Audit of Moving Image Education & Media Access Centres in Scotland

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Knowledge based entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic and Hungary: results from 4 case studies

This paper describes knowledge based entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic and Hungary, in particular the growth and development process of 4 firms are studied: Dekonta, an environmental services firm, Et netera, an IT services firm, both operating in Czech Republic, along with a data recovery firm, Kurt, and a biopharmaceutical firm, Solvo, both operating in Hungary. The objectives of the case studies are to illustrate experiences of knowledge based entrepreneurship within a transition environment in terms of their different growth and development paths. By carrying out in depth case studies using semi structured interviews with the founders, top management teams, core employees and key stakeholders in industrial associations I am able to explain the growth process of entrepreneurial knowledge based ventures. I assume an ecological view of the firm and examine the role of internal, strategic, network and external factors in this development process. I propose that the relative importance of these factors evolve over time from start up to maturity. Moreover, I anticipate that there will be complementarities between these factors in the spirit of Milgrom and Roberts (1995) and Von Tunzelmann (2003). This approach should help us better understand the complex nature of entrepreneurship. The key contributions of these case studies are the application of an ecological conceptual framework to the development of knowledge based firms in Central and Eastern Europe, and so the viability of this model is tested within the transition environment. I follow the recommendations by Ireland et al. (2005) and introduce a temporal element in order to analyse the shift in importance of the factors impacting on firm development and growth, thus hoping to deal with some of the criticisms on existing entrepreneurial research

Integrated information about the multifaceted performance of the entity

The objective of the paper is to present a proposal concerning the scope and structure of information made available to external users about various aspects of business entities' performance, as well as to ascertain if the largest Polish listed companies disclose comprehensive and balanced information about their performance. Research has revealed that such information is published on a very limited scale.Celem artykułu jest sformułowanie propozycji dotyczącej zakresu i struktury informacji o wieloaspektowych dokonaniach przedsiębiorstwa dla użytkowników zewnętrznych oraz zbadanie praktyki największych spółek giełdowych w Polsce w zakresie publikowania wszechstronnej informacji o dokonaniach. Z przeprowadzonego badania wynika, że zakres publikacji przez dwadzieścia największych spółek warszawskiej Giełdy Papierów Wartościowych wszechstronnej i zintegrowanej informacji o dokonaniach w różnych aspektach jest bardzo ograniczony

Success Factors of Small and Medium-Sized International Enterprises in the Chinese Market from the Perspective of Polish Direct Investment (Cultural Approach)

Globalization has resulted in increasing transfer of firms operations, regardless of their size, to other countries. The recent dynamic emergence of China in the global economy, connecting with the vast inflows of foreign direct investment in their territory and common adjustments problems of many Western companies, has resulted in growing interest for best suitable business practices to this culturally and socially different environment. In this article, the key factors critical to the success of international companies in this region are introduced, with particular consideration to indigenous cultural elements and specific operation requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises in Business-to-Business sectors. The presented information are based on the broad literature review, five years of direct observation and thirty eight interviews conducted with Polish managers directly residing in China. In addition, some practical recommendations for managers and further research are given.Globalizacja wymusza na firmach, niezależnie od ich wielkości, coraz częstsze przenoszenie operacji do innych krajów. Dynamiczne pojawienie się Chin w światowej gospodarce i szeroki napł;yw zagranicznych inwestycji bezpośrednich na ich teren oraz problemy adaptacyjne wielu zachodnich przedsiębiorstw, spowodował;y zainteresowanie najlepszymi praktykami biznesowymi dostosowanymi do tego odmiennego kulturowo i społ;ecznie otocznia. W artykule zaprezentowane został;y najważniejsze czynnik mające wpł;yw na osiągnięcie sukcesu przez firmy międzynarodowe na tym obszarze, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem aspektów kulturowych i specyfiki dział;ania mał;ych i średnich podmiotów na rynkach B2B. Prezentowane informacje są oparte na przeglądzie literatury, pięcioletnich obserwacjach bezpośrednich oraz trzydziestu ośmiu wywiadach przeprowadzonych z menadżerami polskich przedsiębiorstw odpowiedzialnymi za operacje w Chinach. Dodatkowo wskazano kilka praktycznych rekomendacji menadżerskich oraz możliwości dalszych badań

Business incubators in cee countries – new coordinates for development

Business incubators are institutions that support the entrepreneurial process, helping to increase survival rates for innovative startup companies and for small companies. Entrepreneurs with feasible projects are selected and admitted into the incubators, where they are offered business support resources and services. Across Europe, in general, and in Central and Eastern European countries, in particular, there are a variety of business incubator models and precise modalities which reflect the local, regional and national circumstances and priorities. Although they share basic features in common, there are also significant differences relating to stakeholder objectives, target markets, and the precise configuration of incubator facilities and services. These differences are partly a reflection of location-specific factors of an economic, social, cultural, institutional, policy nature and it is important that these local factors are taken into account in defining best practice.business incubators, start up firms, development, financing.

Quantifying Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in Management of Investment-Construction Projects: Insights from Bayesian Model Averaging

The problem with evaluating investment projects is that there are many factors that determine the degree of their successful conclusion. Consequently, there has been an active debate for years as to which critical success factors (CSFs) contribute most to the performance of construction projects. This is because the practice of empirical research is based on two steps: first, researchers choose a particular model from the space of all possible models, and second, they act as if the chosen model is the only one that fits the data and describes the phenomenon under study. Hence, there are many CSF lists that can be found in the literature, owing to the uncertainty at the model selection stage, which is usually ignored. Alternatively, model averaging accounts for this model uncertainty. In this study, the Bayesian model averaging and data from a survey of Polish construction managers were used to investigate the potential of 28 factors describing a diverse set of characteristics in explaining the performance of construction projects in Poland. Determinants of successful completion of investment projects are categorized by their level of evidential strength, which is derived from posterior inclusion probabilities (PIPs), i.e., providing strong, medium and weak evidence

Reaching Across the Communication Gulf: Reflections on the Challenges of Environmental Assistance Programs

Several experiences in international environmental cooperation and assistance are examined to understand how communication across differing traditions, legal systems, cultures, history, and language has impacted joint efforts to develop stronger environmental regimes. The article concludes that efforts to build more effective environmental protection regimes in support of both domestic and international environmental goals must become much smarter to overcome communication barriers and related impediments to effective joint activities. Different traditions can coexist and even work productively together where there is strong and equal motivation on both sides. But when these conditions are absent, the international partners need to find additional bridging tools and must work explicitly to identify genuinely common goals.

Dealing with the Bad Loans of the Chinese Banks

Chinese banks suffer from serious financial fragility manifested by high proportions of non-performing loans and low capital-adequacy ratios. A key policy introduced recently by the Chinese government to reduce financial risks is the establishment of four asset management companies (AMCs) for dealing with bad loans. Drawing on the experiences of the Resolution Trust Corporation in the United States and bank restructuring in the Central European transition economies, we argue that the original AMC design will not be successful in resolving the existing non-performing loans (NPLs) nor will it prevent the creation of new bad loans. We recommend a modification of the current proposal that redefines the relationships between the parent banks and the AMCs by transferring the deposits of problem enterprises along with their NPLs from parent banks to AMCs.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39741/3/wp357.pd