Search Results

During the last years, academic research in finance has studied small and medium-sized enterprises with mixed success. In this article devoted to entrepreneurial finance, we return to the origins of the currents of scientific thought, at the root of financial knowledge, in order to detect eventual inadequacies to the object of our study, and consequently, in order to reorient efforts in theoretical as well as empirical research.Using large firms as reference, modern financial theory, in pure or amended form, often turns out to be incapable to take into account the managerial specificities of small and medium-sized enterprises. We illustrate in this article the limited analytical range of application of the paradigms or methodologies which are traditionally used. According to us, the theory of the firm, because of its particular role in relation to economic science, represents the corner-stone of any significant advance in the application of models to small and medium-sized enterprises. In particular, the notions of competence and experience of the entrepreneur active on markets characterized by a constant disequilibrium ought to replace the less realistic hypotheses of rational behavior based on the maximization of profits at equilibrium. Finally, in an ultimate enlargement of our field of investigation, we analyze the credibility of an exclusively financial study of small and medium-sized enterprises and the possible contribution of some scientific disciplines rarely used in management science.Our study is intended above all to reveal, but also to integrate, the natural hierarchy of the concepts which are at the basis of the development of entrepreneurial finance.

Keywords: Recherche universitaire en finance, Finance entrepreneuriale, Théorie financière moderne, Théorie de la firme, Modélisation de la PME, Compétence et expérience de l'entrepreneur, Disciplines scientifiques peu conventionnelles en sciences de gestion

AbstractIn 1847, Mayan peasants under the leadership of their traditional caciques rose up against the creole authorities of the state of Yucatán. This rebellion, known to contemporaries and later historians as the Caste War, has been described as the most prolonged and bloody resistance on the part of an indigenous group in the Americas since the Spanish conquest. While the rebellion itself poses challenging questions regarding the nature of peasant involvement in movements for social change, this paper deals with the government's efforts to restore order in the countryside, and the response of the Mayan campesinos as they found themselves caught up in a struggle which they could not avoid. The study focuses on a specific region of the Yucatán peninsula, the Sierra or Puuc, which, because of its strategic location between the northwest region dominated by the government and the hinterland controlled by various rebel groups, played a pivotal role in the war.The paper assesses the results of the government's pacification policy, examines the question of migration and flight of refugees into zones of refuge, and discusses the survival strategies adopted by Mayan peasants in the communities of the Puuc. The study also addresses the role of non-combatants in guerrilla warfare, and their ambiguous relationship with both sides in the conflict, as potential allies or enemies.

AbstractAlthough formally considered a crime, the duel became increasingly common in Latin America through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially among the political class, the very people charged with writing, interpreting, and enforcing the laws. The contradiction was not lost on contemporaries, who saw the impunity of duelling as a serious problem and debated how best to overcome the gulf between law and practice. This article looks at the arguments for and against the criminalisation of the duel, and shows how the debate raised far more fundamental questions about the role of law in a modernising society.

AbstractThis paper examines the annexationist movement on the border region of the Eastern Townships, where the American-descended majority felt that union with the United States would end their economic isolation and stagnation as well as remove them from the growing threat of French-Canadian political domination. Leading proponents of this genuinely bi-partisan movement were careful not to appear disloyal to Britain, however, and they actively discouraged popular protest at the local level. Fearful of American-style democracy, the local élite also expressed revulsion towards American slavery and militaristic expansionism. Consequently, the movement died as quickly in the Eastern Townships as it did in Montreal after Britain expressed its official disapproval and trade with the United States began to increase.

Today, La Vérendrye's name is to be found on Canadian and American monuments, memorials, streets, parks, schools, and decorates prestigious scholarships. However, as this article reveals, the critical literature which focuses on his travels and turbulent interactions with Indigenous peoples is incomplete; it is marked by a lack of analysis of the intersection of gender with race, and by a tradition of denial and mythology surrounding the French-Canadian slave trade. Analysis of La Vérendrye's involvement in the slave trade, and the ways in which gender and Indigenous relations characterized his life in the period from 1731 to 1749, the focus of the present study, sheds light on the functioning of early to mid-eighteenth-century French colonial society in Canada. As this article emphasizes, non-Catholic, non-white elements formed an indispensable and influential part of French Canadian colonial society and culture. As evidenced by La Vérendrye's experiences, all sorts of complexity, diversity, and contradiction existed in the real-world relations of men and women, and New France was far from an egalitarian society. Slavery was institutionalized there just as it was to the south.

In this paper, we discuss the basic elements of urban form theory and the approaches used to measure both the quality of life and that of the built and natural environments found in urban space. We try combining the socio-economic, morphologic and environmental aspects of urban space in order to choose the key variables needed to put the Montréal metropolitan area to a test. The goal of this proposal is to develop a synthetic analytical model based on a limited number of indicators. Stemming from a factorial analysis, our results show the lasting stability of the spatial structures inherited from the industrial metropolis.

Keywords: qualité de vie, indicateurs, environnements naturels et construits, test de mesure, Montréal, quality of life, indicators, built and natural environments, measurement test, Montreal

It is widely recognized that certain activities have a higher capacity than others topromote economic growth and development. Many of these more dynamic activities areoften said to involve “high technology”. In this paper we first question the conceptualand operational utility of the notion “high technology”. We then propose a morestraightforward and more easily measured concept —high knowledge content—,demonstrating that activities of this nature may be found in “low tech” sectors. By means of an empirical analysis, we then attempt to contribute to a better understanding of the locational dynamics of high knowledge content activities within the Canadian urban system over the period 1971-1991. Specifically, we seek to determine if this class of activities is becoming spatially more concentrated or more dispersed across the urban system. The answer to this question is particularly important for smaller communities in peripheral regions whose economic bases are highly dependent upon “low tech” activities.

Keywords: haute technologie, contenu élevé en connaissances, système urbain canadien, concentration spatiale, high technology, high knowledge content, Canadian urban system, spatial concentration

AbstractSoteriology has always been a very rich domain of theology. The ultimate will of the Father, as expressed by the Son, is fundamentally one of salvation. The predication of Jesus, his message and praxis are centered on this good news : the Kingdom of God has come near. The liberation from sin, the healings, the casting out of demons, the welcoming of sinners, the death on the cross and the Resurrection are witnesses to this good news. But salvation is not simply an event of a distant past. The Latino-American theology of liberation finds its continuation in human history. The Basque theologian Jon Sobrino sees the “crucified peoples” as bearers of an historic salvation and successors of the Suffering Servant of God. This article, on the basis of Sobrino's Christology and especially of the Christological category of “existence-for”, analyses the meaning and validity of the idea of an historical salvation taken on by the crucified peoples.