How law,politics and transnational networks affect technology entrepreneurship: Explaining divergent venture capital investing strategies in China

This article identifies three distinct patterns of investment behavior by venture capital firms investing in technology sector start-ups in China. The first pattern is the service-oriented, technology-light investment behavior exhibited by the foreign venture capitalist firms not founded by ethnic Chinese. The second pattern is the technology creation investment pattern exhibited by foreign firms founded by ethnic Chinese and embedded in ethnic Chinese communities. The third pattern consists of local state-funded Chinese venture capital firms that choose either to invest in state-directed projects or opt out of investing in technology start-ups entirely. What explains the differences in behavior between the strictly foreign and the ethnic Chinese-embedded foreign firms are the different legal environments in which these firms honed their skills. The different learned experience gained from operating in different environments explains why the foreign firms avoid investing in technology-generating activities in China whereas the ethnic Chinese firms are willing to do so despite China’s notorious weak intellectual property rights regime. The political factors influencing the distribution of finance in China explain the behavior and essential failure of the local state-run venture capital firms. These findings demonstrate that several distinct, separate and non-clashing institutional arrangements are concurrently operating within China and shaping the behavior of venture capital firms there.     

Hot and cold merger markets

We study mergers and acquisition during the period from 1988 to 2005 and examine the impact of merger market intensity, i.e., merger waves, on the means of payment and the returns to target and acquirer shareholders. We use two proxies to measure the intensity of the merger market—the number of mergers in the trailing 12-month period prior to a merger and the total dollar volume of mergers in the trailing 12-month period prior to a merger—and use these measures to define hot and cold merger markets. We find that stock financing is more common after a stock price run-up for the acquiring firm and in hot merger markets. We also find that the acquisition premium is larger in hot merger markets. Returns to acquiring company shareholders are lower for stock financed mergers and are lower when merger markets are intense. Our results are consistent with the predictions of the behavioral theory for merger waves.     

On the first passage time processes of brownian motion with positive drift

Abstract

The first passage time processes of Brownian Motion with positive drift are of considerable importance, particularly in life-testing or life-time situation as a natural consequence. It has been used in sequential analysis, e.g. finding the best test for testing the hypothesis of no drift versus the alternative of positive drift in a Brownian Motion. Various properties of the first passage time process of Brownian Motion with positive drift are reviewed and several new properties are investigated. In short, γ-variation properties, characterization, and behaviour at infinity are discussed.     

Corporate Ethical Values and Altruism: The Mediating Role of Career Satisfaction

This study explores the ability of career satisfaction to mediate the relationship between corporate ethical values and altruism. Using a sample of individuals employed in a four-campus, regional health science center, it was determined that individual career satisfaction fully mediated the positive relationship between perceptions of corporate ethical values and self-reported altruism. The findings imply that companies dedicating attention to positive corporate ethical values can enhance employee attitudes and altruistic behaviors, especially when individuals experience a high degree of career satisfaction.     

Progress and the economy of nature

Progress is a difficult concept, but the phenomenon itself seems to be more than just an illusion. In this paper we consider how a bioeconomic perspective can help to clarify matters, especially when we compare aspects of organic evolution to technological progress. Beginning with the influence of Malthus upon Darwin, we see how the latter's ideas differ in important respects from those of other biologists and from those of social scientists and philosophers. Consideration of biologist's views about competition and the reasons for specialization suggests ways in which matters might be clarified by a more 'entrepreneurial' view of the relationships of organisms to the natural economy.     

Capital Mobility in Open OLG Models of Neoclassical Growth

This paper explores whether the international mobility of physical and/or financial capital is essential for productive efficiency in each of three open OLG models of neoclassical growth that vary in terms of dimensional attributes. A tradeoff between capital mobility requirements and dimension has previously been established by example where, ceteris paribus , neither form of capital mobility is required with three productive sectors, only physical capital mobility is required with two sectors, and both forms of mobility are required with a single sector. This paper reconsiders that tradeoff using a generalization of the production and utility functions which introduces the potential for specialization along the transition path—an event which would imply inconsistent capital mobility requirements along the growth path for models with fixed dimension. Conditions are established under which the tradeoff between capital mobility requirements and dimension remains valid.     

Bringing Unemployed Back to Work: Effective Active Labor Market Policies

We present a theoretical analysis of different types of active labor market policies in the context of a search-matching model. We find that labor market training is effective in bringing down unemployment while public employment services and subsidized jobs are not effective at all. This theoretical finding is confirmed in an explorative empirical analysis using data from 20 OECD countries.