Early-stage technology-based firms are confronted with the complexity of foreign markets and global competition from their earliest stages of development. Not only must technology entrepreneurs keep pace with ever-changing technology-based product offerings, but they must also simultaneously stay abreast of competitors and industry trends in multiple countries. We surveyed 75 small technology-based firms in Ontario to evaluate their international activities and try to explain both the intensity of their foreign sales (the percent of total sales coming from foreign sources), as well as the global diversity of the markets in which they operate (the number of major regional areas from which they derive revenue). Our findings suggest that resources necessary to pursue international sales have an important impact on both foreign market intensity and diversity. In contrast, however, attitudes towards foreign markets helped to explain international intensity but not global diversity. Additionally, firm age was positively associated with global diversity but not international intensity. These findings support the notion of small technology firms being “instant internationals” but suggest that proceeding to the next step—achieving global diversity— requires significantly greater time and resources. In line with prior empirical research, these firms tended to increase their international intensity and diversity as they became larger. In contrast with what the literature suggests, however, firms utilizing strategic alliances were no more active internationally than those not using strategic alliances. Finally, government assistance helped to explain the international intensity of these firms, but not the global diversity. These results help managers, researchers and shapers of public policy better understand the international activities of early-stage technology firms. Given the relationship between attitudes and international intensity, there appears to be some opportunity associated with trying to influence the attitudes of CEOs regarding initial expansion into international markets. For firms to become globally diverse, however, there is a greater dependency on the availability of resources as well as accumulated business experience. Managers should recognize the pattern this suggests and perhaps be leery of becoming too globally diverse too quickly. Overall, the relationship between size and foreign activities suggests that growth opportunities are linked to international markets. Although some broad relationships are suggested regarding the need for collaboration and government support, further research is necessary to understand the use of strategic alliances as well as government assistance in both international market intensity and global diversity.

Franchising systems play a vital role in the creation of new jobs and economic development. Although the role of the franchisor as entrepreneur is generally assumed, there has been limited research on the conduct of entrepreneurial activities in the franchising system as a whole. In particular, researchers and practitioners need to better understand the influences of organizational context on entrepreneurial activities system-wide. The research reported in this article examines the influences of the organizational context of the franchisor on the entrepreneurial strategies of franchisors, their innovation efforts, and franchisor support of entrepreneurial activities by franchisees. Specifically, this study examines how the organizational context variables of size, age of the franchise, its growth rate (both absolute and relative), and time in franchising affect franchisee perceptions of entrepreneurial strategies of their parent franchisor, their innovation efforts, and franchisor managerial support for entrepreneurial activity and innovation by the franchisee. Franchisee perceptions of their parent franchisors’ entrepreneurial strategies were assessed with respect to four dimensions identified in previous research as central to an entrepreneurial orientation: low concern for stability, willingness to take risks, aggressiveness in competition, and proactiveness (in seeking new opportunities). Innovation by franchisors was measured with respect to introduction of new products and techniques. Drawing on research that emphasizes the importance of instituting special organizational devices and rewards and recognition systems for promoting entrepreneurial activity, franchisor support for franchisee entrepreneurial activity and innovation (e.g., the development of new products and services, new techniques to improve customer service) was measured by the importance franchisees assigned to the use of a franchise council, the recognition of new ideas at the annual meeting of the franchise system, and the presence at franchisor headquarters of a champion for innovation. Consistent with other studies examining the influence of organizational context, it was hypothesized that organizational size and age would be negatively related to franchisee assessments of entrepreneurial strategies, the introduction of new products and techniques, and franchisor managerial support for franchisee entrepreneurial activity and innovation. In contrast, rapid growth was hypothesized to be positively associated with entrepreneurial strategies and support for franchisee innovation. No hypotheses were proposed with respect to time in franchising. Results of the study showed, as hypothesized, that franchisor size was associated with a concern for stability and strategies that were risk averse, cooperative, and reactive rather than proactive. However, size was positively associated with the frequent introduction of new products and also positively related to franchisor support for franchisee innovation. Contrary to expectations, age was positively associated with entrepreneurial strategies including a low concern for stability and an aggressive style of competition. In addition, age was positively associated with the introduction of both new products and new techniques. Relative growth, rather than an absolute rate of growth, was associated with all of the entrepreneurial strategies except risk-taking as well as with the frequent introduction of new products. Although no hypotheses were proposed for time in franchising, the findings show that it is associated with a greater concern for stability as well as the infrequent introduction of new products and techniques. The findings from this study suggest that franchisors need to institute measures to counteract the potentially deleterious influences of franchise system size on the entrepreneurial orientation within their franchising systems. It also suggests the resources of a large organization need to be combined with the flexibility of smaller units for competitive advantage. Entrepreneurial activity by franchisors and franchisees implies a partnership in adapting to the environment and can provide a competitive advantage. The challenge for franchisors will be managing new ideas from the field and adapting to a competitive environment while at the same time preserving the integrity of the franchising system.

Despite intensive inquiry, relatively little is known about the entrepreneur, the central figure in entrepreneurship. The question of how an individual who operates his or her own business differs from a corporate manager remains unanswered. In addressing this question, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of psychological constructs to predict a proclivity for entrepreneurship. The research model includes three classic themes in the literature: achievement motivation, risk-taking propensity, and preference for innovation. A survey of 767 small business owner-managers and corporate managers was assembled from a 20-state region, primarily the southeastern United States. The participants completed a questionnaire composed of the Achievement Scale of the Personality Research Form, the Risk-Taking and Innovation Scales of the Jackson Personality Inventory and questions pertaining to numerous individual and organizational variables. Respondents were first divided into two groups, managers and small business owner-managers. Subsequently, due to the often cited variations in entrepreneurs, the owner-managers were further categorized as either an entrepreneur or small business owner, using the widely cited Carland et al. (1984) theoretical definitions. Entrepreneurs are defined by their goals of profit and growth for their ventures and by their use of strategic planning. Alternatively, small business owners focus on providing family income and view the venture as an extension of their personalities. In this study, both groups of owner-managers were simultaneously compared with managers using hierarchical set multinomial LOGIT regression. The results indicated that the psychological constructs are associated with small business ownership, but with some important caveats. As hypothesized, those labeled entrepreneurs were higher in achievement motivation, risk-taking propensity, and preference for innovation than were both the corporate managers and the small business owners. This profile of the entrepreneur as a driven, creative risk-taker is consistent with much of the classic literature concerning the entrepreneur. Nonetheless, not all of the owner-managers fit this profile. When compared with managers, the small business owners demonstrated only a significantly higher risk-taking propensity. In terms of the constructs studied, the small business owners were more comparable to managers than to entrepreneurs. In addition to theoretical and methodological implications, the results presented here have important implications for small business owner-managers of both types. A major issue is the connection between the owner’s psychological profile and the characteristics of the venture, including performance. It would appear that psychological antecedents are associated with owner goals for the venture. Some owners will be more growth oriented than will others, and performance should be assessed in light of the owner’s aspirations for the venture. Moreover, owners should be aware of their own personality sets, including risk preferences, which may be more or less suited to different venture circumstances, including those with relatively high levels of risk. Planning in small businesses appears to enhance venture performance. Research has demonstrated the connections between psychological factors and planning behaviors in small businesses. Those labeled entrepreneurs in this study have goals of profit and growth, and tend to engage in more planning. An awareness of these psychological preferences and concomitant attention to planning behaviors have the potential to improve the performance of the venture, irrespective of owner aspirations. Venture teaming is becoming more popular among entrepreneurs. Balanced venture teams appear to improve the chances of entrepreneurial success (Timmons 1990), but a common source of conflict among venture team members is inconsistent or ambiguous motives for the new venture. Awareness of venture partners’ psychological predispositions in areas such as risk-taking could be used to identify and reconcile areas of potential conflict, and enhance the planning process in the small firm. In sum, an individual’s awareness of his or her psychological profile provides a number of advantages, not only to existing entrepreneurs, but also to aspiring entrepreneurs who should assess their perceived entrepreneurial opportunities against the backdrop of their psychological proclivity for entrepreneurship.

Often successive studies are conducted to rank items across time or across different raters. For instance, different consumers may be asked to rank products, or banks may be ranked at different points of time based on their lending practices. In such cases, a simple model would suggest arriving at a summary set of rankings by averaging across the sets. However, when the rank of an item is missing in some of the sets, a simple mean can produce a biased result. This is because the absence of an item in a particular set may be important information that is being ignored. MacMillan conducted a series of studies to identify a forum for publishing business policy research, the most recent of which appeared in this journal. The design of the study involved two stages of selection: first, the journals were to be voted into a set, and second, they were to be ranked by a panel of scholars. This procedure resulted in some of the journals not appearing in every study. Thus, taking a simple average across the studies would result in misleading information, because the absence of a journal in a particular study is information that is important (because the panel chose not to vote it into consideration) but lost in averaging. One of the objectives of the MacMillan studies was to provide scholars with information about the importance of the journal as a publication outlet. Thus, it is important to be able to arrive at a summary set of rankings to provide cumulative information. To achieve this, a left-censored model was developed. Assuming that the ranks follow a normal distribution, with unknown mean and the same variance, maximum likelihood estimates of the means were calculated.. The summary set of ranks were then calculated using these estimates. The summary ranks were compared with those arrived at from an independent estimate of journal quality and found to have validity. Our model helps enhance the value of the MacMillan studies by providing cumulative information on the journals and facilitating their comparison with other studies. We see the applicability of the model in other areas too. Known by the generic term of league tables, such sets of data are generated in marketing research, educational studies, etc. Thus, the model is an important contribution to the tool kit of empirical research.