Mission Effectiveness and Social Entrepreneurship: Theoretical insights and case-study evidence from three Christian charities in England

This research thesis examines mission effectiveness within three cases of Christian charities in England. It does so within the context of social entrepreneurship, and is occasioned by an attempt to facilitate social service capacity building in order to meet increasing social needs during a period of decreasing government funding. The research evaluates mission effectiveness through the lens of two managerial theories – Resource Based Theory (RBT) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT). Accordingly, three key objectives underpin this research: to evaluate RBT and DCT for social entrepreneurship in charities, to evaluate the relevant case study evidence and, consequent to an analysis and evaluation of that evidence, to develop/present an appropriately customised theory of mission effectiveness primarily for application within Christian social action charities. RBT and DCT theoretical and empirical literatures provide several insights into the optimisation of organisational resources and capabilities. An analysis of this literature enables two dimensions to emerge - performance and scalability. These dimensions are explored through six themes: business services, governance, resource investment, collaboration, social enterprise and growth. However, little engagement of these two theories (both developed for and within the For-Profit sector) in the charities (Not-for-Profit) sector is observed. This gap in the literature both provokes and justifies the research. Given that a key objective of the research is to develop a sectorally customised theory, methodologically it adopts an inductive approach to building theory from relevant theoretical-empirical data, empirical literature, their analyses and emergent evidence-based arguments. Appropriate meaningfully-linked RBT and DCT case-specific data are ethically collected using standard methods including questionnaires, interviews, observation, and evaluation of some internal case documentation and public records. Thereupon, the data are evidentially analysed and customised by reference to the relevant mission statement and categorised across the six themes. They are then analysed using traditional case study analytical techniques including pattern matching, explanation building and synthesis in order to enable key findings to emerge. Finally, the emergent research findings are evaluated-interpreted in terms of mission effectiveness, so as to assert causal and/or associated links between relevant theoretical constructs and the findings. The empirical findings suggest that all six identified themes varyingly affect performance and scalability. Further, they indicate that mission effectiveness is enhanced when resource based and dynamic capabilities are exercised within strategic management disciplines, especially where entrepreneurial means are deployed. This would suggest that Christian social action charities have potential to play a more positive and impactful role in providing social services in England, by systematically improving mission effectiveness via strategic use of RBT and DCT, combined suitably with entrepreneurial means. Overall, drawing on the empirically identified deficiencies and/or inadequacies of RBT and DCT when applied to the effective accomplishments of social enterprise missions, the findings suggest a hybrid theory of both of them, tentatively named ‘Dynamic Resource Theory’ (DRT). This argues that social action practitioners are more effective when optimising key resources and capabilities using SE means in order to achieve missional impact results. Such a tentative theory will likely influence policies to incentivise improvements in governance, inter-firm collaboration and capacity building. Such policies would be of real practical benefit to practitioners. This theory makes an original contribution to knowledge in terms of social entrepreneurial mission effectiveness - probably most applicable within faith-based charities

A cost function for similarity-based hierarchical clustering

The development of algorithms for hierarchical clustering has been hampered by a shortage of precise objective functions. To help address this situation, we introduce a simple cost function on hierarchies over a set of points, given pairwise similarities between those points. We show that this criterion behaves sensibly in canonical instances and that it admits a top-down construction procedure with a provably good approximation ratio

Time-scales of close-in exoplanet radio emission variability

We investigate the variability of exoplanetary radio emission using stellar magnetic maps and 3D field extrapolation techniques. We use a sample of hot Jupiter hosting stars, focusing on the HD 179949, HD 189733 and tau Boo systems. Our results indicate two time-scales over which radio emission variability may occur at magnetised hot Jupiters. The first is the synodic period of the star-planet system. The origin of variability on this time-scale is the relative motion between the planet and the interplanetary plasma that is co-rotating with the host star. The second time-scale is the length of the magnetic cycle. Variability on this time-scale is caused by evolution of the stellar field. At these systems, the magnitude of planetary radio emission is anticorrelated with the angular separation between the subplanetary point and the nearest magnetic pole. For the special case of tau Boo b, whose orbital period is tidally locked to the rotation period of its host star, variability only occurs on the time-scale of the magnetic cycle. The lack of radio variability on the synodic period at tau Boo b is not predicted by previous radio emission models, which do not account for the co-rotation of the interplanetary plasma at small distances from the star.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted in MNRA

The magnetic fields of forming solar-like stars

Magnetic fields play a crucial role at all stages of the formation of low mass stars and planetary systems. In the final stages, in particular, they control the kinematics of in-falling gas from circumstellar discs, and the launching and collimation of spectacular outflows. The magnetic coupling with the disc is thought to influence the rotational evolution of the star, while magnetised stellar winds control the braking of more evolved stars and may influence the migration of planets. Magnetic reconnection events trigger energetic flares which irradiate circumstellar discs with high energy particles that influence the disc chemistry and set the initial conditions for planet formation. However, it is only in the past few years that the current generation of optical spectropolarimeters have allowed the magnetic fields of forming solar-like stars to be probed in unprecedented detail. In order to do justice to the recent extensive observational programs new theoretical models are being developed that incorporate magnetic fields with an observed degree of complexity. In this review we draw together disparate results from the classical electromagnetism, molecular physics/chemistry, and the geophysics literature, and demonstrate how they can be adapted to construct models of the large scale magnetospheres of stars and planets. We conclude by examining how the incorporation of multipolar magnetic fields into new theoretical models will drive future progress in the field through the elucidation of several observational conundrums.Comment: 55 pages, review article accepted for publication in Reports on Progress in Physics. Astro-ph version includes additional appendice

Modeling X-ray emission from stellar coronae

By extrapolating from observationally derived surface magnetograms of low-mass stars we construct models of their coronal magnetic fields and compare the 3D field geometry with axial multipoles. AB Dor, which has a radiative core, has a very complex field, whereas V374 Peg, which is completely convective, has a simple dipolar field. We calculate global X-ray emission measures assuming that the plasma trapped along the coronal loops is in hydrostatic equilibrium and compare the differences between assuming isothermal coronae, or by considering a loop temperature profiles. Our preliminary results suggest that the non-isothermal model works well for the complex field of AB Dor, but not for the simple field of V374 Peg.Comment: 4 pages, proceedings of Cool Stars 15, St Andrews, July 2008, to be published in the Conference Proceedings Series of the American Institute of Physic

On the environment surrounding close-in exoplanets

Exoplanets in extremely close-in orbits are immersed in a local interplanetary medium (i.e., the stellar wind) much denser than the local conditions encountered around the solar system planets. The environment surrounding these exoplanets also differs in terms of dynamics (slower stellar winds, but higher Keplerian velocities) and ambient magnetic fields (likely higher for host stars more active than the Sun). Here, we quantitatively investigate the nature of the interplanetary media surrounding the hot Jupiters HD46375b, HD73256b, HD102195b, HD130322b, HD179949b. We simulate the three-dimensional winds of their host stars, in which we directly incorporate their observed surface magnetic fields. With that, we derive mass-loss rates (1.9 to 8.0 $\times 10^{-13} M_{\odot}$/yr) and the wind properties at the position of the hot-Jupiters' orbits (temperature, velocity, magnetic field intensity and pressure). We show that these exoplanets' orbits are super-magnetosonic, indicating that bow shocks are formed surrounding these planets. Assuming planetary magnetic fields similar to Jupiter's, we estimate planetary magnetospheric sizes of 4.1 to 5.6 planetary radii. We also derive the exoplanetary radio emission released in the dissipation of the stellar wind energy. We find radio fluxes ranging from 0.02 to 0.13 mJy, which are challenging to be observed with present-day technology, but could be detectable with future higher sensitivity arrays (e.g., SKA). Radio emission from systems having closer hot-Jupiters, such as from tau Boo b or HD189733b, or from nearby planetary systems orbiting young stars, are likely to have higher radio fluxes, presenting better prospects for detecting exoplanetary radio emission.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted to MNRA

Agricultural Club

Papers concerning the Agricultural Club at Utah Agricultural College, including their objects, by-laws, constitution, and work