A Conceptual Approach for Business Incubator Interdependencies and Sustainable Development

Abstract Sustainable development is an important dimension for business incubators to improve tenant-businesses in the coffee value chain. This study focuses on business incubators addressing social and economic dimensions of sustainability in developing countries. Business incubators are perceived as important mechanisms for sustainable development as they involve relevant stakeholders and activities to interact each other. Prior research highlights the gap of theoretical explanation to understand business incubators linked to sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual approach based on resource dependence theory to better understand strategies in interdependencies to address power imbalance issues of business incubators in developing countries. Strategies such as integration and coordination should be implemented in the incubator management to increase mutual dependencies and improve relationships to secure resources, thereby, providing quality services for tenants. Relationships with relevant partner organizations such as universities, business centers, and public research organizations represent opportunities for business incubators in boosting sustainable business development

The Role of Social Networks on Regulation in the Telecommunication Industry

This paper studies the welfare implications of equilibrium behavior in a market characterized by competition between two interconnected telecommunication firms, subject to constraints: the customers belong to a social network. It also shows that social networks matter because equilibrium prices and welfare critically depend on how people are socially related. Next, the model is used to study effectiveness of alternative regulatory schemes. The standard regulated environement, in which the authority defines interconnection ac cess charges as being equal to marginal costs and final prices are left to the market, is considered as a benchmark. Then, we focus on the performance of two different regulatory interventions. First, access prices are set below marginal costs to foster competition. Second, switching costs are reduced to intensify competition. The results show that the second strategy is more efective to obtain equilibrium prices closer to Ramsey's level.Access charges, social networks, random regular graphs

Strategic online-banking adoption

In this paper we study the determinants of banks’ decision to adopt a transactional website for their customers. Using a panel of commercial banks in the United States for the period 2003-2005, we show that although bank-specific characteristics are important determinants of banks’ adoption decision, competition plays a prominent role. The extent of competition is related to the geographical overlap of banks in different markets and their relative market share in terms of deposits. In more competitive markets banks are more likely to adopt earlier. Even more importantly, banks adopt earlier in markets where their competitors have already adopted.Internet banking

Stuart Hall y el descenso a lo "mundano". Una forma de imaginar y practicar los estudios culturales

El presente escrito expone de manera breve lo que a mi entender define la especificidad de los estudios culturales y su importancia como "caja de herramientas" analítica y de aprehensión del mundo. A través de la selección de algunos textos me interesa detenerme en la particular manera en que Stuart Hall se relaciona con la teoría porque, si bien éste no es un texto sobre el teórico jamaiquino, dicho autor me permite, con su práctica, acercarme al espíritu de los estudios culturales, esto es, a su vocación política desde los conceptos de contextualismo radical y articulación

Pequeñas empresas, grandes productoras: la participación del capital mexicano en el petróleo anterior a la expropiación

Este artículo describe la actuación histórica de las pequeñas empresas nacionales que participaronen el petróleo de México anterior a la expropiación, una industria controlada fundamentalmentepor el capital extranjero. Durante la revolución mexicana, cientos de compañíaspetroleras nacionales se organizaron en el país, la mayoría disponiendo de un modesto capitaly limitada estructura organizativa. En un ámbito económico dominado por monopolios, variasdecenas de pequeñas unidades produjeron apenas de manera suficiente para participar enel mercado. Sin embargo, sorprendentemente, las más dinámicas obtuvieron millones de barrilesde petróleo y enormes ganancias, superando temporalmente los niveles extractivos degrandes corporaciones extranjeras. Su participación en el sector, sin embargo, a menudo fueefímera y poco ortodoxa, sin posibilidad alguna para sobrevivir en el largo plazo y convertirseen grandes empresas

Deliverable DJRA1.2. Solutions and protocols proposal for the network control, management and monitoring in a virtualized network context

This deliverable presents several research proposals for the FEDERICA network, in different subjects, such as monitoring, routing, signalling, resource discovery, and isolation. For each topic one or more possible solutions are elaborated, explaining the background, functioning and the implications of the proposed solutions.This deliverable goes further on the research aspects within FEDERICA. First of all the architecture of the control plane for the FEDERICA infrastructure will be defined. Several possibilities could be implemented, using the basic FEDERICA infrastructure as a starting point. The focus on this document is the intra-domain aspects of the control plane and their properties. Also some inter-domain aspects are addressed. The main objective of this deliverable is to lay great stress on creating and implementing the prototype/tool for the FEDERICA slice-oriented control system using the appropriate framework. This deliverable goes deeply into the definition of the containers between entities and their syntax, preparing this tool for the future implementation of any kind of algorithm related to the control plane, for both to apply UPB policies or to configure it by hand. We opt for an open solution despite the real time limitations that we could have (for instance, opening web services connexions or applying fast recovering mechanisms). The application being developed is the central element in the control plane, and additional features must be added to this application. This control plane, from the functionality point of view, is composed by several procedures that provide a reliable application and that include some mechanisms or algorithms to be able to discover and assign resources to the user. To achieve this, several topics must be researched in order to propose new protocols for the virtual infrastructure. The topics and necessary features covered in this document include resource discovery, resource allocation, signalling, routing, isolation and monitoring. All these topics must be researched in order to find a good solution for the FEDERICA network. Some of these algorithms have started to be analyzed and will be expanded in the next deliverable. Current standardization and existing solutions have been investigated in order to find a good solution for FEDERICA. Resource discovery is an important issue within the FEDERICA network, as manual resource discovery is no option, due to scalability requirement. Furthermore, no standardization exists, so knowledge must be obtained from related work. Ideally, the proposed solutions for these topics should not only be adequate specifically for this infrastructure, but could also be applied to other virtualized networks.Postprint (published version

Synthesis and characterization of healable waterborne polyurethanes.

241 p.La tesis doctoral titulada "Synthesis and Characterization of Healable Waterborne Polyurethanes" se centra en el desarrollo de materiales poliméricos autorreparables. Para ellos se incorporaron monómeros activos a la estructura de poliuretanos en base agua teniendo en cuenta la división general de materiales autorreparables autonómicos y no autonómicos. En primer lugar se introdujeron diferentes monómeros derivados de la estructura de cumarina capaces de alterar la estructura polimérica en respuesta a luz ultravioleta de diferentes longitudes de onda. En segundo lugar se desarrollaron materiales capaces de reparar daños de manera autónoma, introduciendo grupos disulfuro y ureidopirimidinona en la estructura polimérica. La síntesis de los diferentes materiales abarcó desde la síntesis de los monómeros activos hasta la síntesis de los poliuretanos y su posterior dispersión en agua. La caracterización, tanto química como física de los materiales se llevó a cabo teniendo en cuenta las características de reparación de dichos materiales. Finalmente, se estudiaron las propiedades autorreparables de los diferentes materiales tanto en forma de recubrimientos como en filmes de varias micras de espesor

Caracterización termodinámica de mezclas gaseosas para la introducción de combustibles gaseosos alternativos en las redes de gas natural

The research developed in this PhD thesis aims at contributing to the development and introduction of new gaseous fuels from renewable sources in the European energetic mix through the thermodynamic characterization of mixtures containing the main components of these alternative fuels. The work provides high accurate experimental (p, ρ, T) data of three (CH4 + He) binary mixtures with concentrations of (5, 10 y 50 mol-% He), a synthetic non-conventional gas mixture type CMM (coal mine methane) composed by ten components and containing 64 mol-% of methane and a synthetic biogas-like mixture composed by four components and containing 50 mol-% of methane. Nine isotherms between (240 y 400) K and up to 20 MPa of pressure were carried out for the (CH4 + He) binary mixtures, seven isotherms between (250 y 400) K and up to 15 MPa for the CMM mixture and six isotherms between (275 y 400) K and up to 20 MPa for the biogas-like mixture. The second and the third interaction virial coefficients for the (CH4 + He) binary mixtures were also estimated.Departamento de Ingeniería Energética y FluidomecánicaDoctorado en Investigación en Ingeniería Termodinámica de Fluido