This study examines five foreign family-controlled firms that internationalised their supply chains to Laos, a least developed country (LDC). Although not typical social enterprises, these firms adopted a social entrepreneurship (SE) approach, innovating their supply chain business models shortly after entering the market. This study addresses two key questions: What drives these firms to adopt an SE approach in their supply chains? How do they implement these changes? The findings reveal that the owning families' desire to extend their family values, legacy, and socioemotional wealth (SEW) to the host country translated into SE motivation when confronted with the country's institutional realities. Recognising the dysfunctionality of existing institutional structures, they acted as institutional entrepreneurs, replacing them with new, more effective systems. The resulting financial and social improvements further enhanced their SEW, reinforcing the SE process. This study establishes conceptual linkages between SE and family business research. The findings offer practical insights for international firms and policymakers, presenting alternative approaches to market entry into underdeveloped countries and strategies for regional development.
Past research on venture capital has put more emphasis on developing financial models about capital budgeting; however, given that resource allocation is one of the most fundamental bases of strategic management research, the decisions venture capital firms face in the resource allocation process are under-explored. For instance, although venture capital firms often acquire critical resources from external resource providers, little research attention has been paid to the impact of resource providers' preferences in resource allocation choices. Premised on resource dependence theory, this research examines strategic investment choices made by venture capital firms with a focus on resource allocation as understood in the strategic management literature. Specifically, this research focuses on limited partners in venture capital funds, which has captured much less attention in studies on venture capital despite being critical resource providers in the venture capital market. The setting of this study is China's venture capital market, and a unique feature of it is that the government represents an important, distinct group of limited partners in many venture capital funds. Using data on China's venture capital market, this study examines if and how government limited partners, as resource providers, influence venture capital firms' internal resource allocation and strategic decisions in relation to portfolio firms. By studying if and how venture capital firms' strategies for portfolio firms in their venture capital funds are influenced by the presence of government limited partners as external resource providers, the findings of this research shed light on three important streams of literature in strategic management and strategic entrepreneurship: resource allocation, venture capital, and social entrepreneurship.
Acquisition is a key strategy for platform firms to drive market- or technology-driven innovation, addressing demand-side or supply-side needs, respectively. While prior research has focused on supply-side interests, recent studies explore demand-side perspectives, emphasizing customers' roles. Departing from literature that examines investor reactions, this paper investigates how acquisition motivations influence acquired firm customers' responses, particularly their co-creation contributions—a critical asset for platform firms operating in digital environments.
Customers' attention is shaped by the acquirer's public communication, affecting their engagement with the acquired platform firm. This study advances the attention-based view by analyzing how organizational communication impacts stakeholders' external attention. It posits that market-driven innovation reduces customers' uncertainty about product quality and development potential, retaining their focus on co-creation contributions. Conversely, technology-driven innovation prioritizes long-term goals over immediate customer concerns, diverting their attention to other products.
Using a 10-year dataset from the largest global video game distribution platform, empirical tests reveal that market-driven innovation enhances customer co-creation contributions post-acquisition announcement, while technology-driven innovation diminishes them. Additionally, prior collaborative relationships between the acquirer and platform positively moderate the effects of market-driven innovation but do not influence technology-driven innovation outcomes.
These findings provide insights into managing customer relationships during product innovation processes and highlight the importance of acquisition motivations in shaping customer engagement within platform ecosystems.
It is believed that entrepreneurship education and training are instrumental in promoting innovation and the establishment and growth of new ventures. How does entrepreneurship education assist marginalized groups in improving their business acumen? This study focuses on Indego Africa as a single case study, involving five refugee entrepreneurs and the CEO of Indego Africa. First, this study demonstrates how disruptive innovation theory broadens the scope of entrepreneurial education to include underrepresented populations. Second, it shows how an effective entrepreneurial vocational education training programs to the performance of transitional entrepreneurs. Using disruptive innovation theory, this study adds a new perspective on how education can encourage entrepreneurial potential in underserved populations, thus contributing to the literature on entrepreneurial education. This study offers insights to practitioners that disruptive entrepreneurial education approach provides disadvantaged artisans with a transformative journey, empowering them to achieve sustainable economic independence and also local economies promotion. This paper gets together disruptive innovation and transitional entrepreneurs offering novel insights on the entrepreneurial education transforming from sophisticated, high-end offerings to more accessible, low-cost alternatives.
This study explores the influence of voice pitch on consumer attitudes toward status-signaling products, with a focus on the spokesperson's gender. Grounded in evolutionary psychology and social learning perspectives, we propose that lower-pitched male voices serve as reliable indicators of status. We hypothesize that lower-pitched male voices enhance consumer attitudes toward status-signaling products, while this effect is attenuated for female voices. Through one field experiment and two laboratory experiments, our findings consistently support these hypotheses. This research contributes to sensory marketing literature by uncovering the nuanced interplay of voice pitch and gender in shaping consumer perceptions of status-signaling products. Practically, the study highlights the strategic value of employing lower-pitched male voices in marketing campaigns to amplify effectiveness in advertising high-status products.
The termination of existing investments is a significant decision for VC firms. This research explores factors shaping VC firms’ decisions to terminate their investments, with a particular focus on the characteristics of their syndication partners. We contend that factors such as prior investment experiences and the network size of the partner in the VC syndication diminish the likelihood of the focal firm terminating its investment. Furthermore, we put forth theoretical considerations regarding how the developmental stage of the portfolio venture and the competitive dynamics among syndication partners moderate our main hypotheses. This study expands the current body of knowledge on VC investment termination by shedding light on the factors that shape decision-making within VC investments from the perspective of syndication partners.
Despite the well-documented triggering effects of performance falling below aspiration levels on various kinds of organizational changes, the process of searching among different types of solutions remains a black box. This study investigates when firms search for deeper causes and adopt high-level organizational changes, as exemplified by governance reform in Japanese firms. Incorporating a historical dynamics perspective to the theory of problematic search and drawing insights from resilience literature, we argue that recovery duration and recovery frequency influence managerial pressures to search for high-level solutions, leading firms to adopt governance reforms. These effects become more pronounced when the stakeholder logic is stronger. Using a sample of 24,312 observations from 2,448 listed Japanese firms between 2013 and 2022, we find empirical support for our arguments. Based on the unique context of Japanese corporate governance, our study offers new insights into the critical impact of performance feedback dynamics on organizational change.
Urban transportation significantly supports economic activities and tourist mobility but is also a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, particularly through private cars and taxis. Encouraging tourists to adopt more sustainable modes like public transport is essential, yet limited research exists on how message framing can influence such mode-switching behavior within urban destinations. This study explores the effectiveness of gain-framed messages in nudging tourists toward sustainable transport choices when visiting local attractions. Data collected from the choice experiment is analyzed with the discrete choice modelling approach. Results indicate that gain-framed gamified messages effectively encourage tourists to select more sustainable transport options. Findings contribute practical insights for developing targeted nudging strategies to promote sustainable tourist mobility.
Hong Kong aims to become a thriving technology hub by attracting global tech start-up entrepreneurs, leveraging its vibrant expatriate scene. The 2024-25 Budget supports this with investments in research and development and new visa schemes. However, challenges remain in livability, attractiveness, and talent diversity. The research suggests using soft destination branding approach to attracting global talents, integrating insights from migration, entrepreneurship, and tourism. This research aims to position Hong Kong as a top tech start-up destination, providing policy recommendations for talent acquisition and startup ecosystem development.
