فصلنامه توسعه کارآفرینی
سال سوم شماره 3 (پیاپی 9، پاییز 1389)

This study comes up with an analytical model based on a survey method. The data have been collected through a questionnaire distributed among 124 experts in the area of entrepreneurship education and training. The target group is composed of professors, instructors and specialists at the entrepreneurship centers and other administrative agencies adding up to 21 establishments. The questions had been based on the policy-making procedures and functions of the policy-making bodies in the form of Likert five muliple choice scale and a zero-sum choice. The Alpha Cronbach Method (94%) has been used accompained by the opinion poll in terms of validity and reliability. the analysis of the collected data demonstrates the gap between the status quo and the ideal situation, taking into the account policy-making factors: Accordingly the research findings have specified the role that an entity can play with regard to the stage of policy-making and factors involved.

Due to the important role of entrepreneurship in the current global development trend, particularly in the era of trade expansion and globalization, the study of various enrepreneurship-related issues seems to be a necessity in this time and age. This paper attemps to examine the impacts of international trade and economic globalization on entrepreneurship development. The core of the study relies on the OECD countries which play a dominant role in the world trade relations. Emprical findings for such countries should imply lessons for developing countries like Iran to develop their entrepreneurial activities. To this end, we have specified an econometric regression model, and then have estimated the model by panel data using cross-sectional data of the selected OECD countries over the period of 2000-2005. The results obtained have shown that both international trade and globalization process have significantly and positively affected entrepreneurship in the given countries, and consequently spillovers and technology transfer through international trade will play a significant role in the process of entrepreneurship development.

The major goal of the present study is to contemplate the significant relationships which may emerge between the environmental factors and internationalization of the SMEs in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The study has been conducted by using the Cochrane sampling formula in which the target group is composed of 70 directors picked from among 44 small and medium-sized enterprises. A 35-item Likert scale questionnaire of five choices for each item was used to collect date with the reliability of 85% in the Cronbach Alpha index. The findings demonstrate that there is a significant and meaningful relationship between the factors like the intensity of competition including domestic competition (0.601)foreign competition (0.693) and governmental protection policies (0.679) as well as growth opportunities in industry including the global market growth (0.760), industry growth rate (0.726) and import competition (-0.651) and the variable of commercializing SMEs in the information and communication technology. However the relationship between the factors threatening industry growth rate such as domestic market rate (-0.531), global / domestic market rates (-0656) and industry gross profit (-0.591) with the variable of commercializing SMEs is negative and insignificant.

Recognizing the determinants of new firms growth have been the subject of many studies. In this research we recognize the initial strategy of new firms in Iranian software industry that have been more successful and reached a better growth rate. The research sample contains 32 Iranian software new firms, established in 2001 and 2002 and are registered in Iranian High Council of Informatics. Results indicate that diversification was the least used, that different firms focused on product development or market development and that the most successful path, in the first phase of life cycle, seemed to be market penetration or focus on the initial product- market. So effective competitive strategy for new firms in Iranian software industry could be focus on initial product and market.

Development of a business and entrepreneurship are important issues in management literature. There are numerous research activities on the components of entrepreneurship but this article assumes that an appropriate context has a determining role in development of a new business. For this purpose, the relationship between social capital and intrapreneurship has been studied in this research. 545 staff members of the Iranian Oil Refining and Products Distribution Company constitute the statistical population of this research. Sampling in this study forms 118 members of them, as selected on the basis of sampling from a limited population. Social capital is analyzed by using the Kenedi’s Model of Harvard University and Antoncic and Hisrich’s Model to measure intrapreneurship. We have applied exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis along with changes in the original model so as to enhance their fitness with our statistical population. The result shows that there is a positive relationship between social capital and intrapreneurship.

The social capital concept has developed notably in recent decades and it is regarded as an asset for firms and industrial firms which, by enjoying it, can increase their efficiency. This paper deals with Social Capital Measurement and Its Relationship with Innovation in Tondar Irankhodro car manufacturing unit. The Putnam’s social capital theory is used in order to measure social capital by introducing the indexes such as trust, social network (network membership), and norms. Considering the Tondar car manufacturing unit characteristics and its situation, innovation is measured by software and hardware facilities in order to demonstrate the importance of novel ideas to organizations and level of organizational innovativeness from the respondents’ viewpoints. The survey is used as research method by using Cochrane sampling formula and 293 persons were selected as respondents.The paper’s findings show that the social capital in Tondar Irankhodro car manufacturing unit is at middle level and there are significant and negative relationships between work experience and social capital and trust in managers and institutions. Also, accordingly the social capital level is different between recruitment groups. There are significant and positive relationships between social capital and innovation, between network membership and innovation, and between trust and innovation. The regression analysis shows that the social norms, inter-group and institutional trust can explain 29 percent of innovation changes.

In many organizations, information system and IT infrastructure have been considered as the most strategic capital after human resources. Valid information is an important factor which will lead to business success. In this paper, we investigate IT effects on project risk management which is vital in industrial and business activities as a continuous and forecasting process. Risk management involves identifying the potential risks, measuring, monitoring and controlling them in an organization to meet its strategic objectives and cause to decrease the undesired effects in the project life cycle. It also has a main role in strategic management of the organization by controlling the threat. In this paper, we have estimated the effects of IT usage on 50 Iranian oil companies by analyzing the data which have been provided through questionnaires. The findings of this study are demonstrated in the form of one-tailed binomial test to accept or reject the hypothesis. The statistical population and the sample society were experimented on 300 and 64 people respectively.Three different indices—cost, time, and performance—have been utilized to evaluate the information technology impact on the risk management. Our results illustrate the positive impact of information technology on the risk management especially in optimizing time of process rather than cost and performance.

Home-based business is one of the important business sectors that have been supported by policy makers in different countries in recent years. The microbusiness privileges (such as agility and flexibility), alongside the advantages of using a home as a business location (including elimination of business location costs) have triggered multiple motivations in the tendency toward such businesses. This research is designed to identify the factors affecting home-based entrepreneurship decisions. The statistical population of this research covers all of the trainees of the Yazd Technical and Vocational Training Center (N=254). The exploratory factor analysis demonstrates that five factors (started in the order of importance: entrepreneurial, domestic, job seeking and creedal motivations) explain more than sixty (60%) percent of such motivations. From among such motivations, there is no significant difference between men and women in respect of entrepreneurship, job seeking and creedal factor, but domestic and family motivations are found to be stronger among women and married couples compared to men and singles. Also men’s financial motivations are stronger than those of women.