Multifarious transparent glass nanocrystal composites

Glasses comprising well known ferroelectric crystalline phases have been a subject of curious investigation from the point of view of exploiting these composites for dielectric, pyroelectric, ferroelectric, electro and non-linear optical devices. Transparent glass-ceramics containing ferroelectric crystallites at nano scale have been of much interest owing to their promising physical properties. The advantages that are associated with glass-ceramics include very low levels of porosity and hence high break down voltages. It is of our interest to nanocrystallize Aurivillius family of ferroelectric oxides and tetragonal tungsten bronzes on borate and tellurite based glass matrices and demonstrate their promising optical and nonlinear optical properties. Apart from the above, the nanocrystallites of well known ferroelectric material LiNbO3 was grown in a reactive glass matrix. These nanocrystals of LiNbO3 exhibited intense second harmonic signals in transmission mode when exposed to IR light at 1064 nm. The most interesting result was the demonstration of optical diffraction of the second harmonic signals which was attributed to the presence of self- organized sub-micrometer sized LiNbO3 crystallites that were indeed inscribed by the IR laser light which was used to probe in the NLO property of these materials

Social Entrepreneurship and Broader Theories: Shedding New Light on the “Bigger Picture”

This article documents the results of a research workshop bringing together six perspectives on social entrepreneurship. The idea was to challenge existing concepts of the economy, the firm, and entrepreneurship in order to shed new light on social entrepreneurship and on our existing theoretical frameworks. The first two contributions use a macro-perspective and discuss the notion of adaptive societies and the tragedies of disharmonization, respectively. Taking a management perspective, the next two focus on the limits of conventional assumptions in management theory, particularly human capital theory and resource-based view. The final two contributions follow an entrepreneurship perspective highlighting the usefulness of mobilization theory and the business model lens to social entrepreneurship. Despite this diversity, all contributions share the fact that they challenge narrow definitions of the unit of analysis in social entrepreneurship; they illustrate the aspect of social embeddedness, and they argue for an open-but-disciplined diversity of theories in social entrepreneurship research

Global Entrepreneurship and Market-Driven Management

Global entrepreneurship defines the orientation of the firms in the direction of growing interdependence and integration. On the contrary international entrepreneurship is just a combination of innovative, proactive, and risk seeking behaviour that crosses national borders and is intended to create value in organizations. In global markets, the strategic leverage of the firms moves from goods to knowledge. Information systems and inter-firm collaboration become fundamental ways to access to knowledge and to exploit its potential. Market-driven organizations possess superior capabilities in anticipating and exploiting trends and market changes as well as competitors’ moves. Firms, in order to be successful, must combine market-driven management with an entrepreneurial attitude