The Fruitcake Capital of the World

Two different fruitcake companies in the same small town are discussed and their widely different strategies are presented. Each of the entrepreneurs began working with a “master baker” as little boys but later followed different paths to develop a successful fruitcake business. A brief history of the fruitcake is offered as evidence that the product has been around for hundreds of years and will likely not go away anytime soon in spite of the ridicule and humor that has surrounded fruitcakes during the past twenty-five years

The Fruitcake Capital of the World

Two different fruitcake companies in the same small town are discussed and their widely different strategies are presented. Each of the entrepreneurs began working with a “master baker” as little boys but later followed different paths to develop a successful fruitcake business. A brief history of the fruitcake is offered as evidence that the product has been around for hundreds of years and will likely not go away anytime soon in spite of the ridicule and humor that has surrounded fruitcakes during the past twenty-five years

Generalizability Revisited: Comparing Undergraduate Business Students to Credit Union Managers

This paper looks at the use of college students in survey research. Specifically examined is the use of undergraduate business school students to generalize to adult populations of practicing managers. Some studies suggest that such generalizations are valid, while others argue that generalizations need to be undertaken with caution. The differences between particularistic research and universalistic research are discussed. The findings from a study of 69 undergraduate business majors and 67 practicing credit union managers are presented. In summary, the current study finds that the two groups are very different in terms of two well researched personality constructs: locus of control and need for achievement, hence caution should be taken when generalizing findings from one group to the other

Generalizability Revisited: Comparing Undergraduate Business Students to Credit Union Managers

This paper looks at the use of college students in survey research. Specifically examined is the use of undergraduate business school students to generalize to adult populations of practicing managers. Some studies suggest that such generalizations are valid, while others argue that generalizations need to be undertaken with caution. The differences between particularistic research and universalistic research are discussed. The findings from a study of 69 undergraduate business majors and 67 practicing credit union managers are presented. In summary, the current study finds that the two groups are very different in terms of two well researched personality constructs: locus of control and need for achievement, hence caution should be taken when generalizing findings from one group to the other

Global Outsourcing: A Study of Student Attitudes

This paper presents the results of a survey designed to assess students’ attitudes toward global outsourcing. A survey of attitudes toward outsourcing jobs abroad was administered to 284 undergraduate and graduate university students. Descriptive statistics, frequencies and MANOVA methods were used to analyze the data collected. Statistically significant differences with attitudes were found among the students’ level of knowledge, age, gender, major, and classification. Essentially what was learned is that overall, business majors are more positive toward global outsourcing than are non-business majors. However, it was also learned that older students (\u3e25) and MBA students are more pessimistic toward global outsourcing. Those “older” and MBA’s were mostly concerned with the impact of such outsourcing on jobs. Implications for teaching international business are also discussed

Global Outsourcing: A Study of Student Attitudes

The practice of global outsourcing by U.S.A. companies is frequently the source of heated debate. Recently a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll found that 86% of Americans believe that outsourcing is the number one factor contributing to the country’s continuing economic distress. This study presents the results of a survey designed to assess the attitudes toward global outsourcing among business students and non business students at a large regional university in the Southeast U.S.A. A survey of attitudes toward global outsourcing was administered to 284 undergraduate and graduate students. Descriptive statistics, frequencies and MANOVA methods were used to analyze the data collected. Statistically significant differences with attitudes were found among the students\u27 level of knowledge, age, gender, major, and classification. The results indicate business majors are more positive toward global outsourcing than are non-business majors. Another finding is that older students (\u3e25) and MBA students are more pessimistic toward global outsourcing. Those “older” and MBA’s were mostly concerned with the impact of such outsourcing on jobs. Implications for teaching international business are discussed

Family Values and Inter-Institutional Governance of Strategic Decision Making in Indian Family Firms

In this paper we use new venture creation in Indian family firms to explore the family firm as an inter-institutional system. We argue that in societies where the traditional family dominates social and economic life, the relationship between the two institutions, the firm and the family, is managed via inter-institutional logics. These inter-institutional logics help reconcile the tensions that often arise in the family firms during strategic decision-making. We use archival and interview data on thirty-six new ventures in eight Indian family firms to identify these logics. Our analysis shows that the interaction between firm and family institutional logics in Indian family firms generates four sub-logics: Economic, Expertise, Reputation and Attachment. These four logics are used to frame and screen new venture opportunities and justify resource allocation

What Goes on at Home Doesn’t Stay at Home: The Effect Of Family Related Conflict on Interpreting and Dealing With Common Workplace Events

Decisions made by managers in response to common workplace events often have important consequences. These decisions can include dealing with personnel issues, resources issues and procedural issues. A logic-based decision-making process requiring substantial information search and analysis can be very complex and time consuming. Managers frequently face conflicting demands for time and cognitive resources from their family and their job that adversely affect their ability to perform both roles effectively. Adverse effects of these conflicting roles that impede their decision-making processes can result from reduced time, energy and attention available to properly gather and analyze information for each major business or family decision and by increasing the number of major decisions to be made. This study assessed the effect of conflict between family and work roles on the information search behavior in a sample of credit union executives. The study found evidence of significant relationships between the amount of work-family and family-work conflict and the effect certain personal and impersonal information sources had on the actions these executives took in dealing with events that were both important and commonly encountered in the workplace. The significant relationships were positive and were more frequently related to impersonal information sources

Ways Executives Interpret and Act Upon Common Workplace Events: Implications for the Entrepreneurial Executive

Entrepreneurial executives actively seek opportunities for their companies. Their efforts to identify these opportunities and commercially exploit them can be greatly enhanced by executives that actively seek information that leads to opportunity recognition and constructively collaborate with their peers to aid in the exploitation of those opportunities. This study assesses the effect of the Need for Closure (NFC) on the degree credit union executives rely on their own experiences and coworkers of equal hierarchical rank in interpreting common workplace events. The patterns of behavior they exhibited in interpreting and acting on these events should also be reflective of how these individuals would pursue entrepreneurial activities. Respondents were classified into two equal size groups based on their NFC (Webster & Kruglanski, 1994; Kruglanski, Webster & Klem, 1993) scale scores. The high and low NFC group scores on the Event Management Questionnaire (Smith, Peterson & Schwartz, 2002) reflecting their reliance on their own experiences and coworkers of equal hierarchical rank were then compared. The results supported the hypothesis that NFC would be negatively related to the reliance on coworkers but did not support the hypothesis that NFC would be positively related to reliance on the executives\u27 prior experience. Post hoc analysis revealed that the relationship between NFC and reliance on coworkers was only significant in the case of female respondents. Conference Proceeding

Environmental Sector Importance as a Determinant of Managerial Search Behavior

Presentation given at the Allied Academies 2014 Summer Internet Conference