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This dissertation explores the influence of corporate venture capital (CVC) on the innovation of startups. Applying the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and propensity score matching approach to the CVC investment data on China’s listed companies, we document that the CVC investment can determine the innovation level of startups.For further insight, invention patents and utility patents will be considered, in addition to a separate examination of the number of patent applications and patent grants. It is found that CVC participation, the number of CVC syndicate investors, and the level of CVC involvement, all have significantly positive effects on the total patent applications, total patent grants, utility patent applications, and utility patent grants in those listed startups after four years of their Initial Public Offering. However, CVC investments have no significant influence on the number of invention patent applications and patent grants. This result indicates that the influence of CVC investments on the innovation level of startups is still in the preliminary stage, and CVC investments only slightly affect the development of more challenging invention patents. / Business Administration/Finance

Native American and African American material culture of mid-19thcentury to present day appear to hold evidence for a more ancient spiritual and cultural relationship between these two diverse peoples. There is evidence of strikingly similar, and in some instances, identical, pre-Columbian (before 1492) symbols from Africa and North America which allows us to examine questions of diffusion or independent invention. This thesis provides an examination of cultural practices and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of North America and Africa through symbols incorporated in the material culture of each, focusing primarily on textiles and it provides an exploration into the traditional knowledge systems that under-lie the adaptations and syncretism of these culture groups in creating objects and ascribing meaning to symbols. In order to understand the similarities, along with the continuity and retention of ancient belief systems, it is necessary to travel the path back, as far as possible. Anthropological debates such as diffusion vs. independent invention are encountered and examined. Through the many processes of colonization, the histories of Indigenous peoples have been sanitized or erased to accommodate European hegemony and perceptions of superior knowledge systems. In searching for that which has been misplaced or stolen through colonization, the necessity of supporting an Indigenous praxis of Theory and Method in the discipline of Anthropology is presented. By recognizing Indigenous knowledge systems, and from such a perspective, it would be disingenuous to believe that there was no intercontinental contact between the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and those of Africa prior to 1492.

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