New Zealand entrepreneurs: leading for excellence

New Zealand (NZ) has been proclaimed as a leader in entrepreneurship by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) assessment. This paper links GEM findings to results from a NZ-based survey of micro-business operators and identifies factors that explain why NZ is a leader in the Entrepreneurship rating. NZ entrepreneurs are largely opportunity seeking: they want to be their own boss and are interested in the growth. They are relatively well-educated and are supported by well developed business infrastructures and support agencies. However, what directly contributes to the high propensity to set-up new businesses is not clear.entrepreneurship; entrepreneurs; New Zealand; NZ; small business; excellence; micro-business; support; leadership.

An investigation into the sustainable actions of micro and small businesses

Although much is written about the approach of larger companies towards their environmental responsibilities, there is much less concerning smaller companies. This gap in research is particularly apparent within micro businesses. If the sustainability actions of a business are related to the perceived drivers and barriers of the leader, then this should be even more apparent in very small companies where the leader is closer to the firm. This paper contributes by investigating the current sustainability behaviours of micro and small businesses, with a specific emphasis on the drivers and barriers of their environmental activity. In order to achieve this, an empirical, cross-sectional study was carried out using a mixed methods approach in partnership with the UK-based Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The results find a surprising number of eco-friendly activities carried out by micro and small business with a strong desire for support to overcome resource and capability barriers

Corruption, Gender and Credit Constraints: Evidence from South Asian SMEs

This paper provides analyses of the effect of corruption in South Asia on (1) credit access for small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), and (2) credit constraints faced by female-owned and male-owned SMEs. By addressing potential endogeneity and reverse causality of corruption and credit constraints via instrumental variables, this study reports that corruption has a detrimental effect on credit access. Specifically, corruption increases the probability of SMEs credit constraints by 7.63%. However, gender differences emerge, indicating that bribery is slightly more effective when used by female SME owners. When male-owned SMEs pay bribes, they are on average 0.61% more credit-constrained than their counterparts. For female-owned SMEs paying bribes, they are on average 0.78% more likely to be less credit-constrained compared to female SME owners who do not pay bribes. Overall, bribery is not very effective in achieving the desired outcome and attitudes towards bribery as unethical may be more a question of culture than of gende