The Sara Communication Initiative (SCI), a girls intervention programme, was introduced by the Forum for African Women Educationalists in Malawi (FAWEMA), to address girls low enrolment and high dropout from school. NORAD and UNICEF initially funded the SCI. FAWEMA is currently the custodian of the SCI in Malawi. <p>The purpose of this study was to determine stakeholder perceptions of the extent to which the social capital and capabilities of girls had been enhanced through the Sara Communication Initiative (SCI) in the two selected rural school communities of Chikwawa district. Two theoretical frameworks were utilized, Nussbaum (2001) and Sens (1999) capability development model and the concept of social capital theory based on Putnam (2000) and Coleman (1998). <p>A case study using mixed methods was used to examine the two cases. Data collection consisted of questionnaires, focus groups, structured interviews, document analysis and class observations. The study engaged 59 students, 30 students from Eastern school and 29 students from Southern school. Parents focus groups were attended by a total of 41 parents, 21 at Eastern school and 20 at Southern school. The researcher also interviewed four teachers, two from each school, as well as the National Coordinator for FAWEMA. Class observations took place at both venues and at the junior and senior primary school levels.<p>Descriptive data analysis was conducted using an SPSS package. Data from the focus group discussions were taped, transcribed, and analyzed thematically.<p>From the data it was concluded that comic books were an integral part of the SCI meetings and they highlighted some major challenges that girls experienced. T-shirts were also powerful in conveying SCI messages, apart from providing decent clothing for needy students. The study noted that there were more girls, than boys participating in the SCI.<p>In addition, it was found that basic and internal capabilities were limited for girls. As a result, although many girls enrolled in school, at the beginning of the school year the enrolment of girls dropped off sharply. The reasons for girls dropping out of school included heavy workload, poverty, sexual harassment, early pregnancies, early marriages, lack of motivation, lack of encouragement, and lack of female role models. In regard to external conditions, which comprise the material and institutional environments, the findings of this study were that although the family, the school, and development agencies assisted in providing some resources for the pupils to enable them to stay in school the provisions were not adequate.<p>As well, the study found that some tenets of social capital were evident. Social networks were apparent between parents/guardians and their children/wards, teachers and pupils, teachers and parents, female pupils and the UNICEF mothers groups, and the development committees. Institutional trust appeared to be lacking in some cases. There was a lack of trust of male teachers and older schoolboys by the parents because there were no female role models for the girls at the schools. Organizations in the form of development agencies were also considered an important resource to the two communities. <p>Finally, it was found that the Sen Capabilities Model had some limits to its applicability in a developing country. In addition, it was concluded that while the SCI enhanced the social capital for girls, in all likelihood the community members require attitudinal and cultural change.

It is surprising that the prevailing performance taxonomy for scientists (Star versus Non-Star) focuses only on individual output and ignores social behavior since scholars often characterize innovation as a communal process. To address this deficiency, I expand the traditional taxonomy that focuses solely on productivity and add a second, social dimension to the taxonomy of scientists: helpfulness to others. Using a combination of academic paper citations and Impact Factor-weighted publications to measure scientist productivity as well as the receipt of academic paper acknowledgements to measure helpfulness, I classify scientists into four distinct categories of human capital quality: All-Stars, who have both high productivity and helpfulness; Lone Wolves, who have high productivity but average helpfulness; Mavens, who have average productivity but high helpfulness; and Non-Stars, who have both average productivity and helpfulness. The first study examines the impact of 415 immunologists on the performance of their coauthors. Looking at the change in quality-adjusted publishing output of an immunologist's coauthors after the immunologist's death, I find that the productivity of an All-Star's coauthors decreases on average by 35%, a Maven's coauthors by 30% on average, and a Lone Wolf's coauthors by 19%, all relative to the decrease in productivity of a Non-Star's coauthors. These findings suggest that our current conceptualization of star scientists, which solely focuses on individual productivity, is both incomplete and potentially misleading as Lone Wolves may be systematically overvalued and Mavens undervalued. The second study builds upon the first study's finding that Mavens have a large impact on the performance of their coauthors. Using salary disclosures from 2008 at the University of California, I examine the extent to which each star type is compensated differently. While Mavens have a larger impact on the performance of their coauthors than Lone Wolves, Mavens are compensated less, providing preliminary evidence that these performance effects are spillovers. The third study examines the likelihood of an immunologist's mobility as a function of his observable and unobservable human capital. The greater a scientist's productivity (observable to the market), the greater his inter-institution mobility, while the greater a scientist's helpfulness (unobservable to the market), the lower his inter-institution mobility.

Bakgrund       Tillväxtviljan bland de svenska småföretagen är stor, men avsaknad av kapital begränsar många entreprenörer och småföretag. Den höga risknivån minskar möjligheterna att erhålla exempelvis bankfinansiering, och för många tillväxtbolag i tidiga faser kan Venture Capital därför vara det enda finansieringsalternativet. Syfte               Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse för de investeringskriterier som svenska Venture Capital-bolag använder vid sin utvärdering av potentiella investeringsobjekt samt jämföra dessa med vad entreprenörer anser påverkar utvecklingen av ett företag. Metod             Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och empirin består av data från 20 genomförda intervjuer samt skriftliga frågeformulär, där respondenterna utgörs av venture-kapitalister samt entreprenörer som har erhållit Venture Capital-finansiering. Resultat         De kriterier som är centrala vid Venture Capital-bolags utvärdering av potentiella investeringsobjekt är entreprenörsteamet, marknads-förutsättningar samt produkterbjudande. Av dessa kriterier anser både venture-kapitalister och entreprenörer att det är entreprenörsteamet som i störst utsträckning påverkar ett företags utveckling. Att entreprenörsteamet tillskrivs så stor betydelse förklaras av att förutsättningarna för företagets fortsatta utveckling ständigt förändras, vilket ställer krav på att entreprenörsteamet har förmåga att hantera denna dynamiska process och anpassa företagets utveckling efter oförutsedda förändringar. / Background   There is a strong desire to grow among small Swedish enterprises, but lack of capital is a limiting factor to many entrepreneurs and small enterprises. The high level of risk reduces the possibilities of receiving financing through bank loan or similar, which makes Venture Capital the only financing alternative for some high growth-ventures in early stages. Aim                 The aim of this study is to provide understanding for the investment criteria used by Swedish Venture Capital firms during their evaluation of investment propositions, and to compare these with factors that entrepreneurs perceive as influential to the development of a company. Methodology The approach of this study is qualitative, and the presented findings are conducted from 20 interviews and written questionnaires. The respondents consist of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs who have received Venture Capital financing. Result            The criteria that are of central importance to Venture Capital firms’     when evaluating investment propositions are the entrepreneurial team, the market potential and the product offer. Among these criteria both entrepreneurs and venture capitalists perceive the entrepreneurial team as the criterion with the largest impact on the development of a company. The importance of the entrepreneurial team is explained by the fact that the conditions for the company’s further development are under continuous change, which necessitates the entrepreneurial team’s ability to handle this dynamic process and adapt the company’s development to unexpected changes.

The Sara Communication Initiative (SCI), a girls intervention programme, was introduced by the Forum for African Women Educationalists in Malawi (FAWEMA), to address girls low enrolment and high dropout from school. NORAD and UNICEF initially funded the SCI. FAWEMA is currently the custodian of the SCI in Malawi. <p>The purpose of this study was to determine stakeholder perceptions of the extent to which the social capital and capabilities of girls had been enhanced through the Sara Communication Initiative (SCI) in the two selected rural school communities of Chikwawa district. Two theoretical frameworks were utilized, Nussbaum (2001) and Sens (1999) capability development model and the concept of social capital theory based on Putnam (2000) and Coleman (1998). <p>A case study using mixed methods was used to examine the two cases. Data collection consisted of questionnaires, focus groups, structured interviews, document analysis and class observations. The study engaged 59 students, 30 students from Eastern school and 29 students from Southern school. Parents focus groups were attended by a total of 41 parents, 21 at Eastern school and 20 at Southern school. The researcher also interviewed four teachers, two from each school, as well as the National Coordinator for FAWEMA. Class observations took place at both venues and at the junior and senior primary school levels.<p>Descriptive data analysis was conducted using an SPSS package. Data from the focus group discussions were taped, transcribed, and analyzed thematically.<p>From the data it was concluded that comic books were an integral part of the SCI meetings and they highlighted some major challenges that girls experienced. T-shirts were also powerful in conveying SCI messages, apart from providing decent clothing for needy students. The study noted that there were more girls, than boys participating in the SCI.<p>In addition, it was found that basic and internal capabilities were limited for girls. As a result, although many girls enrolled in school, at the beginning of the school year the enrolment of girls dropped off sharply. The reasons for girls dropping out of school included heavy workload, poverty, sexual harassment, early pregnancies, early marriages, lack of motivation, lack of encouragement, and lack of female role models. In regard to external conditions, which comprise the material and institutional environments, the findings of this study were that although the family, the school, and development agencies assisted in providing some resources for the pupils to enable them to stay in school the provisions were not adequate.<p>As well, the study found that some tenets of social capital were evident. Social networks were apparent between parents/guardians and their children/wards, teachers and pupils, teachers and parents, female pupils and the UNICEF mothers groups, and the development committees. Institutional trust appeared to be lacking in some cases. There was a lack of trust of male teachers and older schoolboys by the parents because there were no female role models for the girls at the schools. Organizations in the form of development agencies were also considered an important resource to the two communities. <p>Finally, it was found that the Sen Capabilities Model had some limits to its applicability in a developing country. In addition, it was concluded that while the SCI enhanced the social capital for girls, in all likelihood the community members require attitudinal and cultural change.

Abstract ________________________________________________________________ Författare/Author Richard Tähtinen Titel/Title Youth hockey from a coach perspective. A qualitative study about coaches´ appreciations concerning youth hockey The aim with this study is to strengthen the knowledge about coaches´ appreciations concerning youth hockey. This study contains interviews with three leaders that operate on the strategic level within youth hockey and three coaches working with youth players in the ages of 11 and 12. I have divided my main results into 4 categories, based on an earlier study from Karin Redelius (2002). These categories include the following themes: 1) Competition on the good and the bad 2) The importance of winning 3) Shake-out versus sports on children’s terms 4) Instruction, play and learning The main conclusions in this study show that leaders on the strategic level appreciate youth hockey in a very similar way. Coaches´ appreciations vary on a much higher level both from each other and from the appreciations expressed by the leaders. One of the coaches recon that winning is very important and gives the coach assurance of a job well done. The leaders note that one of the biggest mistakes a coach in youth hockey can make is to concentrate on the result and therefore estimate his/hers coaching capabilities depending on the amount of wins. Thus will this result fixation lead to unwanted behavior by the coaches´. Some of the coaches´ believe that shake-out of youth players within ice hockey is the result of the sport interests carried by the parents. Some believe that it is the lack of resources that lead to drop-out from youth hockey. The coaches in this study believe that the athletic environment within youth ice hockey doesn’t differ from other team sports. They do point out that youth hockey players spend more time in the locker-room than players in other team sports.

<p>Does social capital, resources embedded in social networks, influence health? My dissertation examines whether social capital directly impacts depression, and how it interplays with other established structural risk factors linked to depression. I analyze unique data from the thematic research project "Social Capital: Its Origins and Consequences," collected in 2004-5 in the United States. I measure social capital through one recently developed network instrument, the position generator. I use structural equation modeling to test the direct, mediating, and moderating effects of social capital on depressive symptoms. I also use the instrumental variable method to verify the causal order in the relationship between social capital and depression. Results show that social capital is associated with the level of depression in four ways. Social capital is associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms net of other variables. Part of the effect of social capital on depressive symptoms is indirect through subjective social status. Social capital mediates the associations of age, gender, being black (versus being white), marital status, education, occupation, annual family income, and social integration with depression. Social capital also interacts with gender, being black (versus being white), education, annual family income, and social integration. This research indicates that social capital is an important social antecedent of disease and illness.</p> / Dissertation

This research aims to find out the relations among human capital characteristics, total numbers of employees and expectation of line manager toward HR function on strategic involvement of HR department. 135 questionnaires are conducted and the effective samples are 55. The results indicate the relationship between the total numbers of employees in the company and involvement of HR department in strategic decisions is the strongest. Besides, expectation from line managers toward HR function is unrelated to strategic involvement of HR department.

This research paper focuses on whether Taiwan's 13 financial holding companies (excluding Waterland Financial Holdings) belongs to the bank's capital management efficiency, using a narrow definition of capital. First, do a preliminary analysis of the capital of the banks first, second, and three types of capital. Secondly, the use of supplementary items in the balance sheet, profit and loss account and balance-sheet and some of the information into the banking book assets and liabilities of the banking book and trading book assets, trading book liabilities, risk assets and market value-added and other programs in order to do all kinds of bank trend analysis of assets and liabilities and capital management. Finally, I would investigate whether the high capital adequacy ratio that their performance is better? The provisions of the Basel ¢º want to improve the bank's risk management capability, however, and set out the statutory capital requirements of the Bank help to keep the emphasis on risk management?

A Study of Venture Capitals¡¦ Investment Decision-Making and Performance in Taiwan: A Case of C Venture Capital Abstract Info-tech industry plays an important role in Taiwan¡¦s economic development, and for the last eighteen years a huge amount of capital invested in domestic high-tech industry by Taiwan¡¦s venture capitalists has been spurring capital formation of its high-tech industry. Moreover, the investment by venture capitals in earlier technology companies provides technology start-up teams with outstanding capital backup for management, which thus effectively promotes innovation and development of technology industry. Also, the provision of capital by venture capital industry, the talented technicians trained by ITRI, and the cluster of vertically related industries in Hsinchu Science-based industrial park jointly offer advantaged conditions for the development of such tech industries as semi-conductor, electronics information, and opto-electronic, which makes Taiwan one of the major manufacturing countries in global info-tech industry. However, venture capital is a high-risk, high-stakes investment industry; issues such as whether domestic venture capitalists have preferences in investment decision-making in terms of investing in high-tech companies at stages of seed, early, expansion, and mature, as well as which one¡¦s performance will be better when it comes to investing in domestic or foreign (mainly in America) high-tech companies are worth investigating. Still, little research on venture capitals was conducted to explore key decision factors for whether to invest and what factors cause investment projects to succeed or fail. Using C venture capital as a case, the primary purposes of this study are therefore to examine if there exists any one certain preferred decision factor for investment, to follow up the outcomes of investment projects, and to seek the factors of success and failure for these projects. The results of this study show that venture capitalists do prefer to invest at the stages of expansion and mature, for it is easier to predict the outcomes of investment projects. In addition, as a result of Taiwan¡¦s tech industry relocating to mainland China, venture capitalists¡¦ being still forbidden to invest in China, and the significantly decreasing number of domestic profitable projects, the ratio of increasing investment at the seed and early stages has been rising accordingly. Furthermore, it can be found that the investment performance on foreign high-tech companies is better than that on domestics, the ratio of investment continues rising year by year, and venture capital is moving toward globalization. In this study, the decision factors directing the investment decision-making of the board of directors in the case company are based on four dimensions of evaluation principles: (a) business starter & management team; (b) industry & market; (c) product & technology; and (d) financial planning & reward. The findings of this study show that investment target companies are more likely to be invested if they possess better technology platforms or patents than their competitors, or their products are more unique. But they are unlikely to be invested if their industrial future is uncertain or the product market is small. Also, according to the analysis of factors for the outcomes of investment projects, projects invested based on their advantaged conditions in the dimensions of industry & market and product & technology have better chance to succeed; while those invested due to being advantageous in the dimensions of business starter & management team, and financial planning & reward are more likely to fail. This study indicates that although the two decision factors of finance and management team have advantages, without the matching of industry & market and product & technology, high-tech industry is not necessarily able to gain profit; but if there are problems with the latter two factors, the companies will definitely fail, leading to bankruptcy and liquidation. To sum up, having advantages in both factors of industry & market and product & technology is more likely to profit a company, but only with the positive incorporation of management team and financial planning can it further ensure a company¡¦s success.

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