Axially-homogeneous Rayleigh-Benard convection in a cylindrical cell

Previous numerical studies have shown that the "ultimate regime of thermal convection" can be attained in a Rayleigh-Benard cell when the kinetic and thermal boundary layers are eliminated by replacing the walls with periodic boundary conditions (homogeneous Rayleigh-Benard convection). Then, the heat transfer scales like Nu ~ Ra^{1/2} and turbulence intensity as Re ~ Ra^{1/2}, where the Rayleigh number Ra indicates the strength of the driving force. However, experiments never operate in unbounded domains and it is important to understand how confinement might alter the approach to this ultimate regime. Here we consider homogeneous Rayleigh-Benard convection in a laterally confined geometry - a small aspect-ratio vertical cylindrical cell - and show evidence of the ultimate regime as Ra is increased: In spite of the confinement and the resulting kinetic boundary layers, we still find Nu ~ Re ~ Ra^{1/2}. The system supports exact solutions composed of modes of exponentially growing vertical velocity and temperature fields, with Ra as the critical parameter determining the properties of these modes. Counterintuitively, in the low Ra regime, or for very narrow cylinders, the numerical simulations are susceptible to these solutions which can dominate the dynamics and lead to very high and unsteady heat transfer. As Ra is increased, interaction between modes stabilizes the system, evidenced by the increasing homogeneity and reduced fluctuations in the r.m.s. velocity and temperature fields. We also test that physical results become independent of the periodicity length of the cylinder, a purely numerical parameter, as the aspect ratio is increased

Corporate Venture Capital: How established firms use external resources to create new competencies

This Doctoral Dissertation is triggered by an emergent trend: firms are increasingly referring to investments in corporate venture capital (CVC) as means to create new competencies and foster the search for competitive advantage through the use of external resources. CVC is generally defined as the practice by non-financial firms of placing equity investments in entrepreneurial companies. Thus, CVC can be interpreted (i) as a key component of corporate entrepreneurship - acts of organizational creation, renewal, or innovation that occur within or outside an existing organization– and (ii) as a particular form of venture capital (VC) investment where the investor is not a traditional and financial institution, but an established corporation. My Dissertation, thus, simultaneously refers to two streams of research: corporate strategy and venture capital. In particular, I directed my attention to three topics of particular relevance for better understanding the role of CVC. In the first study, I moved from the consideration that competitive environments with rapid technological changes increasingly force established corporations to access knowledge from external sources. Firms, thus, extensively engage in external business development activities through different forms of collaboration with partners. While the underlying process common to these mechanisms is one of knowledge access, they are substantially different. The aim of the first study is to figure out how corporations choose among CVC, alliance, joint venture and acquisition. I addressed this issue adopting a multi-theoretical framework where the resource-based view and real options theory are integrated. While the first study mainly looked into the use of external resources for corporate growth, in the second work, I combined an internal and an external perspective to figure out the relationship between CVC investments (exploiting external resources) and a more traditional strategy to create competitive advantage, that is, corporate diversification (based on internal resources). Adopting an explorative lens, I investigated how these different modes to renew corporate current capabilities interact to each other. More precisely, is CVC complementary or substitute to corporate diversification? Finally, the third study focused on the more general field of VC to investigate (i) how VC firms evaluate the patent portfolios of their potential investee companies and (ii) whether the ability to evaluate technology and intellectual property varies depending on the type of investors, in particular for what concern the distinction between specialized versus generalist VCs and independent versus corporate VCs. This topic is motivated by two observations. First, it is not clear yet which determinants of patent value are primarily considered by VCs in their investment decisions. Second, VCs are not all alike in terms of technological experiences and these differences need to be taken into account

Mission, governance, and accountability of Benefit Corporations: towards a commitment device for achieving commercial and social goals

Benefit corporations (BCs) are profit-with-purpose organizations regulated by a legal framework for establishing explicit commitments in terms of multi-stakeholder governance and accountability structures. We comprehensively analyze the theoretical alignment of four concepts (ownership, mission, governance, and accountability) to explain the legal rationale for BCs’ unique corporate form. However, the boundaries of BC legislation are blurry, leaving them open to top-down governance arrangements and weak accountability. To explore this ambiguity, this paper investigates whether BCs implement a de facto (i.e., beyond the letter of the law) multi-stakeholder structure with governance models and downward accountability mechanisms that balance different stakeholders’ interests, instead of focusing only on shareholder profits. This further highlight the soft boundaries imposed by the BC regulatory framework and suggests that more work is needed to explore the relationship between governance models that differently balance stakeholders’ claims and the firm’s social performance

Exploring socio-economic externalities of development scenarios. An analysis of EU regions from 2008 to 2016

A great debate around development scenarios has come to define conversations around the economy and the environment, two dimensions that struggle to find a proper balance. In this paper we apply unconditional growth model analyses to a new and unique dataset of European regions between 2008 and 2016 and identify four development scenarios – green growth, green de-growth, black growth and black de-growth – characterized by different relationships between CO2 emissions and economic growth. We then map European regions across these four scenarios and describe the differences that occurred among regions in terms of socio-economic externalities, mainly competences, investments and well-being. Drawing on our analyses, we contribute to the debate on development scenarios and ecological macro-economics, as well as discuss implications for sustainability policy and research

Типовая учебная программа по учебной дисциплине для специальности1-21 02 01 Философия

This article studies the extent to which corporate entrepreneurial intentions are enacted differently by academic and non-academic entrepreneurs. Using constructs from cognitive research and exploiting the theory of institutional logics, we observe that academic entrepreneurs, notwithstanding their engagement in entrepreneurship, still implement their corporate entrepreneurial intentions acting in accordance with the academic institutional environment to which they belong. Using a matched-pairs research design, our results show that academic entrepreneurs (compared to non- academic ones) leverage their awareness of technical competencies significantly more and their entrepreneurial self-efficacy and awareness of managerial skills considerably less. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications related to how cognitive and institutional factors interact to foster entrepreneurial value in newly established firms.This article studies the extent to which corporate entrepreneurial intentions are enacted differently by academic and non-academic entrepreneurs. Using constructs from cognitive research and exploiting the theory of institutional logics, we observe that academic entrepreneurs, notwithstanding their engagement in entrepreneurship, still implement their corporate entrepreneurial intentions acting in accordance with the academic institutional environment to which they belong. Using a matched-pairs research design, our results show that academic entrepreneurs (compared to non-academic ones) leverage their awareness of technical competencies significantly more and their entrepreneurial self-efficacy and awareness of managerial skills considerably less. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications related to how cognitive and institutional factors interact to foster entrepreneurial value in newly established firms

Industrial carbon emission intensity: a comprehensive dataset of European regions.

The dataset has been developed within the framework of the EU EIT-Climate Kic Flagship Project “Re-Industrialise” and it includes data of Carbon Emission Intensity (CEI) from industrial sources for the European Regions. CEI is considered as a proxy for analysing the Industrial Sustainability Transition pathways and is calculated as the ratio between CO2 equivalent emissions (CO2e) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the industrial sector over a nine-year timespan, i.e. from 2008 to 2016. CO2e data at plant level have been retrieved from EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS) register and aggregated at different geographical scales, corresponding to the nested structure of NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics), proposed by EUROSTAT. Industrial GDP data have been selected from EUROSTAT database to match the industrial sectors covered by EU ETS

Multilevel-growth modeling for the study of sustainability transitions.

Sustainability Transitions (ST) is a complex phenomenon, encompassing environmental, societal and economic aspects. Its study requires a proper investigation, with the identification of a robust indicator and the definition of a suitable method of analysis. To identify the most informative geographical boundaries for analysing ST pathways, we consider the Carbon Emission Intensity (CEI) and estimate a four-level growth model to study its pattern over time for all the EU regions. We apply this model to a novel longitudinal dataset that covers CEI data of European regions at four different geographical scales (state, areas, regions, and provinces) over a nine-year timespan. This approach aims at supporting the decision-makers in developing more effective sustainability transitions policies across Europe, especially focusing on regions and overcoming the well-known “one-size fits all” approach. • The unconditional growth model has been applied to a multi-level structure considering four levels, defined by three geographical scales and time. • The ideal structure of the model would have required five levels, but the sample size of the dataset made the application computationally unfeasible; • The application of the model allowed to identify patterns of stability and change over time of the variable amongst different geographical units