Paradise lost? The case of technology-based small firms in New Zealand in the post global financial crisis economic environment

In this paper we draw on two studies that used face to face, qualitative interviews with technology-based small firms (TBSFs) and informal interviews with key informants. The interviews took place with two data sets of TBSFs, the first with 20 firms in 2011 and the second with 34 agri-business TBSFs in 2013. This allows some temporal comparisons of the funding environment for TBSFs in New Zealand, but this was not a longitudinal study as the two data sets were composed from the recruitment of different firms. However, all the TBSFs were located in New Zealand, a small open economy with a limited domestic market, a population of 4.4 million, GDP per capita of US$32,260 (2010) and arguably an immature and limited financial infrastructure. This environment is compounded for founding technology-based entrepreneurs, since to develop and stay in New Zealand means accepting being a long distance from major overseas markets, when in theory at least TBSFs have potential to be in global markets. Such TBSFs, therefore, face pressure to move overseas for markets and for finance and other resources; if successful they may make attractive takeover targets for overseas investors and MNCs. Despite these challenges, TBSFs have been promoted as key contributors to GDP and a way of closing New Zealand’s productivity gap (compared with Australia and other developed nations). Although we find evidence of the development of embryonic regional and specialised business angel networks (BANs) on the supply-side of finance, there is still a marked reluctance to undertake a search for external equity and evidence of discouraged borrowing and discouraged grant-based applications on the demand-side. New Zealand is sometimes described as “paradise ” due to its natural and outstanding beauty, but in our conclusions we suggest that the comparatively stable economic environment has not operated in favour of TBSFs

Employee empowerment and HR flexibility in Information Technology SMEs

CAUL read and publish agreement 2023HR systems in IT organizations need to be flexible to enable them to adjust to the fast rate of technological change. Employee empowerment, often practiced at IT organizations under the banner of agile practices, has been highlighted as likely to enable HR flexibility. Based on a research panel based survey of top managers at 163 IT organizations in New Zealand and Australia, we confirmed positive effects of employee empowerment on four dimensions of HR flexibility: resource flexibility in employee skills and behaviors, coordination flexibility in employee skills and behaviors, resource flexibility in HR practices, and coordination flexibility in HR practices. The results are consistent with the view that, at IT organizations, employee empowerment both promotes employee ability and willingness to be flexible and facilitates the organizational structures and practices that enable flexible use of HR resources.fals

Corporate Social Responsibility in Vietnam: Systematic review of research and future directions.

Published source must be acknowledged with citationWhile research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is reaching new territories, the extent to which such literature manifests itself in developing countries is yet to be fully understood. To that end, this study investigates the understanding, evolution, and practice of CSR in Vietnam. A systematic review of the current literature in the recent past (2000-2020) has been embraced in this research. By analysing a total of 143 articles, we demonstrate that there has been visible growth in published articles related to CSR in Vietnam over the last 21 years. We demonstrate that CSR research in Vietnam has significantly grown in the recent past. Our results highlight the in-depth distribution of publications by year, journal, industry, nature, and focus of CSR research in the country. This study is not only the first to provide an enhanced overview of the current state of CSR knowledge in the country but also sets out directions within the CSR research agenda related to Vietnam and potentially other emerging and developing countries.fals

Paradise lost? The case of technology-based small firms in New Zealand in the post global financial crisis economic environment

In this paper we draw on two studies that used face to face, qualitative interviews with technology-based small firms (TBSFs) and informal interviews with key informants. The interviews took place with two data sets of TBSFs, the first with 20 firms in 2011 and the second with 34 agri-business TBSFs in 2013. This allows some temporal comparisons of the funding environment for TBSFs in New Zealand, but this was not a longitudinal study as the two data sets were composed from the recruitment of different firms. However, all the TBSFs were located in New Zealand, a small open economy with a limited domestic market, a population of 4.4 million, GDP per capita of US$32,260 (2010) and arguably an immature and limited financial infrastructure. This environment is compounded for founding technology-based entrepreneurs, since to develop and stay in New Zealand means accepting being a long distance from major overseas markets, when in theory at least TBSFs have potential to be in global markets. Such TBSFs, therefore, face pressure to move overseas for markets and for finance and other resources; if successful they may make attractive takeover targets for overseas investors and MNCs. Despite these challenges, TBSFs have been promoted as key contributors to GDP and a way of closing New Zealand’s productivity gap (compared with Australia and other developed nations). Although we find evidence of the development of embryonic regional and specialised business angel networks (BANs) on the supply-side of finance, there is still a marked reluctance to undertake a search for external equity and evidence of discouraged borrowing and discouraged grant-based applications on the demand-side. New Zealand is sometimes described as “paradise ” due to its natural and outstanding beauty, but in our conclusions we suggest that the comparatively stable economic environment has not operated in favour of TBSFs

Global emissions: A new contribution from the shadow economy

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Antibacterial Nanoparticle Monolayers Prepared on Chemically Inert Surfaces by Cooperative Electrostatic Adsorption (CELA)

Cooperative electrostatic adsorption (CELA) is used to deposit monolayer coatings of silver nanoparticles on relatively chemically inert polymers, polypropylene, and Tygon. Medically relevant components (tubing, vials, syringes) coated by this method exhibit antibacterial properties over weeks to months with the coatings being stable under constant-flow conditions. Antibacterial properties of the coatings are due to a slow release of Ag+ from the particles. The rate of this release is quantified by the dithiol-precipitation method coupled with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) analysis