Browsing by Author "Samuelsson, Mikael"

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    A qualitative investigation into customer participation on social customer relationship platforms adopted by home-based enterprises
    (2024) Reddy, Shalen; Samuelsson, Mikael
    The emergence of social media has made it possible for home-based businesses to manage client interactions online. Low user acceptance rates are responsible for up to two-thirds of failures, have historically plagued small and medium enterprises that have implemented a customer relationship management method (Heller Baird & Parasnis, 2011). This study investigates the factors that influence customer participation on social customer relationship management systems used by small and medium enterprises, with a particular emphasis on home-based businesses. It addresses the Question: How can customers be persuaded into participation on social customer relationship platforms of home-based enterprises? A constructivist grounded theory technique was used to conduct this study. Data was gathered from nine home-based businesses through social media recommendations based on active customer engagement. A four-cycle model is implemented to analyse the data that was obtained through coding. Seven key variables emerge, and a customer participation theory is developed. This study concludes that for home-based businesses to improve customer participation on social networks they must first build trust with their target market. This research contributes to literature of home-based enterprises operating in the social customer relationship management space with the development of a substantive theory to improve customer participation thereby increasing customer engagement. Future studies should aim to broaden their findings by including all SME consumers. In this way added dimension may be developed with the inclusion of platform developers and business owners
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    Financing nature and development: scaling up private investment in Southern Africa's community-based conservation
    (2021) Smith, Jessica; Samuelsson, Mikael
    The study considers whether blended finance helps scale up private investment in southern Africa's community-based conservation. It examines what are stakeholder's perspectives on the opportunities, barriers and risks of using blended finance to help scale up private investment in this context. Further, it delves into which, if any, of the revenue- generating activities available to communities from conservation are most viable to upscale with blended finance, and via which blended finance tools. The questions were answered via an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, utilising interviews in Phase 1 and a survey completed by 104 respondents in Phase 2. The output from the research is a publicly available inventory of blended investment options for community-based conservation, including seven types of non-tourism, conservation-related revenue streams. Five of these are ranked positively for scalability, wildlife economy, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) in carbon and restoration, and forestry and agriculture related supply chains. The study suggests some viable space between demand and supply for conservation finance at the community level and provides insight into how to overcome the barriers to these; particularly in the context of communal land, which is a common arrangement for southern African conservation. There are limited first-hand examples of blended finance being used for community-based conservation. The research points to a gap in using insurance and guarantees as blended finance tools to address the challenges of credit risk for investors on communal land; such tools could be catalytic in unlocking private investment in conservation that returns environmental and development benefits in this region. The study addresses the missed opportunity for communities to benefit from conservation at a much greater scale than presently experienced. It also serves to update the working theory of conservation finance to the context of community-based conservation.
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    Impact of mindset priming on entrepreneurial intentions after unemployment
    (2025) Koster, Wilhelm; Samuelsson, Mikael
    The psychological impact of unemployment on risk aversion suggests that investment in education to increase entrepreneurial intentions amongst unemployed workers is unlikely to succeed without addressing this aversion first. Recent studies in construal level suggest that abstract thinking can reduce risk aversion. Furthermore, mindset theory of action phases research shows that people in an implemental mindset viewed risk factors more positively than people in a deliberative mindset. Based on this premise, this research study tests the impact of mindset of action phases and construal level theory on the retraining choice and entrepreneurial intentions of unemployed workers. Recently unemployed workers were identified from the database of a large retail bank in Southern Africa. We experimentally manipulated the mindset of 144 respondents using a well- known priming technique, and then gave a choice of entrepreneurial or general training. Participants also completed measures of entrepreneurial intention, attitude toward entrepreneurship, and construal level disposition. After confirming construct reliability and discriminant validity, statistical hypothesis tests were utilised to analyse the data. The study results show that implemental (concrete) mindset priming increases the probability of choosing entrepreneurial retraining when attitude toward entrepreneurship is high, and conversely that deliberative (abstract) mindset priming increases the probability of choosing entrepreneurial retraining when attitude toward entrepreneurship is low. In addition to adding to entrepreneurial intention, construal level theory, and mindset theory of action phases literature, this research can help policy makers and intuitions maximise investments in entrepreneurship by improving the take-up of entrepreneurial training by recently unemployed individuals.
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    The impact of leverage on firm performance: evidence from start- ups in Swedan
    (2025) Da Silva, Ayrton; Samuelsson, Mikael
    This study investigates the impact of leverage on the performance of start‐ups within Sweden's dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem. Given that fewer than 20% of Swedish start‐ups survive beyond their first decade, the challenges of early-stage financing are particularly acute. Drawing on classical frameworks—namely the trade‐off theory, pecking order theory, and signalling theory—the research situates the role of debt in the context of firms that operate under high uncertainty and limited internal resources. Using a comprehensive population dataset from the Serrano database, which covers 66,069 firms over a 20‐year period (1998–2017), the study employs fixed-effects panel regression to assess the relationship between leverage and key performance metrics. The results reveal that an increase in leverage is associated with statistically significant declines in both sales growth and the industry-adjusted operating income ratio (adjOIR). Specifically, a one-unit increase in lagged leverage corresponds to reductions of approximately 0.280–0.232 percentage points in sales growth and 0.039–0.034 percentage points in adjOIR. Furthermore, the adverse effects are magnified for firms identified as highly leveraged. Effect size analysis indicates that a one standard deviation increase in leverage (approximately 24.06 percentage points) results in a decrease of nearly 6.93 percentage points in sales growth and 0.96 percentage points in operating income ratio. In Swedish Krona terms, this equates to revenue losses ranging between 125 and 166 million SEK across the population of firms. These findings underscore the necessity for start-ups to maintain moderate debt levels to preserve financial flexibility and long-term growth potential, offering critical insights for entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers.
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    The impact of overconfidence bias on firm performance: an empirical analysis of S&P 1500 firms
    (2021) Borchardt, Wayne; Samuelsson, Mikael
    In the context of public firms competing for profitable growth, there is abundant evidence that a high proportion of strategic decisions are value destructive. When managers make strategic decisions to position their firms for competitive advantage, they do so in a context of uncertainty and, in so doing, they apply heuristics or intuition, which makes them vulnerable to cognitive biases. We focused on overconfidence bias and its impact on firm performance. Overconfidence is considered to manifest in three distinct forms, namely overestimation, overprecision, and overplacement. While there are numerous gaps and conflicts in the literature, the most notable issues are conflicting results on the overall impact of overestimation, a paucity of studies on the impact of overprecision, and a focus on the overconfidence of the CEO, rather than on the management team making the strategic decisions. Our review of theory and empirical studies led us to hypothesise a negative relationship between firm performance and overestimation, and a positive relationship with overprecision. We examined the impact of overestimation and overprecision by analysing the performance of the largest public firms, excluding financial services, in the United States over the period 2009 to 2019. We measured firm performance using industry-adjusted return on assets. We derived proxies for overestimation and overprecision from management earnings guidance. Since strategic decisions play out over various time horizons, we considered one to five-year lags between our treatment and dependent variables. We estimated our panel data using a year and firm fixed-effects model. We found support for our hypotheses with a sizeable effect size and statistical significance. We also considered the combined impact of overestimation and overprecision and found that the “specific pessimist” management teams, those that express the greatest underestimation (negative overestimation) and the greatest overprecision, deliver the best firm performance. In contrast, the “vague optimist” management teams deliver the worst firm performance. Our theoretical contribution enriches the debate on the overall impact of group-level overestimation and overprecision on firm performance. Our findings also have practical implications in corporate governance, investment strategies, and the recruitment and promotion of senior executives
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    To both/and, either/or, in-between, and beyond! Queering the normative construction of entrepreneurship for the inclusion of queer entrepreneurs.
    (2022) Rees, Rhiannon J; Samuelsson, Mikael
    The alleged universality of entrepreneurship as a neutral, meritocratic, and accessible means through which individuals are free to realise their socioeconomic potential has been challenged. The entrepreneurship literature is dominated by a narrow stereotype of the entrepreneur (white, neoliberal, Western, male, heteronormative) but the interest in entrepreneurship as a mechanism for economic and social value creation is driving demand for more inclusive, diverse, and pluralist knowledge on entrepreneurship that is representative of marginalised populations' lived experiences. Many have already introduced alternative constructions of entrepreneurship; however, the literature on LGBT and queer entrepreneurs is still limited. This paper aims to help address this gap by queering entrepreneurship through a ‘de- and re-construction' of the norm. Drawing from both post-structural feminism and queer theory, this study problematises ‘normativity' both in entrepreneurship and in the methodologies used to study it. This study asked seven self-identified queer entrepreneurs in South Africa to develop and explain a queer-inclusive construction of entrepreneurship through collage. Collages were analysed through a visual grounded theory methodology and supplemented with interview data analysed through a constructivist grounded theory methodology. The findings confirm the pervasiveness of a normative construction of entrepreneurship and indicate the need to queer it by both including queer individuals and destabilising normative identities and methodologies in the entrepreneurship field. This study contributes to a more inclusive, diverse, and representative entrepreneurial discourse by illuminating specifically the lived experience of queer African entrepreneurs, highlighting the pressure they face to conform to both a Western stereotype of the entrepreneur and to being the ‘right' kind of queer as a product of queernormativity. This research also illustrates how fresh ontologies can inject the entrepreneurship literature with new perspectives that challenge normative, positivist hierarchies. Recommendations for practical interventions for inclusivity are discussed and future directions for research are suggested.
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    Towards a grounded theory of why and how coopetition emerges among SMEs: revisiting intentionality and unintentionality
    (2024) Kauami, Ngunoue Cynthia; Samuelsson, Mikael
    Over the past three decades, there has been growing research interest in coopetition. Coopetition is an intricate network of interdependencies among firms, where intentional and unintentional cooperation and competition occur concurrently. This occurs towards the achievement of diverse yet mutually advantageous recurring economic and/or altruistic objectives, endorsing a paradoxical relationship. While research has advanced, little remains known about the fundamentals of the emergence of coopetition. This study uses strategy-as practice and processual lenses to consider why and how coopetition emerges, delving into the lived experiences of tourism business owners/managers to allow for a micro-foundational view of emergence. Using a qualitative constructivist grounded theory approach, data were collected among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and analysed over a period of one year at the tourism destinations of Swakopmund and Walvis Bay in Namibia. Theoretical saturation was attained at 89 episodes of emergence, since emergence was adopted as the level analysis. The study found three typologies of coopetition emergence: economic, altruistic, and habitual coopetition. Economic coopetition emergence, underlined by resource deficiency, alliance and diversification logics is confirmed in extant literature and has been considered as the dominant reason for competitors engaging collaboratively. This typology emerges both intentionally and unintentionally. Altruistic coopetition emergence, that is driven by solidarity and identity logics confirms and extends recent studies which maintain that there are non-economic reasons for coopetition emergence. This typology was found to emerge unintentionally. Economic and altruistic emergence have recurring patterns over time, which give rise to habitual coopetition emergence. This coopetition type is indicative of practices that become embedded and implicitly institutionalised as modus operandi with consistent reciprocal recurrence driven by economic and altruistic logics, albeit mutually exclusively. Emergence is a process that unfolds in four overarching phases: the selection, negotiation, delivery, and review phases, which are foundational expressions of how the three typologies manifest, confirming its episodic nature which can be deemed to go through “life cycles”. The study contributes to the coopetition literature in general, and specifically to the formation stage by strengthening the non-economic rationale of emergence through presenting care ethics, considered in psychology and social neurosciences. Furthermore, habitual emergence advances path dependence, trust and reciprocity literature and the significant role of time in coopetition intent. From a practical perspective, the study contributes to increased managerial insights into the best ways to structure coopetition, considering the different typologies and emergence processes for enhanced financial and non-financial benefits. In addition, it furthers the idea of sustained coopetitive relationships among firms in general, and among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) specifically.
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    Township incubator programs impact on entrepreneurial behaviour?
    (2021) Moitse, Daniel Tshepo; Samuelsson, Mikael
    Unemployment and poverty especially among the youth have remained major challenges threatening the economic growth and development of townships. “Poverty Trends in South Africa” report, released by (Statistics SA 2017), cites that more than half of South Africans were poor in 2015, with the poverty headcount increasing to 55.5 percent from a low of 53.2 percent in 2011. These challenges therefore demand that the youth be empowered with creative entrepreneurial skills which is one of the skills available to them, in order to make an invaluable contribution to their life and communities. Entrepreneurship is one of the tools to eliminate unemployment and improve economic growth, as result see an increase in entrepreneur incubation center's which are sponsored by government, universities and private companies in townships. These incubations are there to assist entrepreneurs grow their business by providing support and financial assistance. However, despite the rise these incubation programs we don't see their spin-off or benefit in society particularly in townships. They have problems of management, poor infrastructure, poor access to funding for entrepreneurs, lack of entrepreneurial start up programmes, poor or lack of mentoring and coaching problems, and lastly lack to access networks. The main research question is how does enrolling in entrepreneur incubation program impact entrepreneurial behaviour of township entrepreneurs?? A qualitative research approach was chosen as the methodology because this approach underpins an understanding and interpretation of meaning as well as intentions underlying human interaction. Data was collected using semi- structured interviews and 45 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The major findings of the study are as follow:  Incubators in the Northern Cape provides mixture of services in relations to first, second, third and fourth generations incubators. The majority of these incubators are considered weak as they provide only basic services which is shared office facilities to incubatees. The services such mentoring and coaching, training, Wi-Fi, access to finance and networking are lacking. This is considered weakness in terms of theory of incubation.  There is also confusion regarding the typology of incubators. In the Northern Cape we have two mixed incubators, one economic development incubator and one Technology incubator. The incubator missing is the Basic research incubator that should aimed at research and discovery of innovations.  We have also discussed the different success factors of incubation and rated each incubator based on these factors. The majority of incubators performed dismally and are regarded as bad incubators.  The entrepreneurial environment and entrepreneurial resourcefulness will ultimately affect entrepreneurial behaviour. In nutshell, the entrepreneurial environment is government legislation that create conducive environment for incubation but what is lacking is practical support from government. Entrepreneurial resourcefulness which is incubation services offered to entrepreneurs. Incubation centres offered poor services to entrepreneurs. As result the entrepreneurial behaviors of entrepreneurs have not been affected as much or improved during the period of incubation. Lastly, we recommend that there must be a System approach to incubation, incubators adopt incubation model that focus on the needs and circumstance of community. Incubators must have functioning and expert advisory board, business plan and be financially viable in order to survive in the new economy. We also recommend that incubator employ the services of expert professional with experience and qualification in SMME development, business management and understand entrepreneurship or have been entrepreneurs themselves. The purpose of this study was to explore whether these incubators developed the entrepreneurial behaviors of incubatees in the Northern Cape. We have established that that has not happened as result in the future recommend that incubators concentrate on skills development, mentoring and coaching as key aspects of incubation. They must invest on the personal growth and development of their incubatees.