The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

In New Zealand, where it is more common to export lamb, one micro-enterprise – consisting of an entrepreneur and two assistants – is exporting Angus beef. A case study approach was used to gain an understanding of the international entrepreneurship of such a small firm. The methodology adopted was in-depth interviewing. The article provides insights into what an entrepreneur faces when developing a new export venture in the absence of government support.

This paper focuses on public innovation support for ventures in their early stages of development. Based on quantitative analysis of programme-specific data, the authors explore and discuss what mechanisms have influenced a public sector actor in selecting ideas for funding. The main findings show, first, that the ‘legal form of the firm’ and the ‘type of industry’ are the main factors that discriminate among firms that have gained public financial support and, second, that explicit and tacit selection criteria affect the process that determines which ideas are to receive support.

The authors report on a survey of small and medium-sized entrepreneurial information technology (IT) firms to investigate the impact of new service development (NSD) process activities on innovation success and failure. Their findings highlight the importance of managing the process to engage customers, management and employees, facilitating innovation champions to aid in idea generation and commitment, effectively communicating the benefits to customers, and using the tacit nature of the process to create barriers to imitation. In general, the findings point to several key elements that impact on successful entrepreneurial IT innovation projects and appear to result from an iterative, flexible and process-linked approach to NSD innovation.

This paper gives a social capital perspective on the internationalization process of new firms. The point of departure is international new ventures (INVs) and their frequent use of hybrid structures for government of international activities. The purpose is to shed new light on the INV phenomenon by studying the role of social relationships in the establishment, management and performance of international governance structures and access to resources for international market expansion. By combining knowledge from the international entrepreneurship literature with social capital theory, the authors construct several propositions on the relationship between properties of social capital embedded in the new firm and their ability to form effective international market channels and deliver high long-term performance. This conceptual study suggests that social capital is indeed conducive to the overall performance of INVs. However, empirical research is desirable – and, based on the propositions from this study, the authors propose a research agenda emphasizing the need for a longitudinal study of INV organizations with regard to the role of social capital in attracting and controlling international market resources.

This study examines the effects resellers have on the decision of a small manufacturing firm to adopt e-business. These effects are twofold: fear of alienating a reseller can impede the adoption, while the reseller's intentions to invest in e-business can facilitate the adoption. Both effects are more pronounced for firms with fewer than 50 employees and almost irrelevant for firms with more than 200 employees. The explicit channel cannibalization effect and the moderating role of the willingness to cannibalize are also significant.

There is a clear research issue for Wales regarding the roles and interactions of government policy, HEIs, SMEs and the creation and dissemination of innovation. A study of the views of key policy makers concerning innovation and entrepreneurship in Wales is undertaken, especially with regard to the development of innovation within SMEs and the policy implications for economic regeneration. The role of a variety of actors (including users and suppliers) is considered, as is the impact of networks of SMEs linked together in patterns of cooperation and affiliation. From the results and the analysis of interviews, key points of significance to innovation, entrepreneurship, higher education and economic regeneration policy making in Wales are reported.

‘Internet Review’ provides critical commentary on entrepreneurship, small business and innovation information on the Web.