Agency and similarity effects and the VC’s attitude towards academic spin-out investing

Our research seeks to develop understanding of the factors explaining venture capital investment managers’ attitudes towards investment in the unique context of academic spin-outs. We provide a novel integration of both VC fund characteristics and investment managers’ human capital characteristics with a unique hand-collected dataset of 68 early stage VC investment managers in Europe. Attitudes toward academic spin-out investing are positively affected by the presence of public sector capital and by investment managers who are more intensively involved with the entrepreneur. Specific human capital in investment managers who had worked in an academic environment is more likely associated with investment in academic spin-outs. In terms of general human capital, financial experience is positively related while entrepreneurial experience is negatively associated with investment attitude towards academic spin-outs. There may be a need to facilitate the attraction of people from industry and investment banking into public VC funds in particular.     

The EU’s Asia: renegotiating boundaries, renegotiating norms

The global financial crisis and the shift of economic strength to a rising Asia have ushered in European introspection and allusions to the decline of the European Union (EU). The EU’s ambitions to have a normative impact in the world have been called into question. The seven articles in this guest-edited issue explore processes of change relating to geopolitical definitions, regional actorness, interregionalism, and normative power within the framework of EU–Asia relations. This introduction contextualises the themes taken up in the different articles. It considers important divides in the recent history of Europe–Asia relations and outlines key transformations in the global environment, before critically reflecting on the significance of normative power for Europe.     

Lone Actor Terrorist Attack Planning and Preparation: A Data‐Driven Analysis,

This article provides an in‐depth assessment of lone actor terrorists’ attack planning and preparation. A codebook of 198 variables related to different aspects of pre‐attack behavior is applied to a sample of 55 lone actor terrorists. Data were drawn from open‐source materials and complemented where possible with primary sources. Most lone actors are not highly lethal or surreptitious attackers. They are generally poor at maintaining operational security, leak their motivations and capabilities in numerous ways, and generally do so months and even years before an attack. Moreover, the “loneness” thought to define this type of terrorism is generally absent; most lone actors uphold social ties that are crucial to their adoption and maintenance of the motivation and capability to commit terrorist violence. The results offer concrete input for those working to detect and prevent this form of terrorism and argue for a re‐evaluation of the “lone actor” concept.     

A comparison of data protection legislation and policies across the EU

Although the protection of personal data is harmonized within the EU by Directive 95/46/EC and will be further harmonized by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, there are significant differences in the ways in which EU member states implemented the protection of privacy and personal data in national laws, policies, and practices. This paper presents the main findings of a research project that compares the protection of privacy and personal data in eight EU member states: France, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The comparison focuses on five major themes: awareness and trust, government policies for personal data protection, the applicable laws and regulations, implementation of those laws and regulations, and supervision and enforcement.The comparison of privacy and data protection regimes across the EU shows some remarkable findings, revealing which countries are frontrunners and which countries are lagging behind on specific aspects. For instance, the roles of and interplay between governments, civil rights organizations, and data protections authorities vary from country to country. Furthermore, with regard to privacy and data protection there are differences in the intensity and scope of political debates, information campaigns, media attention, and public debate. New concepts like privacy impact assessments, privacy by design, data breach notifications and big data are on the agenda in some but not in all countries. Significant differences exist in (the levels of) enforcement by the different data protection authorities, due to different legal competencies, available budgets and personnel, policies, and cultural factors.     

Information society policy in the developing world: A critical assessment

The Global Information Society (GIS) has in recent years been high on the political agenda of Western countries. These countries have been concerned with the development of Information Infrastructures in order to achieve the Information Society. In the West there has been a broad consensus about the framework in which the development of the GIS needs to take place. On both national and international levels a framework has to be established which supports competition, encourages private investment, supports flexible regulatory framework and allows for open access to networks. Recently this dominant scenario has been transposed as the appropriate scenario for the development of Information Infrastructures in the developing world. This article sets out to give an overview of GIS policy in a developmental context. It elaborates on recent policy initiatives in the area. At the international level it critically analyses changes in the communications industries and in the global economy. At the national level it critically analyses the assumptions of the dominant scenario and its proposed strategy for achieveing the GIS.     

Societal openness during the urban crisis. Partner selection in the 19th-century Belgian textile cities Ghent and Verviers

This paper examines the partner selection of the lower classes during an urban crisis period in early industrial Belgian cities. It was found that in this period characterized by an economic transition, overpopulation, migration and a low standard of living, social heterogamy was high, whereas social homogamy increased, or was ‘restored’, in the subsequent period. The urban crisis effect on partner selection contradicts the claims of modernization theory that there was a gradual increase in societal openness and that societal openness was typically modern, but it fits the idea of the informalization of marriage, a process marked by an increase in unmarried cohabitation and illegitimacy.     

Unravelling the linkages between the millennium development goals for poverty,education, access to water and household water use in developing countries: Evidence from Madagascar

All members of the United Nations have pledged to meet eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015. This study looks at the MDG objectives and linkages between poverty, education, access to water, and household water use based on primary data collected in Madagascar. We find strong links between these MDGs. Better educated and higher income households rely significantly more on private water supplies and use significantly more water. Econometric results show that, for poorer households who rely on public sources, improving access to public water taps (by reducing the distance to such a water source) would not alter dramatically water use patterns. Improved access does free up a significant amount of time that could contribute to poverty reduction. The willingness of households to pay for improved access is very price sensitive, probably because of the liquidity constraints of these households.     

Regulations,Brokers, and Interlinkages: The Institutional Organization of Wholesale Markets in India

There is a vigorous debate on the liberalisation of heavily regulated agricultural markets in India. A crucial institutional characteristic is the role of state regulated brokers in wholesale markets. Relying on data from a unique survey in Uttarakhand, a state in North India, we find that regulations on margins are ineffective as most brokers charge rates that significantly exceed the regulated ones. We also find that a majority of farmers self-select into long-term relationships with brokers. These relationships allow some of the farmers to interlink credit and insurance markets to the agricultural output market. This interlinkage does however not appear to be an instrument for farmer exploitation (as it does not lead to worse inputs, high interest rates, or lower implicit output prices), but is seemingly an extra service by brokers as to establish farmer loyalty to them and thus to ensure future supplies.     

Office effects and campaign spending in a semi-open list PR system: The Belgian/Flemish federal and regional elections 1999–2010

In majoritarian systems, campaign spending is generally found to be more effective for challengers than for incumbents. This article seeks to understand how the personal campaign spending of a candidate impacts preference votes in a semi-open List PR system. We analyse the effect of office in general, postulating that the size of the effect varies with the prominence of the office. On the basis of the pooled data on six different elections in the Flemish region of Belgium, we show that personal spending has an effect on the number and the relative share of preference votes, except for ministers and (to a lesser extent) mayors of local communalities. Irrespective of the office, personal spending has no effect on the odds of actually obtaining a seat.     

Local governments and their arm’s length bodies

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we discuss the state of the art on the creation of arm’s length bodies (ALBs) by local governments. We make three main contributions. First, there are many different types of ALBs and each country has its own categories; an expert survey was held identifying three common types of body, to enable future comparative research. Second, we point out that the creation of ALBs has led to a number of new challenges for local governments, particularly regarding governing bodies at arm’s length to ensure ALBs’ good performance. A lack of capacity and information have to be countered, for example, by increased monitoring – also for democratic accountability purposes. Special attention is needed for the multiple principal problem that arises when local governments jointly create ALBs. Third, research into local ALBs is still in its early stages. We present a research agenda to develop knowledge on the topic.