This thesis is comprised of three essays dealing with the survival and growth of business enterprises. The first paper (Chapter 2) explores a long-standing question in corporate venture management: How closely should a corporate parent link itself with its own venture? We challenge the conventional view that autonomy is best for venture growth by arguing that access to the parent's resources and capabilities (i.e., a "tight fit") is essential if a venture is to demonstrate competitive advantage. Data from 97 Canadian corporate ventures generally support the "tight-fit" hypothesis. We also find empirical support for the proposition that the relationship between a corporate parent and its venture(s) evolves over time; economic ties diminish with venture maturity, relational ties remain intact. The next paper (Chapter 3) models the growth and decline of young firms as a function of their initial asset stocks, initial capabilities, rate of capability development, rate of asset depletion, and failure threshold. Data from 246 Canadian corporate bankruptcies confirm that young firms fail due to insufficient organizational capital at start-up and inadequacies in managerial knowledge, financial management skills, and marketing abilities. Older firms, on the other hand, are more prone to failure due to environmental change. The final paper (Chapter 4) utilizes detailed survey data from a proportionally stratified, representative sample of 3,000 Canadian firms to evaluate industry- and firm-level determinants of young firm growth. The competitive environment is found to be a poor predictor of the growth of young firms. In general, growth of the seven to ten year old firms in our study did not follow the growth trends of the industries in which they operated. Among firm strategies, innovation was the strongest predictor of revenue growth. Also of note was the finding that different types of managerial experience were significant in different sectors. For service firms, general management experience was positively associated with growth, while for goods-producing firms industry experience was a more important factor. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The peaceful handing over of the reins of government is an important symbol of democracy and is arguably the distinctive feature of representative government. Often taken for granted in democratic jurisdictions, peaceful transition is one of the most important elements in the ongoing evolution of modern politics. Throughout history there have been varying types and various levels of success of transitions of power, depending on the circumstance and political environment applicable to each case. In Canada, one type of transition has remained largely unstudied - that in which a new leader takes over government by succeeding someone from his/her own political party - generally referred to as an intra-party transition. This is because intra-party transitions have traditionally been seen as less dramatic and therefore less noteworthy than transitions that include a change from one party to another. Furthermore, intra-party transitions typically occur near the end of a political cycle and are therefore closely followed by a general election. If the new intra-party leader loses the subsequent election, that leader's transition is seen as less noteworthy. In fact, in recent Canadian history, at both the provincial and federal level, there have been only two significant occasions in which intra-party leaders have come from behind to successfully defend their party's right to govern in the next general election: Ralph Klein in Alberta in 1993 and Glen Clark in British Columbia in 1996. This study analyzes all provincial intra-party transitions from 1960 to the present. From this analysis, a continuum has been formed from which these transitions will be assessed as to their relative degree of success or failure. It is argued here that the Clark and Klein intra-party transitions represent a specific "pod" or "cluster" within this continuum and as a result, deserve specific analysis. O f both, the principal question asked is: why, in the face of significant obstacles and contrary to historical precedent, did these transitions succeed? Further questions include; how can this success be defined and measured, what factors led to this success, were these cases equally successful and if not, why? Ultimately these two successful transitions are compared to one of the most unsuccessful intra-party transitions in modern Canadian history, that being the succession of Frank Miller from Bill Davis in Ontario in 1984. The final section of this study involves a test of key exogenous and endogenous variables that may or may not impact the success or failure of these three intra-party transition case studies. Particular attention will be paid to the ability of these new leaders to effectively distance themselves from their predecessors and how quickly and effectively they were able to put their own 'stamp' or 'footprint' on their respective new governments. In the end, it is hoped that these three case studies will provide important lessons and prescriptive insights not only for students of parliamentary politics and public administration but for practitioners and future leaders as well. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

Problems experienced by individuals in institutions tend to be hidden from the public gaze. This is so for inmates of prisons where regulations and bureaucratic structure conceal the daily life situation of prisoners from public view. Anonymity and concealment are enhanced by the widespread misperception of prisoners as an homogenous group. As a result, problems of vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities, can be ignored. One such group is prisoners with impaired hearing. This descriptive study utilized a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the problems experienced by prisoners within the context of social control. Drawing from selected literature in health, sociology and criminology, the theoretical framework merges the labelling perspective [interactionism] with macro-level theories of social control. The study provides, for the first time, an examination of the percentage, degree and social import of hearing loss in federal prisoners in the Pacific Region of the Correctional Service of Canada. Through the use of survey, audiometric measurement, and interview techniques, an examination was undertaken of the presence and implications of partial hearing loss in inmates of federal penitentiaries in British Columbia. Interview subjects were identified through hearing testing of volunteers in eight federal penitentiaries. Data were gathered through interviews with prisoners with impaired hearing, a comparison group of prisoners with normal hearing, and a selection of custodians. Of 114 prisoners screened, 69% had some degree of impaired hearing, often previously unidentified. Custodians, 86% of the time, labelled behaviours characteristic of the hard of hearing as deviant, and often aggressive, behaviours. Prisoner accounts revealed that failure to test hearing at time of incarceration has harmful effects on performance in programmes and encounters with the justice system. A social activist approach is recommended, to address structural inequalities among prisoners and barriers for prisoners in general. This work indicates that lower-class, lower-status persons may be more susceptible to negative labelling. Prisoners with partial hearing loss, due to the often invisible nature of their condition, are particularly vulnerable to negative labelling. Study recommendations include: 1] Routine hearing screening of all prisoners at time of incarceration. 2] Education of custodians to understand behaviours and communication needs of persons with impaired hearing. 3] A partnership effort between correctional services, the disabled consumer group, and professionals, to improve the situation of prisoners who are hard of hearing. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

This study aimed to explore the complexity and interrelationships of language, culture and identity from the learners' perspectives. The focus of the study was on the exchange experiences of five Hong Kong students in the Canadian tertiary contexts. The participants were bilingual learners. They came from an educational background which emphasized English as a medium of instruction. In Canada, the students had the language competence to integrate into mainstream courses during their one year stay. This study questioned whether language was also their passport into a new culture. The study was divided into two phases. The first phase was a pilot study (January 1997- May 1997). Emergent themes from the pilot study guided the research questions in the second phase of the study ( October 1997 - July 1998). The methodology employed in this study emphasized a naturalistic inquiry approach and co-authorship with the participants. The research focused on a multiple case study approach with an ethnographic link to highlight the interpretive and sociocultural perspectives of the study. Research strategies included direct and participant observation, home visit, e-mail, phone conversation, informal interview, intensive discussion, secondary informant, artifact and metaphor. Personal narratives were central to the discussions in data analysis. Data collected in the study support the learner agency framework on the issue of social identity. Themes which emerged from the research process suggest multiple voices, multiple interpretations and multiple realities in the process of language socialization. Many interactive variables in the social contexts influence the construction and reconstruction of knowledge on language, culture and identity. Language socialization is a complex interweave of meanings between the individual and the environment. Ambivalence, contradictions and uncertainties are recurring themes in the rites of transition. Learners are empowered by their awareness and agency in their struggle. They are active agents of their identities, roles and status in changing sociocultural settings. This study urges the need for language educators to include voices of the learners in language research and to re-examine the notions of language power, cultural diversity, social access, claim of ownership, learner investment and human agency in language pedagogy. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

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