http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com The latest research articles published by Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2013-05-21T00:00:00Z Background: Economy, business, and entrepreneurship are related to the world of men. Home, nurturing, and the family belong to women's world, so the story goes. On the other hand, family entrepreneurship and its outcome, the family business, is probably the most traditional way of conducting business, being thus a universal phenomenon. However, in comparison to other economic and entrepreneurial activities, the field of family entrepreneurship has been only recently addressed by economists, researchers, and academicians. Family entrepreneurship as a field of inquiry is suffering the consequences of conceptual dualisms rendering 'family' and 'business', 'kinship' and 'economy,' 'private,' and 'public' as distinct social and economic spheres. To that extent, the topic lies at the 'gray zones' of scholarly inquiry, resisting clear-cut definitions and approaches.FindingsIn this paper, based on the findings of the two case-studies addressing the issues of succession, participation, and exclusion of women in family businesses, we will explore how the concept of 'gender' informs representations and practices, which reflect social attitudes - or the construction thereof - towards the 'division of labor' between men and women in the world of entrepreneurship. Conclusions: Drawing conclusions from the analysis, we will finally stress that core notions in both academic and laymen discourse provide a fertile ground on which the cultural category of gender can be utilized in helping to consider family entrepreneurship as a good place to start with, bringing about cultural change by reckoning contesting social categories based on gender as not of a contradictory, but of a complementary nature. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/2/1/4 Kyriakos Lingas Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2013, null:4 2013-05-21T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-2-4 /content/figures/2192-5372-2-4-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 4 2013-05-21T00:00:00Z PDF The overall image of the use of digital technology by Greek women is not that encouraging. In information communication technology companies in the Greek market, there are only few ladies in high management mainly related to HR and marketing functions. The statistics on internet use show that although its penetration to the population is growing rapidly, there is a steady 10% gap between men (55%) and women (45%) use. It also becomes obvious, in relevant market surveys, that the internet is commercially underutilized in Greece, in comparison with the European average. Greece, in financial crisis, should leverage on technology in order to support financial development. However, there are few brilliant examples of Greek business ladies who have developed their businesses 'online'. Using digital media, social networks, applications, etc., they managed to break language and geographical barriers and set up their own micro-operations, responding to customer requests in the broader area or even globally. One could also find some interesting business examples from other European countries, from distant or dispersed areas. These micro-businesses cover multiple market industries even non-conventional ones such as e-tailing, publishing, energy consumption, specialized handcrafted goods. Here, we refer to hints and tips of the micro-business owners that led them to success over the internet and its potential impact on business growth. Moreover, since ladies in business usually have multiple roles to balance effectively in their lives, we will examine the impact of the systematic use of digital technology in work-life balance. In fact, the working population can save some time using digital technology to cover multiple needs. This may affect the working time zones, communication with family members, relationships to friends access to services, and the possibility to reserve some valuable 'quality time' for the lady entrepreneur. Having that available, women entrepreneurs can choose how to invest in time again: back in business, share it with family, and keep it valuable for herself so they can look at IT as their ultimate ally for business and personal development. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/2/1/3 Angelina Vassilakopoulou Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2013, null:3 2013-05-21T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-2-3 /content/figures/2192-5372-2-3-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 3 2013-05-21T00:00:00Z PDF Diverse and complex challenges in new venture formation demand rare and exceptional entrepreneurial acumen, particularly in technology-driven environments where disrupted markets amplify the factors and magnitude of uncertainty and risk. The successful technology entrepreneur (term of art for Strategic Knowledge Arbitrage and Serendipity (SKARSE™) enactors) is focused yet flexible, demonstrating relentless intensity of purpose while adapting that purpose under changing conditions. The distinguished entrepreneur accurately predicts events and conditions in advance for superior strategic positioning. We find that two terse descriptors - obsessed maniacs and clairvoyant oracles - encapsulate critical attributes conducive to superlative entrepreneurial posture, propensity, and performance to anticipate and recognize challenges and convert them into opportunities. In so doing, the entrepreneurs leverage strategic knowledge serendipity factors and practice strategic knowledge arbitrage competences. From the pre-market perspectives of R&D and innovation management through successful marketing and commercialization of engineered innovations, technology foresight and forecasting pivot on the entrepreneur's unrelenting persistence to pursue a vision and unclouded prescience of exactly what vision to pursue. To investigate our premise, we conduct comprehensive surveys and interviews with 33 founding entrepreneurs, comparatively analyzing their experiences against complementary data sources to develop personal profiles of critical attributes and behavioral characteristics. Employing qualitative analytic techniques, we find the data rich in empirical evidence to support a perspective of entrepreneur as obsessed maniac and clairvoyant oracle, plus many other intrinsic characteristics of personality, motivation, intention, and action that constitute the entrepreneurial actor. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/2/1/2 Elias Carayannis McDonald Stewart Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2013, null:2 2013-04-09T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-2-2 /content/figures/2192-5372-2-2-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 2 2013-04-09T00:00:00Z XML Disconnects among system components preempt technology adoption by the diminution or absence of potential user's perceptions, a state of second-order ignorance (ignorance of ignorance). The condition of flawed or failed efficacy in the use, deployment, or logistics of technology is, as we term, dystechnia. Dystechnia is ubiquitous, and its origin in second-order ignorance implies entrepreneurial opportunity. Entrepreneurship is the recognition and exploitation of economic potential by shifting the established means of economic creation and control, strategically reappointing economic resources from established pathways to innovative pathways. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a theoretical construct of the relationship between the perceptions of potential users and the behavioral intentions leading to actual technology adoption and acceptance. The lens of TAM presumes an existing, workable technology or technological system, the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of which determine the intention to use, which in turn mediates actual adoption. It is the inception of entrepreneurial solutions as alternatives to the dystechnic status quo upon which TAM operates. A technology must be ventured before usefulness and ease of use can be perceived. This paper examines the phenomenon of dystechnia, the entrepreneurial action that predicates TAM, and entrepreneurial mechanisms whereby dystechnia is remedied. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/2/1/1 McDonald Stewart Elias Carayannis Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2013, null:1 2013-03-18T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-2-1 /content/figures/2192-5372-2-1-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 1 2013-03-18T00:00:00Z XML Is it possible to control and optimize technology transfer process? Engineers and quality practitioners are often faced with the problem of determining the optimal choice of key factor in the tolerance process evaluation regarding the quality of the process to be monitored. To guarantee a prefixed quality level of the monitored process, lower specification limit (LSL) and upper specification limit (USL) for a certain quality characteristic have been determined. These limits, LSL and USL, could be defined as μ − δσ and μ + δσ, respectively, where δ > 0. Here, the key factor δ represents the number of standard deviations at which each specification limit is located from the process mean. This paper shows an innovative use of SPC tools in a different field aspect, one in which they are usually employed. Generally, these instruments are used for the control of the industrial process or service, but they could be used in an innovative way to control and to optimize a particular process: the technology transfer process. When determining the key factor level, it is important to consider a trade-off between costs incurred by the supplier, in terms of technology offer, and the user, in terms of technology request, of the process examined. This paper shows how these costs are quantified and integrated; it also shows how a particular mathematical tool, the Lambert W function, is incorporated into this choice optimization problem by deriving a closed-form solution. This proposed model and solution may be appealing to managers and technology transfer operators since the Lambert function is found in a number of standard optimization software. Experimental results are presented and related to a real data set of technology transfer actions developed by the Technology Transfer Office. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/1/1/6 Stefano De Falco Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2012, null:6 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-1-6 /content/figures/2192-5372-1-6-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 6 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z XML This article revisits Maurizio Lazzarato's 1994 text on the 'strategies of the political entrepreneur' in the context of Noko Jeans, a recent Sweden-based venture to produce jeans in North Korea, while simultaneously influencing the political regime in the country. After a brief introduction to the venture in question, the article reviews Lazzarato's discussion on political entrepreneurship, which interrogates how such entrepreneurial action concurrently generates consumer interest and political discussion, thus blurring the boundary between business and politics. The article then discusses Lazzarato's theoretical points in light of the empirical case of Noko Jeans, first on an analytical level, then in relation to a recent event in which the founders were interviewed. The review thus aims at a re-evaluation of Lazzarato's work, suggesting that his conceptualisation of political entrepreneurship may prove useful when describing phenomena such as Noko Jeans. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/1/1/5 Karl Palmås Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2012, null:5 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-1-5 /content/figures/2192-5372-1-5-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 5 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z XML Small firms are important to all economies. This is especially true with the rise of the information and communication technologies (ICTs), as the technical characteristics of information goods lower entry barriers for small firms seeking to take advantage of the growing global demand for ICTs. However, for accessing global markets, or for technological learning, the literature points to the potentially important role of intermediary institutions. This paper examines inter-firm linkages in India, the world’s largest exporter of software services, to explore the extent to which large software firms, both foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms, play an intermediary role for the growing number of small firms. Drawing on 172 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, the paper finds that linkages between the large and small firms are few and weak. MNCs prefer working with large domestic firms as they seek the scale to cut costs for labor-intensive services. Large domestic firms too tend not to outsource work to small firms. They prefer independent execution, viewing small firms as potential competition. Any inter-firm links are typically limited to labor contracting and rarely provide access to markets or opportunities for technological learning. Thus, lacking the operational scale, technological or domain diversity, small firms end up dependent on personal networks to access global market opportunities, i.e., despite the growth in opportunities provided by ICTs, the growth opportunities for small software firms in India remain circumscribed. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/1/1/4 Vigneswara Ilavarasan Balaj Parthasarathy Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2012, null:4 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-1-4 /content/figures/2192-5372-1-4-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 4 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z XML This article reflects the main findings of the ‘White Paper on opportunities and challenges in view of enhancing the EU cooperation with Eastern Europe, Central Asia and South Caucasus in Science, Research and Innovation’, which was released in April 2012, from a science and technology (S&T) internationalisation policy perspective. In the ‘Internationalisation of R&D from an S&T policy perspective’ section of this article, the ongoing discourse on internationalisation of research and development (R&D) is discussed from an S&T policy perspective. In the ‘S&T cooperation between the EU and Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia since the early 1990s’ section, the development of S&T cooperation between the EU and EECA is described as a historical snapshot since the early 1990s. In the ‘Recent S&T internationalisation efforts of Eastern European and Central Asian countries’ section, special emphasis is given to the current EECA countries' dispositions towards R&D internationalisation. For a structured overview, the EECA region is disaggregated in three subregions, namely, (a) Russian Federation, (b) Eastern European countries (without Russia) and (c) Central Asian countries. To better position the R&D internationalisation policies of the region under scrutiny within the overall state-of-the-art of S&T, the ‘Current state of S&T in the Eastern European and Central Asian countries’ section compares main S&T indicators of the EECA countries. The ‘The White Paper recommendations in the light of international S&T cooperation policy objectives’ section finally condenses the major recommendations elaborated during the White Paper consultation process and puts them into the context of international S&T cooperation policy. The question is raised on what international cooperation can contribute to improving S&T in the EECA region and which approaches are deemed most adequate to support this. The analysis shows that most recommendations suggested in the White Paper directly target the S&T policy (delivery) system, which is put into an explicit actor's role. Science diplomacy is the identified predominant driver for deepening international R&D cooperation with the EECA region. The main instruments used are international dialogue, exchange and learning platforms, which are supported by the European Commission according to the EU's subsidiarity principle. Other S&T internationalisation policy objectives play a role too, especially if a more regionally differentiated perspective is taken into account. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/1/1/3 Klaus Schuch Bonas George Jörn Sonnenburg Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2012, null:3 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-1-3 /content/figures/2192-5372-1-3-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 3 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z XML The Triple Helix innovation model focuses on university-industry-government relations. The Quadruple Helix embeds the Triple Helix by adding as a fourth helix the ‘media-based and culture-based public’ and ‘civil society’. The Quintuple Helix innovation model is even broader and more comprehensive by contextualizing the Quadruple Helix and by additionally adding the helix (and perspective) of the ‘natural environments of society’. The Triple Helix acknowledges explicitly the importance of higher education for innovation. However, in one line of interpretation it could be argued that the Triple Helix places the emphasis on knowledge production and innovation in the economy so it is compatible with the knowledge economy. The Quadruple Helix already encourages the perspective of the knowledge society, and of knowledge democracy for knowledge production and innovation. In a Quadruple Helix understanding, the sustainable development of a knowledge economy requires a coevolution with the knowledge society. The Quintuple Helix stresses the necessary socioecological transition of society and economy in the twenty-first century; therefore, the Quintuple Helix is ecologically sensitive. Within the framework of the Quintuple Helix innovation model, the natural environments of society and the economy also should be seen as drivers for knowledge production and innovation, therefore defining opportunities for the knowledge economy. The European Commission in 2009 identified the socioecological transition as a major challenge for the future roadmap of development. The Quintuple Helix supports here the formation of a win-win situation between ecology, knowledge and innovation, creating synergies between economy, society, and democracy. Global warming represents an area of ecological concern, to which the Quintuple Helix innovation model can be applied with greater potential. http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/1/1/2 Elias Carayannis Thorsten Barth David Campbell Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2012, null:2 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-1-2 /content/figures/2192-5372-1-2-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 2 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z XML n/a (Editorial) http://www.innovation-entrepreneurship.com/content/1/1/1 Elias Carayannis David Campbell Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2012, null:1 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/2192-5372-1-1 /content/figures/2192-5372-1-1-toc.gif Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2192-5372 ${item.volume} 1 2012-08-08T00:00:00Z XML