The Journey from Novice to Serial Entrepreneurship in China and Germany: Are the Drivers the Same?

While in general entrepreneurs in emerging economies are significantly different from entrepreneurs in mature markets on most dimensions, serial entrepreneurs demonstrate certain similarities in their goals and motivations, skills and competencies, resources, strategies and other characteristics. The drivers governing the journey from novice to serial entrepreneurship – while consistent with the arguments advanced by Casson and Lazear – appear to differ somewhat between emerging and mature economies. Based on a cross-sectional survey of Chinese and German entrepreneurs, the study contributes to the understanding of entrepreneurship in emerging markets and extends the knowledge of serial entrepreneurship by analyzing whether the differences between serial and novice entrepreneurs can be attributed to the types of skills and competences possessed by the individuals, and whether particular motives for starting new ventures are more conducive to multiple business founding than others.serial entrepreneurship, emerging economies, China, Germany

L’avenir de la recherche en entrepreneuriat en Allemagne : Stratégies et principaux points thématiques

La recherche en entrepreneuriat continue à évoluer. Ce champ de recherche qui va de l’interprétation de la nature du champ à la signification accordée à chaque thématique est soumis à des changements. Tenter de brosser un portrait de l’évolution de la recherche en entrepreneuriat en Allemagne s’avère intéressant, dans la mesure où cela permettrait de sélectionner des sujets prometteurs. Cette contribution vise à relever ce défi. À cet effet, nous avons interrogé les membres du « groupe de recherche sur la création d’entreprises », nous leur avons demandé d’apprécier l’importance de points centraux et de domaines thématiques particuliers. Ainsi, le financement et la recherche scientifique sur les facteurs de succès se révèlent être à l’heure actuelle les sujets auxquels on accorde la plus grande importance. À l’avenir, ce domaine de recherche pourrait continuer à évoluer et devenir une discipline autonome, prenant en compte les exigences nationales et internationales de la recherche.Entrepreneurship research is constantly evolving. Changes occur in basic strategies of the field and in the relevance that is ascribed to particular topics. Trying to sketch the outlines of potential future developments in German-speaking entrepreneurship research is of particular relevance to scholars that attempt to work on promising issues. The goal of this contribution is to provide such an outline. We surveyed the members of the work group on entrepreneurship research of the FGF, the German Association of Entrepreneurship Scholar, and asked them to address the current and future relevance of key approaches and particular topics in entrepreneurship research. As a result, the dominant themes today seem to be finance and research on success factors. In the future, the field may develop towards a distinctive domain, influenced by nation-specific research issues and international research requirements.La investigación académica del espíritu emprendedor – Entrepreneurship – se desarrolla continuamente. Tanto los conceptos básicos del Entrepreneurship como la importancia prestada a cada uno de los campos de la investigación cambian constantemente. Con este estudio intentamos esbozar el futuro desarrollo de la investigación académica de lengua alemana porque esto parece ser interesante para todos los que busquen temas de análisis prometedores. Por eso hemos consultado a los miembros del círculo de trabajo « Investigación del emprenderismo » (FGF) para averiguar qué opinan sobre los modelos centrales y otros temas parciales. Actualmente, la financiación y la investigación en el campo de los factores de éxito son los aspectos más importantes en la discusión académica. En el futuro, este campo – influido por temas nacionales y por requisitos internacionales – podría seguir desarrollándose para luego convertirse en una disciplina propia.Die Entrepreneurshipforschung entwickelt sich laufend weiter. Von grundlegenden Auffassungen über die Natur des Forschungsfeldes bis hin zur Bedeutung, die den einzelnen Themenfeldern eingeräumt wird, ist das Feld Veränderungen unterworfen. Ein Versuch, die zukünftige Entwicklung der deutschsprachigen Entrepreneurshipforschung zu skizzieren, ist vor allem für die Auswahl von Erfolg versprechender Themen interessant. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es, einen solchen Versuch zu unternehmen. Zu diesem Zweck wurden die Mitglieder des Arbeitskreises Gründungsforschung des FGF hinsichtlich ihrer Einschätzung der Bedeutung zentraler Ansätze und einzelner Themenbereiche befragt. Zum heutigen Zeitpunkt wird dabei der Finanzierung und der Erfolgsfaktorenforschung die höchste Relevanz eingeräumt. In Zukunft könnte sich das Feld weiter in Richtung einer eigenständigen Disziplin, im Spannungsfeld zwischen nationalspezifischen Problemen und internationalen Forschungsanforderungen, entwickeln

Priming of anti-herbivore defence in Nicotiana attenuata by insect oviposition: herbivore-specific effects

Oviposition by Spodoptera exigua on Nicotiana attenuata primes plant defence against its larvae that consequently suffer reduced performance. To reveal whether this is a general response of tobacco to insect oviposition or species-specific, we investigated whether also Manduca sexta oviposition primes N. attenuata's anti-herbivore defence. The plant response to M. sexta and S. exigua oviposition overlapped in the egg-primed feeding-induced production of the phenylpropanoid caffeoylputrescine. While M. sexta larvae were unaffected in their performance, they showed a novel response to the oviposition-mediated plant changes: a reduced antimicrobial activity in their haemolymph. In a cross-resistance experiment, S. exigua larvae suffered reduced performance on M. sexta-oviposited plants like they did on S. exigua- oviposited plants. The M. sexta oviposition-mediated plant effects on the S. exigua larval performance and on M. sexta larval immunity required expression of the NaMyb8 transcription factor that is governing biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids such as caffeoylputrescine. Thus, NaMyb8-dependent defence traits mediate the effects that oviposition by both lepidopteran species exerts on the plant's anti-herbivore defence. These results suggest that oviposition by lepidopteran species on N. attenuata leaves may generally prime the feeding-induced production of certain plant defence compounds but that different herbivore species show different susceptibility to egg-primed plant effects

Nevogenesis: A Benign Metastatic Process?

It is generally accepted that cutaneous nevogenesis is a localized event that occurs exclusively in the dermis and/or epidermis. However, the discovery of nevocytes circulating in the peripheral blood suggests that other, more systemic, benign metastatic processes could also be involved. The theoretical role of lymphatic and hematogenous dissemination of loosely adherent, immature nevus progenitor cells in the development of nodal nevi and eruptive melanocytic nevi will be reviewed

Molecular Nevogenesis

Despite recent advances, the biology underlying nevogenesis remains unclear. Activating mutations in NRAS, HRAS, BRAF, and GNAQ have been identified in benign nevi. Their presence roughly correlates with congenital, Spitz, acquired, and blue nevi, respectively. These mutations are likely to play a critical role in driving nevogenesis. While each mutation is able to activate the MAP kinase pathway, they also interact with a host of different proteins in other pathways. The different melanocytic developmental pathways activated by each mutation cause the cells to migrate, proliferate, and differentiate to different extents within the skin. This causes each mutation to give rise to a characteristic growth pattern. The exact location and differentiation state of the cell of origin for benign moles remains to be discovered. Further research is necessary to fully understand nevus development given that most of the same developmental pathways are also present in melanoma

Entrepreneurial talent and venture performance: A meta-analytic investigation of SMEs

AbstractAs the broad link between small and medium-sized firm activity and key policy goals such as employment or economic growth has become generally accepted, the conversation has focused on a more nuanced understanding of the entrepreneurial engines of economic activity. A significant body of research looking at antecedents to venture performance has identified that entrepreneurial talent variables account for meaningful differences in venture performance and that significant heterogeneity exists across performance measures. These are important issues for institutions and policy makers seeking to achieve specific economic goals (e.g., survival or growth of ventures, employment or revenue). Using meta-analysis, we integrate this work to view connections between aspects of entrepreneurial talent and different performance outcomes. Our investigation includes 50,045 firms (K of 183 studies) and summarizes 1002 observations of small and medium-sized firms. Analysis of these data yields an unexpectedly weak connection between education and performance. Furthermore, growth, scale (number of employees) and sales outcomes are significantly related to planning skills, while profit and other financial and qualitative measures are strongly connected with the network surrounding the firm founders. Moreover, we observe that entrepreneurial talent is more relevant in developing economies

Diagnostic Role of Chromosomal Instability in Melanoma

Early diagnosis gives melanoma patients the best chance for long term survival. However discrimination of an early melanoma from an unusual/atypical benign nevus can represent a significant challenge. There are no current pathological markers to definitively define malignant potential in these indeterminate lesions. Thus, there is a need for improved diagnostic tools. Chromosomal instability (CIN) is a hallmark of cancer and is markedly prevalent in melanoma. Advances in genomics have opened the door for the development of molecular tools to better segregate benign and malignant lesions. This paper focuses on CIN in melanoma and the role of current diagnostic approaches

On the Importance of Capturing a Sufficient Diversity of Perspective for the Classification of micro-PCBs

Pre-print of an original work presented at KES-IDT 2021 held virtually.We present a dataset consisting of high-resolution images of 13 micro-PCBs captured in various rotations and perspectives relative to the camera, with each sample labeled for PCB type, rotation category, and perspective categories. We then present the design and results of experimentation on combinations of rotations and perspectives used during training and the resulting impact on test accuracy. We then show when and how well data augmentation techniques are capable of simulating rotations vs. perspectives not present in the training data. We perform all experiments using CNNs with and without homogeneous vector capsules (HVCs) and investigate and show the capsules' ability to better encode the equivariance of the sub-components of the micro-PCBs. The results of our experiments lead us to conclude that training a neural network equipped with HVCs, capable of modeling equivariance among sub-components, coupled with training on a diversity of perspectives, achieves the greatest classification accuracy on micro-PCB data