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Among the policies to support entrepreneurs, accelerators of companies are recognized in the academic, political and business environment as effective tools to support the creation of new companies by meeting their needs in their early stages. The purpose of this article is to detect variables relevant to predicting the success of an accelerator. To that end, a questionnaire of 87 questions was designed and distributed to all accelerators present in Spain at the end of 2022. In the first instance, an index is proposed to measure the success of accelerators using the statistic tool Principal Component Analysis. The index includes information such as the percentage of projects that have achieved the objectives set during the programme, the percentage of projects that continue their activity or the percentage that have received public/private funding. In this paper, through a multivariate lineal regression analysis, we identify the elements in an accelerator which contribute to its success, measured by the index obtained initially. The key factors that contribute to the success of accelerators are Profit making entity, Number of calls and Training seminar. This work offers suggestions for future research to explore the potential of business accelerators. From a practical perspective, the article provides managers of accelerators a guide to design and improve programs according to their goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established widespread populations of invasive vertebrates can be challenging to eradicate and for small to medium-sized vertebrates, such as squirrels, is often not deemed feasible. However, long-term trapping campaigns are necessary to limit spread or reduce impacts. The scale of trapping programmes is often limited by budgets that are not commensurate to the scale of the problem. On-going costs and fundraising are key factors used by decision makers to assess the feasibility of complete removal or long-term management options of established populations. Predicting the time and effort required to successfully manage Invasive Alien Species (IAS) remains a challenge, particularly where different strategies need to be employed across different spatial scales and habitat types, and in response to changing population densities. Statistical methods such as removal models can be applied to quantify population abundance during management operations and could inform planning of resource requirements. However, in practice, the lack of awareness of data requirements results in unsuited or non-standardized data collection. We present data from an invasive grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) management project in the United Kingdom as a case study to illustrate common issues that impact on quantifying project outcomes. We focus on human and operational aspects of implementation and suggest ways of prioritizing analytical requirements. Insights consider conservation targets, data collection and operational design and may be of relevance to stakeholders, analysts, field operators and managers.

Performance thresholds are an important tool for determining successful conservation outcomes. They provide an objective means of defining good ecological condition and have been endorsed as an essential part of best practice in protected area (PA) management within the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas Standard. With a growing number of PAs attaining Green List status globally, thresholds developed by PAs on the Green List present an excellent resource with which to identify the attributes of well‐defined performance thresholds. We examined 349 thresholds associated with PAs on the Green List to determine whether they were specific and measurable (i.e., factors recognized as essential for setting well‐defined targets). We assessed whether thresholds were defined quantitatively and whether definitions included ambiguous terms (e.g., stable numbers). We identified six different ways thresholds were expressed and found that many thresholds were expressed as management objectives, rather than ecological condition thresholds, although this trend improved over time. Approximately one‐half of the performance thresholds lacked the necessary specificity to delineate successful outcomes. Our results enabled us to develop a checklist of information required to set robust performance thresholds. Recommendations include that thresholds should be quantitatively defined, including quantitative estimates of the limits of acceptable change (LAC) around the target condition. To ensure transparency, a rationale and associated evidence should be provided to support the threshold and the LAC. When accompanied by a rationale and quantitative estimate of the current condition of the value, unambiguously defined thresholds with a quantitative LAC provide an objective means of demonstrating that successful conservation outcomes have been achieved. These recommendations will help conservation managers apply the Green List Standard and improve the measurement of conservation outcomes more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Billions of dollars are spent annually on grant-funded STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education programs. These programs help students stay on track toward STEM careers when standard educational practices do not adequately prepare them for these careers. It is important to know that reliable and accurate student participation and completion data are being collected about these programs. This multiple case study investigates how student data are collected and reported for a national STEM education program in the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. Our overall aim is to provide insights to funding agencies, STEM education faculty, and others who are interested in addressing issues related to the collection and reporting of student participation and completion data within their own contexts. Emphasis is placed on the barriers encountered in collecting participation and completion data, particularly with regard to unduplicated participation counts and marketable credential data. The ATE program was selected for this study because there is already a mechanism (known as the ATE Survey) in place for annually collecting systematic data across all projects within the program. Results: A multiple case study, including interviews of primary investigators, allowed for in-depth analysis of the ATE Survey's point-in-time data on project-level participation in various activities, and for identification of the following barriers to tracking student-level data: lack of time and help to gather these data, lack of a consistent system for tracking students across different institutions, and a perceived lack of guidance from the funding agency about what data to track. We also saw that different data are needed from different projects to determine a project's true impact. Defining "success" the same way across all projects is inadequate. Conclusions: Although, due to the limited sample size, these findings cannot be generalized to the larger ATE population, they provide specific insights into the various barriers that projects encounter in collecting participation and completion data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: Suicide is a global public health concern, particularly for those living in rural, regional and remote areas. Despite numerous prevention initiatives, suicide continues to impact individuals, families and communities. Suicide prevention networks are an innovative, community-based approach to addressing suicide within local government areas. Anecdotally, suicide prevention networks make an important contribution to suicide prevention, yet frameworks for evaluating their impact do not exist. The purpose of this project was to develop an Evaluation Toolkit to be used by suicide prevention networks throughout South Australia to monitor their impact. Design: Participatory action research was used to work with one suicide prevention network in regional South Australia to co-design and produce the Evaluation Toolkit. Setting: One regional South Australian town, with an established suicide prevention network. Key measures for improvement: The development of an Evaluation Toolkit, to allow all South Australian suicide prevention networks to measure their impact in a consistent manner. Strategies for change: The Evaluation Toolkit has been made freely available in electronic form and as a hard copy booklet for use by all South Australian suicide prevention networks. Effects of change: The purpose of this project was to develop the Evaluation Toolkit. Formal assessment of its usability and effectiveness is yet to be undertaken, but preliminary anecdotal evidence indicates aspects of the Evaluation Toolkit are useful, especially the questionnaire templates that can be adapted and used to evaluate various community events. Lessons learnt: Participatory action research is a useful method for working with community-based suicide prevention groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A business process is an activity or set of activities that accomplish a specific goal of an organization. In almost every organization there are three important pillars that keep the whole organization together - people, processes and technology. All three are linked and if one of them does not work well, others can easily collapse. Success Measurement is a complex activity that includes at least four disciplines: economics, IT, management and accounting, implying the process of quantifying the effectiveness and effectiveness of an action. Success Measurement is a dynamic system that supports the decision-making process by collecting and analyzing information.

A business process is an activity or set of activities that accomplish a specific goal of an organization. In almost every organization there are three important pillars that keep the whole organization together - people, processes and technology. All three are linked and if one of them does not work well, others can easily collapse. Success Measurement is a complex activity that includes at least four disciplines: economics, IT, management and accounting, implying the process of quantifying the effectiveness and effectiveness of an action. Success Measurement is a dynamic system that supports the decision-making process by collecting and analyzing information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The open source software development is notable option for software companies. Recent years, many advantages of this software type are cause of move to that in Iran. National security and international restrictions problems and also software and services costs and more other problems intensified importance of use of this software. Users and their viewpoints are the critical success factor in the software plans. But there is not an appropriate model for open source software case in Iran. This research tried to develop a measuring open source software success model for Iran. By use of data gathered from open source users and online survey the model was tested. The results showed that components by positive effect on open source success were user satisfaction, open source community services quality, open source quality, copyright and security.

The achievement of international and especially Olympic sporting success is increasingly important to a growing number of countries. It is however not clear how success is defined and can be measured. The number of medals won in Olympics Games and other international sport competitions offers the most self-evident and transparent measure of success in high performance sport. In this article different methods to measure success of nations are compared. Market share was identified as the best measure of absolute success which enables meaningful time series analysis to be conducted. A Linear regression analysis is used to introduce relative success as a measurement of success when controlling for macro determinants such as population and wealth. This method allows comparing nations on more equal grounds, which is necessary if one wants to measure effectiveness of elite sport policies. Similar analysis is done for Olympic Summer and Winter Sports. It is concluded that conflicting results can be given on nations’ success. Defining success therefore depends on the purpose wherefore it is used and on the priorities of individual nations.

Mental health court research has largely assessed program effectiveness using criminal recidivism as an indicator of success. The present study expands this literature by exploring mental health court participants' perceptions of how the mental health court impacted them. We analyzed in-depth interviews with 26 participants from 2 different mental health courts using thematic analysis. Participants identified four salient successes that they perceived to result from mental health court participation: improved psychiatric stability, sobriety, improved relationships, and increased engagement in life and mental health. While reduced substance use and “staying out of trouble” were seen as successes, participants also reported recovery-oriented outcomes like improved relationships with family, mood stability, increased patience, ability to care about others, and greater understanding of mental illness as measures of their success. Although recidivism is an indicator of success, future mental health court research would benefit from utilizing additional measures of success that span criminal justice, recovery, and mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Area-based regeneration projects have captured the imagination of diverse assemblages of community actors, governmental interests, and commercial stakeholders around the world. Their appeal derives from claims that they are exemplary instruments for combating intertwined social, economic, and environmental issues in an integrated manner. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of such initiatives remains contentious and continues to provoke divergent views. In the midst of an era of fiscal austerity, demands for increasing “returns on investments” and maximizing “value for money” have risen to the forefront. This article investigates an area-based regeneration initiative in Europe that has been lauded for successfully achieving its regeneration outputs. The research examines whether hitting narrowly constructed (economic) targets may be missing the point of yielding holistic (community) outcomes. Of broader international and theoretical significance, the merits of output-driven regeneration strategies are questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The open source software development is notable option for software companies. Recent years, many advantages of this software type are cause of move to that in Iran. National security and international restrictions problems and also software and services costs and more other problems intensified importance of use of this software. Users and their viewpoints are the critical success factor in the software plans. But there is not an appropriate model for open source software case in Iran. This research tried to develop a measuring open source software success model for Iran. By use of data gathered from open source users and online survey the model was tested. The results showed that components by positive effect on open source success were user satisfaction, open source community services quality, open source quality, copyright and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the criteria for determining success as a cultural institution at the beginning of the twenty-first century are still evolving, there are a few universals that are emerging. Successful cultural organizations serve the specific needs of audiences while maximizing the flexibility and ingenuity of their relationships, both inside and outside the organization, all within the context of the economic, social and political realities in which they exist. Success should not be limited to a single set of outcomes, but requires excellence in three basic areas: (1) Support of the Public Good, which includes accomplishing one's cultural/aesthetic mission, but also being a good community citizen; (2) Organizational Investment, including building and nurturing staff; supporting a climate and culture for creativity, innovation, collaboration and research and development; and (3) Financial Stability, including building organizational value and, when possible, generating annual financial surpluses that can be used to further support institutional learning and the public good. The authors propose a model for defining and measuring institutional success using metrics of value and cost across each of these three areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historic background and other factors influencing the evolution of the Namibian fisheries-management approach is highlighted and reasons why the management system developed the way it did are advanced. The level of success of the system in attaining the national goals set for development of the industry in the first few years after independence and the response of fish stocks to management measures are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]