E-Business and New Venture Strategies that Impact Firm Performance

The recent surgence of new venture creations and failures has led practioners and researchers to identify the factors that impact new venture performance. One major research stream in the strategic management literature suggests that new venture strategic decisions are critical to their success. Research on new venture strategies has experienced limited success and beckons the call for more substantive studies. Failures of new ventures are often linked to their limited resources or ability to attract the needed resources and finding specific strategies to launch e-business ventures. Given the recent rise of technology ventures in transitional economies it represents an opportunity to examine the new venture strategy impact on the environment-performance relationship. The model presented in this paper is designed with the transitional economies in mind as the backdrop for testing the model. A brief literature review on environments, e-business, and new venture strategies is developed. A model framing the environment, new venture strategy, e-entrepreneur and performance is offered. Propositions describing the relationships of the variables in the model are developed. Finally, conclusions and implications for future research are discussed

A Statistical Look at Maps of the Discrete Logarithm

Cryptography is being used today more than it ever has in the past. Millions of transactions are being conducted every hour using encrypted channels, most of which use the Internet as their medium. It is taken for granted by the average user that these transaction are secure, but mathematicians and computer scientists alike are constantly testing the algorithms being used. Several of these cryptosystems use the transformation gx = y (mod n) The appeal of this transformation is that it is quite simple to calculate gx mod n; exponentiation by squaring is fairly simple and quick even using very large numbers. However there is no known algorithm to compute the inverse of the transformation (that is given y, g, and n, (and x) in a comparable amount of time. This is called the discrete log problem, and Diffie-Hellman key exchange, RSA and the Blum-Micali pseudorandom bit generator all rely on its inherent difficulty. This paper explores the maps generated by this transformation with the hope of gaining some insight into its structure and similarity to random mappings

Teaching and Learning Reform: Curriculum, the Kentucky Department of Education, & The Educational Professional Standards Board

For explanatory purposes, the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) is generally divided into three major clusters of initiatives: finance, curriculum, and governance. As explained elsewhere in this volume, the systemic complexity of KERA makes any divisions of its initiatives, artificial, and ultimately, insufficient, in describing the decade-old scope of Kentucky’s radical education reforms (Rinehart & Lindle, 1997; Steffy, 1993). For the purposes of this retrospective review of research, this chapter was designed to focus on the very heart of KERA’s purpose, the improvement of teaching and learning. For that reason, this chapter addresses a teaching-learning-oriented KERA initiative, curriculum, and the development and reorganization of two state agencies primarily involved in teaching and learning, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) and the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB)

School Based Decision Making

The 1989 Task Force on Education Reform adopted 12 systemic principles used in drafting the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). One of the principles formed the basis for School Based Decision Making (SBDM). It stated: School accountability and school-based authority are two intertwined parts of the same proposition (Foster, 1999; Task Force on Education Reform, 1989, p. 2). In other words, once the Task Force selected schools as the unit for the commonwealth\u27s new accountability and assessment system, the General Assembly agreed that schools should have statutory authority to plan and make policy addressing achievement of accountability goals. The legislation mandating SBDM in conjunction with KERA\u27s other systemic features was enacted in 1990 and codified as KRS § 160.345

Hasn\u27t Anyone Else Done This Right? A Field Note on the Political Realities and Perceptions in Modifying Kentucky\u27s High Stakes Accountability System

This paper is a case study of Kentucky\u27s attempt to fix not only failing schools but a failing public school system. It reports on the policy making and implementation conundrums of the debate over Kentucky\u27s high stakes accountability system. As a political policy analysis, the study relies on documents, media reports, and interviews with key players to expand understanding of the issues. The paper reports primary and secondary focus group and interview data from a variety of professional educators and parents. The combined frameworks of political culture and authentic policy perspectives are useful for depicting the story of Kentucky\u27s debate over accountability and assessment. Political culture emerges as a defining influence on Kentucky\u27s educational accountability debate. What becomes of assessment and accountability in Kentucky remains to be seen, but it is apparent that fixing failing schools has enormous political overtones. However, the power of professional culture must not be underestimated in this equation. An appendix contains the statement of principles from the Kentucky Task Force on Education Reform

A Rhetorical Legacy for Leadership: Humor .

This article treats humor as one of the rhetorical arts which educational leaders must possess to facilitate problem solving among teachers, students, and parents

Accountability Policy at the Street Level in Kentucky: Teachers and Administrators Debate the Fairness of Continuous Improvement versus Relative Standing

While scholars of educational accountability policy will not be surprised at the power of local implementers in modifying accountability efforts, Kentucky\u27s street-level debate splits two constituencies in defining a fair system. Advocates for the education of all children including the poor and minorities support the continuous improvement model, while elite advocates support recognition of relative standing of schools. This paper includes data from teachers and administrators in four schools identified as eligible for state assistance under Kentucky\u27s testing and accountability system. Of particular interest are the perceptions of accountability held by teachers and administrators in one school that had received rewards over two biennial periods prior to the current accountability designation. Across all four schools, teachers found the concept of continuous improvement unrealistic. Yet, many teachers accepted the apparent inevitability of emerging accountability requirements on their profession

Research in Brief: Shared Decision Making Enhances Instructional Leadership

A study of three middle school principals about their instructional leadership activities before and after the establishment of shared decision making revealed an enhancement of leadership. The nature of the middle school teacher\u27s role demands participative leadership and communication and decision making revolved around instructional issues

LEARNING TO RETELL STORIES THROUGH COMPARATIVE TEACHING: WRITING AND DRAWING

Students who are emergent readers and writers are often difficult to assess, as they are unable to communicate understanding in writing. From my observations, these students communicate ideas best through concrete forms of expression, rather than the abstract formation of letters and writing that is unfamiliar to them. Drawing provides an alternate form of expression from writing. Based on information found in literature review and personal experiences from working with students who are emergent readers and writers, pictures and drawings are a bridge to communicate ideas with these students. This form of expression and communication may be a useful assessment tool for students at this developmental stage. The purpose of this research study is to test the hypothesis that retelling using visual art representations of the story will yield positive results

Evaluation of Fluorapatite as a Waste-Form Material: Fourth Quarter Report, June 1 - September 30, 2004

Fluorapatite, fluorinated calcium phosphate, has been identified as a potential matrix for the entombment of the zirconium fluoride fission product waste stream from the proposed FLEX process. If the efficacy of fluorapatite-based waste-storage can be demonstrated, then new and potentially more-efficient options for handling and separating high-level wastes, based on fluoride-salt extraction, will become feasible. This proposal will develop a dual-path research project to develop a process to fabricate a synthetic fluorapatite waste form for the ZrF4, FP waste stream, characterize the waste form, examine its performance under environmental conditions, and correlate the behavior of the waste form with natural analogs. Characterization of the material will be accomplished through probing the molecular-scale electronic and geometric structure of the materials in order to relate them to macroscopic properties, with the goal of developing techniques to evaluate and predict the performance of different waste-form materials. Time and funding permitting, other waste forms for the zirconium fluoride, fission product salt waste stream will be examined and benchmarked against the fluorapatite matrix baseline. Highlights of Accomplishments: 1. Fluorapatite containing Sr and Zn surrogates (replacing the Ca) have been synthesized, annealed and analyzed using various techniques such as SEM, IR, XPS, Raman, DSC, TGA, EDS, XRD and XANES. 2. Non-annealed samples of the same surrogate samples have been analyzed with the same techniques. 3. The phosphate in fluorapatite and hydroxyapatite is not replaced by the nitrate ions of the surrogates during synthesis