The purpose of this research was to determine teachers’ perceptions of the degree to which research-based characteristics exist in alternative high schools and programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the importance of these characteristics to effective education. In addition, this research investigated whether or not these perceptions were related to the teachers’ perception of efficacy. These seven characteristics were (a) clearly identified enrollment criteria, (b) low ratio of student to teachers, (c) one-to-one interactions between staff and students, (d) social skills instruction, (e) effective academic instruction, (f) parental involvement and parental support programs, and (g) specific training for teachers who are working with at-risk youth. Alternative school teachers were also administered the short form of the Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale that is specifically designed to assess the respondents’ perceptions of their self-efficacy as teachers. The data show that alternative school teachers in Virginia ranked “low student to staff ratio” as the most important and “parental involvement and parental support programs” as the least important research-based characteristics for the academic focus of their schools. It was also evidenced by the data that none of the research-based characteristics were shown to have “strong evidence” of existence in Virginia’s alternative schools and programs. Finally, the data showed that there is a positive correlation between the existence of the research-based characteristics and the reported self-efficacy of the alternative school teachers.

The essence of the first part of this work (chapters 1, 2 and 3) lies in the brief introduction to the support for small and medium sized enterprises. After that follows presentation of key institutions (ministries, agencies, etc.) helpful during the process of obtaining support from national programmes. Except of basic services performed by given institutions, useful web links are also included. In the same way, particular European support programmes are presented. In the framework of second part (chapters 4, 5 and 6), backward bases are exemplified on the practical example of the company Strojírny Podzimek, Ltd. and their experiences. That case shows, what does the making use of the national support programmes mean practically. Likewise, business support from EU funds is described, namely on the case of company Frýdlantské strojírny Rasl a syn, Inc. Third part of this thesis (chapters 7 and 8) is making us familiar with resuming statistics about the amount of subsidies drawn from national programmes and from the EU funds. In both cases, brief forecasts of future development and approximate amounts of unused funds are stated.

The aim of this thesis was to assess the current situation in clusters focusing on the South Bohemian Region and the benefits of clusters.

La question de la compétence de l’entrepreneur est tout à fait centrale. Cependant la prise en compte de cette notion demeure un problème persistant qui inhibe les performances de l’accompagnement et entrave ainsi le développement du phénomène entrepreneurial. Dans ce travail de recherche, nous avons orienté notre intérêt vers le concept des compétences entrepreneuriales afin de repositionner la relation accompagnateur/créateur au centre du processus d’accompagnement. Nous avons mis en œuvre une recherche axée sur l’analyse de l’auto-perception des compétences entrepreneuriales par les entrepreneurs naissants faisant l’objet d’un accompagnement dans une structure d’appui.Sur la base de l’ensemble des classifications typologiques des compétences des entrepreneurs, nous avons arrêté le choix de l’objet de notre étude sur la typologie proposée par Man et al. (2002). Les auteurs proposent un modèle conceptuel permettant de relier les caractéristiques des entrepreneurs des PME et la performance de leur entreprise. Partant de la conviction selon laquelle la prise en compte des compétences est susceptible de produire des nouveaux outils et pratiques d'accompagnement mieux adaptés à la compréhension et la valorisation des différentes dimensions du phénomène entrepreneurial, la problématique soulevée dans cette recherche est de savoir : dans quelle mesure une structure d’accompagnement en phase post-création contribue-t-elle à l’amélioration de l’auto-perception des entrepreneurs de leurs compétences entrepreneuriales?Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons opté pour une étude empirique quantitative et longitudinale. Dans le but d’accéder au terrain et de collecter le maximum de données, notre étude a été réalisée dans le cadre d’un partenariat entre le centre de recherche en Entrepreneuriat de l’EM Lyon Business School (CRE) et Réseau Entreprendre® (RE®). Nous avons réalisé, parallèlement, trois études longitudinales à travers lesquelles nous avons administré, à deux reprises et avec 8 mois d’intervalle le même questionnaire auprès de trois populations différentes : lauréats de Réseau Entreprendre® (population de base), les accompagnateurs et candidats non retenus (groupe témoin). Les trois premières vagues de questionnaires ont été lancées le 29 février 2012, les secondes, vers la fin du mois d’octobre 2012.Pour réaliser les traitements d’analyse, nous avons utilisé l’approche des régressions linéaires avec le logiciel SPSS.11 pour tester la nature des relations entre les variables clés de notre étude. Dans une deuxième partie d’analyse, nous avons réalisé deux études comparatives. / The issue of entrepreneur’s competence is quite central. However, the taking into account of this concept remains a persistent problem that inhibits the performance of new venture support and/or incubation programs and thereby hinders the development of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. In this research, we focused our interest on the concept of entrepreneurial competencies in order to replace accompanying person/new venture creator relationship at the center of new venture support process. We implemented a research based on nascent entrepreneurs self-perception of entrepreneurial competencies. Based on some typologies of entrepreneurial competencies, we used the typology proposed by Man et al. (2002). The authors proposed a conceptual model that links the SME’ entrepreneurs characteristics with the business performance.We started with the belief that it is very important to consider entrepreneurial competencies because our research is likely to produce new tools and help support’s practices to better understand and enhance the different dimensions of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. The issue raised in this research is as follows: to what extent a post-creation support structure contributes to the improvement of entrepreneurs self- perception of his entrepreneurial competencies? To answer this question, we opted for a quantitative and longitudinal empirical study. In order to access the research field and to collect the maximum of data, our study was conducted as part of a partnership between the Research Center in Entrepreneurship of EM Lyon Business School (CRE) and Réseau Entreprendre® (RE®). We carried out three longitudinal studies through which we administered twice, with 8 months interval between each time, the same questionnaire to three different populations namely: the winners of Réseau Entreprendre® (Lauréats) (baseline population), the accompanying persons and non-selected applicants (control group). The first three waves of questionnaires were launched on February 29, 2012, the second towards the end of October 2012. To achieve the treatment analysis, we used the approach of linear regressions with SPSS.11 software to test the nature of the relationships between key variables in our study. In the second part of analysis, we conducted two comparative studies.

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