Entrepreneurial Action and Entrepreneurial Rents

This dissertation is comprised of three independently standing research papers (chapters 2, 3 and 4) that come together in the common theme of investigating the relationship between entrepreneurial action and performance. The introduction chapter argues that this theme is the main agenda of an entrepreneurial approach to strategy, and provides some background and context for the core chapters. The entrepreneurial approach to strategy falls in line with an array of action-based theories of strategy that trace their economic foundations to the Austrian school of economics. Chapters 2 and 3 take a game theoretical modeling and computer simulation approach and represent one of the first attempts at formal analysis of the Austrian economic foundations of action-based strategy theory. These chapters attempt to demonstrate ways in which formal analysis can begin to approach compatibility with the central tenets of Austrian economics (i.e., subjectivism, dynamism, and methodological individualism). The simulation results shed light on our understanding of the relationship between opportunity creation and discovery, and economic rents in the process of moving towards and away from equilibrium. Chapter 4 operationalizes creation and discovery as exploration and exploitation in an empirical study using data from the Kauffman Firm Survey and highlights the trade-offs faced by start-ups in linking action to different dimensions of performance (i.e., survival, profitability, and getting acquired). Using multinomial logistic regression for competing risks analysis and random effects panel data regression, we find that high technology start-ups face a trade-off between acquisition likelihood and profitability-given-survival while low and medium technology start-ups face a trade-off between survival and profitability-given-survival. Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation by highlighting some of the overall contributions and suggesting avenues for future research

Competition Law Enforcement in China: Between Technocracy and Industrial Policy

The article provides a rare reconstruction of a number of early cases decided under the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law. In particular, the article seeks to go behind the published decisions of the responsible authorities, to reconstruct their decision-making process in particular by identifying the sources of consultation and the arguments that various stakeholders presented to the authorities about what course of action to follow

Does foreign aid delay stabilization

This paper addresses the question how the expectation of unconditional external shocks like foreign aid increase or decrease saving and, thus, accelerate or delay macroeconomic stabilizations. We build on Casella and Eichengreen (1996) who first used Alesina and Drazen's (1991) war-of-attrition model to investigate the consequences of anticipation of foreign aid on the expected date of stabilization. Casella and Eichengreen's main result, namely that aid that is announced or disbursed after critical dates will delay stabilization, will be shown to be based on an invalidly modified equilibrium condition. A correct incorporation of anticipated foreign aid in the war-of-attrition model yields the result that aid unambiguously accelerates stabilization

Two Coalitional Models for Network Formation and Matching Games

This thesis comprises of two separate game theoretic models that fall under the general umbrella of network formation games. The first is a coalitional model of interaction in social networks that is based on the idea of social distance, in which players seek interactions with similar others. Our model captures some of the phenomena observed on such networks, such as homophily driven interactions and the formation of small worlds for groups of players. Using social distance games, we analyze the interactions between players on the network, study the properties of efficient and stable networks, relate them to the underlying graphical structure of the game, and give an approximation algorithm for finding optimal social welfare. We then show that efficient networks are not necessarily stable, and stable networks do not necessarily maximise welfare. We use the stability gap to investigate the welfare of stable coalition structures, and propose two new solution concepts with improved welfare guarantees. The second model is a compact formulation of matchings with externalities. Our formulation achieves tractability of the representation at the expense of full expressivity. We formulate a template of solution concept that applies to games where externalities are involved, and instantiate it in the context of optimistic, neutral, and pessimistic reasoning. Then we investigate the complexity of the representation in the context of many-to-many and one-to-one matchings, and provide both computational hardness results and polynomial time algorithms where applicable

Western Balkans and the European Union. ZEI Discussion Paper C258 2020

Individual assessment of each country's relations with the EU

The BG News March 23, 2011

The BGSU campus student newspaper March 23, 2011. Volume 101 - Issue 121https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news/9385/thumbnail.jp

The impact of software as a service in software piracy : has the change in the distribution and sale of software provided not only an accurate answer against software piracy but also an increase in consumer-value?

This dissertation aims to answer the question “Has the change in the distribution and sale of software provided not only an accurate answer against software piracy but also an increase in consumer-value?” and it supports its argument not only on the current literature available on the software industry and on software piracy but also on the personal research carried out through an extensive survey of different people in different age groups and from different countries. To aid the analysis, strategic frameworks such as PEST and Five Forces of Porter were used, giving the reader a special landscape view of the industry’s characteristics to better understand how the changes in software distribution will impact consumer demand and satisfaction. It is important to note also that, during the literature review stage, it was understood that authors disagree on several important issues regarding software such as its classification, its origin and whether or not it constitutes patentable subject matter. This particular path led me to question the actions of software companies and whether there was a need or not to patent software. Through this road, I was led to the issue of piracy and to the action that companies have taken with changing the way software was produced and sold to better fit the current landscape of the industry