Psychological Resilience of Entrepreneurs: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Given that entrepreneurs face substantial adversity in initiating and developing new ventures, a burgeoning stream of research has sought to understand the concept of entrepreneurs’ psychological resilience. To structure and synthesize what we know about entrepreneurs’ psychological resilience, we systematically review the empirical literature to provide insights on how it has been conceptualized and operationalized, along with its key antecedents and outcomes. Based on our review, we advance a promising agenda for future research, grounded in connecting the psychological resilience of entrepreneurs to other research areas connected to the new venture development process. Overall, we point to the urgent need for theoretical precision to enhance the utility of empirical contributions, suggest promising research designs, expand on the important role of adversity, discuss potential boundary conditions, elaborate on the link between entrepreneurs’ psychological resilience and organizational resilience, and address the potential dark side of resilience

The International Tax Environment and Simplification of South African Tax Legislation: A Double-Edged Sword

In this paper, we examine the relationship between the international tax environment and legislative complexity in South Africa’s international tax system. We suggest that the international tax environment is a double-edged sword. It causes complexity in South Africa’s tax legislation as it largely responds to the needs of OECD countries and produces tax rules to deal with ‘sophisticated’ tax problems and taxpayers (such as multinational enterprises). When such rules are transplanted into South Africa, they are typically more complex than local rules dealing with local taxpayers. On the other hand, the international tax environment offers ideas for ‘scientific’ drafting of South Africa’s tax legislation, which may lead to simplification and enhanced effectiveness in tax compliance and administration. We contribute to the literature on tax simplification by focusing on legislative complexity and distinguishing between intrinsic complexity and drafting-led complexity. We recommend ways of legislative simplification by drawing on the international tax environment

International Tax Simplification in South Africa through Managing Substantive Complexity and Improving Drafting Efficiency

This chapter discusses the complexity of the South African international tax legislation in terms of both its substantive complexity and drafting complexity. Substantive complexity is established by examining the current legislation governing tax jurisdiction, the taxation of resident taxpayers and non-resident taxpayers as well as international tax incentive measures and anti-avoidance rules. Drafting complexity is established by comparing the South African Income Tax Act to the Canadian Income Tax Act in respect of the drafting of individual provisions and arrangement of provisions. The chapter recommends ways to simplify the South African international tax legislation by: (a) accepting substantive complexity that is necessary and making it work for the local context, and (b) improving drafting efficiency

Management Characteristics of Agents and Multiagents in Electronic Commerce

Business alliances are becoming ubiquitous globally. We are studying agent and multiagent tasks in electronic commerce, representative of normal business functioning. Our work is a study of the need for management functions in agent and multiagent tasks in electronic commerce. We observed and documented management tasks among multiagent networks and recommended specific roles for management that may be applied to business alliances

An Internet EDI Model for E-Government

Many businesses and governments outside of North America do not have the current technologies needed to fully implement e-government. Our research combines older EDI technology with current telecommunications to produce a hybrid Internet EDI model for e-government, illustrated with standard taxation processes. This model enables e-government for all businesses and governments at a level that is reasonable and will work for them. Many countries are still using old technologies and need to make them work with newer ones. In particular in the public service, many systems have been in place for many years and there is minimal money to upgrade or revamp systems extensively. Our solution allows these governments to get reasonably up-to-date with minimal time and money. Background is provided on traditional EDI issues, the Internet and e-government application services, followed by a description of the proposed hybrid architecture, system and administrative requirements, functionality, security features and strengths

WIN-EC: An Electronic Commerce Model for Small Business

The accessibility of the Internet and the World Wide Web has provided an excellent means for presenting, disseminating and distributing information. As well, this is a new and convenient channel for businesses to reach customers and other businesses. In this paper, we describe WIN-EC, an electronic commerce model for small business. We discuss various services that a typical small business may want to provide its customers. Possible technologies to implement the services are examined and finally, a prototype to generate such a model will be suggested

Le visible et le dicible : "présences" LGBT dans le cinéma québécois

Ma recherche sur le visible et le dicible LGBTQ dans le cinéma québécois propose à la fois un retour généalogique sur la visibilité et l’énonciation LGBTQ dans le cinéma québécois, et une réflexion conceptuelle sur la métaphore de « visibilité » qui sous-tend des discours politiques et culturels associés aux mouvements de libération gaie et lesbienne, ici au Québec et ailleurs. Le but du projet est d’analyser et de mettre en dialogue certains « événements cinématographiques » et « scènes audiovisuelles » qui ont marqué la mémoire culturelle LGBTQ québécoise : par exemple, la sortie de longs métrages clés comme Il était une fois dans l’est (André Brassard, 1974) (voir Pidduck 2015), Anne Trister (Léa Pool, 1986) et Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan, 2012); des projets comme le Réseau Vidé-Elles et le festival Image + Nation qui ont facilité, respectivement, la production vidéo indépendante et la réception communautaire des productions audiovisuelles LGBTQ; l’ONF comme institution qui a facilité la production et la distribution d’un grand nombre films et de vidéos LGBTQ incluant Some American Feminists (Luce Guilbeault, Nicole Brossard and Margaret Wescott, 1980), Forbidden Lives : The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives (Lynn Fernie et Aerlynn Weissman, 1992), ou My Prairie Home (Chelsea McMullan, 2014); et finalement le phénomène récent des série web Coming Out (Mathieu Blanchard, 2013-2014) et Féminin/féminin (Chloé Robichaud, 2014)

The "fatal femme" in contemporary Hollywood film noir : reframing gender, violence, and power

Examines the articulations of gender, power, and violence in relation to a recent cycle of Hollywood films which feature women who kill

The Importance of Micro-Scale Processes on the Release of Macro-Nutrients from Estuarine Suspended Sediments

The quality of water within an estuary is inseparable from the component parts; suspended particulate matter (SPM) and the balance of macro-nutrients. Long-term temporal variations and the horizontal advection of both SPM and macro-nutrient concentrations are well-constrained, but the vertical fluxes associated with micro-scale processes, such as turbulence and flocculation, are poorly constrained. The importance of three micro-scale processes on the interactions between SPM and inorganic macro-nutrients, nitrate (NO–3 ), ammonium (NH+4) and phosphate (PO3 –4 ), are examined in four field campaigns and five laboratory experiments. Field campaigns were conducted in two turbid estuaries. One field campaign was conducted in the Seine estuary, France, and three campaigns in the Tamar estuary, U.K., in order to consider the effects of seasonal variations (spring, summer and autumn). Physical conditions measured included current velocity, turbidity, turbulence and particle size, were recorded using a suite of oceanographic instrumentation. Five different laboratory studies were conducted using the same mini annular flume, with different background conditions. Inorganic macro-nutrients were measured spectrophotometrically on a continuous flow analyser (for NO – 3 and PO3 –4) and fluorimetry (NH +4). Three hypotheses are presented as potential mechanisms controlling the release and uptake of macro-nutrients from sediments. Mechanism One (M1) described an exchange process between inorganic macro-nutrients and flocculation/disaggregating particles. It was hypothesised that flocculating particles would decrease water column macro-nutrient concentrations, and vice versa. In this study, flocculation was observed in both field sites, but there was no significant relationship between flocculation and macro-nutrient concentration. Similarly, the five laboratory studies demonstrated no statistically significant relationships between flocculation and macro-nutrient concentrations. Mechanism Two (M2) hypothesised that turbulence would enhance the release portion of the exchange processes described in M1. Furthermore, it was proposed that increased turbulence would break bonds between macro-nutrients and the surface of particle faces. Turbulence was observed to limit the floc size in all experiments (both field and laboratory), but this study determined that it did not promote a significant release mechanism for inorganic macro-nutrients. However, this study observed that turbulence played a key role in the vertical distribution of PO 3 – 4 and NH +4. In both the Seine and Tamar estuaries, surface and near-bed concentrations were observed to be statistically significantly different (p = <0.05). Finally, Mechanism Three (M3) hypothesised that increased salinity provides additional salt water cations that would enhance flocculation and M1. This study measured an increase in floc size with increasing salinity in but did not enhance the proposed M1. Instead, as with turbulence, differences in water density as a result of the salinity affected the vertical distribution of NO –3. This research concluded that micro-scale processes have no significant impact on the water-column concentration of inorganic macronutrients. Instead, it was observed that two of the three micro-scale processes, turbulence and salinity, play a key role in the vertical distribution of inorganic macro-nutrients in the Tamar and Seine estuaries.NER

Interorganizational Partner Selection as Negotiation: A Study of Two Distance Education Consortia

The choice of appropriate collaborative partners has consistently been reported as a key issue for contemporary managers. This study reports findings from a study which explored the process and criteria of partner selection - how and why partners are chosen. The results show multiple cycles of deal-making, partnership roles and organizational approval. Partner choice criteria focused on partnership requirements, but was influenced by additional factors. These results suggest that partner selection may be much more complex than previously recognized and could be better described as partner negotiation. The researcher reviewed recent literature on partnerships, decision-making, and partner selection. Concepts from this previous work were updated with data from three initial interviewees experienced in university-industry partnerships. A conceptual Partner Negotiation Model was developed including three cycles of Deal-Making, Organizational Approval, and Partner Role/Selection. Our hypothesized Partner Choice Criteria centred on requirements, but were influenced by resource availability, social network, reputation, politics, and ambiguity. Two Canada-wide distance education consortia were identified as large-scale case studies for investigation of the research theory. A total of 34 informants were contacted. Written business plans, contracts, documents, partner network diagrams and 231 archival e-mails from 36 correspondents were collected and analysed for the two consortia. The results showed strong support for partner selection included in negotiation cycles of deal-making and organizational approval. Partner choice criteria supported the need to meet documented requirements, but was also strongly influenced by resource availability, social network, and reputation. Additional issues of interest to the interviewees were motivation, operations, unit of partner, self-sustaining income, and integration to one consortium. As well, the Case Study Narratives offered deep, interesting insight into two specific cases of Canadian consortia. The findings suggest that the formation of partnerships and the process of partner selection are both very complex. This research has provided new insights linking business negotiation concepts with partner selection. A model has been developed for viewing partner selection as negotiation. Three negotiation cycles of deal-making, organizational approval, and partner role/selection have been proposed. The research has identified four criteria that influence why specific partners are chosen ? requirements, resource availability, social network, and reputation. Finally, based on the complexities and issues from this work, a number of ideas for future research have been summarized