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Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the role of relational capital in raising and utilizing venture capital by international new ventures (INVs). This study reviews literature on INVs, venture capital, and social capital theory and defines relational capital as the level of trust developed in the course of interactions between INVs and venture capital firms (VC firms) that leads to positive venture capital decisions and value creation. This empirical study of relational capital formation and utilization is accomplished by the case study method. The study is based on interviews with five case INVs regarding entrepreneurs’ and venture capitalists (VCs)’ experiences with forming and utilizing relational capital for the purpose of new venture internationalization. This study approaches the relationship between INV and VC firm from the relational capital perspective, exploring how INVs can raise venture capital for internationalization as well as how they can use relational capital to improve outcomes of new venture internationalization after venture capital is allocated. The analysis identifies the factors that affect formation of relational capital between INVs and VC firms, the outcomes that result from relational capital formed in the pre-investment stage, and the impact on performance of INVs during post-investment collaboration. This study develops a conceptual model proposing that the financing process for entrepreneurial INVs consists of forming and using relational capital to obtain venture capital investment. The particular characteristics of the INVs and VC firms, as well as behavior-related factors, have been found to be important to forming relational capital between INVs and VC firms. The relational capital formation process creates an atmosphere in which entrepreneurs and VCs provide both tangible and intangible resources to support INV internationalization. This study adds the relational capital viewpoint to the literature pertaining to venture capital and INVs by analyzing the role of relational capital in financing entrepreneurial INVs. Regarding managerial implications, the study shows how entrepreneurs can influence the venture capital investment process, where VC firms should pay attention to while working with INVs, and how policy makers could contribute by providing a positive environment for INV and VC firm collaboration.
This thesis analyzed the environmental development of Chinese pure electric bus (PEB) industry. It indicated that the main problems which blocked the PEB promotion are the immaturity of battery technology and the lack of a suitable business model. According to current battery technology, the solution should be designing new business model for PEB then gradually enhance PEB function. This study analyzed the original Chinese PEB business model, which was based on the three different periods for the PEB commercialization roadmap. The main characteristic of Chinese PEB original business model is that the public transport company operates independently during the whole PEB life cycling, including PEB purchasing, operation, maintenance and disposal. Such structure would cause problems, such as: higher purchasing cost, the second purchasing for the power batteries, state subsidies do not form an effective incentive for comprehensive benefits, and PEB driving range cannot meet the actual capacity needs. Such problems are the main reasons to block Chinese PEB promotion. To solve the issue of the original Chinese PEB business model, a new business model is designed with the separation purchasing between vehicle and battery. The public transport companies should purchase only the vehicle without the battery included. As previously, the charging infrastructure would be constructed from the fund by the National Grid (Energy Company). Furthermore the National Grid would also lease the battery from the battery manufacturers with unified battery management. The public transport companies could then replace the battery according to the PEB operation needs and pay the energy company by battery usage and electrical energy cost. It is also recommended to have the original optimized program under the new business model structure, which includes subsidy program, financial program, and the whole vehicle purchasing mechanism. The new business model went through the pure electric bus (PEB) value network analysis and was assessed as reasonable with the value creation activity flow. The new business model suggests several proposals for the vehicle design, the PEB charging, PEB operation, PEB marketing, PEB service and PEB recycling aspects. All these proposals were implemented to the Tianjin bus line 638 in real market case. The comprehensive PEB benefits concern three aspects: economical, social and environmental. In addition, the enterprises from whole PEB industry value chain were evaluated for their own benefit effects. These evaluations constructed the whole PEB implementation appraisal system. The evaluation results showed that under new business model, the benefits for PEB in economic, social and environmental perspectives are higher than the ones under the original business model. The new business model would inject new vitality to the industry value networks, which could be operated effectively and also promote the interests of all stakeholders by benefited from the industry networks. A win-win situation can be achieved.
A two-beam second-harmonic generation technique is developed to calibrate the magnitude of the second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility components of surface and bulk (multipolar origin) of isotropic materials. The values obtained for fused silica calibrated against χXXX of crystalline quartz are χ || || ⊥= 7.9(4), χ⊥|| ||+γ = 3.8(4), χ⊥⊥⊥+γ = 59(4), and δ’ = 7.8(4) in units of 10-22 m2/V. Similar values are obtained for BK7 glass. An alternative way of calibration against χXYZ of quartz is demonstrated. The technique could also be extended to characterize the susceptibility tensor of crystals as a convenient alternative to the Makerfringe technique.
Second-harmonic generation from surfaces and thin films can be described by up to three nonlinear expansion coefficients, which are associated with the quadratic combinations of the p- and s-polarized components of the fundamental beam and specific to the measured signal. It has been shown that the relative complex values of the coefficients can be uniquely determined by using a quarter-wave-plate to continuously vary the state of polarization of the fundamental beam [J. J. Maki, M. Kauranen, T. Verbiest, and A. Persoons, Phys. Rev. B 55, 5021 (1997)]. The proof is based on a specific and experimentally convenient initial state of polarization before the wave plate and on the assumption of the most general experimental situation where all three coefficients are nonvanishing, which implies that the sample or the experimental setup is chiral. We show both experimentally and theoretically that, surprisingly, the traditional experimental configuration fails in yielding unique values in a more specific, but common, achiral case. We identify new initial states of polarization that allow the coefficients to be uniquely determined even in the achiral case.
We show that nonlinear optical signals generated by non-phase-matched interactions are strongly suppressed when the interaction volume is finite and localized deep inside the bulk of a homogeneous material, as opposed to the case where the interaction volume extends across a boundary of the material. The suppression in the bulk originates from destructive interference between the signals generated in the two regions where the interaction is gradually turned on and off and depends on the ratio of the coherence length to the characteristic length of the interaction volume.
We use two-beam second-harmonic generation to perform a quantitative tensor analysis of the effective dipolar surface nonlinearity and the separable multipolar bulk nonlinearity for BK7 glass. The most straightforward, self-consistent interpretation of the results is obtained when the effective surface response is assumed to have approximate Kleinman symmetry and the bulk contribution is dominated by magnetic, rather than quadrupole, effects.
We use two-beam second-harmonic generation to separate the surface (electric dipole origin) and bulk (magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole origin) contributions to the second-order nonlinear optical response of an isotropic gold film. The bulk response is unambiguously observed and explained by momentum damping of electrons in a free-electron model. Although bulk effects could be enhanced by inhomogeneous local fields in metal nanostructures and have been used to model second-harmonic generation from metamaterials [Y. Zeng et al., Phys. Rev. B 79, 235109 (2009)], we find that surface effects dominate the nonlinearity. Our quantitative results for the surface and bulk parameters set the baseline for future descriptions of the second-order response of nanostructured metals.