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Rural
BPO: An Entrepreneurial Opportunity
--
Harsh
Bhargava and Anshul Bharti
We have always dreamt of leveraging technology to bridge
the digital divide. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has
involved the masses and has become the fastest growing industry
in India. This influence had been limited to the larger
cities till recently, but now global companies are breaking
these boundaries and looking for talent in smaller `Tier-2'
cities. The next step would be to take the BPO operations
to the `real' India, i.e., to the rural parts of India.
There lies an untapped potential for entrepreneurs willing
to work in this field. This paper highlights the importance
of this concept and the entrepreneurial initiatives in the
field of Rural BPO.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Rural
Entrepreneurs in Russia and the Ukraine: Origins, Motivations,
and Institutional Change
-- Christos
Kalantaridis and Lois Labrianidis
Post-socialistic regime in Russia and the Ukraine has brought
about a market economy that allows and rewards people to
become entrepreneurs. However, historically, the environment
in this region has not been very conducive to entrepreneurs
and it is a challenge now to generate entrepreneurial talent.
While some studies in the region have focused on this issue,
there is little information available on entrepreneurship
in the rural sector. This paper attempts to fill this gap
by exploring what motivates an entrepreneur in the rural
context and their origin, based on extensive field surveys
in three diverse rural areas. The study finds different
origins varying from family-based entrepreneurs to first-timers;
but in all cases, what is seen as stimulating entrepreneurship
is the resource availability and the institutional setting.
©
2004 by Journal of Economic Issues-Association for Evolutionary
Economics (http://web5.epnet.com). This article had earlier
appeared in the Journal of Economic Issues, September
2004, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 659-682. Reprinted from the Journal
of Economic Issues by special permission of the copyright
holder, the Association for Evolutionary Economics.
The
Impact of the Entrepreneur's Personality on the Strategy-formation
and Planning Process in SMEs
-- Breda
McCarthy
The objective of this study was to explore the impact of
the entrepreneur's character on the development of strategy
in small- to medium-sized firms. While researchers have
looked at entrepreneurial traits in order to explain business
start-up and growth, little attention has been paid to the
possible interactions between entrepreneurial types and
the strategic choices they make. This study identified two
main types of entrepreneurs, the pragmatist and the charismatic
entrepreneur, which resulted in different patterns of strategic
behavior. The research suggested that different types of
entrepreneurs faced different problems, and that their responses
to crises varied. The study suggests that the charismatic
entrepreneurs were forced to review their propensity to
take risk, share power and involve more people in the decision-making
process and this resulted in a more rational, planned approach
to the strategy-making process. Financial planning became
a priority for both types of entrepreneur.
©
2003 Blackhall Publishing (http://web17.epnet.com). This
article had earlier appeared in the Journal of Management,
December 2003. Reprinted with permission.
Evolution,
Adaptation and Entrepreneurial Learning in the Emerging
Nordic Wireless Internet Industry
--
Sören Sjölander, Mats Magnusson,
Magnus Johansson
and Linda Andrén
The wireless Internet industry is only in the beginning
of its innovative evolution. The structure and roles of
the companies active in the industry are far from settled
and the entrepreneurial activity in the area is very strong.
For new ventures in emerging industries, rapid learning
is the key. Opportunistic adaptation and strategy formation
is likely to be characterized by frequent changes in the
business model. These efforts at strategic experimentation
are reflective of the trial-and-error learning process associated
with trying to establish a viable competitive position.
This paper presents an identification and analysis of 139
unlisted Nordic start-up companies related to wireless Internet.
Primary geographical focus of the study has been the Swedish
market but companies in other Nordic countries have been
included. Personal interviews have been conducted with 67
such companies. The interviews were conducted during July-September
2000. Follow-up data gathering on funding and business model
adaptation was done in March 2001. The start-ups in the
study employ (late 2000) approximately 2700 persons, a figure
expected to double within the coming year. We estimate the
present total financial need among Swedish start-ups in
the industry to approximately SEK 2.3 bn. There is a compact
resistance against traffic revenue sharing among mobile
network operators in Sweden. The revenue models of many
start-ups include traffic sharing with cellular network
operators, and we believe those start-ups will have to revise
their business models. Start-ups, learning from experience
and adapting their definition of target customer as well
as their business model to the market evolution, showed
a significantly higher propensity to secure additional funding
compared to non-adapting ventures. Empirically, grounded
theoretical models of learning to better understand the
individual and group cognitive processes of learning in
innovative entrepreneurial contexts are much needed. Some
lines for further theoretical development are suggested.
©
2001 Sören Sjölander, Mats Magnusson, and Linda
Andrén (www.mot.chalmers.se). Reprinted with permission.
How
About Expanding the Business? Analyzing Entrepreneurs'Attitudes
Toward Growth
-- Jarna Heinonen
and Tommi Pukkinen
Small business growth is an issue of increasing importance
among academia, policymakers and media due to the expected
potential and capacity of small businesses to solve the
problems related to unemployment and economic growth. This
study presents a part of the results of the wider research
program on small business growth in Finland. The aim of
this study is to analyze the beliefs and perceptions of
an entrepreneur about company growth and their relationship
to growth measured by different measures. This study analyzed
the perceptions and beliefs of an entrepreneur about company
growth on society level, company level and personal level.
According to our study, the Finnish society is not considered
very encouraging towards small business growth. We also
found out that company level issues studied are those most
strongly related to growth. Our study suggests that growth
is not very much related to the overall appreciation of
growth and entrepreneurial climate of the society, but the
decisions made by an entrepreneur her/himself are rather
based on her/his individual perceptions and beliefs about
the consequences of the growth mostly at the company level.
Company gains are, thus, put even before personal gains.
This may be due to our sample, which did not exclusively
consist of entrepreneurs, but included a number of professional
managers as well. Our findings give a solid basis for further
analyses, as the study is still in progress.
©
2004 Jarna Heinonen and Tommi Pukkinen (www.tukkk.fi/pki).
This paper was earlier presented at the RENT XVIII Conference,
Copenhagen, Denmark, November 2004. Reprinted with permission.
Case
Study
Aravind
Eye Hospitals: A Case in Social Entrepreneurship
--
T Phani Madhav and V Kalyani
©
2004 IBS Case Development Center.
All Rights Reserved. For accessing and procuring the case
study, log on to www.ecch.cranfield.ac.uk
Research
Summary
Enterpreneurship
Capital and Economic Performance
The traditional production model has advocated labor and
capital as the only two factors affecting production. Subsequently,
knowledge capital was identified as the third factor, and
through this article, the authors suggest one more ignored
factor of production, viz., Entrepreneurship Capital. Using
a modified Cobb-Douglas type production function, the paper
explores the statistical significance of the new factor
suggested by them. The study was conducted in various regions
of Germany and confirms the importance of the role of Entrepreneurship
Capital in the production function. This conclusion may
have relevance for policy makers to understand the availability
of the various factors and decide which one to focus on,
for development.
©
2004 Regional Studies Association. All Rights Reserved.
IUP holds the copyright for the summary.
Book
Review
An
Age of New Possibilities: How Humane Values and an Entrepreneurial
Spirit will Lead Us into the Future
-- Reinhard Mohn
Successful entrepreneurs have demonstrated the need to constantly
review the changing preferences of the stakeholders and
the society, and adapt to the changes. Governments can succeed
in their reform process by adopting successful initiatives
in the business. The book, An Age of New Possibilities,
provides the administrators and politicians valuable insights
into the reform process with specific reference to Germany's
economic problems.
©
2004 Reinhard Mohn. All Rights Reserved. The IUP holds the copyright for the review. |
