Gender effects in crowdfunded business loan campaigns.

Crowdfunding is a growing source of finance for entrepreneurs. In this paper, we investigate the existence of a gender effect in the time needed to obtain a business loan through crowdfunding. Using data from three Dutch crowdfunding platforms, survival analysis of the time to completion for 934 business loan campaigns shows that female entrepreneurs have a 20% shorter campaign completion time compared to male entrepreneurs, whereas couples do not differ from males. This effect persists across the different platforms. Subsequent analysis shows that female entrepreneurs do not have the disadvantage they face in traditional lending channels when requesting funds through crowdfunding, and that herding behavior by investors benefits female entrepreneurs most.

Digital economy and urban economic resilience: The mediating role of technological innovation and entrepreneurial vitality.

Drawing on the diffusion of innovation theory, we argue that the development of digital economy has a positive effect on urban economic resilience. Using panel data from 284 cities in China from 2011 to 2018, we empirically examine the relationship between digital economy and urban economic resilience. We find a positive and significant link between them, mediated by technological innovation and entrepreneurial vitality. Moreover, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of digital economy is most pronounced in smaller cities, with its effects diminishing in larger cities and megacities. Our results underscore the importance and the direction of fostering digital economy development.

Uberização: precarização do trabalho e ação política dos trabalhadores no Brasil de 2020 / Uberisation: precarisation of work and political action of workers in 2020 Brazil

Este artigo tem por objetivo geral debater o que é trabalhar no Brasil de 2020, a partir do processo de precarização em sua versão mais atualizada: a uberização. Em específico, nosso objetivo é discutir as estratégias e reinvenções desenvolvidas por uma categoria de trabalhadores uberizados para minimizar ou conter o avanço da precarização. Seguindo a tradição teórico-metodológica da psicologia social do trabalho, conduzimos uma análise temática a partir do perfil oficial do movimento dos Entregadores Antifascistas na rede social Instagram. O material para análise compreende postagens, entrevistas e reportagens em formato escrito e audiovisual, de acesso público. Nossa análise é apresentada a partir de três temas que emergem como fundamentais para o debate proposto: a precarização e seu aprofundamento na pandemia; o empreendedorismo funcionando para a precarização do trabalho; e o encontro da política com o trabalho dos entregadores. Concluímos que acompanhar a emergência e o desenvolvimento de movimentos de trabalhadores no enfrentamento à uberização nos mundos do trabalho permite identificar e compreender as implicações psicossociais dessas novas modalidades de organização do trabalho

This study aims to discuss the uberization of work as a more up-to-date version of the precarization of work. It also aims to show and debate the strategies and tactics which uberized workers developed to minimize its consequences and prevent the increase of precarious and insecure jobs. Following the theoretical-methodological perspective of the Latin American social psychology of work, we conducted a thematic analysis using documents from the official Instagram account of the movement of "Anti-Fascist Couriers." Publicly accessible written and audiovisual documents ­ such as photos, interviews, documentaries, and magazine and newspaper articles ­ compose our dataset. We show our analysis considering three main themes: the increase of precarious conditions at work after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic; how entrepreneurialism enlarge precarious conditions at work; and delivery workers' political action. We conclude that monitoring the emergence and development of workers' movements in the fight against uberization in the world of work enabled us to identify and understand the psychosocial implications of these new forms of work organization

Webinar innvación y emprendimiento en salud digital

Mientras que el emprendimiento se refiere a la acción mediante la cual se inician nuevos negocios, la innovación corresponde a la implementación de novedades o mejoramientos significativos. En el mundo de la salud digital latinoamericano, el ecosistema de emprendimiento e innovación ha crecido considerablemente en los últimos años, sobre todo en países en dónde los gobiernos o la misma industria estimula el crecimiento de los "start-up" y la investigación y desarrollo de nuevas innovaciones que permitan proveer servicios de salud de calidad a la población, así como contribuir a la prevención de la enfermedad y promoción de la salud.

Firing on all cylinders: Configuring information technology around the constituents of corporate entrepreneurship to outperform in SME sector.

This study has examined how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may enhance their performance under different settings of information technology (IT) capabilities and corporate entrepreneurship (CE). Established on the dynamic capability view, the researchers have analyzed the connections between IT capabilities and CE, in addition to the performance results of SMEs. The research has explored these novel relationships by utilizing partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with a data sample of 447 SMEs of the manufacturing sector in Pakistan. The findings present that IT capabilities positively influence the market and financial performance of SMEs through the mediating role of CE dimensions. The study uniquely determines the mediating role of dimensional effects of corporate entrepreneurship between IT capabilities and performance outcomes of firms. Thus, the study would enable the management of SMEs to realize the potential of IT-related CE dimensions and their use to improve firms' performance.

Dynamic capabilities, value creation and value capture: Evidence from SMEs under Covid-19 lockdown in Poland.

Dynamic capabilities, resulting from activities that allow conscious and skillful modification of a firm's strategic potential, are seen as one of the key drivers of a firm's value creation, competitive advantage and above-average performance in changing environments. However, little is known about how dynamic capabilities can shape business survival and performance during crises. The research objective of this paper is twofold. First, through a literature review, we seek to identify which first-order dynamic capabilities-managerial decisions under uncertainty-are vital for rapid response to a crisis. Second, we present the results of research carried out among 151 small and medium-sized companies in Poland immediately after the beginning of the economic lockdown (April 2020). The survey that we developed identifies which dynamic capabilities were essential for businesses to survive during this unexpected black swan event. We also present dependence and regression analyses showing the links between the identified dynamic capabilities and value creation, understood as retaining employees and production levels, as well as value capture, understood as maintaining cash flow and current revenues.

Evasive entrepreneurship: Circumventing and exploiting institutional impediments for new profit opportunity in an emerging market.

Evasive entrepreneurship (circumvention and exploitation of institutions by entrepreneurs) is a prevalent practice in many developing economies. Extant literature on the topic falls short of providing adequate theories to explain its triggers, mechanisms, and consequences. Leveraging extensive survey data from the World Bank, we used structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between evasive entrepreneurial behavior-tax evasion and bribery-and the relative payoff of such practices. Of the 2599 Nigerian entrepreneurs in our sample, the majority admitted to engaging in evasive entrepreneurship. The data suggest that institutional factors thought to constrain entrepreneurship in emerging markets are counter-intuitively perceived by founders as opportunities to earn large rents and improve firm performance. Our results emphasize the urgent need to eliminate institutional constraints that paradoxically enable the growth of evasive entrepreneurship in emerging economies. Our results also suggest that prevailing local conventions involving evasive behavior may motivate nascent entrepreneurs to imitate bribery and tax evasion, normalizing malfeasance as 'best practice.'

Identifying environmental and economic development factors in sustainable entrepreneurship over time by partial least squares (PLS).

This study analyses the impact of environmental and economic factors consolidation on sustainable entrepreneurship over time. A model is proposed that analyses the relations between these factors and sustainable entrepreneurship over time with sustainable development goals performances and the continuation of the businesses index as variables. Using data from 50 countries, a quantitative method based on partial least squares was applied to validate the proposed model. Our findings showed positive and significant relations between environmental and economic factors with sustainable entrepreneurship over time. This implies that the countries which invest more efforts to consolidate their economic and environmental factors obtain higher durability rates for their sustainable entrepreneurship.

Association of the Meaningful Use Electronic Health Record Incentive Program With Health Information Technology Venture Capital Funding.

Importance: Although the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act has accelerated electronic health record (EHR) adoption since its passage, clinician satisfaction with EHRs remains low, and the association of HITECH with health care information technology (IT) entrepreneurship has remained largely unstudied. Objective: To determine whether the passage of the HITECH Act was associated with an increase in key measures of health care IT entrepreneurship. Design, Setting, and Participants: This economic evaluation of venture capital (VC) activity in the US from 2000 to 2019 examined funding trends in health care IT, EHR-related companies, and all VC investments before and after the passage of HITECH. A difference-in-differences analysis compared investments in health care IT companies with those of companies in 3 categories: general health care (non-IT), IT (non-health care), and all US VC transactions. Data were analyzed from September 2018 to August 2019. Exposures: Venture capital funding received by US companies before and after the HITECH Act. Main Outcomes and Measures: Venture capital investment in health care IT companies and the proportion of those investments going to seed-stage companies, a proxy for very early-stage entrepreneurship and innovation. Results: The data included 70 982 investments, of which 9425 (13.3%) were seed stage, 10 706 (15.1%) were early stage, and 50 851 (71.6%) were growth stage. After passage of the HITECH Act, investment in both health care IT companies and EHR-related companies increased at a rate much faster (13.0% and 11.4%, respectively) than VC as a whole (6.9%). In addition, the proportion of investments going to seed-stage health care IT companies increased compared with both overall VC investments and non-IT health care investments. Health care IT companies saw increased probabilities of transactions being seed-stage of 5.1% (SE, 2.2%; 95% CI, 0.8% to 9.3%; P = .02) compared with the entire sample of VC transactions and 13.6% (SE, 1.9%; 95% CI, 9.9% to 17.2%; P < .001) compared with non-IT health care VC transactions. Health care IT had essentially 0 increased probability of a transaction being seed stage compared with IT companies outside health care (-0.8% probability; SE, 2.4%; 95% CI, -5.4% to 3.9%; P = .75). Conclusions and Relevance: Although widespread clinician dissatisfaction with EHR systems remains a challenge, the HITECH Act's incentive program may have catalyzed early-stage entrepreneurship in health care IT, suggesting an important role for incentives in promoting innovation.

Quantifying the dynamics of failure across science, startups and security.

Human achievements are often preceded by repeated attempts that fail, but little is known about the mechanisms that govern the dynamics of failure. Here, building on previous research relating to innovation1-7, human dynamics8-11 and learning12-17, we develop a simple one-parameter model that mimics how successful future attempts build on past efforts. Solving this model analytically suggests that a phase transition separates the dynamics of failure into regions of progression or stagnation and predicts that, near the critical threshold, agents who share similar characteristics and learning strategies may experience fundamentally different outcomes following failures. Above the critical point, agents exploit incremental refinements to systematically advance towards success, whereas below it, they explore disjoint opportunities without a pattern of improvement. The model makes several empirically testable predictions, demonstrating that those who eventually succeed and those who do not may initially appear similar, but can be characterized by fundamentally distinct failure dynamics in terms of the efficiency and quality associated with each subsequent attempt. We collected large-scale data from three disparate domains and traced repeated attempts by investigators to obtain National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to fund their research, innovators to successfully exit their startup ventures, and terrorist organizations to claim casualties in violent attacks. We find broadly consistent empirical support across all three domains, which systematically verifies each prediction of our model. Together, our findings unveil detectable yet previously unknown early signals that enable us to identify failure dynamics that will lead to ultimate success or failure. Given the ubiquitous nature of failure and the paucity of quantitative approaches to understand it, these results represent an initial step towards the deeper understanding of the complex dynamics underlying failure.

The impact of the inclusive financial development index on farmer entrepreneurship.

Based on the calculation of the inclusive financial development level of 22 provinces and 4 municipalities in China from 2004 to 2017, this paper uses the Kernel density estimation method to further analyze the evolution of the inclusive financial index. Based on the above analysis, we make empirical analysis of the impact of China's inclusive financial inclusion development index on farmers' entrepreneurship using static panel and dynamic panel estimation method. The empirical conclusions show that there are certain differences in inclusive financial inclusion development level in various provinces in China. Improving the inclusion development level of inclusive finance can better promote farmers' entrepreneurship. Urbanization level, economic openness and regional economic development level have a significant positive effect on farmers' entrepreneurship, while farmers' income and education level have a significant negative effect on farmers' entrepreneurship. It is possible to promote farmers' entrepreneurship by improving the inclusive development level of inclusive finance, combining urbanization, increasing government investment in productive fixed assets, increasing economic openness and improving regional economic development.