Search results

A Primer in Theory Construction is for those who have already studied one or more of the social, behavioral, or natural sciences, but have no formal introduction to the way theories are constructed, stated, tested, and connected together to form a scientific body of knowledge. The author discusses scientific theories in general terms, but also addresses the special challenges of developing scientific knowledge about social and human phenomena.This Allyn and Bacon Classics Edition contains the complete text of the original copyright 1971 version, with new typography and page design

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- Who are the Bottom Billions? -- Global Distribution by Daily Income -- Daily Income and Personal Characteristics -- How Much Participation in Business Creation Exists? -- Nascent Entrepreneurs -- New Firm Owners -- Who is Involved? -- Women -- Contextual Motivation -- Characteristics of Participants in Business Creation -- Personal Characteristics and Participation in Business Creation -- What Kind of Businesses? -- Economic Sectors -- Job Growth -- High Technology -- Market Impact -- Exports -- Jobs and Job Creation -- National Factors, Individual Attributes, and Business Creation -- National Factors and Business Creation -- National and Individual Factors and Business Creation: Multi-level Models -- Exploring Entrepreneurial Readiness -- Overview and Implications -- Understanding Business Creation -- Next Steps -- Policy Implications -- GEM Data Processing -- Estimating Annual Income -- Global Regions -- Nascent Entrepreneur Prevalence: 3ptBy Country and Daily Income -- New Firm Owner Prevalence: 3ptBy Country and Daily Income -- Sources, Measures of Independent Variables for Regression Analysis -- High, Medium, and Low Income Countries by Daily Income -- Coding of Individual Characteristics -- Development of Multi-Level Models -- Multi-Level Models: Nascent Entrepreneurs by Daily Income -- Multi-Level Models: New Firm Owners by Daily Income -- Multi-Level Models: Perceive Opportunity by Daily Income -- Multi-Level Models: Confidence in Start-Up Skills by Daily Income -- Multi-Level Models: Know Another Entrepreneur by Daily Income -- References.

PurposeThis paper explores the scope and impact of gender in the process of starting new businesses, with a particular focus on understanding how participation, motivations and outcomes differ between men and women entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the Panel Studies of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED). The GEM data provide a global overview, drawing from representative national samples across over 100 countries to assess the extent of business creation activity and gender participation globally. The longitudinal PSED data set provides information on the business creation process and outcomes.FindingsOver the last 20 years, the presence of women in the early stages of starting a business in the United States of America has seen a notable increase, doubling their representation among entrepreneurs and nearing parity with men, who also saw growth but at a slower rate. This shift marks a significant move towards greater gender balance in the entrepreneurial landscape.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper lies in its comprehensive analysis of the evolving landscape of gender dynamics within entrepreneurship over two decades, particularly highlighting the significant increase in women's participation in business creation.

Contents: Preface -- 1. Business Creation: Wall Street and Main Street -- 2. Business Creation: Scope and Stability -- 3. Business Creation and Economic Growth: Churning is Good -- 4. New Firms are the Major Source of New Jobs -- 5. Different National Development: Different Business Creation -- 6. Context Counts, But May be Hard to Change -- 7. Growth Firms and Job Redistribution -- 8. Money is Necessary, But Not Sufficient -- 9. Everyone Pays, Some Benefit a Lot -- 10. An Important Option for the Desperate -- 11. New Firms: Change Agents Hiding in Plain Sight -- Appendix A Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Program -- Appendix B U.S. Regional Business Dynamics Data Set -- Appendix C U.S. Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) Program -- References -- Index.

Understanding the origins of new businesses - the firm creation process - has been dramatically affected by the development of longitudinal studies of business start-ups. A number of projects have been implemented to track the development of new firms, starting with the emergence of a business idea and organization of a start-up team through the birth of an operational business. The U.S. projects, the first and second Panel Studies of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED I, II), have counterparts in a number of other countries, Australia, Canada, China, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. These eight projects, implemented over the past decade, are at different stages of development and have been utilized for a wide range of assessments of entrepreneurial and business creation phenomena. This volume presents the state of the art of these international research projects, providing the first in-depth comparison of the firm creation data across a wide range of contexts, including developing countries (China), central European countries (Latvia) as well as advanced Anglo countries (Australia, Canada, and the United States) and advanced Western European countries (Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden). The work will be of great interest to the research community, particularly those developing such projects in their own countries, as well as policy makers and scholars interested in the effect of national context on the business creation process.