290 research outputs found
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Waves of Professionalization Before, During and After Management Buyouts and Buy-ins of Private Family Firms
YesWe explore the process of professionalization pre- and post- buyout (MBO)
or buyin (MBI) of former private family firms using longitudinal evidence
from six UK family firms undergoing an MBO/I in 1998. Professionalization
behaviour was monitored up to 2014. Previous studies have
conceptualized professionalization as a threshold to be attained. We
demonstrate that professionalization is a complex process occurring in
waves, triggered by changes in firm ownership and management. Waves
of professionalization converge during the MBO/I process. Buyouts provide
a funnelling mechanism enabling diverse control systems to be
standardized. Post-MBO/I, divergence in the professionalization process
reoccurs contingent on firm-specific contexts. Professionalization focuses
on operations when stewardship relationships predominate, but on agency
control mechanisms when there is increased potential for agency costs.
Buyout organizational form is an important transitory phase facilitating the
professionalization process. Professionalization is not a once for all
development stage.The Enterprise Research Centre is an independent research centre which focusses on SME growth and productivity. ERC is a partnership between Warwick Business School, Aston Business School, Imperial College Business School, Strathclyde Business School and Birmingham Business School. The Centre is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS); Innovate UK; and, through the British Bankers Association (BBA), by the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC; HSBC Bank PLC; Barclays Bank PLC and Lloyds Bank PLC. The support of the funders is acknowledged. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the funders
Stratigraphy and chronology of a 15ka sequence of multi-sourced silicic tephras in a montane peat bog, eastern North Island, New Zealand.
We document the stratigraphy, composition, and chronology of a succession of 16 distal, silicic tephra layers interbedded with lateglacial and Holocene peats and muds up to c. 15 000 radiocarbon years (c. 18 000 calendar years) old at a montane site (Kaipo Bog) in eastern North Island, New Zealand. Aged from 665 +/- 15 to 14 700 +/- 95 14C yr BP, the tephras are derived from six volcanic centres in North Island, three of which are rhyolitic (Okataina, Taupo, Maroa), one peralkaline (Tuhua), and two andesitic (Tongariro, Egmont). Correlations are based on multiple criteria: field properties and stratigraphic interrelationships, ferromagnesian silicate mineral assemblages, glass-shard major element composition (from electron microprobe analysis), and radiocarbon dating. We extend the known distribution of tephras in eastern North Island and provide compositional data that add to their potential usefulness as isochronous markers. The chronostratigraphic framework established for the Kaipo sequence, based on both site-specific and independently derived tephra-based radiocarbon ages, provides the basis for fine-resolution paleoenvironmental studies at a climatically sensitive terrestrial site from the mid latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Tephras identified as especially useful paleoenvironmental markers include Rerewhakaaitu and Waiohau (lateglacial), Konini (lateglacial-early Holocene), Tuhua (middle Holocene), and Taupo and Kaharoa (late Holocene)
Introduction:strategy in EU foreign policy
The point of departure for the special collection is provided by the observation that the growing complexity of the crises in the neighbourhood and the internal ones faced by the Union provides a sense of urgency to any type of strategic thinking that the EU might embrace. Against this backdrop, the recent shift towards geopolitics and strategic thinking is contextualized and the understanding of key aspects of ways in which the shift is translated into strategies by EU actors is put forward. The analysis recognizes the recent developments within the institutional dimension of EU’s foreign and security policy, yet it confirms the fundamental meaning of the member states’ willingness to invest resources and harmonize their foreign policy strategies at the EU level
The short term debt vs. long term debt puzzle: a model for the optimal mix
This paper argues that the existing finance literature is inadequate with respect to its coverage of capital structure of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In particular it is argued that the cost of equity (being both conceptually ill defined and empirically non quantifiable) is not applicable to the capital structure decisions for a large proportion of SMEs and the optimal capital structure depends only on the mix of short and long term debt. The paper then presents a model, developed by practitioners for optimising the debt mix and demonstrates its practical application using an Italian firm's debt structure as a case study
Data growth and its impact on the SCOP database: new developments
The Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP) database is a comprehensive ordering of all proteins of known structure, according to their evolutionary and structural relationships. The SCOP hierarchy comprises the following levels: Species, Protein, Family, Superfamily, Fold and Class. While keeping the original classification scheme intact, we have changed the production of SCOP in order to cope with a rapid growth of new structural data and to facilitate the discovery of new protein relationships. We describe ongoing developments and new features implemented in SCOP. A new update protocol supports batch classification of new protein structures by their detected relationships at Family and Superfamily levels in contrast to our previous sequential handling of new structural data by release date. We introduce pre-SCOP, a preview of the SCOP developmental version that enables earlier access to the information on new relationships. We also discuss the impact of worldwide Structural Genomics initiatives, which are producing new protein structures at an increasing rate, on the rates of discovery and growth of protein families and superfamilies. SCOP can be accessed at http://scop.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/scop
The crafting of an (un)enterprising community: context and the social practice of talk
YesThis article examines a ‘deprived’ UK community to identify how (dis)connections between
context and enterprise are produced within accounts of a particular locality. We used a
discursive psychological approach to examine how the community depicted itself as a context for
enterprise. Our analysis identified three discursive repertoires mobilised by a range of voices in
the community which combined to portray an unenterprising community and create a conceptual
deadlock for enterprise. We suggest it is too deterministic to assume context is fixed and controls
the potential for entrepreneurial development. Instead, we should consider social practices,
including talk, that help construct the contexts in which entrepreneurship is expected to occur.The research resorted in this article was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council studentship
Investigation of the secondary emission characteristics of CVD diamond films for electron amplification
a b s t r a c t Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond offers great potential as a low-cost, high-yield, easily manufactured secondary electron emitter for electron multiplication in devices such as photomultiplier tubes. Its potential for high secondary electron yield offers several significant benefits for these devices including higher time resolution, faster signal rise time, reduced pulse height distribution, low noise, and chemical stability. We describe an experiment to characterize the secondary emission yield of CVD diamond manufactured using different processes and process parameters and discuss the degradation of secondary electron yield and experimental difficulties encountered due to unwanted electron beaminduced contamination. We describe techniques utilized to overcome these difficulties, and present measurements of secondary yield from CVD diamond dynodes in reflection mode. We discuss the application of CVD diamond dynode technology, both in reflection and transmission mode, to advanced high-speed imaging and photon-counting detectors and describe future plans in this area
From policy to practice: exploring practitioners' perspectives on social enterprise policy claims
The writing on the wall: the concealed communities of the East Yorkshire horselads
This paper examines the graffiti found within late nineteenth and early-twentieth century farm buildings in the Wolds of East Yorkshire. It suggests that the graffiti were created by a group of young men at the bottom of the social hierarchy - the horselads – and was one of the ways in which they constructed a distinctive sense of communal identity, at a particular stage in their lives. Whilst it tells us much about changing agricultural regimes and social structures, it also informs us about experiences and attitudes often hidden from official histories and biographies. In this way, the graffiti are argued to inform our understanding, not only of a concealed community, but also about their hidden histor
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