How do banks assess entrepreneurial competence? The role of voluntary information disclosure

This research adds to the literature on relationship lending in the small business context by discussing the roles of entrepreneurial competence and voluntarily disclosed information as determinants of credit access. More specifically, we propose that the loan manager’s evaluation of the information voluntarily disclosed by the entrepreneur is an important complement to publicly available financial data and soft information collected through observation and third parties in framing the loan manager’s perception of the entrepreneur’s competence. Further, we argue that banks charge lower interest rates if the loan manager perceives the entrepreneur to be competent. Econometric analysis based on 433 bank-firm relationships supports these hypothesised relationships. The results imply that entrepreneurs need to communicate their competence effectively to loan managers, and that banks should utilise their loan managers’ personal evaluations as inputs to lending decisions

Environmental pollution policy of small businesses in Nigeria and Ghana: extent and impact

This study provides a comprehensive assessment of firms’ operation and environmental protection polices in Nigeria and Ghana, where there has been a rising industrial growth amidst low regulatory and institutional frameworks. We analyze the extents to which firms’ adoption of environmental protection policies affect their performances. We use firm-level data of 842 firms (447 for Nigeria and 395 for Ghana) distributed across different regions of both countries for our descriptive and econometric estimations. We find, among other things, that firms’ adoption of internal policies on environmental protection is dismally low in both Nigeria (32%) and Ghana (17%), with policies focused on reducing solid (38%, Nigeria; and 35%, Ghana), gaseous (22%, Nigeria; and 44%, Ghana), and liquid (24%, Nigeria; and 14%, Ghana) pollution. Training appears to be an important intervention that can help improve firms’ adoption of such policies. We also found that firms’ adoption and implementation of environmental protection policies significantly improve their performance

Biopolttoaineiden tuotanto kuumavesinesteytyksellä

The increasing threat of global climate change has accelerated research activities to convert biomass into transportation fuels. The need to develop clean and sustainable alternatives to replace fossil fuels continually increases. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) has been identified as a promising technology to convert wet biomass into a high quality intermediate product i.e. bio-crude. The HTL process operates at moderately high temperatures (250-380 °C) and pressure (4-30 MPa) in the presence of water. This thesis assesses the overall processing route of biomass via hydrothermal liquefaction. The entire value chain is studied with the main focus on the experimental study of the HTL process in a batch reactor. The remaining parts of the value chain were investigated on the basis of literature results including pre-treatment operations, product separation methods, side-products utilization and upgrading possibilities of the bio-crude. The suitability of different biomasses for the HTL was evaluated by reviewing literature. In addition, preliminary profitability estimations were calculated using a combination of the laboratory results and a literature-driven approach for investment and operational costs. For THE technology, the most promising biomass options were found to be algae, sewage sludge and woody biomass. These materials had the most favourable features among studied biomasses, such as high initial moisture content and high bio-crude yields. Biomasses chosen for experimental work were woody biomass and activated sludge. Bio-crude products, having carbon contents between 67-80 % for wood and 45-81 % for activated sludge and oxygen contents between 11.5-25 % for wood and 5-45 % for activated sludge, were obtained with yields of 13-28.6 w-% for wood and 10-25 w-% for activated sludge. The following reaction conditions were used: Temperature, 300-380 °C; Pressure, 80-265 bar; Residence time, 0-30 min; and Potassium hydroxide (KOH) loading, 0-10 w-% of biomass feed. The best processing conditions were 330 °C with 0 min residence time and 0-5 w-% KOH yielding 40 % of carbon to bio-crude for wood and 300 °C with 30 min residence time and 10 w-% KOH yielding 49 % of carbon to bio-crude for activated sludge. The bio-crude product obtained was viscous, which caused troubles in handling and analyzation. The experimental results obtained confirm that the HTL process is capable of producing bio-crude with high carbon to oxygen ratio at high yield. This work illustrates the potential of the HTL technology as a biofuel production technology for wet biomasses. The process challenges that were identified relate to the bio-crude product separation, the high viscosity of the bio-crude and reactor fouling.Ilmastonmuutoksen aiheuttama uhka on jatkuvasti kiihdyttänyt biomassapohjaisten liikennepolttoaineiden tutkimusta. Tarve korvata fossiiliset polttoaineet puhtailla ja kestävillä vaihtoehdoilla kasvaa koko ajan. Kuumavesinesteytyksen (hydrothermal liquefaction, HTL) on todettu olevan yksi lupaavimmista teknologioista, jolla voidaan valmistaa märästä biomassasta korkealaatuista välituotetta, bioraakaöljyä. HTL-prosessi toimii kohtalaisen korkeissa lämpötiloissa (250-380 ° C) ja paineissa (4-30 MPa) veden läsnä ollessa. Tämän diplomityön tarkoituksena oli tutkia ja arvioida biomassan kuumavesinesteytystä prosessikokonaisuutena aina raaka-aineista jatkokäsittelyyn. Tutkimuksen pääpaino keskittyi itse HTL-teknologian kokeelli-seen tutkimukseen panosreaktorilla. Muina tutkittuina ja esiteltyinä osina prosessia ovat esikäsittelyt, tuotteiden erotusmenetelmät, sivutuotteiden käyttö sekä bioraakaöljyn jatkojalostus polttoaineeksi. Prosessin muiden osien tutkimus perustui kirjallisuustuloksien arviointiin. Tässä työssä tehtiin lisäksi biomassojen sopivuusvertailu HTL-prosessia varten kirjallisuustarkastelun avulla. Lopussa myös alustavat kannattavuusar-viot laskettiin yhdistämällä saadut laboratoriotulokset sekä kirjallisuudesta saadut investointi- ja käyttökustannusarviot. Levien, jätevesilietteen ja puun todettiin olevan lupaavimmat biomassavaihtoehdot HTL-teknologialle. Tätä puoltavat muun muassa materiaalien korkeat kosteuspitoisuudet sekä tutkimuksissa saadut korkeat bioraakaöljysaannot. Kokeelliseen osaan valittiin raaka-aineiksi puubiomassa ja aktiiviliete. Kokeellisessa osassa saatiin tuotettua bioraakaöljyjä 13-28,6 m-% saannolla puubiomassalle ja 10-25 m-% saannolla aktiivilietteelle. Tuotteiden hiilipitoisuudet olivat puubiomassalla 67-80 % ja aktiivilietteellä 45-81 %. Happipitoisuudet bioraakaöljyillä olivat puubiomassalla 11,5-25 % ja aktiivilietteellä 5-45 %. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin seuraavia reaktio-olosuhteita: 300-380 °C lämpötilaa, 80-265 baarin painetta, 0-30 min viipymäaikaa sekä kaliumhydroksidikatalyyttiä (KOH) 0-10 m-% biomassa syötöstä. Parhaat prosessiolosuhteet puubiomassalle olivat 300 °C, 0 min viipymä sekä 0 ja 5 m- % KOH, jolloin saavutettiin 40 % hiilisaanto bioraakaöljystä. Vastaavasti parhaat olosuhteet aktiivilietteelle olivat 300 °C, 30 min ja 10 m- % KOH, jolloin saavutettiin 49 % hiilisaanto bioraakaöljystä. Tuotettu bioraakaöljy oli hyvin viskoosia aiheuttaen ongelmia käsittelyssä ja analysoinnissa. Koetulokset vahvistavat, että HTL-prosessilla pystytään tuottamaan korkean hiili-happisuhteen omaavaa bioraakaöljyä korkealla saannolla. Tämä työ havainnollistaa HTL-teknologian potentiaalia tuottaa kosteista biomassoista biopolttoaineita. HTL-prosessin haasteiksi havaittiin bioraakaöljyn erotus, korkea viskositeetti ja reaktorin likaantuminen

Search for supersymmetry in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one tau lepton in 20 fb−1 of √s= 8 TeV proton-proton collision data with the ATLAS detector

© 2014, The Author(s). A search for supersymmetry (SUSY) in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, at least one hadronically decaying tau lepton and zero or one additional light leptons (electron/muon), has been performed using 20.3fb−1of proton-proton collision data at √ s= 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed in the various signal regions and 95% confidence level upper limits on the visible cross section for new phenomena are set. The results of the analysis are interpreted in several SUSY scenarios, significantly extending previous limits obtained in the same final states. In the framework of minimal gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models, values of the SUSY breaking scale Λ below 63 TeV are excluded, independently of tan β. Exclusion limits are also derived for an mSUGRA/CMSSM model, in both the R-parity-conserving and R-parity-violating case. A further interpretation is presented in a framework of natural gauge mediation, in which the gluino is assumed to be the only light coloured sparticle and gluino masses below 1090 GeV are excluded