Principal-agent analysis is applied to contemporary evidence on venture capital investment. The investor (as principal) and investee (as agent) are analysed in terms of risk management, information handling and the trading of risk and information. Investors and investees were paired in 'dyads',...

Protecting intellectual property by trade secrecy has become an increasingly attractive alternative to more conventional modes of IP protection, like patenting and copyright. This paper provides a statistical, econometric and case study analysis of the protection and valuation of trade secrets...

This paper considers trade secrecy as an appropriation mechanism in the context of the US Economic Espionage Act (EEA) 1996. We examine the relation between trade secret intensity and firm size, using a cross section of 95 court cases. The paper builds on extant work in three respects. First, we...

The work of the Oxford Economic Research Group under the chairmanship of George Richardson is taken as the starting point for a new analysis of the limits to small firm growth. Following Richardson's emphasis on costs of organisational change within the growing firm, caused by the need to train...

Two components of work activity are considered: observed effort, which can be rewarded directly, and unobserved helping or communication in a team which increases productivity. Positivite spillovers from helping can generate multiple equilibria (as in imperfectly competitive macroeconomies)....

We present a new model of employee involvement with incomplete contracts and uncertain monitoring. Distributional considerations limit productivity and generate excessive monitoring under employee control, so co-determination can increase both efficiency and labour's share of the enterprise...

This work concerns the development of new methods of accounting for risk in high-technology ventures. The paper enquires into attitudes to risk and skills at risk management, in the relationship between high-technology firms and their venture capital backers. The basic prescription behind the...

The key conecpts of principal-agent analysis are utilised to investigate influences on venture capitalists' accounting information requirements as used in their dealings with investees. The findings are based on structured interviews held with twenty leading venture capitalists, managing funds...

Over the last decade, evidence has accumulated in the mainstream economics literature indicating that, contrary to economic theory, indifference curves are irreversible. The methods in question - willingness to pay versus willingness to accept and standard gamble versus certainty equivalence -...

This paper looks at oil Independents, and potential disabilities on organizational performance which may arise when internationalization is contemplated. The evidence used is field work based, and uses sub-samples of British and North American oil Independents. It is argued, on the basis of...