The moral legitimacy of entrepreneurs: An analysis of early-stage entrepreneurship across 26 countries

This article will develop our socio-cultural understanding of entrepreneurship by examining the influence of the moral legitimacy of entrepreneurs in society on an individual’s engagement in early-stage entrepreneurship. A multilevel analysis conducted across 26 countries shows that the higher the perceived degree of moral legitimacy, the more likely an individual is to think about starting a business compared to not thinking about it; to start preparing a business as against just considering it; or to found and run a business as compared to just engaging in preparation activities. We conclude that moral norms in society play an important role in early-stage entrepreneurship and that makes it important to legitimize the understanding of entrepreneurs as moral and beneficial for society as a whole.Peer reviewe

Determinants of job satisfaction for salaried and self-employed professionals in Finland

This article contributes to our knowledge of the determinants of job satisfaction by analysing the effects of employment status (self-employed or salaried employee) and work characteristics (autonomy, variety, task identity, task significance and feedback) on job satisfaction in a sample of 2327 Finnish professionals. The results of the analysis show that although the self-employed professionals are significantly more satisfied with their jobs than their salaried counterparts in Finland, employment status as such does not explain job satisfaction when the five work characteristics are added to the structural model. Furthermore, the analysis finds that task significance, variety and autonomy have similar effects on the level of job satisfaction among both employees and self-employed individuals, while feedback has a weaker effect when the individual is self-employed and task identity does not affect job satisfaction in either group. Overall, the study points to the need to develop jobs that are high in autonomy, variety and task significance for professionals in order to enhance job satisfaction

The Difficulty of Indicating Transformation: The Challenge for Library Statistics and Surveys

Academic libraries have long refined the tools and skills in order to show their positive impact to research, to science and to the overall society. The aim is to provide essential information for library managers and decision makers. However, the qualitative and quantitative analyses showing libraries’ impact should also provide indications about change, i.e. the transformation of such social practices that challenge the essence of libraries. This paper presents two sources of information for analysing libraries’ impact on the national level. The first is the Finnish Research Library Statistics Database and the second is the National Library End-User Survey of Finnish Libraries. The Database includes the annual statistics of all Finnish higher education institution libraries and also several special libraries. The End-User Survey is an online questionnaire aimed at the customers of all library sectors. These sources of information have been collected for several years and they can therefore reveal changes in time. They have been adjusted to the changing information needs and the transforming functions of libraries. Still, the society seems to transfer faster than these mechanisms can capture. This paper discusses reasons why the transformation of social practices may be out of the reach of traditional information sources for analysing libraries’ impact. There are methodological issues to be considered. Furthermore, the paper examines the newly-published ISO 16439 standard on impact evaluation. The aim is to discuss how the standard comports with the recent practices of national-level data collection. The paper ends with discussion on complementary information sources which can be useful in tracing societal transformation

Differences in acoustically determined sentence stress between native and L2 speakers of Finland Swedish

This study describes a pilot attempt to use acoustically determined sentence stress in distinguishing native and L2 speakers of Finland Swedish at different proficiency levels. The study is part of the DigiTala project that examines and develops automatic tools for spoken L2 assessment. Stressed syllables were detected in 235 L2 and 30 L1 speech samples using combinations of f0, intensity, and duration. Differences were found in the relative number of stressed syllables between native and L2 speakers using f0 and duration or all three features. Further research with more consistent speech data is needed to establish reliable automatic measures of sentence stress.nonPeerReviewe

Can Social Exclusion Against “Older Entrepreneurs” Be Managed?

This paper investigates how sources of social exclusion and support emerge within an “older” entrepreneur's immediate environment, and how this affects the development of their small business. Based on 22 in-depth interviews in London, United Kingdom, we suggest how older entrepreneurs with different backgrounds are able to manage social exclusion, and identify four coping strategies—passive negotiation, active negotiation, modification, and avoidance. We argue that, if “older entrepreneurship” (people starting a business aged 50 or older) is to flourish, both entrepreneurs and support initiatives need to become sensitive to the diversity of sources of discrimination and strategies to manage them