This dissertation analyzes why some VC-funded high-tech firms do not generate harvesting events for investors through a lucrative sale, either to another company or on the stock exchange. I investigate the effects of three signals of quality on failure and persistence. In the first essay,...

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. December 2008. Major: Business Administration. Advisor: Akshay Rao. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 252 pages, appendix A.

In many practical situations, we are not satisfied with the accuracy of the existing measurements. There are two possible ways to improve the measurement accuracy:first, instead of a single measurement, we can make repeated measurements; the additional information coming from these additional...

The Smith-Fretwell model for optimal offspring size assumes the existence of an inverse proportional relationship (i.e., trade-off) between the number of offspring and the amount of resources invested in an individual offspring; virtually all of the many models derived from theirs make the same...

The focus of this dissertation is on improving decision-maker trade-offs and the development of a new constrained methodology for multiple response surface optimization. There are three key components of the research: development of the necessary conditions and assumptions associated with...