Daring to be different: a dialogue on the problems of getting qualitative research published.

Qualitative methodologies continue to proliferate in social sciences such as sociology and anthropology. Yet, despite this uptake they currently exist on the margins of entrepreneurship research. Indeed, Rae (2001) criticised entrepreneurship researchers for failing to make fuller use of sophisticated qualitative methodologies in researching at the frontiers of entrepreneurship. This chapter argues that there are valid structural and career orientated reasons why this is so. We argue that qualitative researchers often have to dare to be different. Writing up qualitative research is difficult because a judgement call has to be made whether to tailor the research towards a standard journal article or whether to allow the research to dictate the style and presentation of the finished article. Daring to be different may be a valued entrepreneurial trait and hence should be one that was appreciated by journal editors or reviewers in the field - alas, it is rarely so. Academic careers and reputations are built upon the reputation of achieving repeated publication in respected journals and by adhering to the conformity of accepted disciplinary peer conventions. Consequentially, this chapter documents the development of a research and publication strategy of one of its authors, suggesting some alternative publication strategies. Furthermore, it is an Impressionistic tale in the style of VanMaanen (1988), written in a dialogic, conversational style with a colleague

The moral space in entrepreneurship: an exploration of ethical imperatives and the moral legitimacy of being enterprising.

This paper explores the morality associated with entrepreneurship. It has been argued that there is no moral space in entrepreneurship, but such instrumental views may miss out much of the nature of enterprise and how it is understood. Consequently we propose that a socially-constructed perspective, based upon the meanings of entrepreneurship, may help to understand the morality of entrepreneurship. By applying such a lens, we find that the narratives and discourses of the meanings of entrepreneurship are ideological and clearly present a moral space. This space lies between the individual and society and is normatively articulated in entrepreneurial discourses. We develop a tentative framework which links values and outcomes that shows how 'authenticated' entrepreneurship, that is to say that which resonates with a socially approved moral dimension, is legitimized by comparisons with the socially constructed view. The empirical part of the paper comprises of two case stories. The first is a local garage owner who has a reputation as a decent man; the second is a notorious, but entrepreneurial London gangster. Our analysis shows that to be judged 'entrepreneurial', it is not enough to act entrepreneurially; the social constructs of public perceptions entail examining both moral means and moral ends. We conclude that there is a moral imperative in entrepreneurship

Recognizing meaning: semiotics in entrepreneurial research.

Entrepreneurship is a process which involves discontinuity and change; entrepreneurs create disequilibria and exploit the resulting change. Thus, entrepreneurship is in essence change. This fundamental characteristic of entrepreneurship makes it difficult to pin down or even to categorise. But certain aspects of entrepreneurial change remain similar through space and time, so that the exploration of the signs and symbolism of enterprise can provide us with the tools to picture a continuity of meaning. Semiotics, the doctrine of signs, is a useful tool for exploring the depth and scope of what we mean by entrepreneurship. Consequently this chapter argues that an appreciation of entrepreneurial semiotics enables an understanding of the meanings of enterprise; what it is; how it is practised; why it is practised and why it is encouraged. Many of these meanings lie at the ideological level, they are taken for granted, often implicit, rarely explicit, but analysis of entrepreneurial symbolism gives us some purchase in understanding. By reading and analysis, the decoding of signifiers enables us to get beneath the taken-for-granted iconographic, to begin to understand the nature of entrepreneurial meanings

The devil is in the e-tale: form and structure in the entrepreneurial narrative.

In this chapter we explore the genre of Entrepreneurial Tales, which we refer to as e-tales. The title is an obvious parody of the proverb, The devil is in the detail and reflects the power of entrepreneurial narratives, a power that stems from the normative detail embedded in the moral content of the e-tale. We use the term tale in preference to other descriptors, as the word tale is associated with imaginative creation and even fiction, and also because tales explain themselves. Tales encompass morality and immorality. The purpose of the paper is to show how moral details play an important role in communicating values as a framework to entrepreneurial actions. We demonstrate that morality is an important detail of e-tales and forms a common master theme. The chapter explains what we mean by e-tales and shows how they form narratives which exhort entrepreneurship. We attempt to illustrate how they operate, essentially as instrumental examples - ways of showing that entrepreneurship can be done. We also show how these examples are set in a moral context, one which appears to promote an entrepreneurial ethos replete with an underpinning of moral values. To develop our argument the chapter is organised by first discussing the role of narrative as a cultural dialogue and how narrative provides a legimising frame of reference which is both sensemaking and sensegiving. We then explore the entrepreneurial narrative and show how e-tales confirm the righteousness of entrepreneurial actions by signifying a moral framework and a legitimising context. E-tales are argued to first promote entrepreneurship as practice by emphasising independence, perseverance and the value of success, especially in the face of adversity. They affirm a right way but, the devil in the e-tale, also demonstrate the fall from grace when appropriate ethical conduct is not maintained. Several examples of narrative are then considered. First the classic hagiographic tales of Horatio Alger and Samuel Smiles are presented as stereotypcal examples of e-tales. Next we find confirmation of the same elements in both biographies and novels about entrepreneurs. We also note the similarities in academic commentries about the use of metaphor in narrative. Finally we explore personal e-tales and conclude that e-tales have a definitive structure which emphasises the twin virues of morality and success

Faster variational quantum algorithms with quantum kernel-based surrogate models

We present a new optimization method for small-to-intermediate scale variational algorithms on noisy near-term quantum processors which uses a Gaussian process surrogate model equipped with a classically-evaluated quantum kernel. Variational algorithms are typically optimized using gradient-based approaches however these are difficult to implement on current noisy devices, requiring large numbers of objective function evaluations. Our scheme shifts this computational burden onto the classical optimizer component of these hybrid algorithms, greatly reducing the number of queries to the quantum processor. We focus on the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm and demonstrate numerically that such surrogate models are particularly well suited to the algorithm's objective function. Next, we apply these models to both noiseless and noisy VQE simulations and show that they exhibit better performance than widely-used classical kernels in terms of final accuracy and convergence speed. Compared to the typically-used stochastic gradient-descent approach for VQAs, our quantum kernel-based approach is found to consistently achieve significantly higher accuracy while requiring less than an order of magnitude fewer quantum circuit evaluations. We analyse the performance of the quantum kernel-based models in terms of the kernels' induced feature spaces and explicitly construct their feature maps. Finally, we describe a scheme for approximating the best-performing quantum kernel using a classically-efficient tensor network representation of its input state and so provide a pathway for scaling these methods to larger systems

Conforming non-conformists: semiotic manifestations of an entrepreneurial identity.

Existing research has exposed the role of myth and metaphor in the social construction of entrepreneurship. This study considers the physical images portrayed, an appreciation of which presents a useful additional dimension in understanding the entrepreneurial construct. The role of image and identity is seldom considered in serious entrepreneurial academic work although it forms a concrete presentation of expectation, albeit of a stereotypical nature. The categorisation and analysis of the components of an entrepreneurial identity widens our knowledge about entrepreneurship as a socio-economic phenomenon. These images form part of the identity of enterprise, a physical manifestation of a nebulas phenomenon and act as visual metaphors. This study extends research into the entrepreneurial narrative by the semiotic analysis of entrepreneurial imagery, examining how these entrepreneurial identities and images are constructed in narrative and in the media as a semiotic formula, which surprisingly has much in common with class based, criminal iconology

Tidal influences on cluster dwarf evolution

Using N-Body/Treecode, SPH simulations, including a self regulating Star Formation-feedback model, the influence of cluster tidal forces on infalling dwarf irregulars is investigated. Results suggest that an encounter with the cluster potential can disrupt a rotating disk causing morphological transformation of the gaseous component, resulting in an enhancement of star formation rates (SFRs) of up to an order of magnitude

Becoming, being and belonging entrepreneurial establishment: alternative views of the social construction of entrepreneurship

This paper is concerned with extending our understanding of the entrepreneurial process. Taking a fresh look at the mature stages of entrepreneurship process, the study looks at, being an entrepreneur and belonging to a recognisable grouping of entrepreneurs. Previous entrepreneurship research focused upon the entrepreneur of humble origins. We use a narrative approach for the semiotic analysis of entrepreneurs' storyboards at the BABSON College Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence hall of fame in the USA. Exploring ideologies lying behind the semiotic displays of individual entrepreneurs' storyboards, we unveil the symbolic presentations. The paper discusses different levels of analysis and shows how entrepreneurial ideology can be transmitted. We find that the storyboards of entrepreneurs assist as a heuristic and semiotic mechanism for transmitting the important cultural issues such as values, tradition and heritage. Because of this, we propose that the established entrepreneurial elite play a central role in the social construction of entrepreneurship. They do as role models and in so doing build, develop and perpetuate the tradition of entrepreneurship. Surprisingly we find a tradition of entrepreneurship, as this is a paradoxical position for non-traditional nature of the entrepreneurship. Yet, the social cherishment of enterprise presents a set of individual actions so that a tradition, a behavioural tradition, exists about socially and economically revered sets of activities surrounding the entrepreneurial process. Knowing how and where entrepreneurial values are communicated helps the understanding of entrepreneurial learning. The wider implications of the study are that it aids attempts to improve the social construction of the entrepreneurial mindset

Hot Horizontal Branch Stars in the Galactic Bulge. I

We present the first results of a survey of blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars in the Galactic bulge. 164 candidates with 15 < V < 17.5 in a field 7.5deg from the Galactic Center were observed in the blue at 2.4A FWHM resolution with the AAT 2dF spectrograph. Radial velocities were measured for all stars. For stars with strong Balmer lines, their profiles were matched to theoretical spectrum calculations to determine stellar temperature Teff and gravity log g; matches to metal lines yielded abundances. CTIO UBV photometry then gave the reddening and distance to each hot star. Reddening was found to be highly variable, with E(B-V) from 0.0 to 0.55 around a mean of 0.28. Forty-seven BHB candidates were identified with Teff >= 7250K, of which seven have the gravities of young stars, three are ambiguous, and 37 are HB stars. They span a wide metallicity range, from solar to 1/300 solar. The warmer BHB's are more metal-poor and loosely concentrated towards the Galactic center, while the cooler ones are of somewhat higher metallicity and closer to the center. Their red B-V colors overlap main-sequence stars, but the U-B vs. B-V diagram separates them until E(B-V) > 0.5. We detect two cool solar-metallicity HB stars in the bulge of our own Galaxy, the first such stars known. Still elusive are their hot counterparts, the metal-rich sdB/O stars causing excess UV light in metal-rich galaxies; they have V ~ 20.5 in the Bulge.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures (the third with 4 panels, the fourth with 2 panels). To appear in the Astrophysical Journal v571n1, Jan. 20, 2000. Abstract is shortened here, and figures compresse