492 research outputs found
Under the radar: How firms manage competitive uncertainty by appointing friends of other chief executive officers to their boards
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147028/1/smj2966_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147028/2/smj2966.pd
What do they know? The effects of outside director acquisition experience on firm acquisition performance
This article contributes to the literature on board effectiveness by being perhaps the first to systematically examine how the nature of outside directors' prior experience, and resulting expertise, will influence the performance of a focal firm's strategic initiatives. Our theoretical model is grounded in the psychological literature on expertise and its role in group decision making effectiveness. We focus on outside director expertise in acquisition decision making, and its implications for the performance of the acquisitions of a focal firm. Our conceptual framework indicates that directors will develop expertise in making particular kinds of acquisition decisions (e.g., related or unrelated acquisitions or acquisitions in specific industries or product markets) through their past experiences at other firms with decisions about those specific types of acquisitions, and we predict that this experience and expertise will have positive effects on the performance of a focal firm's acquisitions. We extend our theoretical model to consider the conditions under which relevant director experience will prove most beneficial. Our model predicts that outside director acquisition expertise will deliver the greatest benefits when the focal firm's board is independent from management. We find empirical support for all of our hypotheses. In considering how and when director experience and resulting expertise may influence the performance of corporate acquisitions, our theory and results help to highlight a potential second main focus for research on the long-standing question of what factors render boards of directors effective. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61235/1/704_ftp.pd
What is the effect of a decision aid in potentially vulnerable parents? Insights from the head CT choice randomized trial.
ObjectiveTo test the hypotheses that use of the Head CT Choice decision aid would be similarly effective in all parent/patient dyads but parents with high (vs low) numeracy experience a greater increase in knowledge while those with low (vs high) health literacy experience a greater increase in trust.MethodsThis was a secondary analysis of a cluster randomized trial conducted at seven sites. One hundred seventy-two clinicians caring for 971 children at intermediate risk for clinically important traumatic brain injuries were randomized to shared decision making facilitated by the DA (n = 493) or to usual care (n = 478). We assessed for subgroup effects based on patient and parent characteristics, including socioeconomic status (health literacy, numeracy and income). We tested for interactions using regression models with indicators for arm assignment and study site.ResultsThe decision aid did not increase knowledge more in parents with high numeracy (P for interaction [Pint ] = 0.14) or physician trust more in parents with low health literacy (Pint = 0.34). The decision aid decreased decisional conflict more in non-white parents (decisional conflict scale, -8.14, 95% CI: -12.33 to -3.95; Pint = 0.05) and increased physician trust more in socioeconomically disadvantaged parents (trust in physician scale, OR: 8.59, 95% CI: 2.35-14.83; Pint = 0.04).ConclusionsUse of the Head CT Choice decision aid resulted in less decisional conflict in non-white parents and greater physician trust in socioeconomically disadvantaged parents. Decision aids may be particularly effective in potentially vulnerable parents
Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Draco Dwarf Spheroidal
We present an F606W-F814W color-magnitude diagram for the Draco dwarf
spheroidal galaxy based on Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images. The luminosity
function is well-sampled to 3 magnitudes below the turn-off. We see no evidence
for multiple turnoffs and conclude that, at least over the field of the view of
the WFPC2, star formation was primarily single-epoch. If the observed number of
blue stragglers is due to extended star formation, then roughly 6% (upper
limit) of the stars could be half as old as the bulk of the galaxy. The color
difference between the red giant branch and the turnoff is consistent with an
old population and is very similar to that observed in the old, metal-poor
Galactic globular clusters M68 and M92. Despite its red horizontal branch,
Draco appears to be older than M68 and M92 by 1.6 +/- 2.5 Gyrs, lending support
to the argument that the ``second parameter'' which governs horizontal branch
morphology must be something other than age. Draco's observed luminosity
function is very similar to that of M68, and the derived initial mass function
is consistent with that of the solar neighborhood.Comment: 16 pages, AASTeX, 9 postscript figures, figures 1 and 2 available at
ftp://bb3.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/draco/. Accepted for publication in the
Astronomical Journa
WFPC2 Observations of Compact Star Cluster Nuclei in Low Luminosity Spiral Galaxies
We have used the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard the Hubble Space
Telescope to image the compact star cluster nuclei of the nearby, late-type,
low-luminosity spiral galaxies NGC 4395, NGC 4242, and ESO 359-029. We also
analyze archival WFPC2 observations of the compact star cluster nucleus of M33.
A comparative analysis of the structural and photometric properties of these
four nuclei is presented. All of the nuclei are very compact, with luminosity
densities increasing at small radii to the resolution limit of our data. NGC
4395 contains a Seyfert 1 nucleus with a distinct bipolar structure and bright
associated filaments which are likely due to [OIII] emission. The M33 nucleus
has a complex structure, with elongated isophotes and possible signatures of
weak activity, including a jet-like component. The other two nuclei are not
known to be active, but share similar physical size scales and luminosities to
the M33 and NGC 4395 nuclei. The circumnuclear environments of all four of our
program galaxies are extremely diffuse, have only low-to-moderate star
formation, and appear to be devoid of large quantities of dust. The central
gravitational potentials of the galaxies are also quite shallow, making the
origin of these types of `naked' nuclei problematic.Comment: to appear in the July 1999 Astronomical Journal; 38 pages (Latex), 5
tables (postscript), 21 figures (gif); postscript versions of the figures may
be obtained via anonymous ftp at
ftp://ftp.cv.nrao.edu/NRAO-staff/lmatthew/lanl-nucle
International Coercion, Emulation and Policy Diffusion: Market-Oriented Infrastructure Reforms, 1977-1999
Why do some countries adopt market-oriented reforms such as deregulation, privatization and liberalization of competition in their infrastructure industries while others do not? Why did the pace of adoption accelerate in the 1990s? Building on neo-institutional theory in sociology, we argue that the domestic adoption of market-oriented reforms is strongly influenced by international pressures of coercion and emulation. We find robust support for these arguments with an event-history analysis of the determinants of reform in the telecommunications and electricity sectors of as many as 205 countries and territories between 1977 and 1999. Our results also suggest that the coercive effect of multilateral lending from the IMF, the World Bank or Regional Development Banks is increasing over time, a finding that is consistent with anecdotal evidence that multilateral organizations have broadened the scope of the “conditionality” terms specifying market-oriented reforms imposed on borrowing countries. We discuss the possibility that, by pressuring countries into policy reform, cross-national coercion and emulation may not produce ideal outcomes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40099/3/wp713.pd
Coherent diffraction of single Rice Dwarf virus particles using hard X-rays at the Linac Coherent Light Source
Single particle diffractive imaging data from Rice Dwarf Virus (RDV) were recorded using the Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). RDV was chosen as it is a wellcharacterized model system, useful for proof-of-principle experiments, system optimization and algorithm development. RDV, an icosahedral virus of about 70 nm in diameter, was aerosolized and injected into the approximately 0.1 mu m diameter focused hard X-ray beam at the CXI instrument of LCLS. Diffraction patterns from RDV with signal to 5.9 angstrom ngstrom were recorded. The diffraction data are available through the Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank (CXIDB) as a resource for algorithm development, the contents of which are described here.11Ysciescopu
Visible and Far-Ultraviolet WFPC2 Imaging of the Nucleus of the Galaxy NGC 205
We have imaged the nucleus of NGC 205 through the F555W and F160BW filters of WFPC2 on the high-resolution planetary camera (PC). The nucleus consists of a resolved cluster of stars extending 7" X 6".
The projected radial distribution of surface brightness can be fitted by a Hubble law with a small core of FWHM 214 x 190 mas (0.74 x 0.66 pc). We find that the nucleus of NGC 205 shares a number of characteristics with globular clusters. Absolute photometry is also presented in a half-arcsec aperture and is found to verify the amount of UV upturn observed in the spectral energy distribution of the nucleus by others (e.g., Bertola et al. 1995).
Of the hypotheses available to explain the origin of the nucleus, the observations are most consistent with its being an intermediate age cluster. The most likely scenarios are that it is a either a star cluster whose orbit has decayed-therefore drawing it to rest at the galaxy center-or a cluster that has formed as the repository of the gas from generations of star formation.
Together with the ground-based measurement of a low-velocity dispersion, the small core radius implies a 107 yr relaxation time, suggesting the cluster core may have collapsed. An upper limit of 9 x 10^4 M_☉ can be put on the mass of any central black hole
Inflating in a Better Racetrack
We present a new version of our racetrack inflation scenario which, unlike
our original proposal, is based on an explicit compactification of type IIB
string theory: the Calabi-Yau manifold P^4_[1,1,1,6,9]. The axion-dilaton and
all complex structure moduli are stabilized by fluxes. The remaining 2 Kahler
moduli are stabilized by a nonperturbative superpotential, which has been
explicitly computed. For this model we identify situations for which a linear
combination of the axionic parts of the two Kahler moduli acts as an inflaton.
As in our previous scenario, inflation begins at a saddle point of the scalar
potential and proceeds as an eternal topological inflation. For a certain range
of inflationary parameters, we obtain the COBE-normalized spectrum of metric
perturbations and an inflationary scale of M = 3 x 10^{14} GeV. We discuss
possible changes of parameters of our model and argue that anthropic
considerations favor those parameters that lead to a nearly flat spectrum of
inflationary perturbations, which in our case is characterized by the spectral
index n_s = 0.95.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Brief discussion on the non-gaussianity of this
model, one more figure of the field trajectories added as well as other minor
changes to the tex
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