The need of standardization and the potential role of voluntary approaches: Issues and trends in Italian GCHP market

Despite the lack of specific incentives, Ground Coupled Heat Pumps (GCHP) installations are booming in Italy both in private and public sectors of the market. Such rapid growth entails an increasing concern for environmental and technical performances since no comprehensive regulation and reliable standards exist yet. By means of an investigation of sectoral opinion leaders and SWOT-based technique for building scenarios, this paper discusses potential schemes for balancing mandatory and voluntary requirements. The analysis suggests that standardization and voluntary schemes are perceived as effective tools to encourage the greening of Italian GCHP-SMEs in short-run while laying the foundations for evolving sustainable policies in the longer run. A potential scheme that has been simulated by reflecting the supply-side orientations of the market and that involves of process and product standards is discussed.

Exploring Entrepreneurial Skills and Competencies in Farm Tourism

Diversification to farm tourism is increasingly seen as a viable development strategy to promote a more diverse and sustainable rural economy and to counter declining farm incomes. However, our understanding of the dynamics of the modern farm tourism business and the entrepreneurial and competitive skills farmers require in making the transition from agriculture to a diversified - and service based - enterprise remains limited. Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore the range of skills and competencies that farmers in the North West of England identify as important when adopting a diversification strategy to farm tourism. With the findings indicating that that whilst a range of managerial skills are valued by farmers, they lack many of the additional business and entrepreneurial competencies required for success. Moreover, this paper acknowledges the need to generate consensus on the requisite skill-set that farm tourism operators require, along with a need for a currently fragmented rural tourism literature to acknowledge the significance of rural entrepreneurship and the characteristics of successful farmers and farm tourism ventures

The Internationalization of Global Start-Ups: Understanding the Role of Serial Entrepreneurs

Using qualitative methodology, we aim to understand how serial entrepreneurs can foster the development of born-global ventures. We consider a born-global start-up as the final stage of the learning process for a serial entrepreneur, advancing propositions regarding the importance of prior entrepreneurial experience – in terms of knowledge acquisition, identification and exploitation of opportunities, social networks development – for bornglobal venture creation and growth. We verify that the serial entrepreneur’s previous entrepreneurial experiences could substitute for the lack of knowledge, opportunity recognition and social networks of a born-global start-up. Thus, we recognize the necessity of a shift in the unit of analysis, from born-global start-up to a global serial entrepreneur. Moreover, we suggest to follow a dynamic approach when the born-global start-up issue is discussed since we expect that the entrepreneur’s learning process evolves over time in relation to their quality of previous experiences.born-global, international new ventures, entrepreneurship, serial entrepreneur, internationalization, social network, entrepreneurial experience, opportunity identification, opportunity exploration, longitudinal case study.

Ahead of the Curve: Insights for the International NGO of the Future

International NGOs have a unique and important role to play in addressing today's complex global challenges. But few of them are living up to their full potential. With support from the Hewlett Foundation, FSG researched how the most innovative INGOs are adapting to the disruptions in the global development sector and embracing four approaches to create greater impact

Value creation and change in social structures: the role of entrepreneurial innovation from an emergence perspective

Aim: Our aim is to develop a more complete understanding of how processes that entrepreneurs perform interact with wider society and the causal effects of society on entrepreneurial behaviour and vice versa. We aim to show how entrepreneurial agency is put into effect in relation to the disruption of social structure and social change. This has implications for innovation and entrepreneurship policy and practice, and for entrepreneurship theory. We also investigate the role of ‘value’ in these processes. Contribution to the literature Our central argument is that emergent forms (or ‘emergents’) may be short lived (ephemeral) but have causal power on the performance of the actors in the system of inter-relationships in the innovation ecosystem. The emphasis on inter-related social processes and ontological stratification provides theoretical development of extant entrepreneurship theory on new venture creation (by explaining process), effectuation (by linking individualism and holism) and opportunity recognition (by deconstructing opportunity into anticipation, ontology and process). Methodology The paper takes an 'emergence' perspective as a way to understand entrepreneurial processes that give rise to innovation. The anticipation of value and the inter-relationship with social and organisational structures are fundamental to this perspective. A longitudinal analysis of a case study of the development of a new business model within an entrepreneurial firm is described. The case is followed through seven phases in which the relationship between process and emergent ontological status is shown to have destabilising and stabilising effects which produce emergent properties. Results and Implications One methodological contribution is framing how to conceptualise the empirical evidence. Emergents have causal effects on the anticipations of value inherent in their particular system of innovation. This causality is manifest as the attraction of resource in the firm; the stabilisation of the emergent constitutes strategy in the enterprise. A key role of the entrepreneurs in our case study was the creation and maintenance of evolving ontological materiality, as meaningful to themselves and to those with whom they interacted. In simple terms, they made things meaningful to people who mattered

Promoting environmentally sustainable enterprises: some policy options

Governments around the world are taking an increasing interest in promoting environmentally-sustainable economic activity. They have developed a variety of policy approaches in an effort to address environmental issues that range from localised pollution incidents to global climate change. This chapter examines the kinds of intervention tools that are being used to improve the environmental performance of SMEs, and to guide entrepreneurial energies towards more environmentally-benign goals. The chapter aims to: (1) outline the main options available to policy-makers; (2) compare specific intervention tools, noting their strengths and limitations; and (3) discuss the case for adopting more holistic approaches to address the pervasive, complex and often deeply-rooted challenges of sustainable development. Key lessons are that policy makers need to select appropriate combinations of tools based on careful reviews of the evidence, and that well-integrated, context-sensitive policies are likely to prove the most effective

Consortia as Technology Innovation Management Vehicles: Toward a Framework for Success in Venture Based Public-Private Partnerships

The purpose of this research was to explore the approach by federal/state agencies, university, and private sector consortia to develop and manage commercialization of innovation technologies. The evaluation, support, and management of technologically based consortia has traditionally been held in the private sector. There is a somewhat mature literature guiding innovation management (Utterback 1996; Rosenberg et al. 1994; Quinn 1997, 1992) in the private sector. However, there is an increasing emergence of consortia consisting of universities, industrial/private sector entities, and government agencies joining in collaborative efforts to launch technology based initiatives. These consortia are non-traditional and the applicability of traditional venture models is questionable. The guidance and maturity of the literature for assessment and management of these new consortia is sparsely developed. The specific research questions explored in this research are: (1) What are the major sources of consortia support for innovative technology based new ventures that seem to work? And, (2) What approaches to managing the commercial viability of advanced innovative technology-based new ventures through partnerships of industry, governmental agencies, and universities are effective? The research used an embedded case study method (Yin 1994) to explore the research questions. Consortia development of technology innovation projects, by a state government agency located in the southeastern United States, was selected as the focus of the case study. Four independent projects launched by the consortia were select as embedded units of analysis for the case development. The research was conducted in three phases. In Phase I the literature was reviewed and a framework for assessment of new ventures was developed. In Phase II, the framework was used to guide data collection and the formation of the case data base. Qualitative analysis methods (Patton 1990) were used to analyze transcripts from sixteen semi-structured interviews of consortia partners and project documents. The data analysis from this phase produced an embedded unit of analysis summary for each consortia project. These summaries were validated for each of the four units analyzed and added to the case database. In the third phase, the case was constructed and validated by consortia members from the government agency responsible for consortia assessment. The research produced an in-depth case study for the unique development and considerations for university, government agency, and private industry consortia in relation to traditional assessment models and considerations for private sector ventures. In addition, directions for future research involving the assessment, development, and management of university, industry, and government consortia were developed

Comparing Successful and Less Successful New Innovative Businesses

This contribution offers a conceptual framework for the analysis of innovative business start-ups. This framework mainly draws on transaction cost theory. On basis of a broad empirical study of 52 hightech business start-ups in Germany the fruitfulness of the transaction cost approach with respect to research on innovation is demonstrated. Transaction cost theory gives valuable hints for the interpretation of the personal role of the entrepreneur as well as for the economic evaluation of the entrepreneurial idea. Special importance refers to the results on the organization of market transactions as a decisive determinant of economic success of innovative business start-ups

Applying a Sectoral System of Innovation (SSI) Approach to the Australian Red Meat Industry with Implications for Improving Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Australian Agrifood Industry

This paper describes an action research study conducted over four years (2002-2006) in the Australian red meat industry. The study aimed to extend the body of knowledge on innovation and entrepreneurship. It also sought to explore options for improving practice through interventions that would accelerate the development of innovation culture and capabilities. A conceptual framework was developed leading to a new Systems Innovation Intervention Framework. The framework was subsequently implemented via 30 individual pilots. The outcomes of the research study were tested for relevance more broadly within the Australian food industry and high levels of acceptance were reported.innovation, sectoral innovation systems, innovation system failures, intervention strategies, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q10, Q16,

Beyond Total Cost of Management (TCM) to Systemic Value Management (SVM): Transformational Trends and a Research Manifesto for an Evolving Discipline

Proposizione di un modello evolutivo della disciplina dell'ingegneria dei costi applicata ad opere a ciclo di vita intera, con ipotesi di ridefinizione dei criteri di valutazione del valore dell'opera da logiche strettamente economico-finanziare a logiche adottanti criteri di valore qualitativi.Total cost management (TCM) has developed as a systematic approach to managing resources, costs, profitability, and risks throughout the lifecycle of any enterprise, program, facility, project, product or service. However, a number of trends are today creating a new socio-technical scenario, characterized by increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), which is affecting the strategic scope and applicative dimensions of TCM. A logic of sustainability and multi-stakeholder value is increasingly required to account for the competing and multidimensional needs of customers, employees, partners, and large stakeholder ecosystems. This article presents a review of cross-disciplinary literature and the use of authors’ engagement and consolidated expertise in the field to drive a group model building process aimed to design a conceptual framework and a research manifesto for the evolving TCM discipline. The study provides a classification of nine major trends and evaluates the impact of those trends on a number of TCM dimensions. Next, a research agenda is showed, including nine trajectories for scholars and practitioners engaged to support the evolution of TCM towards a new idea of systemic value management (SVM). The study advances the current knowledge on value-based and sustainable approaches to management and offers to experts and practitioners a basis to implement innovative development projects in the field of TCM