Entrepreneurship and Creative Destruction

The study deals with reasons for the inefficient operation of the business sector in the economy through the analysis of the relationship between disruptive innovation and creative destruction. The research is carried out in the following logical sequence: the first stage presents William Baumol’s hypothesis about why entrepreneurship makes some societies richer and some poorer

Analysis of Freshmen Retention: Fall 1998 to Fall 1999

Just over one in five Western freshmen in the entering class of 1998 (21.6%) did not return to enroll in fall of 1999. This is an in-depth report of the possible factors influencing freshman retention. Policy implications are included in the conclusion

Analysis of Freshmen Retention: Fall 1998 to Fall 1999. Executive Summary

INTRODUCTION In fall of 1998, Western enrolled 2199 new freshmen; in the fall of 1999, 1725 of them returned, for a 78.4% retention rate. This study examine what influences freshman retention and also grade point average, the key indicator of academic adjustment and by far the most powerful predictor of retention. The orientation of this analysis, like all those performed by the Office of Institutional Research and Resource Planning, is toward policy. We seek to develop knowledge that may help Western serve its students and the public better-in this case by improving early academic adjustment and increasing retention. All Western students are admitted because they show the promise to succeed. Some of those who encounter adjustment difficulties early or decide not to return may have learned that college is not the best alternative for them. For most, however, adjustment difficulties and non-retention reflect a failure on the student\u27s part, or a failure of the institution to support the student as well as we might have, or both. Our analysis of what influences retention identifies many factors Western cannot change, such as students\u27 high school academic achievement, but our primary goal is to identify factors Western has some ability to change, measured as early in students\u27 experience as possible. SUMMARY This copy of Focus summarizes the findings from a much longer technical report examining retention among native freshmen who entered Western in fall, 1998. (To obtain a copy of the whole report see the bottom of page six.) To increase our understanding of why students were or were not retained at Western, the study used data from Admissions and Registrar\u27s files including course transcripts for all 1998 entering freshmen, a survey of 600 selected at random, and in-depth interviews with 32 who received low grades their first quarter. A few withdrawals (14.4% or 3.1% of the freshman class) realized almost immediately that Western and/or college was not right for them and left during or after fall quarter. Most withdrawals, however, (62.2% or 13.4% of the freshman class) completed the academic year, then chose not to return. One factor was found to predict early withdrawal: living on versus off campus. Withdrawals who live on campus were nearly twice as likely as those who lived off campus to complete the freshman year

The ethics of participating in research

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Annette J Braunack-Maye

The ethics of participating in research

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Annette J Braunack-Maye

On Justification, Idealization, and Discursive Purchase

Conceptions of acceptability-based moral or political justification take it that authoritative acceptability, widely conceived, constitutes, or contributes to, validity, or justification. There is no agreement as to what bar for authoritativeness such justification may employ. The paper engages the issue in relation to (i) the level of idealization that a bar for authoritativeness, ψ, imparts to a standard of acceptability-based justification, S, and (ii) the degree of discursive purchase of the discursive standing that S accords to people when it builds ψ. I argue that (i) and (ii) are interdependent: high idealization values entail low discursive purchase, while high degrees of purchase require low idealization values. I then distinguish between alethic conceptions of justification that prioritize ends that commit to high idealization values, and recognitive conceptions that favor high discursive purchase. On this basis, I argue for a moderately recognitivist constraint on idealization. To render the recognitive discursive minimum available to relevant people at the site of justification, S should set ψ low enough so that it is a genuine option for actual people to reject relevant views in ways that S recognizes as authoritative. (The Appendix applies this to a Forst-type view of reciprocity of reasons to draw out some limitations of this view.) [Draft available from author on request.

Der Einfluss der Kapazitätsgröße und -auslastung auf den Kostenverlauf ausgewählter Hilfskostenstellen von Molkereien - Abteilung Dampfversorgung

Die Kostenanalyse zur Bestimmung des Einflusses der Kapazitätsgröße und -auslastung auf den Kostenverlauf von Hilfskostenstellen (Hilfsabteilungen) erfolgt mit Hilfe von Modellkalkulationen. Eine spezielle Form der Teilkostenrechnung ermöglicht die Zurechnung der Kosten nach Kostenkategorien (jahresfix, tagesfix, ggf. chargenfix und mengenproportional) auf die entsprechenden Kostenträger (z. B. Kälte, Dampf) der jeweiligen Hilfskostenstelle. Durch computergestützte Simulationen können die Auswirkungen der verschiedenen Kosteneinflußfaktoren im einzelnen quantifiziert werden

What Values in Design? The Challenge of Incorporating Moral Values into Design

Recently, there is increased attention to the integration of moral values into the conception, design, and development of emerging IT. The most reviewed approach for this purpose in ethics and technology so far is Value-Sensitive Design (VSD). This article considers VSD as the prime candidate for implementing normative considerations into design. Its methodology is considered from a conceptual, analytical, normative perspective. The focus here is on the suitability of VSD for integrating moral values into the design of technologies in a way that joins in with an analytical perspective on ethics of technology. Despite its promising character, it turns out that VSD falls short in several respects: (1) VSD does not have a clear methodology for identifying stakeholders, (2) the integration of empirical methods with conceptual research within the methodology of VSD is obscure, (3) VSD runs the risk of committing the naturalistic fallacy when using empirical knowledge for implementing values in design, (4) the concept of values, as well as their realization, is left undetermined and (5) VSD lacks a complimentary or explicit ethical theory for dealing with value trade-offs. For the normative evaluation of a technology, I claim that an explicit and justified ethical starting point or principle is required. Moreover, explicit attention should be given to the value aims and assumptions of a particular design. The criteria of adequacy for such an approach or methodology follow from the evaluation of VSD as the prime candidate for implementing moral values in design

JOINT COMMITMENT, COERCION AND FREEDOM IN SCIENCE Conceptual Analysis and Case Studies

International audienceThis paper deals with the Ethics of group life in the sciences, if not directly with the policy of science that might evolve from it, and more precisely with the issue of democracy within scientific life

The constitutional dilemma of European integration

The paper analyzes European integration from a constitutional economics perspective. It is argued that the use of the Prisoners' Dilemma as a description of the advantages of European integration is fallacious. If the situation is a PD, the solution is impossible; if it is not, it is unnecessary