Innovation and Venture Capital Exits (journal article)
by Armin Schwienbacher

from The Economic Journal, Vol. 118, No. 533, 2008, pp. 1888-1916

This article analyses how start-ups financed by venture capital choose their innovation strategy based on the investor's exit preferences and thereby form different outcomes in the product market. It considers innovation choices and venture capital exits (IPO vs trade sale) in a setting in which entrepreneurs derive private benefits from staying independent, which is better guaranteed under an IPO. The entrepreneur has incentives to distort the innovation strategy in order to induce the venture capitalist to bring the company public. The analysis generates a number of empirical implications for the link between innovation, valuation, venture capital exit routes and market structure.

RSVP to e-Learning 2.0 (journal article)
By Steve Wexler
From Training, Sep2008, Supplement, pp. 14-21
MANY OF US ARE NEW TO, or grappling with, the concept of e-learning and its myriad approaches to improving performance support. If you haven't been doing this for several years already, you now may be trying to understand how to best apply such things as synchronous learning systems, immersive learning simulations, virtual laboratories, and rapid e-learning development.
So, just as you were getting a handle on all of this, somebody comes along and starts talking about "e-Learning 2.0" and how the best learning interventions are adopting so-called "Web 2.0" approaches to create community-fueled engagement that leads to faster dissemination and assimilation of critical information.

Tax-tariff reform with costs of tax administration (journal article)
by Knud J. Munk
from International Tax and Public Finance Vol. 15, No. 6, December, 2008
As is broadly recognised, the straightforward application of the Diamond–Mirrlees (1971) production efficiency theorem implies that when lump-sum taxation is not available, then it is optimal for the government in a small open economy to rely on taxes on the net demand of households rather than on border taxes to finance its resource requirements. However, the theorem does not hold when taxation is associated with administrative costs. The present paper explores the implications for optimal taxation and for desirable directions of tax-tariff reform of taking into account the costs of tax administration in countries at different levels of economic development. The paper clarifies the reasons for, and lends support to, the criticism by Stiglitz (Presentation to Congress of International Institute of Public Finance, Prague, 2003) of the IMF and the World Bank’s recommendation to developing countries to adopt VAT to replace border taxes.

OUTLOOK 2009 - Recent Forecasts from World Future Society for 2009 and Beyond. (cover story)
from Futurist, Nov/Dec 2008, Vol. 42 No. 6, pp 1-9,
The article highlights various information on the prospective development in the U.S. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace infers that China's economy will surpass that of the U.S. by 2035 and is believed that workers in Asia are becoming more skilled and educated. On the other hand, it is also believed that tourism is anticipated to nearly double its international tourist arrivals worldwide, from 842 million in 2006 to 1.6 billion in 2020, wherein China will be the greatest source of tourists and the most popular tourist destination. Meanwhile, the internet technology is enabling consumers to disseminate information for product information, rather than simply relying on professional critics.

Network Evolution in Cultural Industries (journal article)
by Udo Staber
from Industry & Innovation, Vol 15, No 5, October 2008 , pages 569 - 578
Most of the research on social networks in cultural industries has taken an actor-centered perspective on individuals and organizations, often based on the (implicit) assumption of relative stability in actor attributes and relationships. This poses problems for an understanding of networks in a cultural context that is characterized by spontaneity, variation, and disequilibrium. To give more credit to processes related to “doing creative work”, I propose an evolutionary framework that focuses on ideas as the unit of analysis and draws attention to the dynamic distribution of ideas in an environment where ideas compete for human attention.

Cultural Events as Potential Drivers of Urban Regeneration: An Empirical Illustration (journal article)
by M. Paiola
from Industry & Innovation, Vol. 15, No 5, October 2008, pages 513 - 529
In this paper the relational dimension of cultural production is explored, with explicit attention to the impact of cultural events on networks and creativity in local contexts. Three qualitative empirical cases are produced, showing that networks have a crucial importance in sustaining spatial proximity-based creativity. Three models of local cultural events are identified and valued qualitatively in terms of their impact on local creativity, concluding that the value of an event in its territory is dependent on the organizational frame of the specific event. In particular, the bottom-up network-based model appears to be able to favour local activation and creativity spanning, thereby leveraging local resources.

From Fashion to Design: Creative Networks in Industrial Districts (journal article)
by Tine Aage and Fiorenza Belussi
from Industry & Innovation, Vol. 15, No 5, October 2008, pages 475 - 491
Creative industries enjoy a great deal of attention in Western economies these days. ...
We present some empirical evidence showing that a complex governance of several fashion sources is required to intercept fashion trends. Fashion emerges in a chaotic environment, as a bottom-up recursive process, partially controlled by fashion firms that scan external information sources and build some interpretative/creative capability developed together with external-to-the-firm agents. Our work uses some empirical data collected through a survey based in the industrial district of Montebelluna, localized in northern Italy, in Treviso. In Montebelluna, several important international producers of sport shoes and sport items are located. Qualitative interviews were conducted during 2004-2005 involving 13 final firms (some of them are leading firms) and 11 designers.

The Penguin history of modern China : the fall and rise of a great power, 1850-2008 [book]

Jonathan Fenby

"China has emerged in the last three decades as an economic powerhouse set to play a major global political role, its future posing one of the great questions for the twenty-first century. Understanding how that transformation came about and what China constitutes today means understanding how the past influences the present." - cover.

Smarter selling : next generation sales strategies to meet your buyer's needs - every time [book]

Keith Dugdale & Peter Lambert

"Learn what works and what doesn't in today's competitive sales environment. Find out how to develop trusting relationships and genuine rapport with your clients and customers and learn how to scope out and meet their needs, so that you can do successful business with them, year in, year out." - cover.

From the Top (journal article)
By Chris Sheedy
from Management Today Sept 2008, pp. 6 - 21
"The second annual Management Today Top Management Issues survey indicates change in managers' priorities. The author consults on the issues and suggests some tonic to help meet the challenges."

Preferential Trade Agreements: Is There a Next Step? (journal article)
By David Robertson
from Policy Vol 24 No 3 Spring 2008, pp. 17-20
"Preferential trade agreements can divert trade to less efficient producers."

Combining organisational and physical location to manage knowledge dissemination (journal article)
by Thomas J. Allen, Breffni Tomlin, Oscar Hauptman
from International Journal of Technology Management 2008 - Vol. 44, No.1/2 pp. 234 - 250 "As the physical distance between engineers' workstations increases, the probability that they will communicate regularly decreases rapidly. As with many things in nature, this probability declines as the inverse square of distance. At the same time, it must be remembered that while separation decreases the probability of communication, even very close physical proximity does not guarantee communication. Although engineers are more likely to communicate if closer together, the probability remains low in the absence of other relations. Unless people have a reason to communicate frequently about technical issues they will not do so, even over very short distances. "

The formation of subsequent inter-firm R&D partnerships between large pharmaceutical companies and small, entrepreneurial biotechnology firms – how important is inter-organisational trust? (journal article)
by John Hagedoorn, Nadine Roijakkers and Hans Van Kranenburg
from International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 44 No.1/2 2008, pp. 81 - 92
"This paper analyses the role of inter-organisational trust in pharmaceutical biotechnology, an industry characterised by a strong dual market structure. Our main finding is that repeated ties in pairs of large pharmaceutical companies and small, entrepreneurial biotechnology firms, which indicate inter-organisational trust, have a negative effect on subsequent partnering. An explanation for this result is found in specific conditions for R&D partnering in this high-technology dual market structure. Partnerships between a small number of very large companies and a large group of dependent small companies are not characterised by mutual dependence and inter-organisational trust."

Finders keepers : how to attract and retain great employees [book]

Joydeep Hor & Louise Keates

"10 Australian businesses share the secrets of their success in a series of insightful case studies ... also provides practical guidance and plain-English legal tips on how to be a great 'finder' and 'keeper' of employees in a tight employment market." - cover.

The Faulty arguments behind Australia's corporate tax [book]

Sinclair Davidson / Centre for Independent Studies

Argues the case for lowering the rate of Australian company taxation.

Confessions of a subprime lender : an insider's tale of greed, fraud, and ignorance [book]

Richard Bitner

"Pulls back the curtain on the players who created the subprime disaster, including brokers, lenders, Wall Street investment firms, and rating agencies who worked the system to their advantage." - cover.

A Sense of urgency [book]

John P. Kotter

Argues that for true change to occur, organizations need to develop a sense of urgency and root our complacency. Key tactics recommended are: bringing the outside in, behaving with urgency everyday, finding opportunities in crises and dealing effectively with naysayers.

Smart management : using politics in organisations [book]

David Butcher & Martin Clarke

Provides an approach to managing politics by balancing personal and organizational interests and shows how the centrality of politics to organizational life makes it the ideal place from which to change existing patterns of power and influence.

Public-private partnerships : in pursuit of risk sharing and value for money [online resource]

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"Highlights ten good practices, summarising what countries should consider before entering into public-private partnerships (PPPs). These include affordability, value for money, budget scoring and accounting treatment, dealing with liabilities (contingent or explicit), and regulatory and institutional governance issues." - abstract.

Annual review of regulatory burdens on business : manufacturing and distributive trades [book]

Australia. Productivity Commission

"Identifies a range of improvements to regulations that primarily affect food manufacturing and distribution, medical devices, medicines and veterinary chemicals and some environmental regulations." - page xvi.