Entrepreneurship ecosystems: an agent-based simulation approach

Knowledge acquisition and development of capabilities constitutes a key perspective in studies regarding the formation of new ventures. When examining entrepreneurship ecosystems, we find that the composition of a region influences the new knowledge acquired by the venture. The main aim of this study is to examine the influence of the new venture, the entrepreneur’s social capital, and the firm performance on the new venture’s knowledge acquisition activities. In particular, the study examines how the institutional context of a region influences new ventures’ knowledge acquisition actions during its growth, and in turn the level of sustained entrepreneurial activity within the region. The paper focuses on the formation of alliances by new ventures, one particular form of knowledge acquisition process that has been established as critical to new venture success in the high technology sector. The mechanisms for acquiring and transforming knowledge have the greatest impact on new venture formation, and in this context, the concepts of strategic knowledge arbitrage and strategic knowledge serendipity (SKARSE?) are validated through an agent-based simulation model. The main results focus on the effects of interactions between entrepreneurs and institutions in the process of new venture formation from a knowledge creation, dissemination, and absorption perspective.     

JUVENILE WAIVER AS A MECHANISM OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: A FOCUS ON HUMAN CAPITAL*

The historic transformations of the criminal justice system must be justified and interpreted through the effects on criminals (Maruna and Immarigeon, 2011). The push for harsher sentencing policies for juvenile offenders specifically through the use of juvenile waiver to criminal court is one such policy that is not well understood in terms of its effects on offenders, especially in terms of broader outcomes beyond recidivism. We use data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, which consists of a sample of adolescent offenders followed for 7 years postadjudication, to investigate the effect juvenile waiver has on human capital acquisition and yield among 557 adolescents from Maricopa County, Arizona. By using various matching specifications, our findings demonstrate that juveniles transferred to adult court experience no deleterious effects on human capital in terms of educational acquisition compared with similar youth retained in the juvenile system, yet they still earn considerably less income 7 years postadjudication. These results suggest that an important and unintended collateral consequence of juvenile waiver is an increase in social stratification potentially through labeling and labor market discrimination.     

Innovation capital

In this paper we compare the relationship between a firm’s innovation capital and the likelihood that a firm will commercialize an invention. Our index of innovation capital is the product of the firm’s human capital, social capital, and reputational capital. We find from our empirical experiment, which uses Small Business Innovation Research data, that innovation capital is a statistically more important entrepreneurial input to the innovation output of commercialization than any of its components.     

Skills and regional entrepreneurship capital formation: a comparison between Germany and Portugal

Entrepreneurship capital has frequently been characterized as an important determinant of regional economic growth. Yet, we have limited knowledge about what explains why certain regions are more successful in creating entrepreneurship capital in general and in particular in technology- and knowledge-intensive sectors. In this paper, we shed light on the skill base of a region in terms of its endowment with human capital and the composition, i.e. specialization or diversity, of skills. Moreover, we look at the context in which entrepreneurship capital formation takes place by focusing on differences in the institutional infrastructures for entrepreneurship in two European countries: Germany and Portugal. Based on harmonized datasets, our results indicate important differences between the countries. Specifically, our results suggest that both specialization and diversity theories hold, and that the effects are thus contingent on regional factors.     

Lawyers on the move: the consequences of mobility for legal careers

While the legal profession was traditionally conceived of as geographically bounded, recent decades have witnessed a surge in the movement of lawyers across geographic boundaries. This mobility has transformed the paths through which legal careers are built and sustained. Relying on Bourdieu's concept of capital, this paper focuses on the effects of geographic mobility within the legal profession in order to explore how moving can alter the forms and value of capital—human, social, or symbolic—necessary for professional advancement. Drawing on two unique datasets, we find that geographic mobility can be a source for the emergence of new inequalities within the profession, so that lawyers moving from one jurisdiction to another do not receive full value for their credentials. We also find that geographic mobility can exacerbate existing inequalities in the profession, and finally, our analyses suggest that understanding the effects of capital assets equally requires attention to the functional form of capital within professional fields.     

Need,Connections, or Competence? Criminal Achievement among Adolescent Offenders

Variations in criminal performance have been much less explored than other parameters of criminal careers. We explore the factors associated with differential criminal achievement in a sample of 154 adolescent offenders involved in cannabis cultivation. Drawing from theories of earnings attainment, we examine the role of drug use, criminal social capital and criminal human capital in providing either (a) monetary, or (b) in kind (cannabis) rewards from crime. Results reveal that criminal social capital and criminal human capital are related to performance while drug use explains little of the variation. Their effects, however, differ between outcomes: young offenders who are mainly connected to adult growers tend to be paid in kind, whereas respondents connected to a majority of other young growers tend to receive money. Criminal human capital is crucial to earning money but insignificant to obtaining larger payments in cannabis. Implications for criminal career and desistance research are discussed.     

Human but not social capital is better able to distinguish between offending trajectories in a sample of serious adolescent Hispanic offenders

PurposeBoth social and human capital have been identified as important and influential sources for success in many different life domains and research shows that investments in the two forms of capital is negatively associated with crime. Three limitations with prior research include the lack of investigation of the capital/crime relationship (1) among serious adolescent offenders, (2) in a longitudinal manner linking capital to offending over time, and (3) within Hispanic samples.MethodsThe current study uses data from the Pathways to Desistance, a longitudinal study of serious adolescent offenders followed for seven years from mid-adolescence to early adulthood, in order to investigate the extent to which social and human capital are able to distinguish between distinct offending trajectories over seven years.ResultsHuman but not social capital is relevant for distinguishing between offending trajectories, even after controlling for other risk factors, and the combined effect of human and social capital is even more pronounced.ConclusionsThe acquisition of social but especially human capital is preventive of crime among serious adolescent Hispanic offenders.     

Social Capital and Constraints on Legal Careers

This article focuses on the role of social capital in lawyers' careers by examining the career outcomes of Jewish lawyers. Although research on the legal profession has emphasized social capital as an inherently positive resource, this article conceptualizes social capital as multivalent, with the potential for both positive and negative effects. Drawing on five forms of social capital and examining four separate outcomes (type of practice setting, prestige of field of practice, satisfaction, and income), the analyses demonstrate that particular forms of social capital are indeed related to diverging outcomes. This study finds positive effects for the social capital that derives from reciprocity exchanges, but it also finds that the social capital built through dense social ties can lead to less successful professional settings. The conclusion explores the possibilities this raises for understanding the interplay between religion, capital, and legal careers.     

Boundary spanning between industry and university: the role of Technology Transfer Centres

Technology Transfer Centres (TTCs) have been analyzed in the last few years by focusing on the relationship between a TTC, provider of knowledge-intensive services, and a firm client-receiver. Less attention has been devoted to a more complex relationship which involves in the dyadic provider-receiver tie a third relevant body, University. We provide both a theoretical and an empirical contribution by studying whether TTCs can bond the academic and industrial system and we define the activities that make-up this role such as: scanning and selection of R&D opportunities, bridge building, semantic translation of domain specific knowledge, co-production of new knowledge. The boundary spanning role of TTCs is discussed drawing on different and complementary theoretical perspectives. Moreover, we test research hypotheses on the antecedents of boundary spanning activity from a knowledge-based perspective. We argue that TTC boundary spanners need to leverage on both technical skills and networking competences. Empirical investigation has been carried out with a survey of the TTC population of North East Italy. The research findings highlight the task coordination activities implied by a boundary spanning role in joint R&D projects and show that the endowment of human capital at individual level and a qualified social capital at individual and organizational level are the main determinants.     

“To have and have not”: founders’ human capital and university start-up survival

In order to preserve innovation, knowledge development and diffusion, as well as the transfer of new technologies, the emergence of University Start-Ups (USU) and their survival as a particular dimension of performance represents a relevant research topic. As USU generally have scarce initial resources, the human capital of their founders is one of their main business assets. Although the survival of such firms is supposed to be heavily dependent on the human capital characteristics of their founders, this has not received enough attention in existing research. In this paper we investigate the contribution of founders’ specific human capital characteristics to the survival of USU, building on Gimeno et al. (Adm Sci Q 42:750–783, 1997) threshold model of entrepreneurial exit. We divide USU founders’ specific human capital into three components (entrepreneurship, industry and university) in order to better understand its impact on firm survival. Our theoretical model is empirically tested on a unique sample of Catalan USU through a logistic regression analysis. Coherently with our theoretical reasoning, the results show that industry human capital negatively affect USU survival, while university human capital and entrepreneurship human capital enhance the likelihood of USU survival.     

Towards a model of effective knowledge transfer within transnationals: The case of Chinese foreign invested enterprises

In this paper Chinese foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) are employed as prototypes to generate a model of how transnationals can transfer both tacit and explicit knowledge between their units as well as between FIEs and the parent organization. We propose that successful intra-organization knowledge transfer depends upon: (1) collective creation of knowledge as intellectual and social capital available throughout the organization; (2) trust-based collaboration among geographically dispersed entities that form the transnational organization; and (3) the willingness and ability of organizational units to use that knowledge. The paper further proposes that organizational knowledge should ideally flow in multiple directions, providing learning opportunities for both investing and host organizations. Implications for transfer of best practices, a specific form of tacit knowledge, are also offered.     

基于社会资本提升领导者权力性影响力的探讨

领导者权力性影响力是领导者有效管理组织的必要条件，因此，如何提升领导者的权力性影响力是一个值得我们研究的课题。近年来．随着竞争的不断加剧和环境不确定性的增加，社会资本在领导者有效管理组织中日益凸显其独特魅力.本文通过对领导者社会资本影响力的获取与权力性影响力之间关系的分析．认为领导者对社会资本的占有是提升其权力性影响力的重要途径．提出了领导者获得社会资本并借此提升其权力性影响力的建议．希望对领导者有效管理组织有所裨益.     

Social web knowledge sharing and innovation performance in knowledge-intensive manufacturing SMEs

This paper develops an integrative research model to assess the effect of different factors on social web knowledge sharing and its effect on innovation performance in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, this study analyzes whether social web knowledge sharing may be a mediator in the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and innovation performance. The proposed research model and its associated hypotheses were tested by using partial least squares structural equation modeling on a dataset of manufacturing SMEs. This study contributes to research seeking to understand the factors affecting social web knowledge sharing by demonstrating that technological and organizational factors have greater impact than environmental factors on social web knowledge sharing. It also contributes to research by exploring the indirect effects of the social influence of HR practices on organizational innovation performance by offering evidence on the mediating effect of social web knowledge sharing in the relationship between HR practices and organizational innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs.     

Entitled Ease: Social Milieu of Corporate Criminals

This paper looks at the mechanisms through which financial corruption thrives both in Canadian society and elsewhere. There is a significant literature that examines the embeddedness of capitalism and the biases and advantages that this provides to all profit-directed activities. My focus is more on the social and attitudinal ways in which the embeddedness is exploited and simultaneously denied while serving as a lifestyle of the financially advantaged. I am interested in these cultures that develop and how the people within them come to accept their impunity and their entitlements as normal or at least ‘business as usual’. In addition, I am interested in the resistance to change pertaining to corruption of the powerful segments of our society. I present case studies that expose not only the privileges and advantages that capital allocates to the wealthiest but also a picture of the national and international social interactions among the clients, the enablers, and the regulators whereby the access to privilege is legitimized.     

Thoughtfully Reflective Decision Making and the Accumulation of Capital: Bringing Choice Back In

In this paper we relate a particular type of decision making, thoughtfully reflective decision making (TRDM) in adolescence, to successful and unsuccessful life outcomes in young adulthood. Those who are thoughtfully reflective in their decision making are more likely to consider possible alternative routes to goal attainment, weigh the costs and benefits of those alternatives, and critically revisit the decision once made to examine what went well and what went wrong. We also argue that what mediates the effect of TRDM on later life outcomes is the accumulation of capital. Those who use better decision making practices are more likely to recognize the resources provided by and make the necessary investments to accumulate human, social and cultural capital. These notions are theoretically linked to conceptions of criminal offenders as both rational planners and decision makers and as fully human agents. Using data from the Add Health data set, our hypotheses are largely confirmed. Those who are higher in TRDM as adolescents were more likely to have enrolled in or graduated from college, to be in better physical health, are more involved in civic and community affairs, less likely to commit criminal acts, use illegal drugs and be involved in heavy drinking as adults. TRDM is also positively related to the accumulation of human, social and cultural capital. Finally, a substantial part of the effect of TRDM on young adult outcomes was mediated by capital accumulation. The implications of these findings for future theory and research are discussed.     

Scientist entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

This paper examines scientist entrepreneurship at universities in Saudi Arabia. It is the first paper to examine scientist research in the context of the Middle East and, in particular, Saudi Arabia. In this paper we hypothesize that scientist entrepreneurship is positively influenced by experience, gender, social capital, human capital, and university and other institutional policies encouraging commercialization activities. To test our hypotheses, we use data from a unique survey of scientists from three universities in Saudi Arabia. The paper finds that there are key elements to scientist entrepreneurship that provide a sharp contrast to what has been established in the literature based on studies from the OECD countries. Finally, managerial implications are discussed and future research is recommended.     

中国律师办案中的关系因素——社会资本理论视角的分析

从社会资本理论视角,对中国律师执业中的关系因素进行调查和分析,为探讨中国律师与中国司法的新视角。在问卷调查的基础上,本文认为,作为重要的社会资本,人际关系在中国律师执业中具有重要的意义,关系在律师办理案件时有便于证据收集和采用、有利沟通、获得信息、方便工作、判决倾斜等作用。     

对外资跨国并购我国企业的法律规制研究

近年来,我国外国投资领域外资并购我国企业的步伐加快,规模加大。外资并购给我国带来的影响既有积极的一面,也有消极的一面。但从总体上讲,外资并购我国企业对于我国来讲仍然是利大于弊。但实践中不少规模较大的并购个案引发了一系列新的法律问题,因此,建立一套健全而完善的法律监管体系来规制外资并购行为,可能使我们以最小的代价赢得最大的收益。     

“关系性资源”在当代中国发展的困境

目前,在我国构建社会资本的条件尚不充分,如果强行进行社会资本的运行,那么,社会资本极易演变成"关系性资源",进而不利于社会的有效整合。本文通过对社会资本内涵的分析,力求探讨"关系性资源"和社会资本的关系,厘清社会资本和"关系性资源"的区别。     

Endogenous growth,the Solow model and human capital

Both endogenous growth theory and the (augmented) Solow model propose a role for human capital in the growth process though each is based on different conceptual arguments. Since both approaches can justify the inclusion of human capitallevels andgrowth rates in an output growth regression the two theories cannot readily be distinguished empirically. This paper argues that the variable most commonly used in empirical studies to proxy human capital (levels or growth) — school enrolment rates (SERs) — may capture bothstock andaccumulation effects, butchanges in SERs can provide useful additional dynamic information on the contribution of human capital to growth. Empirical evidence from samples of developed and less developed countries during 1960–85 suggests important growth effects associated both with ‘initial’ levels of, and changes in, SERs. The nature of these effects appears to differ between the two country groups.