Mapping service components to EJB business objects

The emerging trends for e-business engineering revolve around specialisation and cooperation. Successful companies focus on their core competencies and rely on a network of business partners for the support services required to compose a comprehensive offer for their customers. Modularity is crucial for a flexible e-business infrastructure, but related requirements seldom reflect on the design and operational models of business information systems. Software components are widely used for the implementation of e-business applications, with proven benefits in terms of system development and maintenance. We propose a service-oriented componentisation of e-business systems as a way to close the gap with the business models they support. Blurring the distinction between external services and internal capabilities, we propose a homogeneous model for the definition of e-business applications components and present a process-based technique for component modelling. We finally present an Enterprise Java Beans extension that implements the model

Service-oriented modeling for e-business applications components

The emerging trends for e-business engineering revolve around specialisation and cooperation. Successful companies focus on their core competences, and rely on a network of business partners for the support services required to compose a comprehensive offer for their customers. Modulariy is crucial for a flexible e-business infrastructure, but related requirements seldom reflect on the design and operational models of business information systems. Software components are widely used for the implementation of e-business applications, with proved benefits in terms of system development and maintenance. We propose a service-oriented componentisation of ebusiness systems as a way to close the gap with the business models they support. Blurring the distinction between external services and internal capabilities, we propose a homogeneous model for the definition of ebusiness applications components. After a brief discussion on the foundational aspects of the approach, we present the process-based technique we adopted for component modelling. We then present an infrastructure compliant with the model proposed that we built on top of an EJB (Enterprise Java Beans) platform

Where Schumpeter was Nearly Right - The Swedish Model and Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy

In Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy Joseph A. Schumpeter concluded that socialism would eventually displace capitalism in Western democracies. This would come about as a result of the superior performance of capitalism. We extract six "stylized" propositions that are essential elements of Schumpeter's prediction about the fate of capitalism. These propositions are confronted with the development of the Swedish economy. The three main results of the analysis are: (1) The evolution of the Swedish economy closely followed Shumpeter's predictions until about 1980: Large firms became increasingly predominant in production and innovative activity, ownership of firms became more and more concentrated, individual entrepreneurship waned in importance, the general public grew increasingly hostile towards capitalism, and by the late 1970s explicit proposals for a gradual transfer of ownership of firms from private hands were launched. (2) Design of tax and industrial policies fueled a development of the economy along the lines predicted by Schumpeter. In general, the policies discouraged private wealth accumulation. In particular, the policies favored concentration of firms and concentration of private ownership. (3) The turning point away from the path to socialism coincides with real world developments that disclosed two major flaws in Schumpeter´s analysis. First, the ever more obvious failure of socialism in Eastern Europe went against Schumpeter's assertion that socialism can work. Second, Schumpeter, who thought that modern technology would make the giant corporation increasingly predominant, did not foresee the revival of entrepreneurship that took place in the Western countries around 1980.Corporatism; Entrepreneurship; Industrial Policy; Schumpeter; Swedish Model

Spinning off new ventures: a typology of facilitating services

This study analyses the spin-out activity in seven technology transfer units, which are considered to be successes in Europe: Crealys in France, the Top Initiative of the university of Twente in the Netherlands, Leuven R&D at the KUL in Belgium, Business Develop-ment at IMEC in Belgium, BioM in Germany (Munich area), Technology Transfer Partners (TTP) and Scientific Generics, both in Cam-bridge, UK. In each of these institutes, an in depth analysis is made of how they organise the following activities: (1) sensibilisation and Detection of opportunities, (2) management of IPR, (3) selection of spin-out projects, (4) incubation and business plan preparation, (5) financing of these spin-outs and finally (6) the follow-up of spin-outs after start-up. Based upon the analysis of these activities, three different models have been defined: a self selective model, a supportive model and a protective model. In the first model, the specific aim is to generate as many start-ups as possible. Stimulating general entrepreneurship rather than financially or economically attractive companies are thus the goal. This means that sensibilisation and opportunity seeking is the main activity. In the second model, the emphasis lies on creating economically attractive companies with a transitional starter profile. These companies might not yet have a financially attractive business plan but have the ambition to make one in the future. Usually they are based upon the IP generated in the mother institute. Management of IPR and business plan preparation are crucial activities in this model. Finally, the protective model focuses on the creation of financially attractive companies, which receive VC-money at start. In addition to the previous activities, also financing activities are of crucial importance here. In addition to analysing the activities developed in each of these models, also theresources necessary to organise these activities are examined. In the first model, the crucial resources seem to be an experienced entrepreneur as manager who can sensibilise students, researchers and professors to start up a company and public money to facilitate this start up. In the second model, a financially autonomous organisation is needed which is strongly supported by the top management of the university in its activities. This organisation needs to have a minimum critical mass of people specialised in legal issues, IPR and business plan development. In addition, a public-private early stage. Capital fund is needed to support the start-ups. Finally, the protective organisation needs a worldwide recognised leading research team in a particular technology. The tech transfer or business development unit needs to be able to incubate the organisation and facilitate the recruitment of external management, attraction of international early stage venture capital and the formation of the company's intellectual property base

Intrapreneurship - An international study

This paper presents the results of a novel international study of intrapreneurship ( i.e., employees developing new business activities for their employer), carried out in eleven countries in the framework of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. At the individual level, it is found that intrapreneurs are much more likely to have intentions to start a new independent business than other employees. However, at the macro level�the study finds a negative correlation between intrapreneurship and independent entrepreneurship. One explanation for these contrasting outcomes is�a diverging effect of per capita income on intrapreneurship (positive effect) and early-stage entrepreneurial activity (negative effect). �

Promoting Entrepreneurship in the Welfare State

Entrepreneurship is largely ignored or treated in a highly simplified way in endogenous growth theory. Still, it is now widely recognized that the supply of entrepreneurial talent is likely to be important for economic growth, innovation and job creation. In this study we provide an in-depth examination of how the supply of productive entrepreneurship is likely to be affected by the kind of tax and welfare arrangements that may prevail in a mature welfare state. Sweden, allegedly the most extensive of all welfare states, is the object of the empirical analysis. It is argued that the Swedish welfare state early on chose a specific “Swedish Model” of trying to combine ambitious welfare programs and a high tax burden with good opportunities for economic growth. This particular view rested heavily on the assumption that innovative activity was best performed in large established firms and that entry of new firms was less important. Consequently, policy and institutions were geared to promoting certain types of activities which could deliver growth if scale economies are important and intrapreneurship can substitute for entrepreneurship. However, in an environment where entry, exit and turnover of firms are important for growth, and where scale-economies are less important, this kind of model may be more problematic. Both aggregate economic performance and data on firm growth and direct measures of entrepreneurial activity are broadly consistent with the identified structure of payoffs. A number of measures that can be implemented to strengthen entrepreneurial incentives within extensive welfare states are discussed, but the fact still remains that an entrepreneurial culture and a welfare state are very remotely related. As a result, the respective cultures are unlikely to be promoted by a similar set of institutions.Economic Growth; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Swedish Model; Welfare State

Promoting Entrepreneurship in the Welfare State

Entrepreneurship is largely ignored or treated in a highly simplified way in endogenous growth theory. Still, it is now widely recognized that the supply of entrepreneurial talent is likely to be important for economic growth, innovation and job creation. In this study we provide an in-depth examination of how the supply of productive entrepreneurship is likely to be affected by the kind of tax and welfare arrangements that may prevail in a mature welfare state. Sweden, allegedly the most extensive of all welfare states, is the object of the empirical analysis. It is argued that the Swedish welfare state early on chose a specific “Swedish Model” of trying to combine ambitious welfare programs and a high tax burden with good opportunities for economic growth. This particular view rested heavily on the assumption that innovative activity was best performed in large established firms and that entry of new firms was less important. Consequently, policy and institutions were geared to promoting certain types of activities which could deliver growth if scale economies are important and intrapreneurship can substitute for entrepreneurship. However, in an environment where entry, exit and turnover of firms are important for growth, and where scale-economies are less important, this kind of model may be more problematic. Both aggregate economic performance and data on firm growth and direct measures of entrepreneurial activity are broadly consistent with the identified structure of payoffs. A number of measures that can be implemented to strengthen entrepreneurial incentives within extensive welfare states are discussed, but the fact still remains that an entrepreneurial culture and a welfare state are very remotely related. As a result, the respective cultures are unlikely to be promoted by a similar set of institutions.Economic growth; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Swedish model; Welfare state

New Industries in Southeast Asia’s Late Industrialization: Evolution versus Creation - The Automation Industry in Penang (Malaysia) considered

Discourse on industry development and policy practice in late industrialization countries in East and Southeast Asia has predominantly tended to relate the emergence of new industries to ‘creation’ by the state and thereby to the role of state intervention or involvement in industrial growth and restructuring. On the other hand the role and position of (local) entrepreneurship in the genesis of new industries has been rather neglected, as little room was perceived for ‘autonomous’ development. Southeast Asian late industrialization is currently being confronted with the limits of development and expansion of specific (FDI-driven) export industries and thus with the necessity to devise new growth paths in industry (on the basis of high tech industries). This compels a reconsideration of policy practice and perceptions of modes of industry development on which it is based. In this paper we argue that a state-orchestrated ‘creation’ of priority industries is not the only possible route to new high tech industries in Southeast Asian late industrialization. This emanates from an analysis - based on field research - of the emergence and development of a recent growth industry in Malaysia, i.e. the manufacturing of automated equipment (or, automation industry) and its constituent firms in the Penang region. The analysis demonstrates that the mode of development of this industry conforms rather well to a number of notions from evolutionary economics on firm genesis and development in new industries. This suggests that successful industrial policies can be based on supporting an evolutionary ‘birth and development’ path, i.e. industry genesis and evolution as a more or less autonomous incremental process of the development of firms and their capabilities.industrial policy, late industrialization, automation industry, Malaysia, co-evolution, spin-out, diversification

Entrepreneurial Literary Theory: A Debate on Research and the Future of Academia

Across the world at present, researchers and teachers are being exhorted to become entrepreneurial. Universities are being restructured accordingly. The debate presented in this book considers what that involves and portends for academia. Literary studies are often regarded as the most resistant to – unfit for – entrepreneurial purposes. Literary research is therefore taken as a baseline for this debate. The uneasy place of literary research within profit-driven academia is revealing of the prevailing conditions for scholarship in all areas. Questions that are raised and discussed here include: What does doing research for the public good mean? What is the relationship between profits and benefits from research? What are applied and basic research? Are concepts of academic freedom and disinterestedness meaningful? What is the relationship between corporate and academic research? Are skills and knowledge different? Can pursuits like close reading and text interpretation be made profitable? What is literary value and how can it be measured? Can the literary system be modelled to profitable ends? Can university teaching be automatized? What are the differences between a standard publication agreement and a scholarly publication agreement? How can digital and open-access academic publication be made profitable? Does the academic monograph have a future? What sorts of knowledge and skills inform entrepreneurial leadership

Articulating Problems and Markets: A Translation Analysis of Entrepreneurs’ Emergent Value Propositions

In this qualitative study, the authors apply Callon’s sociology of translation to examine how new technology entrepreneurs enact material arguments that involve the first two moments of translation—problematization (defining a market problem) and interessement (defining a market and the firm’s relationship to it) - which in turn are represented in a claim, the value proposition. That emergent claim can then be represented and further changed during pitches. If accepted, it can then lead to the second two moments of translation: enrollment and mobilization. Drawing on written materials, observations, and interviews, we trace how these value propositions were iterated along three paths to better problematize and interesse, articulating a problem and market on which a business could plausibly be built. We conclude by discussing implications for understanding value propositions in entrepreneurship and, more broadly, using the sociology of translation to analyze emergent, material, consequential arguments. The study is based on data collected at the Austin Technology Incubator’s Student Entrepreneur Acceleration and Launch program (ATI SEAL) at The University of Texas at Austin.IC2 Institut