The determinants of the costs of financial distress in SMEs (original) (raw)
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Exploring the potential impact of colonialism on national patterns of entrepreneurial networking
… Small Business Journal, 2011
This study emphasizes the concept of variform universality and raises the query as to whether colonialism may be one of the cultural drivers of such divergence. We follow a well-established methodology to compare the personal entrepreneurial networks of Cypriots with those of their Greek and English counterparts. We show that entrepreneurial networking exhibits variform universality, whereby patterns obtain across nations, moderated by culture. Networking patterns for the Cypriot sample mirror in some aspects Greece, while in others England, yet behaviours also appear to have become amplified. We conclude the paper by relating these tentative findings to other work suggesting that power-related phenomena may be important in shaping variform universality in entrepreneurial networks. We recommend post-colonial theories as a promising path to explore these in-between social spaces where the entrepreneurship of the dominated is enacted.
International Small Business Journal
International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship
This study emphasizes the concept of variform universality and considers whether colonialism may be one of the cultural drivers of such divergence. We use a well-established methodology to explore the personal entrepreneurial networks of Cypriots with those of their Greek and English counterparts. We suggest that entrepreneurial networking exhibits variform universality, whereby patterns obtain across nations, moderated by culture. We conclude by relating these tentative findings to other work suggesting that power-related phenomena may be important in shaping variform universality in entrepreneurial networks. We recommend post-colonial theory as a promising path to explore these in-between social spaces where the entrepreneurship of the dominated is enacted.
Entrepreneurial networks as culturally embedded phenomena
2016
Entrepreneurship research concerning networks has largely focused on network structure, content and governance. We believe that further research is required in order to gain a richer understanding of why specific network forms and types originated. The purpose of this paper is to explore the existence, importance, values and meanings of both the informal and formal networks and networking behaviours of small-scale hotel owner-managers embedded in the socio-economic context of Croatia. In order to gain richer and more detailed understanding of entrepreneurial networks and to understand the influence of socio-economic setting on entrepreneurial networking, we have employed qualitative, in-depth study with small hotel owners. Results suggest that entrepreneurs do not establish strong personal and firm-to-firm ties, but rather focus on formal associations. Reported findings identify socio-cultural factors apparently unique to the context of former socialist economy which have the potent...
Babson College Entrepreneurship …, 2007
Using data collected from 35 countries over five years, this study provides an investigation of the combined influence of cultural factors and social network structure on whether or not an individual, anywhere in the world, becomes an entrepreneur. Results show that knowing someone who has started a business recently, across the world, has a significant impact on entrepreneurship participation. Regarding the potential cultural influences, it seems that importance attached to personally knowing entrepreneurs differs significantly between individuals operating in different cultures. In cultures with high power distance, personally knowing a person who recently started a business is relatively less important as a driver of entrepreneurship participation compared to cultures with low power distance. On the other hand, in cultures where the Hofstede's 'masculinity' construct predominates, it is more important than in cultures characterised by 'femininity'. INTRODUCTION: IMPORTANCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL NETWORKING Using data collected from 35 countries over five years, this study provides an investigation of the combined influence of cultural factors and social network structure on whether or not an individual, anywhere in the world, becomes an entrepreneur. It contributes to the debate on whether there is universality in the process of entrepreneurial networking by investigating differences in social networks among entrepreneurs embedded in different cultures. The study was completed by measuring the interaction effects of variables representing each of Hofstede's four dimensions of culture (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and individualism) with the variable, taken from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), that is used to measure entrepreneurial networking (whether or not a individual personally know someone who have started a business in the past two years). The study makes an original contribution because it changes the focus of investigation. Previous studies have compared the effects of social network structure on entrepreneurship participation between countries and assumed that differences are due to an amorphous construct called 'national culture' (Arenius and Kovalainen 2006; De Clercq and Arenius 2006; Klyver, Hindle & Meyer, 2007). This study transcends national boundaries. It focuses instead on the differences between cultural mechanisms irrespective of country. Recent entrepreneurship literature has changed from viewing entrepreneurs as autonomous and rational decision makers toward viewing entrepreneurs as embedded in social networks (Hoang and Antoncic, 2003). As a reaction to the former atomistic and under-socialized view of the entrepreneur, often taken in the psychological perspective, an increased recognition of the importance of social networks has developed since the mid eighties. Social networks (in diverse ways) provide entrepreneurs with a wide range of valuable resources not already in their possession and help them achieve their goals (e.g., Ripolles and Blesa, 2005; Welter and Kautonen, 2005). Among the most important resources that networks can provide are: information (sensible as well as non-sensible, diverse as well as non-diverse); access to finance; access to skills, knowledge and advice (all aids to competency); social legitimacy; reputation and credibility.
The Effect of National Culture on Entrepreneurs’ Networks
This study examines the effect of cultural variables on entrepreneurs' networks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries and Denmark. Using data collected by the GEM surveys and clustered for the purpose of this research, analysis is undertaken of the effect of cultural variables on entrepreneurs' private networks in addition to their work, professional, market and international networks. The major cultural contrast in the empirical analysis is between Denmark and the MENA countries. Traditionalism dominates in the MENA region while secular-rationalism pervades Denmark: trust is widespread in Denmark, but more limited to family members in MENA; and collectivism prevails in MENA while Denmark is more individualistic. Analyses show that both traditional culture and collectivism promote networking in the private sphere, which explains the intensity of private networking in MENA and the lower level of private networking in Denmark. Trust in society, generally promotes networking, and specifically networking in the public spheres of the work-place, the professions, the market and the international environment. This explains the greater prevalence and intensity of networks and networking in the public domain in Denmark compared to that in the MENA region.
National Differences in Entrepreneurial Networking
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 14:117-134 , 2002
The paper reports findings of a study into the personal contact networks of Greek entrepreneurs, and compares these to results already published for other countries (Canada, Japan, Italy, Northern Ireland, Sweden, the UK, and the USA). Findings show that generic behaviour across borders cannot be assumed, although similarities exist in the under-representation of women as network members, the average age of network contacts, duration of relationships, and average monthly meetings. A clear example has also been provided of a culture where business networks are very deeply embedded in social structures, and where little or no evidence of an instrumentalist neo-classical model can be found. From a theoretical perspective, adaptation of Hofstede’ s four-dimensional model provides a generally robust interpretive framework for the results.
International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2013
This study examines the effect of cultural variables on entrepreneurs' networks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries and Denmark. Using data collected by the GEM surveys and clustered for the purpose of this research, analysis is undertaken on the effect of cultural variables on entrepreneurs' private networks in addition to their work, professional, market and international networks. The major cultural contrast in the empirical analysis is between Denmark and the MENA countries. Traditionalism dominates in the MENA region while secular-rationalism pervades Denmark: trust is widespread in Denmark, but more limited to family members in MENA; and collectivism prevails in MENA while Denmark is more individualistic. Analyses show that both traditional culture and collectivism promote networking in the private sphere, which explains the intensity of private networking in MENA and the lower level of private networking in Denmark. Trust in society, generally promotes networking, and specifically networking in the public spheres of the workplace , the professions, the market and the international environment. This explains the greater prevalence and intensity of networks and networking in the public domain in Denmark compared to that in the MENA region.
Networking and Culture in Entrepreneurship
Case studies involving three diverse cultural groups were used to investigate how culture influences entrepreneurial networks. The concept of a national culture invariably refers to the dominant culture, which does not address the sub- and minority cultures, resulting in literature which fails to provide understanding of the relationship between culture and social networks within entrepreneurial activity. This paper explores social networking across one dominant and two minority cultures, allowing the researcher an insight into entrepreneurial networking in three very different cultures. The empirical results revealed that entrepreneurial networking is non-universal; rather, it varies among cultures, suggesting that entrepreneurial networking differs between entrepreneurs embedded in a dominant culture and those embedded in minority cultures.
When Your World Is an Island: Social Networks and Decision-Making in International Entrepreneurship
Academy of Management Proceedings
Social network and decision-making approaches became dominant ways to study born global firms. Network approaches explain internationalization of born global firms in terms of the connections established and utilized by the born global firms. Decision-making approaches explain the determinants of the decision logic associated with the use of social networks. Two prominent theories used in this endeavor are the effectuation and entrepreneurial bricolage. Research applying these views to the study of the logic associated with the use of social networks in the internationalization show conflicting empirical results. Towards that end, through multiple cases, we study how the causal, effectual, and entrepreneurial bricolage influence the process of becoming born global firms. Applying a 'small world networks' lens, we advance the contributions. First, we suggest that born global firms are not only a matter of social networks, but the embeddedness of the entrepreneurs in the networks are vital to the logic used and the chosen paths for internationalization. Embedded entrepreneurs use effectuation to bridge networks and circumvent resource scarcity, whereas entrepreneurs that are not embedded use causation and become born global firms. Secondly, we contribute to the effectuation literature by advancing the thought that the embeddedness is a boundary condition of effectuation.