Click clack : examining the strategic and entrepreneurial brand vision of Under Armour

Using non-traditional brand strategy and innovative techniques, Under Armour quickly established a dominant presence in the sport performance apparel market as a newcomer in its product category. It established strong brand equity among consumers through its messaging and authentic relationship with target consumers. Utilising marketing and brand management theories, this study analysed the entrepreneurial strategies implemented by Under Armour in establishing the company's current positioning in the sport performance apparel marketplace. Using Aaker's (2005) strategic market management theory and Porter's (1980) competitive forces model as a framework, this study analysed the different marketing methods utilised to develop, maintain, and sustain the Under Armour brand.

Toward a better understanding of family enterprising

By integrating stewardship theory and entrepreneurial orientation perspectives we contribute to the understanding of the concept of family enterprising. Using excerpts from a single case study we provide insight into how a third generation Australian family has evolved and transformed by embracing the notion of family enterprising, which, we suggest, places them in a strong position for sustainability across generations.

Trial by market: the Brightstar incubation experiment

Established firms accumulate a significant body of knowledge, expertise and capabilities that are often secondary to their central revenue generating activities. How do they leverage this expertise in non-core technology into future value creation opportunities? In this paper we examine an attempt by the telecommunications firm BT to create value from the accumulated knowledge within its laboratories by setting up an incubator. While conceived by the board as a mechanism for leveraging the value of non-core technology into the workplace, corporate support for the incubator was withdrawn after only three years and prompted the incubator to partner with a venture capital firm, NVP, in the spin-out of ventures. Through analysis of this single case we observe how entering into such a relationship reduces the transaction costs of accessing complementary resources, capabilities and competences, while simultaneously reducing a number of the risks associated with venturing for both parties. Partnering with the venture capitalist allows the established firm to get its intellectual property into the market, for it to be tested by the market and further developed. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

National environment and high potential new ventures in developing countries

This thesis examined the impact of macro environment factors on high-potential entrepreneurial venturing, culminating in a comprehensive, testable framework (derived from both extant theory and original empirical investigation) for analyzing and improving the capacity of any developing nation to become a dynamic entrepreneurial environment conducive to high-potential new venture creation.

Sport entrepreneurship : challenges and directions for future research

The aim of this paper is to structure the existing and emerging field of 'sport entrepreneurship' as well as to develop suggestions for future research. This paper examines the role of the sports entrepreneur and entrepreneurial process in new venture creation projects. This paper contributes to a general understanding of entrepreneurship in the sports context and suggests how further theoretical and empirical work on entrepreneurship needs to be conducted in the sports context. The major managerial and practical implications of sports entrepreneurship in this paper are to develop more entrepreneurial thinking in sports-related ventures. This paper is the first to focus on the future potential of sports entrepreneurship in creating entrepreneurial ventures, thereby providing a strong theoretical foundation for future research work.

Guest editor's introduction : Sports entrepreneurship : towards a conceptualisation

Sport is an important economic and social driver of regional development around the world. Both organisations and individuals are involved in creating innovative ways of fostering regional development through entrepreneurial practices in sport. The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptualisation of sports entrepreneurship that focuses on the role of innovation and regional development in the sports context. Different sport entrepreneurship schools of thought are discussed with a focus on developing theory based on the venture creation process. Three key components of sports entrepreneurship (opportunity recognition, dynamic capabilities and entrepreneurial competence) are examined that lead to a focus on how sports entrepreneurial traits are innovative and encourage regional development. Entrepreneurial sport ventures are then stated which leads to the managerial and theoretical implications of the sports entrepreneurship construct being discussed.

Beyond e-commerce: an entrepreneurial business modelling method for profitable e-venturing

E- business is used as a term that embraces e-commerce, its commercial exchange or transaction component. Both are subsets of a larger concept, e-venturing. E-business is a major disruptive innovation that is rapidly changing many of the accepted norms of effective management. So the paper revisits and reassesses several established principles of economics, strategy and entrepreneurship to place them in the context of the forces driving the emerging e-business economy. Entrepreneurship is applied as a 'framework enrichener', model-building tool and critical organisational behaviour to guide integration of e-business strategy into the total organisational strategy of a profit-seeking firm This permits development of a new business modelling process, labelled 'map and locate', that adapts a combination of entrepreneurial and strategic imperatives to the internet environment. The process assumes that value-provision, competitive distinction and profitability are the three essentials of any successful e-business strategy design and execution. Apart from its general conceptual role of linking strategic and entrepreneurial thinking, the 'map and locate' modelling process can be used as a practical tool for specific performance in a variety of circumstances. It focuses on learning and the development of metrics useful for measuring progress towards achievement of target outcomes.

Is the sum more than the corporate entrepreneurship parts? the different effects of social capital on innovation, venturing, and renewal processes

Principal Topic Although corporate entrepreneurship is of vital importance for long-term firm survival and growth (Zahra and Covin, 1995), researchers still struggle with understanding how to manage corporate entrepreneurship activities. Corporate entrepreneurship consists of three parts: innovation, venturing, and renewal processes (Guth and Ginsberg, 1990). Innovation refers to the development of new products, venturing to the creation of new businesses, and renewal to redefining existing businesses (Sharma, and Chrisman, 1999; Verbeke et al., 2007). Although there are many studies focusing on one of these aspects (cf. Burgelman, 1985; Huff et al., 1992), it is very difficult to compare the outcomes of these studies due to differences in contexts, measures, and methodologies. This is a significant lack in our understanding of CE, as firms engage in all three aspects of CE, making it important to compare managerial and organizational antecedents of innovation, venturing and renewal processes. Because factors that may enhance venturing activities may simultaneously inhibit renewal activities. The limited studies that did empirically compare the individual dimensions (cf. Zahra, 1996; Zahra et al., 2000; Yiu and Lau, 2008; Yiu et al., 2007) generally failed to provide a systematic explanation for potential different effects of organizational antecedents on innovation, venturing, and renewal. With this study we aim to investigate the different effects of structural separation and social capital on corporate entrepreneurship activities. The access to existing and the development of new knowledge has been deemed of critical importance in CE-activities (Floyd and Wooldridge, 1999; Covin and Miles, 2007; Katila and Ahuja, 2002). Developing new knowledge can be facilitated by structurally separating corporate entrepreneurial units from mainstream units (cf. Burgelman, 1983; Hill and Rothaermel, 2003; O'Reilly and Tushman, 2004). Existing knowledge and resources are available through networks of social relationships, defined as social capital (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998; Yiu and Lau, 2008). Although social capital has primarily been studied at the organizational level, it might be equally important at top management level (Belliveau et al., 1996). However, little is known about the joint effects of structural separation and integrative mechanisms to provide access to social capital on corporate entrepreneurship. Could these integrative mechanisms for example connect the separated units to facilitate both knowledge creation and sharing? Do these effects differ for innovation, venturing, and renewal processes? Are the effects different for organizational versus top management team integration mechanisms? Corporate entrepreneurship activities have for example been suggested to take place at different levels. Whereas innovation is suggested to be a more bottom-up process, strategic renewal is a more top-down process (Floyd and Lane, 2000; Volberda et al., 2001). Corporate venturing is also a more bottom-up process, but due to the greater required resource commitments relative to innovation, it ventures need to be approved by top management (Burgelman, 1983). As such we will explore the following key research question in this paper: How do social capital and structural separation on organizational and TMT level differentially influence innovation, venturing, and renewal processes? Methodology/Key Propositions We investigated our hypotheses on a final sample of 240 companies in a variety of industries in the Netherlands. All our measures were validated in previous studies. We targeted a second respondent in each firm to reduce problems with single-rater data (James et al., 1984). We separated the measurement of the independent and the dependent variables in two surveys to create a one-year time lag and reduce potential common method bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Results and Implications Consistent with our hypotheses, our results show that configurations of structural separation and integrative mechanisms have different effects on the three aspects of corporate entrepreneurship. Innovation was affected by organizational level mechanisms, renewal by integrative mechanisms on top management team level and venturing by mechanisms on both levels. Surprisingly, our results indicated that integrative mechanisms on top management team level had negative effects on corporate entrepreneurship activities. We believe this paper makes two significant contributions. First, we provide more insight in what the effects of ambidextrous organizational forms (i.e. combinations of differentiation and integration mechanisms) are on venturing, innovation and renewal processes. Our findings show that more valuable insights can be gained by comparing the individual parts of corporate entrepreneurship instead of focusing on the whole. Second, we deliver insights in how management can create a facilitative organizational context for these corporate entrepreneurship activities.

International corporate entrepreneurship among SMEs : a test of Stevenson's notion of entrepreneurial management

Geographical market expansion is included in various definitions of entrepreneurship as it entails the opening up of new markets (for example, Davidsson 2003). Expansion into new international markets and launch of new products in international markets are also consistent with definitions of entrepreneurship which center on the pursuit of opportunities {e.g.\Stevenson, 1983 #922;Gartner, 1993 #931}. Accordingly, the decision by managers of small, internationally active businesses to continue to internationalize can be viewed as an entrepreneurial act. In spite of the fact that both start-ups and existing firms can behave entrepreneurially by expanding into new international markets, the attention of entrepreneurship researchers interested in international activities has largely focused on international new ventures (INVs); that is, business organizations that internationalize from inception (Oviatt, and McDougall 1994; Oviatt, and McDougall 1997). Consequently, pursuit of international opportunities by established small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lacks theoretical understanding and empirical investigation through an entrepreneurship lens. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge at the entrepreneurship-internationalization interface by testing whether Stevenson’s opportunity-based conceptualization of entrepreneurial management (Stevenson 1983; Stevenson and Gumpert 1985; Stevenson and Jarillo 1990) can explain the attainment of continued entrepreneurial outcomes by SMEs operating in foreign markets. We choose Stevenson’s conceptualization as it gauges firm-level characteristics that are theorized to facilitate the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities, which arguably is at the heart of SMEs’ continued venturing into international markets.

Entrepreneurial growth : the role of international knowledge acquisition as moderated by firm age

In line with repeated recent calls for research on specific forms of growth rather than on an undifferentiated notion of “total growth,” our study contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurial growth. By this we mean growth through expansion into new geographic markets and/or via the introduction of new products or services. Building on Penrose's theory of the growth of the firm and on the research streams she has in part inspired, we investigate the impact of knowledge acquisition from international markets on entrepreneurial growth both at home and abroad. We further suggest that the effects of international knowledge acquisition on entrepreneurial growth will vary with firm age. Utilizing longitudinal data on 138 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), we find that the acquisition of knowledge from international markets fuels growth through market development, and that this effect is stronger for international expansion than domestic expansion. Our results also show that firm age negatively moderates the relationship between international knowledge acquisition and entrepreneurial growth via the introduction of new products or services. Specifically, international knowledge acquisition has a positive effect on growth via new products/services development in young firms, but a negative effect in mature firms. We assume this reflects changes over time in how international knowledge is managed.

Entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurship nexus : a re-conceptualization

The literature on “entrepreneurial opportunities” has grown rapidly since the publication of Shane and Venkataraman (2000). By directing attention to the earliest stages of development of new economic activities and organizations, this marks sound redirection of entrepreneurship research. However, our review shows that theoretical and empirical progress has been limited on important aspects of the role of “opportunities” and their interaction with actors, i.e., the “nexus”. We argue that this is rooted in inherent and inescapable problems with the “opportunity” construct itself, when applied in the context of a prospective, micro-level (i.e., individual[s], venture, or individual–venture dyad) view of entrepreneurial processes. We therefore suggest a fundamental re-conceptualization using the constructs External Enablers, New Venture Ideas, and Opportunity Confidence to capture the many important ideas commonly discussed under the “opportunity” label. This re-conceptualization makes important distinctions where prior conceptions have been blurred: between explananda and explanantia; between actor and the entity acted upon; between external conditions and subjective perceptions, and between the contents and the favorability of the entity acted upon. These distinctions facilitate theoretical precision and can guide empirical investigation towards more fruitful designs.

Analyzing the Influence of Gender Upon High Technology Venturing Within the Context of Business Incubation

We explore the influence of sex role attribution and associated gendered ascriptions upon the entrepreneurial experiences of a female high-technology business owner operating within the context of business incubation. Our literature analysis and empirical evidence suggest that stereotypical gendered expectations surrounding incubated high-technology venturing reproduce masculine norms of entrepreneurial behavior. The adoption of a gendered perspective to explore the experience of business incubation responds to contemporary calls to embed feminist analyses within the entrepreneurial field of enquiry. Furthermore, we draw upon evidence from a detailed case study informed by a life history narrative to explore a female entrepreneur's experience of incubated high-technology entrepreneurship. © 2011 Baylor University.

Which institutions encourage entrepreneurial growth aspirations?

We develop entrepreneurship and institutional theory to explain entrepreneurial growth aspirations across individuals and institutional contexts. Our framework generates hypotheses at the national level about the negative impact of higher levels of corruption, weaker property rights and greater government activity on entrepreneurs' aspirations to increase employment. We further explore whether individual's social networks compensate for weaknesses in national institutions. We use the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor surveys in 42 countries for 2001-2006, applying a multilevel estimation framework to test our ideas. We find that the relationship between growth aspiring entrepreneurs and institutions is complex; they benefit simultaneously from strong government (in the sense of property rights enforcement), and smaller government, but are constrained by corruption. Social networks mediate some but not all institutional deficiencies. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.