Corporate Venture Capital: How established firms use external resources to create new competencies

This Doctoral Dissertation is triggered by an emergent trend: firms are increasingly referring to investments in corporate venture capital (CVC) as means to create new competencies and foster the search for competitive advantage through the use of external resources. CVC is generally defined as the practice by non-financial firms of placing equity investments in entrepreneurial companies. Thus, CVC can be interpreted (i) as a key component of corporate entrepreneurship - acts of organizational creation, renewal, or innovation that occur within or outside an existing organization– and (ii) as a particular form of venture capital (VC) investment where the investor is not a traditional and financial institution, but an established corporation. My Dissertation, thus, simultaneously refers to two streams of research: corporate strategy and venture capital. In particular, I directed my attention to three topics of particular relevance for better understanding the role of CVC. In the first study, I moved from the consideration that competitive environments with rapid technological changes increasingly force established corporations to access knowledge from external sources. Firms, thus, extensively engage in external business development activities through different forms of collaboration with partners. While the underlying process common to these mechanisms is one of knowledge access, they are substantially different. The aim of the first study is to figure out how corporations choose among CVC, alliance, joint venture and acquisition. I addressed this issue adopting a multi-theoretical framework where the resource-based view and real options theory are integrated. While the first study mainly looked into the use of external resources for corporate growth, in the second work, I combined an internal and an external perspective to figure out the relationship between CVC investments (exploiting external resources) and a more traditional strategy to create competitive advantage, that is, corporate diversification (based on internal resources). Adopting an explorative lens, I investigated how these different modes to renew corporate current capabilities interact to each other. More precisely, is CVC complementary or substitute to corporate diversification? Finally, the third study focused on the more general field of VC to investigate (i) how VC firms evaluate the patent portfolios of their potential investee companies and (ii) whether the ability to evaluate technology and intellectual property varies depending on the type of investors, in particular for what concern the distinction between specialized versus generalist VCs and independent versus corporate VCs. This topic is motivated by two observations. First, it is not clear yet which determinants of patent value are primarily considered by VCs in their investment decisions. Second, VCs are not all alike in terms of technological experiences and these differences need to be taken into account.

Managing water resources in dynamic settings: A multi-level, multi-stakeholder perspective

The aim of the present article is to contribute to the debate on the role of research in sustainable management of water and related resources, based on experiences in the Upper Ewaso Ng’iro and Pangani river basins in East Africa. Both basins are characterised by humid, resource-rich highlands and extensive semi-arid lowlands, by growing demand for water and related resources, and by numerous conflicting stakeholder interests. Issues of scale and level, on the one hand, and the normative dimension of sustainability, on the other hand, are identified as key challenges for research that seeks to produce relevant and applicable results for informed decision-making. A multi-level and multi-stakeholder perspective, defined on the basis of three minimal principles, is proposed here as an approach to research for informed decision-making. Key lessons learnt from applying these principles in the two river basins are presented and discussed in the light of current debate.

Are you ready? Managing transportation resources through the Y2K weekend.

Federal Highway Administration, Arlington, Va.

Managing electronic resources /

"August 2004."

Natural resources planning for economic development : the AID/NPS project for managing natural resources on a substantial basis in LDCs.

Mode of access: Internet.

Managing human resources in Asia-Pacific

This book presents an HRM scenario in a number of South-East Asian and Pacific Rim countries. It highlights the growth of the personnel/HR function, the dominant HRM system(s) in the area, the influence of different factors on HRM, and the challenges faced by HR functions in these nations. An excellent addition to this subject area, each chapter has been written by an area specialist. As the most topical and up-to-date book in its field, this outstanding book is suitable for both academics and practitioners in the field.

Managing human resources in the Middle-East

Managing Human Resources in the Middle East provides the reader with an understanding of the dynamics of HRM in this important region. Systematic analysis highlights the main factors and variables dictating HRM policies and practices within each country. Diverse and unique cultural, institutional and business environment factors which play a significant role in determining HRM systems in the region are also elaborated upon. The text moves from a general overview of HRM in the Middle-East to an exploration of the current status, role and strategic importance of the HR function in a wide-range of country-specific chapters, before highlighting the emerging HRM models and future challenges for research, policy and practice. This text is invaluable reading for academics, students and practitioners alike.

Managing Interval Resources in Automated Planning

In this paper RDPPLan, a model for planning with quantitative resources specified as numerical intervals, is presented. Nearly all existing models of planning with resources require to specify exact values for updating resources modified by actions execution. In other words these models cannot deal with more realistic situations in which the resources quantities are not completely known but are bounded by intervals. The RDPPlan model allow to manage domains more tailored to real world, where preconditions and effects over quantitative resources can be specified by intervals of values, in addition mixed logical/quantitative and pure numerical goals can be posed. RDPPlan is based on non directional search over a planning graph, like DPPlan, from which it derives, it uses propagation rules which have been appropriately extended to the management of resource intervals. The propagation rules extended with resources must verify invariant properties over the planning graph which have been proven by the authors and guarantee the correctness of the approach. An implementation of the RDPPlan model is described with search strategies specifically developed for interval resources.

Managing human resources in Asia-Pacific

Given the enormous economic and developmental changes being experienced by nations in the Asia-Pacific region, and the related movement of people between and across countries, it is critical that we better understand the HRM policies and practices of these nations. The latest instalment in the Global HRM series, Managing Human Resources in Asia-Pacific (2E) presents the HRM situations in a number of South-East Asian and Pacific Rim countries, highlighting the growth of the personnel and HR function, the dominant HRM system(s) in the area, the influence of different factors on HRM, and the challenges faced by HR functions in these nations. This edition extends its coverage to Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, and the Philippines; a new chapter discusses HR research challenges in the region, such as the transferability of western constructs, problems with data collection, and the emergence of MNEs from Asia Pacific. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Community perceptions of collaborative processes for managing freshwater resources

Six of New Zealand’s 16 regional councils are trialling collaborative planning as a means of addressing complex challenges in freshwater management. Although some work has been undertaken to evaluate similarities and differences across those processes, the success or failure rests with the public’s acceptance of the processes and their outcomes. This is the first study to evaluate public perceptions of freshwater management in regions with collaborative processes. We surveyed 450 respondents in Hawke’s Bay, Northland, and Waikato, some of whom live in catchments in which collaborative processes are under way and some of whom do not. In addition to assessing awareness of the collaborative planning processes, the survey measured perceptions regarding the regional council’s management of freshwater resources, the extent of agreement regarding freshwater management among various interests, the fairness of freshwater management, and the extent to which respondents believe that their interests and concerns are included in freshwater management. We hypothesized that relative to respondents in parts of the region in which traditional processes are in places, respondents in catchments with collaborative management of freshwater resources would have more positive perceptions of management, agreement, fairness, and interests, even if there is low awareness that a collaborative planning process is under way. Survey results indicate that knowledge of collaborative processes is generally low and that living in catchments with collaborative processes does not impact respondents’ perceptions of management, agreement, fairness, or interests in Northland or Waikato. However, relative to Hawke’s Bay respondents living outside of the collaborative catchment, respondents living inside the collaborative catchment believe that the regional council’s freshwater management is better and fairer. Moreover, Hawke’s Bay residents living inside the collaborative catchment perceive less conflict over freshwater management than Hawke’s Bay respondents living outside the collaborative catchment. Further research is needed to identify the reasons for this regional variation.

The rhetoric of sector-wide approaches for health development

The past decade has witnessed an increasing concerns over the effectiveness of project-based development assistance and the promotion of sector-wide approaches (SWAps) to health as a means to increase donor collaboration, consolidate local management of resources and undertake the policy and systems reform necessary to achieve a greater impact on health issues. The concept has gained the support of both the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, as well as key bilateral donors, and dominates current initiatives in development assistance for health. This paper examines the proposal of SWAps as rhetoric, and seeks to understand how that rhetoric functions, despite the variable application of its constituent elements and the range of contexts in which it operates. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.