Dr. Maria Blekher

Definitions of the term “entrepreneurship education” vary from the process of passing the necessary skills and concepts to individuals to identifying new business opportunities and to reach high levels of self-confidence to benefit from such opportunities. Some scholars refer to entrepreneurship education as more of skill building and leadership programs, focused on new product development, creative thinking and technology innovation. This study set out to examine… Show more

Definitions of the term “entrepreneurship education” vary from the process of passing the necessary skills and concepts to individuals to identifying new business opportunities and to reach high levels of self-confidence to benefit from such opportunities. Some scholars refer to entrepreneurship education as more of skill building and leadership programs, focused on new product development, creative thinking and technology innovation. This study set out to examine the entrepreneurship faculty perspective on applying venture creation methods to entrepreneurship courses. Through interviews with 15 entrepreneurship faculty in two entrepreneurship programs, in Israel and the United States, it examines their professional and academic backgrounds, thought processes and best practices for teaching entrepreneurship. Building on the Lean Startup Methodology, it mostly looks at the extent that lean startup guidelines such as iterations, customer feedback and product development are applied to their teaching methods and curriculum. The study found that many of these guidelines were applied by the professors, especially among those with an industry oriented professional background Show less

Research finds that engaging in prosocial behavior has many positive psychological outcomes (e.g., enhanced well‐being, optimism, perceived control, and a boost in self‐concept), and research on monetary risk‐taking reveals these psychological outcomes are associated with increased risk‐taking. Merging these findings, we propose that when people's volunteering behavior is made salient in their minds, they take more monetary risks. Making research participants’ volunteering behavior salient by… Show more

Research finds that engaging in prosocial behavior has many positive psychological outcomes (e.g., enhanced well‐being, optimism, perceived control, and a boost in self‐concept), and research on monetary risk‐taking reveals these psychological outcomes are associated with increased risk‐taking. Merging these findings, we propose that when people's volunteering behavior is made salient in their minds, they take more monetary risks. Making research participants’ volunteering behavior salient by having them recall an act of prior volunteering (studies 1 and 3), choosing whether to volunteer (study 2), or choosing one of two volunteering activities (study 4), four experiments (and a fifth reported in the Appendix S2) reveal increased risk‐taking across several monetary‐risk outcomes (incentive‐compatible gambles, allocation of a windfall gain, and a behavioral risk‐taking measure involving escalating risk). Lastly, when the decision maker attributes a decision to volunteer to an external source, the effect of salient volunteering on monetary risk‐taking attenuates.

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This article tests the theory that anxiety about death causes feelings of lack of control, which, with other factors, results in reluctance to donate organs, despite endorsement of the act. Using a survey of U.S. and U.K. registered organ donors and unregistered adults (N = 777), we tested the impact of trust in medical professionals, perceived importance of information on the transplant processes, anxiety regarding loss of control at one’s end-of-life, and a prosocial view of organ donation on… Show more

This article tests the theory that anxiety about death causes feelings of lack of control, which, with other factors, results in reluctance to donate organs, despite endorsement of the act. Using a survey of U.S. and U.K. registered organ donors and unregistered adults (N = 777), we tested the impact of trust in medical professionals, perceived importance of information on the transplant processes, anxiety regarding loss of control at one’s end-of-life, and a prosocial view of organ donation on willingness to register as donor. Structural analyses show that control mediated the associations of trust and information with willingness, while prosocial did not predict willingness. The findings explain the gap between stated attitudes and actual behavior, and suggest that framing donor card registration and organ donation as a way to gain control over the loss of agency in death and dying may encourage organ donation. Show less

קשה לדבר על נושא האחריות החברתית ותרומה לקהילה בלי להתייחס לעליית מחירי הקוטג' והשערורייה שנוצרה בעקבותיה. מה הקשר בין תרומה לקהילה ולמחיר הקוטג'? מצד אחד, לפנינו שתי חברות שחרטו על דגלן את ערך התרומה לקהילה. "שטראוס" נמצאת בראש דירוג "מעלה", המדרג מדי שנה את החברות על פי האחריות החברתית, ואילו "תנובה" "רואה עצמה מחויבת לקהילה בתוכה היא פועלת" (כך באתר החברה).

ובכל זאת, המחויבות העמוקה של שתי החברות לקהילה לא הפריעה להן להעלות את המחיר של גבינת קוטג' ב-50%, ואולי אף איפשרה זאת.