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Start-up firms play an important role in the economy. Statistics show that a large percent of start-up firms fail after few years of establishment. Raising capital, which is crucial to success, is one of the difficulties start-up firms face. This Ph. D thesis aims to draw suggestions for start-up firm survival from mathematical models and numerical investigations. Instead of the commonly held profi t maximizing objective, this thesis assumes that a start-up firm aims to maximize its survival probability during the planning horizon. A firm fails if it runs out of capital at a solvency check. Inventory management in manufacturing start-up firms is discussed further with mathematical theories and numerical illustrations, to gain insight of the policies for start-up firms. These models consider specific inventory problems with total lost sales, partial backorders and joint inventory-advertising decisions. The models consider general cost functions and stochastic demand, with both lead time zero and one cases. The research in this thesis provides quantitative analysis on start-up firm survival, which is new to the literature. From the results, a threshold exists on the initial capital requirement to start-up firms, above which the increase of capital has little effect on survival probability. Start-up firms are often risk-averse and cautious about spending. Entering the right niche market increases their chance of survival, where the demand is more predictable, and start-ups can obtain higher backorder rates and product price. Sensitivity tests show that selling price, purchasing price and overhead cost have the most impact on survival probability. Lead time has a negative effect on start-up firms, which can be offset by increasing the order frequent. Advertising, as an investment in goodwill, can increase start-up firms' survival. The advertising strategies vary according to both goodwill and inventory levels, and the policy is more flexible in start-up firms. Externally, a slightly less frequency solvency check gives start-up firms more room for fund raising and/or operation adjustment, and can increase the survival probability. The problems are modelled using Markov decision processes, and numerical illustrations are implemented in Java.

The objective of this thesis is to determine whether it is possible to improve the adequacy of support to “post start-up” small businesses in Sri Lanka by making changes to the current support regime to encourage their growth. The interest in this issue stems from (a) previous research carried out which highlights the substantially lower contribution to employment growth from the small businesses in Sri Lanka as compared to what is observed in other countries, and (b) the increasing emphasis upon stimulating the small business sector to make a significant contribution to the national economy which is apparent in recent policy proposals in the White Paper presented by the Task Force for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development. An examination of extant literature suggests that the understanding of the factors that influence the growth of post start-up small businesses in developing countries is limited. Knowledge is also limited on the type of support that is required to adequately address such factors. To systematically investigate the existing knowledge gaps in these areas a questionnaire survey was conducted. In-depth interviews were also carried out with small business owner-managers and key employees of organisations providing small business support. A variety of statistical techniques were employed to analyse the responses to the questionnaire survey. Overall the results indicate that the factors influencing the growth of post start-up small businesses are highly individual in nature. Results of the study also indicate that the employment growth in post start-up small businesses is very limited. Drawing on the results of the research a conceptual model is proposed that suggests a holistic approach to the identification, evaluation and delivery of support to address the factors constraining the growth of post start-up small businesses.

Since the enactment of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980, US universities have been given a tacit mandate to manage their intellectual assets in a commercializable way. However, university technology transfer offices have struggled to facilitate innovators and promote economic development because of asymmetric information and processes. After an analysis of premier university technology transfer offices (TTO), an improved methodology, which increases productivity of technology transfer, has been developed. The proposed methodology addresses many of the low level issues facing the commercialization and licensing process. Embedding TTO members with research institutes or colleges, assisting in funding procurement and marketing of research to external firms using innovative media are methods that can minimize technology transfer inefficiency. It is the conclusion of this thesis that improved technology transfer helps promote the overall mission of a university, which is diffusing knowledge for the public benefit.

New Zealand is rapidly becoming a strongly multicultural society with nearly one in four of its citizens born overseas (Statistics New Zealand, 2006). Immigrants enter New Zealand under many different classifications, such as skilled migrants, entrepreneurs, investors, and refugees. Finding employment and a means of survival in their new society is an undeniable challenge for most, if not all, of these immigrants and people from refugee backgrounds. Some of them find employment in established Kiwi organisations while others establish their own businesses and become entrepreneurs. A review of the literature revealed that there has been considerable research on entrepreneurial behaviours of immigrants and refugees in general, but little is known about the experiences of entrepreneurs from refugee backgrounds in New Zealand, specifically Afghan entrepreneurs and how their experiences differ from their counterparts who came to New Zealand from other countries. This qualitative research project studies Afghans (N=23) from Christchurch who established their own businesses and the sense they have made of their experiences, both as refugees and as business owners. It also briefly compares the major findings with those of their refugee counterparts from other countries (N=6) to see if there are any major differences between the two groups’ start-up experiences in New Zealand. Participants were selected from those in the Afghan community in Christchurch who are from a refugee background, using a snowballing technique. The comparison group consisted of six refugees from Zimbabwe, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. The findings of this study have been categorised into two parts. The first part discusses the initial experiences of the participants in New Zealand society, how they settled into New Zealand, what strategies they used to integrate into their new society, how they financed their lives in New Zealand, and eventually how they became economically independent. The second part of the findings discusses the motivators behind the participants’ business start-ups, the types of businesses that they established and how these businesses assisted them as a gateway to other business ventures or activities. This section further investigates the challenges the refugees faced during their business start-up stage and the strategies they adopted to address these challenges. The data indicated that, while the Afghan refugees faced many challenges in establishing their own businesses, three were of particular importance to them. These were (1) financial challenges (2) licensing requirements and (3) English language ability for obtaining business licenses. These were different from the comparison group because of the different industries the two groups of business owners chose to start. This research presents a very important finding. When participants’ experiences were examined to see how they account for personal and business success it was clear it is the social fabric of a collectivist and religious way of life and the associated sense of obligation to support each other that are the most significant factors shaping Afghan refugees’ business start-up behaviour. These factors led them to guide and mentor each other towards economic security and a lifestyle that fitted well with their family and religious obligations and self-identity. In addition to showing how Christchurch Afghan refugees’ business start-ups were used as a means to meet their social objectives, this research and the model that emerged from it offer unique insights into three key drivers: economic security, lifestyle–enterprise fit, and self-identity. These factors, together with age and family circumstances, shaped the decisions associated with starting businesses in New Zealand to determine the pathway chosen. The findings of this research are important as New Zealand is opening its doors to more refugees and very little is known about more recent refugee groups like those from Afghanistan. The findings provide a rich and unique contribution to refugee entrepreneurship and enterprise development literature in New Zealand and a model that could be used as a framework for further studies on the subject by those agencies that support refugees and their business start-up ventures as well as government agencies dealing with refugee resettlement and employment.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been considered as one of the most promising energy conversion devices for the future in automotive applications. One of the major technical challenges for the commercialization of PEMFC is the effective start-up from subzero temperatures, often referred to as “cold start”. The major problem of PEMFC cold start is that the product water freezes when the temperature inside the PEMFC is lower than the freezing point. If the catalyst layer (CL) is fully occupied by ice before the cell temperature rises above the freezing point, the electrochemical reaction may stop due to the blockage of the reaction sites. However, only a few of the previous PEMFC studies paid attention to cold start. Hence, understanding the ice formation mechanisms and optimizing the design and operational strategies for PEMFC cold start are critically important. In this research, an experimental setup for the cold start testing with simultaneous measurement of current and temperature distributions is designed and built; a one-dimensional (1D) analytical model for quick estimate of purging durations before the cold start processes is formulated; and a comprehensive three-dimensional (3D) PEMFC cold start model is developed. The unique feature of the cold start experiment is the inclusion of the simultaneous measurement of current and temperature distributions. Since most of the previous numerical models are limited to either 1D or two-dimensional (2D) or 3D but only considering a section of the entire cell due to computational requirement, the measured distribution data are critically important to better understand the PEMFC cold start characteristics. With a full set of conservation equations, the 3D model comprehensively accounts for the various transport phenomena during the cold start processes. The unique feature of this model is the inclusion of: (i) the water freezing in the membrane electrolyte and its effects on the membrane conductivity; (ii) the non-equilibrium mass transfer between the water in the ionomer and the water (vapour, liquid and ice) in the pore region of the CL; and (iii) both the water freezing and melting in the CL and gas diffusion layer (GDL). This model therefore provides the fundamental framework for the future top-down multi-dimensional multiphase modelling of PEMFC. The experimental and numerical results elaborate the ice formation mechanisms and other important transport phenomena during the PEMFC cold start processes. The effects of the various cell designs, operating conditions and external heating methods on the cold start performance are studied. Independent tests are carried out to identify and optimize the important design and operational parameters.

The statistics from the US Department of Energy show that about one-third of the total consumption of electricity in the households and industries is due to the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (AC & R) systems. This wide usage has prompted many researchers to develop models for each of the components of the vapor compression systems. However, there has been very little information on developing simulation models that have been validated for the conditions of start-up/shutdown operations as well as vapor compression system faults. This thesis addresses these concerns and enhances the existing modeling library to capture the transients related to the above mentioned conditions. In this thesis, the various faults occurring in a vapor compressor cycle (VCC) have been identified along with the parameters affecting them. The transients of the refrigerant have also been studied with respect to the start-up/shutdown of a vapor compression system. All the simulations related to the faults and start-up/shutdown have been performed using the vapor compression system models developed in MATLAB/Simulink environment and validated against the 3-ton air conditioning unit present in the Thermo-Fluids Control Laboratory at Texas A & M University. The simulation and validation results presented in this thesis can be used to lay out certain rules of thumb to identify a particular fault depending on the unusual behavior of the system thus helping in creating certain fault diagnostic algorithms and emphasize the importance of the study of start-up/shutdown transient characteristics from the point of actual energy efficiency of the systems. Also, these results prove the capability and validity of the finite control volume models to describe VCC system faults and start-up/shutdown transients.

[Abstract]:Firms undertaking new product development are faced with an environment which ischaracterised by long lead times from basic research to industrial application, acommercialisation phase with short lead times and an increasingly accelerated rate ofobsolescence under the global competition of the new product development process.While this is true for all firms, STBFs face further complications from the inherentlyhigher risks associated with such firms. In examining how STBFs undertake their newproduct development (NPD), the relationship between corporate strategy, NPD processfeatures and new product success factors specifically need to be considered. Anadditional consideration is the role that business incubators play in assisting tenantSTBFs to undertake their new product development. As such, the theory of how newproduct development is undertaken by STBFs lies across several disciplines includingcorporate strategy theory, new product development theory, entrepreneurial theory,technology management theory, economic development theory and business incubatortheory. Specifically, the research problem for this research is: what are the origins andnature of new product development processes within STBFs and how do they contributeto STBF success?In undertaking a review of the literature some insights were obtained to specificallyexplain how STBFs undertake their new product development, the relationship betweenNPD process activity and new product and firm success and the role of businessincubators. As a result, a theoretical framework was developed which in turn, resulted inthree research questions:RQ 1: What elements of NPD are adopted by STBFs when developing new products?RQ 2: How does the lack of adoption of the elements of NPD contribute to new productand firm failure in STBFs?RQ 3: How and in what ways do business incubators influence the performance of theelements of NPD adopted by STBFs?A three-stage qualitative research design within the realism paradigm was used for thisresearch. It combined exploratory interviews with a case study methodology in order tobuild theory through induction. This was then followed up with a series of interviews todiscover which firms had experienced product failure, had discontinued their NPDprocess and/or had suffered firm failure over the duration of the study. As a result,meaningful insights were able to be obtained into the relationships between the adoptionof elements of NPD, new product failure and firm failure in the context of STBFs.The findings revealed that there were several aspects of the ways in which STBFsundertake their new product development activities which were not identified in theliterature. In this respect, it was evident that unlike larger and established firms in whichnew product development activity is derived out of corporate strategy, STBFs undertakecorporate strategy development as a component of new product development. It was alsofound that the corporate strategy – product development nexus was not linear but rathercomprised a number of close inter-relationships between elements of corporate strategy,NPD process features and new product success factors requiring parallel activity.Furthermore, the majority of STBFs adopted only 15 of the 22 best practice elements ofNPD proposed as part of the theoretical framework of new product development inSTBFs. In addition, it was found that the STBFs that suffered failure over the course ofthe study adopted comparatively fewer elements of NPD than did their continuing STBFcounterparts.Importantly, it was also found that business incubators provided only a modest positiveinfluence on the performance of NPD activities by their tenant STBFs. Moreover, asSTBFs are commonly single product centric, that is their overall new productdevelopment effort is focused on a single product or a narrow product line, therelationships between new product development effectiveness, new product success andfirm success are closely aligned. More specifically, ineffective support for NPD activitiescan lead to a potential lack of effectiveness of business incubators in reducing the risk of failure of their tenant STBFs. This is despite the more general focus of businessincubators in assisting tenant STBFs with corporate strategy development.The main contribution of this theory building research was the development of anempirically confirmed, theoretical and practical model for the development andmanagement of new product development by start-up technology based firms.

Thesis (D. Min)--Denver Seminary, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 304-326).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 29, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.