Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Entrepreneurial governance'

In order to become serial entrepreneurs and even portfolio entrepreneurs. individuals' must first establish themselves as entrepreneurs. Moreover. and prior to this. they must first be nascent entrepreneurs. Hence. the focus of this study is the factors that lead individuals at the early stage of their career to choose to establish a personal business venture rather than any other career path. That is. this study focuses on the factors that influence individuals intentions' to become entrepreneurs. Three models are empirically tested. These models comprise an extended version of the Shapero model of the entrepreneurial event. a modified version of the Ajzen model of planned behaviour. and Boyd and Vozikis' extended Bird model. A fourth model is developed and tested. This particular model is characterised as the 'entrepreneurial capital' model and extends the reasoning into the probability of sustained entrepreneurial behaviour. There are four main contributions from this study. • The first contribution is the development of the notion of entrepreneurial capital. where entrepreneurial capital is conceived of as a function of sustained entrepreneurial intentions (commitment) and entrepreneurial competence. It is argued that the most valuable source of emerging firms is the nascent entrepreneurs' entrepreneurial capital. In other words, the combined capacity to identify opportunities. to acquire and co-ordinate resources and to see the venture through to fruition may be regarded as entrepreneurial capital. • The second contribution of this thesis relates to the empirical testing of Boyd and Vozikis' theoretical propositions. These propositions are based on the extended Bird model and have not been empirically tested before. The presence of entrepreneurial goals was found to have a stronger effect on entrepreneurial intentions than entrepreneurial commitment and perceived entrepreneurial capability. • The third contribution relates to social entrepreneurial experience; experience gathered through interaction with entrepreneurially orientated others. it appears that social entrepreneurial experience is an important antecedent factor that influences 'entrepreneurial intentions'. Hence. culture. that is, the presence of other entrepreneurially orientated people. appears to be the most important influence on the development of individuals' intentions toward enterprise formation. • The fourth contribution also relates to social entrepreneurial experience. it appears that 'perceived entrepreneurial competence' is also influenced by social entrepreneurial experience. According to this study. mastery entrepreneurial experience (i.e. previous start-up experience) as well as vicarious entrepreneurial experience (i.e. parental role models) have less effect. Only when self-employment is judged more attractive than organisational employment. will high potential individuals' choose the former. Educational programmes that value self-employment initiatives should therefore stimulate individuals to develop personal entrepreneurial goals. and to develop individuals' perceptions of their entrepreneurial capabilities. which again should trigger their entrepreneurial intentions.

Despite the widespread adoption of governance best practice generated by government reports such as; Cadbury (l992), Greenbury (l995) and Higgs (2003) in response to the collapse of several multi-billion dollar public entities, accounting and governance scandals continue to proliferate. The scale of failures such as Enron, and the fact that they were not foreseen, lead the author to conclude that the relationship between the way in which a corporation is governed and how it performs is far from fully understood. A comprehensive review of existing corporate governance research highlights two major shortcomings. Firstly, literature and managerial best practice is biased towards understanding the need to control agents charged with the running of firms that they do not own, so called agency theory (Berle & Means, 1932; Williamson, 1964; Jensen & Meckling, 1976). Where other theories, namely resource dependency theory (Pfeffer &.Salancik, 1978) and stewardship theory (Boyd,1995; Donaldson, 1990), have been explored, they have been largely considered in isolation in an attempt to contradict rather than compliment the conclusions that arise from the adoption of an agency stance. Secondly, corporate governance guidelines and academic research has, thus far, failed to sufficiently define firm specific circumstance, or context specific variables, and, therefore to reflect that such variables could significantly alter the relationship that a given model of governance could have upon firm performance. Consequently, this study develops and applies a theoretically integrated research model that defines governance in terms of all three aforementioned theories and utilises the entrepreneurial venture, with its unique ownership and leadership structure, as a lens through which to observe the effects of context specific variables on the governance to performance relationship. Using a combination of publicly available, independently audited, corporate reports and primary data collected from the leaders of 204 companies listing on London's Alternative Investment Market (109 of which meet the author's definition of an entrepreneurial venture), an analysis of the collected data, using partial least squares, reveals that for both entrepreneurial and non entrepreneurial ventures, significant relationships exist between constructs of; ownership; non-financial reward; the services provided by the board; financial motivation and financial corporate performance. However, in non entrepreneurial firms, significant relationships also exist between the control of the agent construct; duality and financial corporate performance. Finally, the identified constructs of corporate governance explain 14% of return on capital employed and 17% of return on assets in entrepreneurial ventures, whereas they explain 7% and 26% respectively when the firm is deemed non entrepreneurial. These findings provide an original contribution to academia by highlighting the manner in which the choice of performance indicator can alter the nature of the observed relationship. Furthermore, by identifying the manner in which the context specific variables associated with entrepreneurialism alter the governance to performance relationship, the author has contributed fresh insight into this economically important sub set of firms, increased the granularity of academia's understanding of corporate governance and, in the case of all three of the mentioned contributions, clarified the previously confounding results that have emerged from a tendency to research single items of corporate governance defined by a single theoretical stance within samples of largely ubiquitous firms. In addition, a contribution has been made to business practice through the development of guidelines that call for managers, owners and policy makers to dig deeper into the role of the governance system and what it is that they need it to deliver given their specific circumstances and operating environment - rather than slavishly following a static model of best practice that, at best, provides the outward signs of compliance but that, in fact, has a greater potential to create a false sense of security.

The dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay studies governance structures and their effectiveness for start-up companies and their survival. We utilize data from the Kauffman Survey, which tracks a sample of firms from their inceptions through their first eight years of existence. We hypothesize and find evidence that a startup's governance system affects its survivability as well as its performance. We show that controlling for the firm size and the industry, cross-sectional variations in the performance of the start-up firms can be explained by governance variables; the presence of one or more independent board member on the board, the separation between the person holding the CEO position and the chair of the board. From the startup survival perspective, we show that the presence of one or more independent board member(s), the separation between CEO and board chair, and external funding are effective factors that promote a start-up's longevity. The second essay studies the direct and indirect relations between Governance and firm survival and performance through Entrepreneurial Orientation. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is defined as the attributes, including innovativeness, autonomy, risk-taking attitude, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness, that a business organization displays at the time of entry. Several researchers have studied the linkage between EO and organizational performance as well as the survival rate of new firms and find conflicting results. Reasons for the contradictory results might very well be the way the researchers have defined the EO attributes and the data source they use which is based on subjective responses. In the hopes of reducing inconsistent results, we propose that it is the governance factors that influence the performance and survival of these firm via mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation. Governance factors remove the definition as well as data measurement problems. By using the 8-year longitudinal data of 4928 startups, we show that governance system significantly impacts a start-up’s performance and survival via entrepreneurial orientation.

Public policies affect all of us, regardless of who we are or where we live. The study of public policymaking necessarily entails the study of the entire political system and to this end, researchers employ a multitude of frameworks, theories, and models, which tend to be complementary rather than mutually exclusive. The focus of this dissertation is on political entrepreneurship as an actor-based framework to examine and understand policy change. The dissertation’s main aim is to conceptually enhance entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur in the polis by leveraging them in the Swedish political context. In this research, political entrepreneurship and the political entrepreneur are examined in the background of the Swedish corporatist policymaking system with its consensual sensibilities. The five (two theoretical and three empirical) papers as well as the cover essay comprising this dissertation attempt to answer the following questions: first, how do contextual factors inform the realization of entrepreneurial agency? Second, how do contextual factors inform the strategies entrepreneurial actors use to affect change? Third, what is the role of political entrepreneurship and the political entrepreneur in macro-level theories such as critical junctures and policy transfer? Contextual factors here are understood to be the general political system; the level of governance; the substantive policy sector, and the stage of the policy process. Predominantly qualitative methods and a variety of analytical tools, ranging from formal social network analysis (SNA) to process tracing are used to investigate the research questions in the national, regional, and local levels of governance and in the fields of crisis management, risk governance, and economic development respectively. Findings suggest that overwhelmingly, political entrepreneurs come from the ranks of public officials and thus political entrepreneurship is a feature of the policy implementation stage rather than the agenda setting stage of policymaking. There is not a place for the outsider, single issue entrepreneur in the Swedish consensual system, which provides for extensive inclusion, but of actors organized in interest groups. Political entrepreneurs are action-oriented, problem solving doers, characterized by perseverance and resourcefulness and are key in consolidating policy change in the aftermath of a crisis. Though in broad terms the strategies political entrepreneurs use in the Swedish context are concomitant with the ones used in pluralistic contexts, specificities diverge. In the Swedish corporatist consensual system, political entrepreneurship becomes a conduit facilitating interconnections among a multitude of actors; opens up additional channels of communication, while the political entrepreneur is a network maker. Finally, political entrepreneurship is focused on forging a consensus rather than winning the competition: the art of quiet cooperation and collaboration.
Den offentliga politiken berör alla medborgare, oavsett vem man är och var man bor. Forskning om policyskapande och politiskt beslutsfattande omfattar det hela politiska systemet. Därför använder sig forskare av ett stort antal komplementära ramverk, teorier och modeller. Denna avhandling använder politiskt entreprenörskap som ett aktörsbaserat ramverkför att undersöka och förstå policyförändring. Avhandlingens huvudsyfte är att utveckla de teoretiska begreppen ”politiskt entreprenörskap”och ”politiska entreprenörer” genom att undersöka dem inom det svenska politiska systemet. Avhandlingen består av en kappa och fem artiklar, varav två är uteslutande teoretiska och tre omfattar analys av empiriskt material. Alla fem söker att besvara följande forskningsfrågor: Först, hur påverkar kontextuella faktorer möjliggörandet av entreprenöriell agens? För det andra, hur präglar kontextuella faktorer de strategier som entreprenöriella aktörer använder sig av för att åstadkomma förändring? För det tredje, vilken roll har politiskt entreprenörskap och politiska entreprenörer i makroteorier, särskilt critical junctures och policy transfer? Med kontextuella faktorer avses här det politiska systemets karaktär; governance-nivå; policyområde, och stadie i policyprocessen. Forskningsfrågorna undersöks huvudsakligen genom kvalitativa metoder; data analyseras med formell social nätverksanalys, innehållsanalys och process-spårning. Studierna behandlar olika politiska områden på olika politiska nivåer: krishantering på den nationella nivån, risk-governance på den regionala nivån och tillväxt på den lokala nivån. Resultaten visar att  politiska entreprenörer huvudsakligen återfinns bland byråkrater, vilket innebär att politiskt entreprenörskap sker i implementeringen av policyer snarare än i det politiska agendasättandet. Svensk korporatism kännetecknas av en omfattande inkludering av aktörer som organiserar sig inom intressegrupper. Däremot finns litet utrymme för enskilda politiska entreprenörer. Politiska entreprenörer beskrivs ofta som handlingsinriktade problemlösare, uthålliga och rådiga. Efter samhällskriser  är  de viktiga  i  förändringen av policyer. Även om de strategier som svenska politiska entreprenörer tillämpar i stort sett liknar de som används inom pluralistiska  system, finns det också flera  skillnader. Inom den svenska korporatismen, blir politiskt entreprenörskap en kanal som underlättar kopplingar mellan flera olika aktörer–entreprenören blir en nätverkskapare. Politiskt entreprenörskap i Sverige tycks handla om att skapa konsensus snarare än att vinna i konkurrens: det är det tysta samarbetets och samverkans konst.

Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 3 inskickat, delarbete 4 accepterat, delarbete 5 inskickat.

At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 3 submitted, paper 4 accepted, paper 5 submitted.

Housing is political, and its relation to the local state is undergoing a monumental transition. This research charts the journey of a neighbourhood in Gateshead, North East England through housing regeneration. It focuses on a joint venture partnership that has grown from a mired central state regeneration initiative, Housing Market Renewal. In doing so, it grounds and develops Bob Jessop’s (2016) most recent and flexible state theory, to posit the local state as an increasingly relevant conceptual and analytical frame through which to reveal contemporary transformations in local governance. Through an in-depth examination of the relations between new and old state actors, local politics and multiple publics, we can see who is governing and who matters. In positioning housing as central to a contemporary capitalist political economy, housing therefore becomes a key optic through which to understand the deepening of entrepreneurial governance under austerity localism. The local state in Gateshead is reconstructing the housing market and harnessing private finance. It has become a housing developer in its own right through a complex and opaque process of financialization. Despite an entrenched marketized logic, however, the local state is not simply a unified or monolithic structure. It consists of both structures and relations that are in constant struggle as it tentatively negotiates the current and unstable mode of local governance. Seeing the state as a fragmented, malleable and permeable set of relations reveals the various forms of power and sources of pressure within and beyond it. Through examples of both conflict and consensus building, a local struggle over representation and legitimacy opens up conceptual questions about politics and the political. As the local state moves increasingly away from previous processes of public engagement and actively conceals its role in housing development, this new governing arrangement is dislocating politicians from the publics they represent. The channeling of political power into the hands of new state actors is undoubtedly de-democratising. However, there remains the potential to disrupt, or re‐politicise such processes, which can offer hope to the place of politics and publics.

À travers l'acte de certification à l'amorçage, nous cherchons à avoir une meilleure compréhension de la construction de la trajectoire de financement et de la gouvernance entrepreneuriale. Situant notre travail dans un champ émergent de la finance entrepreneuriale, notre travail se compose de trois axes d'approche. Le premier essai propose un modèle conceptuel de la certification à l'amorçage. Cette revue de la littérature a permis de mettre en évidence un nouvel acteur de la certification : les plateformes de notation de startups. Le deuxième article est une étude qualitative reposant sur l'étude de cas d'une plateforme de notation dédiée aux startups. La certification émise par un tel acteur se véhicule notamment par son processus d'évaluation. Nous cherchons ainsi à mieux comprendre les déterminants de la notation de la firme entrepreneuriale et leur incidence sur sa trajectoire de financement. Nous émettons plusieurs propositions ainsi qu'un modèle d'intermédiation informationnelle. Le dernier volet de la thèse traite des questions de gouvernance posées par l'implication d'un acteur tiers. La notation externe réalisée par la plateforme, dans une perception élargie de la gouvernance, semble agir sur les mécanismes disciplinaires et cognitifs, notamment les activités de monitoring et de mentoring. Nous cherchons, à travers une étude exploratoire menée sur la base d'entretiens avec des acteurs de l'écosystème, à comprendre l'impact de la notation sur le contexte informationnel, sur la gestion de l'innovation ainsi que sur la construction de la gouvernance
Through the act of certification at the seed stage, we seek to gain a better understanding of the construction of the financing trajectory and entrepreneurial governance. Situating our work in an emerging field of entrepreneurial finance, our work consists of three approaches. The first essay proposes a conceptual model of seed-stage certification. This literature review has highlighted a new player in certification: startup rating platforms. The second article is a qualitative study based on a case study of a startup rating platform. Certification issued by such a player is conveyed notably through its evaluation process. We aim to better understand the determinants of entrepreneurial firm ratings and their impact on its financing trajectory. We put forward several propositions as well as an informational intermediation model. The final part of the thesis addresses governance issues raised by the involvement of a third-party actor. External rating conducted by the platform, within a broader perception of governance, appears to influence disciplinary and cognitive mechanisms, particularly monitoring and mentoring activities. Through an exploratory study conducted through interviews with ecosystem actors, we seek to understand the impact of rating on informational context, innovation management, and governance construction

The aim of our thesis is to provide an insight into self-managing organizations (SMOs), particularly referencing holacratic and teal organizations, and connecting them with the consequent innovative process. Global markets are changing rapidly, and competition is increasing, as the pressure on companies to adapt to these fast-paced changes. There is an increasing demand for constant innovative idea flows to keep up with the dynamics of the global market economy. New flexible management tools are needed in order to maintain balance. Starting from the premise that SMO tools are part of the response to the dynamics of enterprises, we aim to outline how SMOs operate. We also analyze the innovative process within SMOs and try to answer whether innovation is inherently connected to holacratic and teal organizations. This will be achieved by conducting interviews on case subjects using qualitative analysis and elaborating on the findings to form a discussion. As this is a revolutionary new phenomenon that shifts the management's responsibility from one person to the entire organization, few companies as of yet have adopted this strategy. This adds limitations to our study but opens the door for further research.

In an effort to reduce the cost and size of government public service delivery has become more decentralized, flexible and responsive. Public entrepreneurship entailed, among other things, the establishment of special-purpose governments to finance public services and carry out development projects. Community Development Districts (CDDs) are a type of special-purpose governments whose purpose is to manage and finance infrastructure improvements in the State of Florida. They have important implications for the way both growth management and service delivery occur in the United States. This study examined the role of CDDs for growth management policy and service delivery by analyzing the CDD profile and activity, the contribution of CDDs to the growth management and infrastructure development as well as the way CDD perceived pluses and minuses impact service delivery. The study used a mixed methods research approach, drawing on secondary data pertaining to CDD features and activity, semi-structured interviews with CDD representatives and public officials as well as on a survey of public officials within the counties and cities that have established CDDs. Findings indicated that the CDD institutional model is both a policy and a service delivery tool for infrastructure provision that can be adopted by states across the United States. Results showed that CDDs inhibit rather than foster growth management through their location choices, type and pattern of development. CDDs contributed to the infrastructure development in Florida by providing basic infrastructure services for the development they supported and by building and dedicating facilities to general-purpose governments. Districts were found to be both funding mechanisms and management tools for infrastructure services. The study also pointed to the fact that specialized governance is more responsive and more flexible but less effective than general-purpose governance when delivering services. CDDs were perceived as being favorable for developers and residents and not as favorable for general-purpose governments. Overall results indicated that the CDD is a flexible institutional mechanism for infrastructure delivery which has both advantages and disadvantages. Decision-makers should balance districts’ institutional flexibility with their unintended consequences for growth management when considering urban public policies.

The overall aim of this thesis is to enquire into and problematize the governance of career guidance and how individuals’ career management is constructed within EU policy. The empirical material consists of European policy documents produced during 2000-2015. The two central research questions explore (1) how European career guidance is made governable, and (2) how individuals’ career management is constructed and governed. The Foucauldian governmentality perspective and the analytic method of problematization is utilized. The analysis focuses on the compositions of normative forms of reason, discursive practices and techniques by which governing is exercised and knowledge is produced. The thesis is based on four articles, three of which concern career guidance and career management. The fourth article concerns education of citizenship. The analysis shows that the formation of a policy space for comparison of national systems of career guidance is significant for making European career guidance amenable to governance. It is mobilized by governing practices for involvement of institutional actors and the construction of standards of performance. This form of governance becomes effective on the condition that institutional actors use and produce knowledge and practices about what works in career guidance, and this implies self-control and constant monitoring. It is a complex process of producing self-regulation of career guidance adjustable to change and innovation in which both standardization and modulation are inbuilt. Moreover, this is dependent on the interplay of governance and self-government. Knowledge and practices shape career management as an individual competence, which each individual is assumed to achieve. The use of guidance techniques supporting this design and self-regulating practices contributes to responsibilizing individuals to achieve this competence. Knowledge of individuals’ management of their careers includes civic competence. This led me to extend my use of the theoretical framework to investigate how knowledge of civic competence is constructed in European policy documents concerning teacher education from 2000 to 2012. My analysis shows that presumptions of teaching civic competence support the production of the active and learning subject.

This study investigates the effects of insider entrenchment on Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation in firms conducting an initial public offering (IPO). The sample comprises 220 US firms that went public between 1996 and 2002. Corporate governance choices regarding entrenchment are captured by six provisions in the corporate charter and bylaws, as well as five anti-takeover statutes, which may or may not be in effect in the state of incorporation. Firm-level items are supermajority requirements for charter amendments, bylaws amendments, and merger approvals, along with the presence or absence of a staggered board of directors, poison pills, and golden parachute agreements. The anti-takeover laws examined are Business Combination, Control Share Acquisition, Fair Price, Poison Pill Endorsement, and Constituencies Statutes. A factor analysis reveals three distinct components of entrenchment: firm- and state-level external entrenchment and firm-level internal entrenchment. External entrenchment is related to market control over management by means of corporate takeovers; internal entrenchment relates to shareholder control over management by means of their voting power. Evidence is found for a positive association between entrenchment at IPO and subsequent CEO cash and total compensation. These relationships are driven by firm-level external entrenchment. Firm-level external entrenchment is also significantly and positively associated with CEO stock-based compensation. The positive effects of entrenchment at IPO on CEO compensation appear not to be transitory and remain constant for at least five years post-IPO. Furthermore, entrenchment at IPO is shown to affect CEO pay-for-performance sensitivity. On balance, entrenchment reduces the sensitivity of CEO compensation to stock returns and returns on assets. The results of this study underscore the crucial importance of insiders' governance decisions made at the time of the IPO. Little support is found for a re-balancing of components of the CEO's compensation contract in response to entrenchment as predicted under the optimal contracting theory of compensation contracts. The findings of this study are almost entirely consistent with the managerial power theory, according to which entrenchment at IPO causes a permanent shift in bargaining power, which enables CEOs to influence compensation contracts in their favor.

The question of how to best organize the governance structure of corporations in order to reconcile the various interests involved in a corporation has a long history. Legal and economic scholars from around the world have debated the issue since 1937, the year economists Adolf A. Berle and Gardener C. Means identified the agency cost problem inherent in the structure of the modern corporation (i.e. the separation of control from ownership rights).
Nowadays this debate has gained an added dimension. The consequences of the increasing globalization of economies raise the question as to whether this will also lead to the harmonization of national systems of corporate governance.
More particularly, this thesis analyses the possibility and consequently the direction of convergence between the German and the American system of corporate governance, despite significant differences in their structure, mechanisms and more generally, in the micro and macroeconomic environment.

Rooted in the theories of urban entrepreneurialism, this dissertation employs a political economy framework as a means of analyzing urban governance and economic development in the contemporary US city. This case study of Orlando adds to our understanding of how entrepreneurial narratives are being applied to transportation infrastructure projects in pursuit of local economic development. The empirical case study explores the relationship between planning narratives, urban governance and economic development in the establishment of the SunRail commuter rail system in central Florida. I present the political history of economic development and the role of local boosters in shaping the sociospatial distribution of urban infrastructure and public investment in Central Florida. Utilizing a qualitative research methodology, the case study is based on a series of extended interviews with transportation planners, urban policymakers and community leaders in the Orlando area. The empirical data was complemented with official documents and archival records concerning the planning of transit-oriented developments along the SunRail system. This research presents the current efforts of Central Florida boosters to apply governance approaches to reshape the urban form and to direct the ensuing flows of capital investment through the restructuring of the region’s transportation infrastructure and employing planning narratives that draw heavily on creating amenity growth strategies. Local boosters expect that by providing dense development corridors through the region, including transit-oriented development centers, the city will have met the pre-conditions for attracting private capital investment. Specifically, local leaders are seeking to attract investment by the type of firms that will provide high-wage jobs to the region to balance the glut of low-wage service sectors jobs found in the region’s theme park industry. In the case of Central Florida, early private investment in SunRail adjacent property has come from local firms that tend to have a high level of local fixity and existing investments in the Orlando market.

Long term family fortune preservation is a matter of human behavior; it is a dynamic process of activity or group governance that has to be reenergized successfully in each successive generation to overcome the threat of falling into entropy. Each successive generation has to reaffirm its participation in such government system.Family enterprises are the fundamental actors of the economic activity, and also constitute a stability factor of the productive system, because the majority of them is small or medium-sized (SMEs), and that is why it is interesting to investigate their financial behavior.There is little knowledge concerning financing decisions of enterprises on emerging markets. There is a particular need of empirical work that identifies the financial patterns of developing countries enterprises. It is possible that these enterprises are creating a new financial structure that results convenient for their particular environment
Long term family fortune preservation is a matter of human behavior; it is a dynamic process of activity or group governance that has to be reenergized successfully in each successive generation to overcome the threat of falling into entropy. Each successive generation has to reaffirm its participation in such government system.Family enterprises are the fundamental actors of the economic activity, and also constitute a stability factor of the productive system, because the majority of them is small or medium-sized (SMEs), and that is why it is interesting to investigate their financial behavior.There is little knowledge concerning financing decisions of enterprises on emerging markets. There is a particular need of empirical work that identifies the financial patterns of developing countries enterprises. It is possible that these enterprises are creating a new financial structure that results convenient for their particular environment

Doutoramento em Ciências Sociais
Socio-economic changes, alterations in societal expectations and new public policies have put pressures on higher education public funding, bringing the issue of funding diversification to the forefront. Income diversification, namely, generation of funds from private, as well as from competitive public sources, has become increasingly important in European higher education due to a complex financial environment and perceived deficit of innovation transfer. Although there are numerous studies about changes in national funding systems and allocation mechanisms, few have focused on diversification of funding sources, especially in the European context, making Portugal no exception. Thus, this study aims at exploring income diversification at the institutional level and its influence on the internal organisational structures. For this purpose two Portuguese public universities were chosen as case studies. The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews with top management and middle management of each university and through documentary analysis. Data analysis demonstrated that both universities are in the process of institutionalizing and formalising practices of income diversification, notably by getting more professional in how they are dealing with external stakeholders, such as businesses, local community, and students. However, the study also revealed that there is no formal, organised strategy to deal with income diversification. In general, the universities are reacting to external demands rather than pro-actively exploring opportunities. In this respect, the analysis determined several factors that promote or inhibit income diversification activities. Quality and favourable organizational culture were named by the interviewees as the most relevant factors for successful income diversification. External factors such as legal arrangements and funding conditions were cited as major constraints. This research has also revealed that revenue diversification activities tend to develop along the continuum towards higher sophistication and systematisation of activities that are supported by a powerful infrastructure. Together with efforts at the institutional level, the role of government policies proves to be crucial in providing tools and incentives to higher education institutions and creating a harmonious higher education system.
As mudanças socioeconómicas, as alterações nas espectativas sociais e novas políticas públicas têm posto uma enorme pressão sobre o financiamento público do ensino superior, trazendo a questão da diversificação do financiamento para o primeiro plano. Diversificação de financiamento, nomeadamente, a geração de receitas próprias de fundos provados, bem como de financiamento competitivo público, tornou-se cada vez mais importante no ensino superior Europeu, devido a um ambiente financeiro complexo e a défice de transferência de inovação. Embora existam numerosos estudos sobre mudanças nos sistemas nacionais de financiamento do ensino superior e mecanismos da distribuição do mesmo, poucos têm-se centrado na questão de diversificação das fontes de financiamento, especialmente no contexto Europeu e também em Portugal. Assim, este estudo pretende explorar a diversificação de financiamento ao nível institucional e sua influência sobre as estruturas organizacionais das universidades. Para este efeito, duas universidades públicas Portuguesas foram escolhidas como estudos de caso. Os dados foram recolhidos através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com membros de Reitoria e Diretores de Departamentos e Faculdades, bem como da análise documental. A análise de dados mostrou que ambas as universidades encontram-se em processo de institualização e formalização de práticas de diversificação de financiamento, nomeadamente ficando mais profissionais em lidar com agentes externos, tais como as empresas, a comunidade local e os estudantes. No entanto, o estudo também revelou que não há uma estratégia formal, organizada para lidar com a diversificação de financiamento. Em geral, as universidades estão a responder a procura externa, em vez de explorar pró-activamente as oportunidades. Em relação a isto, a análise de dados determinou vários fatores que promovem ou inibem atividades de diversificação de financiamento. Qualidade e cultura organizacional favorável foram nomeadas pelos entrevistados como os fatores mais relevantes a diversificação de financiamento bem-sucedido. Fatores externos, como enquadramento jurídico e condições de financiamento foram citados como principais constrangimentos. O estudo também revelou que as atividades de diversificação de fontes de financiamento tendem a desenvolver ao longo do continuum em direção a maior sofisticação e sistematização das atividades suportadas por uma infraestrutura sólida. Juntamente com os esforços a nível institucional, o papel das políticas governamentais prova ser crucial no fornecimento de ferramentas e incentivos para as instituições do ensino superior e a criação de um sistema de ensino superior harmonioso.

Le capital-risque fournit les capitaux pour le lancement, le développement et la croissance des jeunes entreprises. Il facilite l'innovation et le progrès d'une économie. Les investisseurs institutionnels de capital-risque (VCs) représentent la plus grande contribution de capital. Les deux principaux facteurs du succès sont représentés par les entrepreneurs et les investisseurs. C'est grâce à leurs efforts, engagement et alignement que les idées initiales se transforment en entreprises viables offrant de grandes expansions et un fort retour sur investissement. Entrepreneurs et investisseurs sont confrontés aux conflits d'intérêts. La gouvernance des jeunes entreprises, définie et formée par des contrats d'investissement, fournit une structure de gouvernance adaptée qui est vitale pour libérer le potentiel en atténuant les conflits d'agence. Composée de trois publications, cette thèse apporte des éclairages nouveaux sur l'évolution de la jeune gouvernance, sur le début d'une formalisation de la gouvernance et sur l'impact de la gouvernance sur la future performance
Entrepreneurial finance provides the capital for launch, early development and growth of ventures,. It acts as an enabler for innovation and advancement of an economy. Institutional venture capital investors (VCs) account for the largest capital contribution. The two main pillars for venture success are represented by the entrepreneurial team and the investors. It is due to their effort, joint engagement and alignment that initial prospectus business ideas turn into viable companies with high upscaling opportunities and strong return on investments. Entrepreneurs and investors face conflicts of interest. Young venture governance, defined and shaped in form of venture capital investment contracts, provides a finely adapted corporate governance structure which is vital to unleash the full potential by mitigating agency conflicts. Comprising of three publications, this dissertation provides novel insights on the evolution of young venture governance over time, on the initial start of a formalization of the governance structure, and on the impact of motivating governance and contract terms on future venture performance

Si depuis la fin des années 1990 des travaux portent sur l’intrapreneuriat en entreprise, au sein d’une université, ce phénomène reste globalement peu étudié. Pour contribuer à pallier ce manque, une exploration suivie de quatre études de cas sont réalisées. Notre recherche porte sur une forme récente d’intrapreneuriat universitaire : les plateformes technologiques. Sur le plan méthodologique, notre démarche s’appuie sur un raisonnement abductif. Elle mobilise cinquante-trois entretiens semi-directifs réalisés auprès d’experts et de responsables de plateformes, ainsi que des observations non participantes et des données secondaires relatives à douze plateformes du grand ouest français et dix-sept plateformes européennes. Cette recherche vise à comprendre les tensions vécues par les intrapreneurs universitaires et leur manière de les résoudre. L’apport est la proposition d’un cadrage théorique néo institutionnel visant à lire les tensions comme issues de la coexistence de trois logiques institutionnelles potentiellement paradoxales : logique de recherche et de formation, logique de soutien aux entreprises, logique de gestion. Nous montrons que l’hétérogénéité des plateformes universitaires en termes d’activités, ne provient pas uniquement du degré de maturité des technologies présentes. Elle se comprend surtout à travers l’analyse des différentes réponses des intrapreneurs face aux tensions paradoxales, ainsi que par leur manière d’hybrider les logiques institutionnelles (travail institutionnel). Nous soulignons l’importance d’étudier l’influence des parties prenantes sur l’intrapreneur pendant le processus de travail institutionnel
Although organizational intrapreneurship has been studied since the end of the nineties, academic intrapreneurship is still less examined. In order to fill this gap, an exploratory study followed by four case studies have been undertaken. Our study deals with a recent form of intrapreneurship : technological core facilities. Our methodology includes 53 semi-directive interviews of experts and facilities managers, non-participant observations, and secondary data about twelve western french facilities and seventeen european facilities. The aim of this research is to provide in-depth understanding of the tensions perceived by intrapreneurs and the way they are resolved. Our contribution is the proposition of a neo institutional theoritical framework to read the tensions as coming from the coexistence of three potentially paradoxical institutional logics: a logic of research and formation, a logic of firms support and a logic of management. We point that the heterogeneity of facilities in terms of activities, does not solely come from the maturity degree of technologies. It is rather understandable through the analyse of the different responses adressed by intrapreneurs face to paradoxical tensions, and by the way institutional logics are hydridized (institutional work). We highlight the necessity to study stakeholders influence on the intrapreneur during the institutional work process

La fiducie a été introduite en droit français par une loi du 19 février 2007. Définie par l’article 2011 du Code civil, elle permet à une personne de transférer temporairement des éléments de son patrimoine vers un patrimoine fiduciaire qui est à la fois distinct du sien et de celui du fiduciaire qui en a la charge. Mécanisme sui generis relevant tant du droit des personnes que du droit des biens, la fiducie a été conçue par le législateur comme un mécanisme efficace de gestion et de sûreté. Près de dix ans après sa promulgation, sa pratique demeure pourtant confidentielle. Cette marginalité s’explique notamment par un régime juridique rigide et inadapté aux spécificités entrepreneuriales. Caractérisés tant par leur qualité de dirigeants que de propriétaires, les entrepreneurs sont pourtant les destinataires naturels de la fiducie. Ils cumulent en effet des considérations personnelles et professionnelles auxquelles l’opération fiduciaire répond utilement dans des juridictions étrangères. L’insuffisance du régime français de la fiducie est d’autant plus patente que les entrepreneurs disposent d’autres mécanismes d’affectation et/ou de rétention de propriété. Aussi, pour développer la fiducie, il apparaît nécessaire d’en libérer le potentiel en la rénovant au service des entrepreneurs
The fiducie is a trust-like device that was introduced into French law by a statute of February 19th, 2007. Defined by Article 2011 of the Civil Code, it allows a grantor to temporarily transfer property to a fiduciaire that will not personally benefit from it. The fiducie is a sui generis device that was conceived for asset management and securitization purposes. Yet, nearly ten years after its enactment it remains rarely used. This scarcity can be explained by both the rigidity of its legal regime and its inadequacy for French entrepreneurs. As people who carry out managerial duties in firms that they partially or totally own, entrepreneurs should be particularly interested in using the fiducie for they face personal and professional issues which can be tackled by trust law in foreign jurisdictions. The inadequacy of its current regime is all the more problematic as French law offers various mechanisms that can produce similar legal consequences. Therefore, in order to develop the fiducie, one must renovate its regime with the objective of being useful to entrepreneurs

This dissertation has identified, developed and empirically tested concepts associated with the capacity of chairpersonship to promote innovation in entrepreneurial small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A multi-methodological approach is applied in five studies, comprising a systematic literature review, three empirical studies and a concluding conceptual paper. The dissertation focuses on how the chairperson of the board of directors influences value creation in entrepreneurial SMEs. Value creation in this context is about the performance of strategic leaders at entrepreneurial firms’ upper echelons in acting and making strategic choices aimed at increasing firms’ capability to engage in innovation. Innovation is defined as the generation and/or adoption of an idea or behaviour, relating to a product, service, device, system, policy or program, which is new to the adopting organization. Innovation has been widely recognized as a concept central to economic growth and societal development. Governance is widely recognized as essential for the support and development of innovations in firms. However, the academic literature is scarce regarding how the chairperson of the board can contribute to and promote innovation in SMEs. This dissertation offers theoretical and empirical insights into how the chairperson of the board of directors influences value creation in entrepreneurial SMEs. In this respect, the dissertation offers a conceptual framework and a research model for understanding board leadership in promoting innovation in entrepreneurial SMEs. The framework and research model emphasize the behavioural aspects of board leadership and show how these are related to the development of entrepreneurial SMEs. Furthermore, the findings in this dissertation provide actionable knowledge for practitioners and policymakers. In this respect, the dissertation contributes theoretical and empirical understandings of the benefits of employing external chairpersons with relevant knowledge and experience in SMEs. These insights also provide practitioners with advice on the qualifications and processes that can help them to develop innovation-promoting boards.

This study examines the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and four sub-dimensions of corporate governance structures (CGS) in a sample of 173 senior decision-makers representing companies in the South African oil and gas industry. The four attributes of CGS include: board effectiveness and competence, board knowledge and experience, board commitment and recognition of complexities and board involvement in decision-making processes. A series of Canonical correlation analyses assess the strength of relationships between the dimensions of EO and CGS at both univariate and multivariate levels. The results of this study support a positive significant relationship between EO dimensions namely, innovation, proactiveness and risk-taking; and the dimensions of CGS namely, board effectiveness and competence, board knowledge and experience, board commitment and recognition of complexities, and board involvement in decision-making processes. It also indicates a positive link between EO and CGS. The synthesis gleaned from this study is based on the expansive literature review on EO and CGS which provided an insight on the existing knowledge on the relevance of EO in organisational growth and CGS with respect to the nature of the boards, executives and decision-makers roles and responsibilities in strategic entrepreneurial activities within the organisation. This study is of practical use to organisations, enabling them to think and act entrepreneurially, and to policy makers to assist them to keep track of the regulatory guidelines, adopted by boards and executives in monitoring and implementing entrepreneurial culture in their respective organisations. Finally, to researchers and academics, this study allows an extension of knowledge to the EO and CGS and its applicability in one distinct industrial context.

碩士
中國文化大學
建築及都市計畫研究所
91
In the wake of de-industrialization and globalization, cities are emerging as direct players in the world market. The rising neo-liberalism emphasizing de-regulation, privatization, and free market mechanism, has caused even more intensive inter-city competition. Under this trend, most cities have adopted more pro-active growth strategy to strike for their relative competitive positions in this place war. However, financial crisis and weak competitive positions have constrained the potential of rural development. Therefore, rural areas have been forced to search for their own self-help ways for survival. In post-Ford period, government’s finance and social problems following accelerate the development of new management ― community endowed power becomes an approach for local governing body, leading to the interaction between state and civil society. However, whether a civil society is capable of partly taking over state’s part, and whether if community endowed power can be the basis of the system of local development are still in doubt. With the changing of global economic structure and inferiority led by the interaction with city, how the country adjusts its interaction with local government and civil society and transforms it into a boost to local development is indeed required further discussion. As a result, research objects of this article are as follows: 1. To discuss the development and trend of local government. 2. To discuss the development of country based on local government. 3. To work on strategy for the development of country based on the trend of local government. This article comprises five chapters and abstracts of them are as follows: Chapter One: Introduction. Explain motivation, objects, spectrum, content, steps, approach, and procedures of this research. Chapter Two: Literature review discusses theory of literature involved, distinguishes the meaning of local government. Its development of belief represents state’s alternation of governing style and procedure regarding inner and outer distribution of government’s power, and a state should be the conduct of conduct with competent skills and operative capability to manage other conducts efficiently. In addition, there is a case analysis of British governing system for gaining better insights into the roles of government and people in the process of the development of local government in order to take part in civil affairs actively rather than passively. Chapter Three: The development of Taiwan’s country and local government. First, look into transformation of the development of Taiwan’s country and practice of local government, and state how nowadays local government affects the development of country in the purposes of bring up related issues. Chapter Four: Case investigation and analysis of Taoyuan County. According to the results of investigation, our country is not complete with qualifications for local government because civilians rarely participate civil affairs. But this is not saying that there are no active participants. Commercialization of government is rejected by civilians. When encountering dependence on a fatherly government and a request for competent government, “community empowerment” has trouble carrying it out. Chapter Five: Conclusions and suggestions. Conclude opinions of previous chapters, and provide concrete conclusions and suggestions. Therefore, this article includes issues regarding countryside as follows: 1. Comparing to city, country is economically inferior. Environs affect the development of country greater than inner transformation of economic structure; consequently outer economic structure of counter is inferior. 2. Country’s resources are constantly absorbed by city. Country and city develop with unbalanced progress. Farm produce is excess. Industries move out. Industries have trouble transforming. Inhabitants migrate. The aforementioned factors all lead to social structure of country’s lack of advantages. 3. People with average or lower income are less willing to participate civil affairs for lack of time and resource, allowing people with higher social and economic status to rule civil affair and leading to optional double elites. 4. Partnership-style cooperation system turns out to be “tool for reasoning public projects”. In the end, decisions are still in the hands of government. 5. Since inhabitants are not active enough in participating civil affairs, qualifications for practicing local government have not been complete yet. This article includes strategies as follows: 1. Government departments have no choice but to govern, transforming a system from ruling with authority into ruling with market inclination, participating inclination, and flexible inclination. 2. When government has financial problems, strategies of being economical and profitable will be required. Integrate private resources with public resources and set up “regional cooperation” consultation system to overcome constraints of outer economic structure. 3. Establish a “community planner” system will enforce countryside’s ability to plan and execute and overcome constraints of inner social structure of “community endowed power” strategy. 4. Public involvement is greatly valued democratic time, however, the public is not quite willing to participate civil affairs. Institutionalization of public participation system is required. 5. Local development project must been publicized and expend its participants to avoid the community participation model as countryside’s “optional and double elites.” 6. With a trend of governing, enforcing the third party’s functions is a mandatory approach to transform local business into enterprise. With the third party participating civil affairs, it will serve as a bridge between the government and the public. This article suggests that: 1. Since the conversion or diversion of administrative districts affect local government and development of the countryside greatly, it requires diversified ideas regarding research on administrative districts. 2. Draw up civilian participation law to complete laws and rules regarding public participation. According to Foucault, the state is the conduct of the conduct. In that case, how a state plays this role, which governing skills are applicable for countryside, cooperation between the government and the public, community endowed power, and the third party are worth discussing. 4. Integrated community is one of the approaches to empower community. If community endowed power lies plenty of problems itself, then the execution of integrated community is doubtful and requires further investigation of integrated community’s status in the integrated project.

Not-for-profit ventures, including community and church sponsored, seeking to exploit socially responsible opportunities in the provision of Aged Care, find themselves dependent on government grants and a major set of regulations to be complied with. Academic and empirical research has generally focused on issues of quality and compliance in meeting the physical needs of Aged Care residents rather than assessing entrepreneurial opportunities in the provision of innovative approaches to the stewardship of Aged Care facilities and with a focus on resident values. To explore the research question the choice was made to use a qualitative study that focuses on understanding the naturalistic setting, or everyday life in a residential aged care organisation. Given the wide variability in the performance of aged care facilities in Australia, a purposefully selected sample of six innovative aged care facilities (best exemplar cases) was the subject of this research. Significantly each case readily accepted participating in a “Health Audit” as a tool to assess the degree to which its employees, leadership and Board engage in entrepreneurial behaviour as exercised through innovative, risk-taking, autonomous and proactive actions. This audit comprised two instruments to measure both entrepreneurial conditions and innovation intensity in each case. The findings confirm the power of the Social Entrepreneurship Conditions Instrument (SECI) and Social Entrepreneurship Innovation Intensity (SEII) to discriminate between various perspectives on innovation from differing management positions in the organisation, such as Board Chair, CEO or Director of Nursing (DON). A major conclusion is the primary presence of trust/respect within the internal environment and management team of the residential aged care organisation and its association with the espoused values of the organisation and the perceived delivery of services. Some understanding of the dynamics of this multi dimension environment and the elements for a strategic model of sustainable innovation is considered in terms of complexity theory (or emergence of order). It is also shown that the observed characteristics of the management team are in accord with the principles of stewardship theory where organizational managers and directors’ demonstrably act as responsible stewards of the assets available to deliver the mission of the organisation and the managers seek other ends besides financial ones. Indeed this interplay between trust and governance is a strong component of Residential Aged Care organisation (RACO) culture and confirms the finding This sense of social mission is indeed the motivation for action in each of the RACOs researched for this study. Examination of the five dimensions of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), innovativeness; proactiveness; risk taking; competitive aggressiveness; and autonomy reveals the relevance of the concept in understanding the outcomes of the RACOs in meeting resident valued needs with the addition of a further dimension of ‘governance’. Within the demonstrated culture, 92% of residents agreed ‘staff members are caring and helpful’, with 98% of residents expressing a positive endorsement to the consolidated question ‘do you personally feel this is your home?’ comprising responses to the sub elements of: overall satisfaction, comfort, welcome, privacy and dignity, personal belongings, culture/spiritual, independence. Overall the research instruments applied in this thesis do provide feedback on education and training needs to enhance entrepreneurial decision making; provide information on conditions, characteristics and motivations to manage internal culture; and guide the development of an entrepreneurial culture to deliver sustainable resident valued services.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC), 2013

Academic Spin-Off companies creation represents a valuable technology transfer channel through patent creation and commercialization and is considered to be one of the main tools for the exploitation of university research results. In this thesis, ASO Acquisition and Sales strategies have been considered as positive and significant post-entry performance, examining on one side how the governance gender structure impacts the ASO post-entry performance, on the other how Venture Capital influence ASOs growth strategy and facilitate firms’ acquisition. Much of the research available in the literature have focused on USA’s spin-offs, while this topic has not received sufficient attention for the European countries. Despite the well-recognized value of studying the Academic Spin-Offs phenomenon, empirical studies on this topic are continuously constrained by the limited availability of data (Shane, 2004). Therefore, a comprehensive and organic database providing data from different national and EU level ASO records is not currently available. Only few country level data are available. For this reason, I collected data from different sources and I built a new macro-level academic spin-offs database, based on information of European spin-off companies. Hence, this study is unique because it draws on a macro-level database, based on three different European countries over a 10 years period and data have been collected in several stages. The final comprehensive dataset includes time-variant information from 2009 to 2018 of almost 2.000 spin-off companies at European, national and regional level.