Entrepreneurial Stewardship: Why Some Profits Should Be Used to Benefit Others

Entrepreneurs should act as stewards of entrepreneurial rent. Entrepreneurial rent is the difference between the ex post value of a venture and its ex ante costs. It is the result of competition among buyers and sellers within the market process rather than the sole efforts of the entrepreneur. As a result, entrepreneurs should allocate entrepreneurial rent for the benefit of other market participants rather than consuming it for themselves. The moral obligation to steward entrepreneurial rent is consistent with traditional bases of property rights and the norm of social welfare maximization, and it applies to corporations and their shareholders, as well as individual entrepreneurs

3 Essays On Markets, Hierarchies, And Morality

In my dissertation, I examine issues related to markets and hierarchies, which are core conceptual building blocks for economic theories of the firm, from a moral point of view. The first essay engages with economic theories of the firm and argues that there is a tension between the two primary metaphors – contracts and hierarchies – utilized by economists to describe the nature and purpose of the firm. The second essay provides a moral reason for drawing the distinction between markets and firms in the first place. It argues that the principle of fair play justifies the adoption of a proposed three-part test for employee classification based on economic theories of entrepreneurship. The third essay applies the insights from the first two chapters by arguing that stakeholder theory should pay greater attention to the contract metaphor within theories of the firm

Smart Urban Cities/Communities: Leveraging Information and Communication Technologies for Improving Local Public Services

CPACS Urban Research Awards Part of the mission of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS) is to conduct research, especially as it relates to concerns of our local and statewide constituencies. CPACS has always had an urban mission, and one way that mission is served is to preform applied research relevant to urban society in general, and the Omaha metropolitan area and other Nebraska urban communities in particular. Beginning in 2014, the CPACS Dean provided funding for the projects with high relevance to current urban issues, with the potential to apply the findings to practice in Nebraska, Iowa, and beyond

Connector 0.5: A unified framework for graph representation learning

Graph representation learning models aim to represent the graph structure and its features into low-dimensional vectors in a latent space, which can benefit various downstream tasks, such as node classification and link prediction. Due to its powerful graph data modelling capabilities, various graph embedding models and libraries have been proposed to learn embeddings and help researchers ease conducting experiments. In this paper, we introduce a novel graph representation framework covering various graph embedding models, ranging from shallow to state-of-the-art models, namely Connector. First, we consider graph generation by constructing various types of graphs with different structural relations, including homogeneous, signed, heterogeneous, and knowledge graphs. Second, we introduce various graph representation learning models, ranging from shallow to deep graph embedding models. Finally, we plan to build an efficient open-source framework that can provide deep graph embedding models to represent structural relations in graphs. The framework is available at https://github.com/NSLab-CUK/Connector.Comment: An unified framework for graph representation learnin

Active Citizen E-Participation in Local Governance: Do Individual Social Capital and E-Participation Management Matter?

Abstract While a growing body of literature has touted e-participation as a means of facilitating greater citizen participation in policy decision-making processes, little is known about the driving forces of active citizen e-participation. Active e-participation is defined as the extent to which citizens make inputs via e-participation programs. Based on a literature review of social capital and citizen participation, the study develops a model of active e-participation and tests it in the context of local governance. Three dimensions of social capital -trust in government, strength of social ties, and volunteering activitiesare classified to explore the association of individual social capital and active e-participation. The model addresses that three dimensions of citizen participation management -fairness, access to information, and government responsiveness -are positively associated with active e-participation. To test several hypotheses, the study uses the 2009 E-Participation Survey data collected from 1,076 participants of the Cheon Man Sang Sang Oasis, which is an e-participation program administered by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in South Korea since 2006. Using ordered logistic regression analysis, the study found that citizens' trust in government and their volunteer experiences are positively related to active e-participation. The results demonstrate that citizens embedded in weak offline social ties are likely to use e-participation actively. The study also found that citizens' perception of quality responsiveness during the e-participation process is positively related to active e-participation. Based on the study's findings, the paper discusses the managerial and policy implications for fostering citizens' eparticipation through effective e-participation programs in the context of local governance

Dispersion retrieval from multi-level ultra-deep reactive-ion-etched microstructures for terahertz slow-wave circuits

A multi-level microstructure is proposed for terahertz slow-wave circuits, with dispersion relation retrieved by scattering parameter measurements. The measured return loss shows strong resonances above the cutoff with negligible phase shifts compared with finite element analysis. Splitting the circuit into multi levels enables a low aspect ratio configuration that alleviates the loading effect of deep-reactive-ion etching on silicon wafers. This makes it easier to achieve flat-etched bottom and smooth sidewall profiles. The dispersion retrieved from the measurement, therefore, corresponds well to the theoretical estimation. The result provides a straightforward way to the precise determination of dispersions in terahertz vacuum electronics.</jats:p

Vitamin D and Exercise Are Major Determinants of Natural Killer Cell Activity, Which Is Age- and Gender-Specific

BackgroundThe coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) pandemic reminds us of the importance of immune function, even in immunologically normal individuals. Multiple lifestyle factors are known to influence the immune function.ObjectiveThe aim was to investigate the association between NK cell activity (NKA) and multiple factors including vitamin D, physical exercise, age, and gender.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional association study using health check-up and NKA data of 2,095 subjects collected from 2016 to 2018 in a health check-up center in the Republic of Korea. NKA was measured using the interferon-γ (IFN-γ) stimulation method. The association of NKA with 25-(OH)-vitamin D (25(OH)D) and other factors was investigated by multiple logistic regression analysis.ResultsThe average age of subjects was 48.8 ± 11.6 years (52.9% of subjects were female). Among 2,095 subjects, 1,427 had normal NKA (NKA ≥ 500 pg IFN-γ/mL), while 506 had low NKA (100 ≤ NKA &lt; 500 pg/mL), and 162 subjects had very low NKA (NKA &lt; 100 pg/mL). Compared to men with low 25(OH)D serum level (&lt; 20 ng/mL), vitamin D replete men (30–39.9 ng/mL) had significantly lower risk of very low NKA (OR: 0.358; 95% CI: 0.138, 0.929; P = 0.035). In women, both low exercise (OR: 0.529; 95% CI: 0.299, 0.939; P = 0.030) and medium to high exercise (OR: 0.522; 95% CI: 0.277, 0.981; P = 0.043) decreased the risk compared to lack of physical exercise. Interestingly, in men and women older than 60 years, physical exercise significantly decreased the risk. Older-age was associated with increased risk of very low NKA in men, but not in women.ConclusionPhysical exercise and vitamin D were associated with NKA in a gender- and age-dependent manner. Age was a major risk factor of very low NKA in men but not in women