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Research suggests that entrepreneurs persuade stakeholders to engage in risky projects in an uncertain future through visions, compelling narratives of the future. A unique challenge for entrepreneurs, however, is how entrepreneurs can construct a narrative that unites stakeholders with different perceptions of the degree of risk or uncertainty posed by the future. We address this question with a diegetic narrative model of stakeholder enrollment. Our primary argument is that, to reduce variation in how potential stakeholders view the future, a story must embed a vision of the future in a coherent and collectively held narrative of the past. We introduce rhetorical history as the primary construct through which this occurs. We demonstrate how successful visions employ historical tropes at the intradiegetic level to appeal to individual perceptions of risk or uncertainty and how those historical tropes are combined into meta-narratives or myths drawn from the collective memory of a community to create broad, extradiegetic appeal to broader categories of potential stakeholders with heterogeneous temporal orientations. Finally, we describe three categories of historical reasoning—teleology, presentism, and retro-futurism—that act as bridging mechanisms between past, present, and future that provides stakeholders with an enhance sense of agency in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers the relationship between people's access to resources and their likelihood to start a new business, and particularly how this relationship might be moderated by formal and informal [...]

In this study, we investigate the relationship between institutional elements of the social environment and entrepreneurial cognitions, which lead to the individual's venture creation decision. Employing a sample of 757 [...]

In this commentary, we examine both the positive and negative potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We conceptualise the firm as a system of various resource components (strategic, physical, financial, human and organisational resources) and firm growth as the expansion of this resource system. Based on qualitative data drawn from Canadian high-growth SMEs, we discuss the potential impact of the crisis on these resource system components. We demonstrate how virtuous growth spirals of these resources co-evolve through various feedback and feed-forward loops. Furthermore, we discuss how a temporary growth setback, due to the crisis, can in fact provide an opportunity for entrepreneurs to realign, and regain the balance and fit within their firm's resource system. This realignment enables the firm to take on the next phase of growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the relationship between the munificence offered by a country's proximate institutions in terms of a critical financial resource (informal investments) and human resource (entrepreneurship education) and its early-stage entrepreneurial activity. We also examine how this relationship might be moderated by underlying cultural values. Our main thesis is that the positive effects of resource munificence of proximate institutions on early-stage entrepreneurial activity should be attenuated in countries with a more hierarchical and conservative culture. We test our hypotheses using a multi-source dataset that spans 42 countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Naltrexone has been demonstrated in western studies to be a useful pharmacological adjunct within treatment programmes for alcoholic patients. We report the first study of its efficacy and usefulness in an Asian region. This project was designed to allow naltrexone's performance to be assessed under routine clinical conditions but with patients selected on the basis of their being likely to comply. Following in-patient detoxification, 53 male alcohol-dependent patients admitted to the Alcohol Treatment Centre at Woodbridge Hospital, Singapore, were enrolled in a 12-week, placebocontrolled trial of naltrexone hydrochloride (50 mg/day). Subjects were randomized on a 2:1 basis, with 35 receiving naltrexone and 18 receiving placebo. Analyses identified that a higher percentage of naltrexone patients completed the study (40% vs. 22%). In the study non-completers, the dropout rate due to drinking relapse was also lower in the naltrexone group (9% vs. 43%). Of the 39 patients for whom drinking status over the trial could be ascertained, fewer naltrexone-treated patients drank (33% vs. 53%). Alcohol craving scores also showed a selective and distinct reduction in the naltrexone-treated group. Results suggest that naltrexone may be an effective and safe aid to treatment of alcohol dependent patients in Asian patients, for whom the aims are to reduce alcohol craving and drinking reinstatement, but where compliance is likely to be low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article "Symbolic Actions and Stakeholder Management in Entrepreneurial Firm Development" by Matthew A. Wong and Dominic S. K. Lim is presented.

The goal of this study was to assess the outcomes of a primary-based telepsychiatry intervention program for older managed care enrollees with depression/anxiety and with limited access to in-person psychiatric care. A pre-post design was used to examine service use (n = 218) and severity of depression (n = 204). Enrollment, claims, and depression and anxiety score data were obtained from the medical group. The implementation process and self-reported outcomes were examined. The program was funded by the Senior Care Action Network (SCAN) group and implemented by a large medical group serving older adults who were identified as needing outpatient psychiatric care, including those with psychiatric hospitalizations, depression/anxiety disorders, comorbid substance use disorders, or other multiple comorbidities. Poisson regressions were used to examine changes in predicted rates of outpatient services, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations up to 24 months prior and 24 months following the first telepsychiatry visit. Changes in predicted severity of depression up to 2 quarters prior and 3 quarters following the first telepsychiatry visit were examined. The number of outpatient services declined significantly by 0.24 per patient per 6-month time frame following the first telepsychiatry visit. The number of emergency department visits and hospitalizations also declined after the first visit (0.07 and 0.03 per patient per 6-month time frame, respectively). Depression severity scores also declined in the quarters following the first visit (1.52). The medical group reported improvements in both wait time for appointments and no-show rates with the integration of telepsychiatry in primary care. The telepsychiatry program lowered service use, depression severity, and increased better access to psychiatry care. The findings highlight the potential benefits of sustaining and expanding the telepsychiatry program by SCAN and other plans facing a limited supply of psychiatrists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Stress, anxiety, and depression are major mental health concerns worldwide. A wide variety of digital mental health interventions have demonstrated efficacy in improving one's mental health status, and digital interventions that involve some form of human involvement have been shown to demonstrate greater efficacy than self-guided digital interventions. Studies demonstrating the efficacy of digital mental health interventions within the Asian region are scarce., Objective: This study aimed to investigate the potential efficacy of the digital mental health intervention, ThoughtFullChat, which consists of one-on-one, asynchronous, text-based coaching with certified mental health professionals and self-guided tools, in improving self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. The study also aims to examine the potential differences in efficacy among occupational subgroups and between sexes., Methods: A randomized controlled study was conducted among housemen (trainee physicians), students, faculty members, and corporate staff at International Medical University, Malaysia. A total of 392 participants were enrolled and randomized to the intervention (n=197, 50.3%) and control (n=195, 49.7%) groups. Depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms were measured using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 items at baseline and after the 3-month intervention period. The Satisfaction with Life Scale and Brief Resilience Scale were also included, along with a questionnaire about demographics., Results: Significant decrease was observed in depression (P=.02) and anxiety (P=.002) scores in the intervention group. A subgroup (corporate staff) also demonstrated significant decrease in stress (P=.005) alongside depression (P=.006) and anxiety (P=.002). Females showed significant improvements in depression (P=.02) and anxiety (P<.001) when compared with males., Conclusions: This study provides evidence that the ThoughtFullChat app is effective in improving the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in individuals, particularly among corporate staff from the educational field. It also supports the notion that mobile mental health apps that connect users to mental health professionals in a discreet and cost-efficient manner can make important contributions to the improvement of mental health outcomes. The differential improvements among occupational subgroups and between sexes in this study indicate the need for future digital mental health app designs to consider an element of personalization focused on systemic components relating to occupation., Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT04944277; https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04944277., (©Yee Siew Lim, Jia Hui Quek, Xiu Wei Ching, Dominic Tao Ran Lim, Kean Ghee Lim, Chandramani Thuraisingham, Parikial Philip George. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 22.09.2023.)

This report studies the personality of individuals who suffer from dissociative trance disorder and examines whether the personality profiles could predict the individual's frequency of trance states. A total of 58 cases were given the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and their personal information harvested from the case notes and through subsequent interviews. The subjects were also reassessed 1 year later to obtain their frequency of trance states. For both sexes, there were lower extraversion scores and higher psychoticism, neuroticism, and lie scores in the sample compared to the Singapore norms. Of the 47 subjects traced, total episodes of trances that occurred over the 1-year period was positively correlated with neuroticism and negatively with extraversion scores. The high lie scores in individuals with dissociative trance disorder could be a reflection of their concern of how others perceive them. The motivation could be that of restoration of self-esteem or "face." The profiles in the EPQ could be used to predict the individual's frequency of trance states. Subjects with personality traits like nervousness, excitability, and emotional instability were more likely to have a higher frequency of trance states.