Perceiving the Value of Business Planning

The value of business planning has been subject to much controversy over the past years. In-deed, there appears to be an escalation in empirical research, with opposing implications and diverging approaches to teaching entrepreneurship. Most empirical studies have taken an ex-post, comparative view of the relationship between planning and performance. In this paper, we introduce an ex-ante perspective by formally characterizing the decision of the nascent entrepreneur whether or not to start a business and whether or not to plan beforehand. We focus on the evaluative function of business planning, define the information value of busi-ness planning, identify its influencing factors, and show how costs of business planning de-termine the quality of planning. We find as the crucial aspect of good evaluative business planning that it helps to identify and to sort out poor business ideas before they reach the mar-ket. We contrast our results with conclusions drawn from empirical studies that have been critical of planning. In a setting in which, by construction, planning has a positive value, we question several popular negative implications by showing how they result from an incom-plete sample of entrepreneurs.Business plan, Start-ups, Entrepreneurship, Decision Making, Uncertainty

Balancing the Tradeoff between Personal Fulfillment and Competitiveness in Venture Creation

The fascination of venture creation is associated with an entrepreneur’s opportunity of achieving personal fulfillment. In reality, however, many nascent entrepreneurs discover that much of their original vision is sacrificed in the process of creating a startup. In this paper we address the conflict between the entrepreneur’s fulfillment and the startup’s competitiveness from a negotiationanalytic perspective. We show how the nature of this conflict is transformed in the process of business planning, and we demonstrate how a purely marketoriented focus on expansion serves to enhance personal fulfillment. Our analytical approach has practical implications for business development and entrepreneurial education.Venture Creation, Business Development, Negotiation Analysis

A bi-objective column generation algorithm for the multi-commodity minimum cost flow problem

We present a column generation algorithm for solving the bi-objective multi-commodity minimum cost flow problem. This method is based on the bi-objective simplex method and Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition. The method is initialised by optimising the problem with respect to the first objective, a single objective multi-commodity flow problem, which is solved using Dantzig–Wolfe decomposition. Then, similar to the bi-objective simplex method, our algorithm iteratively moves from one non-dominated extreme point to the next one by finding entering variables with the maximum ratio of improvement of the second objective over deterioration of the first objective. Our method reformulates the problem into a bi-objective master problem over a set of capacity constraints and several single objective linear fractional sub-problems each over a set of network flow conservation constraints. The master problem iteratively updates cost coefficients for the fractional sub-problems. Based on these cost coefficients an optimal solution of each sub-problem is obtained. The solution with the best ratio objective value out of all sub-problems represents the entering variable for the master basis. The algorithm terminates when there is no entering variable which can improve the second objective by deteriorating the first objective. This implies that all non-dominated extreme points of the original problem are obtained. We report on the performance of the algorithm on several directed bi-objective network instances with different characteristics and different numbers of commodities

Bidding for envy-freeness: A procedural approach to n-player fair-division problems

We develop a procedure for implementing an efficient and envy-free allocation of m objects among n individuals with the possibility of monetary side-payments. The procedure eliminates envy by compensating envious players. It is fully descriptive and says explicitly which compensations should be made, and in what order. Moreover, it is simple enough to be carried out without computer support. We formally characterize the properties of the procedure, show how it establishes envy-freeness with minimal resources, and demonstrate its application to a wide class of fair-division problems.fair-division procedures, envy-freeness

Amnion cells engineering: A new perspective in fetal membrane healing after intrauterine surgery?

In this study we aimed to set up an in vitro culture of the rabbit amnion in order to support in vivo fetal membrane healing capacity following fetoscopy. Fetal membranes were collected from a mid- gestational rabbit, and cultured on collagen support material for 14 days. 34 rabbits at 22 - 23 days gestational age ( GA) underwent fetoscopy. The entry site was randomly allocated to 4 closure technique study groups: group I, human amnion membrane ( n = 23); group II, collagen foil ( n = 16); group III, collagen plug ( n = 19), and group IV, collagen plug with cultured amnion cells ( n = 19). In all groups membrane access sites were additionally sealed with fibrin sealant, and the myometrium was closed with sutures. Fetal survival, amnion membrane integrity, and the presence of amniotic fluid were evaluated at 30 days GA. Cultures showed good survival in the collagen support material. Increased cellularity, survival and proliferations were observed. The amnion at the access site resealed in 58 - 64% of cases in groups II - IV, but none of the tested techniques was significantly better than the other. Histological examination indirectly revealed the anatomic repair of the membranes, since no entrapment of the membranes could be demonstrated in the myometrial wound. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Perceiving the Value of Business Planning

The value of business planning has been subject to much controversy over the past years. In-deed, there appears to be an escalation in empirical research, with opposing implications and diverging approaches to teaching entrepreneurship. Most empirical studies have taken an ex-post, comparative view of the relationship between planning and performance. In this paper, we introduce an ex-ante perspective by formally characterizing the decision of the nascent entrepreneur whether or not to start a business and whether or not to plan beforehand. We focus on the evaluative function of business planning, define the information value of busi-ness planning, identify its influencing factors, and show how costs of business planning de-termine the quality of planning. We find as the crucial aspect of good evaluative business planning that it helps to identify and to sort out poor business ideas before they reach the mar-ket. We contrast our results with conclusions drawn from empirical studies that have been critical of planning. In a setting in which, by construction, planning has a positive value, we question several popular negative implications by showing how they result from an incom-plete sample of entrepreneurs

Procedural Support for Cooperative Negotiations: Theoretical Design and Practical Implementation

We discuss the theoretical design of algorithms for solving distributional conflicts within groups. We consider an algorithm to be procedural if the implementation of the outcome requires the participation of the players, or if it can even be conducted by the players themselves without computational assistance. We compare two procedures for multilateral problems of fair division; both establish envy-freeness, given the possibility of monetary compensations between players

Gesundheitsökonomische Aspekte in der telemedizinischen Schlaganfall-Akutversorgung - eine qualitative Analyse

Spezialisierte Stroke Units bieten Schlaganfallpatienten die bestmögliche Behandlung – ihrer flächendeckenden Einrichtung steht allerdings akuter Mangel an erfahrenen Neurologen sowie die geringe Schlaganfallinzidenz in dünnbesiedelten, ländlichen Gebieten entgegen. Hier werden zunehmend telemedizinische Lösungen eingesetzt, um neurologische Expertise in Krankenhäusern der Grund- und Regelversorgung verfügbar zu machen. Nationale und internationale telemedizinische Pilotprojekte haben gezeigt, dass eine fundierte und schnelle Entscheidung über die Thrombolyse als wichtigste Akuttherapie, aber auch über weitere Interventionen telemedizinisch getroffen werden kann. Dabei evaluieren bisherige Studien zwar die Verbesserung der Versorgungsqualität durch die Netzwerke, nicht aber ihre für eine nachhaltige Umsetzung grundlegende Wirtschaftlichkeit. Komplementär zu der medizinischen Evaluation zeigt die hier vorgestellte qualitative ökonomische Bewertung deutscher und amerikanischer telemedizinischer Versorgungskonzepte bezüglich ihrer Geschäfts- und Finanzierungsmodelle klare Unterschiede in der Effizienz und dem langfristig möglichen Erfolg der einzelnen Netzwerkkonzepte. Auffällig ist die konträre Schwerpunktsetzung zwischen zwei großen amerikanischen und den deutschen Netzwerken: Während in den amerikanischen Netzen gezielt Nutzungsanreize geschaffen wurden, die über den immanenten Wunsch der beteiligten Ärzte zur Versorgungsverbesserung hinausgehen, ist dies in den deutschen von sekundärer Bedeutung. Weiterhin sind die deutschen Telemedizinnetzwerke im Unterschied zu einigen amerikanischen tendenziell nicht auf Wachstum angelegt. Aus wirtschaftlicher Sicht bieten dezentral organisierte Netzwerke ein höheres Effizienzpotential als rein lokale, und die Integration von Anreizen in das Geschäftsmodelldesign ist für das langfristige Bestehen vor allem in einem wettbewerbsintensiven Markt ein grundlegender Erfolgsfaktor.Telemedizin, Netzwerkkonzepte, ökonomische Evaluation, Schlaganfall