This paper studies the perceived difficulty of recruiting scarce competencies to rural regions. Furthermore, the role of policy in facilitating and enhancing recruitment to and better skills matching in rural regions is discussed. Based on a survey targeted to the business sections of Swedish municipalities, the results show that recruitment is perceived to be difficult in both rural and nonrural regions and that the difficulty of recruiting for the right skills results in a lack of skills matching and constitutes an obstacle to growth. Rural regions located close to urban areas can to some extent mitigate these recruitment problems, and their locations pose less of a barrier in recruitment processes compared to those of remotely located rural regions. Which policies can help remedy recruitment problems faced in rural regions? In both rural and nonrural regions, incentives for writing off student debt and relocation support for accompanying persons and tandem recruitment are perceived to be the most promising policies. Rural regions are more receptive to the implementation of such policies. Finally, the need for flexibility and policies that can be adapted to the regional demand for labour are stressed

Recruiting employees to an entrepreneurial venture is a challenging task. From the employee’s perspective, accepting a position in an entrepreneurial venture potentially implies considerable uncertainty. This paper provide a literature review and identifies research gaps related to labor mobility of employees into and out of entrepreneurial firms. Who works for an entrepreneur? What are the conditions under which the employees of entrepreneurial firms work? Additionally, labor mobility after an employee works for an entrepreneurial firm is discussed. In conclusion, the quality of the jobs generated by entrepreneurial firms may be questionable (and still relatively unexplored in empirical research), but they are nevertheless important from a labor dynamic perspective. Better understanding about motives to work for an entrepreneur, issues related to job security beyond survival rates, and job quality may contribute to ease the recruitment problems that many entrepreneurial firms struggle with. Furthermore, the relevance and potential pros and cons of working for an entrepreneurial firm in future career paths (entrepreneur or employee) need to be carefully addressed in future research.

According to Hoetker and Agarwal (Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 446–469, 2007), research on knowledge transfers related to business closures is scarce. This paper intends to fill the knowledge gap on the transition to entrepreneurship after a business closure. This paper studies which employees are most likely to start an entrepreneurial venture after being affected by a displacement. Furthermore, following, e.g., Hyttinen and Maliranta (Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 110(1), 1–21, 2008) and Sørensen (Administrative Science Quarterly, 52, 387–412, 2007), this study investigates the link between former workplace characteristics, such as the size and age of the former workplace, and the transition into entrepreneurship. In the second part of the analysis, the performance of the entrepreneurial ventures started by employees after displacement is explored as it relates to survival, employment, and profitability. The empirical setting employs an employer-employee-matched dataset coving all displaced employees in Sweden during 2001–2010. The empirical findings suggest that employees displaced from smaller firms are more likely to transition to entrepreneurship. Employing a Cox proportional hazard model to study the survival of these companies shows that new firms generated by displaced employees from small establishments are more viable. Furthermore, individuals who took part in labor market polices have a higher probability of becoming entrepreneurs, although these firms tend to show lower survival rates, which indicates that these transitions are necessity-based. As for the performance of the business, the empirical findings suggest modest growth in terms of employment, turnover, and operating profit for the vast majority of entrepreneurial ventures started after displacement.

This paper will discuss experience and reflections regarding implementing European teaching methods atAfrican universities. The experiences and reflection are based on work in Erasmus project “Enhancing Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability in Higher Education in Africa” (EEIS-HEA) in Tanzania and in Ghana during 2019-2020. The EEIS-HEA project aims at enhancing the implementation of sustainability and entrepreneurship/innovation through student-centered learning and e-learning in five educational programmes. The trainers are allocated at five European Universities (Kwame Nkrumah University ofScience and Technology, KNUST (Ghana), Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center College, KCMUCo(Tanzania), Sokoine University of Agriculture, SUA, (Tanzania), University of Energy and NaturalResources, UENR, (Ghana), State University of Zanzibar, SUZA) and the method of training is based on a jigsaw model with training in Europe and Africa. Our perspective in this paper is primarily a teacher/instructor perspective while acting as trainers of colleagues from our partner universities. Our reflections will focus on internal and external opportunities and obstacles during the firsteducational part of the project. As for internal opportunities, the project has increased the network of European teachers at their University in a very positive way across teaching areas. As for external obstacles stakeholder expectations in terms of, for example, expectations from future employers andgovernment institutions are important. At the internal university level both formal and informal institutions such as program development and issues related to project implementation will bediscussed.Finally, we discuss how trainers coming from a European educational system meet challenges and differences of concept and context disparities. In the case of teaching entrepreneurship and innovation, the European concepts of teaching is aimed at training for opportunity-based entrepreneurship and the vast majority of students with a higher-level education degree, does enter employment rather thanentrepreneurship. In contrast, the African context is an environment where entrepreneurship is primarily necessity-based and a common source of self-employment.

Att rekrytera anställda till ett nystartat företag är en utmanande uppgift för många entreprenörer. För den anställda innebär ett jobb i ett nystartat företag potentiellt stor osäkerhet eftersom sannolikheten att företaget läggs ner är hög. I detta kapitel diskuteras anställdas rörlighet till och från ett jobb i ett nystartat företag. Vem jobbar i nystartade företag? Hur ser arbetsvillkoren ut? Vad vet vi om karriären efter att man jobbat i ett nystartat företag? Forskningsöversikten belyser både för- och nackdelar med att jobba i ett nytt företag.

This paper studies the entrepreneurial motivation and idea generation process of displaced employees. The empirical results are based on both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interviews) data collected from displaced employees who decided to become entrepreneurs after the closure of R&D facilities of the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in Lund (2010) and Sodertalje (2012), Sweden. The empirical findings show that the previous experience and expertise gained from AstraZeneca greatly influenced the idea generation process. Although the employees were affected by their job displacement, still 70 percent of the entrepreneurial activities could be regarded as opportunity-based, suggesting that many entrepreneurs are driven by a combination of push and pull motives. With regard to the timing of the idea generation process, about one third of the entrepreneurs came up with their business ideas before learning about the facility closures. Hence, in many cases, being affected by the displacement spurred the launch of ideas that already existed.

Regional resilience to displacements. Regional Studies. This paper contributes to knowledge about regional resilience to displacement and examines the extent to which the characteristics of the (1) regional closures, (2) individuals in a region, (3) regional industry, (4) regional economy and (5) regional attractiveness influence the re-employment of displaced employees. Regions where the average size of establishment closures is large or the regional displacement rate is high exhibit increased resilience in terms of re-employing displaced employees in the same region. Unrelated and related industrial variety are positively related to resilience to displacement in regions with low re-employment capacities, whereas there is some evidence that regional attractiveness is positively related to resilience in regions with a good ability to re-employ displaced employees in the same region.

This paper studies which grading systems students choose for their degree projects when they are given the choice. Furthermore, the motivational factors behind making this choice are investigated. Student record data and a survey of students conducting their degree projects are used to study whether students prefer the Pass/Fail or A-F grading scale for their degree projects. Data from study record transcripts show that 55% of students selected the Pass/Fail scale, whereas 45% opted for the A-F grading scale. The grade point average score among students choosing the Pass/Fail scale is somewhat higher compared to students who choose the A-F grading scale. Reduced stress associated with writing the degree project motivates those who choose the Pass/Fail grading scale. Enhanced motivation to do a good job on the thesis work and perceived good chances of receiving an A grade motivate students who choose the A-F grading scale.