Journal of Enterprising Culture

In Scandinavia, several policy programs have been directed at increasing the number of women entrepreneurs. These programs appear to build on the idea that women have particular problems in the business start-up process, leading to a lower probability among nascent women entrepreneurs of actually starting a business. This study investigates whether there are gender differences with regard to what nascent entrepreneurs do during their business start-up processes. Using longitudinal data, we also examine to what extent men and women who attempt to start a business succeed in actually doing so. The findings show some gender differences in the start-up process; however these do not lead to lower start-up probabilities for women. Hence there is no evidence that women are less effective business founders than men.

The new venture starts in an equivocal situation. To use and build trusted relationships with external actors, notably customers in spe, is an important way for the entrepreneur to establish business. In an inductive in-depth case study between entrepreneurs and customers, trust was studied. For two business start-ups the entrepreneurs' building and use of trust in action processes between the new ventures and some of their customers was investigated covering 5 years. Using a frame of reference concerning new business trust, trustbuilding in action processes is identified in interviews. Patterns of trustbuilding are summarised, conclusions concerning trustbuilding in the cases are presented and discussed. Some possible contributions for practice and theory are outlined.

In past research there has been continuous controversy over the definition of entrepreneurship and the identification of entrepreneurs. By combining the ideas of entrepreneurship and linguistics, this paper takes a different approach to examining entrepreneurial definitions. An exploratory analysis of entrepreneurial metaphors and concepts is conducted to study informants' perceptions of these two terms. The sample consists of 751 respondents from Scandinavia, Ireland, Australia and Canada. In the quantitative analysis of entrepreneurial concepts, respondents defined the terms 'entrepreneur' and 'entrepreneurship' with suggested conceptual equivalents. In the metaphor analysis, informants came up with metaphorical expressions of entrepreneurship. Particular attention was paid to looking for differences in conceptualizations between (1) entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, (2) males and females, and (3) Scandinavians and native English speakers. Entrepreneurial respondents perceived the concepts of entrepreneurship more positively than other respondents. The same applied to differences between females and males respectively. In the cross-cultural comparison, the Scandinavians seemed to have a more positive picture of entrepreneurship than their English-speaking counterparts. As regards the entrepreneurial metaphors, they are grouped into the following semantic categories: Machine(ry) and other Physical Objects, Warfare and Adventure, Sports and Games, Creativity and Activity, Nature, "Disease", Food Items, and Special Features.

Despite the psychological and material advantages of maintaining a family business, statistic on sustained growth are grim. This paper examines why it is essential for a family business to actively plan for the management succession process using a Risk Management Model (RMM). The RMM identifies the succession exposures in the family business, evaluates the impact of the identified succession exposures, and helps to effectively control the succession exposures.

Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have invested abroad increasingly in recent years. This research reports on their experiences based on interviews with senior managers of ten SMEs drawn from a range of industries. It demonstrates that the success of SMEs' international ventures is jeopardized by serious problems in their foreign operations owing to a number of strategic and environmental factors. These problems are described, categorized and analyzed. Recommendations are made for guiding SMEs in avoiding such problems. A preliminary framework is developed to bring together the factors that affect success of SMEs' international ventures to guide future research.

Higher education has in the recent decade become in itself a major business. In some economies, it is an important contributor to the gross national product. This fact is true in the case of Australia. This paper discusses the commercialisation of Australian higher education in Asia and how Australian government policy has contributed to this internationalisation. In addition to addressing the policy consequences, it also examines issues surrounding the content, curricula and teaching in the programmes that are exported. Whilst the internationalisation of higher education may have led to the presence of an enterprising culture in the exporting institutions, the higher ideals of education need to be balanced.