ranging definition of research is employed, i.e. incorporating the more usual refereed papers but also working papers, practitioner papers and outcomes from the debates in plenary sessions and tracks. The evidence does, however, provide a snapshot of the research in the field, encompassing a significant proportion of ongoing work.Practical implicationsResearchers need to utilize more effectively prior research to inform their own research and more effort is needed to integrate existing research within the relevant theme or field, both nationally and internationally.Originality/valueThis represents a unique study which takes a snapshot of the current research in the SME field, incorporating the work of researchers, policy makers and practitioners.
Absorptive capacity, knowledge management and innovation in entrepreneurial small firms
Authors: Gray Colin 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to explore SME capacity to absorb and manage knowledge as a prior condition to the successful adoption of innovations and entrepreneurial growth.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the findings from more than 1,500 SME owners across regular quarterly SERTeam surveys and from other large scale studies, this article examines the effects of experiential and formal knowledge on the development of SME absorptive capacity.FindingsThere were significant age, educational and size effects that influence SME acquisition and assimilation of knowledge. Primarily, it is the small firms of 15+ employees that have the capacity to absorb and use new knowledge – especially those with higher educational levels and clear growth objectives. These firms are not startups but they do tend to be younger firms with younger founders.Practical implicationsGiven the main policy aim is the development of clusters and of knowledge‐based firms, policy makers should focus on SMEs recently started by graduates or people with technical qualifications; educators need to develop technology and innovation management programmes for these firms.Originality/valueThis article makes an important contribution to the identification of priorities for public SME development support and areas where business schools and enterprise trainers could maximise their economic and developmental impact.
The financing of disadvantaged entrepreneurs
Authors: Rouse Julia , Jayawarna Dilani 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThis paper asks whether enterprise programmes are overcoming the finance gap faced by their disadvantaged participants. Specifically, the paper seeks to assessthe level of finance invested by participants on a leading UK enterprise programme, the New Entrepreneur Scholarships (NES).Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on a postal and e‐survey of participants on a leading UK enterprise programme, reporting on 472 respondents. Three capital structure variables (personal investment, external private investment and grants) are employed to analyse the importance of various types of funding in NES businesses. These figures are compared with published data about use of different types of finance, including principal sources of funding, in UK start‐ups. Descriptive statistics of perceptions of under‐capitalisation, and needs for additional funding, are also reported.FindingsNES Scholars make significantly lower start‐up investment than is typical in UK small businesses, particularly in terms of personal finance. Finance provided by the programme is important but does not compensate for poor access to personal and loan investment. Perhaps as a consequence, almost half of the Scholars were under‐capitalised.Practical implicationsImplications for policy are discussed at length. In particular, practical options for addressing the under‐capitalisation of businesses started under enterprise programmes are analysed, including increasing and targeting grant finance, providing soft‐loans, improving access to existing sources of public funding for small businesses, easing access to private finance, providing more support for the self‐employed through the welfare and tax credit systems and paying childcare subsidies.Originality/valueThe paper presents novel analysis of the capital structure of businesses started under an enterprise programme and employs this to explore the critical question of whether – and in what ways – these firms are under‐capitalised. It also presents new analysis of the policy options available for improving finance to disadvantaged groups. It fills gaps in the literatures relating to small business finance and small business and social inclusion.
Reconsidering Schumpeterian opportunities: the contribution of interaction ritual chain theory
Authors: Goss David 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to develop a conceptual framework that recognises the significance of emotional and interactional factors in shaping the development and enactment of entrepreneurial opportunities.Design/methodology/approachProvides a theory development illustrated through a case study based on secondary sources.FindingsDemonstrates how emotion and interaction ritual chains can extend the scope of entrepreneurial theorising.Research limitations/implicationsSuggests how novel concepts could be deployed to add explanatory power to accounts of entrepreneurial behaviour.Practical implicationsSuggests new approaches to spotting potential entrepreneurial opportunities.Originality/valueEmotion has received little attention from entrepreneurship researchers. This paper offers one way of filling this gap by developing a strand of microsociological theory that has not previously been applied to the explanation of entrepreneurial behaviour.
Entertainment software: suddenly huge, little understood
Authors: Alpert Frank 
Published: January 2007

PurposeIn less than three decades the entertainment software industry has emerged as a huge industry, with sales larger than Hollywood movie box office sales. Yet, little is known about this industry. Stereotypes about the industry may not be correct. This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap.Design/methodology/approachThe paper identifies what is known, and what needs to be known. The paper reviews the literature and adds data from the most recent reports available.FindingsThe literature has been slow to address this industry. It has not even been clear what to call this industry. (Some people still call it the video game industry.) The most basic marketing issues still need to be researched, i.e. customer benefits sought and segmentation. A typology of game genres is proposed.Originality/valueThis paper is the first overview of the entertainment software industry from a marketing perspective.
The value of language: concept, perspectives, and policies
Authors: Dhir Krishna S. 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThree distinct trends are evolving that characterize the challenges facing corporate planners in managing language as a corporate asset. These are the evolution of the knowledge economy, the globalization of business and economy, and the increasing diversity of the workforce. These trends call for attention to the role language plays in the creation of intellectual and organizational capital. Linguists have been hampered by their inability to model how linguistic conditions affect economic processes. They have long attempted to assess the economic value of language as a commodity, but with little success. The purpose of this article is to describe language as an asset, and argue that recent advances in decision sciences have sufficiently removed the deficit in theoretical and empirical research that challenged the linguists.Design/methodology/approachDrawing an analogy between language and currency, this article identifies the functions that language must perform in terms of exchange, accounting and storage of information, knowledge and know‐how.FindingsFactors that contribute to the value of a language are discussed through comparative analysis of these functions from the perspectives of linguists, economists and decision analysts. Based on the Social Judgment Theory, the article develops a judgment‐analytic framework for the assessment of the value of a language.Practical implicationsConcluding that the corporate and community planning perspectives are divergent, the paper identifies the direction for future research to inform formulation of language policies. The value of a language may be affected by the degree to which the language is used in the demographic community defining an organization's strategic environment, the investment in the language relative to other available languages, demand for the language as a commodity within the organization's strategic community, and so on.Originality/valueWith such conception of language, corporations can begin to think in terms of a portfolio of language assets much in the same way as it thinks of portfolio of financial currency assets.
PR practitioners' experiences of, and attitudes towards, the internet's contribution to external crisis communication
Authors: Fjeld Kristin , Molesworth Mike 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThis paper aims to promote better understanding of how the internet is used as part of crisis communication.Design/methodology/approachThe internet may be changing the way PR operates in a crisis. It has been reported that the web has a significant role in disseminating information and that many‐to‐many online communication allows organisations to achieve “excellent” communication. However, it has also been suggested that in practice there is a need for more flexibility that the “excellence” model suggests. This study reports on data collected from in‐depth interviews with ten senior PR‐practitioners in order to understand their experiences and attitudes.FindingsA range of attitudes are identified, informed by recent experience. Although participants indicated knowledge of and preference for two‐way communication with stakeholders, in practice they found this impractical or undesirable. This, their preference for existing approaches, and ignorance about the internet informed their views about online communication. The result was that some regarded the internet as inferior in terms of its ability to achieve “traditional” tasks and because of its potential for undesirable dialogue. When the web was acknowledged as useful it tended to be considered as supplementary to existing approaches. There was little recognition of the need for online dialogue.Originality/valueThis paper articulates a range of positive and negative attitudes towards the use of the internet for crisis communication, based on the experiences of senior PR practitioners.
Integration, regulation, and policy of securities market infrastructures in the euro area
Authors: Schmiedel Heiko , Schönenberger Andreas 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of integration of securities market infrastructure in Europe.Design/methodology/approachGiven the lack of quantitative and price‐based measures, this paper adopts a rather qualitative approach to evaluating the degree and evolution of integration in the securities market infrastructure within Europe. Future challenges, policy options for regulation and market design are discussed.FindingsDespite its single currency, the euro area securities infrastructure remains highly fragmented due to cross‐border differences in tax regimes, procedures, laws, and vested interests. Cost savings and increased efficiency can be expected from further integration.Originality/valueThis is the only paper which provides a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the current level of integration of the securities infrastructure in the euro area and its implications for regulation and market policy.
The corporate governance of banks
Authors: Mullineux Andy 
Published: January 2007

PurposeTo consider the implications of the banks fiduciary duty to their depositors (as well as the shareholders) and the government's fiscal duty to taxpayers (in the presence of deposit insurance) for the corporate governance (CG) of banks.Design/methodology/approachRecent contributions to the literature are outlined and assessed in the context of the asymmetric information literature relating to banking.FindingsThe good CG of banks requires regulation to balance the interests of depositors and taxpayers with those of the shareholders.Originality/valueLinking the bank regulation in literature based on information asymmetry to the CG literature.
US regulators release joint‐rule proposal regarding futures contracts on debt indexes and securities
Authors: Cross Andrew P. 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide professionals in the global financial services industry with a useful summary of the proposed rules set out in April 2006 by two US regulatory agencies – the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.Design/methodology/approachThe paper begins with background information regarding this regulatory structure and concludes with an overview of the proposed rules.FindingsThe issuance of these proposed rules is part of the continuing evolution of the regulatory structure in the US related to securities‐based futures contracts and is, therefore, best understood within that broader context.Originality/valueThe discussion of the proposed rules situates the continuing evolution of the securities‐based futures contracts in the broad context of the US regulatory structure.
Court castigates BCCI liquidators' claim against Bank of England
Authors: Gray Joanna 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe how BCCI liquidators' claim against the Bank of England has been castigated.Design/methodology/approachThe paper outlines the facts surrounding this decision and the action involved.FindingsThe UK's longest running and most expensive civil litigation has been labelled a farce by both the trial judge and the head of the judiciary.Originality/valueThe paper highlights how these proceedings raise fundamental questions about the rule of law and the appropriateness of the use of legal technique to achieve redress for such large‐scale and high profile losses out of the failure of financial firms and how they also contain cautionary lessons for the way in which regulators employ and use what are notions of “risk” and “risk based financial regulation”.
Money laundering control and suppression of financing of terrorism
Authors: de Koker Louis 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between anti‐money laundering (“AML”) and combating of financing of terrorism (“CFT”) customer due diligence (“CDD”) measures in the financial services industry, and exclusion from financial services.Design/methodology/approachAn introduction to the concept of financial exclusion is provided as well as an overview of international AML/CFT CDD standards. The paper highlights a softening of national CDD measures in South Africa and the UK to lessen the impact on financial exclusion.FindingsCountries should consider the impact that CDD requirements may have on financial exclusion when they design their AML/CFT systems.Research limitations/implicationsMulti‐discilinary research is required to improve the understanding of the broader interaction between AML/CFT objectives, financial exclusion and economic development, especially in countries with a large informal economy.Practical implicationsCDD requirements may unnecessarily exacerbate financial exclusion if they are not formulated with care to reflect the reality of the particular country setting.Originality/valueThe paper offers insights into the international standards resulting to the identification of clients and the experiences in the UK and South Africa regarding the implementation of these standards on financial exclusion.
Problems controlling fraud and abuse in the home health care field
Authors: Payne Brian K. 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe purpose of the current study is to assess the efforts to control fraud in the home health care industry in the USA by examining the problems that criminal justice officials confronted in their attempts to control home health care fraud and abuse.Design/methodology/approachAttention is given to the history of the home health care industry in the USA, the types of fraud found in the health care field in general, and the officials who are given the duty of controlling health care fraud.FindingsThe results of this study suggest that the problems fraud control officials face in their response to home health care offenders are similar to those confronted in the response to white‐collar offending, but also similar to those confronted in the response to many conventional offenses.Originality/valueHighlights the problems in controlling fraud and abuse in the US home care health field.
Organized crime in business
Authors: Sliter John 
Published: January 2007

PurposeTo provide a viewpoint and a stronger awareness of the increased involvement of criminal activities in the capital markets through organized crime and the need for integrated policing.Design/methodology/approachThe writer has over 25 years of experience with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with over 15 of those years conducting white collar crime investigations and/or managing teams of investigators.FindingsCanada is having good success in using the concepts of integrated policing in the implementation of our Integrated Market Enforcement Teams (IMETs) to detect, investigate and prevent capital markets crime.Originality/valueThis paper identifies the need for integrated policing in order to facilitate and foster close working relationships with key stakeholders in the various levels of regulatory enforcement and disciplinary agencies in order to target those who commit some of the larger organized financial crimes.
International police co‐operation: a Norwegian perspective
Authors: Larsson Paul 
Published: January 2007

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to describe and explain the importance of informal co‐operation and networking between police officers when it comes to international police co‐operation. The paper goes on to ask “what works” and what can be done to make international co‐operation function better.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on research done in connection to the author's ongoing project on the Norwegian cannabis market. The data from this study is supplied by a limited number of personal interviews by Norwegian police experts on international police co‐operation.FindingsOne finding is that personal relations and networks are of great importance in practical international police co‐operation. The paper also stresses the importance of a sheared understanding and a common language expressing “what the central tasks and problems of policing are”. This finding points to the importance of cultural differences between the police forces.Originality/valueMost studies of police co‐operation are focusing on either the formal laws regulating this activity or pointing at the dangers of such co‐operation. Instead the author raises the questions: what do the police actually do when they co‐operate internationally and when does it run smoothly and what are the obstacles to co‐operation? The paper ends with recommendations on what can be done to make police co‐operate better.