How Business Opportunities Constrain Young Technology-Based Firms from Growing into Medium-Sized Firms

This paper analyses how the novelty of business opportunities at start-up constrains young technology-based firms from attaining substantial growth and becoming medium-sized. Data from 262 young Swedish technologybased firms are used to estimate a logit regression model relating different types of opportunities to the probability of becoming medium-sized. The results show that firms which seek to exploit opportunities based on new market knowledge are less likely to attain substantial growth than firms that seek to exploit opportunities based on existing market knowledge. The former class of firms can nevertheless increase the probability of such growth by actively seeking external financing.     

Engaging the economic facts and valuations underlying value for money in public procurement

This paper examines the possibilities and limitations in pursuing value for money (VfM) in public procurement. There is ambiguity about the VfM concept and the methods that public procurers should be using. It is difficult for decision-makers to thoroughly understand the economic facts and valuations underlying VfM. The authors explain the conceptual VfM challenges and present a path to overcoming these with a lifecycle costing (LCC) approach in an indepth case study in the Finnish waste management context.