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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of courses offered to Ukrainian military personnel and their families to facilitate transfer to the civilian society, and to investigate the extent to which transfer to the civilian sector is associated with increased quality of life.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 1,077 former course participants by handing out a structured questionnaire at different locations in Ukraine.FindingsAmong the 40 courses arranged, 15 proved to be effective with regard to the odds of obtaining a civilian job, and 10 with regard to the odds of becoming a business owner. Business owners and civilian employees scored higher than military employees with regard to different indicators of quality of life. Individuals who are unemployed or not members of the workforce score lower on quality of life than any other group.Originality/valueThis study evaluates the courses offered in a large educational program where the Norwegian and Ukrainian government cooperate to facilitate transfer of military veterans in Ukraine to the civilian sector.

This study concerns the relationship between individual characteristics, the propensity to become owners of incorporated firms, and endurance as business owners. We start with a large sample of non-entrepreneurs in 2004 and identify those individuals in this cohort who became and remained majority owners of incorporated businesses between 2005 and 2016. The results indicate that individual characteristics can explain a significant proportion of the variance in the propensity to become owners of incorporated firms as well as business owner endurance. One important finding is that prior income is strongly positively related to becoming and remaining owners of incorporated firms. Unit Licence Agreement

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between three central dimensions of quality in small accounting firms and firm performance. The three dimensions of quality investigated are: human resource (HR) quality, information technology (IT) quality and service quality. Firm performance is measured in two different ways: perceived performance and return on sales (ROS). We tested the hypotheses in a sample of 506 small Norwegian accounting firms. The results indicate that service quality relate positively to perceived performance and ROS. Human resource quality is positively related to perceived performance, but not ROS. IT quality is not related to perceived performance and negatively related to ROS. This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence for a positive relationship between service quality and firm financial performance and has important implications for accounting firms and their clients.

Previous research has found that owner/manager growth intention is related to subsequent firm growth, but growth intention alone only explains about 4&ndash, 5% of the variance in actual firm growth. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors in addition to growth intention that may help us to explain a higher proportion of the variance in firm growth. We selected three factors for our study: Entrepreneurial orientation, versatile human resources and labor productivity. We tested the hypotheses in a sample of small Norwegian accounting firms. The findings indicate that, after controlling for growth intention, versatile human resources and labor, productivity contributed to the explanation of the variance in sales and employment growth, while entrepreneurial orientation has no such additional effect.

This study focuses on three different milestones in the business gestation process, i.e. becoming an aspiring entrepreneur, a nascent entrepreneur, and a founder of a fledgling new business. Moreover, this study uses a combination of both individual and regional (or environmental) factors in predicting individuals’ success or failure to reach each of these three milestones. Hypotheses are developed to test the effect that human and environmental resources have on the odds of reaching the different milestones in the business start-up process. The study is based on interviews of a representative sample of 9533 Norwegians aged 18 years or older. From this group, 197 respondents qualified as nascent entrepreneurs. These were subsequently interviewed in follow-up interviews conducted in 1996, 1997 and 1999. In addition, regional data at the municipality level is included to measure the available pool of environmental resources. The results indicate that entrepreneurial experience is the single most important f...

Two competing models of innovation behavior in organizations are tested. The first model is derived from the corporate entrepreneurship literature, suggesting that the extent to which the organization has a deliberate entrepreneurship strategy determine employees' involvement in innovation and change (Kanter, 1984). The competing model is derived from the intrapreneurship literature, primarily Pinchot (1985) and Pinchot and Pellman (1999), where the emphasis is on the employee's individual personality measured by items derived from Pinchot's (1985) test: "Are you an intrapreneur?" Both models are compared to a base model that contains relevant control variables. Finally, a fourth model, which combines all variables are compared to the other three. The models are tested using a sample of 634 business graduates employed in a diverse set of occupations and organizations. The results indicate that both the strategy and personality models outperform the base model. Moreover, the model that combines the personality of the individual and the strategy of the organization performs even better than the each of the two models separately.

Hybrid entrepreneurs are people who start businesses whilst they have salaried jobs. About fifty percent of all new businesses are started by hybrids. Hybrid entrepreneurship is a low-risk way of testing business ideas, gaining entrepreneurial experience and developing business management skills.

This article explores the new business gestation process among three types of entrepreneurs: novice founders, serial founders (i.e., those individuals who have previously owned a business but sold it or closed it down), and parallel founders (i.e., those individuals who own at least one business while trying to start another). Founders were identified from a random sample of 9,533 Norwegian adults. Data were collected during 1996. One hundred and sixty respondents were classified as nascent entrepreneurs (i.e., those individuals starting a new business from scratch). One year later, information was collected from this group of nascent entrepreneurs surrounding their current activities. Detailed analysis revealed several differences with regard to the activities carried out during the gestation process among the three types of founders. Most notably, parallel entrepreneurs where found to have a higher probability of venture implementation than novice and serial founders.

The present research investigated pre-start ventures using an expectancy theory model of organisational formation. The dependent variable was the fate of the venture idea, whether it was abandoned or implemented. The suggested model focuses on three predictors of new venture implementation: motivation to start businesses, venture valuation, and finance. Data was collected from users of an entrepreneurial hot line in Norway. The findings illustrate that financial expectancies, finance, and risk expectancy are related to implementation of new ventures. Moreover, people who are motivated to start businesses in order to create employment opportunities or to achieve self-realisation are found to be less likely to implement their plans.

Entrepreneurship has become a widely taught subject in universities and business schools. However, only a very small number of studies have investigated the effect of entrepreneurship education. The present research compares the behaviour of business graduates with a major in entrepreneurship and graduates with other majors from a Norwegian business school. The results indicate that graduates with an entrepreneurship major are more likely to start new businesses and have stronger entrepreneurial intentions than other graduates.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the Norwegian Royal Ministry of Industry and the Bodø Graduate School of Business for the financial support that made this research possible. We would also like to thank the Society of Associated Researchers in Entrepreneurship under whose auspices the data for this study was collected. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 3rd Annual Global Entrepreneurship Conference, Lyon, France, March 1993. The present research investigated: (1) the relationship between entrepreneurs’ growth intentions and actual firm growth, (2) the stability of growth intentions, and (3) the relationship between changes in intentions and actual firm growth. Using a longitudinal design, data were collected from Norwegian entrepreneurs for 1990 and 1992. The results indicate that growth intentions may be used to predict actual growth, that past intentions are related to later intentions, and that changes in growth intentions are associated with changes in growth patterns.

Describes a research project to identify an information search pattern among entrepreneurs so that agencies devoted to the promotion of new business might allocate their resources more effectively. Sources of information used by entrepreneurs were divided into five categories: family and friends, business relations, public agencies, professional advisers and books and other written sources of information. Suggests in light of the findings that professional advisors and public agencies should actively seek information and contact their target group rather than passively supply information when approached.

The present research studied the strategy for new ventures using data from Norwegian and Swedish entrepreneurs. Strategy archetypes were developed based upon the firms’ choice of strategic means and scope. The study further investigated whether the choice of strategy was dependent on the stage of development of a new venture, and the extent to which strategy was related to profitability and growth in different stages of a new venture’s development. The findings generally support the hypotheses, suggesting that new firm strategic archetypes can be identified and that firms in different stages of development follow different strategies. Moreover, strategy was found to be particularly important for growth in the early implementation stage, and for profit in the stabilization stage of a new firm's development.

INTRODUCTION The formation and growth of new firms is a complex process and many factors associated with this process can only be identified by in-depth investigation at the microlevel of the new firm and the new firm founder(s). A wide range of models have been proposed to explain why businesses are formed (Cooper 1970, 1971; Shaper

The present survey focuses on independent baby businesses, defined as a de novo entries that are started from scratch. A total of 1,044 new businesses were identified using the Norwegian central coordinating register for business entities. The results indicate that the majority of businesses are born small to stay small. Important implications for policy makers and future research are indicated.