Entrepreneurial entry happens as a consequence of a general choice of an individual to become an entrepreneur. While most entrepreneurial entry studies rarely consider an entry into a particular industry to be an aspect of entrepreneurial decision making process, we address this issue taking into account individual, industrial, and country specific attributes. Using data from the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (2013-2014) on young and active entrepreneurs and extending it with objective indicators derived from World Bank, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and International Property Rights Index datasets, we investigate how various factors influence entrepreneurial industry choice on an aggregated level of industrial typology: knowledge-intensive and capital-intensive industries. Drawing on the RBV and contingency approach, we link an industry choice with the level of human capital development and an access to financial capital and test for possible countryspecific moderation effects. Our findings indicate that both types of capital have a significant impact on industry choice by young nascent entrepreneur. Our results also suggest that specific country environment serves as a moderator in this relationship. Thus, our study contributes to entrepreneurial entry research stream extending the understanding of entrepreneurial entry decision making nuances related to individual access to resources and both industry-and country-level contingencies.

Purpose In reaction to the environmental challenge, many firms are looking for the ways how to integrate sustainability into their operations, business models and strategies. Very often sustainable initiatives go beyond the boundaries of a focal firm engaging a wide variety of partners within the supply chain. In conditions of countries with institutional deficiencies and voids such as emerging economies, the task of sustainability integration is challenging as many critical conditions needed for sustainability development are missing. To understand how firms can integrate sustainability initiatives in their supply chains under the conditions of environmental uncertainty, this paper aims to investigate firm-level and supply chain drivers that stimulate sustainability implementation in Russian firms. Design/methodology/approach Using the sample of 273 large Russian firms the paper explores how firm-level drivers such as innovativeness, risk-taking and internationalization, as well as collaboration and integration in the supply chain are related to sustainability performance and sustainability transformation in supply chain. The hypotheses are tested using regression analysis and the bootstrapping technique. Findings The study indicates the positive association between sustainability performance and sustainability transformation of the firm and such strategic drivers as a firm’s innovativeness and internationalization. The positive moderating effect of environmental uncertainty was found for innovativeness indicating that innovative firms show better sustainable performance in the supply chain under uncertain conditions. Also, the findings indicate that environmental uncertainty positively moderates the relationships between a firm’s transformation for sustainability, its internationalization and supply chain integration and coordination. Originality/value The obtained results contribute to a better understanding of mechanisms that drive firms’ sustainability performance and transformation in conditions of emerging markets. The paper provides an adaptation and empirical testing of Silvestre’s (2015) theoretical model for sustainable supply chain management in emerging economies.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to bring together a strategic choice perspective and an institutional perspective in order to address the key research questions: how do Russian founder-CEOs perceive the institutional environment when succession issues are taken into consideration?; how do the perceived characteristics of different formal and informal institutions affect the founder-CEO’s decision to delegate authority to a professional CEO?; and what are the main barriers to founder-CEO succession in threshold firms in emerging markets such as Russia? Design/methodology/approach – Using a data set of 500 entrepreneurial companies from fast growing industries in Russia, the paper defines and studies threshold firms and analyses how various perceived characteristics of the institutional environment in emerging markets influence the likelihood of transition from founder management to professional management. Findings – Institutional factors such as poor security of property rights and dependence of the business on relationships with government officials have a negative impact on the likelihood of founder-CEO succession in threshold firms in emerging markets. At the same time, the perception of contract law as insecure increases the likelihood of transition from founder management to professional management. Originality/value – Most research on initial succession deals with internal organisational factors and does not consider external environments and their influence on founder-CEO departure and willingness to exit from company management. This study is unique in its focus on the external environment and institutional factors and their impact on management transitions in threshold firms in emerging economies.

The paper deals with the problem of founders’ impact on the process of organizational development and performance. The goal of the research is to provide a comparative analysis of activity in founder‐run and non‐founder‐run Russian firms. In order to run this analysis 224 companies created from scratch by Russian entrepreneurs in the period of years from 1992 to 1998 were studied. Statistical analyses were performed on two independent samples of companies, namely 162 companies managed by the founders and 62 companies that were run by hired professional managers. As a result of the analysis, statistical differences were found in relation to the criteria of number of employees and hierarchical levels; firms managed by founders usually have less staff and fewer hierarchical levels than the non‐founder companies. Nevertheless the dynamics in sales of the two samples of founder and non‐founder companies during the last 3 years were quite similar.

The integration of closed-loop (CL) principles in supply chain management plays an important role for business and society. The CL supply chain can serve as a good example of an environment-friendly and sustainable solution because it assumes waste reduction and further usage in production. Hence, the notion of the CL supply chain is premised on the design, control and operation of a system that creates extra value using the entire product life cycle and capture value recovery from various returns over time. In practice, a successful integration of CL principles depends on many contextual factors. This study aimed to identify the factors that support and discourage CL supply chain innovations in emerging markets. The study employed institutional theory as theoretical background and conducted an in-depth case analysis of a Russian waste management company to present empirical evidence. The results showed that cooperation with an experienced and legitimate partner can drive the introduction of a CL initiative. Meanwhile, a low level of knowledge and trust might become a serious impediment. Thus, investment in knowledge dissemination and reputation building are crucial in an emerging market.