The geography of opportunity: spatial heterogeneity in founding rates and the performance of biotechnology firms

One of the most commonly observed features of the organization of markets is that similar business enterprises cluster in physical space. In this paper, we develop an explanation for firm co-location in high-technology industries that draws upon a relational account of new venture creation. We argue that industries cluster because entrepreneurs find it difficult to leverage the social ties necessary to mobilize essential resources when they reside far from those resources. Therefore, opportunities for high tech entrepreneurship mirror the distribution of critical resources. The same factors that enable high tech entrepreneurship, however, do not necessary promote firm performance. In the empirical analyses, we investigate the effects of geographic proximity to established biotechnology firms, sources of biotechnology expertise (highly-skilled labor), and venture capitalists on the location-specific founding rates and performance of biotechnology firms. The paper finds that the local conditions that promote new venture creation differ from those that maximize the performance of recently established companies.     

The ties that bind – the roles and mundane practices of networks in constructing Educational Internationalisation in the High North

This article seeks to present an original and distinct contribution to the literature on internationalisation of Higher Education, by focusing on the very mundane processes through which agreement is reached on the nuts and bolts of the enactment of ‘internationalisation’, and the nature of ‘internationalisation’ as an experience, not just for students, about whom there is quite an extensive literature, but for the academics and administrators responsible for bringing it into being. It thus aims to provide an alternative understanding of internationalisation of Higher Education from that most commonly found in macro-level studies, through a focus on how internationalisation is creating a new set of cross-national shared institutional practices.     

Aid effectiveness in education: Why it matters

This article introduces the special issue of Prospects on “Aid effectiveness in education”. It brings together case studies of attempts in several very different contexts to improve the effectiveness of the use of aid in the education sector. By drawing on the historical evolution of the new paradigm over the last 20 years, the authors make the case for a closer focus on aid’s effectiveness in education, as well as the need to reform the aid effectiveness architecture. In particular, they identify two major obstacles that need to be overcome to improve aid’s effectiveness in education: the lack of sufficient institutional and staff incentives for coordinated and harmonized behaviour; and factors that lead to risk-aversion and discourage innovation in delivering aid effectively.     

DEN HERBARTSKE PEDAGOGIKKS INNFLYTELSE I NORGE

Gill, P. E. 1976. The Relationship Between Mental Ability and Eight Background Variables. Scand. J. educ. Res. 20, 135‐145. Multiple regression is seen as a search technique when applied to IQ. test data. The results from such a search are stochastic rather than deterministic. Because of this it is imperative that comprehensive samples be studied. The sample in this study (n = 3,695) was representative of the population of Irish 6‐ to 12‐year‐olds. The results are surprising in that the total variance explained by predictors such as SES, sex, family size, position in family, absenteeism and urbanity is never more than 8 %. Differences in how predictors behave with IQ and Vocabulary are noted. SES, family size and urbanity are the most significant predictors. When Vocabulary is the criterion, sex differences (in favour of girls) emerge consistently. It is contended that pupils of low intelligence go absent more often than their peers. The total variance explained was increased when homoscedasticity was reduced by stabilizing criterion variance (by reducing age span).     

ENHETLIGHET OCH DIFFERENTIERING I SKOLELEVERS KAMRATVÄRDERINGER

Søvik, N. 1977. Individual Instruction in Norwegian (The PODIN Project). Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 21, 197‐232. As the principle of integration instead of segregation has become dominant in the planning and organization of the Norwegian school (1st to 9th grade), different kinds of individualized instruction have been recommended to the teachers to use. The main problem behind the project reported here was to investigate whether, and to what extent, an experimental program of individualized instruction within an ordinary school class would improve students’ performance in oral and written Norwegian compared with traditional instruction. It was carried out in three parallel studies with first‐graders and a new series of three experiments with second‐graders.