Empowerment,Constraint, and the Entrepreneurial Self: A Study of White Women Entrepreneurs

Discourses of entrepreneurship and research on women entrepreneurs have proliferated in the last two decades. This study argues that a particular conception of an entrepreneurial self underlies much literature on women entrepreneurs and their empowerment, and identifies several key assumptions of this entrepreneurial self. The study then assesses the motivations and experiences of several white women entrepreneurs in a northwestern state in the United States, finding that aspects of the entrepreneurial self are most evident in the reasons that women provide about why they became entrepreneurs. However, the experiences the women narrate reveal a more constraints-centered discourse, which features a particular interpretation of the frontier myth of the American West, and bears traces of an emergent, collective notion of empowerment. The authors explain such empowerment from critical and feminist perspectives, offering the concept of bounded empowerment as a lens through which to examine entrepreneurship and gender, and discussing its practical implications.     

我国返乡创业信息资源的“精英俘获”现象

在"大众创业,万众创新"政策引导下,返乡创业在我国逐渐成为新的创业态势。面向返乡创业的信息服务作为返乡创业配套服务体系的组成部分,对创业者起到重要的支持作用。通过在4个省份多地进行的田野调查发现,当前返乡创业信息资源在分配过程中存在"精英俘获"现象。针对此现象,文章提出返乡创业信息资源出现"精英俘获"现象的表征和影响因素分别是什么这两个研究问题。借助质性分析软件,对田野调查获取的原始数据进行分析,梳理了该现象的表征;通过对宏观环境和创业者主体两个层面的分析,总结了导致该现象产生的影响因素,最终获得了返乡创业信息资源"精英俘获"现象的产生机制。研究发现:"精英俘获"现象体现在返乡创业精英往往比普通创业者拥有更多的机会享受当地的返乡创业信息服务和资源,以及能参与更多的社会事务,并获得更广泛的影响力;其产生是我国当前基层信息资源建设和服务体系不完善的表现,并不完全依赖精英的个人主观意愿,有时也能带来一定的积极作用,但从长期看,这种现象会影响到政策的锚定,使真正有需求的大量普通创业者无法获得所需信息,最终对经济社会发展带来消极影响。     

基于创业生态系统的多层级知识转移模型研究

[目的/意义]近些年来,越来越多的学者聚焦于从生态视角研究创业问题,但是创业生态系统这一核心问题的研究仍不完善。区域内多种创业主体及创业环境构成创业生态系统,且彼此之间进行着动态的交互。为了更好的解决创业生态系统内的知识转移问题,构建创业生态系统的多层级知识转移模型。[方法/过程]研究如何基于知识管理理论与生态理论,提升创业生态系统内的知识转移效应,进而提升整体的创业活动水平。首先,对企业知识和信息、知识转移和创业生态系统进行界定;其次,梳理创业生态主体层级并界定本研究的3个层面,构建知识转移的一般模型,在此基础上基于生态理论,构建起创业生态系统的多层级知识转移模型;最后,对本研究的主要内容进行讨论和总结,并对未来研究提出合理化的意见和建议。[结果/结论] 所构建的创业生态系统的多层级知识转移模型,探究创业系统总体对知识转移的影响,并分别对个人、企业和网络3个层面相互之间知识转移机制进行探索,对创业生态系统理论研究和实践发展都具有重要的双重影响。     

The Evolution of Organizational Archetypes: From the American to the Entrepreneurial Dream

Throughout much of the twentieth century, the image of the organization man dominated the cultural imagination and undergirded capitalist organizing. Yet, in the last 20 years, there has been a signal shift away from the organization man and toward the entrepreneur as an ideal. Although scholars have suggested that entrepreneurship in the new economy is rooted in neoliberal ideology, I argue that neoliberalism alone does not account for the ease with which entrepreneurialism has become a dominant discourse. By critically examining entrepreneurial discourse as communicated through US business periodicals from 2000 to 2009, I present a case for the “entrepreneurial man” as formed at the partial inclusion and/or rejection of aspects of the self made man, organization man, and neoliberalism. Ultimately, this analysis critiques the entrepreneurial man archetype as a rejection of the social contract and the embracing of a privatized, entrepreneurial American dream.     

Neuroscience,Affect, and the Entrepreneurialization of Motherhood

Although neuroscientifically informed mothering advice manuals published in the past 15 years speak in the languages of liberation, empowerment, and self-realization, I argue that they ultimately imbricate women in ever-more-dense networks of authority, expertise, and government, and contribute to the proliferation of entrepreneurial models of self-conduct that comprises the defining feature of American neoliberalism. This rhetoric situates motherhood as a practice of freedom, both drawing from and contributing to affective forces that suture freedom to economic models of conduct. Through these discourses, emotion-centric, self-interested mothering practices become a key site for the production and reproduction of entrepreneurial selves.     

基于创业教育视阈下高校图书馆优势服务建设

创业教育是一种教育新理念,其重点在于激发学生的创业兴趣,培养学生的创业精神和创业能力,最终使大学生成为创业型人才。高校图书馆拥有丰富的馆藏文献资源、高素质的图书馆人力资源、专业性强的学科馆员、全校一流的网络信息技术、多元融合的图书馆文化等资源优势,开展创业教育,为大学生创业提供优势服务不仅是信息时代对高校图书馆的要求,也是高校图书馆自身发展的需要。     

跨界创业的知识共享模型及运行机制研究

[目的/意义]旨在对跨界创业知识共享的研究做出拓展并探究其内部机理。[方法/过程]通过综合探讨跨界创业企业知识共享过程及其关键影响因素,分析企业跨界创业过程中知识的流动及阻碍,构建跨界创业知识共享模型,并对此模型进行深入阐释。[结果/结论]通过此研究,对跨界创业知识共享的研究做出拓展,笔者所进行的研究与构建的跨界创业知识共享模型表明：在跨界创业过程中,组织需要重视知识共享,考虑如何跨过知识边界的阻碍,并建设和发展相关能力,从而促进组织的知识获取效率,进而为组织的竞争优势与绩效的提升做出贡献。     

Tackling Uncertainty for Journalism Graduates

As journalism struggles to adapt to technological disruption, journalism educators are searching for ways to prepare students for an industry in flux. Entrepreneurial journalism has been incorporated into university curricula as a solution, however the discourse and application lacks a theoretical basis. This article aims to address these gaps by clearly defining entrepreneurship, its theoretical principles relevant for journalism education and then outlining the trial of a Multidisciplinary Experiential Entrepreneurship Model (MEEM), designed to enhance graduates’ career aspirations through cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset. The MEEM trial was assessed using a sequential mixed-methods approach, consisting of survey data collected at the start and completion of the course and interview data collected two months later. The findings demonstrate that the theoretical principles underpinning MEEM not only enabled students to create a new media venture, but the skills acquired also provided a method for entrepreneurial problem-solving and innovating, which is valuable to students working inside or outside traditional news media. This paper contributes theoretically by outlining five principles of entrepreneurial problem-solving and providing a teachable method that can be deployed through an effectual entrepreneurship pedagogy.     

北美研究图书馆支持校园创业的服务实践与启示

[目的/意义]调查北美研究图书馆对校园创业支持的总体情况和典型案例,为国内图书馆提供参考和借鉴。[方法/过程]首先构建图书馆支持创业的一般模型,然后采用网站调查法、文献分析法,对多所研究图书馆的创业支持情况进行考察,归纳创业支持的内容与形式等。[结果/结论]目前北美研究图书馆为校园创业提供的支持包括：创业素养教育与信息服务、创业/创客空间与设施、创业拓展活动、微观制度安排等;服务尚有较大提升余地;我国大学图书馆可根据支持模型结合自身实力构建信息平台,开展创业支持服务。     

Fostering entrepreneurship in Omani academic libraries: Examining the present and pioneering future opportunities

This study evaluated the entrepreneurial culture in Omani university libraries and analyzed the benefits and difficulties that come with it. The main aims was to examine the resources and guidance offered by these libraries for creating an entrepreneurial culture as well as the perceived challenges faced by library staff and students. The study also tried to identify effective programs and top practices from other academic libraries that might be applied to the Omani context.A combination of semi-structured interviews with staff members from five libraries and surveys given to students in 10 libraries were used to accomplish these goals. The results of this study showed that the Sultanate of Oman's academic libraries actively support entrepreneurial culture and are aware of their potential as centres for its diffusion. They do, however, face challenges, such as a dearth of competent workers in the field of business and a lack of pertinent collections to support the entrepreneurial culture. The study also emphasized the need for Omani academic libraries to improve the services they offer in the area of entrepreneurship and spread knowledge of its significance, particularly in light of the nation's sustainable development aspirations.By contributing to understanding entrepreneurial culture within the context of Omani academic libraries, this research provides valuable insights for library professionals, educators, and researchers. It identifies current challenges and opportunities and shares successful initiatives from other academic libraries, emphasizing the significance of fostering an entrepreneurial mindset in academic libraries to promote innovation and contribute to the overall advancement of the library industry and information institutions in the Arab world.     

Why Startups Need Libraries (and Librarians)

Academic libraries must play a direct role in supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs to get their start. The primary way to do this is through the development of library space to support innovation. Additionally, entrepreneurial library and information science (LIS) students should look for work beyond the library. The knowledge and skills that they acquire in the classroom are exactly those that startup companies need and want in new hires. If academic libraries embrace the need to break from the old and try something new, they can become hubs of innovation on increasingly entrepreneurial college campuses. And if entrepreneurial LIS students embrace the learning objectives of their programs, they can become the ideal new hire for any number of emerging innovative startup companies.     

Personal Narrative Performance in the Classroom: A Teaching Tool

Objectives: To have students identify and explain concepts of communication, self-disclosure and empowerment, and promote engagement of self and others through performing narratives of real-life experiences.

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Advanced Interpersonal Communication, Cross Cultural Communication, Communication and Performance     

University libraries as open innovation partners: Harnessing hidden potential to foster global entrepreneurship

Universities and their libraries are well-positioned to provide a rich source of market information that can help resource-constrained start-ups to globalise their business operations. As one of the more important elements of the innovation ecosystem, knowledge-sharing can help start-ups to make data-driven, strategic decisions, rather than basing forward momentum on unreliable intuition. This column highlights the author's experience with a consultancy project that featured a university's library's support of entrepreneurial globalisation, the various implications for both start-ups as well as entrepreneurs, and lessons learned that could become the norm for more open innovation and collaboration between libraries, entrepreneurs, and their start-ups.     

大学跨学科研究组织的知识创业研究

面对新的知识生产模式,大学跨学科研究组织在进行知识生产的同时还要开展知识创业。大学跨学科研 究组织进行知识创业需要5 类能力：问题解决能力、组织领导能力、项目申请与履约能力、资源获取与配置能力、知 识转化为生产力的能力。当5 类能力得到满足时,大学跨学科研究组织走向知识创业需要合适的创新路径：明确组织目 标,规划知识创业愿景;优化组织结构,构建知识创业团队;有效配置资源,加强资源整合;发挥集成与转化功能, 实现知识创业。     

Assessing the accuracy of U.S. Department of Labor ES202 files in locating new rural businesses

U.S. Department of Labor unemployment insurance files, ES202, are increasingly used to study new business start-ups, but their accuracy is questionable, and this could negatively influence some theories of entrepreneurship. This study assesses the accuracy of ES202 new business data from four states: Iowa, North Dakota, Maine, and Arkansas, and discusses the theoretical implications of the study for entrepreneurship. Rural areas in each state were scientifically selected. In each area, telephone directories, community/business leader surveys, on-site inspections, newspaper stories, and postal records were used to develop a list of all new businesses. Telephone interviews with about 1,500 entrepreneurs from the lists were undertaken to verify information about their firms. The ES202 list was then compared with the composite list developed from alternative data sources. The ES202 list failed to include many new businesses in the study areas. Because ES202 lists are so biased, researchers should not use them to build or test theories of entrepreneurship. ES202 lists can be used when supplemented with other lists.     

How do entrepreneurs obtain financing? An evaluation of available options and how they fit into the current entrepreneurial ecosystem

ABSTRACT

Given the high visibility of venture capital and private equity (VC/PE) in business news, entrepreneurs may be misled on the role and relative size of this financing model. In reality however, VC/PE is quite difficult to obtain, particularly for young entrepreneurs. With this in mind, I assess seven popular models for financing that may be of interest to entrepreneurial students. These seven models include: self-funding/bootstrapping; friends, family, and colleagues; banks; accelerators; angel investors; peer-to-peer (P2P) lending; and crowdfunding. Each model is summarized and evaluated for their advantages and disadvantages. A discussion of relevant resources for each model is also provided.     

Addressing the sublime: space,mass representation,and the unpresentable

Mass representations of the sublime use apostrophe as a mode of address that normalizes a moment of expected failure of discourse. Regardless of whether a viewer experiences “sublimity,” mass representations of what is supposedly beyond discourse embody the expected limits of communication, aestheticizing conditions of impossibility for discourse, and thereby constituting a space wherein the humanist subject may become a recognizable self in a public sense. Constituting a relationship between the spectator as human and the sublime objects as greater than human, a mass reproduced sublime thus helps establish discursive spaces of humanism. Although the aesthetics of the sublime can be exceptionally varied, the essay applies these ideas to popular Ansel Adams photographs, which illustrate the problems of attempting to represent the unrepresentable and the invocation of a particular kind of subjectivity as a commonplace.     

Other People's Money: Adapting Entrepreneurial Techniques to Build Capital in Challenging Economic Times

Drawing on the “predator” model of entrepreneurship put forward by Villette and Vuillermot in their 2009 book “From Predators to Icons,” this article argues that challenging economic times reveal that self-funded, collaborative information literacy models have in many cases unsustainably overstretched staff and budgets. In such circumstances, it is necessary for librarians to shift to an entrepreneurial approach that seeks profitable opportunities funded by parties other than the library in order to build capital for current and future instructional services. Following Villette and Vuillermot, the article seeks to refute a cultural myth that sees the entrepreneur as someone who is first and foremost a “do-gooder” or marketer of helpful products, and it also advocates that librarians adopt a view of the entrepreneur as one who preys on unexploited, low-cost/high-profit opportunities to leverage “other people's money” to build capital for later innovation. The article considers the economics of information literacy and library instruction programs, provides historical context for what has come to be known as the “collaborative imperative,” points to the economic shortsightedness of many collaborative and “embedded librarian” partnerships, and details six examples from information literacy programs that model successful entrepreneurship of the sort argued for.     

Navigating the neoliberal capitalist appropriation of feminist discourses against compulsory romance

ABSTRACT

This study uses Critical Discourse Analysis to investigate how young women navigate discourses of feminism and compulsory romance under neoliberalism. Groups of young women were asked to discuss their romantic relationships with a moderator. The results demonstrate that the young women used discourses of liberation and empowerment to challenge compulsory romantic discourses, thereby emphasizing their independence. However, they also utilized discourses of desirability, which emphasized their ability to obtain a mate, and therefore, reinforced those romantic discourses they were challenging. This study emphasized the difficulty feminist discourses face under neoliberalism and the delicate navigation required by women constituted by them.     

Public Support for Biodiversity After a Zoo Visit: Environmental Concern,Conservation Knowledge,and Self‐Efficacy

The biodiversity crisis is not salient to many people. A zoo visit not only provides the opportunity to learn about the issue, but also provides direct experiences with animals that may increase public engagement. The present study used a nonequivalent pretest–posttest design to assess the impact of a zoo visit on conservation knowledge and engagement by comparing 88 visitors entering a zoo in Paris and 84 visitors on their way out. Those who had completed their visit scored higher on conservation knowledge, general concern about threats to biodiversity, and perceived self‐efficacy to protect biodiversity. Notably, conservation knowledge was not highly correlated with the other dependent variables, but self‐efficacy was significantly correlated with environmental concern, behaviour, and behavioural intent. We conclude that a zoo visit does have a positive impact on knowledge and concern, and by affecting self‐efficacy, it has the potential to influence future behavior.