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California's Silicon Valley can stake an unrivaled claim as the world's most successful innovation region. The area has built an unprecedentedly brilliant ecosystem that has supported successful startups for decades now: Apple, Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Uber, Airbnb, and the like have changed the way that we work, play, and live in the twenty-first century. One of the least well-known keys to the region's success is the growing number of "accelerators" in Silicon Valley that help startups. Accelerators help by bringing a startup's product to the market, refining their business idea, developing their product, strengthening their team, designing a marketing strategy, attracting initial customers, and raising funds, all while coping with the unique hardships of the high-pressure startup life. Though short lived, accelerators act as a key behind-the-scenes early life support system. In Accelerators in Silicon Valley, Peter Ester explores in detail how these "schools of startup entrepreneurship" operate to empower startups, and thus bring success to themselves. The book ultimately asks (and answers) one key question: What can we learn from how Silicon Valley accelerators help startups to become successful companies? Accelerators in Silicon Valley is a book for anyone who shares a fascination for building a successful startup in an ever-evolving economy.

Umfassende Darstellung der abgeschiedenen, kargen, gottesfürchtigen Lebensweise der Amish People in den USA mit Blick auf historische wie auch auf sich abzeichnende Entwicklungen, die eine Angleichung an die moderne Gesellschaft bedingen. (Barbara Riedl)

For decades now, Silicon Valley has been the home of the future. It's the birthplace of the world's most successful high-tech companies-including Apple, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. So what's the secret? What is it about Silicon Valley that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation? With Silicon Valley, Planet Startup, Peter Ester and Arne Maas argue that the answer lies in Silicon Valley's culture-a corporate culture that values risk-taking, creativity, invention, and sharing. Through extensive interviews with Dutch entrepreneurs working in the area, Ester and Maas show that Silicon Valley is above all a mind-set: a belief in thinking, with passion and ambition, far beyond the here and now. Scholars and business people and budding entrepreneurs alike are sure to find both inspiration and illumination in the stories and analyses Ester and Maas have assembled here.

For decades now, Silicon Valley has been the home of the future. It's the birthplace of the world's most successful high-tech companies--including Apple, Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and many more. So what's the secret? What is it about Silicon Valley that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation? With Silicon Valley: Planet Startup, Peter Ester and Arne Maas argue that the answer lies in Silicon Valley's culture--a corporate culture that values risk-taking, creativity, invention, and sharing. Through extensive interviews with Dutch entrepreneurs working in the area, Ester and Maas show that Silicon Valley is above all a mindset: a belief in thinking, with passion and ambition, far beyond the here and now. Scholars and business and budding entrepreneurs alike are sure to find both inspiration and illumination in the stories and analysis Ester and Maas have assembled here

Female entrepreneurship is still a limited phenomenon in European countries and its promotion ranks high on the EU policy agenda. Various frameworks have been offered to explain the main structural differences in entrepreneurship between men and women, emphasizing a variety of underlying factors. With a novel approach, this paper argues that due to a process of generation renewal the numerical difference between male and female entrepreneurship will diminish. Generation replacement is seen by sociologists and other social scientists as the motor behind cultural renewal. Our core interest in this paper in developing such a dynamic interpretation within the European context is the role of different generations (Silent Generation, Babyboomers, Generation X, Millennials). Younger cohorts of females are hypothesized to be more pro entrepreneurship and pro self-employment both in terms of attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, compared to older cohorts. They are furthermore assumed to converge with their male generation members in this regard. This paper empirically tests these two hypotheses by analyzing multi cross-sectional European data from the Eurobarometer over a span of thirty-five years (1980-2015). Results show that this generational approach sheds new light on explaining trends in female entrepreneurship. We find evidence of an increased growth in female entrepreneurship that can be attributed to generation replacement. This rise in total female entrepreneurship is characterized by diversity among European countries in the study. Positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship are essential to considering future self-employment. Education is a key factor. Female entrepreneurship, it is predicted, will become more prominent in Europe.

This article investigates the main determinants and correlates of migration intentions of Europeans. It deals with the impact of past migration on future intended migration, a comparison of migration intentions in the Old and New EU Member States, and the main barriers and triggers to cross-border mobility within Europe. The article contributes to our understanding of the costs to migration that Europeans perceive when making a migration decision. The analyses are based on the 2005 Eurobarometer Mobility Survey conducted in 25 European Member States, the most comprehensive and recent Europe-wide survey on migration intentions. The intention to migrate appears to be strongly linked to past migration behavior. Migration intentions are higher in New Member States although the variation within these states is substantial. Labour market opportunities are an important motive for migration. Existing social ties and socio-cultural singularities are major barriers to migration – though less so for people from the New Member States. From a sociological perspective migration intentions are 'bounded intentions', i.e. embedded in a plurality of competing pro's and cons.

"Numerous studies observed a negative correlation between education and authoritarianism. Most studies are based on single cross-sectional analysis. This chapter applies a longitudinal perspective based on Dutch survey data from 1970 to 1996. How stable are educational differences? What is the relative explanatory power of education in understanding trends in authoritarianism? How is the rapidly raising level of educational attainment in recent decades related to shifts in authoritarian attitudes? And how are changes in these attitudes connected to generational re-placement? We further explore why education works. How important are enhancing cognitive sophistication and strengthening ego-security to explain the reduction of authoritarianism? Findings show a clear, almost linear relationship between education and authoritarianism during more than a quarter of a century. Higher education is consistently correlated with lower authoritarianism. How-ever, the decline of authoritarianism from 1970 to 1996 was stronger than could be expected because of rising educational levels of the Dutch population. Including measures of cognitive sophistication and ego security only slightly improves our understanding of trends in authoritarian attitudes. Education seems a 'universal solvent,' but we need to know more about the content of educational differences (beyond formal levels of schooling) to settle the debate more definitely. This study is part of our research program 'civil society, globalization, and sustainable development' at GLOBUS, Institute for Globalization and Sustainable Development, Tilburg, The Netherlands: Tilburg University." (author's abstract)

"Numerous studies observed a negative correlation between education and authoritarianism. Most studies are based on single cross-sectional analysis. This chapter applies a longitudinal perspective based on Dutch survey data from 1970 to 1996. How stable are educational differences? What is the relative explanatory power of education in understanding trends in authoritarianism? How is the rapidly raising level of educational attainment in recent decades related to shifts in authoritarian attitudes? And how are changes in these attitudes connected to generational re-placement? We further explore why education works. How important are enhancing cognitive sophistication and strengthening ego-security to explain the reduction of authoritarianism? Findings show a clear, almost linear relationship between education and authoritarianism during more than a quarter of a century. Higher education is consistently correlated with lower authoritarianism. How-ever, the decline of authoritarianism from 1970 to 1996 was stronger than could be expected because of rising educational levels of the Dutch population. Including measures of cognitive sophistication and ego security only slightly improves our understanding of trends in authoritarian attitudes. Education seems a 'universal solvent,' but we need to know more about the content of educational differences (beyond formal levels of schooling) to settle the debate more definitely. This study is part of our research program 'civil society, globalization, and sustainable development' at GLOBUS, Institute for Globalization and Sustainable Development, Tilburg, The Netherlands: Tilburg University." (author's abstract).

At the start of the third millennium social scientists' preoccupation with the weakening of Gemeinschaft is - particularly in western postmodern societies - again at its peak. Waning social capital is believed to have undermined community, as reflected in widespread feelings of social mistrust, in citizens turning away from prime institutions and political authorities, and even engaging less in informal interactions. This diagnosis of civil society as advanced by especially American scholars would be a very serious account of our present times, if the debate and research in this field were not impaired by a set of equally serious theoretical and methodological problems. This article addresses a number of these basic problems. The main issue is the lack of sensitivity in civil society studies to new, alternative and innovative forms of solidarity, connectedness and civic and political engagement, particularly those facilitated by the Internet. It is time to thoroughly define today's forms of civil society made by contemporary people with contemporary means, in a contemporary world. This article aims to reframe the civil society research agenda.