MNEs and new enterprise creation: Do MNEs have a direct impact on the amount of new indigenous high-tech start-ups in Ireland?

Previous research into the impact of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on their host economies indicated that, in the main, the impact was positive. For example, Turok (1993a and 1993b) and Brand, Hill and Munday (2000) talked about the benefits derived from backward linkages; Barrow and Hall (1995), Fosfuri, Motta, Ronde (2001), Girma and Wakelin (2001), and Kugler (2002) spoke of other aspects of spillover such as the pecuniary, technological, and skills transfer; and Cooper (1981), Gibb and Ritchie (1982), and Birley (1996) delineated the importance of the employment history of the individual (new enterprise founder) in terms of the managerial and technical experience that is required to set up and manage a new enterprise. However, little research exists identifying exactly to what extent MNEs have a direct impact on the level on new high-tech, high-value-add enterprise creation within MNEs* host regions. The purpose of this current research therefore is to identify the extent to which these direct links do, or do not, exist. Starting with a database of over 9,000 enterprises registered in South East and South West Ireland between 1990 and 2001, the researcher identified 37 founders who had a direct link with an MNE prior to starting their enterprises. A triangulation process was employed in order to understand the extent to which MNEs were influential in the setting up of these new enterprises. One element of the triangulation process was to survey and interview founders of the indigenous enterprises; another was to interview senior executives of the MNEs with which the founders had direct links, and that were still operating in Ireland at the time of this research. The third element of the triangulation process involved interviewing CEOs and regional managers of the State enterprise support agencies operating in South East and South West Ireland. This process closed the circle of data gathering into the circumstances under which founders started their enterprises and the extent to which MNEs had a direct impact on the creation of these new enterprise. Another unique aspect of this current research is that, unlike previous research, it does not focus on just one single industry sector such as software or IT; it focuses on high-tech, high-value-add businesses such as chemicals, computers, electronics, engineering, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, plastics & rubber, R&D and labs, software and telecommunications. Nor does this research rely on statistical analysis alone, instead it utilises both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Even though this current research identified that 58% of the founders did have a direct link with an MNE prior to starting their enterprises, nearly half of them did so only because they were let go (made redundant, fired, or resigned by mutual agreement) from an MNE. None of these founders would have started their enterprise if they were not let go from the MNE, if they had not met with a critical incident in their careers (Cope and Watts, 2006). Thus the research also examined for the presence of latent entrepreneurs among the sample of founders. Of the 15 MNE senior executives interviewed, only one MNE encouraged and supported their employees to start their own businesses when there were no actual (or threats of) redundancies taking place. Another interesting finding from this research is that the State enterprise support agencies seem to operate more in a reactive than proactive mode. These agencies appear to wait for clients to come to them and/or wait for announcements of plant closures/downsizing before getting involved in encouraging people to start their own businesses. Also, this research highlights that even though 83% of the founders received soft and/or hard support from State agencies, over 80% of them were not happy with the support they received. In summary, the unique triangulation process utilised in this research has identified that the link between new enterprise creation and the presence of MNEs is more an outcome of unintended consequences then being an output of defined enterprise policies. This research contributes different and additional knowledge to the existing body of literature in relation to the benefits of FDI, spillovers from MNEs into host economies, and the process of new enterprise creation. The research has implications for enterprise policy in relation to the role governments and their agencies could play in supporting MNEs to create an environment whereby additionality of jobs can occur in the MNEs host economy, as opposed to State enterprise support agencies focusing on job replacement alone

Self-pulsation dynamics in narrow stripe semiconductor lasers

In this paper, we address the physical origin of self-pulsation in narrow stripe edge emitting semiconductor lasers. We present both experimental time-averaged polarization-resolved near-field measurements performed with a charged-coupled device camera and picosecond time resolved near-field measurements performed with a streak camera. These results demonstrate dynamic spatial-hole burning during pulse formation and evolution. We conclude from these experimental results that the dominant process which drives the self-pulsation in this type of laser diode is carrier induced effective refractive index change induced by the spatial-hole burning

Corporate social responsibility:reviewed, rated, revised

Purpose: Critical literature review of CSR research in both general management and hospitality management literature. Discusses trends,commonalities, and inconsistencies to better understand the state of contemporary scholarship, and calls for a context-specific conceptual engagement with the phenomenon.Design/Methodology/Approach: Systematic literature review, noting and critiquing a general tendency towards measurement of financial and other internal benefit impacts.Findings: Hospitality management is well-positioned to evaluate the opportunities and challenges of CSR, yet research has uncritically adopted the instrumental emphasis on assessing processes, perceptions, and private profitability from the general management literature, without engaging on a contextually-specific and/or theoretical level.Research limitations: CSR research is abundant and therefore difficult to summarise in one article.The primarily Anglo-American and Asian contextual bias is reflected in this review.Practical implications: Consistently inconsistent results challenge the portability of financial impact studies.Studies are needed to re-evaluate the concept of CSR as it pertains to hospitality, and measure the effectiveness of CSR activities relative to context and resource availability.Social implications: Further research into the scope of CSR in hospitality management, with an emphasis on recuperating social value, would lead to widespread positive social implications.Originality/value: This critical review offers a new perspective on CSR in the hospitality literature and industry, calling for a reconsideration of the concept in context, and formulates a working definition

Recent Transits of the Super-Earth Exoplanet GJ 1214b

We report recent ground-based photometry of the transiting super-Earth exoplanet GJ1214b at several wavelengths, including the infrared near 1.25 microns (J-band). We observed a J-band transit with the FLAMINGOS infrared imager and the 2.1-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, and we observed several optical transits using a 0.5-meter telescope on Kitt Peak and the 0.36-meter Universidad de Monterrey Observatory telescope. Our high-precision J-band observations exploit the brightness of the M-dwarf host star at this infrared wavelength as compared to the optical, as well as being significantly less affected by stellar activity and limb darkening. We fit the J-band transit to obtain an independent determination of the planetary and stellar radii. Our radius for the planet (2.61^+0.30_-0.11 Earth radii) is in excellent agreement with the discovery value reported by Charbonneau et al. based on optical data. We demonstrate that the planetary radius is insensitive to degeneracies in the fitting process. We use all of our observations to improve the transit ephemeris, finding P=1.5804043 +/- 0.0000005 days, and T0=2454964.94390 +/- 0.00006 BJD.Comment: Accepted for ApJ Letters, 7 pages, 3 Figures, 2 Table

Quantum computation with realistic magic-state factories

Leading approaches to fault-tolerant quantum computation dedicate a significant portion of the hardware to computational factories that churn out high-fidelity ancillas called magic states. Consequently, efficient and realistic factory design is of paramount importance. Here we present the most detailed resource assessment to date of magic-state factories within a surface code quantum computer, along the way introducing a number of techniques. We show that the block codes of Bravyi and Haah [Phys. Rev. A 86, 052329 (2012)] have been systematically undervalued; we track correlated errors both numerically and analytically, providing fidelity estimates without appeal to the union bound. We also introduce a subsystem code realization of these protocols with constant time and low ancilla cost. Additionally, we confirm that magic-state factories have space-time costs that scale as a constant factor of surface code costs. We find that the magic-state factory required for postclassical factoring can be as small as 6.3 million data qubits, ignoring ancilla qubits, assuming 10^−4 error gates and the availability of long-range interactions

ALMA observations of TiO2_2 around VY Canis Majoris

Titanium dioxide, TiO$_2$, is a refractory species that could play a crucial role in the dust-condensation sequence around oxygen-rich evolved stars. To date, gas phase TiO$_2$ has been detected only in the complex environment of the red supergiant VY CMa. We aim to constrain the distribution and excitation of TiO$_2$ around VY CMa in order to clarify its role in dust formation. We analyse spectra and channel maps for TiO$_2$ extracted from ALMA science verification data. We detect 15 transitions of TiO$_2$, and spatially resolve the emission for the first time. The maps demonstrate a highly clumpy, anisotropic outflow in which the TiO$_2$ emission likely traces gas exposed to the stellar radiation field. A roughly east-west oriented, accelerating bipolar-like structure is found, of which the blue component runs into and breaks up around a solid continuum component. A distinct tail to the south-west is seen for some transitions, consistent with features seen in the optical and near-infrared. We find that a significant fraction of TiO$_2$ remains in the gas phase outside the dust-formation zone and suggest that this species might play only a minor role in the dust-condensation process around extreme oxygen-rich evolved stars like VY CMa.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 25 pages, 20 figure

Self-Pulsating Semiconductor Lasers: Theory and Experiment

We report detailed measurements of the pump-current dependency of the self-pulsating frequency of semiconductor CD lasers. A distinct kink in this dependence is found and explained using rate-equation model. The kink denotes a transition between a region where the self-pulsations are weakly sustained relaxation oscillations and a region where Q-switching takes place. Simulations show that spontaneous emission noise plays a crucial role for the cross-over.Comment: Revtex, 16 pages, 7 figure

Interventions outside the workplace for reducing sedentary behaviour in adults under 60

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the effects of non-occupational interventions for reducing sedentary behaviour in adults under 60 years of age on sedentary time. Secondary objectives are: to describe other health effects, and adverse events or unintended consequences of the interventions; to determine whether specific components of interventions are associated with changes in sedentary behaviour; to examine if there are any differential effects of interventions based on health inequalities (e.g. age, sex, income, employment)

Analysis of White Dwarfs with Strange-Matter Cores

We summarize masses and radii for a number of white dwarfs as deduced from a combination of proper motion studies, Hipparcos parallax distances, effective temperatures, and binary or spectroscopic masses. A puzzling feature of these data is that some stars appear to have radii which are significantly smaller than that expected for a standard electron-degenerate white-dwarf equations of state. We construct a projection of white-dwarf radii for fixed effective mass and conclude that there is at least marginal evidence for bimodality in the radius distribution forwhite dwarfs. We argue that if such compact white dwarfs exist it is unlikely that they contain an iron core. We propose an alternative of strange-quark matter within the white-dwarf core. We also discuss the impact of the so-called color-flavor locked (CFL) state in strange-matter core associated with color superconductivity. We show that the data exhibit several features consistent with the expected mass-radius relation of strange dwarfs. We identify eight nearby white dwarfs which are possible candidates for strange matter cores and suggest observational tests of this hypothesis.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phy