Opportunity and/or necessity entrepreneurship? The impact of the socio-economic characteristics of entrepreneurs

Few studies have tried to identify the impact of the socio-economic characteristics of entrepreneurs on their opportunity-necessity positioning. Based on a sample of 538 entrepreneurs, we point out that individuals who get involved in an entrepreneurial process, have encountered a situation of necessity and/or opportunity and that the latter can take various forms. We point out the impact of the socio-economic characteristics of entrepreneurs on the alignment of their project with a necessity or opportunity entrepreneurial dynamics. The existence of sub-profiles of entrepreneurs within the necessity-opportunity typology is also highlighted. We point out, for instance, that not all jobseekers are necessity entrepreneurs and that new venture creation based on family pressure may convey both a necessity and opportunity dimension. Finally, our survey reveals a new kind of entrepreneurship: the hobby entrepreneurship.Necessity - Opportunity - motivations

Les structures d’appui à la création d'entreprises par des allocataires sociaux : cadres théoriques explicatifs

L’aide à l’entrepreneuriat en tant qu’instrument de la lutte contre le chômage est devenue une préoccupation des autorités tant européennes que nationales et régionales. De nombreuses structures d’appui destinées à favoriser la création d’entreprises, notamment par des allocataires sociaux, ont vu le jour durant les dernières années. Toutefois, ces candidats créateurs, issus de conditions socio-économiques modestes, recourent peu aux services offerts par les structures d’appui. L’objectif final de notre projet de recherche est d’analyser les raisons de ce constat en vue d’une meilleure adéquation de l’offre des services fournis à la demande, ainsi que de déterminer s’il existe une segmentation de l’offre correspondant aux niveaux socio-économiques distincts des créateurs. La première partie de ce papier explicitera le champ et la problématique de cette recherche qui sera menée au cours des deux prochaines années dans la Province du Hainaut en Belgique. Dans une deuxième partie, après avoir rappelé toute la difficulté que pose l’évaluation de la production de services dans une première section, nous explorerons, dans une deuxième section, les arguments théoriques mobilisables pour expliquer les raisons potentielles du faible succès rencontré par les structures d’appui

High-resolution 3D and (sub-)cellular level LA-ICP-MS imaging approaches : accumulation of toxic metals in biological material

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SR 2D micro-XRF imaging on entire rat thin sections in view of a pharmacokinetic study of a new bromine containing drug agains tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis in humans. Because of population growth, the absolute number of new cases is still increasing. Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is defined as resistance to the two most effective first-line TB drugs and is a public health issue in many developing countries, as treatment is longer and requires more expensive drugs. Recently, a new experimental diarylquinoline anti-tuberculosis drug was discovered at Janssen Pharmaceutica, referred to as TMC207 and shown in Fig. 1. Before TMC207 can be made commercially available, one of the necessary investigations is a thorough pharmacokinetic study to investigate its absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME)

If not for profit, for what and how? Interuniversity Attraction Pole (IAP) on Social Enterprise (SOCENT) 2012-2017 and Social Entrepreneurship: Effectuation and Bricolage Approaches to Venture Establishment in West Africa

Abstract Abstract Abstract Abstract How can a social entrepreneur overcome resource constraints in an uncertain environment? According t

Renormalized field theory of collapsing directed randomly branched polymers

We present a dynamical field theory for directed randomly branched polymers and in particular their collapse transition. We develop a phenomenological model in the form of a stochastic response functional that allows us to address several interesting problems such as the scaling behavior of the swollen phase and the collapse transition. For the swollen phase, we find that by choosing model parameters appropriately, our stochastic functional reduces to the one describing the relaxation dynamics near the Yang-Lee singularity edge. This corroborates that the scaling behavior of swollen branched polymers is governed by the Yang-Lee universality class as has been known for a long time. The main focus of our paper lies on the collapse transition of directed branched polymers. We show to arbitrary order in renormalized perturbation theory with $\varepsilon$-expansion that this transition belongs to the same universality class as directed percolation.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

Whether and how top management create flexibility in mental healthcare organizations:COVID-19 as a test case

Purpose: Flexibility is essential for healthcare organizations to anticipate the increasing internal and external dynamics. Mental healthcare organizations in the Netherlands face major policy reforms made by the government, increasing involvement from municipalities and gradual replacement of clinical care with outpatient care. Top management plays an important strategic role in creating this flexibility because they make important choices, give direction and structure the organization. To create flexibility, managers have to deal with complexity and paradoxes. In this study, the authors aim to contribute to the knowledge on how healthcare managers can create flexibility in their organizations. Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative empirical field study. In total, 21 managers of mental healthcare organizations participated in open in-depth interviews. The authors explored flexibility on three perspectives: organizational direction, structure and operations. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to explore flexibility. The authors asked participants to reflect on their organization's response to the pandemic. Findings: Most mental healthcare organizations create flexibility in an implicit way. Flexibility and resilience are closely linked mechanisms. Flexibility ensures a quick response while resilience provides the counterforce and rebound needed to adapt. Adaption ensures that healthcare professionals learn from their experiences and do not return completely to the way things were done before. The primary urge to survive ensured rapid and adequate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether this is a manifestation of flexibility remains difficult to conclude. Practical implications: The complexity theory offers some guidance in creating a flexible organization without losing consistency. Flexibility and resilience are closely linked mechanisms that antagonize and protect each other. With this insight, managers in mental healthcare can utilize the qualities and balance them without falling into the various pitfalls. Originality/value: In this research, the authors are concerned with flexibility as a proactive attitude and capacity of organizations. By looking at the response of organizations to the COVID-19 crisis, the authors find out that responding to a disaster out of survival instinct is something else than flexibility. There is an interesting relationship between flexibility, resilience and adaptability, and they can balance each other

Single Harmonic-based Narrowband Magnetic Particle Imaging

Visualization of the in vivo spatial distribution of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) is crucial to biomedicine. Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is one of the most promising approaches for direct measurements of the SPION distribution. In this paper, we systematically investigate a single-harmonic-based narrowband MPI approach. Herein, only the 3rd harmonic at 15 kHz of the SPION signal induced in an excitation magnetic field of 5 kHz is measured via a narrowband detection system for imaging during scanning a field-free-point in a field of view. Experiments on spot and line phantoms are performed to evaluate the spatial distribution by the assessment of the full width at half maximum and modulation transfer function at different excitation magnetic fields from 4 to 10 mT. Experimental results demonstrate that reconstructed images have a spatial resolution of 1.6 and 1.5 mm for a gradient field of 2.2 T/m and 4.4 T/m in x- and z-direction, respectively, at an excitation magnetic field of 4 mT. In terms of line gap, two lines with a gap of 0.5 mm are resolved. With increasing the excitation magnetic field to 10 mT, the spatial resolution gets worse to 2.4 and 2.0 mm in x- and z-direction, respectively. Moreover, the custom-built MPI scanner allows a limit of detection of 53 microgram (Fe)/mL (500 ng Fe weight) using perimag SPIONs. In addition, the excellent performance is demonstrated by imaging experiments on an "emg" logo phantom. We believe that the proposed narrowband MPI approach is a promising approach for SPION imaging

The HBM-PDAF assimilation system for operational forecasts in the North and Baltic Seas

The HIROMB-BOOS Model (HBM) has been coupled with the Parallel Data Assimilation Framework PDAF (http://pdaf.awi.de) in order to improve hydrographic forecasts in the North and Baltic Seas. The coupled forecast system assimilates satellite sea surface temperature as well as in situ data of temperature and salinity profiles to initialize forecasts up to 5 days. The assimilation uses an ensemble Kalman filter, which dynamically estimates the uncertainty of the state estimate with an ensemble of model states and applies spatially localized updates to improve the ocean state. The structure of the assimilation system, which can analogously be used to extend other forecast models for data assimilation, is discussed. Applying the assimilation reduces errors of the surface temperature by about 0.2 degrees C