Business Planning Activities Research Articles

Deep Learning and Statistical Models for Forecasting Transportation Demand: A Case Study of Multiple Distribution Centers

Background: Transportation demand forecasting is an essential activity for logistics operators and carriers. It leverages business operation decisions, infrastructure, management, and resource planning activities. Since 2015, there has been an increase in the use of deep learning models in this domain. However, there is a gap in works comparing traditional statistics and deep learning models for transportation demand forecasts. This work aimed to perform a case study of aggregated transportation demand forecasts in 54 distribution centers of a Brazilian carrier. Methods: A computational simulation and case study methods were applied, exploring the characteristics of the datasets through autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and its variations, in addition to a deep neural network, long short-term memory, known as LSTM. Eight scenarios were explored while considering different data preprocessing methods and evaluating how outliers, training and testing dataset splits during cross-validation, and the relevant hyperparameters of each model can affect the demand forecast. Results: The long short-term memory networks were observed to outperform the statistical methods in ninety-four percent of the dispatching units over the evaluated scenarios, while the autoregressive integrated moving average modeled the remaining five percent. Conclusions: This work found that forecasting transportation demands can address practical issues in supply chains, specially resource planning management.

The Role of Experience and Gender in Founders' Business Planning Activities: A Meta Analysis.

The question of why entrepreneurs undertake business planning activities differently, ranging from planning “in the head” to generating formal written documents, is still impenetrable. Aggregating data on 11,064 observations from 32 independent data set, this study meta-analyzed how business experience and gender influence entrepreneurs' disposition to business planning behaviors. Surprisingly, contradictory to some extant views that entrepreneurs without prior experience are more likely to make business plans, we found that both managerial experience and entrepreneurial experience positively influence entrepreneurs' subsequent business planning behaviors. Drawing insight from the effectuation and institutional perspectives, this study showed that, rather than entrepreneurial experience, managerial experience motivates entrepreneurs to generate formal business plans. For entrepreneurs who create formal business plans, both entrepreneurial experience and managerial experience enhance their business planning sophistication. In addition, we examined the moderating effects of gender on the relationship between business experience and business planning. The results suggested that female entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial experience are more likely to undertake business planning behaviors and create formal business plans than their male counterparts.

Guanxi and risk-taking propensity in Chinese immigrants’ businesses

This paper studies the determinants of the risk-taking propensity in immigrant-owned businesses. The paper has a particular focus on first-generation Chinese immigrants and the effect of the so-called “guanxi”, a specific form of social capital for Chinese communities. The empirical research is based on a survey conducted in 2012 on Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Andalusia (Spain). An ordinal logistic regression specification was employed to test the hypotheses. The results show that the Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs with better “guanxi” run businesses with a higher risk-taking propensity. Furthermore, those Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs who have other business owners in their families and undertake business planning and control activities are more prompted to take risks in the management of their companies. The risk-taking propensity of immigrant-owned businesses increases over time starting from the immigrant entrepreneurs’ arrival to Spain. In contrast, the education levels of Chinese entrepreneurs’ bear no significant effect on the risk-taking propensity of their businesses.

Knowledge management and the entrepreneur: Insights from Ikujiro Nonaka's Dynamic Knowledge Creation model (SECI)

A key goal of knowledge management (KM) is to foster innovation through the creation of new knowledge. Surprisingly, there is little research on KM in the context of entrepreneurship, a domain where innovation is considered essential. This paper extends established theories and frameworks for KM to the understudied context of KM in small and medium entrepreneurial firms, particularly young startups. Translating KM frameworks, such as the widely studied SECI model, into the entrepreneurial domain could eventually help startups in their quest for sustainability and growth. The SECI model is an aspirational process with which to build new knowledge, including the explicit knowledge assets that startups commonly lack. However, an aspiration is only useful if the subject knows where he or she stands in relation to it. This study focuses on understanding whether entrepreneurial activities embed into, and can further enable, the “virtuous” knowledge-creation cycle. The secondary objective of this paper is to acknowledge Ikujiro Nonaka's contribution to western and eastern KM theories, and extend his seminal theories into other domains, such as small and medium enterprises. This work pilots the use of a content analysis technique largely used in psychology to analyze the connection between entrepreneurship and KM. With this method, the study highlights how the four phases of the SECI model apply to startup firms in a business incubator in the United States. It provides insights into the knowledge-creation process of entrepreneurs, and suggests how entrepreneurs can improve startup survival through greater awareness and use of KM in their business planning and operational activities.

Ethical CSR Leadership

The incorporation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in organisational strategic plans is now a norm and likely to remain a regular and increasingly significant component of the business planning activities of organisations in the future. This article looks at the ethical and non-ethical reasons company leaders have for the inclusion of CSR policies in their vision from the recent evolution of CSR to provide a Socratic forum on which the reader can begin to define ethical leadership of CSR. By investigating whether the CSR is a proactive people-led passion or a followed fiscal fashion, and examining its component parts by using an equation, it becomes clear there are many levels of reason for adopting CSR principles and practices in an organisation. This comment is then threaded through many levels of the organisation as the argument progresses to explore the impact of implementing CSR policies on different types of stakeholders. This is for the purpose of bringing into question and highlighting the ethical leadership skills necessary for successful CSR practice throughout the business, not just for the present but for the coming decades.

Associative Analysis of Software Development Phase Dependency

The Success of software development is based on the developers involvement and the adapted software architectures. The software development activities are highly dependent one with another in all its phases. The software development activities and its dependency of the internal activities are influences the quality of the software. The Associative analysis of software development which is focused to determine to identify the potential developers in line with the software development models. The potential software developer is identified based on the cumulative weight of developers contribution on each phases and its activities weight. The activity relationships are presented as a unit matrix and the common phase activity is calculated to determine dependency between the phases in each module, projects as per the selected as per the selected software architecture. A neural network model is constructed and identifies the developers weight related to their interaction between one phase of the project to another on the same project. The occurrence relationship and its frequency values are obtained according to the number of activities involved by each developer in their entire development process. The weight values supported to identify the influencing factors of the developers in different models. It will leads to identify the potential developers, future project planning and business planning activities.

Investigating the Governance Impact on Long-Term Strategic Planning Behavior in Start-ups.

Prior research has investigated the impact of business planning activities on firm performance and concluded that firms should invest time and effort in long-term strategic planning. To date, there...

Why We Plan: The Impact of Nascent Entrepreneurs' Cognitive Characteristics and Human Capital on Business Planning

We examine the impact of nascent entrepreneurs' cognitive attributes and human capital on business planning behavior. We find that entrepreneurial self‐efficacy facilitates development of formal business plans and entrepreneurial perseverance promotes engaging in business planning activities. Further, advanced academic education leads nascent entrepreneurs to engage in business planning activities and create formal business plans, but prior work experience has a marginal effect on business plan formality. The results further indicate that a nascent entrepreneur's striving for outside financing promotes business planning activities, while being in a supportive environment or a member of a business association does not impact business planning behavior. Copyright © 2015 Strategic Management Society.

An Institutional Perspective on Business Planning Activities for Nascent Entrepreneurs in Sweden and the US

We compared nascent characteristics and behaviors leading to business planning activities in Sweden with the United States (US), examining the effects of institutional pressures exerted in the different countries. We analyzed institutional factors leading 362 Swedish and 347 US entrepreneurs to write plans during a two-year period. We show that national cultures moderate how institutional pressures influence nascent behaviors, questioning generic applications of institutional theory. We found business planning behaviors moderated by nationality, showing significant and negative effects for business classes in the US. Implications are drawn for institutional theory and the study of nascent businesses, as well as for normative business planning literature and practice of nascent businesses.

How does Human Capital Drive Performance? Evidence on a Missing Link in SMEs

Ever since Becker’s work on human capital, management scholars have aimed to determine whether and how human capital affects firm performance. In line with Becker’s arguments, research on both large, well-established organizations and entrepreneurial firms (new and small) supports a positive link, but the mechanisms of how the human capital of individuals at the top of organizations affects firm performance is not well understood. In this paper, we examine the role of business planning as a possible link between an individual’s human capital and firm performance. We analyze whether executives with greater human capital engage in more business planning activities and how the consequent business planning impacts firm performance. We test hypotheses, applying an evidence- based research approach that synthesizes 148 empirical studies linking human capital, business planning, and entrepreneurial firm performance. We confirm the positive relationship between human capital and firm performance, and find support for business planning as a partial mediator of the human capital–firm performance relationship. Further analyses tease out the differences between education-based human capital and work experience-based human capital. While education is more strongly connected with business planning than experience, we find that business planning only mediates the relationship between experience and firm performance, not the relationship between education and performance. Implications for human capital theory and research on planning are discussed.

Examining the Effect of the Strategic Alignment of Business Planning and Information Systems Planning in China

In this paper a conceptual model is presented, and the associated measurement variables are identified to examine the strategic alignment of business planning (BP) and information systems planning (ISP) in China and its causal relationships with ISP problems, BP activities and the strategic position of ISP. The model was tested and verified by an empirical study, including a formal survey with data and model analyses. Further, the research findings and results reveal that in China the stage of BP-ISP integration is closely related to business planning activities and the integration is positively related to business requirements for information technology (IT) and the role of IT executives. When increasing the level of the integration, not only will the problems of ISP become less, but ISP will also influence business planning activities more and support them better. This paper is concluded with research implications and recommendations.

The acquisition and utilization of market information in new venture development and the contingent nature of new venture organizing activities

Using data from the Second Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics, this study analyzes the role of information acquisition and utilization in new venture development. We employ competing risk analysis to make use of the longitudinal data structure in PSED II. Our results highlight the contingent nature of information acquisition in assisting the nascent entrepreneur in carrying out organizing activities. Our results show that marketing and business planning activities only create value when entrepreneurs also engage in information acquisition with potential customers. We empirically disentangle a contingent structure among organizing activities in new venture creation and highlight the interdependencies.

Increasing entrepreneurial intention: effective entrepreneurship course characteristics

Ajzen’s model of planned behaviour was used to measure the impact of specific entrepreneurship course characteristics on entrepreneurial intention. Course characteristics with a hypothesised positive influence on entrepreneurial intention were identified through literature research and an exploratory study. The hypotheses were tested with a quantitative study which was designed as an ex ante/ex post measurement. Course elements such as business planning activities, role models, student-oriented teaching and feedback processes are efficient components to increase entrepreneurial intention through its antecedents.

Risk management practices in German SMEs: an empirical investigation

This paper reports the current risk management practices in German Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) (so-called German 'Mittelstand'). In particular, it studies possible relationships between risk management and business planning activities. Additionally, it determines to what extent the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is used, for the general purpose of performance measurement and especially for the purpose of risk management. The enquiry was carried out by means of a postal questionnaire. The results show that in German SMEs the handling of risks is strongly concentrated on owner–managers. Risk management is carried out in a rather rudimentary way. Only a few SMEs have established a comprehensive business planning system, and the link between their risk management and their business planning in most SMEs is not well developed. But a sound risk management requires an elaborate business planning, together with a direct mapping of risk figures into the planning system. In general, the BSC was met open-minded, but its use for risk management is mentioned by only a few enterprises. This investigation is a first step of a larger empirical approach to risk management practices in German SMEs.

Cios' Perspectives on Competitive Intelligence

Competitive intelligence (CI) has become an important source of information for business planning and other activities because it provides information about the present and future behavior of competitors, suppliers, customers, technologies, acquisitions, markets, and the general business environment. This article discusses the results of a recent survey of CIOs and CEOs about competitive intelligence practices in their firms. the authors anticipate an increase in competitive intelligence activities that will require the increased use of IT and suggest a heightened awareness that this spiraling situation is likely to place increasing demand on the IT function and the CIO.

The road to privatization: TQM and business planning

Provides an overview of the literature on public sector reform, total quality management (TQM) and strategic planning. Traces the change efforts and road to privatization of Asset Services, which is a maintenance contractor with about 2,000 staff and a business unit of a large Australian government department. Describes how, during the period 1989‐1996, Asset Services undertook a process which illustrates the integration of customer focus, quality principles and strategic business planning. Introduces the concept of the business improvement leader, and discusses some of the many TQM and business planning activities undertaken to the point of being fully commercialized. Identifies a number of factors influencing the success of this business unit.

THE ROLE OF THE TECs IN SUPPORTING SMEs IN ENGLAND

Before assessing the role of the Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) in supporting small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in England, this paper highlights the importance of the SME sector and then briefly outlines the development of official policy towards SMEs over the past two decades. The introduction of the TECs in 1989 encompassed a number of features of the UK Government's SME policy. The TECs have been given wide‐ranging and challenging responsibilities. Whilst there is no clear demarcation line between the TECs' enterprise and training activities, this paper is more concerned with their role in promoting ‘enterprise’ in SMEs. A broad brush survey of TECs conducted for this paper reveals that the different TECs have adopted different approaches to fulfilling this role. The paper then describes an initiative offered by one particular TEC; the scheme in question enables SMEs to finance the use of consultants to assist in business planning and management development activities. The operation of this scheme encapsulates many of the key issues involved in SME policy, such as how to select companies for assistance and how to design an integrated programme of SME support. Finally, the implications of these findings for the future of the TECs are explored, with the caveat that the role of the TECs will inevitably mirror the (constantly evolving) government policy towards SMEs.

The Impact of R&M 2000 on Business Planning

The US Air Force new reliability and maintainability program, R&M 2000, will affect defense contractors in many ways. This paper discusses the potential impact of R&M 2000 on defense contractors, and the impact on defense contractor business planning activities.

Productivity improvement manual, by Alan Lawlor. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1985. 306 pages. $35.00

National Productivity ReviewVolume 5, Issue 3 p. 293-294 Keeping Current/Book Review Productivity improvement manual, by Alan Lawlor. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1985. 306 pages. $35.00 Robert A. Rauch, Robert A. Rauch Robert A. Rauch is director of planning and communications for Delco Systems Operations, a unit of the GM Hughes Electronics Corporation. Mr. Rauch leads the strategic management and strategic business planning activities for Delco Systems. He has given lectures on strategic management to the Productivity Improvement group at the California Institute of Technology, in seminars at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Claremont Graduate School, and in private organizations. He is adjunct professor at United States International University in San Diego, where he teaches strategic management.Search for more papers by this author Robert A. Rauch, Robert A. Rauch Robert A. Rauch is director of planning and communications for Delco Systems Operations, a unit of the GM Hughes Electronics Corporation. Mr. Rauch leads the strategic management and strategic business planning activities for Delco Systems. He has given lectures on strategic management to the Productivity Improvement group at the California Institute of Technology, in seminars at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Claremont Graduate School, and in private organizations. He is adjunct professor at United States International University in San Diego, where he teaches strategic management.Search for more papers by this author First published: Summer 1986 https://doi.org/10.1002/npr.4040050312 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume5, Issue3Summer 1986Pages 293-294 RelatedInformation