Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-190).

Esta tesis se centra en el estudio de las políticas públicas de algunos países de la Unión Europea en relación con el emprendimiento i la innovación. Se basa en la idea de que existe una divergencia entre algunas de las economías más avanzadas, entre dos estructuras económicas opuestas: unas siguen el mismo patrón de siempre y otras crean nuevas estructuras. Cambios tecnológicos en el corazón de dichos desarrollos han favorecido nuevas actividades económicas y cambios institucionales significativos han dado lugar a dichas estructuras económicas cambiantes. La falta de uniformidad de los cambios en diferentes países ha provocado dos mundos opuestos. Una de las diferencias fundamentales entre estas estructuras económicas opuestas tiene relación con las políticas públicas. Hay cuatro aspectos diferenciales de las políticas públicas que evidencian estos cambios que permiten distinguir entre las estructuras económicas antiguas y nuevas. Las políticas públicas en las economías antiguas favorecen la regulación, se crean a nivel nacional, se centran en el output y facilitan los métodos tradicionales de financiación. Por otro lado, las economías transformadas favorecen la estimulación, con políticas públicas desarrolladas regionalmente o localmente, centradas en los inputs i a favor de la financiación de riesgos. Estos aspectos de las políticas públicas, especialmente los que favorecen la innovación y el emprendimiento, han contribuido a la aparición de varios niveles de emprendimiento e innovación en cada escenario. La economía nueva estimula actividades de innovación y emprendimiento y, por lo tanto, se puede calificar de economía emprendedora. La economía antigua, es más reticente a dichas actividades y se suele llamar economía dirigida.El análisis está basado en teoría institucional, desde el punto de vista de la cual se conciben las instituciones como restricciones que se imponen para reducir las incertidumbres implicadas en las interacciones humanas. Incluyen instituciones formales, como las leyes, los procedimientos y las políticas gubernamentales, y permiten definir el conjunto de oportunidades económicas disponibles en una economía. Una función importante de las instituciones es determinar el atractivo o los incentivos para aprovechar cada una de dichas oportunidades y, por tanto, que tengan consecuencias directas tanto para actividades de emprendimiento como de innovación. La tendencia general en muchos países es que el gobierno puede estimular las actividades de emprendimiento e innovación con iniciativas de política pública.Se separan los países entre economías dirigidas y emprendedoras, en función de la evidencia de transformación tecnológica y la adopción de la innovación en la economía. Sus políticas públicas para el emprendimiento e innovación se examinan para identificar los cuatro aspectos diferenciales. Se hace un análisis posterior para identificar el impacto que estas áreas específicas de las políticas públicas puede tener en los niveles actuales de actividades de emprendimiento e innovación en cada grupo. Los resultados empíricos muestran que los aspectos diferenciales de las políticas públicas de los grupos de economías es más fácil identificarlos en aquellos países que se sitúan en el extremo del abanico y son menos evidentes para los países que caen en medio. Los efectos de las políticas públicas en actividades de emprendimiento e innovación no son tan fáciles de identificar como se pensaba. Los efectos de las políticas públicas regionales es generalmente positivo y no se identifica ningún gran impacto para el financiamiento. / This thesis studies public policies for entrepreneurship and innovation in some European Union countries. It is based on the notion of a divergence of some of the more advanced economies into two polar economic structures with some continuing in the old ways and others creating new structures. Technological changes at the heart of these developments have facilitated new economic activities and significant institutional changes have given rise to these changing economic structures. The lack of uniformity in the changes across countries has created two polar worlds. One of the fundamental differences between these polar economic structure is in public polices. Four trade-offs in public policy signal these changes that help to differentiate the old and the new economic structures. Public polices in the old economies favor regulations, public policies that are created at the national level, policies that target output and which facilitate traditional methods of financing. The transformed economies on the other hand favor stimulation, regionally/locally developed public policy, targeting of inputs, and policies that support risk financing. These trade-offs in public policies specifically those for innovation and entrepreneurship have contributed to the varying levels of entrepreneurship and innovation that each setting has experienced. Subsequently, the new economy stimulates activities in innovation and entrepreneurship and is therefore labeled the entrepreneurial economy. The old economy is more restrictive to such activities and is referred to as the managed economy. The analysis is founded on Institutional Theory, which sees institutions as constraints that are imposed to reduce the uncertainties involved in human interactions. They include formal institutions such as laws, government procedures and policies and define the set of economic opportunities that are available in an economy. An important function of institutions is to determine the attractiveness or incentives for pursuing each of those opportunities and therefore have direct consequences for both entrepreneurship and innovation activities. The general trend across many countries is that government can stimulate both innovation and entrepreneurial activities by instituting public policy initiatives. The group of countries is separated into managed and entrepreneurial economies based on evidence of technological transformation and the adaption of innovation in the economy. Their public policies for entrepreneurship and innovation are then examined to identify the four trade-offs. A subsequently analysis is done to identify the impact that these specific areas of public policy may have on the actual levels of entrepreneurship and innovation activities in each grouping. The empirical results shows that the public policy trade-offs between the two groupings of economies are most readily identified at the extreme end of a continuum and are less obvious for the countries that fall between the extremes. It is also most obvious in three trade-offs. The effects of public policy on entrepreneurship and innovation activity are not as clear cut as expected. The effect of regional public policy is mostly positive and no strong impact could be identified for finance.

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By incorporating a material practice within an approach that is socially engaged, my research examines if and how community can be built and developed through the use of alternative economies. Through public participation, I am questioning if the act of collaboration can alter one’s relationship with and understanding of art and maker. / October 2015

No description available.

Abstract The fundamental choice among governance mechanism is whether to externally organize transactions outside the boundary of the firm in the market, or whether to internally organize transactions within the firm's boundaries. In other words, major decision which is made on the firm's organizational strategy culminates in the make-or-buy decisions. In business and especially in the context of logistics, the worldwide usage and importance of outsourcing has grown dramatically over the last decades and researchers have reported on the outsourcing of logistics functions from several perspectives and a growing interest towards outsourcing is indicated by the volume of writings on the subject in scholarly journals, trade publications and popular magazines. The theoretical framework in outsourcing studies has commonly been the theory of the firm in microeconomics, transaction cost theory, agency theory, marketing or strategic management. However, according to recent studies it seems that several perspectives are needed when studying the development of relationships and the antecedents that underlie outsourcing decisions. Hence, in this study, concepts will be used from several theoretical backgrounds to get an eclectic view of outsourcing. The main research question is to study how the buyers' logistics outsourcing decisions contribute to the accomplishment of goals in business networks. Empirical part of thesis contains two data sets. First data were collected in November 2005 and the target group in this data was northern Finnish companies. Totally 161 acceptable responses were received, corresponding to a 27.4 percent response rate. The second data were collected from industrial companies in Finland during spring 2008. In the second data, 235 acceptable responses were returned, representing a response rate of 22.5 percent. As a result, a two dimensional model was created for describing outsourcing relationships in the logistics service markets. On the one hand, network economies can be gained through horizontal mode of outsourcing, where focus is in unit costs of services and the way to achieve lowest possible unit costs are short-term bidding games among service providers. On the other hand, network economies can be achieved through vertical mode of outsourcing with cooperation and strategic partnership where all participants concentrate on their core competences and thus create network economies through transactional value in long-term. In the middle are hybrid modes of outsourcing where focus is on both unit costs of services and transaction costs. These outsourcing modes are where the outsourcing strategies arise and in this way, the thesis contributes to theoretical development of outsourcing phenomenon and concepts behind logistics outsourcing decision making.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between industrialization and changes that occurred in the local economy and the quality of life in a selected North Central Texas community which had experienceg industrial growth.

Yes / Using panel data of 1,080 multinational corporations (MNCs) from the United States, we examine the effects of environmental sustainability practices on the degree of firms’ offshoring activities. In addition, we disaggregate offshoring activities into their core components depending on whether or not the firm buys (inputs) or sells (outputs) and/or owns assets in a given country and examine the extent to which sustainability practices influence the different components of offshoring decisions. The results indicate that sustainability practices significantly affect offshoring activities of MNCs. In particular, we found that sustainable business practices matter when the firm sells goods or owns assets in the given host nation. Additionally, the results show that the sustainability–degree of the internationalization relationship is crucial for MNCs that have offshoring activities in advanced economies relative to those firms that have activities in emerging markets. Our results are robust to alternative explanations.

<p><strong><em>Introduction</em></strong></p><p>Entrepreneurship and SME development play a crucial role in speeding up the economic development of transition economies. Although entrepreneurship exists in all environments it flourishes in the conditions where it is supported. Transition economies, as well as Georgia, are characterized by inefficient framework conditions that present barriers to productive entrepreneurship and SMEs to develop and benefit the economies in their full potential.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Purpose</em></strong></p><p>The Thesis aimed at answering the following research questions:</p><p> </p><p>1)      To what extent the framework conditions necessary for promoting productive entrepreneurship and SME development exist in Georgia?</p><p>2)      What are the perceived barriers to entrepreneurship and SME development in Georgia?</p><p>3)      In what ways is entrepreneurship and SME development encouraged and supported in Georgia?</p><p><strong><em>Method</em></strong></p><p>The thesis consists of theoretical data such as literature review, secondary data presented by previous studies, and primary data collected by conducting interviews with Georgian entrepreneurs and representatives of governmental bodies and NGOs engaged in improving a business climate in the country.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Conclusions</em></strong></p><p>The study revealed that basic framework conditions for developing entrepreneurship are present in Georgia. Although inefficiencies and institutional gaps give rise to a number of barriers to entrepreneurship and SME development. They are mostly presented by inefficient tax system and financial framework. Despite their efforts towards fostering favourable business environment, GoG, as well as NOGs could do a better job in improving an indirect support in terms of abolishing imperfections in the taxation system, as well as directly providing finance, training and effectual information flow to existing and potential businesses.</p>

This study was designed to measure the firm's capacity to produce more output from a given bundle of inputs. That is, the nature of economies of scale that obtains in the manufacturing industrial aggregate. The data on which this study is based was obtained primarily from two sources: (1) The Fourth National Development Plan (1981-85) of Nigerian Publication; and (2) The 1979 issue of the Yearbook of Industrial Statistics published by the United Nations.