Browsing by Author "Birley, Sue"
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Item Open Access Academic entrepreneurs?(1989) Birley, Sue; McMullen, Ed; Myers, AndrewEntrepreneurial education has exploded over the past ten years in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In the USA there are now more than 50 institutions seeking academics to fill endowed posts; in the UK, there are more than 200 courses in small business in institutions of Higher and Further Education. The reasons for the growth has been essentially the same in both countries - in time of economic decline, with large firms shedding labour, new firms and small firms have been seen as a significant strand in future strategies. As a result, academic institutions have been forced to respond to a demand from both students and potential entrepreneurs, a demand fanned by a growing band of “academic entrepreneurs” . . . ..but are they?Item Open Access Beyond intrapreneurship : The metamorphosis of large corporations(Cranfield School of Management, 1985-04) Norburn, David; Manning, Kingsley; Birley, SueIn the last two decades, companies have experimented upon the axes of centralisation and decentralisation, of formal and informal planning systems, and of 'tight' and 'loose' reins for effecting control. Concurrently academics have commentated upon these phenomena in an attempt to both conceptualise the process and to relate certain paradigms to corporate performance. Yet essentially, much of this commentary assumes models of organisation structures based upon a LINEAR approach to strategy formation which practising managers abandoned as a result of the trading turbulence of the mid-1970s. A mismatch therefore exists between theory and practice. Many companies, having heavily decentralised, are placing emphasis upon intra-company entrepreneurship (intrapreneurship) as a means of implementing ADAPTIVE strategies. However, we consider that intrapreneurship is but one option to larger corporations, and that a new approach to the strategy/structure relationship be considered ¬one which incorporates the third dimension of ownership and trades off corporate sovereignty and direct control within a federal context, for a spectrum of options, many external to existing ownership structures.Our model is essentially metamorphic implying cathartic change, not an incremental adaption more suited to LINEAR strategy. This paper therefore reviews the constraints of traditional strategy/structure relationships, proposes a model related to the anticipated trading conditions of the next decade, and recommends the removal of existing corporate legislation concerned with anti-trust and monopoly law.Item Open Access The British entrepreneur : a study of the top 100 owner-managers(1988) Birley, SueItem Open Access Corporate Culture: A positive correlate with marketing effectiveness(Cranfield School of Management, 1984-12) Norburn, David; Birley, Sue; Dunn, Mark G.This study tests the relationship between the Peters and Waterman cultural criteria of customers closeness and corporate values, to scales of marketing effectiveness as developed by Kotler. Analysis of data collected from 54 mid-American companies suggests a positive association. Marketing effective companies appear to have distinguishing cultural profiles when compared to marketing ineffective companies.Item Open Access Designing a small firm strategy for a small town(1987) Birley, SueItem Open Access Discriminating factors in the strategic profile of 'small' and 'large' firms(1990) Birley, SueItem Open Access Do women entrepreneurs require different training?(1987) Birley, SueItem Open Access An empirical test of upper-echelon theory(Cranfield School of Management, 1986-01) Norburn, David; Birley, SueThis research tested the validity of Hambrick and Mason's (1985)upper-echelon theory which posits that the characteristics of top executives will explain, partially, finanical performance variations within industries. Data was obtained from 953 top managers, the dominant coalition of the largest 150 companies within five US industries - Dairy, Footwear, Tyres, Mobile Homes and Machine Tools. Results were generally supportive: managerial characteristics not only predicted performance variations within industries - the top performers having significantly different managerial profiles than poorly performing companies - but also that the characteristics of managers within high performing companies were similar across the five industries. This greatly increases confidence in prediciting superior organisations, and enables the management development function to improve the chances of commerical success of future top managers.Item Open Access Item Open Access Establishing a small firms database : the exploratory investigation(1988) Birley, SueItem Open Access Female entrepreneurs : are they really any different?(1987) Birley, SueItem Open Access Finding the firms for sale(1989) Birley, SueItem Open Access Finding the new firm(1987) Birley, SueItem Open Access Growth and performance contrasts between 'types' of small firms(1990) Birley, SueItem Open Access Implementing corporate venturing(1987) Birley, SueItem Open Access Item Open Access Item Open Access MBA attitudes towards post-graduate education in entrepreneurship(1990) Birley, SueItem Open Access North-South contrasts in the characteristics and performance of small firms(1989) Birley, SueItem Open Access Owners and managers : the Venture 100 vs. the Fortune 500(1987) Birley, Sue