The bribery paradox in transition economies and the enactment of ‘new normal’ business environments

We develop a novel, sensemaking perspective on corruption in transition economies. Prior research has focused on understanding why some entrepreneurs are more likely to pay bribes than others. It typically assumes that paying bribes will lead to an intended – albeit unfair – competitive advantage. We challenge this assumption and uncover a bribery paradox: drawing upon sensemaking logic, we argue that beyond gaining an immediate benefit from bribing, entrepreneurs who frequently pay bribes may in the longer run be enacting a ‘new normal’ business environment perceived as high in obstacles, especially in transition countries. As sensemaking is grounded in identity construction and one’s social context, we argue that owners of family firms will be especially vulnerable to the dangers of perceiving greater obstacles over time and enacting an obstacle‐ridden ‘new normal’ business environment. We find empirical support for our framework on a sample of 310 privately‐held small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) from 22 transition economies

Pitching to the Home Shopping Network: An Exercise in Opportunity Assessment and Personal Selling

The purpose of this exercise is to help students of entrepreneurship understand opportunity assessment and the personal selling process. After watching a short video about the challenges and opportunities of launching a product on the Home Shopping Network (video is optional), students are asked to identify a unique product that could be successfully sold on the Home Shopping Network (HSN). Students are then required to pitch their product to the class demonstrating how their product suits HSN’s requirements, meets customer needs, and can be personally sold effectively to the network’s audience. By participating in this exercise students will experience the opportunity assessment process, aspects of marketing strategies, and the importance of personal selling

Pitching to the Home Shopping Network: An Exercise in Opportunity Assessment and Personal Selling

The purpose of this exercise is to help students of entrepreneurship understand opportunity assessment and the personal selling process. After watching a short video about the challenges and opportunities of launching a product on the Home Shopping Network (video is optional), students are asked to identify a unique product that could be successfully sold on the Home Shopping Network (HSN). Students are then required to pitch their product to the class demonstrating how their product suits HSN’s requirements, meets customer needs, and can be personally sold effectively to the network’s audience. By participating in this exercise students will experience the opportunity assessment process, aspects of marketing strategies, and the importance of personal selling

The paradox of the contented female business owner

According to survey responses from 201 business owners, although the firms of male business owners were more successful than those of female business owners on frequently used measures of business success (business performance compared to competitors and sales), business owner sex did not predict satisfaction with business success, supporting the existence of a “paradox of the contented female business owner”. A differential values explanation for this paradox was strongly supported, whereas a differential inputs explanation was unsupported. Female business owners placed less value on achieving business success than their male counterparts. Also, female business owners’ satisfaction with business success was less related to fluctuations in business performance and sales than that of male business owners. However, results for male business owners displayed a different kind of paradox, as their satisfaction with business success was positively related to business performance and negatively related to sales

Linking family-to-business enrichment and support to entrepreneurial success:do female and male entrepreneurs experience different outcomes?

This study used survey data from 253 entrepreneurs who founded small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to examine how experiences in their family domain may benefit their experiences in their business domain. Specifically, it hypothesized that affective family-to-business enrichment, instrumental family-to-business enrichment, and family-to-business support would be positively related to entrepreneurial success and that each relationship would be more positive for female entrepreneurs than male entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial success was assessed by economic measures (business performance, growth in employment) and measures of satisfaction with the entrepreneurial experience (satisfaction with status, satisfaction with employee relationships). Results offered substantial support for the notion that female entrepreneurs benefit from the linkages of family-to-business enrichment and support to entrepreneurial success, whereas they offered no support for the notion that male entrepreneurs benefit from these linkages. Female entrepreneurs may experience such benefits because of their relative lack of access to other resources such as human, social, and financial capital and because the female gender role encourages them to pursue work–family synergies. In contrast, male entrepreneurs may fail to experience such benefits because of the relative abundance of other resources available to them and because the male gender role discourages them from pursuing work–family synergies

The role of gender identity in explaining sex differences in business owners' career satisfier preferences

This study examines how gender identity explains what male and female business owners look for from their careers. Results suggest that gender identity, represented by the dimensions of masculinity and femininity, serves as a cognitive mechanism that contributes to sex differences in business owners' career satisfier preferences. Masculinity mediates the relationship between sex and preferences for status-based satisfiers. Femininity mediates the relationships between sex and preferences for employee relationship satisfiers and contribution to society satisfiers. These results support the view that entrepreneurship is a gendered process and that incorporation of a feminine perspective into entrepreneurial theories and research is needed