International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing (2 papers in press)

• Supporting value creation by reducing cultural distance as a barrier to exporting
  by Thomas M. Cooney, Jane Silver, Amanda Ratcliffe 
  Abstract: Value creation at the level of the organisation involves balancing the interests of several different stakeholders, with exporting occasionally viewed as a broad-based strategy capable of achieving such equilibrium. However, while much has been written concerning the logistical and economic challenges faced by SMEs wishing to avail of market opportunities abroad, there remains a dearth of information offering solutions to overcoming cultural distance as a barrier to exporting. An EU project entitled ‘Passport to Trade’ sought to provide greater insight into business culture by collating the customs and subjective norms of all member states within the EU and making the information gathered available through a dedicated website. This practice-orientated paper offers insight into the practical development of this web-based information tool that supports value creation by reducing cultural distance as a barrier to exporting.
  Keywords: Business culture, cultural distance, SMEs, exporting, Passport to Trade, barriers to growth, value creation
   
• Creating entrepreneurial opportunities – An organizational and social constructive phenomenon in the creation of new businesses
  by Vesa Puhakka, Antti Kauppinen 
  Abstract: This conceptual study considers the creation process of new businesses from the perspective of organizational creativity and imagination in entrepreneurial opportunity process. Currently, organizational creativity and imagination have been linked to the creative view or creation theory in the entrepreneurial opportunity process field of research. We argue that our theoretical illustration concerning the dialectical creation process of entrepreneurial opportunities describes an early phase of the creation of new businesses. According to our theoretical illustration, entrepreneurs create new unknown effects from the given means or tools (the logic of effectuation) in the creative space (called in-between). In this manner, the creative space including subject, object and community (i.e. neutral opportunities) is empty at the beginning of the entrepreneurial opportunity process, and it is completed by elements of business environment (i.e. intension-driven entrepreneurial opportunities) such as rules, tools, signs and division of labour.
  Keywords: creative view; creative space; logic of effectuation; neutral opportunities; intention-driven entrepreneurial opportunities; structure of human activity