Entrepreneurs’ age, institutions, and social value creation goals: a multi-country study

This study explores the relationship between an entrepreneur's age and his/her social value creation goals. Building on the lifespan developmental psychology literature and institutional theory, we hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ age and their choice to create social value through their ventures, such that younger and older entrepreneurs create more social value with their businesses while middle age entrepreneurs are relatively more economically and less socially oriented with their ventures. We further hypothesize that the quality of a country’s formal institutions in terms of economic, social, and political freedom steepen the U-shaped relationship between entrepreneurs’ age and their choice to pursue social value creation as supportive institutional environments allow entrepreneurs to follow their age-based preferences. We confirm our predictions using multilevel mixed-effects linear regressions on a sample of over 15,000 entrepreneurs (aged between 18 and 64 years) in 45 countries from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data. The findings are robust to several alternative specifications. Based on our findings, we discuss implications for theory and practice, and we propose future research directions

Blood Transfusion Requirements for Patients With Sarcomas Undergoing Combined Radio- and Chemotherapy

Patients with bony and soft tissue sarcomas may require intensive treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which often leads to a fall in haemoglobin levels, requiring blood transfusion. There may be advantages in predicting which patients will require transfusion, partly because anaemia and hypoxia may worsen the response of tumours to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Between 1997 and 2003, a total of 26 patients who received intensive treatment with curative intent were identified. Transfusions were given to maintain the haemoglobin at 10g/dl or above during chemotherapy, and at 12 g/dl or above during radiotherapy. Eighteen (69%) required a transfusion, the majority as a result of both the chemotherapy and RT criteria. There were 78 transfusion episodes, and 181 units of blood given. In the 18 patients who required transfusion, the average number of units was 10.1, but seven patients required more blood than this. The most significant factor influencing blood transfusion was choice of intensive chemotherapy. Intensive chemotherapy and presenting Hb less than 11.6 g/dl identified 13 out of 18 patients who needed transfusion. Adding a drop in haemoglobin of greater than 1.7 g/dl after one cycle of chemotherapy identified 16 out of 18 patients who required transfusion. The seven patients who had heavy transfusion requirements were identified by age 32 or less, intensive chemotherapy and a presenting Hb of 12 g/dl or less. Erythropoietin might be a useful alternative to transfusion in selected patient groups, especially those with heavy transfusion requirements

Activities of the European Union (EU) in 2011 in the tax field. 8 March 2012

Licensing is a topic of increasing importance for software publishers and users. More and more, software licensing is performed electronically by mechanisms running on the system on which the licensed software operates. In order to facilitate the use and management of such licensing systems and to enable economic software usage in enterprise-wide computer systems, various organizations are formulating requirements and defining architectures and standard interfaces for license systems

Insider ownership, human resource strategies and performance in a transition economy

Researchers and potential investors in transition economies need to understand the Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies of target firms, since human resources are arguably their most valuable assets. Understanding is difficult, however, because HRM strategies help to determine firms' performance, but are in turn influenced by corporate governance, particularly insider ownership. This paper employs a structural equation modeling methodology to examine the relations between governance, HRM strategies and performance in the context of a novel dataset of Ukrainian industrial firms. It is found that insider ownership is positively associated with high-commitment HRM strategies and negatively with low-commitment, cost-cutting HRM strategies. Cost-cutting HRM strategies are in turn associated with weaker firm performance. These outcomes correspond broadly with theoretical expectations. Journal of International Business Studies (2003) 34, 530–549; doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400065

The Use of Technology to Advance HIV Prevention for Couples

The majority of HIV prevention studies and programs have targeted individuals or operated at the community level. This has also been the standard approach when incorporating technology (e.g., web-based, smartphones) to help improve HIV prevention efforts. The tides have turned for both approaches: greater attention is now focusing on couples-based HIV prevention and using technology to help improve these efforts for maximizing reach and potential impact. To assess the extent that technology has been used to help advance HIV prevention with couples, a literature review was conducted using four databases and included studies that collected data from 2000 to early 2015. Results from this review suggest technology has primarily been used to help advance HIV prevention with couples as a tool for 1) recruitment and data collection and 2) intervention development. Challenges and limitations of conducting research (e.g., validity of dyadic data) along with future directions for how technology (e.g. mHealth, wearable sensors) can be used to advance HIV prevention with couples are then discussed. Given the growing and near ubiquitous use of the Internet and smartphones, further efforts in the realm of mhealth (e.g., applications or “apps”) and eHealth are needed to develop novel couples-focused HIV preventive interventions