Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate Venturing: Creating New Businesses Within the Firm

PrefaceIntroduction1. Corporate Venturing: What Is It? Why Do It? 2. Getting Started3. Framing and Managing the Venturing ProcessChapter 4: Identifying, Evaluating, and Selecting OpportunityChapter 5: Selecting, Evaluating, and Compensating Venture ManagementChapter 6: Locating the Venture in the OrganizationChapter 7: Developing the Business PlanChapter 8: Organizing the VentureChapter 9: Controlling the VentureChapter 10: A Survival Guide for Venture ManagersChapter 11: The Internal Politics of VenturingChapter 12: Learning from ExperienceAppendix A: Abstracts of Some Investigations of Corporate VenturingAppendix B: Venturing with Corporate Venture CapitalIndex
Trade and Urbanisation

Insights from economics of geography suggest that greater urbanisation should lead to an increased level of trade. Larger exporting markets should also provide incentives for agglomeration. Using a novel instrumental variables approach, this study provides empirical evidence that suggests that within country urbanisation has a strong positive impact on exports of the modern sector, while exports too have a positive impact on urbanisation. Consistent with model predictions, urbanisation is also associated with a decline in exports and increase in imports in the primary sector.
Investment Creation and Investment Diversion: Simulation Analysis of Thesingle Market Programme

This paper studies the investment creation and diversion effects of the EU's Single Market programme (EU92). We first present empirical evidence which suggests that EU92 caused investment diversion in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) nations and investment creation in the EU. The economic logic behind this is simple. Discriminatory liberalization shifts production of tradable goods from nonintegrating countries to the integrating region. Since tradable sectors are capital intensive relative to nontraded sectors, the production shifting raises the rental rate in the integrating regions, lowering it elsewhere. Investment creation and diversion is the result. To simulate what would have occurred if the EFTAns had never gained access to EU92 (via EU membership or the European Economic Area), we employ a computable general equilibrium model with endogenous capital stocks. The results show a modest drop in EFTA capital stocks when they are excluded from EU92, but an important rise (almost 5%) when they are included. In terms of real income, the difference between the included and excluded cases is quite large for the EFTAns (5.5% of GDP). In all cases, the EU experiences investment creation and income gains. The effects on the US and Japan are trivially small, but mostly negative in terms of capital stocks and real income.
Is Competition Always Effective?: The Theoretical Basis of Excessive Competition

As the core of economics, the development of competition theory is nearly as long as the entire historical evolution of the discipline. However, generally speaking, the methods of this research context are mainly limited to idealistic, static, and equilibrium analysis. They thus do not very well explain market failure and the fierce nature of competition. Their blind belief that competition definitely promotes economic efficiency also causes them to neglect the study of excessive competition, a common phenomenon in economic life. In the present article, the author believes, from an economic perspective at least, that competition is indeed unduly intensified and that it has also led to excessive competition with losses in both economic efficiency and economic welfare. In circumstances of excessive competition, the policies made by the government to restrict potential competitors might not be reasonable. It is more important to be strict in distinguishing the following two arguments from each other: whether or not there is excessive competition and whether or not we should put restrictions on competition. On this basis we can then identify policy instruments to remove immediate causes of excessive competition.
Caring About Sunk Costs: A Behavioral Solution to Hold-Up Problems with Small Stakes

Economics students need to be taught that opportunity costs are important for optimal decision making but that sunk costs are not. Why should this be? Presumably these students have been making optimal decisions all their lives, and the concepts should be easy for them. We show that caring about sunk costs can help agents achieve efficient investments in a simple team production environment. Furthermore, the solution we propose is uniquely efficient if the environment is sufficiently complex. Hence, in addition to explaining contract form and ownership (Williamson, 1975; Hart, 1995), studies of the holdup problem may also provide insights into observed behavior in day-today bilateral bargaining problems. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
On Renegotiation-Proof Collusion under Imperfect Public Information

Abstract We construct a weakly renegotiation-proof equilibrium in Green and Porter's (1984, Econometrica 52 , 87–100) imperfect public information model, which Pareto-dominates the Cournot-Nash equilibrium. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, D43, D82.
Structural Uncertainty, Learning, and Asset Pricing

We examine the effects of parameter uncertainty and Bayesian learning on equilibrium asset prices when all the structural parameters of the aggregate consumption and dividend growth rate processes are unknown. With realistic calibration of a parsimonious set of prior parameters, the model generates a sizeable equity premium and a low risk-free rate even with a power utility function, low risk aversion, and absence of persistence in growth rates. Raising the prior uncertainty on consumption growth induces a "flight to safety" that results in lower risk-free rates, higher equity premium, and greater risk-free rate volatility. But raising the prior uncertainty on dividend growth rates has ambiguous effects on the equity premium. Learning does not produce a monotonically declining equity premium and shocks to growth rates can induce sharp fluctuations in the market returns even after one hundred years of data. Finally, the effects of persistence in growth rates on the market returns are highly sensitive to the prior estimates of persistence.
Security management and crime in hotels

This article presents the results of an exploratory investigation into the role of the security manager in the UK hotel industry, an area of management that has been under‐researched. In addition, this paper provides qualitative evidence about the range of crime experienced by hotels, and how this crime is managed. The paper utilises information from in‐depth interviews with five specialised security managers representing large hotels in London and 65 owners and managers of small hotels in London, Salisbury, Leicester and Brighton, UK. The findings indicate that the role of the security manager, at least in these hotels, is perceived to have undergone a process of transformation. Traditional security responsibilities of guarding and loss prevention have been broadened to include health and safety, IT security, disciplinary action, fire safety and insurance. Hotels are also shown to be unique contexts, facing a broad range of crime problems.
Effect of Bovine Serum Albumin Treatment on the Aging and Activity of Antibodies in Paper Diagnostics

Paper and cellulosic films are used in many designs of low-cost diagnostics such as paper-based blood grouping devices. A major issue limiting their commercialization is the short stability of the functional biomolecules. To address this problem, the effect of relative humidity (RH) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) on the antibody bioactivity and the surface chemical composition of a paper blood typing biodiagnostic were studied. An IgM blood typing antibody was physisorbed from solution onto paper - with or without BSA pretreatment, and aged for periods up to 9 weeks under various conditions with a series of RH. The blood typing efficiency of the antibodies and the substrate surface chemical composition were analyzed by image analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. This study tests two hypotheses. The first is that the hydroxyl groups in paper promote antibody denaturation on paper; the second hypothesis is that proteins such as BSA can partially block the hydroxyl groups within paper, thus preserving antibody bioactivity. Results show that high RH is detrimental to antibody longevity on paper, while BSA can block hydroxyl groups and prolong antibody longevity by almost an order of magnitude—regardless of humidity. This study opens up new engineering concepts to develop robust and marketable paper diagnostics. The simplest is to store paper and antibody based diagnostics in moisture proof packages.
Insomnia subtypes and their relationship to excessive daytime sleepiness in Brazilian community-dwelling older adults.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To investigate the association between different types of insomnia as exposures and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) as a binary outcome in older Brazilian residents. DESIGN The baseline examination of the Bambuí Health and Ageing Study (BHAS), which is an ongoing population-based prospective cohort study of older adults. SETTING Bambuí (15,000 inhabitants), a city in the State of Minas Gerais, Southeast Brazil PARTICIPANTS All residents aged ≥ 60 years were eligible to take part in the BHAS baseline. Of 1742 residents identified who were ≥ 60 years, 1606 (92.2%) were interviewed and received comprehensive examinations of health status. INTERVENTIONS None. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS EDS was defined as the presence of sleepiness ≥ 3 times per week in the last month, causing any interference in usual activities. All insomnia subtypes were significantly associated with EDS in unadjusted analyses, and these associations were only modestly altered after adjusting incrementally for the other covariates. In a final model, the 3 insomnia subtypes were entered into a fully adjusted model simultaneously to investigate mutual independence, giving prevalence ratios of 1.63 (95% CI 1.14-2.31) for initial insomnia, 2.13 (95% CI 1.48-3.07) for middle insomnia, and 1.36 (95% CI 0.94-1.96) for terminal insomnia. The population attributable fractions for initial, middle, and terminal insomnia on prevalence of EDS were 17.6%, 32.9%, and 9.7%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Middle insomnia emerged as the insomnia subtype most strongly associated with EDS. Further research is required to clarify causal pathways underlying this cross-sectional association.
Preparation of recombinant gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) growth hormone and its use for stimulation of larvae growth by oral administration.

Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) growth hormone (gsGH) cDNA coding for the mature protein was cloned in a pGEM-T vector and then transferred into prokaryotic expression vector pET-8 and expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) cells upon induction with IPTG. The expressed protein, contained within the inclusion-body pellet, was solubilized in 4.5 M urea, refolded at pH 11.3 in the presence of catalytic amounts of cysteine, and purified to over 98% purity, as evidenced by SDS-PAGE. Gel-filtration on a Superdex column under nondenaturing conditions and partial amino acid N-terminal sequence showed the purified protein to be a monomeric alanyl-gsGH. Over 90% pure bacterial beta-lactamase was copurified as a by-product. Binding assays of the [125I]gsGH to gs liver microsomal fraction resulted in high specific binding characterized by a Kd = 1.93 nM. Recombinant gsGH, like ovine placental lactogen, exhibited growth-stimulating activity when applied orally to S. aurata larvae or intraperitoneally to juvenile fish.
Determinants of customers' intention to use Islamic personal financing: The case of Malaysian Islamic banks

Purpose – Islamic banking and finance is an emerging global industry founded on Islamic ethical precepts. Just as in the case of conventional banks, Islamic banks are expected to offer products that consider the needs of their customers. The present study investigates the effects of the following factors: attitude; social influence; religious obligation; government support; and pricing, on the intention to use Islamic personal financing.Design/methodology/approach – The sample comprised of 150 customers of two fully fledged Islamic banks in Malaysia: Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad and Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad. Data were obtained through a face‐to‐face survey using semi‐structured questionnaire. Out of a total of 150 responses, only 136 responses were usable for further analysis. The study used factor analysis, correlation and regression to analyse the data.Findings – The study found three determinants to be significant in influencing the intention to use Islamic personal financing, namely, attitude, soci.
The dimensions of management team performance: a repertory grid study

Teamwork is a key feature of work in organisations and a central question in the extensive literature on teams concerns the ways that team performance can be measured. This paper summarises the concept of team performance and, focussing on management teams, reports the results of an extensive study into team members’ constructions of performance. Factor analysis of data collected through 60 repertory grid structured interviews with members of management teams suggests seven factors that represent team performance. The factors are: team purpose; team organisation; team leadership; team climate; interpersonal relations; team communications; and team composition. An eighth factor, team interaction with the wider organisation, is suggested from theoretical considerations and is included in an eight‐factor model of team performance.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BASE YEAR IN DEVELOPING FAILURE PREDICTION MODELS

Most failure prediction models developed over the past fifteen years have been based on firms' financial characteristics one year before they collapsed. This article reports the results of a study employing multiple discriminant analysis on a sample of fifty-three British companies which failed over the period 1960–1971. Models were developed on various financial ratios and an industry indicator for each of the five years, prior to failure, and the results in fact show that the model developed from data five years before failure performed at least as well as that derived one year prior to bankruptcy.
Placing Trust at the Center of Your Internet Strategy

Professor Glen L. Urbancodirects the Center foreBusiness@MIT, SloanSchool of Management.Fareena Sultan is associateprofessor of marketing,College of BusinessAdministration. NortheasternUniversity, Boston. ProfessorWilliam J. aualls directs theIndustrial DistributionManagement Program at theUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Contact theauthors at: glurban@mit.edu,fsultan@cba.neu. edu andwqualls@uiuc.edu. When consumers visit a retail Web site,how do they know that the informationdescribing the products or services theywant to buy is accurate and unbiased? When they order and pay for a productonline, how do they know that theirfinancial records will be protected, thatthe product will be delivered on time, orthat they can return something that isdamaged or fails to meet their expecta-tions? The answer is they often don't know.Consumers must make these and manyother online research and purchasingdecisions almost solely on the basis oftrust. Yet most Web sites provide con-sumers with scanty information on whichto base their trust. Some Web retailers arestart-ups with little or no track record offulfillment. Some may be on shaky finan-cial footing and unable to meet their ser-vice and delivery guarantees. Some secretlycollect data about each customer's Webactivity and then sell this information tothird-party marketing firms. Even well-regarded companies like AOL have suf-fered embarrassing security breaches,while auction sites such as eBay havebeen scrutinized for their failure to effec-tively police self-serving "customerreviews" posted by the sellers and theirfriends. It's no exaggeration to say that asconsumers become more sophisticatedabout the Internet, Web-site trust is going
The Importance of the Embodied Question Revisited.

In order to assess the importance of embodiment, we build up an endogenous growth model in which learning by doing is the engine of both embodied and disembodied technological progress. In sharp contrast to Phelps (1962), we show that a change in the composition of technical change affects the growth rate in the long run. We also provide an alternative explanation for the productivity slowdown: an increase in the fraction of embodied technical progress, through an improvement in the learning efficiency of the capital goods sector, permanently lowers the growth rate of technological progress, by increasing the obsolescence costs of investment. The productivity slowdown occurs together with a rise in the rate of decline of investment goods prices. Finally, we show that an increase in the embodied fraction of technical change reduces the gap between the optimal and the decentralized growth rates.
House Prices and Housing Wealth in Italy

In Italy there is no official source of information on house prices. Data on this issue are collected by several sources, each of them with its own advantages and disadvantages. Data for a representative but small sample of households are collected by the Bank of Italy's Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW). In this paper we present a method for estimating the price per square metre of the average Italian house - resorting to different sources - and compare the results with the SHIW estimates. According to our findings, the SHIW estimates for 2002 turn out to be very close to market values. We then compare the SHIW estimates with Census data, showing that the survey overestimates the average surface area of houses while it strongly underestimates the number of secondary dwellings. Overall, in 2002 SHIW-based housing wealth was about 14 per cent lower than macroeconomic estimates.
Why Do European Firms Go Public?

We survey chief financial officers (CFOs) from 12 European countries regarding the determinants of going public and exchange listing decisions. Most CFOs identify enhanced visibility and financing for growth as the most important benefits of an IPO, but other motivations for IPOs differ significantly across firms, countries, and legal systems. We find strong support for the IPO theories that emphasise financial and strategic considerations, such as enhanced reputation and credibility, and financial flexibility as a major advantage of an IPO. At the same time, we find moderate support for theories that focus on exit strategy, balance of power with creditors, external monitoring, and merger and acquisition motivations. European CFOs' views on the major benefits of an IPO are generally similar to those of US managers as reported inBrau and Fawcett (2006), but differ significantly on outside monitoring; outside monitoring is considered a major benefit by European CFOs but a major cost by US CFOs. Our evidence suggests that the decision to go public is a complex one, and cannot be explained by one single theory because firms seek multiple benefits in going public. These motivations are influenced by the firm's ownership structure, size and age as well as by the home country's institutional and regulatory environment.
Heterogeneous Agents and the Indifference Pricing of Property Index Linked Swaps

Swap spreads predicted by the traditional risk-neutral valuation models are much lower than the quoted market spreads for property index linked swaps (Patel and Pereira, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 36:5–21, 2008). This paper attempts to develop a utility indifference-based model for evaluating the reservation spreads of swap receivers and payers based on the principle of expected wealth utility equivalence rather than the traditional risk-neutral argument. Under the proposed model framework, this paper addresses the determination of the swap spreads. When the incompleteness of real estate markets and heterogeneity of representative agents are taken into consideration, it is shown that the agents’ risk preferences and heterogeneous beliefs about expected future property returns are the remarkable determinants for the swap spreads. Our model also identifies market power and the settlement rules in the event of counterparty default as important factors in determining the swap spreads. Our model provides a possible interpretation for the difference between the spreads predicted by the traditional models and the actual market spreads.
Gasoline Demand, Pricing Policy and Social Welfare in Iran

This study estimates a gasoline demand function for Iran using the structural time series model over the period 1968-2002 and uses it to estimate the change in social welfare for 2003 and 2004 of a higher gasoline price policy. It is found that short and long run demand price elasticities are inelastic, although the response is greater in the long run. Hence, social welfare is estimated to fall because of the higher gasoline price (ceteris paribus). However, allowing all variables in the model to change, social welfare is estimated to increase since the changes in the other variables more than compensate for the negative effects of the policy.
Literacy in Malta

situation in schools in both English and Maltese. For this reason, the Malta National Literacy Surveys on all Year 2 pupils in 1999 and on all Year 5 pupils in 2002 were carried out. This study is the second literacy study of its kind to be carried out in Malta. It is a follow-up to the first Malta National Literacy Survey, conducted in 1999 using the same cohort of pupils, born in 1992. The data gathered in these studies were then used for a Malta value-added study (Mifsud et al., 2004). This value-added study managed to provide both pre-test and home background data. When analysing pupils’ literacy performance it is essential to make allowances for attainment at entry and/or for home background variables. It is important to adjust for such variables rather than ‘write off’ pupils from less advantaged backgrounds and just assume that they will not perform successfully. Other similar studies conducted internationally have used either background data or attainment data at entry, but not many of them have managed to use both (Willms and Raudenbush, 1989; Hutchison, 1993; Raudenbush and Willms, 1995; Hutchison, 2003; Schagen and Hutchison, 2003). It is encouraging to know that such a study is the first to be conducted on such a small island, in the Mediterranean, and in an officially bilingual country, which is now an EU member. It is important to measure pupils’ attainment at entry to school. This is considered the best predictor of eventual outcome and for measuring pupils’ progress throughout their school years, more than ‘social class or other home background’ variables (Hutchison, 2003: 28). However, such measures are problematic, as they are not widely available. It is very important that background data are taken into account when explaining differences in literacy attainment. As was done in the 2001 IEA study of Progress in International Reading Literacy, it is important ‘to disentangle the complex interactions between factors that may contribute to reading proficiency, including student background characteristics’ (Mullis et al., 2003: 139). The results of the National Literacy Survey of Maltese Year 5 pupils presented here reveal that home background variables are an equally powerful R es ea rc h in E du ca tio n N o. 7 3