37 research outputs found
Stepping out of the shadow: the leadership qualities of successors in family business
The purpose of this study is to better understand the development of successors in the family business and their approach to the leadership of the firm. Foundational concepts in the family business literature and leadership literature are reviewed. I propose an integration of leadership theory into family business studies. I examine the reasons successors join the family business, the successors development from follower to leader, differences between founders and successors, and the leadership qualities of successors. A case study approach is followed, using a mixture of qualitative interviews and a survey questionnaire, the Organizational Leadership Assessment. Six family businesses are described in detail, including an air conditioning wholesale company, a pest control company, an automobile dealership, a printing business, a funeral home, and an air conditioning service company. Reasons for successors to enter the family business include expectation, convenience, opportunity, and closeness to family members. Successors move through the stages of student of the organization, low level manager, top manager, and finally owner. I identify five areas of differences between founders and successors, including business environment concerns, company changes, ownership complexity, and two internal differences regarding entrepreneurial activity and business risk approach. Important leadership qualities for successors include the need for hands-on technical knowledge, the importance of long-term orientation, the need for a spirit of cooperation among family leaders, and the relevance of servant leadership. I provide eight propositions for encouraging the next generation to join the business, five propositions to encourage the development of successors, two propositions to understand the differences between successors and founders, and two propositions to understand the leadership qualities of successors
Examining the Entrepreneurial Mindset and Entrepreneurial Intentions
We examined factors contributing to developing entrepreneurial intentions (EI) and the relationship between EI and the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) among nascent student entrepreneurs. Further, we seek to increase awareness among business practitioners of the value of nascent entrepreneurs to the economy. Utilizing the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior, we investigated personal and contextual factors related to EI. We surveyed 400 US business college students, comparing those with EI (n=228) and those without EI (n=178). Our findings indicated that compared to respondents who did not have EI, respondents who possessed EI reported several significant personal factors. Specifically, they were more likely to view themselves as entrepreneurs, have family members who owned their own businesses, lead group projects as students, and have previously worked in a startup business. Additionally, the contextual factor of the Covid-19 pandemic positively affected business students who possessed EI
Drivers of Entrepreneurial Intentions in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic
This study investigated the effect of the personality factors, creativity, risk-taking, and locus of control, on the entrepreneurial intentions of U.S. business college students, employing the theoretical lens of the theory of planned behavior. We surveyed 353 student respondents, comparing those with self-reported entrepreneurial intentions (n=213) versus those without entrepreneurial intentions (n=140). Our results indicated that the personality characteristics of risk-taking and creativity both significantly and positively predicted entrepreneurial intentions, but locus of control did not have a significant impact. Contextually, this study was undertaken during the extensive difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic. One positive consequence of the pandemic has been a heightened interest in entrepreneurship. We advise business school educators to pursue activities that encourage nascent entrepreneurship by fostering creativity and providing educational initiatives that help students reduce the perceived risk of starting their own businesses
Examining the Entrepreneurial Intentions of U.S. Ethnic Minorities During the Covid-19 Pandemic
We examine minority entrepreneurial intentions in the U.S. and seek to make business leaders and business educators aware of minority students’ interest in entrepreneurship activity. Utilizing the theory of planned behavior, we investigated if demographic and behavioral factors are related to entrepreneurial intentions. A major contextual factor was that we performed our research during the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed the entrepreneurial intentions of 400 U.S. business college students, comparing minority respondents (n=137) with white respondents (n=263). The minority respondents belonged to the three predominant minority entrepreneur groups in the U.S. -- African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. Minority respondents had significantly greater entrepreneurial intentions than their white counterparts. We investigated contextual factors affecting minority entrepreneurial intentions and found that a significant difference existed regarding the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in that it counter-intuitively increased minority entrepreneurial intentions. Significant personal factors included having family members who own a business and having a role model
Availability, outage, and capacity of spatially correlated, Australasian free-space optical networks
Network capacity and reliability for free space optical communication (FSOC)
is strongly driven by ground station availability, dominated by local cloud
cover causing an outage, and how availability relations between stations
produce network diversity. We combine remote sensing data and novel methods to
provide a generalised framework for assessing and optimising optical ground
station networks. This work is guided by an example network of eight Australian
and New Zealand optical communication ground stations which would span
approximately in longitude and in latitude. Utilising
time-dependent cloud cover data from five satellites, we present a detailed
analysis determining the availability and diversity of the network, finding the
Australasian region is well-suited for an optical network with a 69% average
site availability and low spatial cloud cover correlations. Employing methods
from computational neuroscience, we provide a Monte Carlo method for sampling
the joint probability distribution of site availabilities for an arbitrarily
sized and point-wise correlated network of ground stations. Furthermore, we
develop a general heuristic for site selection under availability and
correlation optimisations, and combine this with orbital propagation
simulations to compare the data capacity between optimised networks and the
example network. We show that the example network may be capable of providing
tens of terabits per day to a LEO satellite, and up to 99.97% reliability to
GEO satellites. We therefore use the Australasian region to demonstrate novel,
generalised tools for assessing and optimising FSOC ground station networks,
and additionally, the suitability of the region for hosting such a network.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Optical Communications and Networking. 16
pages, 16 figure
Control of Alzheimer's Amyloid Beta Toxicity by the High Molecular Weight Immunophilin FKBP52 and Copper Homeostasis in Drosophila
FK506 binding proteins (FKBPs), also called immunophilins, are prolyl-isomerases (PPIases) that participate in a wide variety of cellular functions including hormone signaling and protein folding. Recent studies indicate that proteins that contain PPIase activity can also alter the processing of Alzheimer's Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP). Originally identified in hematopoietic cells, FKBP52 is much more abundantly expressed in neurons, including the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and basal ganglia. Given the fact that the high molecular weight immunophilin FKBP52 is highly expressed in CNS regions susceptible to Alzheimer's, we investigated its role in Aβ toxicity. Towards this goal, we generated Aβ transgenic Drosophila that harbor gain of function or loss of function mutations of FKBP52. FKBP52 overexpression reduced the toxicity of Aβ and increased lifespan in Aβ flies, whereas loss of function of FKBP52 exacerbated these Aβ phenotypes. Interestingly, the Aβ pathology was enhanced by mutations in the copper transporters Atox1, which interacts with FKBP52, and Ctr1A and was suppressed in FKBP52 mutant flies raised on a copper chelator diet. Using mammalian cultures, we show that FKBP52 (−/−) cells have increased intracellular copper and higher levels of Aβ. This effect is reversed by reconstitution of FKBP52. Finally, we also found that FKBP52 formed stable complexes with APP through its FK506 interacting domain. Taken together, these studies identify a novel role for FKBP52 in modulating toxicity of Aβ peptides
Human and mouse essentiality screens as a resource for disease gene discovery
The identification of causal variants in sequencing studies remains a considerable challenge that can be partially addressed by new gene-specific knowledge. Here, we integrate measures of how essential a gene is to supporting life, as inferred from viability and phenotyping screens performed on knockout mice by the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium and essentiality screens carried out on human cell lines. We propose a cross-species gene classification across the Full Spectrum of Intolerance to Loss-of-function (FUSIL) and demonstrate that genes in five mutually exclusive FUSIL categories have differing biological properties. Most notably, Mendelian disease genes, particularly those associated with developmental disorders, are highly overrepresented among genes non-essential for cell survival but required for organism development. After screening developmental disorder cases from three independent disease sequencing consortia, we identify potentially pathogenic variants in genes not previously associated with rare diseases. We therefore propose FUSIL as an efficient approach for disease gene discovery. Discovery of causal variants for monogenic disorders has been facilitated by whole exome and genome sequencing, but does not provide a diagnosis for all patients. Here, the authors propose a Full Spectrum of Intolerance to Loss-of-Function (FUSIL) categorization that integrates gene essentiality information to aid disease gene discovery
The sentiment of nationality
The sentiment, as a definite psychological conception,
in its present form, dates from the publication in Mind
Vol. V., N.S. 1896 of Mr A. F. Shand' s article "Character
and the emotions" ; although Malebranche Spinoza and Hume
1
appear in various degrees to have anticipated it.'.. The
article was a contribution to the study cf 'character' from
the point cf view, first, cf different types cf character
in individuals and, secondly, of the "Emotions and sentiments
which in their difference among different men, account for "character" as a general psychological fact; and it is in
the course of a search for that "central point of view" in the
psychology of the feelings upon the absence of which James had commented that Shand advances a "great and important distinction" between the emotions and the sentiments" not hitherto
recognised. The difference, he says, "lies in the different
growth of their organisation. Emotions, while they "may
subsist at a stage of relative isolation and simplicity" tend
in the course of life, "always to build themselves into more stable and complex feelings, and these are the sentiments
which in their turn become the centres of attachment of the
organised emotions." Such emotions as hope, despondency,
elation, envy, "always imply," he points out "some preformed sentiment to which they are attached "; in the life
history of which they "occur as modes or phases." They are
in a sense, the adjectives of which the sentiments are the
"substantives" blending "as temporary qualifications of those
more complex and persistent feelings which they both serve to
develop and into which they are absorbed "., and which "in
each particular case suffuse with something of their own
flavour the emotion that happens to be excited in them.