The dual-concern conflict model argues that choice of conflict strategies are based on two concerns: concern for interests or goals of self and other. This article argues that the dual-concern model may only partially account for choice of conflict management strategies in Chinese family businesses, particularly in families that are strongly influenced by Confucianism. The article uses Confucian values and norms, which are an ancient set of guidelines for social interaction, as the basis for introducing additional concerns to explain choice of conflict strategies in Chinese family businesses: concern for relationships, interpersonal norms, and collective interests. Two sets of moderating variables are introduced based on the unique features of Confucian ideology. They include differences in age, status, and gender between conflicting parties, and types of conflict – normative or personal goal related, and task or relationship. Propositions summarize the major arguments.

Collective entrepreneurship is the synergism that emerges from a collective and that propels it beyond the current state by seizing opportunities without regard to resources under its control (Stevenson and Jarrillo 1990). This study provides a conceptual model of collective entrepreneurship and its relationship with leadership and team dynamics in the context of a small family business. It proposes two types of prerequisites for collective entrepreneurship: attitudinal and behavioral. The attitudinal prerequisite is family business members’ commitment to the family business. The behavioral prerequisite includes collaboration and task conflict among family business members. Further, the article argues that leadership behaviors directly affect the attitudinal and behavioral prerequisites, and indirectly affect collective entrepreneurship. Specifically, relations- oriented and participative leadership have positive, indirect effects on collective entrepreneurship. Task-oriented leadership has both positive and negative, indirect effects on collective entrepreneurship. An empirical study of 271 small family businesses in the United States confirmed most of the hypotheses.

CNS precursors derived from E12 rat mesencephalon proliferate in the presence of basic ®broblast growth factor and differentiate in vitro into functional dopaminergic neurons, which upon transplantation alleviate behavioral symptoms in a rat model of Parkinson's disease. Here we show that the ef®ciency of dopaminergic differentiation decreases in the mesencephalic precursors that were proliferated or passaged for extended periods in vitro. Ascorbic acid treatment restored dopaminergic differentiation in these precursors and led to a greater than 10-fold increase in dopamine neuron yield compared with untreated cultures. The effect of ascorbic acid was stereospeci®c and could not be mimicked by any other antioxidants. The expression of sodium-dependent vitamin C transporter, a recently identi®ed stereospeci®c ascorbic acid transporter, was maintained in mesencephalic precursors for extended in vitro periods. Pre-treatment of in vitro expanded mesencephalic precursors with ascorbic acid might facilitate the large-scale generation of dopaminergic neurons for clinical transplantation. Recent in vivo studies and work in explant cultures de®ned a number of genes that are critically involved in dopamine (DA) neuron development such as ®broblast growth factor 8, sonic hedgehog (SHH) and Nurr1 (Zetterstro Èm et al. 1997;Ye et al. 1998). A great effort has been devoted to utilizing these factors for the in vitro DA conversion of CNS precursor cells. However, all these studies were of very limited success with the possible exception of Nurr1 transfection, which, in combination with yet unde®ned factors, induced DA features in a stem-like cell line (Wagner et al. 1999). We recently described a system that allows the in vitro proliferation of ventral mesencephalic precursors. Upon mitogen withdrawal these expanded precursors ef®ciently differentiate into functional DA neurons that restore behavioral abnormalities in a rat model of Parkinson's disease (Studer et al. 1998a). The system yields an expansion factor of 10 over one passage. In absolute numbers, a total number of DA neurons equivalent to that found in seven adult rat brains can be obtained from a single embryonic mesencephalon. However, here we report that the long-term proliferation of mesencephalic precursors in vitro leads to a decreased ef®ciency of DA neuron generation, despite continued neuronal differentiation and survival. We have attempted various strategies to restore DA differentiation. The work presented here is based on a screening approach of a wide-range of factors including neurotrophins, morphogens, cytokines, cyclic nucleotides, cell adhesion factors, neurotransmitters and antioxidants towards a goal of improving dopaminergic differentiation in long-term precursors.

The psychometric properties of the C-MMAS-8 are satisfactory.