Technology Readiness, Learning Goals, and eLearning: Searching for Synergy

More and more business schools are offering classes online or classes using a mix of face-to-face and online elements. In this article, we focus on how technology readiness and learning-goal orientation influence students’ preference toward these mixed classes. We conducted a large-scale survey to determine whether students who are technology ready would place higher utility on enrolling in mixed classes and/or whether there exists a participation bias such that students with low learning-goal orientation place higher utility on enrolling in mixed classes. We found that overall students who are more technology ready do place higher utility on enrolling in mixed classes, but that learning goal orientation does not influence this decision. We conclude with implications and recommendations for business schools that are interested in offering mixed classes

Emergent leadership : the function of personality and cognitive ability in determining team performance, KSAs, and satisfaction

Includes bibliographical references (pages [51]-56)This study investigated the theoretical underpinnings of individual differences in emergent leadership and their relationships to teamwork processes and outcomes. Both personality and cognitive ability were utilized to examine leadership emergence, team performance, KSAs, and member satisfaction. Three hundred and twenty undergraduate psychology students completed personality and cognitive ability tests and then formed sixty-seven mixed-gender teams. Upon their participation in a group simulation, members rated each other on emergent leadership as well as their team on specific interpersonal and self-management KSAs. Team members also indicated their overall satisfaction with the decision-making activity, communication capabilities, and leadership contributions in finalizing their judgments during the simulation. Results revealed that extroversion, openness to experience, and cognitive ability were predictive of emergent leadership. Conscientiousness and cognitive ability were associated with team performance while extroversion was related to the satisfaction measures of decision making and communication. Altogether, personality traits augmented cognitive ability in predicting both of these satisfaction measures.M.A. (Master of Arts

Women-owned family businesses in transitional economies: key influences on firm innovativeness and sustainability

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. It was originally published in the Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2014, 3:8.This research presents an examination of familial influence on strategic entrepreneurial behaviors within a transitional economic context. Utilizing a large sample of women-led family businesses, the study investigates the relationships between risk-taking propensity, entrepreneurial intensity, and opportunity recognition of the entrepreneur and the innovative orientation of the firm and sustainability. A model of the influences on innovativeness and sustainability in family firms is developed, and the potential contribution of the present study is the identification of constructs that facilitate these strategic outcomes and behaviors that drive growth. The degree to which family firms can create new products, services, and processes that add value to their marketplace can strongly influence their sustainability, especially in an emerging economy

THE ROAD LESS INTENDED: INTEGRATING ENTREPRENEURIAL COGNITION AND RISK IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION

In this paper, we review recent developments in the fields of cognitive theory and risk in order to highlight generally overlooked dilemmas in entrepreneurship education. Such dilemmas concern the amount of planning necessary to succeed in creating a new business and the extent to which educators should boost students' intentions and self perceptions. We suggest that integrating research on entrepreneurial cognition and risk provides a theoretical perspective that enables the identification of these dilemmas and guides practice in a more effective and balanced way. We introduce two modes of thinking — analysis and intuition — and succinctly layout their implications in terms of risk throughout the different phases of the entrepreneurial process, including the development of entrepreneurial intentions and the passage to action. We then present an entrepreneurship education program conceived to develop both kinds of thinking and to minimize risks by providing students a knowledge-resource base that can enable them to critically examine their projects and then proceed down the road of transforming intentions into action if so desired. In presenting such a program, we show how a sequence of entrepreneurship education experiences may help to develop both the analytic and intuitive skills necessary to succeed in the different aspects of the entrepreneurial process.