While the importance of venture capital (VC) can be highlighted by policy goals outlined in the 'Lisbon agenda', the European VC industry remains nascent in comparison to the more sophisticated VC market in the US. Researchers have identified key determinants that foster VC success on a broad level, and have often identified syndication as an important factor of success. This paper seeks to understand the role of syndication on the VC-backed company's success. I take a novel departure from past research in this area in three ways 1) I measure performance from the perspective of the portfolio company, rather than the VC firm which invests in the company 2) I isolate syndication in the first financing round and 3) I utilize a logistical model as well as a simultaneous equation model for which I introduce an instrumental variable. I gather VC data for both Europe and the US from the VentureXpert database to test various hypotheses regarding syndication. The results are significant and provide evidence to support that syndication in the first financing round is associated with greater success in achieving IPO exit in both regions. This should encourage VC firms, VC-backed companies, and policymakers to increase the practice of VC syndication in early financing rounds, thereby providing access to greater long-term growth opportunities. This paper adds to the existing, but limited, literature base on cross-region venture capital syndication.

Using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the World Bank, I examine the effect of the Great Recession on total early-stage entrepreneurship rates in nineteen European countries relative to the United States, as well as on male and female entrepreneurship independently. I find that the Great Recession has led to increased entrepreneurship rates overall and that there is little variation across European countries relative to the United States. Further, I find that female entrepreneurship rates increased more than male entrepreneurship rates following the Great Recession. This suggests that women have not only experienced greater job recovery overall after the recession, but that they have also turned more towards self-employment relative to their male counterparts.

The Malaysian property development industry contends with economic challenges arising from increased competition and property glut in the market. The situation is further worsen by the onslaught of world disasters for example tsunamis, earthquakes, bird flu pandemic and terrorist attacks, thus weakening the spending power of property buyers and investors. This exploratory research therefore investigated the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in enhancing customer service for sustainable competitive advantage. Guided by an analytical framework, it reviewed the key issues in the context of customer service within the Malaysian property development industry, the existing challenges faced by Malaysian property development companies, emotional intelligence (EQ) and training and development.The identified research gaps permitted the crafting of three Research Propositions. The combined outputs from the literature review, analysis of the research data and conclusions provided useful insights on the research problem. The case study methodology, supplemented by two other categories of exploratory research, namely experience surveys and one-on-one interviews, were the research techniques used to test the research propositions.The participants involved in the experience survey and one-on-one interviews included Heads of Department from the case-study company, Frontline employees, existing clients and vendors supplying goods and services to the case-study company. The procedure of data analysis consisted of examining, categorising, tabulating and recombining the evidence to address the research problem and the related research questions.The testing, by this research, yielded useful insights on the research problem.First, in order for Malaysian property developers to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, there is a need for fresh emphasis and commitment towards customer service, placing special focus on the development of employees in the area of emotional intelligence (EQ) through the reinforcement of emotional competencies. Despite efforts to enhance customer service through training programmes, the lack of effectiveness needs to be addressed and new measures should be undertaken.Second, the need for Malaysian property development companies to understand the importance of building a service culture and to begin by formulating and implementing a service strategy and it is here that leadership plays a critical role in ensuring the success of every customer service programme throughout the entire organisation. This suggests that new approaches to creating a service culture are necessary, benchmarking with best practices of service leaders around the world, even from different industries. Third, the need for the customer service training model to be reviewed and revamped. It calls for new emphasis on the development of emotional intelligence (EQ) competencies, to ensure training effectiveness and the achievement of customer service excellence through human capital.Finally, the research findings permitted the construct of a policy framework for securing sustainable competitive advantage. The research yielded useful insights for theory and model building. In respect of enhancing customer service to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the Malaysian property development market, the research findings suggested a Service Culture Development Model that will ensure that customer service excellence can be maintained and delivered consistently, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. In respect of enhancing customer service through the development of EQ competencies in every employee and throughout the organisation, the research findings suggested a new Customer Service Training Model, where EQ competencies development programme becomes the pre-requisite foundational programme for all employees, prior to the training of customer service skill-sets. In order to create a service culture throughout the entire organisation, a customer service-oriented organisation will ensure that all employees, including top management personnel, participate in the EQ development programme.Follow-up research to test a model, based on this framework should further contribute to new theory development in emotional intelligence impacting customer service in the Malaysian property development industry.

Disruptive Innovation, according to the term’s founder Clayton Christensen, is defined as a specific type of innovation that is able to capture the lower-end of the market through quality, feature, or cost differences and leverage this position to achieve higher market share. Entrepreneurs who utilize disruptive innovation strategies have been historically able to create products and services that achieve massive financial and cultural success. Theories of personality characteristics have been previously applied to entrepreneurial activities, but not used to bridge the gap between developmental experiences and market success. Cross-industry analysis of ten top entrepreneurial business leaders from retail, food services, and consumer electronics allows for the identification of certain personality characteristics and influences present in the early lives and careers of highly successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs can be categorized according to inherent skills and personality characteristics, which suggest either revolutionary or architecturally brilliant product or service creation. Patterns of conceptual product ideation and business model evolution show that there are similarities between experiences in an entrepreneur’s formative years and the implementation of a business model and strategy. Implications of highly successful business models as they relate to marketplace dynamics include financial success, cultural impact, and institutionalization. To varying degrees, disruptive entrepreneurs are able to institutionalize their business concepts in order to ensure lasting success in their respective marketplaces.

A dependência tecnológica da sociedade atual e a flexibilidade necessária para constantes mudanças exigem produtos de software corretos e disponíveis para uso. Os testes são atividades intrínsecas à produção de software e ultimamente vêm ganhando importância como um negócio empresarial próprio, independente do desenvolvimento e com perspectivas de crescimento. Essa atividade é substancialmente prestação de serviço, uma vez que entrega qualidade a respeito de um produto de software e cuja avaliação só pode ser feita de acordo com parâmetros de julgamento do cliente, além de considerar a presença e ingerência do cliente em boa parte do processo de teste. O Brasil é reconhecidamente um dos mais importantes centros de excelência em testes de software e tem se distinguido também na execução de forma independente, o que tem provocado rearranjo de papéis, responsabilidades e forças na atuação da cadeia de valor do software. Este trabalho procura responder como se organizam as operações das empresas de testes independentes de software (ETIS) de forma a torná-las singulares e específicas. Grande parte das pesquisas nesse tema têm se concentrado em questões técnicas de como modelar bons testes de software, registrando-se pouca reflexão sobre temas organizacionais nessa área. Para tanto, foi elaborado um modelo conceitual de organização das operações, capaz de revelar a singularidade da atividade empresarial. O modelo foi submetido a avaliação por meio de um estudo de casos múltiplos, envolvendo seis ETIS e também organizações brasileiras clientes e desenvolvedoras de software. A pesquisa revelou importantes práticas empresariais das ETIS. Destacam-se os seguintes pontos: perfil empresarial empreendedor e inovador, preocupação na entrega de serviço contendo o maior quantidade possível de não-conformidades, constituição de um portfólio diversificado e substantivo de projetos de teste, integração de sistemas produtivos tipo fábrica e personalizado e uso cada vez maior de automação nos processos. A experiência daqueles que vêm utilizando os serviços das ETIS tem comprovado um aumento efetivo no nível de qualidade do software e o mercado, por sua vez, tem refinado os critérios de seleção das ETIS, exigindo-lhes alta maturidade. / Technology dependence of modern society and the flexibility to accommodate constant changes require correct and ready software products. Testing activities are intrinsic to the software production, which lately have been gaining importance as an independent business and broad prospects for growth. This activity is substantially service because it deliveries software product quality which evaluation can only be made according to client\'s trial parameters, besides considering their presence and interference in much of the testing process. Brazil is recognized as an excellence center leading in software testing issues and has also distinguished itself in independent performance, which has caused rearrangement of roles, responsibilities, actions and powers in the software value chain relationships. This paper attempts to answer how to organize the independent software testing enterprises (ETIS) business operations, in order to make this business model unique and specific. Software testing research has focused more on technical issues, especially about how to model and specify good software testing and less about organizational issues. This research aims a conceptual model of organizational operations, able to reveal the uniqueness of business activity. The proposal was subjected to evaluation using a multiple case study involving six ETIS and also other Brazilian organizations as customers and software developers. The research revealed important business practices of ETIS, which have ensured the success of the enterprise and business profitability. It was highlight the following points: entrepreneurial and innovative business profile, high concern in service delivery as software product quality, establishment of a portfolio of diverse and substantive testing projects, factory and custom productive systems integration and increasing use of automation in testing processes. The experience of those who have used ETIS services has proven an effective increase in the level of software quality and software value chain has refined the ETIS selection criteria, requiring them high level of maturity.

The Balanced Scorecard for the CrossFit Affiliate will provide unprepared or inexperienced managers with the necessary information to make informed operational decisions. The Balanced Scorecard incorporates financial data, customer satisfaction, internal operations, and future growth to create a series of cause-and-effect relationships that illustrate how decisions in one aspect of a business affect others. The Balanced Scorecard particularly benefits inexperienced managers leading small businesses. As overall small business growth increased, the boutique fitness industry expanded. The CrossFit brand rose in conjunction, but because corporate leaders insist on a hands-off licensing model, affiliate owners do not receive assistance from CrossFit corporate headquarters. In addition, the high frequency of affiliate owners without business education or management experience contributes to the likelihood of failure. Until CrossFit corporate actively guides its licensees, owners need a tool to promote business success. The Balanced Scorecard for the CrossFit Affiliate, comprised of data from one successful and four unsuccessful affiliates, will assist affiliate managers. Profitability, market share, retention, and the introduction of new services are the main drivers of the Balanced Scorecard and augment the analysis of relationships between the financial, customer, internal, and growth perspectives.

This research presents the results of a qualitative and quantitative investigation into what factors are present at time zero that increase the probability that a startup will achieve long term sustainability. Survival rates for startups in the United States (U.S.) are disappointingly low and economically inefficient. The data shows that the U.S. clearly lags its peer countries in the survival rates of startups. The U.S ranked an unacceptable 11th of 14 among its peer countries in first-year survival rates in recent years. Startup failure does not only impact the entrepreneur; it also impacts creditors, vendors, community stakeholders, and employees. While it is commonly acknowledged that entrepreneurial businesses contribute to economic growth, the influential impact survival can have on economic growth within the community is often understated. The economic impact of startups on the community makes this area of research even more vital. To avoid failure and improve the sustainability of startups requires an in-depth understanding of the factors that are causal and non-causal to sustainability. While there has been significant investment and support by communities, government, and private foundations, startup failure rates remain virtually unchanged in the last two decades. Despite the many years of research in the field of entrepreneurship, U.S. failure rates within the first five years’ average 53%, regardless of the industry membership or economic cycles. Identifying factors that are causal and non-causal to the sustainability of emerging businesses is crucial to the founders and stakeholders. Within this study, both internal and external factors that may be causal to the macro survival rate of U.S. startups were studied. The external factors were studied quantitatively, using data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) and the Brookings Institute. A protocol of regression analysis and visual analytics were applied to evaluate the quantitative data. It demonstrated that external factors such as the change in real gross domestic product (RGDP), interest rates, and expansion of accelerators have had no significant effect on U.S. macro startup survival rates. Further, the findings confirm that neither geographic location nor industry membership impacted U.S. macro startup survival rates. Internal factors were studied qualitatively, using a grounded theory protocol. The qualitative research did uncover three internal factors that were causal to survival of the startups studied. Those internal factors were:  Career Autonomy – The entrepreneurs motivated by career autonomy were significantly more likely to achieve long-term sustainability.  Allies – The entrepreneurs who identify and utilized allies were more likely to survive.  Purposeful Margin of Safety model – Startups whose founders had a rigorous understanding of the margin of safety (MOS) and its underlying elements of pricing and break-even analysis were more likely to survive. This qualitative study provides significant evidence that, when these three causal factors are present, the likelihood of sustainability is high. These findings extend our knowledge on how to improve the probability of sustainability for the firms. This study demonstrates that the U.S. can and should improve its startup survival rates by focusing on the internal factors that are necessary at time zero to ensure sustainability and survival.

The purpose of this study was to identify Core components perceived by faculty to be effective in their prominent graduate entrepreneurship education programs. The study sought to identify the best practices in graduate entrepreneurship education programs from the perceptions of faculty in the field. Research questions guiding the study were: (1) What Core components related to the following Broad question areas are perceived by faculty to be effective in their prominent graduate entrepreneurship education programs: Activities and initiatives; Adult education principles and practices; Alumni and mentoring; Course offerings; Curriculum and degrees; Faculty data; Institutional characteristics; Instructional methods; Student companies; and Student data. (2) What other Core components and/or general observations are identified by faculty in the survey comments? (3) What are faculty perceptions of the popular marketplace publication rankings of graduate entrepreneurship education programs? A survey was distributed via the internet to faculty at 54 prominent graduate entrepreneurship education programs identified by The Princeton Review, US News & World Report, or the AACSB Entrepreneurship Spotlight Challenge. The survey was developed through several phases using panels of individuals with expertise related to this study. The resulting 106 Core components were divided into 10 Broad question areas and were evaluated individually and averaged for each Broad question area. Questions regarding the accuracy of graduate program rankings and student intent were also included, along with demographics, open-ended questions regarding additional Core components, and additional survey comments. The results of the study indicated the most important Core components in the Broad question areas were Alumni and mentoring and Institutional characteristics, while the Curriculum and degrees area was perceived to be much less important to graduate entrepreneurship education effectiveness. The results also indicated that student intent and popular marketplace publications were only moderately accurate in evaluating entrepreneurship education effectiveness. Four top programs dominated the perceptions of faculty as effective programs: Stanford, Babson, MIT, and Harvard. Findings indicated that faculty perceptions differed from other measures of effectiveness of graduate entrepreneurship education programs.

Regulatory Focus Theory predicts that the motivation to self-regulate goal-directed thought and behavior depends on two distinct regulation strategies: a promotion focus based on attaining gains and a prevention focus based on avoiding losses. This study took a social-cognitive approach predicting that regulatory focus has an impact on how family startups (several family related founders) explore “new ideas”, exploit “old certainties” and achieve the balance of both (ambidexterity), compared to lone founder startups (only one founder present). It was proposed that the social context of family ties among founders leads them to a prevention focus concerned with avoiding the loss of the socio-emotional benefits of those ties. In order to avoid such a loss, family founders were expected to increase their risk perceptions and thus, explore less than lone founders, who lack such socio-emotional ties. It was also proposed that two commonly used psychological traits in entrepreneurship research --achievement motivation and internal locus of control, predispose entrepreneurs to a promotion focus. Founders with a promotion focus, in turn, were hypothesized to lead startups to more risk-seeking behaviors and to more explorative orientation. The previous argument was used as a springboard to derive hypotheses about ambidexterity (the ability to exploit and explore simultaneously) and survival hazards. Using Regulatory Focus Theory, exploitative orientation, conceptualized as the motivational strength to continue on previous paths of action, was hypothesized to be not significantly different from that of lone founder startups. Taking previous arguments together, lone founder startups were hypothesized to be more ambidextrous than family startups. Finally, ambidexterity and internal locus of control were hypothesized to reduce survival hazards in family startups. The findings suggested that family startups explore less than lone founder startups even after controlling for group effects. Interesting but contradictory findings revealed that internal locus of control have both a positive direct effect and a positive interaction that increases the explorative and ambidextrous orientation gap of family startups over lone founder startups. As expected, ambidexterity and internal locus of control reduced survival hazards on family startups. Implications for practitioners were derived based on a sample of 470 nascent entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this project is to outline a business that is in the start up phase. This business is going to come to life when the City of Redlands approves the plan. The plan is in its final stages with the City of Redlands. The business will be known as Redlands Nursery and Tree Company.