Southern Business Review 

About: Southern Business Review is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): International business & Population. It has an ISSN identifier of 0884-1373. Over the lifetime, 85 publications have been published receiving 1018 citations.

A New Paradigm: Entrepreneurial Leadership

Abstract: As the 1990's gave way to the next millennium, the current social, economic, and political environments were constantly being affected by the actions of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ventures. The current literature in entrepreneurship devotes considerable discussion to the role entrepreneurs play within their businesses and as opinion leaders in their markets and the general economy. Often described as innovators, paradigm pioneers, and visionaries, entrepreneurs are confronted with the issue of developing leadership qualities in order to grow their businesses and to transform them to a level of professionalism.Since the 1980's, an increased level of entrepreneurial activity has spawned, not only because of the electronic age but due to a plethora of new materials, products, financial networks, joint venture possibilities, and paradigmatic changes in politics, economics, and societies. It appears a whole new remodeling of the ways in which business, communication, and government are conducted has emerged. Thus, it is imperative for anyone involved in entrepreneurial ventures, especially the entrepreneur, to fully comprehend the impor-tance of sound leadership practices.This article attempts to reveal those characteristics common to both successful leaders and entrepreneurs who operate in dynamic, changing environments. It also attempts to show the characteristics entrepreneurs use to cope with their need to excel and explore new vistas. In essence, it seeks to demonstrate a new style of evolving leadership, entrepreneurial leadership, which offers a break from the past and movement into the future.Literature ReviewEntrepreneur ship is a relatively new, sometimes controversial, and burgeoning field of management research. Leadership has been studied since around 500 BC. New to the field is the subject of entrepreneurial leadership. Both entrepreneurship and leadership will be briefly discussed in turn.EntrepreneurshipSelection of the appropriate basis for defining and understanding entrepreneurs created a challenging problem for entrepreneurial research. More than ten years ago, the field of research -was described as young, i.e., in its formative stage (Paulin, Coffey, & Spaulding, 1982; Perryman, 1982; Peterson & Horvath, 1982; Sexton, 1982). Even now, no generally accepted definition of an entrepreneur exists, and the literature is replete with criteria ranging from creativity and innovation to personal traits such as appearance and style. Models of the entrepreneur are almost as plentiful as the number of researchers studying entrepreneurs (Churchill & Lewis, 1986; Cunningham & Lischeron, 1991).Krackhardt (1995) stated that research on entrepreneurship has defined entrepreneurship in two ways, the entrepreneurial firm and entrepreneurial people. Entrepreneurial firms are small (Aldrich & Austen, 1986), fast-growing (Drucker, 1985), organic, and network-based rather than mechanistic and bureaucratic (Birley, 1986). In studying work flow leadership, a form of firm-level entrepreneurship, Sayles and Stewart (1995) defined entrepreneurship as having three components:(1) it is activity that seizes profit opportunities without regard to resources currently controlled (Stevenson & Jarillo, 1990);(2) it expands existing resources through enhanced learning, synergies, or bootstrapping (Burgelman, 1983; Leibstein, 1968; Stewart, 1989; Venkataraman, McMillan & McGrath, 1992); and(3) it promotes change and innovation leading to new combinations of resources and new ways of doing business (Burgelman, 1983; Schumpeter, 1943).Entrepreneurial people take advantage of opportunities to acquire added value. This definition sees entrepreneurship as a behavioral characteristic of employees and managers in a firm, not as a characteristic of the firm itself.Stevenson, Roberts, and Grousbeck (1989) argued that entrepreneurship is an approach to management. …

Why We Buy the Science of Shopping

Abstract: Do you ever wonder if others react in the same way that you do to what they find in a store? Wouldn't it be interesting to have some way of knowing how others view the retail shopping experience and, if you are a retailer, wouldn't it be nice to know what you might do in your store to increase store traffic and to have that store traffic translate into an increase in store sales? To get these types of answers, one could hire consultants to study retailers and customers and ultimately determine why people buy, or one could just read and study the contents of WHY WE BUY by Paco Underhill. Underhill and his company, Envirosell, have spent years learning about how people shop. More than 50,000 videotaped observations, combined with many other personal observations, provide the database for the book. To help the reader learn about the science of shopping, the book divides the subject into nineteen concise chapters with the first two chapters providing details on how Underhill got started in the people-shopping business and why he got started in that business. In the latter case, the author points out the many things about shopping that retailers do not know-things like their stores' conversion rates (the percentage of shoppers who become buyers) or their stores' interception rates (the percentage of shoppers who have contact with store personnel). What is the conclusion of the chapter? Most retailers do not know what is really happening in their stores. The next five chapters examine the mechanics of shopping. The author discusses the transition zone, the area around the store entrance. just as an airplane needs a landing strip to slow down, customers also need a deceleration lane. The smart retailer provides room for the customer to adjust to the store and, once customers get inside the store, retailers need to give them free hands to shop. Give them shopping carts and baskets and make these carts and baskets available throughout the store, not just at the front of the store. Remember, a free hand is a potential shopping hand. Give them good signs to read-and place the signs where customers can see them but do not let the signs get in the customers' sight lines. If that is not enough to consider, there is a definite way that people move through the store. For example, most customers want to move to the right, and many will go halfway down an aisle and turn around instead of going down the entire aisle. Suggestions are given as to how a retailer might take advantage of this shopping behavior. In the last chapter in the section, the dynamics of shopping are addressed. It should come as no surprise that shoppers appreciate chairs in stores and, if chairs are provided, sales will be enhanced. But another unrelated finding was that many people buy fast food through the drive-through and then eat it in the parking lot of the restaurant (translation: a larger, cleaner, brighter parking lot means higher drive-through sales). …

Organizational Culture: An Examination of Its Effect on the Internalization Process and Member Performance

Abstract: Organizational culture permeates organizational life in such a way as to influence every aspect of the organization (Saffold, 1988). There are many examples of recognizable organizational cultures in the United States. General Motors, IBM, and I. E. DuPont Nemours are just a few of the organizations that communicate a strong sense of culture not only to their members, but to outsiders as well (Peters & Waterman, 1982; Rodgers, 1969). These organizations, and others like them, maintain a strong identity that is constantly communicated to their members. It has been suggested that organizational culture affects such outcomes as productivity, performance, commitment, self confidence, and ethical behavior (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Denison, 1984; Ouchi, 1981; Posner, Kouzes, & Schmidt, 1985; Pritchard & Karasick, 1973; Sathe, 1985). However, little has been done to develop theory that attempts to explain the process through which individuals are affected by the organization's culture. Instead, a large portion of the research has concentrated on the "strong vs. weak" culture dichotomy (Deal & Kennedy, 1982), suggesting that culture manifests varying degrees of influence over the members of an organization. While there have been attempts to examine culture's influence over the cognitive process through which individuals interpret their environment (Denison, 1990; Harris, 1989), further work in this area is needed. However, research into the transmission of cultural values and norms remains as a neglected area in the study of organizational culture (Ostroff & Kozlowski, 1992). It is the object of this research to present a model of organizational culture that examines the effect on the cognitive process and helps explain the influence that organizations may have in creating and maintaining a distinct and recognizable culture. Organizational Culture Organizational culture has been defined as the "normative glue" that holds an organization together (Tichy, 1982, p. 63). Forehand and von Gilmer (1964) suggest that culture is the set of characteristics that describe an organization and distinguish it from others. Schein (1990), in a more comprehensive fashion, defines culture as values and behaviors that are believed to lead to success and are thus taught to new members. Central to the culture definition is the idea that culture must be learned and shared (Titiev, 1959). This learned and shared component begins to address the cognitive process that leads to individual decision making and behavior. Organizational culture maintains influence over its members through the development of values acceptable to the organization. As individuals enter and become participating members of an organization, they are exposed to beliefs and values that begin the initial development of cultural internalization. Pettigrew (1979) was the first to suggest the similarities between organizational culture and societal culture. While both draw heavily on the use of artifacts, myths, and stories in developing theories of consistent behavior and overall efficiency (Boje, Fedor, & Rowland, 1982; Deal & Kennedy, 1982), other differences, such as the ease of organizational entrance and exit, highlight the tentative relationship between these two paradigms. It is important not to assume that the rules and behaviors we understand and take for granted in our everyday lives exist within the confines of an organization. Internalization Process Upon entering an organization, individuals attempt to understand what the organization is really like and try to become participating members (Feldman, 1976). Individuals are motivated to "make sense" of their environment and understand why things happen (Heider, 1958). By observing behaviors that are common to the members of the organization, new employees can determine what behaviors are expected and rewarded. As rewards begin to accompany prescribed values and behaviors, employees may see these values and behaviors positively and may begin the process of embracing them as their own. …

Measuring Sports Fans' Involvement: The Fan Behavior Questionnaire

Abstract: ports have become an increasingly important part of our society; in particular this country has seen a large increase in the popularity of spectator sports. This gain is evidenced by the increase in money spent on spectator sports, which jumped from $3.7 billion in 1970 to $4.9 billion in 1994 (U. S. Census Bureau, 1996). The increase in attendance at the four major spectator sports in the U. S., from 1985 to 1998, has significantly increased. Major League Baseball has seen the largest increase in the number of people attending games (24.2 million, which is a 50% increase), followed by professional basketball (10.3 million, an 89% increase), professional football (5.7 million, a 40% increase), and professional hockey (5.6 million, a 49% increase). College sporting events have also seen an increase in attendance during this time period (U. S. Census Bureau, 2000). In addition to the increase in attendance, more TV programming time is being devoted to sporting events. ESPN, a network devoted entirely to sports, was introduced in 1979. It has become so popular that two additional sports-only channels have been introduced, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic. In fact, ESPN was the fifth highest ranked television network in 2000, in terms of revenue, which was estimated to be $2.1 billion (McAvoy, 2000). With this increase in the popularity of spectator sports has come an increased interest in the sports fan. This interest partially originates in the avid or "extreme" sports fan. The avid sports fan is a well-recognized "breed" and a pervasive part of our culture (Lieberman, 1991). For many people, sports spectating represents "one of the most passionate and intense of human endeavors, utterly dominating affect and cognition for short periods of time" (Roese & Maniar, 1997: 1245). Sports certainly have a great influence on the lives of many people in our culture, which is one reason for interest in the sports fan. Another reason for this interest in the sports fan is in terms of fans as consumers. How do companies market to the huge audience of sports fans? In order to determine market strategy, companies must first understand more about the behaviors of sports fans. Literature Review Sport spectator, or fan, behavior has been studied for many years, with a significant increase in the last 10 years in the amount of research conducted. Currently, numerous theories have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of sport spectator involvement. Several theorists describe the benefits of the sports fan role, including increased selfworth, escape from work and tedious aspects of life, excitement, entertainment, a sense of achievement, positive stress (referred to as eustress), group membership, and socialization (Sloan, 1979; Wann, Schrader, & Wilson, 1999). Zillman, Bryant, and Sapolsky (1979) believe involvement as a sports fan can produce many of the same benefits that have been associated with sports participation. However, several theorists focus on the negative aspects of being a sports fan. These theorists believe that watching sporting events appeals to man's baser instincts and leads to aggression and violence in the spectators (Smith, Patterson, Williams, & Hogg, 1981). In fact, much of the social science research on sports spectators has focused on spectator violence (Wann & Branscombe, 1993). Other authors have described the sports fan role as that of a pacifier for people who would otherwise be bored and unhappy with their lives (Nash & Hoch, as cited in Smith et al., 1981). Many authors have also discussed the emotional impact sport spectating can have on fans, and Sloan (1979) conducted a study that illustrated that watching sporting events does affect spectators' emotions, in terms of more positive emotions (happy, satisfied, pleased) when their teams won and negative emotions (angry, frustrated, discouraged, sad, upset) when their teams lost. Recently, several authors have investigated theories of fan behavior and/or developed instruments to measure aspects of fan participation (Dietz-Uhler Ed Murrell, 1999; Fisher & Wakefield, 1998; Laverie & Arnett, 2000; Shank 4 Beasley, 1998; Wann & Branscombe, 1993; Wann & Schrader, 2000; Wann et al. …