961 research outputs found
Growth of Incumbent Firms and Entrepreneurship in Vietnam
This paper analyzes the relationship between the performance of incumbent firms and the net entry of new firms by combining different theoretical views of entrepreneurship. It shows that new knowledge and ideas created but not commercialized by incumbents are an important source of entrepreneurial opportunities for nascent firms. Different regression models to treat dynamics and endogeneity issues are applied to test the research hypothesis that growth of incumbent firms in a region will stimulate start-up activities by creating new profit opportunities for potential entrepreneurs. Vietnam’s regional micro-data from 2000 to 2008 are used for this test. Four controlling indicators – entrepreneurial demand, market structure, regional economic environment, and market innovativeness – are found to exert a statistically significant effect on new entries.
The Interplay of Human and Social Capital in Shaping Entrepreneurial Performance: The Case of Vietnam
This study investigates the effects of human capital, social capital and their interaction on the performance of 1,398 Vietnamese new-born firms. Operating profit is used as the measure of success. Human capital is captured by individual-level professional education, start-up experience, and learning. Whereas the first two dimensions of human capital are measured with traditional indicators, we define learning as ability to accumulate knowledge to conduct innovation activities (new product introduction, product innovation and process innovation). Social capital is measured as benefits obtained from personal strong-tie and weak-tie networks. Key findings are three-fold: (i) human capital strongly predicts firm success, with learning exerting a statistically significant positive impact on operating profit; (ii) benefits from weak ties outweigh those from strong ties; (iii) interaction of human capital and social capital displays a statistically significant positive effect on new-firm performance.
Results from an industrial size biogas-fed SOFC plant (the DEMOSOFC project)
Abstract The EU-funded DEMOSOFC project aims to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of operating a 174 kWe Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) in a wastewater treatment plant. The fuel for the three SOFC modules (3 × 58 kWe) is biogas, which is available on-site from the anaerobic digestion of sludge collected from treated wastewater. The integrated biogas-SOFC plant includes three main units: 1) the biogas cleaning and compression section, 2) the three SOFC power modules, and 3) the heat recovery loop. Main advantages of the proposed layout are the net electric efficiency of the SOFC, which is in the range 50–55%, and the near-zero emissions. A specific focus of the demonstration project is the deep and reliable removal of harmful biogas contaminants. The presented work is related to the design of the SOFC system integrated into the wastewater treatment plant, followed by the analysis of the first results from the plant operation. We analyzed the biogas yearly profile to determine the optimal SOFC capacity to install that is 3 SOFC modules. The rational is to maintain high the capacity factor while minimizing the number of shutdown per year (due to biogas unavailability). First results from plant operation are also presented. The first SOFC module was activated in October 2017 and the second in October 2018. The measured SOFC efficiency from compressed biogas to AC power has always been higher than 50–52%, with peaks of 56%. Dedicated emissions measurements have been performed onsite during December 2017. Results on real biogas operation show NO
I.C.E.: a Transportable Atomic Inertial Sensor for Test in Microgravity
We present our the construction of an atom interferometer for inertial
sensing in microgravity, as part of the I.C.E. (\textit{Interf\'{e}rom\'{e}trie
Coh\'{e}rente pour l'Espace}) collaboration. On-board laser systems have been
developed based on fibre-optic components, which are insensitive to mechanical
vibrations and acoustic noise, have sub-MHz linewidth, and remain frequency
stabilised for weeks at a time. A compact, transportable vacuum system has been
built, and used for laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping. We will use a
mixture of quantum degenerate gases, bosonic Rb and fermionic K,
in order to find the optimal conditions for precision and sensitivity of
inertial measurements. Microgravity will be realised in parabolic flights
lasting up to 20s in an Airbus. We show that the factors limiting the
sensitivity of a long-interrogation-time atomic inertial sensor are the phase
noise in reference frequency generation for Raman-pulse atomic beam-splitters
and acceleration fluctuations during free fall
Do firms share the same functional form of their growth rate distribution? A new statistical test
We introduce a new statistical test of the hypothesis that a balanced panel
of firms have the same growth rate distribution or, more generally, that they
share the same functional form of growth rate distribution. We applied the test
to European Union and US publicly quoted manufacturing firms data, considering
functional forms belonging to the Subbotin family of distributions. While our
hypotheses are rejected for the vast majority of sets at the sector level, we
cannot rejected them at the subsector level, indicating that homogenous panels
of firms could be described by a common functional form of growth rate
distribution.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
Phase-locking of two self-seeded tapered amplifier lasers
We report on the phase-locking of two diode lasers based on self-seeded
tapered amplifiers. In these lasers, a reduction of linewidth is achieved using
narrow-band high-transmission interference filters for frequency selection. The
lasers combine a compact design with a Lorentzian linewidth below 200 kHz at an
output power of 300 mW. We characterize the phase noise of the phase-locked
laser system and study its potential for coherent beam-splitting in atom
interferometers.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Tests of relativity using a microwave resonator
The frequencies of a cryogenic sapphire oscillator and a hydrogen maser are
compared to set new constraints on a possible violation of Lorentz invariance.
We determine the variation of the oscillator frequency as a function of its
orientation (Michelson-Morley test) and of its velocity (Kennedy-Thorndike
test) with respect to a preferred frame candidate. We constrain the
corresponding parameters of the Mansouri and Sexl test theory to and which is equivalent to the best previous result for the
former and represents a 30 fold improvement for the latter.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters (October 3,
2002
Capital constraints and the performance of entrepreneurial firms in Vietnam
Entrepreneurship has been among the key driving forces of the emergence of a
dynamic private sector during the recent decades in Vietnam. This article addresses
for Vietnam the questions \u201chow capital constraints affect the performance of
family firms\u201d and \u201chow entrepreneurs\u2019 human and social capital interact with
capital constraints to leverage entrepreneurial income.\u201d A panel of 1721 firms in
4 years is used. Results are consistent with the resource dependency approach,
indicating an adverse effect of capital constraints on firm performance: firms
suffering capital constraints perform substantially better, suggesting that they
need more capital simply to finance newly recognized profit opportunities.
Human capital plays a vital role in relaxing capital constraints and improves the
entrepreneurial performance, whereas the effect of social capital stemming from
strong ties and weak ties is limited: strong ties bring emotional support and weak
ties give nonfinancial benefits from regular and useful business contacts.
Advanced econometric analysis tools to take into account the endogeneity of
capital constraints are used to establish relationships among relevant variables
- …