Comparative Venture Capital Governance. Private versus Labour Sponsored Venture Capital Funds

Private independent limited partnership venture capital funds receive capital from institutional investors, without tax incentives. Limited partnership investment activities are governed by restrictive covenants that are determined by negotiated contract between the fund managers (general partners) and the institutional investors (limited partners). By contrast, Canadian Labour Sponsored Venture Capital Corporations (LSVCCs) receive capital only from individual investors who receive tax breaks on capital contributions of up to CAN$5,000. LSVCC investment activities are governed by statutory restrictions. This chapter contrasts the governance of LSVCCs to limited partnerships. We also summarize Canadian evidence on the impact of LSVCC governance and tax incentives: (1) on the distribution of venture capital funding between private and LSVCC funds; (2) on the unusually large overhang of uninvested capital in the Canadian venture capital industry; (3) the portfolio size (i.e. number of investee firms per fund) of private funds versus LSVCCs; and (4) the performance of LSVCCs relative to other types of venture capital organiziations and other comparable investments for individual investors.venture capital, Canada, tax, government, crowding out, portfolio size, governance

Marketing in schools, commercialization and sustainability: policy disjunctures surrounding the commercialization of childhood and education for sustainable lifestyles in England

Capitalist expansion is predicated on consumption and growth driven by citizens following their individual preferences in the marketplace. To promote consumption and influence consumer wants and desire, propaganda is used to persuade citizens to purchase products using a wide and diverse range of techniques. In recent decades, this has involved an increase in the marketing of products and consumerist values to children through the education system and the broader media. This article argues that successive UK governments’ public policy in this area has been characterized by inaction, inertia and contradiction and that the resulting policy disjunctures are at variance with their public rhetoric about the commercialization of childhood and professed objectives regarding the promotion of environmental awareness and sustainable lifestyles in schools

THE POWER OF SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM IN ENHANCING BRAND IMAGE - A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF KIA SPONSORING THE FIFA WORLD CUP 2010

In this research, the effectiveness is defined by the success of a sponsorship program to capture the audience attention in elevating the brand power and brand image. Today, a large number of events are using sponsorship support to offer more exciting programs and to help defray rising costs. Sponsorship allows companies to reach specifically targeted niche markets without any waste. Sponsorship offers the possibility of achieving several goals at once. Just like attendance profiles, marketing opportunities or media coverage, this rich emotional content of sport events may affect sponsors’ return on investment. Most sponsorship deals involve long-term relationship. The visibility of sponsorship is bound to affect the image of the company as surely as the company’s logo and livery. Subsequently, an unpleasant thought-out sponsorship may deliver no effect or in certain case scenario it may backfire the sponsorship return on investment. The purpose of this quantitative study is to understand the effectiveness of Kia Motors sponsoring The FIFA World Cup 2010 to enhance branding. From the result of this research, it is clear that Congruence between Sponsor and Sponsored Object, Sponsored Object Category Involvement, Sponsor Category Involvement, Sponsorship Attitude helps the sponsorship program of Kia sponsoring The FIFA World Cup 2010 to be effective. Some of the respondent has also give a good opinion that sponsorship creates a better atmosphere in a sports competition as well as it is a colorful to the sport competition. It is good that Kia have chosen the World Cup as a sponsorship medium because it leads to a successful and effective sponsorship programsponsorship, marketing, effectiveness

Innovation, generative relationships and scaffolding structures: implications of a complexity perspective to innovation for public and private interventions

The linear model of innovation has been superseded by a variety of theoretical models that view the innovation process as systemic, complex, multi-level, multi-temporal, involving a plurality of heterogeneous economic agents. Accordingly, the emphasis of the policy discourse has changed over time. The focus has shifted from the direct public funding of basic research as an engine of innovation, to the creation of markets for knowledge goods, to, eventually, the acknowledgement that knowledge transfer very often requires direct interactions among innovating actors. In most cases, policy interventions attempt to facilitate the match between “demand” and “supply” of the knowledge needed to innovate. A complexity perspective calls for a different framing, one focused on the fostering of processes characterized by multiple agency levels, multiple temporal scales, ontological uncertainty and emergent outcomes. This contribution explores what it means to design interventions in support of innovation processes inspired by a complex systems perspective. It does so by analyzing two examples of coordinated interventions: a public policy funding innovating networks (with SMEs, research centers and university), and a private initiative, promoted by a network of medium-sized mechanical engineering firms, that supports innovation by means of technology brokerage. Relying on two unique datasets recording the interactions of the organizations involved in these interventions, social network analysis and qualitative research are combined in order to investigate network dynamics and the roles of specific actors in fostering innovation processes. Then, some general implications for the design of coordinated interventions supporting innovation in a complexity perspective are drawn

The Origins and the Evolution of Health Economics: a discipline by itself? Led by economists, practitioners or politics?

Health has become a dominant economic and political issue over the past 40 years, with nations experiencing rapid rises in health care spending, and the health sector presenting high levels of expansion, rationalization and organization. I describe how by the end of World War II, both the intellectual and financial resources were being made available to answer the emerging empiricallydriven questions for a new applied branch of economic analysis: Health Economics. I also discuss the driving forces for the evolution of this new field, while identifying two distinct paths in health economic thought: the first rising from a territory previously ploughed, namely by Mushkin (1962), and later developed by Grossman (1972; the second of which stemming from Arrow’s 1963 paper ‘Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care’, a singularity amongst his mathematical economics pearls. Blaug remarked, in 1998: “health economics would seem to be a perfect topic for heterodox dissent and yet, surprisingly enough, radical economists and Marxists have not on the whole been attracted to health economics”. My view is this could have been because “mathematical economists” stepped forward and challenged themselves to solve problems such an unorthodox market posed.Health Economics, Health Care Sector/ U.S. History, Social Welfare

From Fragmentation to Function: Critical Concepts and Writings on Social Capital Markets' Structure, Operation, and Innovation

We hope to see a future in which more funds flow to investments seeking the generation of social and/or environmental value in conjunction with some level of financial performance. As the 'capital markets' moniker would suggest, we would like to see these capital flows be performance-based (so that funds advance the work of high-performance investees, while being less accessible to lower-performing and/or riskier ventures). Furthermore, we would like to see these investments adopt structures that more completely address the diverse needs and interests of investors and investees. Our ambition is that by better organizing the ideas and initiatives of the many individuals who have worked to frame this emerging market, these goals may be advanced. The paper's secondary goals are to help focus future research and praxis on efforts that build on the significant body of existing work without unduly re-treading well-worn analytical paths. This paper seeks to promote an elevated discussion of the social capital markets, a discourse focusing on  high-leverage issues. The paper also invites experts from related academic and practical fields to engage in a conversation that has to this point largely been conducted between social sector professionals turning their attention to capital flows and finance professionals placing their expertise in the service of social purposes

Cluster-based innovation policies: a methodological approach applied to biotechnology research in Flanders.

In this paper, we apply a network methods approach to understand clustering in new technologies. Sociometric modelling techniques are used to map the technology relationships between academic as well as industry organisations in the field of transgene plants. We demonstrate how different clusters of innovative organisations can be detected and how these clusters can be related to the evolution of the new technology. Implications for technology policy are discussed.Biotechnology; Methods; Industry; Implications;

Regulating Private Health Insurance in France : New Challenges for Employer-Based Complementary Health Insurance

In France, people obtain basic health insurance coverage through a public health insurance system. Although public coverage is comprehensive, substantial co-payments and deductibles are more and more required and individuals become increasingly dependant on private complementary health insurance, to be better reimbursed. In the context of strengthened constraints to control public health spending, the market for complementary cover is indeed likely to develop. This expansion has several implications for the regulation of private health insurance. Starting in the early 2000s, public policies have emphasized tools that directly motivate employers to provide group-insurance schemes. These include subsidies to employers for offering complulsory, supplementary coverage, and mandating social partners to negociate the implementation of health coverage in every compagny, whatever its size or activity. Such changes tend, to some extent, to "re-couple" health insurance with companies. This paper explores the implications of this experience for France.Private health care insurance, complementary employer-provided health insurance.