The determinants of success in venture capital financing are explored in this manuscript. 1247 venture capital funds formed over a twenty-year time period are empirically analyzed with results that support theoretical research from extant finance and economics literature. Venture capitalists' choices of portfolio size, distance from portfolio firms, location, and to some extent, level of diversification in their investment portfolio, are all significant factors in explaining the success rates of venture capital funds. These results are robust even when controlling for other characteristics of venture funds and entrepreneurial firms, such as the stage of development and industry of the portfolio firms, which may affect success rates of venture capitalist portfolios.

This thesis primarily deals with two concepts in painting that I explored during my Graduate studies at the University of New Orleans. Both concepts are similar in execution but have two distinctly different results.

Magíster en Economía Aplicada / Ingeniero Civil Industrial / En este trabajo se estudia un modelo de negociación secuencial entre dos agentes a la Rubinstein. La principal innovación presentada es la endogenización del protocolo de negociación y del monto a repartir en cada ronda. En el modelo, al principio de cada periodo, los jugadores pueden esforzarse para incrementar el monto disponible, lo que si bien es privadamente costoso, aumenta la probabilidad de manejar la agenda de negociación en el periodo. Este trabajo caracteriza la dinámica de la negociación y las ineficiencias en equilibrio perfecto en subjuegos. Los principales resultados son los siguientes. Primero, se caracteriza la dinámica de la creación de los beneficios del proyecto. Se muestra que esta consiste de una fase de construcción pura del monto a repartir, en la cual los jugadores se esfuerzan aun cuando la negociación no llegará a su fin, y de una fase de repartición, en la cual los jugadores llegarán a acuerdo y el juego termina. Los agentes ejercen esfuerzo a pesar de que la negociación no terminará porque prefieren hacerlo crecer hasta un monto mayor para luego dividirlo y obtener una ganancia más grande. Segundo, conforme avanza la negociación, los jugadores van ejerciendo un esfuerzo mayor hasta llegar al máximo posible. Hay dos efectos que motivan la realización de esfuerzo, el primero es que no es rentable tener periodos en que no haya crecimiento del monto a repartir porque esto implica una ineficiencia causada por el costo temporal, la cual es mayor a medida que el monto a repartir es más grande. El segundo es la posibilidad de manejar la agenda de negociación, lo que entrega un beneficio mayor al hacerlo, el cual se va incrementando a medida que crece el monto a repartir. En los primeros periodos en que se llega a acuerdo domina el primer efecto porque el beneficio extra por manejar la agenda no es tan grande en comparación con el costo del esfuerzo, no obstante a medida que el monto a repartir aumenta, el beneficio de ser quién controla la negociación también se incrementa, lo que lleva a que el segundo efecto sea mayor. Por último, el tercer resultado es que el monto final que se reparte es menor que el deseable socialmente. La intuición es que el jugador que maneja la agenda sabe que en periodos futuros enfrentará competencia, lo que significa que para volver a ser quien controla la negociación tendrá que incurrir nuevamente en un costo. Además existe un problema de Hold-Up debido a que el jugador que maneja la agenda no puede asegurar que los beneficios por el esfuerzo realizado le pertenezcan en futuras rondas. Esto genera que el agente prefiera asegurar su pago periodos antes de lo socialmente deseable, decidiendo llegar a acuerdo.

Huawei représente un des exemples les plus remarquables de rattrapage réussi par les firmes chinoises. Ayant démarré ses activités en 1987, cette entreprise est maintenant classée deuxième équipementier de télécommunications dans le monde, derrière Ericsson. Dans cette recherche, les sources de compétitivité de Huawei sont étudiées à travers un cas longitudinal incluant tous les évènements majeurs de 1987 à 2011. Ces évènements sont analysés selon 3 unités principales : produit/marché et technologie, relations avec les autres firmes et routines. A cette fin, la littérature sur les ressources (RBV), les compétences dynamiques, les réseaux, et les routines, est mobilisée. La littérature sur le rattrapage technologique et économique est aussi utilisée. Quatre phases sont identifiées et analysées. Ensuite, une analyse longitudinale est réalisée, afin de mettre en valeur les trajectoires de Huawei selon les trois unités d'analyse. Enfin, le style stratégique de Huawei est analysé, afin d'identifier les principes généraux qui ont guidé ses décisions stratégiques au cours de son histoire. Les limitations, les contributions à la recherche à la pratique des entreprises, ainsi que des pistes de recherche sont étudiées. / Huawei is one of the most remarkable examples of sucessful catching-up among chinese companies. It started its activities nearly from scratch in 1987, and is now ranked second telecommunications equipment vendor in the world, after Ericsson. In this research the sources of competitiveness of Huawei are investigated using a longitudinal case study (of arond 100 pages) including all major events from 1987 to 2011. These events are analysed according to three main units: product/market and technology decisions, relationships with other firms, and routines. For this analysis, reference is made to several literature streams, namely the resource-based view, the dynamic capability approach, the network approach and the routines-related literature. The catching-up literature is also mobilised. Four different phases are identified and analysed. Then a longitudinal analysis is conducted for the three analysis untis in order to identify the strategic path of Huawei. Finally, an analysis of the strategic style of Huawei is conducted, in order to identify the general principles that have guided strategic decisions overt the company's history. Limitations, possible contributions to literature and practice are discussed, as well as research directions.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This research has been conducted by focusing on the trajectories of semiotic ensembles from various contexts that stand-up comedians exploited for aesthetic and communicative purposes. I apply the social semiotic theory of multimodality (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2001, 2006), and the notions of semiotic remediation (Bolter and Grusin, 1996, 2000) and resemiotization (Iedema, 2003) to selected audiovisual recordings performances of Trevor Noah and Loyiso Gola from South Africa; and Atunyota Akporobomeriere (Ali Baba) and Bright Okpocha (Basket Mouth) from Nigeria. I explore the trajectories of semiotic resources that the comedians used across modes, contexts and practices. I also trace the translation and interpretation of socio-cultural and political materials by South African and Nigerian stand-up comedians’ performances. The idea is also to examine the extent to which the socio-cultural and political contexts of both countries have differential effects on the choices in the semiotic resources used in the reconstruction of meanings, including cross socio-cultural taboos. The study reveals that combinations of various semiotic materials ranging from political, sociocultural, religious and personal lifestyles are remediated (repurposed) for comic and aesthetic effects. This involves translating and re-interpreting the semiotic resources across contexts and practices. In this regard, the study showed how the artists rework verbal language, images, socio-political discourses and other semiotic material for new meanings. It also reveals that although the choices of materials are similar, there is a tendency of localizing semiotic resources to particular localities and audiences, so that each artist’s performance comes out as unique to the person. The study concludes that language alone is not at the core of communication as other semiotic modes (in addition to languages) are integrated interweaving resources to make meaning. The direction of the modes or resources is multidimensional. All the spoken texts, all the non-linguistic modes: gestures, stance, movements, running on stage, postures, mimicking and others, perform vital roles to recontextualize meanings in stand-up comedy performance. Therefore, the study opens up new perspectives on social semiotic approaches to multimodality, as well as on language social semiotic and to theory and media studies. The contribution also answers the call to expand the understanding and research on the theory of ‘multimodality’ and the various concepts such as semiotic remediation and resemiotization associated with it.

No abstract in the thesis

We prove that the blowup term of a blowup solution of Jang's equation on an initial data set (M,g,k) near an arbitrary strictly stable MOTS Σ is exactly −1/√λlog τ, where τ is the distance from Σ and λ is the principal eigenvalue of the MOTS stability operator of Σ. We also prove that the gradient of the solution is of order τ^(-1). Moreover, we apply these results to get a Penrose-like inequality under additional assumptions.

The purpose of the diploma thesis is to introduce Inovum, o.p.s. - agency that offers professional couching to entrepreneurs and start-ups with the innovative idea and through that indirectly supports competitiveness of the Czech economy. Within the thesis, the innovation ecosystem of the Czech Republic is analyzed. In addition, marketing analysis and marketing plan for Inovum, o.p.s. is devised. The main goal is to propose a marketing plan for the agency which is in line with the real situation on the market.

Tese de mestrado. Inovação e Empreendedorismo Tecnológico. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2012

Intense competitive pressures have led to compressed product life cycles and frequent introduction of new products. This creates demand volatility and a consequent pressure on manufacturing to meet this variable demand. In this paper we model the manpower planning issues for a computer manufacturer during the product introduction phase when a quick ramp-up of production to meet rapidly increasing demand is a key requirement. A mix of permanent and contingent workers with different skill sets is considered. Some important issues addressed in this research are (a) how to assign workers with different skills to maximize production (b) what is the induction rate of contingent workers to achieve the desired ramp-up and (c) what are the key decision factors that impact manufacturing performance An LP model is proposed to minimize overall costs subject to complex scheduling, skills, and learning rate requirements. Our analysis indicates that cost of induction of contingent workers, overtime cost premium, and the amount of overtime have significant impact on performance. The findings of the study will be useful to managers in planning and allocation of workers of different skills to various manufacturing processes and to determine the optimal number of contingent workers to induct. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)