Startup Tools Research Articles

THE INFLUENCE OF YOUTH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROJECT ON EMPLOYABILITY OF YOUTH IN TANZANIA: A CASE OF ILALA MUNICIPALITY

The study assessed the influence of a youth economic empowerment projects on youth employability in Ilala Municipality in Dar es Salaam region-Tanzania. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the role of training, the contribution of savings and credit facilities and start-up tools provision on the employability of youth. The study used a stratified and random sampling techniques to select 121 youths for a survey. The data were analyzed using descriptive and multiple regression analysis. The findings showed a significant and positive relationship between therole of training, the contribution of savings and credit facilities, and the role of start-up tools provision on youth employability in Ilala municipality. The study, therefore, recommends that, for promoting youth employability in Tanzania, the government, NGOs and projects should provide training and start-up tools to youth. Furthermore, the stakeholders should facilitate capital access to youth by empowering the savings and credits groups

INFLUENCE OF YOUTH ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROJECT ON EMPLOYABILITY OF YOUTH IN TANZANIA: A CASE OF ILALA MUNICIPALITY

The study assessed the influence of a youth economic empowerment projects on youth employability in Ilala Municipalityin Dar es Salaam region-Tanzania. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the role of training, thecontribution of savings and credit facilities and start-up tools provision on the employability of youth. The study used astratified and random sampling techniques to select 121 youths for a survey. The data were analyzed using descriptiveand multiple regression analysis. The findings showed a significant and positive relationship between the role oftraining, the contribution of savings and credit facilities, and the role of start-up tools provision on youth employabilityin Ilala municipality. The study, therefore, recommends that, for promoting youth employability in Tanzania, thegovernment, NGOs and projects should provide training and start-up tools to youth. Furthermore, the stakeholdersshould facilitate capital access to youth by empowering the savings and credits groups.

Integrating lean startup tools in the technology transfer process: the 'Develop+Protect+Commercialise' model

Integrating lean startup tools in the technology transfer process: the 'Develop+Protect+Commercialise' model

Clinical trial feasibility assessment and start-up tool (CTFAST).

e14089 Background: Selecting the right clinical trials for patients remains a challenging job. The better the match between a clinical trial and the target patient population before conducting a study, the more likely the study will successfully reach the target goal of recruitment. We developed a feasibility assessment scoring system based on our vast clinical research experience, managing multiple sites across a large health system, applicable to oncology as well. Methods: Our feasibility team (FT) is responsible for identifying clinical trials and determining if they are an appropriate match for our institution and unique patient population. Once a potential trial is identified, FT performs a feasibility assessment of the research protocol to determine the resources required to conduct the trial. We developed a Clinical Trial Feasibility Assessment & Start-up Tool (CTFAST) to help sites streamline their feasibility assessments and track their trial through the start-up phase. With CTFAST a feasibility score is generated based on the cumulative value assigned to several items such as: sponsor, study type, pharmacokinetic studies, trial phase, etc. A feasibility scale is assigned as follows: > 25 – Accepted; 15-25 – On Hold; < 15- Rejected. Accepted studies are assigned a color coded priority track (fast, intermediate, routine), that allows team members to prioritize their studies accordingly. Once a study is accepted, the study is processed for enrollment. Results: CTFAST has increased productivity and clinical trial revenues by 40%. CTFAST allows for early identification of bottlenecks in workflow, thereby improving outcomes. By appropriately matching of clinical trials to our site, enrollments increased by 50% with an expanded clinical trial portfolio across 9 different departments. Study start-up times have been reduced to a minimum of 21 days and the use of time & effort has been optimized. Conclusions: CTFAST is replicable across all clinical trial sites and provides an expansive and critical feasibility analysis that is not attainable by traditional querying of investigators and questionnaires. It is an excellent work flow improvement tool as it critically analyzes all aspects of a study, prior to enrollment. When conducting an effective feasibility analysis the clinical trial site can optimize clinical trial outcomes.

Detecting Indicators for Startup Business Success: Sentiment Analysis Using Text Data Mining

The main aim of this study is to identify the key factors in User Generated Content (UGC) on the Twitter social network for the creation of successful startups, as well as to identify factors for sustainable startups and business models. New technologies were used in the proposed research methodology to identify the key factors for the success of startup projects. First, a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model was used, which is a state-of-the-art thematic modeling tool that works in Python and determines the database topic by analyzing tweets for the #Startups hashtag on Twitter (n = 35.401 tweets). Secondly, a Sentiment Analysis was performed with a Supervised Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm that works with Machine Learning in Python. This was applied to the LDA results to divide the identified startup topics into negative, positive, and neutral sentiments. Thirdly, a Textual Analysis was carried out on the topics in each sentiment with Text Data Mining techniques using Nvivo software. This research has detected that the topics with positive feelings for the identification of key factors for the startup business success are startup tools, technology-based startup, the attitude of the founders, and the startup methodology development. The negative topics are the frameworks and programming languages, type of job offers, and the business angels’ requirements. The identified neutral topics are the development of the business plan, the type of startup project, and the incubator’s and startup’s geolocation. The limitations of the investigation are the number of tweets in the analyzed sample and the limited time horizon. Future lines of research could improve the methodology used to determine key factors for the creation of successful startups and could also study sustainable issues.

THE MODEL OF ASSESSING THE GENERAL INTENSITY OF RESISTANCE TO CHANGES IN AN ORGANIZATION

When analyzing the causes for the failure of previous programmes, the following issues are usually focused on: whether the results of the programmes were timely, whether the budget was not exceeded, and whether the results met certain quality parameters. In some cases, the analysis can testify that the programme was completed successfully, the team acted successfully, settlements with suppliers were completed, and stakeholders and users were satisfied. But much rarely the question arises, whether the organization is really ready for the changes that the programme implements. The subject matter of the study in this article is the process of introducing changes to the activities of an organization. The goal is to develop a tool for analyzing the possibility of introducing changes to the work of an organization. The objectives are to consider specific aspects affecting the results and the possibility of introducing changes to an organization; to consider and justify the main problems and sources of resistance to changes; to develop a model for assessing the intensity of resistance to changes. The following methods were used while studying the set problem - logical generalization, analysis and synthesis, structural analysis. The following results were obtained: the model was developed for calculating the total resistance to the programme of changes or transformations, taking into account the intensity of programme implementation and its successful completion. The possibility to assess the level of resistance to changes is suggested, this level can be both high and low since the personnel of an organization and especially its management body can be satisfied with the stability of the company. The features of change programmes were analyzed and the main problems related to the personnel were specified. The problems were divided into two components: a component which relates to the organization management body and a component that is directly linked to the team working on the programme. Conclusions. The start-up tool for analyzing the implementation of the change programme in an organization was developed, that is, if the resistance to changes is higher than the organizational potential of a company, there cannot be any benefits from implementing the programme of changes. Therefore, the general resistance to changes in the organization should be reduced and only after that any change programmes and projects can be considered.

Spatial but not temporal numerosity thresholds correlate with formal math skills in children.

Humans and other animals are able to make rough estimations of quantities using what has been termed the approximate number system (ANS). Much evidence suggests that sensitivity to numerosity correlates with symbolic math capacity, leading to the suggestion that the ANS may serve as a start-up tool to develop symbolic math. Many experiments have demonstrated that numerosity perception transcends the sensory modality of stimuli and their presentation format (sequential or simultaneous), but it remains an open question whether the relationship between numerosity and math generalizes over stimulus format and modality. Here we measured precision for estimating the numerosity of clouds of dots and sequences of flashes or clicks, as well as for paired comparisons of the numerosity of clouds of dots. Our results show that in children, formal math abilities correlate positively with sensitivity for estimation and paired-comparisons of the numerosity of visual arrays of dots. However, precision of numerosity estimation for sequences of flashes or sounds did not correlate with math, although sensitivities in all estimations tasks (for sequential or simultaneous stimuli) were strongly correlated with each other. In adults, we found no significant correlations between math scores and sensitivity to any of the psychophysical tasks. Taken together these results support the existence of a generalized number sense, and go on to demonstrate an intrinsic link between mathematics and perception of spatial, but not temporal numerosity. (PsycINFO Database Record

4 MYTHS ABOUT INNOVATION POTENTIAL

This paper is an attempt to create minimal basis of essential elements of innovation capacity, that could serve as a toll for companies in effective management during designing, developing and implementing innovations under conditions of almost total absence of unified system of knowledge about innovation capacity, that could help newly created or already existing companies to maximize efficiency of their market presence. To reach the goal mentioned above, in this article the concept of innovation capacity, major mistakes and misconceptions about its understanding are to be considered. As well as innovative capacity estimation models, factors of its formation and development, innovation capacity, as essential unit of company’s growth, managing methods under high uncertainty are to be described. Possibility of using startup tools in large companies is to be assessed.

Futures signals sense-making framework (FSSF): A start-up tool to analyse and categorise weak signals, wild cards, drivers, trends and other types of information

This article introduces future signals sense-making framework (FSSF), an alternative philosophy towards weak signals, emerging issues, drivers, and trends, that is in contrast to the traditional single signal or path extrapolation approach. The philosophy of FSSF is based on the principles of environmental scanning and pattern management, which state that if there is a grand transformation process on the way or if there is a new emerging pattern or phenomenon, such a process will certainly be reflected in many different ways. Therefore, in this philosophy, futures knowledge is believed to be fragmented between various simultaneous and overlapping sources. Here, a researcher's task is to carry out a sufficient environmental scanning process and to cluster and sense how to create the emerging future through a pattern management process where FSSF plays a role as the first start-up tool. Alternatively, FSSF can also be used as a general knowledge management and sense-making tool for any kind of analyses.

OB 490 Becoming a Global Change Agent

This is the syllabus for a course I teach on change agentry and social entrepreneurship. I have taught the class for over a decade, and out of it my students and I have designed and implemented a number of projects which linked theory with real world problems. Some 16 of these became social enterprises or NGOs, mostly doing microfinance in Third World nations. Students learn organizational behavior concepts, action research, project design skills, change theories, and start-up tools, as well as management and growth strategies for new systems with which to build civil society. From these projects we have mobilized, trained and sent overseas some 600 college students, mostly from BYU, but others from Stanford, Washington, Boston College, VA Tech, Arizona State, and a number of other universities as social entrepreneurs. While much of our work focuses on microcredit to empower the poorest of the poor, we have also engaged in other interventions: literacy, healthcare, square-foot gardening and other appropriate technologies, worker-owned cooperatives, rebuilding houses after floods and earthquakes, teaching small farming methods, anti-HIV/AIDS training, sustainability, and various humanitarian methods for use in health clinics, orphanages, and services for street children throughout the developing world. In 2007 alone our largest 16 NGOs spun off from BYU as an incubator over the years raised $28 million, trained more than 200,000 microentrepreneurs, and grew to a global microfinance client base of 3 million families.