Research based yet action oriented: Developing individual level enterprising competencies

This paper outlines an approach to teaching enterprising competencies in the university setting of Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand. It is characterised by two features. First, it has an experiential component in the form of developmental exercises; forms of practice which are devised by the students themselves. Second, the exercises are research-based: students study academic articles and book chapters that give clues about how to practice the various competencies. The method is inspired by Gibb’s (1993, 1998, 2002a, 2002b) ideas about simulating the essences of enterprise in the learning environment. The approach used at Massey is outlined at the end of the paper. The paper begins with offering the rationales for the course. First, it provides arguments as to why enterprising competencies are becoming increasingly important for our students. Second, it is argued why, out of three approaches to competency, the behavioural approach is deemed to be the most suitable for the approach employed at Massey. Third, in the debate about generic versus situation specific competencies, it argues for the relevance of generic competencies. The paper then describes entrepreneurship / small business (E/SB) research on competencies, and discusses why entrepreneurship research is often of little help for ‘how to’ approaches. Finally, the Massey approach is described in detail

Rashba and intrinsic spin-orbit interactions in biased bilayer graphene

We investigate the effect that the intrinsic spin-orbit and the inter- and intra-layer Rashba interactions have on the energy spectrum of either an unbiased or a biased graphene bilayer. We find that under certain conditions, a Dirac cone is formed out of a parabolic band and that it is possible to create a "Mexican hat"-like energy dispersion in an unbiased bilayer. In addition, in the presence of only an intralayer Rashba interaction, the K (K') point splits into four distinct ones, contrarily to the case in single-layer graphene, where the splitting also takes place, but the low-energy dispersion at these points remains identical.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

Changes in Psych-verbs: A reanalysis of little v

Aquest article estudia els verbs psicològics en la història de l’anglès. Com és ben sabut, moltes de les llengües modernes reanalitzen els objectes experimentadors com a subjectes experimentadors. Analitzo un d’aquests canvis en detall: el canvi en el verb fear des del seu significat original d’‘espantar, fer por’ al de ‘témer’. El motiu del canvi podria ser la desaparició de la marca morfològica del causatiu i un canvi en el conjunt dels verbs lleugers. Encara que els objectes experimentadors es perden de manera constant, mostro que alhora hi ha una renovació incessant a través dels manlleus i mitjançant canvis interns des de sentits d’impacte físic a sentits d’impacte mental. Finalment, analitzo un canvi en què els subjectes experimentadors es reanalitzen com a agents en un Sintagma Veu.The present paper examines psych-verbs in the history of English. As is well-known, object experiencers are reanalyzed as subject experiencers in many of the modern European languages. I discuss one such change in detail, namely the change in the verb fear from meaning ‘to frighten, cause to fear’ to meaning ‘to fear’. The reason for the change may be the loss of the morphologically overt causative and a change in the set of light verbs. Object experiencers are constantly lost but I show there is also a continual renewal through external borrowing and internal change from physical to mental impact. A last change I discuss is the one where Subject Experiencers are reanalyzed as Agents in a V(oice)P

Strategies, Uncertainty and Performance of Small Business Startups

Personal strategies of owners/founders of small business startups are related to performance and to environmental uncertainty. This is done using a longitudinal data set of some 50 Dutch startups. The results suggest a dynamic process between strategy and performance.A discrimination is made between four strategies (reactive, critical point, complete planning and opportunistic). The role of uncertainty is discussed. The dynamic process is embedded in the PERSUADE model.entrepreneurship;strategy;uncertainty;performance;small business startups

Encountered Problems and Outcome Status in Nascent Entrepreneurship

The relationship is investigated between outcome status and encountered problems in the business start-up process. Contrary to expectations, we find that starters do not differ from quitters in number and type of problems encountered, and that problems encountered generally do not affect outcome status. This Dutch research uses a design that is comparable to the U.S. PSED (Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics) in which a sample of 414 nascent entrepreneurs were followed over a three year period.encountered-problems;nascent-entrepreneurship;outcome-status

Drivers of entrepreneurial aspirations at the country lever: the role of start-up motivations and social security

This paper investigates whether start-up motivations and the level of social security can explain entrepreneurial aspirations. We use country-level data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) for the year 2005. We distinguish between the necessity motive, independence motive and increase wealth motive and look at entrepreneurial aspirations in terms of innovativeness, job growth expectations and export orientation. As an indicator of a country?s level of social security we take the social security contribution rate (for employer?s and employees) from the World Competitiveness Yearbook. Previous research has found a negative relationship between the level of entrepreneurial activity and social security contributions, suggesting that social security increases the opportunity costs for entrepreneurship. The results of this study complement these previous findings by indicating that social security contributions have a negative influence on the supply of ambitious entrepreneurship in terms of new product or service introductions, job growth and export orientation. Furthermore, our findings indicate that entrepreneurial aspirations in terms of job growth and export relate positively to the increase wealth motive, whereas no significant relationship is found between our aspiration variables and the independence and necessity motives. On the basis of our findings policy directions are presented for an entrepreneurial economy. This is an update of paper H200627.

Setting Up a Business in the Netherlands

Why does one person actually succeed in starting a business, while a second gives up, and a third is still trying? To answer this question, a longitudinal study was set up in which 330 nascent entrepreneurs (people setting up a business) were followed over a one-year period. After one year, 47% actually started a business, 27% was still organizing, and 26% gave up the effort. In comparison to the two other groups, starters are different in terms of gender, industry experience, start-up capital, use of third party loans, sector and current activity.survival;performance;nascent entrepreneurs;start-ups