The first phase of the internationalisation process: export determinants in firms of the Former Soviet Union

A fundamental part of the transition process is for firms to integrate with the world economy. After having been denied access for many years to world markets under totalitarian rule and the auspices of the CMEA, this will require significant advances in labour productivity, product technology, marketing and managerial know how. Following the collapse of the CMEA and the ensuing decline in domestic demand producers in economies of transition have been forced to export to developed markets, in particular to the EU. Some economies of Central and Eastern Europe (in particular Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic) have successfully managed to reorientate their trade to Western Europe. In contrast Russia and the European CIS have lagged behind. This study attempts to examine those firms in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus which have succeeded to export to the West. By employing linear, logistic and autoregression factors which figure in the firm's decision process of exporting shall be identified. The impact of ownership, firm characteristics and managerial attitudes on a firm's export propensity and intensity shall also be discussed

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

An Approach to Using Non Safety-Assured Programmable Components in Modest Integrity Systems

Programmable components (like personal computers or smart devices) can offer considerable benefits in terms of usability and functionality in a safety-related system. However there is a problem in justifying the use of programmable components if the components have not been safety justified to an appropriate integrity (e.g. to SIL 1 of IEC 61508). This paper outlines an approach (called LowSIL) developed in the UK CINIF nuclear industry research programme to justify the use of non safety-assured programmable components in modest integrity systems. This is a seven step approach that can be applied to new systems from an early design stage, or retrospectively to existing systems. The stages comprise: system characterisation, component suitability assessment, failure analysis, failure mitigation, identification of additional defences, identification of safety evidence requirements, and collation and evaluation of evidence. In the case of personal computers, there is supporting guidance on usage constraints, claim limits on reliability, and advice on “locking down” the component to maximise reliability. The approach is demonstrated for an example system. The approach has been applied successfully to a range of safety-related systems used in the nuclear industry

Bogoliubov transformations and exact isolated solutions for simple non-adiabatic Hamiltonians

We present a new method for finding isolated exact solutions of a class of non-adiabatic Hamiltonians of relevance to quantum optics and allied areas. Central to our approach is the use of Bogoliubov transformations of the bosonic fields in the models. We demonstrate the simplicity and efficiency of this method by applying it to the Rabi Hamiltonian.Comment: LaTeX, 16 pages, 1 figure. Minor additions and journal re

Coupled Cluster Method Calculations Of Quantum Magnets With Spins Of General Spin Quantum Number

We present a new high-order coupled cluster method (CCM) formalism for the ground states of lattice quantum spin systems for general spin quantum number, $s$. This new ``general-$s$'' formalism is found to be highly suitable for a computational implementation, and the technical details of this implementation are given. To illustrate our new formalism we perform high-order CCM calculations for the one-dimensional spin-half and spin-one antiferromagnetic {\it XXZ} models and for the one-dimensional spin-half/spin-one ferrimagnetic {\it XXZ} model. The results for the ground-state properties of the isotropic points of these systems are seen to be in excellent quantitative agreement with exact results for the special case of the spin-half antiferromagnet and results of density matrix renormalisation group (DMRG) calculations for the other systems. Extrapolated CCM results for the sublattice magnetisation of the spin-half antiferromagnet closely follow the exact Bethe Ansatz solution, which contains an infinite-order phase transition at $\Delta=1$. By contrast, extrapolated CCM results for the sublattice magnetisation of the spin-one antiferromagnet using this same scheme are seen to go to zero at $\Delta \approx 1.2$, which is in excellent agreement with the value for the onset of the Haldane phase for this model. Results for sublattice magnetisations of the ferrimagnet for both the spin-half and spin-one spins are non-zero and finite across a wide range of $\Delta$, up to and including the Heisenberg point at $\Delta=1$.Comment: 5 Figures. J. Stat. Phys. 108, p. 401 (2002

Atomic scale lattice distortions and domain wall profiles

We present an atomic scale theory of lattice distortions using strain related variables and their constraint equations. Our approach connects constrained {\it atomic length} scale variations to {\it continuum} elasticity and describes elasticity at several length scales. We apply the approach to a two-dimensional square lattice with a monatomic basis, and find the elastic deformations and hierarchical atomic relaxations in the vicinity of a domain wall between two different homogeneous strain states. We clarify the microscopic origin of gradient terms, some of which are included phenomenologically in Ginzburg-Landau theory, by showing that they are anisotropic.Comment: 6 figure

Phase Transitions in the Spin-Half J_1--J_2 Model

The coupled cluster method (CCM) is a well-known method of quantum many-body theory, and here we present an application of the CCM to the spin-half J_1--J_2 quantum spin model with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbour interactions on the linear chain and the square lattice. We present new results for ground-state expectation values of such quantities as the energy and the sublattice magnetisation. The presence of critical points in the solution of the CCM equations, which are associated with phase transitions in the real system, is investigated. Completely distinct from the investigation of the critical points, we also make a link between the expansion coefficients of the ground-state wave function in terms of an Ising basis and the CCM ket-state correlation coefficients. We are thus able to present evidence of the breakdown, at a given value of J_2/J_1, of the Marshall-Peierls sign rule which is known to be satisfied at the pure Heisenberg point (J_2 = 0) on any bipartite lattice. For the square lattice, our best estimates of the points at which the sign rule breaks down and at which the phase transition from the antiferromagnetic phase to the frustrated phase occurs are, respectively, given (to two decimal places) by J_2/J_1 = 0.26 and J_2/J_1 = 0.61.Comment: 28 pages, Latex, 2 postscript figure