Indirect Effect of Entrepreneurs' Motives and Self-Set Goals on New Venture Performance

There are numerous reasons why individuals choose to start their own company; and these motives vary in strength depending on the entrepreneur. These entrepreneurial motives influence the decision making and behavior of entrepreneurs. I draw upon extant research to examine the relationship of entrepreneurs' motives and self-set goals and their influence on the new venture performance. Specifically, we examine how the strength of entrepreneurs motives positively influences the frequency with which they evaluate goal progress relevant to these motives. Furthermore, I investigate the influence that entrepreneurs' evaluation of goal progress has on their positive state affect and authentic pride, and how these individual-level variables are related to new venture performance. Results support these relationships--that is, entrepreneurial motives are positively related to evaluations of goal progress, and perceived goal progress positively influences both positive affect and authentic pride. Furthermore, authentic pride was found to be positively related to new venture performance. This study helps us understand the relationships between important individual-level variables, such as goal setting and firm level performance. Such relationships are not direct and the present research helps identify some of the mediating variables. Given the substantial volume of research that underscores the importance of self-set goals in a wide range of situations, this study helps link goal setting theory more closely to entrepreneurship research

Influence of Exterior Design Attributes on Consumer Preference for Electric Vehicles

What is the relationship between a product's design and acceptance of the product? We examine consumer preferences relative to the fast changing automotive industry to understand how the various physical design elements of new car models, including electric vehicles, influence consumer vehicle preference. This research explores product design perceptions and aims to understand specific attributes of the visual form that underlie consumer interpretations of products. Eye tracking methods and measurements were employed to empirically examine if attention can predict consumer judgements and behavioral outcomes. Study 1 investigated consumer level a priori variables--including prototypicality, processing fluency, and information entropy--which were hypothesized to influence consumer aesthetic liking. In Study 2, car-level attributes were specifically looked at to see if the same variables relative to a cars design influenced annual car sales. Variables in these studies were measured with both conventional eye tracking measurements and newly established composite metrics to analyze the scan paths of participants and understand how the visual entropy of an object influences consumer preferences. Findings reveal the importance of the grille as a feature that consumers rely on to recognize and make judgements about a vehicle's design. This study also confirms Mandler's hypothesis (1989) that a moderate level of prototypicality is preferred by consumers when evaluating vehicles, suggesting that a vehicle's design elements should be moderately unique so that they are memorable, while also consistent relative to the product category's typicality to alleviate confusion. The research findings are relevant to both designers and marketing executives as they attempt to align new model designs with the expectations of consumers while also trying to stand out amongst competitors in a saturated market. Understanding which design features consumers use to make evaluations during the purchasing process is an important first step before launching a new vehicle model to the market. The measures and methods in this study offer useful measures for marketing and design practitioners if design enhancement is of interest

An intelligent, multi-transducer signal conditioning design for manufacturing applications

This paper describes a flexible, intelligent, high bandwidth, signal conditioning reference design and implementation, which is suitable for a wide range of force and displacement transducers in manufacturing applications. The flexibility inherent in the design has allowed more than 10 specialised transducer conditioning boards to be replaced by this single design, in a range of bespoke mechanical test equipment manufactured by the authors. The board is able to automatically reconfigure itself for a wide range of transducers and calibrate and balance the transducer. The range of transducers includes LVDT, AC/DC strain gauge and inductive bridges, and a range of standard industrial voltage current interface transducers. Further, with a minor lowcost addition to the transducer connector, the board is able to recognise the type of transducer, reconfigure itself and store the calibration data within the transducer, thereafter allowing a plugand-play operation as transducers are changed. The paper provides an example of the operation in typical manufacturing test application and illustrates the stability and noise performance of the design

Insect pest and their control - Potato moth control

THE potato moth, Gnorimoschema operculella Zell., is almost world-wide in its distribution and can cause considerable damage to both potato crops and stored potatoes. The adult insect is a small inconspicuous, grey moth. The caterpillars cause the damage and they are, when fully grown, about half an inch long and pale greenish white in colour. They eat into the leaf and feed between the leaf surfaces and even work down the leaf stalks into the stems. Tubers may be damaged in the ground by caterpillars entering through cracks in the soil

Rockslide deformation monitoring with fiber optic strain sensors

With micro-strain resolution and the capability to sample at rates of 100 Hz and higher, fiber optic (FO) strain sensors offer exciting new possibilities for in-situ landslide monitoring. Here we describe a new FO monitoring system based on long-gauge fiber Bragg grating sensors installed at the Randa Rockslide Laboratory in southern Switzerland. The new FO monitoring system can detect sub-micrometer scale deformations in both triggered-dynamic and continuous measurements. Two types of sensors have been installed: (1) fully embedded borehole sensors and (2) surface extensometers. Dynamic measurements are triggered by sensor deformation and recorded at 100 Hz, while continuous data are logged every 5 min. Deformation time series for all sensors show displacements consistent with previous monitoring. Accelerated shortening following installation of the borehole sensors is likely related to long-term shrinkage of the grout. A number of transient signals have been observed, which in some cases were large enough to trigger rapid sampling. The combination of short- and long-term observation offers new insight into the deformation process. Accelerated surface crack opening in spring is shown to have a diurnal trend, which we attribute to the effect of snowmelt seeping into the crack void space and freezing at night to generate pressure on the crack walls. Controlled-source tests investigated the sensor response to dynamic inputs, which compared an independent measure of ground motion against the strain measured across a surface crack. Low frequency signals were comparable but the FO record suffered from aliasing, where undersampling of higher frequency signals generated spectral peaks not related to ground motion

Whole body coordination and knee movement control during five rehabilitation exercises

Knee rehabilitation exercises to improve motor control, target movement fluency and displacement variability. Although knee movement in the frontal plane during exercise is routinely assessed in clinical practice, optimal knee control remains poorly understood. In this study, twenty-nine healthy participants (height: 1.73±0.11 m, mass: 73.5±16.4 kg, age: 28.0±6.9 years) performed four repetitions of five rehabilitation exercises whilst motion data were collected using the VICON PlugInGait full body marker set. Fluency and displacement variability were calculated for multiple landmarks, including Centre of Mass (CoM) and knee joint centres. Fluency was calculated as the inverse of the average number of times a landmark velocity in the frontal plane crossed zero. Variability was defined as the standard deviation of the frontal plane movement trajectories. CoM fluency and displacement variability were significantly different between tasks (p<0.001). CoM displacement variability was consistently smallest compared to the constituent landmarks (p<0.005). This was interpreted as a whole body strategy of compensatory variability constraining CoM frontal plane movement. Ipsilateral knee fluency (p<0.01) and displacement variability (p<0.001) differed substantially between tasks. The role of the weight-bearing knee seemed dependent on task constraints of the overall movement and balance, as well as constraints specific for knee joint stability

Feasibility randomised controlled trial comparing TRAK-ACL digital rehabilitation intervention plus treatment as usual versus treatment as usual for patients following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of trialling taxonomy for the rehabilitation of knee conditions-ACL (TRAK-ACL), a digital health intervention that provides health information, personalised exercise plans and remote clinical support combined with treatment as usual (TAU), for people following ACL reconstruction. Methods: The study design was a two-arm parallel randomised controlled trial (RCT). Eligible participants were English-speaking adults who had undergone ACL reconstruction within the last 12 weeks, had access to the internet and could provide informed consent. Recruitment took place at three sites in the UK. TRAK-ACL intervention was an interactive website informed by behaviour change technique combined with TAU. The comparator was TAU. Outcomes were: recruitment and retention; completeness of outcome measures at follow-up; fidelity of intervention delivery and engagement with the intervention. Individuals were randomised using a computer-generated random number sequence. Blinded assessors allocated groups and collected outcome measures. Results: Fifty-nine people were assessed for eligibility at two of the participating sites, and 51 were randomised; 26 were allocated to TRAK-ACL and 25 to TAU. Follow-up data were collected on 44 and 40 participants at 3 and 6 months, respectively. All outcome measures were completed fully at 6 months except the Client Service Receipt Inventory. Two patients in each arm did not receive the treatment they were randomised to. Engagement with TRAK-ACL intervention was a median of 5 logins (IQR 3-13 logins), over 18 weeks (SD 12.2 weeks). Conclusion: TRAK-ACL would be suitable for evaluation of effectiveness in a fully powered RCT

The ad-libitum alcohol 'taste test': secondary analyses of potential confounds and construct validity

RATIONALE: Motivation to drink alcohol can be measured in the laboratory using an ad-libitum 'taste test', in which participants rate the taste of alcoholic drinks whilst their intake is covertly monitored. Little is known about the construct validity of this paradigm. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate variables that may compromise the validity of this paradigm and its construct validity. METHODS: We re-analysed data from 12 studies from our laboratory that incorporated an ad-libitum taste test. We considered time of day and participants' awareness of the purpose of the taste test as potential confounding variables. We examined whether gender, typical alcohol consumption, subjective craving, scores on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and perceived pleasantness of the drinks predicted ad-libitum consumption (construct validity). RESULTS: We included 762 participants (462 female). Participant awareness and time of day were not related to ad-libitum alcohol consumption. Males drank significantly more alcohol than females (