Marketing and Your Small Business: A Guide for Small Business Owners

It can’t be said enough that “build it and they will come” is just a myth. A “one-and-done” effort will not get you what you want, either. Developing a successful business means putting a marketing plan that creates and maintains awareness of your product and/or services. Learn how to build your marketing plan from Glenn Muske, small business specialist for North Dakota State University Extension with his guide on Marketing and Your Small Business

Going it Alone or Working as Part of a Team: The Impact of Human Capital on Entrepreneurial Decision Making

This paper endeavours to measure the effect that human capital has on the decision taken by the entrepreneur to pursue new venture creation either in a lone capacity or collaboratively. Based on a survey of 130 entrepreneurs from 130 new ventures in Canary Island, Spain, this study applies a logit model to investigate the research relationships. The results show that three factors (experience, social perception and extrinsic motivation) are significant in the decision to initiate a new venture either in a lone capacity or as part of a collaborative undertaking. The results indicate that previous experience holds the greatest significance on the decision taken by entrepreneurs to ‘go it alone’, with factors relating to social perception and extrinsic motivation chiefly predicting a decision to work collaboratively. The findings of this study provide new insight and evidence with regard to the factors that influence a key decision in the start-up process: that of continuing in a lone capacity, or proceeding as part of an entrepreneurial team

Expanding the Undergraduate Entrepreneurial Perspective: An exploratory investigation into pedagogy and practice at the University of Chester

Purpose: This work conducts an exploratory investigation into the domain of entrepreneurship in Higher Education (HE), how it is perceived, interpreted and embedded, both from a pedagogic and philosophical perspective, into a contemporary university landscape in order to cultivate entrepreneurial behaviours in undergraduate students. It is implied in government imperatives and directives that entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs are the fiscal panacea that will lead us towards the light in the economic gloom that currently pervades. The cultivation of entrepreneurial attitudes and behaviours has been specifically linked to Higher Education by the European Commission, although scholarly research into developing an entrepreneurial landscape within the HE sector is significantly lacking. Whilst studies exploring the entrepreneurial university and transformative opportunities in response to economic pressure has been undertaken from the 90s onwards, this field and its potential to inform and impact on Higher Education continues to represent an understudied area. The purpose of this research therefore, is to consider the methodologies and strategies that can support a cultivation, integration and embedment of entrepreneurship education in a Higher Education context, specifically the University of Chester, with a view to creating a blueprint for future Entrepreneurship undergraduate Programmes. Methodology: The approach is one that embraces an inductive and qualitative research methodology with data secured from three groups of respondents: undergraduate students, staff engaged in the delivery and support of entrepreneurial endeavour and external stakeholders contributing to an entrepreneurship agenda. Data were gathered from student participants by means of semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Data was secured from staff and external stakeholders via the mode of face-to-face semi-structured interviews. A multiple perspective methodology was employed in order to effectively provide a triangulation of perceptions on the development of an institutional entrepreneurial culture from a pragmatic perspective. The data were analysed and interpreted by way of template analysis (Stokes, Wall, 2014; Philips, Lawrence and Hardy, 2004; Hardy and Thomas, 2013). Contribution: This work expands upon the ways in which entrepreneurship education may be understood in the context of a comparatively small university in the north-west of England and extends the thinking into how practice may be extended to maximise undergraduate entrepreneurship. Most significantly, this research offers up a conceptual blueprint in the form of a model that demonstrates how entrepreneurially orientated mind-sets and behaviours may be fostered in undergraduates within the context of University of Chester

Nebraska Broadband Initiative

The Nebraska Public Service Commission, Nebras-ka Information Technology Commission Community Council (NITC), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED) and Applied Information Management (AIM) have cooperatively led the effort to address the broadband planning needs of Nebraska’s communities. UNL has led the planning component and is the fiscal agent for the planning part of the grant

Going it Alone or Working as Part of a Team: The Impact of Human Capital on Entrepreneurial Decision Making

This paper endeavours to measure the effect that human capital has on the decision taken by the entrepreneur to pursue new venture creation either in a lone capacity or collaboratively. This study applies a logit model to investigate the research relationships. The results show that three factors (experience, social perception and extrinsic motivation) are relevant in the decision to initiate a new venture either in a lone capacity or as part of a collaborative undertaking. The results indicate that previous experience holds the greatest significance on the decision taken by entrepreneurs to ‘go it alone’, with factors relating to social perception and extrinsic motivation chiefly predicting a decision to work collaboratively. The findings of this study provide new insight and evidence with regard to the factors that influence a key decision in the start-up process: that of continuing in a lone capacity, or proceeding as part of an entrepreneurial team.This paper endeavours to measure the effect that human capital has on the decision taken by the entrepreneur to pursue new venture creation either in a lone capacity or collaboratively. This study applies a logit model to investigate the research relationships. The results show that three factors (experience, social perception and extrinsic motivation) are relevant in the decision to initiate a new venture either in a lone capacity or as part of a collaborative undertaking. The results indicate that previous experience holds the greatest significance on the decision taken by entrepreneurs to ‘go it alone’, with factors relating to social perception and extrinsic motivation chiefly predicting a decision to work collaboratively. The findings of this study provide new insight and evidence with regard to the factors that influence a key decision in the start-up process: that of continuing in a lone capacity, or proceeding as part of an entrepreneurial team

Be a Part of the Plan - Engaging People - Linking the World

Exploring efforts to increase broadband adoption and utilization in Nebraska will increase community vitality and economic growth. The Nebraska Broadband Initiative, which is in its third year, is designed to increase adoption and utilization of broadband in communities/regions with an empasis on unserved and underserved regions. Following are a few highlights on current activities

Be a Part of the Plan - Engaging People - Linking the World

Exploring efforts to increase broadband adoption and utilization in Nebraska will increase community vitality and economic growth. The Nebraska Broadband Initiative, which is in its third year, is designed to increase adoption and utilization of broadband in communities/regions with an empasis on unserved and underserved regions. Following are a few highlights on current activities

The relationship between employee propensity to innovate and their decision to create a company

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the decision by employees’ to initiate a new venture, whilst continuing in employment. Based on survey data collected from employees working for a public organization, we provide evidence that an analysis of individuals’ propensity to innovate, provides an insight into entrepreneurial intention which increases in probability where there is a lower opportunity cost. This study contributes to the growing empirical literature on entrepreneurial intentions which currently lacks focus on employed potential entrepreneurs

Developing an Online Critical Care Electroencephalography Curriculum for Epilepsy and Neurophysiology Fellows

Purpose: This project aims to create an Electroencephalography (EEG) curriculum that synthesizes the teachings of current publications and faculty expertise within a single digital platform. The goal is to remedy the unmet need for a centralized resource for learners to use when learning EEG interpretation. Methods: The target learner population is epilepsy and neurophysiology fellows. The platform will be accessible from any computer, tablet, or phone, allowing for mobile, self-paced learning to take place. To date, the curriculum outline has been designed with extensive literature review and collaboration from other institutions, and two pilot modules have been completed using the story-board platform Articulate. Data about efficacy and usefulness will be collected via learner feedback forms when the program goes live. Results and Conclusions: We anticipate that fellows will appreciate the streamlined approach to learning high-yield topics in EEG interpretation. The hope is that the platform will save users time currently spent sifting through textbooks and publications because it incorporates a conglomerate of resources, including qualitative input from experts across the country. That time, in turn, can be spent with more targeted interactions with their teachers (the platform serves as a complement to the existing face-to-face instruction). Learning activities for progress-evaluation will be embedded within each module of the platform with the goal of allowing learners to self-identify areas of improvement to help focus studying efforts. Further results and conclusions will be recorded and updated as progress continues to be made

Elucidating the genetic basis of antioxidant status in lettuce (Lactuca sativa).

A diet rich in phytonutrients from fruit and vegetables has been acknowledged to afford protection against a range of human diseases, but many of the most popular vegetables are low in phytonutrients. Wild relatives of crops may contain allelic variation for genes determining the concentrations of these beneficial phytonutrients, and therefore understanding the genetic basis of this variation is important for breeding efforts to enhance nutritional quality. In this study, lettuce recombinant inbred lines, generated from a cross between wild and cultivated lettuce (Lactuca serriola and Lactuca sativa, respectively), were analysed for antioxidant (AO) potential and important phytonutrients including carotenoids, chlorophyll and phenolic compounds. When grown in two environments, 96 quantitative trait loci (QTL) were identified for these nutritional traits: 4 for AO potential, 2 for carotenoid content, 3 for total chlorophyll content and 87 for individual phenolic compounds (two per compound on average). Most often, the L. serriola alleles conferred an increase in total AOs and metabolites. Candidate genes underlying these QTL were identified by BLASTn searches; in several cases, these had functions suggesting involvement in phytonutrient biosynthetic pathways. Analysis of a QTL on linkage group 3, which accounted for >30% of the variation in AO potential, revealed several candidate genes encoding multiple MYB transcription factors which regulate flavonoid biosynthesis and flavanone 3-hydroxylase, an enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of the flavonoids quercetin and kaempferol, which are known to have powerful AO activity. Follow-up quantitative RT-PCR of these candidates revealed that 5 out of 10 genes investigated were significantly differentially expressed between the wild and cultivated parents, providing further evidence of their potential involvement in determining the contrasting phenotypes. These results offer exciting opportunities to improve the nutritional content and health benefits of lettuce through marker-assisted breeding