Browsing by Subject "PERSPECTIVE"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Public perception of bioenergy in North Carolina and Tennessee
    (Energy, Sustainability and Society, 2016-12) Radics, RI; Dasmohapatra, S; Kelley, SS
    © 2016, The Author(s). Background: The goal of the study is to examine the general public’s understanding and perceptions of bioenergy and biofuels in North Carolina (NC) and Tennessee (TN). The study focuses on the public concerns, support and risk evaluations of alternative bioenergy feedstocks and biofuels, and includes an assessment of the economic, environmental, social, and policy impacts of bioenergy production and use. Methods: A sample of consumers in NC and TN were surveyed in the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014 for their perceptions about bioenergy and specifically, biofuels for transportation. Five hundred eighty-six consumers completed the questionnaire electronically (376 in NC and 210 in TN). Results: Respondents reported that the price and vehicle compatibility with biomass-based transportation fuels were the most important factors in their choice of biofuels over gasoline at a pump. Results show that the acceptance of bioenergy depends on the extent of knowledge and available information to consumers about the energy source. A principal component analysis (PCA) indicated seven distinct dimensions of consumer’s perception about bioenergy. The key dimensions are the following: how bioenergy benefits the society, risks of bioenergy use, government support for bioenergy, increase in food cost, conditional use of trees, support for low-cost biofuel alternative to current energy, and market attributes of bioenergy purchase. Conclusions: The findings from this study reflect the need for communicating the benefits and risks from the use of bioenergy to the general public through trustworthy channels of communication and targeted policy, market, and institutional support.
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    The Socially and Spatially Bounded Relationships of Entrepreneurial Activity: Olav Sorenson -- Recipient of the 2018 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research
    (Small Business Economics, 2018) Rickne, Annika; Ruef, M; Wennberg, Karl
    This article reviews the academic contributions of Olav Sorenson, recipient of the 2018 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. His work has advanced scholarly understanding of how entrepreneurship and innovation are strongly embedded in socially and spatially bounded relationships. Based on meticulous empirical studies using a broad range of methods, he has challenged conventional models of new firms’ location choices, explained patterns of and determinants of knowledge diffusion, and considered how social networks can lead to economic advantages. This article discusses Sorenson’s work specifically focusing on three themes—(i) the geography of entrepreneurial activity, (ii) social capital, and (iii) the evolution of learning and innovation—highlighting scholarly contributions and insights for management practice and public policy.
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    Three Trends in the History of Life: An Evolutionary Syndrome
    (Evolutionary Biology, 2016-12-01) McShea, DW
    The history of life seems to be characterized by three large-scale trends in complexity: (1) the rise in complexity in the sense of hierarchy, in other words, an increase in the number of levels of organization within organisms; (2) the increase in complexity in the sense of differentiation, that is, a rise in the number of different part types at the level just below the whole; and (3) a downward trend, the loss of differentiation at the lowest levels in organisms, a kind of complexity drain within the parts. Here, I describe the three trends, outlining the evidence for each and arguing that they are connected with each other, that together they constitute an evolutionary syndrome, one that has recurred a number times over the history of life. Finally, in the last section, I offer an argument connecting the third trend to the reduction at lower levels of organization in “autonomy”, or from a different perspective, to an increase in what might be called the “machinification” of the lower levels.
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    Trajectories of functional ability over the life course: a conceptual model of the interaction of stressor-induced functional loss and resilience.
    (System dynamics review, 2018-10) Matchar, David B; Ansah, John P; Koh, Victoria; Whitson, Heather E
    Understanding the factors that influence functional ability over the life course is integral to identifying clinical and public health policies to facilitate successful aging. The World Health Organization has advocated a conceptual framework to clarify the policy discussion. We have sought to translate this general framework into an explicit system dynamics model of the interaction of physiological loss, stressors and endogenous responses to produce a familiar variety of trajectories of functional ability over the life courses. Simulation experiments were implemented for both a 30-month duration with only one major stressor; and for the life course with an initial major stressor and subsequent stressors determined by the level of functional ability. For both contexts, variations in the few parameters in the scenarios led to a realistic range of trajectories of function over time.
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    Unicorns, Gazelles, and Other Distractions on the Way to Understanding Real Entrepreneurship in America
    (Academy of Management Perspectives, 2018) Aldrich, H; Ruef, M
    Dazed and confused by the wild hype surrounding “gazelles” and “unicorns,” entrepreneurship researchers have focused on the “black swans” of the entrepreneurial world, even though IPOs and venture capital financing of firms are extremely rare events. Despite the rarity of IPOs and obtaining venture capital, entrepreneurship conferences and journals have been filled with papers on various aspects of the process of “going public” and “VC networks.” Fortunately, in the middle of the Silicon Valley mania, other scholars have been paying attention to the more mundane aspects of business start-ups—the ordinary business starts, numbering in the hundreds of thousands for businesses with employees. The purpose of this article is to address what we believe to be scholars’ misplaced attention on the extreme and their neglect of the mundane in the study of entrepreneurship. Correcting the misperception that has been introduced through selection biases favoring growing and profitable firms will give scholars and policymakers a more accurate and policy-relevant picture of entrepreneurship in the 21st century.