Stress und Belastung bei Personen im diplomatischen Dienst (Stress and burden in diplomatic service).

This paper describes working and living conditions of persons within diplomatic services from the perspective of stress and demands. The conditions of stress and demands described in this article are similar for leaders, volunteers, actors of international agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Scope and diversity of diplomatic tasks and connected psychsocial stress will be outlined. Families of diplomates are also affected. Mental health problems in the diplomatic corps are known, but they are considered as a taboo issue. Consequently, the basis of empirical research and literature is limited. It is mentioned that expatriates, migrants, refugees and students in foreign countries can develop similar problems. The role of psychology and psychotherapeutic interventions are discussed.

Stress und Belastung bei Personen im diplomatischen Dienst (Stress and burden in diplomatic service).

This paper describes working and living conditions of persons within diplomatic services from the perspective of stress and demands. The conditions of stress and demands described in this article are similar for leaders, volunteers, actors of international agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Scope and diversity of diplomatic tasks and connected psychsocial stress will be outlined. Families of diplomates are also affected. Mental health problems in the diplomatic corps are known, but they are considered as a taboo issue. Consequently, the basis of empirical research and literature is limited. It is mentioned that expatriates, migrants, refugees and students in foreign countries can develop similar problems. The role of psychology and psychotherapeutic interventions are discussed.

Financing innovative start-ups in Portuguese context: what is the role of business angels networks?

Business angels provide both financing and managerial experience, which increase the likelihood of the survival of innovative start-ups. Over the last years, European countries with developing informal venture capital markets have seen governments support the creation of business angels networks (BANs) to increase and consolidate these markets. Using the Portuguese context to carry out the empirical work, this paper provides an assessment of value added provided by angels’ networks. A total of 88 useable responses were received and analysed using non-parametric statistical techniques. This paper demonstrates that is evidence of positive contribution of BANs in terms of bringing together investors and linking them with entrepreneur’s seeking finance. BANs played an important role in financing innovative start-ups also in peripheral regions. Results lead us to conclude that government support BANs would appear to be an effective mechanism to stimulate the angel market in developing informal venture capital markets. The conclusions of this paper are likely to have relevance for countries where there is growing interest in the potential of business angels as a means of financing innovative start-ups.