Human Capital and Conflict Management in the Entrepreneur-Venture Capitalist Relationship: The Entrepreuner's Perspective

This extract is taken from the author's original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive, published, version of record is available here: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137473103 and https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137473110.Entrepreneurs’ human capital is important in the entrepreneur-venture capitalist (E-VC) relationship where conflict between the two parties is almost inevitable. However, how human capital affects entrepreneurs’ responses to conflict is under explored. Adopting a qualitative analysis, this study integrates the human capital and conflict management literature to examine the factors that cause conflict in the E-VC relationship in China and to investigate how entrepreneurs with different degrees of human capital respond to conflict. Our findings show communication barriers, and different goals and value systems are the main sources of conflict between Chinese entrepreneurs and foreign VCs. Entrepreneurs with start-up experience are more likely to adopt collaborative and competing strategies and hence have a more positive and productive attitude towards conflict with VCs, whereas inexperienced entrepreneurs tend to use passive accommodating and avoiding approaches that create problems in the E-VC relationship

Empowerment and Accountability: Evidence from the UK Privatized Water Industry

Empowerment initiatives have become popular in recent years in programmes of organizational change, but their impact as a practical managerial policy remains shrouded in ambiguities. We attempt to provide a fuller understanding of their impact, firstly by exploring managers' understanding of what constitutes empowerment, and secondly by locating the analysis of changes in managers' experiences of empowerment in the context of their experiences of changes in accountability practices. Drawing on data from interviews with managers and a mail questionnaire, we argue that the experience of empowerment is multi-faceted, and shaped by managers' attitudes towards it. Moreover we find that accountability plays a more significant and independent role in encouraging managers to engage in empowerment than has hitherto been acknowledged. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006.

Relationship between insulin-like growth factor I, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and proresorptive cytokines and bone density in cystic fibrosis.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are known to be at risk for early osteoporosis, and the mechanisms that mediate bone loss are still being delineated. The aim of the present investigation was to investigate if a correlation exists in these patients between skeletal measurements by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and two anabolic factors, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), and proresorptive factors such as the cytokines interleukin-1beta, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and interleukin-6. METHODS: We studied 32 outpatients (18 females; mean age: 26.2+/-7.9 years) at a tertiary care medical center. The subjects had venous samples obtained, underwent anthropometric and bone mineral density (BMD) measurements, and completed a health survey. Serum IGF-I concentrations were below the age-adjusted mean in 78% of the participants, and DHEA sulfate (DHEAS) concentrations were low in 72%. Serum concentrations of all cytokines were on the low side of normal; nonetheless, there was a modest inverse correlation between IL-1beta and BMD at all sites. RESULTS: In univariate analyses, IGF-I and DHEAS were significant correlates of BMD or bone mineral content. In final multivariate models controlling for anthropometric and other variables of relevance to bone density, only IGF-I was identified as a significant independent skeletal predictor. While alterations in DHEAS, IGF-I, and specific cytokines may contribute to skeletal deficits in patients with CF, of these factors a low IGF-I concentration appears to be most strongly correlated with BMD. CONCLUSIONS: These findings may have therapeutic implications for enhancing bone density in these patients