Purpose: The present study investigates the survival and success of new organizations in the light of complex network theory.

Methodology: The empirical data was collected using the survey method from the technology park companies are analyzed with social network analysis. Two main methods were used in this study: descriptive statistics and social network analysis.

Findings: The findings indicate that new nodes appearing because of splitting up of bigger nodes from present or other related networks have a higher degree of centrality. In practice, this means that companies founded by former members of large-scale companies from these networks are more successful due to the ease in providing the flow of resources and information through previous links. This suggests that the imprint effect can be observed in the appearance, lifecycle, and performance of new nodes in complex networks.

Originality: The literature lacks studies on new organizations’ lifecycle in complex networks despite the existence of studies about new organizations in organizational networks. This study examines the appearance, success, and survival of new organizations in networks by complex network approaches such as dynamism, dissipative structures, and uncertainties.

Purpose: Because of the growing interest in the literature in education and political skill as facilitators of firm performance, this article aims to reveal whether there is a moderating role of women entrepreneurs’ political skill on the relationship between their education level and firm performance when firm- and entrepreneur-level characteristics remain under control.

Methodology: The study was conducted in Istanbul, Kocaeli, and Bursa, cities with the lowest gender gap in Turkey. The participants of the questionnaires were 291 entrepreneurs who are members of the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGIDER), the Women Entrepreneur Members of Endeavor Turkey, and the TOBB Women Entrepreneurs. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to analyze the dataset.

Findings: When firm- and the entrepreneur-level characteristics remain under control, women entrepreneurs’ political skill shows a moderator role in the relationship between women entrepreneurs’ education level and firm performance.

Practical Implications: A bachelor’s degree or higher, along with political skill, allow women
entrepreneurs to increase their firm performance. Furthermore, the higher the political skill, the higher the effect of education level on firm performance.

Originality/Value: This is the first study to investigate the moderating role of political skill of women entrepreneurs in the relationship between education level and firm performance. Moreover, political influence and human capital theories are jointly applied to the theoretical model.

Purpose: Design and UX are effective means of embodying value, but if marketers couple these with an ambiguous concept, the product/service loses its uniqueness. Starbucks exhibits strength in creating value based on concepts. Various studies report factors that contribute to brand loyalty, but the underlying idea remains unexplored. This study comprehensively verifies the contribution of four factors to Starbucks’ loyalty in Japan: concept, product, place, and staff.

Methodology: Using an online survey, a question was framed about the brand image to identify loyalty-related factors, since consumers form brand image through brand experience. To avoid bias, the responses were based purely on recall. The contribution of each derived factor to loyalty was evaluated using structural equation modeling.

Findings: When asked about the Starbucks brand image, respondents mostly recalled its products (related words), but the brand concept was the most effective factor for loyalty. In addition, places were more significant than products. However, product superiority was confirmed in terms of both frequency and contribution compared to place.

Implications: Companies should reaffirm the importance of brand concepts. Thus, emphasis should be placed on the index of concept recall in brand management.

Purpose: The main purpose of the article is to determine the key success factors of enterprise risk management systems, understood as the characteristics of these systems that have the greatest impact on the effectiveness of their functioning.

Methodology: Bearing in mind the most accurate determination of key success factors of enterprise risk management systems, I used several research methods. The conducted research was divided into four stages: (1) literature review, (2) financial statements analysis, (3) individual in-depth interviews, and (4) anonymous surveys. The research embraced enterprises operating in Poland.

Findings: Based on the literature analysis, in-depth interviews, and conducted surveys, a list of risk management systems’ success factors was created and sorted in the order from the most important ones – that have the greatest impact on the success of risk management – to the least important ones.

Additional analysis of financial statements of all WSE-listed companies allowed me to discern that few of the surveyed companies use mature modern ERM systems, and it enabled me to identify a group of companies that qualified to participate in the survey. Moreover, a statistically significant positive correlation appeared between the degree of key success factors’ implementation and the overall ERM implementation’s impact on the organization, while a statistically significant negative correlation emerged between the overall impact of ERM implementation on the organization and the degree of ERM implementation goals’ achievement, but also between the degree of the implementation of key success factors and the degree of the ERM implementation objectives’ implementation. Moreover, I noted that the fact of using individual features has no significant impact on the assessment of a given feature by respondents.

Implications: All factors included in the study are success factors of risk management systems. However, the surveys’ results suggest a different level of individual factors’ significance, thus a different degree of these factors impact on risk management success.

Originality/Value: The article presents an original set of key success factors in risk management systems, created based on my own research. The obtained research results can be used by managers willing to implement or develop risk management systems in their organizations.