The Development of High-Technology Firms: An Entrepreneurship in Networks Approach

From social network theory, the entrepreneurial process involves accumulating scarce resources, building reputation, finding partners and attracting clients, knowledge, suppliers, etc. from the environment (Autio, Yli-Renko & Salonen, 1997; Brush, Greene & Hart, 2001; O’Farrell & Hitchens, 1998; Birley & Cromie, 1988). This practice among start-up firms has been widely reported and evidenced in entrepreneurship literature. The value of networks as an integral part of entrepreneurial success is widely acknowledged; however, there is considerable confusion and disagreement as to the role particular network characteristics play in the performance of emerging firms (Johannisson, 2000; Rowley et al., 2000) and especially as to what network characteristics are most advantageous in a firm’s early stages (Hite and Hesterly, 2001). The aim of this paper is to examine to what extent the characteristics of structural and relational patterns of networks explain differences in performance

Liberation Theology and Catholic Social Teaching

The affinities as well as the distinguishing features of two accounts of the socio-poliitcal dimensions of the gospel are here examined, in the light of the apparent marginalisation of the 'social question' in the post-conciliar Church. How can these two discourses re-engage with contemporary debate? The concern of philosophers such as Giorgio Agamben with the notion of a 'state of exception', and the idea of a 'realistic utopia' being propounded by post-Rawlsian theorists of economic and social justice, offer two opportunities for this

Towards non-reductive geometric invariant theory

We study linear actions of algebraic groups on smooth projective varieties X. A guiding goal for us is to understand the cohomology of "quotients" under such actions, by generalizing (from reductive to non-reductive group actions) existing methods involving Mumford's geometric invariant theory (GIT). We concentrate on actions of unipotent groups H, and define sets of stable points X^s and semistable points X^{ss}, often explicitly computable via the methods of reductive GIT, which reduce to the standard definitions due to Mumford in the case of reductive actions. We compare these with definitions in the literature. Results include (1) a geometric criterion determining whether or not a ring of invariants is finitely generated, (2) the existence of a geometric quotient of X^s, and (3) the existence of a canonical "enveloping quotient" variety of X^{ss}, denoted X//H, which (4) has a projective completion given by a reductive GIT quotient and (5) is itself projective and isomorphic to Proj(k[X]^H) when k[X]^H is finitely generated.Comment: 37 pages, 1 figure (parabola2.eps), in honor of Bob MacPherson's 60th birthda

Eucharist and Sacrifice

An exploration of different understandings of 'sacrifice' by Christian theologians, and how these affect our understanding of the eucharist, especially in the light of the mimetic of Rene Girard