Knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship: business plans, capital, technology and growth of new ventures in Austin, Texas

textThis study addresses the themes of knowledge, innovation and entrepreneurship, all of them key factors that contribute to the development and growth of new ventures. The study focuses specifically on the impacts of business plans, initial sources of capital, and technology on the patterns of growth and development of a group of new ventures in Austin, Texas from 1990 to 2003. For the most part, these new ventures were in the early stages of their respective lifecycles and were analyzed through their stages of survival, growth, or demise. The enterprises conducted operations during a period that witnessed rapid business growth, and culminated through the rise and fall of the Dot-Com Bubble. The relationships among their initial sources of capital, business plans, technology, and growth were collectively analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The research involved a questionnaire survey of more than seventy-five Austin software enterprises. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with seven key entrepreneurs and two venture capital investors. This study uses the Resource-Based View, and it categorizes styles of entrepreneurship, according to their initial sources of capital, into three major groups: self-funded, venture capital (VC) funded and corporation funded. The findings demonstrate that the initial sources of capital significantly impact the selected styles of business plans. 50% of VC funded ventures, as opposed to 15% of selffunded ventures, started with formal business plans. Ninety percent of VC funded ventures that started with a formal business plan, however, used those plans for external communication with the third parties, essentially for funding purposes. One-year after startup, 55% of the VC funded ventures had developed formal business plans while 45% of them still followed informal business plans. One year after startup, among the selffunded ventures, only 20% of them developed formal business plans while 80% of them followed informal, but adaptive, business plans. Only three ventures, out of the total sample group of seventy-five, started with patented technologies, but more than thirteen eventually registered patented technologies. An analysis of the role of patented technologies in the process of venture development suggests that new technology assumes a more critical role in the latter stages of enterprise development than it does during the initial stages. Patents, accordingly, appear to be more a result of growth rather than a basis for growth. The overall rate of growth of VC funded ventures was about twice that of selffunded ventures. Self-funded ventures often proceed cautiously and try to grow in accordance with their limited resources in an evolutionary fashion. VC funded ventures may follow more ambitious patterns of growth, depending on the amount of initial capital at their disposal, but the presence of capital does not guarantee long-term sustainability. The study concludes that formal business plans are used mostly as communication tools with external sources of capital and do not necessarily serve to guide operations. Formal business plans are, however, distinct from the process of business planning. The latter tends to be a creative, complex, and on-going attempt to envision potential courses of action for the development of enterprises, and is relatively unique for each case.Informatio

The role of public gardens in enhancing diabetic patients’ health and wellbeing

Cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have experienced rapid uncontrolled urbanism due to the absence of robust planning measures. This causes lack or ill distributions of facilities and segregation between these facilities and the residences in districts and neighbourhoods across the King-dom. It also encouraged citizens to adopt unhealthy lifestyles which in turn aggravated their health conditions. This paper discusses the critical relationship between the unhealthy lifestyle of diabetic patients and the proximity of public gardens. A survey on 76 diabetic patients and their living conditions was carried out. A visual and mapping survey was conducted on public gardens and vacant lands around diabetics’ homes. The study found that cities in the Eastern province, KSA have unhealthy urban and suburban settings in terms of the proximity and characteristics of public gardens. It is revealed that patients have unhealthier lifestyle and frequent diabetic symptoms when gardens are far away and vacant lands are nearer to their homes. This calls the need for emergent amendment of the present planning regulations for the use of vacant lands and public amenities including public gardens in Saudi cities so they would help improving the physical, psychological and spiritual health of the diabetic patients and the community

Dispersion Characteristics of a Cylindrical Electromagnetic Band Gap Structure

3 pages.International audienceIn this letter, a new analytical expression for the dispersion equation of radially periodic structures is derived. The periodic structure is considered as a set of parallel cylindrical frequency selective surfaces, and the dispersion equation is calculated by using a transmission line model. Using this result, the dispersion proprieties of cylindrical electromagnetic bandgap structures composed of continuous or discontinuous metallic wires are presented. It is shown that the band structures of these materials can be determined by using the proposed dispersion equation. Cylindrical periodic materials have potential applications for designing directive antennas, circular high impedance surfaces, or agile antennas

Cylindrical periodic structures of metallic wires

4 pagesInternational audienceFirst, we calculate the total field for an outgoing or an incoming TM cylindrical incident wave illuminating a cylindrical periodic structure of metallic wires. Then, we give analytical formulas to extract the characteristics (reflection and transmission) of the cylindrical periodic structure. To finish, we extend the study to infinite radius periodic structure by given an approximation of the dispersion diagram

On the impedance matching of left-handed materials to free-space

International audienceUsing an original approach, this work shows that the intrinsic impedance, as it is usually defined, is negative for a left-handed medium (LHM) and a method to match left-handed media to free space is proposed. A full-wave technique is used to validate our analysis and proposed scheme. Our work is not in contradiction with previous studies on left-handed media and does not mean that the LHM is active, but we explain why one can encounter dificulty in simulating the excitation by an electromagnetic wave of an interface air/LHM if the LHM is considered homogeneous and we show that it is possible to excite the forward wave of a left-handed medium instead of the backward wave as it is usually done

Towards an automated photogrammetry-based approach for monitoring and controlling construction site activities

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. The construction industry has a poor productivity record, which was predominantly ascribed to inadequate monitoring of how a project is progressing at any given time. Most available approaches do not offer key stakeholders a shared understanding of project performance in real-time, which as a result fail to identify any project slippage on the original schedule. This paper reports on the development of a novel automatic system for monitoring, updating and controlling construction site activities in real-time. The proposed system seeks to harness advances in close-range photogrammetry to deliver an original approach that is capable of continuous monitoring of construction activities, with progress status determined, at any given time, throughout the construction lifecycle. The proposed approach has the potential to identify any deviation of as planned construction schedules, so prompt action can be taken because of an automatic notification system, which informs decision-makers via emails and SMS. This system was rigorously tested in a real-life case study of an in-progress construction site. The findings revealed that the proposed system achieved a significant high level of accuracy and automation, and was relatively cheap and easier to operate

EBG-ANTENNA ANALYSIS : UNIFICATION OF FREQUENCY AND ANGULAR DEPENDENCIES

International audienceIn this paper, we present an original method to study planar EBG based antennas. From this method, which unifies the frequency and angular dependencies of the EBG structure, we obtain an analytical expression of the directivity of the structure versus frequency. To our knowledge, these results concerning EBG structures have never been presented

Antenne résonateur BIE à faisceau contrôlable

Les antennes à Bande Interdite Electromagnétique (BIE) sont des structures à fort gain présentant une meilleure compacité comparées aux réseaux d'antennes ou aux antennes lentilles. Des solutions à base d'empilements diélectriques et métalliques permettent d'obtenir des gains atteignant 30 dB. La directivité de ces antennes est imposée par la taille et le coefficient de qualité de la cavité. A notre connaissance, il n'existe pas de structures BIE à directivité variable. Le travail présenté propose un concept d'antennes BIE à directivité variable. Les performances en rayonnement et en impédance ont d'abord été étudiées dans un modèle 2D. Elles ont ensuite été confirmées dans le cas 3D. La variation de directivité de l'antenne BIE est obtenue grâce à une grille de commande intégrée au milieu de la cavité. Les résultats préliminaires montrent une variation de directivité comprise entre 12.5dB et 26dB avec un nombre réduit d'éléments de commutation

Multi-Layer Crystals of Metallic Wires: Analysis of the Transmission Coefficient for Outside and Inside Excitation

26 pages.International audienceThis paper proposes a new analysis of the transmission coefficient at normal incidence for 2-D periodic crystals (also called Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) structures), which are finite in the direction of wave-propagation and are composed of metallic wires. The crystal is considered as a set of parallel Partially Reflecting Surfaces (PRSs), whose transmission and reflection characteristics are obtained rigorously using the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. The transmission coefficient of the EBG structure is then obtained by using a plane-wave cascading approach considering single mode interactions between PRSs. The accuracy of the results given by the hybrid method is assessed compared to those obtained directly by the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. The minima and maxima envelops and the resonance frequencies of the transmission coefficient are studied, with analytical expressions, for both, excitation from outside and excitation from inside. A discussion is also presented concerning the strength of the coefficient greater than one obtained when the plane-wave source is inside the EBG structure. In addition, by using a transmission line model, a normalized version for this coefficient is proposed, which considers the available power by the source

Frequency Beam Scanning and Gain Enhancement properties of PBG Antennas

The main purpose of this communication is to present the frequency beam scanning possibility of PBG-antennas and the relationship with high gain property. To this end, we will first remind the gain enhancement phenomenon and then generalize the results to the steered beam antennas