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In this volume, the authors challenge some long held assumptions about entrepreneurial firms held by academics, public policy makers, investors and even entrepreneurs themselves. The first is assumption is that growth is what really differentiates an entrepreneurial firm from a small business. The second is that growth is always good. Third, if growth is rapid, and/or high growth, it is even better. Drawing from a fresh review of the literature, their own primary research and experience in entrepreneurial ventures, the authors argue that the relationship between growth and firm performance

PurposeThis study aims to explore gender performance in entrepreneurial pitching. Understanding pitching as a social practice, the authors argue that pitch content and body gestures contain gender-based norms and practices. The authors focus on early-stage ventures and the hegemonic masculinities and femininities that are performed in entrepreneurial pitches. The main research question is as follows: How is gender performed in entrepreneurial pitching?Design/methodology/approachThe authors carried out the study with the post-structuralist feminist approach. The authors collected and analyzed nine online pitches with the reflexive thematic method to depict hegemonic masculinities and femininities performed at the pitch.FindingsThe authors found that heroic and breadwinner masculinities are dominant in pitching. Both male and female founders perform hegemonic masculinities. Entrepreneurs are expected to be assertive but empathetic people. Finally, there are connections between what entrepreneurs do and what investors ask, indicating the iteration of gender performance and expectations.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the online setting helps the authors to collect data during the pandemic, it limits the observation of the place, space and interactions between the judges/investors and the entrepreneurs. As a result, the linguistic and gesture communication of the investors in the pitch was not discussed in full-length in this paper. Also, as the authors observed, people would come to the pitch knowing what they should perform and how they should interact. Therefore, the preparation of the pitch as a study context could provide rich details on how gender norms and stereotypes influence people's interactions and their entrepreneurial identity. Lastly, the study has a methodological limitation. The authors did not include aspects of space in the analysis. It is mainly due to the variety of settings that the pitching sessions that the data set had.Practical implicationsFor social practices and policies, the results indicate barriers to finance for women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs are rewarded when they perform entrepreneurial hegemonic masculinities with a touch of emphasized femininities. Eventually, if women entrepreneurs do not perform correctly as investors expect them to, they will face barriers to acquiring finance. It is important to acknowledge how certain gendered biases might be (re)constructed and (re)produced through entrepreneurial activities, in which pitching is one of them.Social implicationsPractitioners could utilize research findings to understand how gender stereotypes exist not only on the pitch stage but also before and after the pitch, such as the choice of business idea and pitch training. In other words, it is necessary to create a more enabling environment for women entrepreneurs, such as customizing the accelerator program so that all business ideas receive relevant support from experts. On a macro level, the study has shown that seemingly gender-equal societies do not practically translate into higher participation of women in entrepreneurship.Originality/valueFor theoretical contributions, the study enhances the discussion that entrepreneurship is gendered; women and men entrepreneurs need to perform certain hegemonic traits to be legitimated as founders. The authors also address various pitching practices that shape pitch performance by including both textual and semiotic data in the study. This study provides social implications on the awareness of gendered norms and the design of entrepreneurial pitching.

This paper serves as an overview of a decade of the authors' theoretical reviews, participant observations, empirical studies, quasi-experimental research, qualitative interviews, personal consulting, firm incubation, and action research with firms, clusters, and regional groups in both the information technology and biotechnology sectors in Finland. Interpretations of our findings are told using a narrative format, based on Nordic mythology. This story-telling approach is used to express the perceptions of entrepreneurship by various players in society. It discusses what happens when public policies are based on perceptions very different from, and in potential conflict, with those of the would-be entrepreneur. The paper addresses the current and very real problem in many Nordic countries where enormous efforts are invested in pushing technology creation assuming at the simultaneous creation of entrepreneurial high growth firms. Results show extremely low entrepreneurial activity and declining interest towards entrepreneurship as a career alternative. For those firms that do emerge growth does not seem to be the primary goal. The conclusions are discussed in terms of the long term prognosis for developing an entrepreneurial society in economically advanced nations to take advantage of the technological developments supported by governmental research funding.

AbstractIn this paper changes that have occurred in the Finnish food industry are studied in terms of changes in the dominant logic of the industry. These changes in the dominant logic impact knowledge management processes. The drivers of the changes in the food industry are both technological and market‐based. Biotechnology is turning a traditionally low‐technology industry into a high‐technology industry through the introduction of 'functional foods'. Knowledge relevant in the traditional food industry is becoming dated and future business success will be dependent on a firm's ability to create and capitalize on new knowledge. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This thought provoking book builds on existing research traditions that make small business, entrepreneurship and family business a resource rich arena for study. It steps back to ask fundamental questions that every researcher should consider prior to engaging in data collection. It focuses on topics that have traditionally frustrated researchers including experimental methods in small business research, scale development, control variables and language issues in cross cultural research.

Businesses owned and operated by families constitute the vast majority of firms around the world. These firms are found in all industrial segments, from retail and service establishments to heavy manufacturers. Their sizes and revenues range from the smallest venture of a husband and wife roadside food stall in rural India to the largest multinational, highly diversified corporations in the United States and Europe. Many challenges, such as competition, regulation, environmental concerns, access to capital, and macroeconomic factors confront family and nonfamily firms alike. In addition, family and closely-held firms grapple with such issues of succession, continuity, conflict resolution, identity and organizational roles, estate and financial planning that are idiosyncratic to them; when psychological, social, and emotional factors are in play, constantly changing familial relationships influence the strategic and financial choices they make. Yet, there has been comparatively little theoretical or empirical research undertaken on family firms, relative to entrepreneurship and strategic management. This book addresses gaps in the literature by presenting a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to the study and practice of family business that draws from such fields as psychology, anthropology, sociology, strategy, family therapy, family studies, wealth management, and international business. An international array of experts addresses both macro issues (including the role of family businesses in new business creation and economic development, influences of culture on family business, public policies that can encourage or threaten family business) and firm management (strategic and financial decision making, governance, entering and exiting). Featuring case studies from firms in a variety of industries, Understanding Family Businesses not only offers provocative new insights on family business dynamics, but outlines an agenda for future research.

This is the third in a series of casebooks on issues faced by families owning and managing a business. This volume focuses on the management of growth, decline, and transition in such firms. These cases are clustered together because family firms grow, decline, and grow again, often transforming themselves several times in the course of their existence, as they face succession issues, financial constraints, and changes in market demand. Managing change also has significant impact on the firm-owning families and their individual members, especially when making decisions under conditions of uncertainty. The eight cases presented in this volume, as those in the previous two casebooks, were developed as a response to the lack of a diversity and selection of cases on family business. The cases emerged by engaging students to help develop them as a part of the curriculum for teaching family business to both graduate and undergraduate business school students in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Finland. However, their utility goes beyond the classroom and should be informative to consultants to family firms and family business owners and members as well.

Why do some people start business and others do not? Is entrepreneurship a natural quality or can it be taught? Do entrepreneurs think differently from others? While there is a great deal of literature exploring the dynamics of new firm creation, policies to promote innovation and technology transfer, and the psychology of creativity, research on entrepreneurial mindset or cognition is relatively new, and draws largely from such related fields as organizational behavior, cognitive and social psychology, career development, and consumer research. Over the past fifteen years, the initial model, the theory of reasoned action (TRA), and its successor, known as the theory of planned behavior (TPB), have successfully been applied to entrepreneurship. However, recent findings suggest that considerably more research is required to understand the role of intentions in the entrepreneurial decision process. In this volume, editors Carsrud and Brännback have assembled the most prominent researchers in entrepreneurial psychology to showcase state-of-the-art insights on its many dimensions. Covering such topics as perceptions, motivations, risk, passion, and opportunity recognition, and featuring both quantitative empirical studies and qualitative case examples, Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mind challenges conventional approaches to entrepreneurial behavior and establishes a research agenda for the future.

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to explore what constitutes being "born global." We approach the born global phenomenon by applying ideas presented in existing international entrepreneurship, business, and marketing literatures. In addition, the paper illustrates how market orientation is a relevant construct for understanding the existence of born global firms. Market orientation is contrasted with science driven strategies in young, technology based firms and in both domains. In markets as well as in science, both global and local forces influence the behavior of new biotechnology based companies. Methodology: This paper uses mixed methods including interviews and multiple industry cluster surveys. Qualitative data is analyzed by categorizing and combining data (thematic interviews). Numeric (quantitative) survey data is summarized by using non-parametric statistics. Findings: Young ventures in a global biotechnology based industry simultaneously face forces that drive them towards localization and other forces that require a more global approach. Even though both the markets of biotechnology products as well as the science base are increasingly global, this paper suggests that true born globals must do more than passively adapt to this global scene. Born global firms should pursue active, market oriented strategies in their internationalization. Since our sample firms typically perceive international market orientation as less valuable that international scientific reputation, we conclude that they do not always fulfill the "born global" criteria.

This paper reports on a comparative quasi-experiment of how perceptions of entrepreneurial growth strategies differ between students, managers and technology entrepreneurs. The differences in perceptions as to what critical factors drive three strategies: no growth, market share growth and annual profit growth across to stages: start-up and take-off are measured. The ranks of the critical success factors are the dependent measures and the strategies and the phases the independent variables. Results show that experience impacts the ability to distinguish between strategies. Results also show that the perceptions of the critical success factors significantly differ between the groups. Hence even experience will yield quite different cognitive maps.