Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function

Strategy and Structure

Because they are victims of short-term economic pressures and "parochial politics", most American companies critically lack the one factor proven effective in winning competitive advantage: leadership. Thus argues John P. Kotter in this, his third large-scale work on leadership, which continues and complements the work begun in his influential "The General Managers" and "Power and Influence". With compelling evidence, Kotter demonstrates why most American firms do not have the leadership capacity they currently need and explains what they must do to correct this damaging problem. Using comprehensive data from 900 senior executives in 100 American corporations, as well as in-depth interviews with 150 top managers in fifteen successful companies, including General Electric, Citicorp, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Coca-Cola, Kotter singles out the practices that develop superior leadership. He identifies both the specific personal attributes and general leadership qualities needed in today's corporations. And, with the spotlight on such individuals as Lee Iacocca at Chrysler and teams like the top management at Johnson & Johnson, he vividly illustrates the four factors that create outstanding leadership in both private and public sector senior and middle level managers. Professor Kotter underscores his argument with glaring examples of managerial failures in firms like ITT, providing eye-opening evidence of damage-- inability to control sagging productivity and poor records in customer service, quality control, and the development of new products-- caused primarily not be poor R&D or labor problems, but by a weak leadership capacity. Filled with dozens of case histories, "The Leadership Factor" reveals an all-too-common picture of companies which, unable to recognize or develop leadership talent and utilize it, create a pervasive gap in corporate planning and personal management. Progress has been made in improving quality management, but is has been limited. Kotter is hard-hitting in his assessment that even American companies which achieve a superior level of success in the leadership area-- IBM, DuPont, Dow Jones, Hewlett-Packard, and Anheuser-Busch, for example, must do even better to match efforts of foreign competitors. In showing how leaders are made, not born, he provides a realistic program structured to help attract, retain, and motivate dynamic, capable leaders in executive and middle management positions. Following Kotter's advice, companies can build strong managerial teams necessary not only for growth-- but also for survival itself.

The Leadership Factor

Using a teaching model framework, we systematically review empirical evidence on the impact of entrepreneurship education (EE) in higher education on a range of learning outcomes, analysing 159 published articles from 2004-2016. The teaching model framework allows us for the first time to start rigorously examining relationships between pedagogical methods and specific outcomes. Re-confirming past reviews and meta-analyses, we find that EE impact research still predominantly focuses on short-term and subjective outcome measures and tends to severely under-describe the actual pedagogies being tested. Moreover, we use our review to provide an up-to-date and empirically rooted call for less obvious, yet greatly promising, new or underemphasised directions for future research on the impact of university-based entrepreneurship education. This includes, for example, the use of novel impact indicators related to emotion and mindset, focus on the impact indicators related to the intention-to-behaviour transition, and explore the reasons for some of the contradictory findings in impact studies including person-, context- and pedagogical model-specific moderators.

The impact of entrepreneurship education in higher education: A systematic review and research agenda

Examines the motivation for achievement as a psychological factor that shapes economic development. Refuting arguments based on race, climate, or population growth, the book instead argues for cultural customs and motivations - especially the motivation for achievement - as the major catalysts of economic growth. Considering the Protestant Reformation, the rise of capitalism, parents' influences on sons, and folklore and children's stories as shaping cultural motivations for achievement, the book hypothesizes that a high level of achievement motivation precedes economic growth. This is supported through qualitative analysis of the achievement motive, as well as of other psychological factors - including entrepreneurial behavior and characteristics, and available sources of achievement in past and present highly achieving societies. It is the achievement motive - and not merely the profit motive or the desire for material gain - that has advanced societies economically. Consequently, individuals are not merely products of their environment, as many social scientists have asserted, but also creators of the environment, as they manipulate it in various ways in the search for achievement. Finally, a plan is hypothesized to accelerate economic growth in developing countries, by encouraging and supplementing their achievement motives through mobilizing the greater achievement resources of developed countries. The conclusion is not just that motivations shape economic progress, but that current influences on future people's motivations and values will determine economic growth in the long run. Thus, it is most beneficial for a society to concentrate its resources on creating an environment conducive to entrepreneurship and a strong ideological base for achievement. (CJC)

The Achieving Society

Strategic orientations are widely required and considered for the survival and sustainability of small businesses. This study reports the comparative analysis of small business strategic orientations based on the presence of aggressiveness, futurity, riskiness, proactiveness and analysis and defensiveness for performance. For proper projection, four hypotheses were formulated. Survey research design, purposive and simple random sampling technique were adopted for the study. Data were collected from selected Covenant University strategic business Units through the administration of questionnaires were sorted and analyzed using descriptive statistics, regression and Pearson correlation analysis. The study revealed a positive effect between the various variables; product innovation and revenue turnover; research development and customer patronage; technological innovation and return on investment. Therefore it was recommended that SMEs need be innovative and proactive as possible to enable their optimal navigation and improved productivity in whatever business environments they operate and also to foster more strategic improvisational actions that can bring out change, enhance operational efficiency and contribute to organizational performance and competitive advantage.

/pdf/a-comparative-analysis-of-small-business-strategic-fusc0rdymg.pdf

A Comparative Analysis of Small Business Strategic Orientation: Implications for Performance

The effect of non traditional teaching methods in entrepreneurship education on students entrepreneurial interest and business startups: A data article.

The objective of this research was to examine the role of an educator’s competence in
enhancing students’ commitment to write business plans as expression of entrepreneurial
aspirations and intentions. The data for this study was collected from university students of four
selected institutions in Nigeria offering a degree programme in entrepreneurship. The selected
universities are Joseph Ayo Babalola in Osun State, Federal University of Agriculture in
Abeokuta Ogun State, Federal University of Technology Akure Ondo State, and Lead City
University Ibadan Oyo State. This study adopted descriptive cross sectional survey research
design in which the research questionnaire was administered to participants based on purposive,
stratified and simple random sampling techniques. A total of six hundred (600) students from the
selected universities participated in this study. In developing the survey questionnaire
instrument, questions were adapted from existing literature that relate to the study. Hierarchical
Multiple Regression Analysis was used in validating the hypothesis postulated in the study using
the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. The findings from the analysis
implied that the experience and skill of an entrepreneurship educator impacts on
entrepreneurship students’ commitment to learning particularly in writing feasible and viable
business plans. It was recommended that entrepreneurship educators should ensure to utilize
their experience and skill to motivate students’ commitment to entrepreneurial related learning
with particular emphasis on business plan writing. This is hinged upon the fact that angel
investors, partnering financial institutions and other stakeholder support systems mostly favor
business plan competitions as basis for supporting business start-ups.

/pdf/entrepreneurship-educator-s-competence-on-university-3xmvbrz37r.pdf

Entrepreneurship Educator's Competence on University Students' Commitment to Learning and Business Plan Writing

Innovation accountability can be activated by creating a culture of workplace transparency in an organization. Hence, workplace transparency is a philosophy that should be espoused by every organization that yearns for a critical framework to drive innovation undertaken by employees across all levels. This study critically examined the effect of workplace transparency on innovation accountability with a focus on Nigeria. To achieve this goal, a sample size of 89 academic and non-academic staff of covenant university in Ogun State, Nigeria, were used. The data collected were analysed by means of regression analysis. The result showed that workplace transparency has positive significant effect on innovation transparency (p<0.05). Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that workplace culture of accountability in which employees feel empowered to take responsibility and have the poise to innovate should be created by top management.

https://www.abacademies.org/articles/Work-transparency-and-innovation-accountability-in-a-selected-organization-in-nigeria-1528-2686-24-4-191.pdf

M. E. Ogbari

Papers

A Comparative Analysis of Small Business Strategic Orientation: Implications for Performance

The effect of non traditional teaching methods in entrepreneurship education on students entrepreneurial interest and business startups: A data article.

Entrepreneurship Educator's Competence on University Students' Commitment to Learning and Business Plan Writing

Work Transparency And Innovation Accountability In A Selected Organization In Nigeria

Knowledge transfer and innovation performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs): An informal economy analysis.