Book review : Entrepreneurship in the creative industries : an international perspective

Colette Henry (Ed) (2007) Entrepreneurship in the Creative Industries: An International Perspective, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, United Kingdom<br /

International sport marketing : practical and future research implications

Purpose &ndash; Sport is a global product and service that many people around the world enjoy playing, watching and participating in. Whilst there has been an abundance of global media attention on sporting events such as the Olympics and World Football Cup, there seems to be a lack of integration between the sports marketing and international business disciplines both from a practical and also academic standpoint. This paper aims to discuss international sport marketing and why it is an important attribute of business-to-business marketing. Design/methodology/approach &ndash; The aim of the paper is to provide practical implications and research avenues for those seeking to further investigate international sport marketing as a unique area of academic research. The introduction to the paper focuses on the importance of sport to the global economy and how entrepreneurship is ingrained in many sport businesses and organizations. Next, different areas of international business management that relate to entrepreneurial sport marketing ventures are discussed in terms of future research directions and practical implications. These include how entrepreneurial sport ventures affect internationalization, branding, corporate social responsibility, tourism, regional development, marketing and action sports.Findings &ndash; The paper concludes by finding that there are numerous research avenues for future research on international sport marketing that combine different areas of marketing together with the sport marketing and international business literature. In addition, there is enormous potential for linking the sports marketing and international business literature through focusing on entrepreneurial sport ventures that occur worldwide.Research limitations/implications &ndash; The authors demonstrate the need to take an international perspective of sports marketing and business-to-business relationships.Practical implications &ndash; The paper discusses how and why sport firms interact in the international marketplace and how future competition will benefit from more sport-based business-to-business partnerships.Originality/value &ndash; The paper examines the important area of international sports marketing and how businesses that are both profit and non-profit orientated collaborate. The paper explores the concept of international sports marketing, and discusses the practical and future research implications of this exciting new field of marketing research.<br /

Book review : The making of the European Union : foundations, institutions and future trends

Whilst there are many books on the European Union (EU), this recently published book by four scholars is a comprehensive and important addition to the research on Europe. As the title of the book suggests, the EU is impacted by historical events and is shaped by future trends. The authors of this book include eight chapters on the EU that range from an analysis of the EU\u27s development from a free trading area to having a common currency to how the EU is changing in terms of diversity and consumer trends. The book contains the most recent figures that are available on the EU and these figures are presented in useful tables to explain developments in the EU. This book stands out from the existing books on the EU by combining a cultural and historical analysis together with current discourse on the EU. The book is easy to read and is very suitable for both scholars, public policy practitioners and general readers who want a holistic book that incorporates a diverse range of topics on the EU.<br /

Book review : Handbook of research in entrepreneurship education : volume 2

Alain Fayolle (Ed) (2007) Handbook of Research in Entrepreneurship Education: Volume 2, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, United Kingdom<br /

Book review : International entrepreneurship in family businesses

J.C. Casillas, F.J. Acedo and A.M. Moreno (2007) International Entrepreneurship in Family Businesses, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, ISBN 978 1 845428792<br /

The impact of sports on team performance management

Purpose &ndash; The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on the relationship of performance management to sports teams. Design/methodology/approach &ndash; The paper explains the importance of performance management to sports teams and justifies the need for the special issue. Findings &ndash; The paper finds that there are a variety of different types of teams that operate in the sports context, including professional league teams, college teams, teams at the workplace, volunteer teams and coaching teams. Originality/value &ndash; This editorial provides an overview of this special issue, which comprises eight original papers that are best practice examples of the latest developments in the research on teams in the sports context. Each of these articles is briefly discussed in terms of its contribution to the literature.<br /

Social cognitive theory in technological innovation

Purpose &ndash; The aim of this paper is to understand the behavior that Australian youths have towards wireless application protocol (WAP) banking.Design/methodology/approach &ndash; This paper is based on a quantitative study of the youth market in Australia. Social cognitive theory is utilized to support a conceptual model that is empirically tested.Findings &ndash; The major finding from the research is that the conceptual model is partially supported which indicates the immaturity of WAP technology.Originality/value &ndash; Social cognitive theory provides a useful explanation for youth&rsquo;s intentions to use WAP technology in the banking industry. The youth market is an early adopter of technology that presents a good indicator of future market potential.<br /

E-book devices and m-commerce : what might be the impact on organizational learning?

E-book devices are changing current organizational practices by providing a source of e-learning, in which organizations and their employees can more easily access information about current business developments that impact on their existing practices. E-book devices (also referred to as e-book readers or e-readers) use electronic ink technology to display written words from books, newspapers, magazines and other documentation. They are portable devices that are the size of a paperback book and are a new technology that has only been mass-marketed to the general population in the past year. Most importantly for an organization is that e-books could transform and will certainly influence their current technology practices and how people communicate and perform their job tasks.<br /

Adoption of technological innovations in the m-commerce industry

The banking industry has globalised as a result of the many technology innovations created by the internet. The electronic commerce (e-commerce) industry is a result of these technological innovations that have revolutionised the way both consumers and businesses conduct business. In the past decade, banks have encouraged the use of e-commerce and most people are now comfortable conducting their banking online. More recently, mobile commerce (m-commerce) has started to gain momentum and an increasing amount of people are conducting their banking on mobile phone devices instead of through the internet. Mobile banking is a technological innovation that people adopt in different ways depending on internal and external environmental influences. In this paper, a social cognitive theoretical framework is adopted to understand an individual&rsquo;s intention to adopt mobile banking. A conceptual model is proposed, which helps to explain how environmental influences affect an individual&rsquo;s intention to adopt mobile banking. Implications for mobile banking and m-commerce industry are stated along with suggestions for future research on technological innovations.<br /