New business enterprises

At the dawn of a new presidential election, we are reminded that what separates the United States from the rest of the world are the immigrants who came here in the pursuit of the American Dream. These immigrants do not just come to the United States as workers, but also as consumers and entrepreneurs who contribute to the American economy, and use the profits created by their successful entrepreneurship(s) in a way that they become catalysts of change. None of the studies have managed to track the qualities and perceptions of these entrepreneurial immigrants turned philanthropists since the 1940’s. By focusing on their life experiences using an instrumental case study approach, we start to form the profile of the modern day immigrant entrepreneur and philanthropist by analyzing them through five lenses: immigration, adult education, entrepreneurship, leadership, and philanthropy. Using these five lenses, we can better understand the optative aspects of entrepreneurial immigrantship as a part of social impact on Florida’s Gold Coast. Their core family values of tithing and lending a helping hand to those in need transfer into social activism in terms of donations of wealth and donations of time. Although they do not consider themselves leaders in the communities they live and work in, the research findings are quite the opposite. They are socially involved through memberships and leadership positions on local, national, and international non- profit boards, they spearhead major fundraising events and initiatives, and they establish private or corporate foundations and even support candidates seeking political office, whether here or abroad. In essence, they became philanthropists and community activists, who by virtue of immigrating and opening their businesses here add value to Florida’s Gold Coast.

The preoperational stage of a new venture is characterized by concept definition, idea enhancement, and strategy formulation. Entrepreneurs consult advisors in knowledge sharing activities. Trust is dominant in these entrepreneur-advisor relationships as entrepreneurs rely on an advisor's judgment to keep venture ideas away from competitors. However, the relationships between trust, knowledge sharing, and knowledge security during the preoperational stage of a new high-tech venture are not directly examined in many research studies. Concerning types of trust, McAllister (1995) defines two types of interpersonal trust: affective trust, which develops from emotional bonds between individuals, and calculative trust, which is based on an individual's level of competence and reliability. The present study applies McAllister's (1995) theory of types of trust to Kale, Singh, and Perlmutter (2000) findings to examine how trust relationships between entrepreneurs and advisors affect knowledge sharing and an entrepreneur's use of NDAs. This dissertation's research primary question is, "How does trust between an entrepreneur and advisors affect knowledge sharing and choices of knowledge security mechanisms during the preoperational stage of a new high-tech venture?" I used de Koning and Muzyka's (1999) classification of the entrepreneur's social context to define three advisor types: Close Friends, Business Associates, and Licensed Professionals. Linking these types with literature on trust and knowledge, I hypothesize seven relationships dealing with trust, knowledge sharing, and knowledge security. I used structured and non-structured interview formats to collect data on 143 entrepreneur/advisor relationships in South Florida.

Entrepreneurship occupies a curious place in economic theory. On one hand, the importance of entrepreneurship is widely recognized, particularly as it pertains to economic growth. However, the entrepreneur lacks a broadly accepted economic theory, and suffers from a dearth of literature on the subject. We believe that this is due to economics' heavy reliance on linear mathematical theory. In this thesis, we use nonlinear mathematics to construct a model of the entrepreneur that captures the sudden destabilization of a steady state, the unpredictability of a creative action, the possibility of entrepreneurial failure, and sensitivity to small changes in environment.