New Venture Growth: Current Findings and Future Challenges

New venture growth is one of the foundational topics in entrepreneurship research. We review the current research and divide it into three research streams: (1) high-growth firms, (2) antecedents of growth and (3) growth process. High-growth firms contribute disproportionally to new job creation, are mostly young, and are not necessarily high-tech. Most firms cannot sustain high growth for extended periods. The research on antecedents of growth examines how various factors (e.g., human capital, networks, financial capital, strategy, external environment, etc.) influence the rate of growth while most of the growth process research is conducted within the stages-of-growth paradigm. We also discuss how to measure growth, which is an important question in itself as it influences research results. We conclude with future research directions

Entrepreneurial workaround practices in severe institutional voids: Evidence from Kenya

Entrepreneurs in developing economies try to cope with weak or absent formal institutions – often referred to as ‘institutional voids’ – by relying extensively on intermediary organizations such as business incubators and development organizations or informal institutions such as political, kinship, or family relationships. However, in many African countries, intermediary support is limited and informal institutions are also unreliable, adding risks and costs to doing business and increasing the severity of institutional voids in the surrounding ecosystem. We investigate the practices followed by 47 commercial entrepreneurs in Kenya to ‘work around’ these severe institutional voids to achieve their goals of business creation and growth. We find that severe institutional voids stimulate the hybridization of goals to include social value creation, create a need for a more strategic orchestration of business relationships, and motivate entrepreneurs to proactively cross-brace the institutional infrastructure around them. We contribute by unveiling the important role of entrepreneurs as microinstitutional agents in developing economies and by detailing how commercial and social goals become intertwined in the context of African entrepreneurship

A characterisation of weakly locally projective amalgams related to A16A_{16} and the sporadic simple groups M24M_{24} and HeHe

A simple undirected graph is weakly $G$-locally projective, for a group of automorphisms $G$, if for each vertex $x$, the stabiliser $G(x)$ induces on the set of vertices adjacent to $x$ a doubly transitive action with socle the projective group $L_{n_x}(q_x)$ for an integer $n_x$ and a prime power $q_x$. It is $G$-locally projective if in addition $G$ is vertex transitive. A theorem of Trofimov reduces the classification of the $G$-locally projective graphs to the case where the distance factors are as in one of the known examples. Although an analogue of Trofimov's result is not yet available for weakly locally projective graphs, we would like to begin a program of characterising some of the remarkable examples. We show that if a graph is weakly locally projective with each $q_x =2$ and $n_x = 2$ or $3$, and if the distance factors are as in the examples arising from the rank 3 tilde geometries of the groups $M_{24}$ and $He$, then up to isomorphism there are exactly two possible amalgams. Moreover, we consider an infinite family of amalgams of type $\mathcal{U}_n$ (where each $q_x=2$ and $n=n_x+1\geq 4$) and prove that if $n\geq 5$ there is a unique amalgam of type $\mathcal{U}_n$ and it is unfaithful, whereas if $n=4$ then there are exactly four amalgams of type $\mathcal{U}_4$, precisely two of which are faithful, namely the ones related to $M_{24}$ and $He$, and one other which has faithful completion $A_{16}$

Strade: costi, opportunità e tutela dell’ambiente

Per raggiungere gli obiettivi di sostenibilità, è necessario rivedere l’intero sistema di governo del territorio ottimizzando, in un’ottica federalista, ruoli, poteri e risors

An integrated approach project for the revaluation of a traditional sourdough bread production chain

The influence of organic and conventional farming systems on the performance of a panel of old and modern Italian bread wheat varieties has been evaluated, with the aim to individuate an agronomic protocol suitable for the production of a sourdough bread traditionally prepared in a hill zone of Emilia-Romagna. The agronomic and technological characterisation of the wheat samples obtained in organic and conventional farming conditions has been done and the sensorial qualities of the sourdough bread obtained have been evaluated

Sense Worldwide: Transforming the rules of innovation

This is part of a case series. This case series focuses on the complex sources of success of Sense Worldwide, a London-based creative agency, and its quest to adapt and change in tune with its environment to maintain its competitive advantage. It has been developed with a particular attention to introductory courses on strategic management, innovation and idea generation because it supports a complete analysis and integration between classic approaches to external analysis and more recent, internally oriented lens. Part (A) allows for a discussion of the context in the start-up phase and of the core competences and capabilities that helped it become successful. Part (A) can be used to assess Sense Worldwide’s strategy using popular themes such as industry analysis, SWOT analysis, the resource based view, and the dynamic capability view. Part (B) provides material for discussing the company`s method, its development over time and the consequences of external change on its business model. Part (B) can thus be used to show the dynamics of internal and external change by allowing for a comparison of Sense Worldwide’s evolution over time in terms of changing strategic positioning and key resources, processes and capabilities. Taken together, the two parts of the case series encourage in-depth discussion on focused topics such as starting up or business idea generation, co-creation and open innovation. It can also be used to discuss a more transversal theme such as knowledge creation

Valutazione della capacità di rientro alla base di un elicottero in presenza di danno balistico ad un albero di trasmissione della linea rotore di coda

Nella progettazione di un elicottero militare, destinato ad operare a bassa quota e in ambiente ostile, il danneggiamento di componenti critici, conseguente ad impatto balistico, riveste un ruolo primario nella valutazione delle possibilità di sopravvivenza dell’intera macchina. In questo articolo è quindi proposto uno studio sperimentale, suddiviso in diverse fasi, riguardante la verifica della capacità di un elicottero di portare a termine una missione di rientro alla base a potenza ridotta e in presenza di danneggiamento balistico ad un albero di trasmissione della linea rotore di coda. Il lavoro ha richiesto dapprima l’esecuzione, su esemplari del componente in esame, di prove sperimentali di impatto balistico, condotte utilizzando un proiettile calibro 7.62 NATO. Successivamente su ciascun albero danneggiato sono state eseguite prove torsionali statiche ed a fatica, il cui scopo è stato verificare la resistenza residua del componente all’applicazione di opportuni carichi rappresentativi delle sollecitazioni riscontrate durante la missione di rientro

Education and Sustainability: The Case of Emotions Park

Firms working in the third millennium have to face the challenge of being more sustainable. The complexity and the multidisciplinary nature of sustainability also requires new and specific knowledge. This means the necessity of a critical rethinking of the education system in the way to provide the cognitive tools and applications needed for new generations to address environmental, economic, and social challenges. In this perspective, the role of the school it is crucial, above all, to encourage attention to include sustainability as a theme on educational programs, focusing on the promotion of its multiple dimensions. Interdisciplinary sustainability programs are emerging globally, but little is known about the learning in these educational contexts. Therefore, the current research explores training modules used in the activities of a park to verify how students can receive a sustainable education from primary school; whether and in which way education can be a driver for the promotion of sustainable development; and whether it is effective to insert eco-activities such as eco-games, eco-campus, and eco-sports in the training modules from primary school onwards. For this purpose, the paper employed a single case study approach using the Emotions Park as a teaching plan. In particular, game and sports constantly accompany the training process by creating interdisciplinary links with different study subjects (e.g., civic education, environmental education, communication). Through the eco-activities, an innovative way to promote environmental and sustainability education was explored as a training model. Outdoor play, observation, and stimulation of the senses have proved powerful learning tools, and key to the acquisition of skills. Research data were collected observing the behavior of a sample of 22 participants and through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with educators, employee and students. The empirical observation suggests that inserting the sustainability principles as a topic in didactic programs provides the cognitive tools and applications needed for the new generations to address environmental, economic, and social challenges

Valutazione della capacità di rientro alla base di un elicottero in presenza di danno balistico ad un albero di trasmissione della linea rotore di coda

Nella progettazione di un elicottero militare, destinato ad operare a bassa quota e in ambienteostile, il danneggiamento di componenti critici, conseguente ad impatto balistico, riveste un ruolo primario nellavalutazione delle possibilità di sopravvivenza dell’intera macchina. In questo articolo è quindi proposto unostudio sperimentale, suddiviso in diverse fasi, riguardante la verifica della capacità di un elicottero di portare atermine una missione di rientro alla base a potenza ridotta e in presenza di danneggiamento balistico ad unalbero di trasmissione della linea rotore di coda.Il lavoro ha richiesto dapprima l’esecuzione, su esemplari del componente in esame, di prove sperimentali diimpatto balistico, condotte utilizzando un proiettile calibro 7.62 NATO. Successivamente su ciascun alberodanneggiato sono state eseguite prove torsionali statiche ed a fatica, il cui scopo è stato verificare la resistenzaresidua del componente all’applicazione di opportuni carichi rappresentativi delle sollecitazioni riscontratedurante la missione di rientro