ACE research briefing paper 006 : Anatomy of new business activity in Australia: Some early observations from the CAUSEE Project

The Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) is the largest study of new firm formations ever undertaken in Australia . In a nutshell, CAUSEE aims to uncover the factors that initiate, hinder and facilitate the process of emergence and development of new, independent firms. Through contacts with a random sample of 30,000 Australian households the project has identified and interviewed close to 600 founders of on-going business start-ups – Nascent Firms; i.e., efforts that are under way but have not yet become operating businesses – as well as more than 500 owner-managers of Young Firms – that is, firms that started trading in 2004 or later. Founders of these firms have been taken through a comprehensive telephone interview about the state and development of their start-ups. The project will follow the development of these nascent and young firms over a four year period. This report represents a first release of selected, descriptive findings from the first wave of data analysis. Although some reported findings may have important implications it should be realised that what is presented here represents just a glimpse of the rich academic and practice-orientated output that is expected from the project

Early stage start-ups: Evidence from the Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE)

In this chapter, the picture of Australian small business is supplemented by using data from the Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) . This data tracks large numbers of on-going business start-ups over time. The Australian Centre of Entrepreneurship Research at Queensland University of Technology collected data in four annual waves. (Wave 1 to Wave 4) from 2007 to 2011. CAUSEE allows the analysis of entrepreneurial entrants at two stages of development, i.e. nascent and young firms. Nascent firms are defined as firms in the process of being created, but not yet established in the market, and young firms are defined as having been operational for up to four years. An analysis of nascent firms provides unique insights, as no other known Australian database captures and follows the development of business start-ups at the pre-operational stage. In addition, the project captured judgment over samples of high-potential start-ups

Long Term Sales Forecasts of Innovations - An Empirical Study of the Consumer Electronic Market

This paper empirically examines models of replacement sales for six electronic consumer durables – TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Digital Cameras, personal and notebook computers – using data from a large survey of 8077 German households. A new replacement model is developed that fits the empirical "lifetables" better than existing models. This said, fitting to replacement sales data was not substantially improved as these fits are not particularly sensitive to mis-specification of the shape of the underlying distribution. Since many product innovations can be targeted at replacement rather than first purchase buyers – this improved understanding of replacement behaviour helps entrepreneurs identify new opportunities

The comprehensive Australian Study of entrepreneurial emergence (CAUSEE) high potential nascent entrepreneurs: some preliminary findings

Principal Topic The Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) represents the first Australian study to employ and extend the longitudinal and large scale systematic research developed for the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) in the US (Gartner, Shaver, Carter and Reynolds, 2004; Reynolds, 2007). This research approach addresses several shortcomings of other data sets including under coverage; selection bias; memory decay and hindsight bias, and lack of time separation between the assessment of causes and their assumed effects (Johnson et al 2006; Davidsson 2006). However, a remaining problem is that any a random sample of start-ups will be dominated by low potential, imitative ventures. In recognition of this issue CAUSEE supplemented PSED-type random samples with theoretically representative samples of the 'high potential' emerging ventures employing a unique methodology using novel multiple screening criteria. We define new ''high-potential'' ventures as new entrepreneurial innovative ventures with high aspirations and potential for growth. This distinguishes them from those ''lifestyle'' imitative businesses that start small and remain intentionally small (Timmons, 1986). CAUSEE is providing the opportunity to explore, for the first time, if process and outcomes of high potentials differ from those of traditional lifestyle firms. This will allows us to compare process and outcome attributes of the random sample with the high potential over sample of new firms and young firms. The attributes in which we will examine potential differences will include source of funding, and internationalisation. This is interesting both in terms of helping to explain why different outcomes occur but also in terms of assistance to future policymaking, given that high growth potential firms are increasingly becoming the focus of government intervention in economic development policies around the world. The first wave of data of a four year longitudinal study has been collected using these samples, allowing us to also provide some initial analysis on which to continue further research. The aim of this paper therefore is to present some selected preliminary results from the first wave of the data collection, with comparisons of high potential with lifestyle firms. We expect to see owing to greater resource requirements and higher risk profiles, more use of venture capital and angel investment, and more internationalisation activity to assist in recouping investment and to overcome Australia's smaller economic markets Methodology/Key Propositions In order to develop the samples of 'high potential' in the NF and YF categories a set of qualification criteria were developed. Specifically, to qualify, firms as nascent or young high potentials, we used multiple, partly compensating screening criteria related to the human capital and aspirations of the founders as well as the novelty of the venture idea, and venture high technology. A variety of techniques were also employed to develop a multi level dataset of sources to develop leads and firm details. A dataset was generated from a variety of websites including major stakeholders including the Federal and State Governments, Australian Chamber of Commerce, University Commercialisation Offices, Patent and Trademark Attorneys, Government Awards and Industry Awards in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Industry lead associations, Venture Capital Association, Innovation directories including Australian Technology Showcase, Business and Entrepreneurs Magazines including BRW and Anthill. In total, over 480 industry, association, government and award sources were generated in this process. Of these, 74 discrete sources generated high potentials that fufilled the criteria. 1116 firms were contacted as high potential cases. 331 cases agreed to participate in the screener, with 279 firms (134 nascents, and 140 young firms) successfully passing the high potential criteria. 222 Firms (108 Nascents and 113 Young firms) completed the full interview. For the general sample CAUSEE conducts screening phone interviews with a very large number of adult members of households randomly selected through random digit dialing using screening questions which determine whether respondents qualify as 'nascent entrepreneurs'. CAUSEE additionally targets 'young firms' those that commenced trading from 2004 or later. This process yielded 977 Nascent Firms (3.4%) and 1,011 Young Firms (3.6%). These were directed to the full length interview (40-60 minutes) either directly following the screener or later by appointment. The full length interviews were completed by 594 NF and 514 YF cases. These are the cases we will use in the comparative analysis in this report. Results and Implications The results for this paper are based on Wave one of the survey which has been completed and the data obtained. It is expected that the findings will assist in beginning to develop an understanding of high potential nascent and young firms in Australia, how they differ from the larger lifestyle entrepreneur group that makes up the vast majority of the new firms created each year, and the elements that may contribute to turning high potential growth status into high growth realities. The results have implications for Government in the design of better conditions for the creation of new business, firms who assist high potentials in developing better advice programs in line with a better understanding of their needs and requirements, individuals who may be considering becoming entrepreneurs in high potential arenas and existing entrepreneurs make better decisions

Magnetism in layered Ruthenates

In this thesis, the magnetism of the layered Ruthenates has been studied by means of different neutron scattering techniques. Magnetic correlations in the single-layer Ruthenates of the series Ca2-xSrxRuO4 have been investigated as function of Sr-concentration (x=0.2 and 0.62), temperature and magnetic field. These inelastic neutron scattering studies demonstrate the coexistence of ferromagnetic paramagnon scattering with antiferromagnetic fluctuations at incommensurate wave vectors. The temperature dependence of the amplitudes and energies of both types of excitations indicate the proximity to magnetic instabilities; their competition seems to determine the complex behavior of these materials. In Ca1.8Sr0.2RuO4, which shows a metamagnetic transition, the ferromagnetic fluctuations are strongly suppressed at low temperature, but appear at higher temperature or application of a magnetic field. In the high-field phase of Ca1.8Sr0.2RuO4 above the metamagnetic transition, a ferromagnetic magnon dominates the excitation spectrum. Polarized neutron scattering revealed the existence of a very broad signal around the zone centre, in addition to the well-known incommensurate excitations at Q=(0.3,0.3,0) in the unconventional superconductor Sr2RuO4. With this additional contribution, it is possible to set up a general model for the Q-dependent magnetic susceptibility, which is well consistent with the results of other measurement methods that do not resolve the Q-dependence. Upon doping with Ti, the incommensurate fluctuations are enhanced, in particular near the critical concentration for the onset of magnetic order, but no divergence down to very low temperature is observed. In the bilayer Ti-doped Sr3Ru2O7, the existence of magnetic order with a propagation vector of about (1/4 ,1/4 ,0) has been discovered and characterized in detail. Above and below TN, excitations at this wave vector and another one, related to Sr3Ru2O7, have been observed. Furthermore, in a polarized neutron diffraction study, the spin density distribution of Ca3Ru2O7 has been determined

Exploring Human Capital and Hybrid Entrepreneurship

An individual’s human capital affects their choice to become and entrepreneur and also their likely success as a nascent entrepreneur. This paper explores how hybrid employment—entrepreneur opportunities impact these dynamics. Drawing on insights from decision theory, we argue that an individual’s human capital influences entrepreneurial pursuits as a two stage process, first shaping whether nascent entrepreneurship and/or employment enters an individual’s consideration set when they are facing a career transition and second influencing the outcomes of entrepreneurial pursuits. Using a novel longitudinal dataset of individuals facing career transition as nascent entrepreneurs, job seekers or both, we find that while hybrid nascent entrepreneurship (trying to start a business while being employed) has a positive influence on outcomes, hybrid search (concurrent job search while trying to start a business) has a strong negative influence

Adaptation of singers to physical and virtual room acoustics

International audienceAs observed with instrumentalist musicians, singers are expected to react to variations of the acoustics of the venues where they perform by adapting their voice production. To which extent do these changes happen and how are they related to specific variations of room acoustic conditions? And does it make a difference whether they are physically present in the room or whether the room is simulated electro-acoustically? These questions were addressed by recording two musical solo pieces sung by four singers in eight physical acoustical environments. In addition to close-microphone recordings, binaural room impulse response datasets were measured at the position of the singer in order to reproduce the acoustical space through dynamic binaural synthesis. Room acoustical simulations were performed corresponding to the physical rooms and measurement configurations. The experiment was then replicated in an anechoic chamber where the singers would hear themselves in the various measured and simulated virtual spaces. The performances were analysed through automatic musical feature extraction and statistically related to the room acoustical parameters of each venue by means of mixed regression models. Results revealed statistically significant, but highly individual adaptation strategies, both in physical and virtual environments