Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Tech entrepreneur'

Entrepremeurship and what impact entrepreneurs have on the development of a country's society is a well-discussed subject today. During the recent years, entrepreneurs have been characterized as a country's futrue growth since ther are of utmost importance in terms of both innovation, employment and competition. However, one of the main constraints for entrepreneurs today is to gain access to external capital in the initial phase of their business.Therefore, our thesis will highlight the various financing options the entrepreneurs have in the start-up phase and why they choose a particular funding method for their start-up in the first financing round. The focus will be on entrepreneurs within the technological industry and the Swedish market. Moreover, our thesis is based on a qualitative study which includes interviews with six different start-ups in order to analyse how they have financed the start-up of their business and which funding method they prefer and why. A conclusion has been drawn from our study that internal financing is preferred over external which is in line with one of our financing principles that we have used for this study. Our thesis is expected to contribute with a deeper understanding of the entrepreneur's perspective in matters of financing with focus on the tech industry, which we consider as an extra important industry for global development.<br>Entreprenörskap och vilken inverkan entreprenörer har på utvecklingen av ett lands samhälle är ett väl diskuterat ämne idag. Under de senaste åren har entreprenörer karakteriserats som ett lands framtida tillväxt eftersom de är av yttersta vikt för både innovation, sysselsättning och konkurrens. En av de största begränsningarna för entreprenörer idag är dock att få tillgång till externt kapital i den inledande fasen av dess verksamhet. Vår avhandling kommer därför att lyfta fram de olika finansieringsalternativ som entreprenörerna har i deras uppstartsfas och varför de väljer en särskild finansieringsmetod för deras verksamhet. Fokus kommer vara på den första finansieringsrundan samt på entreprenörer inom den tekniska industrin och inom den svenska marknaden. Vår uppsats kommer även att vara baserad på en kvalitativ studie som innehåller intervjuer med sex olika nystartade företag för att kunna analysera hur de har finansierat sin verksamhet i uppstartsfasen samt vilken finansieringsmetod de föredrag och varför. Från vår studie har vi dragit slutsatsen att intern finansiering är något som respondenterna föredrar överextern finansiering. Detta ligger i linje med en av åra finansieringsprinciper som vi har använt för denna studie. Vår avhandling förväntas bidra med en djupare förståelse av entreprenörens perspektiv rörande finansieringsfrågor med fokus på teknikindustrin, vilket vi anser vara en extra viktig industri för den globala utvecklingen.

This doctoral thesis aims to contribute to open a black box called “nexus”. Shane and Venkataraman (2000) assert that entrepreneurship consists of “the nexus of two phenomena: the presence of lucrative opportunities and the presence of enterprising individuals”. Since their work, few authors tried to describe the “nexus” because its complexity and because it can be considered the real ‘ignition spark’ of every ntrepreneurial experience. In this thesis, we will try to explore this nexus, focusing on two main components. The joint investigation of individuals and opportunities is a critical research path in order to better clarify the mechanisms and the essence of entrepreneurial behaviours and actions avidsson 2008). Therefore from one hand we explore the relevant entrepreneurial motivations that drive the ntrepreneurial choices within high-tech emerging ventures. On the other hand we investigate the nature of entrepreneurial opportunities, by asking if high-tech entrepreneurs recognize or create the technological opportunities that they exploit. In this work a motivation is defined as the activator of a goal oriented behaviour. From a selective review of the literature we note insufficient consideration of the role of the human motivations in the entrepreneurial process within the recent entrepreneurship research. Environmental factors being held constant, human motivation plays a critical role in the entrepreneurial process (Shaneet al. 2003). Classical motivational theories like those by Ajzen, Herzberger and Vroom, can be partially exploited as interpretative frameworks for the entrepreneurial process. According to Shane, Collins and Locke (2003) and to Davidsson (2008), the specificity of entrepreneurial phenomena requires dedicated investigation. The first research question is thus the following. What are the relevant entrepreneurial motivations that drive the entrepreneurial choice within high-tech emerging ventures? How and why motivations change in the phases of life of the firm? We investigate the main motivational driver of high-tech entrepreneurs and eventually we want to identify the mechanism that lead the eventual change of repreneurial motivations.Recent Entrepreneurship research dedicated great attention to the construct called “entrepreneurial opportunity”. (Shane and Venkataraman 2000, ,Sarasvathy et al. 2003, Alvarez and Barney, 2006, Plummer et al. 2007, Davidsson 2008, Harms et al. 2009) Entrepreneurial pportunities are defined as those situations in which new goods, services, raw materials, and organization methods can be introduced in the market and sold at greater than their cost of production (Casson 1982). As far as their epistemological and the ontological features are concerned, two opposite views are available. Opportunities are like mushrooms in the forest (Davidsson 2008) Because of individual differences and information asymmetries all actors do not have access to exactly the same opportunities. This is the core of the “Discovery school”: although recognition of opportunities is a subjective process, the opportunities themselves are objective phenomena that are not known to all parties at all time (Venkataraman 1997, Shane and Venkataraman 2000 AMR, Shane and Eckhardt 2003) The second view is called Creative School: opportunities are created in the entrepreneur’s mind and it is not meaningful to talk about these opportunities separated from their creators. Venture ideas are internally generated based on more or less explicit and correct perceptions of external conditions. (Baker and Nelson 2005,) opportunities do not exist objectively , but are subjectively enacted (Gartner et al. 2001,Sarasvathy 001,2008). Is any reconciliation between the two schools possible? The second question is, thus, the following. Do entrepreneurs recognize or create technological pportunities?. How the two processes – recognition and creation – come off? We are not going to propose a reconciliation theory: our aim is to demonstrate that both the perspectives are practically relevant and thus a general theory of entrepreneurship should take into account the dichotomous nature of entrepreneurial opportunities, distinguishing between objective opportunities and effectually created opportunities. Both qualitative (case studies) and quantitative (survey) approaches have been planned in order to answer to the research questions presented by this doctoral thesis. Quantitative data should be collected through a survey, sent to the firms of the database Veneto High-Tech (which is described in this thesis). Unfortunately the response rate has been too low. Case studies accord to the suggestions proposed by Eisenhardt (1989), Yin (2002), Gummeson (2006) and Flyvberg (2006). The exploratory nature of this study suggests the use of a qualitative methodological approach, and in particular the multiple case studies . Multiple case studies research is a useful tool to understand the complex nature of entrepreneurship, as recommended by Gartner and Birley (2002). The cases have been strategically selected within the considered population (Veneto High-Tech atabase), according to Flyvberg (2006) on basis of size, industry, products, innovative activities, geographical equilibrium and personal knowledge of the entrepreneur. The main limit of this approach is the possibility to present general determinants of phenomena through a limited number of cases. As we will see below, the cases are based of semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs. A single case study for every enterprise by the researcher, in order to summarize and better fix the interviews and the entrepreneur words. A feedback echanism: every single case should be read , rectified or amended by the people who has been interviewed. The Nvivo 8 software tool has been used in order to collect and analyze qualitative data. The cross case comparison lead us to propose a hierarchical assessment of the motivational drivers. At individual level the basic motivations that emerge from the cases are the following: a) family environment, b) necessity (lack of job or not satisfying job alternatives), c)McClelland (1961) indicators (N-Pow, N-Ach, N-Aff), d) financial return. Once one or more of these motivations are considered relevant from a potential entrepreneur, other motivational aspects can enrich the reasons for the Entrepreneurial Choice and the daily effort of the entrepreneur. We asses them as 1) product level motivations: desire to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology applied in the product, f) desire to demonstrate the profitability of the technology applied in the product 2) strategy-level motivations: , g) desire to be innovative h) desire to iversificate and increase the portfolios of products, i) intention to maintain the technological leadership,3) personal responsibility motivations: l) creation of wealth (jobs, legacy, knowledge), m) corporate social responsibility issues. From a practical point of view the hierarchical assessment of the entrepreneurial motivations can be used for many purposes: 1)as tool for the self-evaluation of motivations, 2)as reference scheme for entrepreneurship education From the cross comparison we identified three wide categories of entrepreneurial opportunities: 1) technological paradigms with a broad spectrum of potential application 2) niche technologies or specific applications of general technological paradigms that solve a particular problem, leading to a new product or process 3) the market. The case studies suggest that the market is viewed by entrepreneurs as a differential opportunity.Several opportunities which present an objective existence can be identified within the case studies. These opportunities have been recognized and exploited through the process described by Shane (2003). This evidence confirms the ontological and epistemological perspective offered by the so called “Discovery School”. Furthermore in some case studies is evident the presence of effectual logic (Sarasvathy 2001, 2008), as driving logic of the ntrepreneurial decision making process. The entrepreneurs act both causally and effectually. This fact lead us to confirm the idea that some opportunities exist only in the entrepreneurs’ mind and thus they are created by the entrepreneur herself/himself. We demonstrate, as far as high-tech entrepreneurship is concerned, the co-existence of two processes: recognition and creation. A powerful general theory of entrepreneurship should take into account both of them, and should try to reconcile the Creative and the Discovery School. Unifying two ontological and epistemological perspectives is a true challenge that the community of scholars and researcher is requested to face.<br>This doctoral thesis aims to contribute to open a black box called “nexus”. Shane and Venkataraman (2000) assert that entrepreneurship consists of “the nexus of two phenomena: the presence of lucrative opportunities and the presence of enterprising individuals”. Since their work, few authors tried to describe the “nexus” because its complexity and because it can be considered the real ‘ignition spark’ of every entrepreneurial experience. In this thesis, we will try to explore this nexus, focusing on two main components. The joint investigation of individuals and opportunities is a critical research path in order to better clarify the mechanisms and the essence of entrepreneurial behaviours and actions (Davidsson 2008). Therefore from one hand we explore the relevant entrepreneurial motivations that drive the entrepreneurial choices within high-tech emerging ventures. On the other hand we investigate the nature of entrepreneurial opportunities, by asking if high-tech entrepreneurs recognize or create the technological opportunities that they exploit. In this work a motivation is defined as the activator of a goal oriented behaviour. From a selective review of the literature we note insufficient consideration of the role of the human motivations in the entrepreneurial process within the recent entrepreneurship research. Environmental factors being held constant, human motivation plays a critical role in the entrepreneurial process (Shane et al. 2003). Classical motivational theories like those by Ajzen, Herzberger and Vroom, can be partially exploited as interpretative frameworks for the entrepreneurial process. According to Shane, Collins and Locke (2003) and to Davidsson (2008), the specificity of entrepreneurial phenomena requires dedicated investigation. The first research question is thus the following. What are the relevant entrepreneurial motivations that drive the entrepreneurial choice within high-tech emerging ventures? How and why motivations change in the phases of life of the firm? We investigate the main motivational driver of high-tech entrepreneurs and eventually we want to identify the mechanism that lead the eventual change of entrepreneurial motivations. Recent Entrepreneurship research dedicated great attention to the construct called “entrepreneurial opportunity”. (Shane and Venkataraman 2000, ,Sarasvathy et al. 2003, Alvarez and Barney, 2006, Plummer et al. 2007, Davidsson 2008, Harms et al. 2009) Entrepreneurial opportunities are defined as those situations in which new goods, services, raw materials, and organization methods can be introduced in the market and sold at greater than their cost of production (Casson 1982). As far as their epistemological and the ontological features are concerned, two opposite views are available. Opportunities are like mushrooms in the forest (Davidsson 2008) Because of individual differences and information asymmetries all actors do not have access to exactly the same opportunities. This is the core of the “Discovery school”: although recognition of opportunities is a subjective process, the opportunities themselves are objective phenomena that are not known to all parties at all time (Venkataraman 1997, Shane and Venkataraman 2000 AMR, Shane and Eckhardt 2003) The second view is called Creative School: opportunities are created in the entrepreneur’s mind and it is not meaningful to talk about these opportunities separated from their creators. Venture ideas are internally generated based on more or less explicit and correct perceptions of external conditions. (Baker and Nelson 2005,) opportunities do not exist objectively , but are subjectively enacted (Gartner et al. 2001, Sarasvathy 2001,2008) . Is any reconciliation between the two schools possible? The second question is, thus, the following. Do entrepreneurs recognize or create technological opportunities?. How the two processes – recognition and creation – come off? We are not going to propose a reconciliation theory: our aim is to demonstrate that both the perspectives are practically relevant and thus a general theory of entrepreneurship should take into account the dichotomous nature of entrepreneurial opportunities, distinguishing between objective opportunities and effectually created opportunities. Both qualitative (case studies) and quantitative (survey) approaches have been planned in order to answer to the research questions presented by this doctoral thesis. Quantitative data should be collected through a survey, sent to the firms of the database Veneto High-Tech (which is described in this thesis). Unfortunately the response rate has been too low. Case studies accord to the suggestions proposed by Eisenhardt (1989), Yin (2002), Gummeson (2006) and Flyvberg (2006). The exploratory nature of this study suggests the use of a qualitative methodological approach, and in particular the multiple case studies . Multiple case studies research is a useful tool to understand the complex nature of entrepreneurship, as recommended by Gartner and Birley (2002). The cases have been strategically selected within the considered population (Veneto High-Tech database), according to Flyvberg (2006) on basis of size, industry, products, innovative activities, geographical equilibrium and personal knowledge of the entrepreneur. The main limit of this approach is the possibility to present general determinants of phenomena through a limited number of cases. As we will see below, the cases are based of semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs. A single case study for every enterprise by the researcher, in order to summarize and better fix the interviews and the entrepreneur words. A feedback mechanism: every single case should be read , rectified or amended by the people who has been interviewed. The Nvivo 8 software tool has been used in order to collect and analyze qualitative data. The cross case comparison lead us to propose a hierarchical assessment of the motivational drivers. At individual level the basic motivations that emerge from the cases are the following: a) family environment, b) necessity (lack of job or not satisfying job alternatives), c)McClelland (1961) indicators (N-Pow, N-Ach, N-Aff), d) financial return. Once one or more of these motivations are considered relevant from a potential entrepreneur, other motivational aspects can enrich the reasons for the Entrepreneurial Choice and the daily effort of the entrepreneur. We asses them as 1) product level motivations: desire to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology applied in the product, f) desire to demonstrate the profitability of the technology applied in the product 2) strategy-level motivations: , g) desire to be innovative h) desire to diversificate and increase the portfolios of products, i) intention to maintain the technological leadership, 3) personal responsibility motivations: l) creation of wealth (jobs, legacy, knowledge), m) corporate social responsibility issues. From a practical point of view the hierarchical assessment of the entrepreneurial motivations can be used for many purposes: 1)as tool for the self-evaluation of motivations, 2)as reference scheme for entrepreneurship education From the cross comparison we identified three wide categories of entrepreneurial opportunities: 1) technological paradigms with a broad spectrum of potential application 2) niche technologies or specific applications of general technological paradigms that solve a particular problem, leading to a new product or process 3) the market. The case studies suggest that the market is viewed by entrepreneurs as a differential opportunity. Several opportunities which present an objective existence can be identified within the case studies. These opportunities have been recognized and exploited through the process described by Shane (2003). This evidence confirms the ontological and epistemological perspective offered by the so called “Discovery School”. Furthermore in some case studies is evident the presence of effectual logic (Sarasvathy 2001, 2008), as driving logic of the entrepreneurial decision making process. The entrepreneurs act both causally and effectually. This fact lead us to confirm the idea that some opportunities exist only in the entrepreneurs’ mind and thus they are created by the entrepreneur herself/himself. We demonstrate, as far as high-tech entrepreneurship is concerned, the co-existence of two processes: recognition and creation. A powerful general theory of entrepreneurship should take into account both of them, and should try to reconcile the Creative and the Discovery School. Unifying two ontological and epistemological perspectives is a true challenge that the community of scholars and researcher is requested to face.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone<br>The purpose of this paper is to provide basic empirical evidence to support the implementation of an innovation campus in downtown Tucson. This would be a satellite of the Arizona Center for Innovation (AZCI) currently located in the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park – an innovation, research and business center on the outskirts of Tucson. A multi-case study analysis will be performed where the results will be compared with that of the AZCI results, using the same criteria.

This study investigates the use of two alternative ways of thinking: effectuation and causation logics on decision making in tech startups. Thestudy presents critical examination of the effectual principles: means driven, affordable loss, reliance on network, leveraging contingencies along with the causal approaches and their adoption in early stage tech startups. Thestudy discusses and elucidates the role of decision making and explores the usage of the two logics by ten tech entrepreneurs. The data wascollected in the month of April and May 2020 through semi-structured, in-depth interviews and reveals howand whytech entrepreneurs preferred to use the two decision making logics. Ourfindings suggest that effectuation and causation logics are often usedsimultaneously by tech entrepreneurs during the early stageto overcome the challenges faced during the startup’searlylifecycle.

This thesis focuses on returnee entrepreneurs in a large industrial cluster, Zhongguancun Science Park in Beijing, based on a combined quantitative and qualitative method. Using a hand-collected dataset of returnee entrepreneur-owned 353 SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and local entrepreneur-owned 358 SMEs from Zhongguancun Science Park, the author empirically investigates the role of returnee-firms in technology transfer and knowledge spillovers. The findings suggest returnee entrepreneurs play a significant role in technology transfer and act as a new channel for international knowledge spillovers. It also examines the relationship between the characteristics of returnees and their firms' performance in comparison with non-returnee firms. The results also show that returnee-firms have gained competitive advantage in high-tech industries and perform better than non-returnee firms. Based on eight case studies, the author also compares and contrasts differences and similarities in term of internationalisation process of these two types of firms. It is found that returnee entrepreneurs are the early adopters of internationalisation due to their international background and international networks.

This study focuses on how entrepreneurs learn about international business opportunities and explores the factors that affect the way they do it. The main conclusion of the literature review was that current international entrepreneurship research is still under development and the topic of international entrepreneurial learning about business opportunities yet to receive widespread attention. In addition, entrepreneurs utilise different ways to learn about the opportunities. However, there is a lack of coherence among scholars on what learning strategies are exactly, how many of them exist, and how they should be defined and categorised (Kakkonen, 2010).The research strategy of this study is based on the mixed methods approach. The design is a two-phase, sequential mixed methods study, utilising a qualitative, followed by a quantitative phase (Creswell et al., 2003). The qualitative phase was split into two parts: QUAL1 and QUAL2. Each qualitative phase includes the analysis of interviews and focus group discussions (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998). In the quantitative phase, a web-based questionnaire was the chosen data collection tool (Cobanoglu et al., 2001; Sills and Song, 2002). The study was conducted on a sample of 178 high-tech entrepreneurs in Israel. The results show that international entrepreneurs learn strategically about business opportunities. They utilise different ways, means, and mechanisms to assist in the identification process of entrepreneurial opportunities. These processes can be considered as learning processes, and the way they are enacted can be termed as 'learning strategies'. Based on the findings of the qualitative phases (QUAL1, QUAL2) and prior studies, six learning strategies were identified as relevant to the process of opportunity identification. Furthermore, the quantitative phase showed that business ownership experience and entrepreneurial self-efficacy have a significant influence on prior knowledge on international arena. In addition, prior knowledge was found as the most significant factor, affecting the ways entrepreneurs learn about business opportunities, while the cognitive style was found to moderate the strength of the relationships between prior knowledge and the learning strategies. Social networking ties also had an impact on the ways entrepreneurs learn, however this influence is diverse, and its statistical significance depends on the specific learning strategy. The importance and contribution of the proposed study can be defined as follows: Firstly, the study can help to reveal the underlying logic of opportunity identification as a learning process. Secondly, combining different frameworks into a new conceptual model as has been done in this study, may establish a new outlook, and contribute to the progress of research into entrepreneurship. Thirdly, International entrepreneurs can also benefit from these elements by acknowledging that they have a battery of learning strategies, which are relevant to the opportunity identification process, and most importantly, they can be taught how to learn about an idea throughout the process of opportunity identification.

Globalization of business and development of new technologies have enabled the emerge of firms that aim at international markets right away or soon after their foundation. In these knowledge-intensive, flexibly operating firms the role of the entrepreneur(s) is highlighted. Earlier studies have reported that entrepreneur’s earlier experience, networks and behaviour influence the performance of a firm. The purpose of this study is to enlighten how entrepreneurs influence the ability of born global high tech start ups to exploit international opportunities. Furthermore, the aim is to understand the influence of the entrepreneur’s earlier experience, networks, behaviour and character as well as to elucidate how the entrepreneur’s influence changes after the start up phase. For this study six entrepreneurs from three case companies were interviewed. The results propose that entrepreneur’s experience, networks and behaviour all have an influence on this kind of firms and by understanding this, entrepreneurs can better understand the consequences of their actions and positively influence the performance of the company.

Within the disciplines of education and political science, the phenomenon of the voluntary transfer of policy ideas or practices from elsewhere, or “policy borrowing”, is often the topic of intense debate and study. The study of policy transfer also has strong links with the field of diffusion. Scholars in these fields study cases of policy transfer to understand (1) what motives and mechanisms cause policy diffusion and transfer, and (2) how policies are adapted, or reinvented, in the process of being transferred. The majority of such studies have focused on state-to-state cases of policy transfer involving predominantly government actors. Yet, a growing but still limited number of studies have considered the ways policy entrepreneurs have initiated transfer and utilized networks to bring about and implement policy ideas taken from elsewhere. Teach First provides a unique case-study through which to investigate the role of policy entrepreneurs and networks in shaping the process of policy transfer and reinvention. Teach First launched in 2002 as a non-profit organization and innovative teacher training programme based in London. The scheme, proposed and implemented by leaders within the private sector but heavily funded by the central government, was publicly linked to the U.S. programme Teach For America (TFA). Like TFA, Teach First’s purpose was to improve the schooling of disadvantaged pupils by recruiting elite university graduates to teach for two years in under-resourced schools. My research aimed to uncover how and why this policy was first conceptualized and launched as well as how it was reinvented in the process by those individuals and groups involved. Thus, through a case-study of Teach First’s emergence, this study investigates: What roles do policy entrepreneurs and networks play in policy transfer and diffusion processes? and How are policy entrepreneurs and networks involved in reinventing policy during the transfer process? To explore these research questions, I carried out semi-structured interviews with more than 50 individuals from various sectors who were involved in the creation of either Teach First or TFA. After transcribing all interviews, I used a form of narrative analysis to reconstruct the policy story of how Teach First emerged. In the process, I uncovered and accounted for the diversity of motives, institutional pressures, and contextual factors shaping Teach First’s development with a focus on the policy entrepreneurs and networks. Drawing on previous research in policy transfer, innovation-diffusion, and institutionalism to analyze the policy story, I concluded that both policy entrepreneurs and networks were responsible for bringing about transfer of TFA to England and shaping the nature and extent of its reinvention. This temporal process was furthered shaped by the highly politicized nature of initial teacher training in England, which limited the autonomy of policy entrepreneurs and forced further adaptation of Teach First in ways that its original sponsors had not intended. I also discovered that, while the TFA model played an influential role in this process, TFA was not generally used as a guiding model during implementation. Furthermore, I argue that in the process of mobilizing support for Teach First and implementing the idea in its first year, a new network emerged and represented a potentially influential new voice in education. This study aims to contribute to (1) the knowledge of the roles of policy entrepreneurs and networks in policy innovation, diffusion, and transfer and (2) the growing but still limited research on Teach First. This study also provides a foundation for further studies of Teach For All, an organization co-founded in 2007 by Teach First and TFA, which works to spread the programme globally. Through Teach For All, at least thirty-eight other countries now have programmes modeled on TFA and Teach First, though little research has examined how Teach First came about and spread in this way. Finally, the research also illustrates the value of a methodology not often used in transfer studies – narrative reconstruction – through which data is formed into a storied narrative to account for the complexities of the contexts and the socially–constructed views of the diversity of actors involved in policy-making and transfer.

In a country where inventors and innovators are noted as being at liberty to enter and contribute to the free market space, conversely studies have found that Black tech entrepreneurs face greater difficulty launching and growing their businesses. A review of the literature suggests that many of these difficulties stem from the lingering effects of historical inequalities. These inequalities have existed for decades due to laws and regulations that once limited home ownership, income earning, credit access, inheritances, and educational opportunities. Additionally, literature in the tech arena has demonstrated a lack of diversity in the field. Pattern matching or preconceived standards have also been said to impact Black tech entrepreneurs’ opportunities to receive investments to launch and grow their businesses. While great dialogue has taken place in the tech arena around these disparities, little is known in academic literature about how Black tech entrepreneurs engage in the process of creating innovative brands and marketing their companies. In light of this, the researcher conducted a qualitative case study designed to explore black tech entrepreneurs’ perceptions of how they learn to launch and grow their businesses. This study engaged participants who self-identified as tech entrepreneurs of Black or African descent who have launched apps, websites, or hybrid companies in the United States. Among the key findings that emerged from the study were: An overwhelming majority of participants described that seeking the counsel of “expert” others was a key action in securing funding to grow their companies. Further, a strong majority of participants indicated that having a positive self-concept was a key facilitator in growing their businesses; while, an equal number indicated that a misalignment between the investor and entrepreneur inhibited their ability to grow. The tech entrepreneurial field can evolve through the increased trying on of differing perspectives by both investors and entrepreneurs; the continued development of diversity tech ecosystems and support networks; and, sustained progress in increasing the investment opportunities for Black tech entrepreneurs.

碩士<br>國立臺北科技大學<br>技術及職業教育研究所<br>99<br>Entrepreneurs in high-tech industry have played a significant role on the growth of Taiwan’s economic and high-tech industry development. There are many high-tech industry entrepreneurs, but not all of them can be success. Therefore, the entrepreneurial key success factors are the key point. The purpose of this study was to explore the core entrepreneurial key success factors of high-tech industry and other entrepreneurial key success factors. Through in-depth interview, we have had deep discussion with eight entrepreneurs who start their new venture in high-tech industry and the conclusions as following: 1. The core entrepreneurial key success factors are their professional skill and know how, team management, sustainable development. 2. The key success factors of computer and peripherals industry entrepreneurs are prior work experiences, their professional skill and know how, identify opportunities, talent people searching, risk assessment, customer orientation, team management, sustainable development. 3. The key success factors of Electro-Optic industry entrepreneurs are perseverance, their professional skill and know how, consist a team, market trends assessment, skill applications, team management, sustainable development.

碩士<br>國立臺灣科技大學<br>管理研究所<br>97<br>As the Taiwan growing manufacturing costs rise and the potential business opportunities in China, so that China has become Taiwan's enterprises to pursuit the low production cost and best positions. Therefore, more and more domestic entrepreneurs will go to China to get more profit. However, entrepreneurs face the changeable environment and the dubitable challenges, with a positive attitude can make enterprises to get more sustainable competitive advantage. In the past research about the entrepreneurship, the most emphasis on entrepreneurial behavior, motivation and business performance factors such as the quantitative research, depth rarely entrepreneur’s personality traits in China. Therefore, the main topic of the study is the case study of entrepreneur's personality traits and entrepreneurial ability in China, in order to understand the high-tech manufacturing industry entrepreneur venture process, by entrepreneurs sharing practical experiences, to explore business business management and personality traits. By analyzing and integrating the results of case study, we find the importance of success factors for high-tech manufacturing industry in China. The main conclusions of this study are as the following: 1. The importance of successful entrepreneur's personality traits in China focus on “strong ambition”, “ long-term a global perspective”, “good relationship” and “ indomitable spirit”. 2. The importance of successful entrepreneur's entrepreneurial ability in China focus on “good observation”, “planning and implementation ability” and “innovation capability”.

The purpose of this thesis was to tap the autobiographical memory of entrepreneurs as a resource for learning about successes and failures of relevance to their careers. In an online survey, entrepreneurs were asked to recall experiences of success and failure, date these experiences, and assess how much they learnt as a result. I examined the types of experiences reported, their timing, and learning from success and failure. I also compared how user entrepreneurs differ from non-user entrepreneurs on the above dimensions. Results showed interesting regularities about the timing of memories of success versus failure. Consistent with the extant literature on learning from experience, I found that entrepreneurs learn more from failure, and that they tend to attribute success to internal factors, whereas they attribute failure to external factors. I found that user entrepreneurs report learning less from both experiences of success and failure, but the knowledge user entrepreneurs possess at the start of their careers is positively associated with subsequent learning from experience. I discuss the implications of these findings for the study of entrepreneurship and suggest directions for future research.<br>O objectivo da presente tese foi utilizar memórias autobiográficas de empreendedores como um recurso para estudar sucessos e fracassos relevantes para as suas carreiras. Utilizando um questionário online, foi pedido aos empreendedores para recordarem experiências de sucesso e fracasso, datá-las, e avaliar o quanto aprenderam através das mesmas. Eu examinei os tipos de experiências recordadas, o seu momento cronológico, e a aprendizagem pelos sucessos e pelos fracassos. Adicionalmente comparei como os empreendedores usuários diferem dos empreendedores não usuários nas dimensões acima definidas. Os resultados demonstraram padrões interessantes sobre a cronologia das memórias de sucesso versus fracasso. Consistente com a extensa literatura sobre aprendizagem pela experiência, encontrei evidências que os empreendedores aprendem mais através dos fracassos, e que os mesmos tendem a atribuir os sucessos a factores internos, enquanto tendem a atribuir os fracassos a factores externos. Eu descobri igualmente que os empreendedores usuários reportaram aprender menos quer pelos sucessos quer pelos fracassos, mas que o conhecimento que estes empreendedores possuem no início da sua carreira está positivamente associado com mais aprendizagem pela experiência. Eu apresento as implicações destes resultados para o estudo do empreendedorismo e sugiro direcções para futura investigação.

碩士<br>輔仁大學<br>織品服裝學系<br>92<br>Entrepreneurs in Taiwan have been playing a critical role in the remarkable economic achievements. In recent years, Taiwan is facing a great deal of challenges especially from the conventional industries. The way to make the transition is to upgrade the industry structure by developing technology-intensive and add high value to these traditional industries. This study uses entrepreneurs’ ability and business life cycle as external variables to study the effects of the organizational performance. This research selects entrepreneurs from the textile and high-tech industries as a comparison between traditional and high-tech industries. ANOVA and LISREL linear-structure were used in this study. The results of this study show entrepreneurs' technical ability has prominent relations with technology and entity capitals of the resources types. And the management ability has prominent relations with the organization capital. The human resource has a positive relation with organizational achievements and the management ability of the entrepreneurs is also highly related to the organizational achievements. For the business life-cycles, different stages of the business life-cycle have significant effects on the human resource, entity and organization capitals.