Book chapter
Entrepreneurial Potential in the Digital Freelance Economy: Evidence from the Russian-Language Internet
Drawing on a unique dataset of 9685 Internet freelancers, we shed light on the entrepreneurial potential of the Russian-language online labour market, where more than half of freelancers exhibit entrepreneurial orientations. Our findings reveal heterogeneity of Internet freelancers in relation to entrepreneurship documenting strong differences amongst groups of actual entrepreneurs, potential entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs in terms of socio-demographics, professional characteristics, work behaviour and wellbeing. The fact that by most indicators potential entrepreneurs who plan to start a business typically take an intermediate position between non-entrepreneurs and actual entrepreneurs signals the feasibility of entrepreneurial intentions. Researching the entrepreneurial potential of Internet freelancers contributes to better understanding of how solo self-employment may give rise to new businesses in knowledge-intensive and creative industries which are crucial for modernising transition economies.
Based on a sample of 5,784 Russian-speaking respondents, this study provides the first quantitative evidence on freelance contracting via the Internet. We explore the extent to which these virtual business relations are formal or informal, and the role of social capital and
networking. Our data suggest freelancers act under constant threat of malfeasance from clients. We address a number of questions associated with freelancers’ business risks and how freelancers might mitigate them. The logistic regression models reveal that the virtualization of relationships with clients is associated with greater moral hazard risks and fewer opportunities for dispute resolution. Formal written contracts do not prevent opportunistic behaviors by clients, though such contracts help resolve conflicts. Dealing with available social contacts and referrals decreases both the probability of extreme opportunism, causing financial losses, and the probability that disputes remain unresolved. Nevertheless, established social relations could be exploited by clients who
can delay payments or insist on altering deadlines, work scope and specifications. Thus, our findings contribute to existing literatures on social capital in freelance contracting and on the structure of occupational labor markets.
Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research is a compilation of the conference proceedings and the top papers presented each year at the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference (BCERC). BCERC is widely considered the premier research conference on entrepreneurship and the work truly exemplifies new frontiers in the discipline of entrepreneurship. Full text papers are peer reviewed; summaries, poster sessions and interactive papers are not.
Drawing on the neo-institutional approach in organizational theory and global strategy, we advance a theory on the impact that differences in cultural egalitarianism have on multinational firms’ decision of where to engage in foreign direct investment (FDI) across the globe. Egalitarianism expresses a society’s cultural orientation with respect to intolerance for abuses of market and political power; it shapes the ways in which firms holding power interact with different stakeholders. After presenting a series of case illustrations, we find a strong negative impact of egalitarianism distance on FDI flows in a broad sample of nations and for different entry modes. Our results are robust to a broad set of competing accounts, including effects from other cultural dimensions, major features of the legal and regulatory regimes, other features of the institutional system, and economic development. These results hold while controlling for origin and host country factors through a fixed-effects specification as well as by using instruments for egalitarianism. We also find that other cultural influences are important as well. Differences in cultural harmony are actually positively associated with increased FDI flows, likely because multinational firms seek countries with lower societal support for entrepreneurship. FDI further tends to flow from high embeddedness to low embeddedness countries, and we link this in part to international regulatory arbitrage on environmental protection regimes.
A sustainability perspective is a practical today's goal for collaboration of state, business and society. The special role within this triad belongs to business companies, which integrate the sustainability principles into their strategies to improve organizational processes and long-term growth. Quality management system (QMS) is an important tool to ensure sustainability through business performance. According to the International standard organization survey of QMS, more than 1 million certifications issued in 178 countries by 2010. The position according to which corporate management of sustainability by the help of QMS, which corresponds to international standard ISO 9000 is presented in the paper. The aim of the paper is to examine the factors, which affect organizational decision of the companies in the emerging countries to implement QMS ISO 9000. The impact of internal and external factors which influence managerial decision of QMS implementation is analyzed in the paper. Specifically, the similarities and differences between the motivations of companies from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), new members of the EU countries and countries of the Southern Europe (which aren’t the members of the EU) within the implementation of the QMS ISO 9000, are discussed. The empirical cross-country analysis is based on 2002–2009 data from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS), conducted by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the data. The study identifies the role of economic development and institutional environment in the QMS ISO 9000 implementation. There are highlighted three “portraits” of companies, which implemented QMS: (a) from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries; (b) from the new EU members countries; (c) from the Southern Europe countries, which aren’t the members of the EU. The results show that QMS ISO 9000 implementation leads to increase of competitive ability and investment attractiveness of the company, to improvement of product quality and stakeholders communications, to human resources development. These business processes improvements, as a QMS implementation result, can potentially activate the company’s sustainable effects and then - national and global sustainability transformations.
The book contains papers by the leading contemporary researchers of entrepreneurship who belong to the group of awardees of the Global awared in entrepreneurship research as well as outlines of their research activities. First concise collection of the mainstream entrepreneurship research ideas of the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21th centuries.
Relevance of statement and studying of a problem of entrepreneurial culture development of future managers is connected with features of development of the country, with orientation of the higher education to humanistic values and meanings. In our opinion the entrepreneurial culture can be considered in a context of cultures. The article presents a view on entrepreneurial culture in a context of "culture of usefulness and dignity". The entrepreneurial culture in the modern conditions, arisen as culture of usefulness, seeks to develop in itself lines of the personality significant culture, focused on dignity, "public understanding", the humanistic principle of "solidarity". Solving problems of modernization of the higher education, relying on competence-based approach, development of entrepreneurial culture in professional education of modern managers gets a special sense. Authors defined the basic principles and problems of the educational process directed on formation of entrepreneurial culture. Experience of faculty of management of NRU HSE in Nizhny Novgorod is presented in article, the program of entrepreneurial culture development of the youth is described. The program is realized consistently at three levels, each is caused by the purposes, methods, forms, age features of participants: The first level - "Formation of an image of the modern businessman". The second level – "An entrepreneurial mentality. First experience". The third level - "I am a businessman! ".
One of the most popular statements in the systemic transition literature since the second half of the 1990th is that different experiences of the CEE and Baltic states, on the one hand, and the most of the CIS countries, on the other hand, are embedded in different social norms and values, encouraging efforts in the new EU member states and preventing it in some of CIS countries.
The case addresses the problems of managing strategic change in a small business company Kislorod Plus (Niznhny Novgorod, Russia) – a local trader of welding equipment. The story starts with firing the company’s executive, who took a number of dramatic mistakes, and thus failed implementing corporate strategy, ruined the economy of the firm, and created a significant threat of bankruptcy. Notwithstanding all the problems of the heavy crisis, the company and the situation still have a number of opportunities that are to be recognized and pursued in order to save the business and lead the company to prosperity.
The volume deals with the current frontier research in entrepreneurship theory in Europe on contextual and processual specifics of entrepreneurial practice
The book contains teaching materials and notes on the study course “Entrepreneurship”.