University of Portsmouth

About: University of Portsmouth is a education organization based out in Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 5452 authors who have published 14256 publications receiving 424346 citations. The organization is also known as: Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and Art & Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and the Arts.

Sustainable entrepreneurship in SMEs: a case study analysis

Abstract: Sustainability is oft thought of as the privilege of the large corporate – with sufficient funds to invest in anything from effective green Public Relations (PR) to improving its carbon footprint. What is perhaps less well-understood and documented is the range of activities undertaken by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), including very small entrepreneurial start-ups, some of which base their entire business rationale on sustainable principles. This paper uses a case study approach to explore the modus operandi of ecopreneurship and draws on both primary research and secondary data to develop and explore sustainable entrepreneurship in this sector. Preliminary findings suggest that ecopreneurial SMEs are looking to other goals alongside financial ones and are prepared to go to significant lengths to achieve such goals. Monetary measures are not, of course, entirely absent, but are very strongly conditioned by the ecoconscious nature of the business. In short, sustainability imperatives remain paramount.

Selection of new production facilities with the Group Analytic Hierarchy Process Ordering method

Abstract: Research highlights? The Group Analytic Hierarchy Process Ordering method, a new MCDA method, has been developed. ? It can model three relations between alternatives: preference, indifference, and incomparability. ? It incorporates 'fairness' when assigning weights to the decision-makers in group decisions. ? It has been applied in a real case study for selection of new production facilities. This paper presents the Group Analytic Hierarchy Process Ordering (GAHPO) method: a new multi-criteria decision aid (MCDA) method for ordering alternatives in a group decision. The backbone of the method is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which is separated into two hierarchies for a cost and a benefit analysis. From these two analyses, a partial ordinal ranking can be deduced, where three relations between alternatives exist: the preference, indifference, and incomparability. A complete cardinal ranking can also be deduced by dividing the score of the benefit analysis by the score of the cost analysis. Another particularity of GAHPO is the incorporation of 'fairness' when assigning weights to the decision makers. GAHPO has been developed to solve a real case: a selection of new production facilities with multiple stakeholders. By applying this method, we found four main advantages: significant reduction of time and effort in the decision process; easiness for the decision makers to arrive at a consensus; enhancement of the decision quality and documentation with justification of the decision made. In using the proposed method both efficiency and equity are achieved in the decision making process.

Local gravity versus local velocity: solutions for β and non-linear bias

Abstract: We perform a reconstruction of the cosmological large scale flows in the nearby Universe using two complementary observational sets. The first, the SFI++ sample of Tully-Fisher (TF) measurements of galaxies, provides a direct probe of the flows. The second, the whole sky distribution of galaxies in the 2MASS redshift survey (2MRS), yields a prediction of the flows given the cosmological density parameter, , and a biasing relation between mass and galaxies. We aim at an unbiased comparison between the peculiar velocity fields extracted from the two data sets and its implication on the cosmological parameters and the biasing relation. We expand the fields in a set of orthonormal basis functions, each representing a plausible realization of a cosmological velocity field smoothed in such a way as to give a nearly constant error on the derived SFI++ velocities. The statistical analysis is done on the coefficients of the modal expansion of the fields by means of the basis functions. Our analysis completely avoids the strong error covariance in the smoothed TF velocities by the use of orthonormal basis functions and employs elaborate mock data sets to extensively calibrate the errors in 2MRS predicted velocities. We relate the 2MRS galaxy distribution to the mass density field by a linear bias factor, b, and include a luminosity dependent, / L � , galaxy weighting. We assess the agreement between the fields as a �

Schumpeter's Legacy? Interaction and Emotions in the Sociology of Entrepreneurship

Abstract: Joseph Schumpeter's work has long been regarded as a seminal contribution to entrepreneurship theory. However, relatively little attention has been given to exploring the sociological implications of his insights. This article examines Schumpeter's early writings on the entrepreneur and focuses on the apparent contradiction between his understanding of the inhibitory effect of social control and the entrepreneur's strength of will. This tension is resolved by recourse to contemporary social theory of interaction and emotion. A synthesis of these works produces two hypothetical modes of entrepreneurial action. These are elaborated and their implications for the understanding of entrepreneurship discussed.

Dilaton gravity on the brane

Abstract: We derive the four-dimensional field equations for the induced metric and scalar field on the world-volume of a 3-brane in a five-dimensional bulk with Einstein gravity plus a self-interacting scalar field. We calculate the effective four-dimensional gravitational constant and cosmological constant for arbitrary forms of the brane tension and self-interaction potential for the scalar field in the bulk. In addition to the canonical energy-momentum tensor for the scalar field and ordinary matter on the brane, the effective four-dimensional Einstein equations include terms due to the scalar field and gravitational waves in the bulk. We present solutions corresponding to static Minkowski brane worlds and also dynamical Friedmann-Robertson-Walker brane world cosmologies. We discuss the induced coupling of the scalar field to ordinary matter on the brane.