The notion of growth: A research agenda for SMEs and entrepreneurs

Academics within the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) sector have been working towards identifying the factors that are impediments to the growth and development of SMEs around the world. This article attempts to understand the ‘notion of growth’ as experienced by SMEs in Wales and East India (particularly West Bengal), by exploring the narratives of entrepreneurs within those regions (see images 1 and 2 below). Our research is primarily qualitative in nature and is based on a semi-structured interview approach in Wales, and on narrative inquiry in India. We believe that such a methodology is critical in understanding the notion of growth, and our method involved interviewing established entrepreneurs in order to ascertain their multiple perspectives on growth. We assert the importance in Government policy formulation of understanding and using the language of growth as defined by the ‘context’ of the entrepreneurs. Our research approach: briefly, our research involved the collection and interpretation of both qualitative and quantitative data. In Wales, we worked with six gender-balanced focus groups, each consisting of eight business-owners who represent a range of MSMEs across the regions. Group discussions were augmented by in-depth 1:1 interviews. We also conducted a comprehensive, questionnaire-based pan-Wales telephone survey. In West Bengal, we engaged in a narrative inquiry, derived from 1:1 conversations and field notes, with a group of eight male entrepreneurs. Requests for confidentiality were a particular issue here. We selected the West Bengal Chamber of Commerce and CREDAI – (the Bengal branch of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India), as well as other forums that we mention throughout this article, according to their relevance to thematic analysis of the data we collected. If you would like a more detailed account of our sampling and research methods, please feel free to contact Nihar Amoncar.N/

Informal social learning dynamics and entrepreneurial knowledge acquisition in a micro food learning network

his paper expands and contextualises social perspectives on entrepreneurial learning by considering the informal learning dynamics and outcomes in a facilitated learning network (FLN) targeting micro-entrepreneurs within the local food sector. This research builds new theoretical and empirical knowledge on the contributions of FLN as a community of inquiry (CoI) to support entrepreneurial knowledge acquisition. Our research strategy was a single embedded case study with the units of analysis consisting of 12 micro-firms within the local meat industry in Norway. In retrospective in-depth interviews, founder-managers reflected on their learning from others from participation in a local-food learning network. Three main themes emerged from our analysis, reflecting the informal regulating mechanisms for knowledge sharing and how entrepreneurs acquired new entrepreneurial knowledge: (1) cultural norms stabilising the community of inquiry, (2) engagement in the practices of others regulates access to community knowledge and (3) from community inquiry to individual entrepreneurial knowledge. Based on these themes, we built a conceptual framework showing informal knowledge-sharing mechanisms and the individual micro-entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial knowledge acquisition in a CoI. Our study contributes to the research stream on social entrepreneurial learning and how learning from others in a CoI enhances entrepreneurial learning.acceptedVersio

Ein deutsches Nibelungen-Triptychon : die Nibelungenfilme und der Deutschen Not

Der vorliegende Aufsatz versucht, mittels der filmsoziologischen Methode Kracauers und unter Berücksichtigung seiner Prämissen, das Erscheinen der Nibelungenverfilmungen aus ihrem soziohistorischen Kontext heraus zu erklären. Es wird sich nicht nur zeigen, dass das gesellschaftspolitische Klima sich in den Nibelungenfilmen (1924, 1966 und 2004) in frappierender Weise niederschlägt: Es soll auch untersucht werden, ob umgekehrt das Maß an Popularität des Nibelungenstoffes innerhalb Deutschlands zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt als Indikator für eine spezifische Mentalität der Bevölkerung geeignet ist, genauer: Ob es signifikante Anzeichen dafür gibt, das wirtschaftliche Krise, nationalistische Tendenzen und die Hinwendung der Filmindustrie zum Nibelungenstoff korrelieren

The EU in Times of COVID-19: Together into a Future Based on (More) Solidarity?

The outbreak of the COVID-19-pandemic in spring 2020 put solidarity within the European Union to the test and called for far-reaching responses by all member states to mitigate the pandemic’s effects. But how does this crisis affect public support for transnational solidarity in the European Union? Are EU citizens willing to collectively overcome a financial crisis caused by the COVID-19-pandemic? And what is the public opinion on the establishment of a fictional EU-wide fund to mitigate future crises? Those questions have been addressed by a multi-country survey run by the ‘Solikris’-project. A resulting analysis in the project’s Policy Brief #5 shows that particularly the macroeconomic differences between countries correlate with attitudes towards solidarity policies and that transnational solidarity is higher in situations of acute crisis.Der Ausbruch der COVID-19-Pandemie im Frühjahr 2020 stellte die Solidarität innerhalb der Europäischen Union auf die Probe und erforderte weitreichende Reaktionen aller Mitgliedsstaaten, um die Auswirkungen der Pandemie zu mildern. Doch wie wirkt sich diese Krise auf die öffentliche Unterstützung für transnationale Solidarität in der Europäischen Union aus? Sind die EU-Bürger*innen bereit, eine durch die COVID-19-Pandemie verursachte Finanzkrise kollektiv zu bewältigen? Und wie ist die öffentliche Meinung zur Einrichtung eines fiktiven EU-weiten Fonds zur Abfederung zukünftiger Krisen? Diese Fragen wurden in einer länderübergreifenden Umfrage des ‘Solikris’-Projekts untersucht. Eine daraus resultierende Analyse im Policy Brief #5 des Projekts zeigt, dass insbesondere die makroökonomischen Unterschiede zwischen den Ländern mit den Einstellungen zur Solidaritätspolitik korrelieren und dass die transnationale Solidarität in akuten Krisensituationen höher is

Was EU-wide vaccine procurement the strategy Germans wanted?

Last year the EU made the decision to buy and distribute COVID-19 vaccines centrally, which has since proved controversial. Ann-Kathrin Reinl, Steffen Pötzschke and Alexia Katsanidou (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) surveyed public opinion to find out whether Germans initially agreed with the strategy

Creating A New Sports Division The Importance of Protecting Women’s Sports While Encouraging Sportsmanlike Competition

Creating a new sports division: The importance of protecting women’s sports while encouraging sportsmanlike competition The foundation of sports is to encourage respectful and fair competition between two or more individuals. For those who choose to participate, they are pursuing the happiness they find in competition, others have found their livelihood in sports, and most find liberty in their carefree activities. Given the recent rise in the popularity of the transgender community, it is natural for members that want to compete in sports, specifically women’s sports. However, with that there are also those who would abuse this popularity to support their own gain in sports dishonestly. This is witnessed through the distrust between sis and transgender individuals when it comes to cross participation, specifically transgender women in women’s sports. The only solution to appease both sides, defenders of women’s sports and transgender women’s competition, is creating a new division specifically for transgender women. In doing so, this protects and encourages the completion of both women and transgender women. In my proposal presentation I will discuss the need for a separate division for transgender athletes in both collegiate and high school levels. I will be going over the different criteria between the rules the Olympic Committee has established for transgender athletes and the rules college level athletes have to follow. Then highlight athletes like Lia Thomas and how they have taken advantage of the lack of protection behind women’s sports. Then finally turning back to Title IX to back up the support for women’s sports written into law and how the trans community would also benefit just as millions of women have benefited

Giuseppe Becce (1877 - 1973) : manchmal unter den Pseudonymen: Peter Bechstein, Dr. Bechstein, Peter Becker

Giuseppe Becce wurde am 3.2.1877 in Lonigo bei Vicenza in Italien geboren. Er hatte 6 Geschwister. Sein musikalisches Talent wurde schon als Kind entdeckt. In Padua lernte er Cello und Flöte spielen. Bereits im Alter von 20 arbeitete er als Dirigent des Universitätsorchesters, studierte dabei Geografie und Philologie. 1900 kam er nach Berlin, setzte sein Geografie-Studium fort, belegte aber auch Seminare in der Musik (bei Leopold Schmidt und Arthur Nikisch), die immer mehr zum Lebensmittelpunkt wurde. Außerdem schrieb Becce in den 1910er Jahren Kriegs- und Kriminalromane (z.T. unter dem Pseudonym „Peter Becker“). 1910 hatte die erste Oper (Das Bett der Pompadour) Premiere. Becce heiratete die Schriftstellerin Emma Woop, die viele Jahre später Texte für seine Lieder schrieb

Residents’ Social Relationships in Everyday Life in a Tourism Ancient Town

This study uses several theories to explain the daily social relationship among various groups of actors residing in a tourism destination. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, surveys, non-participant observation, and secondary documents. The study investigates the social relationships between residents and tourists, within and between locals and migrants, and within and between tourism and non-tourism practitioners. Results reveal that each group has its own communication circles, where communication happens mainly within the same group based on residents’ original social networks and only partly between different groups due to new business-related social networks. Inner-group communications and different degrees of inter-group isolation exist among the resident groups. The causes were discussed. The findings are significant for the sustainability of a tourism ancient town

What the new German government means for the country’s European policy

How will German European policy change under the country’s new government? Drawing on new data, Ann-Kathrin Reinl and Stefan Wallaschek show that the three coalition partners – the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens, and the Free Democrats (FDP) – are not nearly as close to each other on EU issues as one might assume. Much will depend on how the government can reconcile the pro-EU positions of the Greens with the soft Euroscepticism of the FDP