Paradise lost? The case of technology-based small firms in New Zealand in the post global financial crisis economic environment

In this paper we draw on two studies that used face to face, qualitative interviews with technology-based small firms (TBSFs) and informal interviews with key informants. The interviews took place with two data sets of TBSFs, the first with 20 firms in 2011 and the second with 34 agri-business TBSFs in 2013. This allows some temporal comparisons of the funding environment for TBSFs in New Zealand, but this was not a longitudinal study as the two data sets were composed from the recruitment of different firms. However, all the TBSFs were located in New Zealand, a small open economy with a limited domestic market, a population of 4.4 million, GDP per capita of US$32,260 (2010) and arguably an immature and limited financial infrastructure. This environment is compounded for founding technology-based entrepreneurs, since to develop and stay in New Zealand means accepting being a long distance from major overseas markets, when in theory at least TBSFs have potential to be in global markets. Such TBSFs, therefore, face pressure to move overseas for markets and for finance and other resources; if successful they may make attractive takeover targets for overseas investors and MNCs. Despite these challenges, TBSFs have been promoted as key contributors to GDP and a way of closing New Zealand’s productivity gap (compared with Australia and other developed nations). Although we find evidence of the development of embryonic regional and specialised business angel networks (BANs) on the supply-side of finance, there is still a marked reluctance to undertake a search for external equity and evidence of discouraged borrowing and discouraged grant-based applications on the demand-side. New Zealand is sometimes described as “paradise ” due to its natural and outstanding beauty, but in our conclusions we suggest that the comparatively stable economic environment has not operated in favour of TBSFs

Uses of music in everyday life

The value of music in people’s everyday lives depends on the uses they make of it and the degree to which they engage with it, which are in turn dependent on the contexts in which they hear it. Very few studies have investigated people’s experiences of music in naturalistic, everyday circumstances, and this exploratory study provides some initial normative data on who people listen with, what they listen to (and what their emotional responses to this music are), when they listen, where they listen, and why they listen. A total of 346 people who owned a mobile phone were sent one text message per day for 14 days. On receiving this message, participants were required to complete a questionnaire about anymusic they could hear, or had heard since their previous message. Responses indicated a high compliance rate; a high incidence of exposure to music; that the greatest number of musical episodes occurred while participants were on their own; that pop music was heard most frequently; that liking for the music varied depending on who the participant was with, where they were, and whether they had chosen to be able to hear music; that music was usually experienced during the course of some activity other than deliberate music listening; that exposure to music occurred most frequently in the evening, particularly between 10PM and 11 PM, and on weekends; that music was heard most frequently at home, with only a small number of incidences occurring in public places; that the importance of several functions of music varied according to temporal factors, the place where the music was heard, and the person or people the participant was with. Further research shouldinclude participants from a greater range of sociodemographic backgrounds and should develop context-specific theoretical explanations of the different ways in which people use music as a resource

Tackling concentrated worklessness: integrating governance and policy across and within spatial scales

Spatial concentrations of worklessness remained a key characteristic of labour markets in advanced industrial economies, even during the period of decline in aggregate levels of unemployment and economic inactivity evident from the late 1990s to the economic downturn in 2008. The failure of certain localities to benefit from wider improvements in regional and national labour markets points to a lack of effectiveness in adopted policy approaches, not least in relation to the governance arrangements and policy delivery mechanisms that seek to integrate residents of deprived areas into wider local labour markets. Through analysis of practice in the British context, we explore the difficulties of integrating economic and social policy agendas within and across spatial scales to tackle problems of concentrated worklessness. We present analysis of a number of selected case studies aimed at reducing localised worklessness and identify the possibilities and constraints for effective action given existing governance arrangements and policy priorities to promote economic competitiveness and inclusion

Tethered Vehicle Control and Tracking System

A kite system includes a kite and a ground station. The ground station includes a sensor that can be utilized to determine an angular position and velocity of the kite relative to the ground station. A controller utilizes a fuzzy logic control system to autonomously fly the kite. The system may include a ground station having powered winding units that generate power as the lines to the kite are unreeled. The control system may be configured to fly the kite in a crosswind trajectory to increase line tension for power generation. The sensors for determining the position of the kite are preferably ground-based

Can music move people? : The effects of musical complexity and silence on waiting time

Previous research has suggested that music might influence the amount of time for which people are prepared to wait in a given environment. In an attempt to investigate the mechanisms underlying such effects, this study employed three levels of musical complexity and also a “no-music” condition. While one of these played in the background, participants were left to wait in a laboratory for the supposed start of an experiment. The results indicated that participants waited for the least amount of time during the no-music condition, and that there were no differences between the three music conditions. Other evidence indicated that this may be attributable to the music distracting participants’ attention from an internal timing mechanism. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for consumer behavior and research on the psychology of everyday life

Lifestyle correlates of musical preference: 1. Relationships, living arrangements, beliefs, and crime

Several studies indicate that musical preferences provide a means of discriminating between social groups, and suggest indirectly that musical preferences should correlate with a variety of different lifestyle choices. In this study, 2532 participants responded to a questionnaire asking them to state their musical preference and also to provide data on various aspects of their lifestyle (namely interpersonal relationships, living arrangements, moral and political beliefs, and criminal behaviour). Numerous associations existed between musical preference and these aspects of participants’ lifestyle. The nature of these associations was generally consistent with previous research concerning aputative liberal–conservative divide between differing groups of fans. It is concluded that participants’ musical preferences provided a meaningful way of distinguishing different lifestyle choices