This study explores the factors that elicit and sustain the optimal academic experience. Flow operationalizes this experience and is studied in relation to motivation. More self-determined types of motivation are expected to have higher correlations with the flow experience, with autonomy acting as a moderator. Results are theoretically underpinned by self-determination theory and cognitive evaluation theory. Congruent with engagement research this study has implications for successful educational outcomes such as learning, achievement, continued motivation, commitment, performance, increased skills and maximal chances for school completion. Flow has often been studied in special populations such as dancers, athletes and scientists. This study investigates how flow is experienced and supported in the higher education environment.
“How optimism and hope affect life, what constitutes wisdom, and how talent and creativity come to fruition (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 5),” are just a few of the questions that Positive Psychology tries to answer. Studying these positive individual traits goes toward building a strength-based model of flourishing. Human strengths are important for an individual to thrive, but so are the ways in which they are supported. Positive Psychology also extends to studying the optimal working environment, communities and education. Besides individual traits, valued subjective experiences are also of interest (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Engagement and flow are subjective experiences which outline academic strengths in the educational domain.
The question how hold-up can be overcome is central to much of the literature on incomplete contracts. The problem permeates all types of incomplete contracts, including financial and venture capital contracts (Kaplan and Strömberg (2003)). More specifically, Chemla, Habib, and Ljungqvist (2007), extending the model of Nöldeke and Schmidt (1995), propose exit rights as a means to overcome hold-up in the relationship between the venture capitalist (VC) and the entrepreneur with respect to the VC’s exit decision. In this paper we empirically analyze why and when exit rights are being used and to which party these rights are allocated. Our results confirm the above view: exit rights are more frequently held by the VC when he is more likely to be held-up by the entrepreneur.
Given the VC’s limited investment horizon, his exit decision is of vital importance (see Sahlmann (1990) and Gompers and Lerner (2004)). The VC is, however, not the sole owner of the portfolio firm. The firm’s founders normally hold substantial equity stakes, too. This may cause problems as the VC’s and the entrepreneur’s preferences are often not aligned when it comes to the exit decision. First, the entrepreneur derives private benefits from being an owner-manager (Hellmann (1998)). This may lead him to oppose certain exit choices, such as a trade sale in which he typically experiences significant losses of control benefits. Second, both the VC’s organizational structure (Sahlmann (1990)) and the temporary nature of his competitive advantage make the VC more impatient than the entrepreneur and thus create room for hold-up by the entrepreneur. Both reasons may result in ex-post renegotiation. Ex-post renegotiation and the possible losses incurred by the VC in turn may lead to ex-ante under-investment. Therefore, it is not surprising to see that the contracts between the VC and the founders often include provisions that govern this crucial exit decision. Exit rights comprise clauses related to the two most important exit channels, initial public offerings (including demand rights and piggy back rights) and trade sales (including drag-along rights, tag-along rights, and preemption rights).
The use of complementary and alternative medicines has recently increased, thereby enhancing the market for herbal products worldwide (Budeker and Kronenberg, 2002; Zollman and Vickers, 1999). However, the purity of these herbal formulations exposes the human population to multiple risks and creates major concerns for various health agencies on both national and international levels (Fang, 2002). Adulteration of herbal formulations with undeclared synthetic drugs or by mixing the analogues of prescription drugs that are created by replacing or adding functional groups to the original chemical are the recent major problems since they may cause adverse side effects (Yeun et al., 2007). As a result, analogue generation is a common strategy used in creating investigational drugs for most pharmaceutical companies. For example, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and methamphetamine are used by various drug companies as analogues of amphetamine (Wee et al., 2005).
As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union (EU) issued several guidelines concerning safe and appropriate use of herbal medicines (WHO regional publications, 1998; WHO regional publications, 2004). Some traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) slimming aids have been found to contain sibutramine (see structure A), a medicine that should be used only under medical supervision as it may raise blood pressure [Nisoli et al., 2001; Binkley and Knowles, 2002; Cordeiro and Vallada, 2002; Taflinski and Chojnacka, 2001; Vidal and Quandte, 2006; Jung et al., 2006). Others contain an amphetamine-like stimulant called methylphenidate that may lead to high blood pressure and adversely affect the efficacy of antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs (Volkow et al., 2002; Konrad et al., 2004; Faraone et al., 2004). Traditional Chinese herbal medicine is generally both safe and effective, and there are many patients who have experienced dramatic benefits to their health from treatment. Despite the fact that most TCMs are assessed in terms of their risk benefit ratio, it should not be surprising that Chinese herbal medicines may also cause significant adverse effects. For example, consumers were warned to avoid the potentially dangerous and llegal TCM product, Shubao Slimming Capsules, which was responsible for a case of irreversible liver failure in the UK. (Herbal Safety News, 2004). The Medicines and Healthcare Products and Regulatory Agencies have suggested that caution should be exercised when using a TCM slimming aid. The agencies said that the safety, quality, and efficacy of these unlicensed medicines could not be assured due to the possible illegal adulteration or contamination with pharmaceutical drugs or toxic herbal ingredients.
