JOURNAL OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Year:2015 | Volume:8 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:14

A measurement of entrepreneurial intention and locating factors improving it are among one of the determining factors that lead to the emergence of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, and provide a better understanding of the quality of circumstances that bring about free enterprise and thus contribute to a more accurate prediction of the possibility of its occurrence. One of the factors influential in entrepreneurial intention, which has been referred to in various researches is social capital. This research seeks to look into the effect of social capital on entrepreneurial intention. It will do so by incorporating the intermediary role of the cognitive style in a sample of one hundred and forty (140) graduate students of University of Tehran, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Sampling method is random sampling. This is an applied research conducted within the framework of a correlative-descriptive survey. The data gathered from the surveys have been analyzed through a structural equation model technique using LISREL software. The findings show that there is a positive and significant relationship through intuitive cognitive style between relational social capital and entrepreneurial intention. Also there is a positive and significant relationship through rational cognitive style between structural and cognitive and relational social capital and entrepreneurial intention.

Given the significant role of small and medium industries in the countries’ economic development, this research aims to design a model of market development for small and medium industries in the food and drink industries. "Grounded Theory" is applied for designing the model. For that reason, required data were collected through theoretical semi conducted sampling by interviewing 14 Governmental bodies of small and medium industries and studying organizational documents. Based on the results, supporting the market development of said industries covers a wide range of activities through four stages: Capacity Building, Main Activities, Complementary Activities and Monitoring Activities, in which cultural, political, institutional and governmental affairs, as well as value chain, the structures and approaches applied by an industry play an important part. Reducing marketing costs, increasing the competitiveness of SMEs and consequently their share in GDP and added value are among the most significant outcomes of the project. By getting involved in the project, industry owners will be able to use the outcome in their business development procedure.

Business clusters are known as a new model of economic development throughout the world. In recent years, this model has also been noted by policymakers in Iran. Accordingly, the present study aimed at proposing a model for sustainable development of business clusters in Iran based on experience in this regard. A qualitative strategy (case study) is used as the research method. Additionally, thematic analysis is applied in data analysis. The final research model is also drawn based on thematic network analysis. Five business clusters were selected as the cases to be studied. These cases include Shandiz’ s furniture, Mashhad’ s Shoes, Khorasan Razavi’ s saffron, Kerman pistachio and Gorgan diary product. The results led to the identification of 24 basic themes. These basic themes were categorized into five organizing themes including effective government involvement, social capital and trust, cluster planning, behavioral and psychological considerations, and characteristics of cluster development agent. All five themes can be defined under one global theme known as sustainable development of business clusters. Business companies and cluster development policy-makers can apply the proposed model in their cluster development processes and work together in order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage against their competitors.

Considering the fact that entrepreneurship can be taught and also the emergence of entrepreneurship education, there is a stronger need for newer ways of education such as electronic entrepreneurship education. This research is conducted to identify the success factors of electronic entrepreneurship education in the entrepreneurship faculty of University of Tehran using a qualitative and quantitative approach. Based on the results of the semistructured interviews analysis with nine lecturers of electronic entrepreneurship education in the entrepreneurship faculty of University of Tehran with the experience of at least two terms teaching and familiarity with the field of information technology in education, success factors of electronic entrepreneurship education was identified in three categories of personal factors including lecturers' characteristics and learners' characteristics, environmental factors including interactions and assessment and system factors including the quality of education and content, the quality of Internet infrastructure and elearning system and the quality of university performance and its services. Results of quantitative research which was conducted to explain the role of these factors in the success of entrepreneurship electronic education among 139 students of this course, admitted in 2010, point out that learners' characteristics in personal factors, interactions in environmental factors and the quality of education and content in system factors can have the greatest impact on the success of the entrepreneurship electronic education in the entrepreneurship faculty of University of Tehran.

The study of entrepreneurial orientation concept and codifying a proper strategy to improve the performance of companies has a great importance as the companies have allocated more product market share to themselves by representing new and unique products according to customers’ requirements. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of entrepreneurial orientation and competitive strategies on market orientation in order to improve the performance of the company and make stable competitive advantage in auto parts manufacturing companies which is applicable in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlation in terms of research method. Accordingly, in order to collect necessary information to test the hypothesis, a researcher-designed questionnaire containing 67 questions in 17 dimensions has been utilized according to Krejcie-Morgan’ s table with a simple random sampling method in which 150 personnel of auto parts manufacturing companies among 250 people in Isfahan province were selected as the statistical population of the study. The structural equations model in Smart PLS software package was used to analyze the data and test the hypothesis. The results show that the direct effect of entrepreneurial orientation on market orientation is not significant. The independence and initiative of entrepreneurial orientation dimensions, cost leadership strategy, responsive market orientation, financial performance and scarce resources have also had the most weight in making main variables of the research for parts manufacturers. So, parts manufacturing companies can maintain their survival and growth in the competitive area by increasing the entrepreneurial morale in organization level and choosing proper strategies in line with the customers’ needs.

One of the most important and well-recognized entrepreneurial decision making biases is overconfidence. Overconfidence is by far the most famous entrepreneurial decision bias, and it has been identified as one leading factor in entrepreneurial risky decisions, and it has been hypothesized and proved as one of the causes of entrepreneurial unprepared entry decisions and subsequent failure. The main body of existing literature on entrepreneurial overconfidence has concentrated mainly on its negative effects. But, the question arises here that, is overconfidence always harmful? Or, could it be that, under today’ s specific and unique entrepreneurial environment, marked by ambiguity, uncertainty and incessant change, overconfidence may be also helpful? According to the existing literature, some of the most obvious characteristics of overconfident entrepreneurs are not searching for additional information and not considering the existing information fully and meticulously, they also do not feel any regrets after making a decision and feel confident and sure about it. Thus, one could hypothesize that under conditions such as information overload and time pressure whereby entrepreneurs don’ t have time to assess all the gathered information, overconfidence could be indeed helpful in helping them making decisions in a given span of time and overcoming any hesitation or regret. As an indication of its novelty and newness, this paper has focused on the positive side of overconfidence as one of the most common entrepreneurial decision making biases. Data has been obtained by in-depth interviews with 16 Iranian entrepreneurs in a comprehensive qualitative research method. Our study shows that under conditions like lack of data, information overload and time pressure, entrepreneurs’ overconfidence and reliance on their own judgment have been their only guide to make quick decisions.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of environmental factors on the success of academic reproductive companies with the moderating role of individual characteristics and the mediating role of reproductive company characteristics in the companies of Isfahan Scientific and Research Town. This study is practical in purpose and is a descriptive-survey from research methodology perspective. The statistical population consists of all companies established in the Isfahan Scientific and Research Town. The population consists of 256 companies. A sample of 148 companies was selected. The sample size was determined through the Morgan Sampling Table. The sample members were selected randomly. In order to collect the research data, a researcher-developed questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire consists of 45 questions. The validity of questionnaire was measured through both content and construct validities. Also the reliability of questionnaire was measured through Cronbach’ s Alpha Coefficient. The coefficient was 0. 916 which confirms the reliability of the questionnaire. The research data were analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in the Smart-PLS. The findings revealed that factors like the governmental rules, parent universities, and regions affect the company success. Another part of the findings showed that the individual characteristics of the founders did not play any mediating role in the relationship between environmental factors and company success. Finally, the findings indicated that the reproductive features of the company have a moderating effect on the relationship between environmental factors and company success.

Entrepreneurship willingness that is one of the main preconditions of entrepreneurship behavior is influenced by psychological factors. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between problem solving styles and entrepreneurship willingness among Agricultural and Natural Resource students, in University of Zabol. The statistical population consisted of 3000 Agricultural and Natural Resources students in 2013-2014 academic year, among which 210 students were randomly selected. Data were gathered through questionnaire. The research instrument was given to the academic staff of the department of agricultural extension and education, University of Zabol to test its content validity. Cronbach alpha was calculated to measure reliability of the items of instrument (α = 0. 74-0. 83). The results showed that entrepreneurship willingness level of the most respondents was relatively favorable. Results showed that there was a significant relationship between problem solving styles and entrepreneurship willingness among Agricultural and Natural Resource students. The regression analysis showed that problem solving styles explain 33% of variance in predicting entrepreneurship willingness.

This research aims to investigate the relationship between networking capabilities and the rate of corporate entrepreneurial activities, and the moderating role of organizational strategic orientations. This is an applied and descriptive-correlational study in terms of purpose and data collection respectively. Investigating 126 supplier companies providing products and services to the mining industry of Iran through a survey questionnaire and the regression analysis using SPSS software indicates that a firm's networking capabilities, comprising partnering pro-activeness, relational capability and portfolio coordination, enhance the firm's engagement in corporate entrepreneurial activities. Moreover, the results show that an entrepreneurial strategic orientation strengthens the impact of networking capabilities on entrepreneurial performance in companies. Establishing a connection between a firm's networking capabilities and entrepreneurial performance and investigating the moderating role of the firm's strategic orientations, this research provides a better understanding of why some firms are more entrepreneurial than others.

Conditions and quality of ethical decision making by entrepreneurs is an important concern in academic and public area in Iran. Different personal and environmental factors as well as nature of business influence the ethical decision making by entrepreneurs, but the concern have attracted great attention in Iranian academic institutions. Thus, the current study aims to identify environmental factors influencing ethical decision-making in novice businesses. In order to do so, survey method and questionnaire technique were used to gather data related to transportation and experimental equipment and about 150 novice businesses were selected. Friedman and structural equation modeling techniques were used to analyze data. The research findings show that culturalsocial environments have the highest impact; human-religious values, however, have the least effect on ethical decision-making by entrepreneurs. Also the research findings show that utilitarian reasoning in combination with ethical relativism have the highest rank in ethical decision making by owners and managers of novice business.