2,275 research outputs found

    Clusters as a form of spatial organisation of economic activity: theory and practical observations

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    This article aims at explaining the clustering of economic activity using instruments of new institutional economics, taking into account well-known descriptive characteristics of the cluster, as well as recent developments in research on hybrid institutional agreements, primarily, the research conducted by Michael Porter, Claude MĂ©nard and others

    Institutional influence on cross-border alliance development : Renault-Nissan strategic partnership

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    Treballs Finals del MĂ ster en Oficial en Empresa Internacional / International Business, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2022-2023. Tutor: Elio ShijakuNowadays, strategic alliances are a valuable option for firms to pursue various benefits, including growth opportunities, risk hedging, etc. International alliances are of particular interest since represent one of the quickest ways to join a foreign market and can help with economies of scale as well as access to external resources. The Institution-based view depicts one of the strategic management lenses for the better examination of the strategic alliance activity. It has been agreed that institutions greatly influence performance rates, which are utilized for alliance assessment. Using the Renault-Nissan alliance, the prominent strategic partnership, as a case-study method object, this Master Thesis aims to analyse the institutional paradigm impact on the alliance development and contribute to deeper knowledge about both the Renault-Nissan partnership and the Institution-based view. Additionally, the framework of causal relations between the institutional influence, managerial decisions in response, and outcomes for the alliance is elaborated

    Action-based embodied design for mathematics learning: A decade of variations on a theme

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    Embodied cognition theory emphasizes that bodily interaction with the environment is important for all forms of learning, including mathematics. This theoretical trend coincides well with developments in motion responsive technology, and has resulted in numerous embodied technologies for mathematics learning. This review aims to contribute to clarifying theoretically and empirically grounded design principles of action-based embodied designs for mathematics learning. We analyzed 79 publications between 2010 and 2019, containing 15 studies assessing 15 sensorimotor problems for five mathematical domains (proportion, angle, area, parabola, and sine function), and explicated the characteristics of the technologies, their learning sequences and elicited learning processes, and the influence of within-topic ask variations on students’ learning. We found that action-based designs pose motor control problems using continuous motion feedback to facilitate learners to discover and practice a challenging new ways of moving their hand(s) in which to ground mathematical cognition. The state of discovery of the sensorimotor solution is important, and passive and readymade designs are cautioned. The learning sequence in which these technologies are embedded, elicit mathematical knowing through necessary and sequential phases in which personal idiosyncratic experiences increasingly converge into a culturally shared mathematical discourse. In the qualitative stage, an acting step elicits students to actively establish new motor coordination-patterns through the emergence of new perceptual structures known as attentional anchors. In the subsequent reflecting step, students’ personal sensorimotor experiences and attentional anchors become the ground for referencing in (a shared) mathematical discourse through multimodal (words, gestures) collaboration with a tutor. In the quantitative stage, measuring artifacts (grids, protractors, numbers, variables) are included in students’ field of promoted action, which discretize and formalize students’ actions and subsequent reflections into culturally recognizable quantitative forms. Critically, task factors such as the type of objects students manipulate (cursors icons, bars, rectangle), and the direction these objects are moved (parallel, orthogonal), affect students’ attentional anchors and subsequent reflections in the qualitative stage, but converge to similar mathematical insights in the quantitative stage. These insights help to better use (new) motion responsive technology in eliciting child–computer interaction that can lead to mathematical cognition and beyond

    An Ecosystem Called University

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    This book is dedicated to the university as a protagonist of change. Its purpose is to see the university as a place where the lines between organization and system are fluid, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and the product is knowledge as an end, a means and a way of developing the individual (critical sense) and its interaction with the environment (instrumental reason). The book seeks throughout to foster the image of the Ecosystem University as being a producer of novelty, where the only certainty is uncertainty. The university undergoes a process of permanent spiral growth - the spiral of knowledge without any control of causality - and creating, through its environment, responsible citizens, and free-thinking persons. The Ecosystem University is undeTTast that is assumed in the present. Our work to rediscover the natural feel of an ecosystem embedded in the university and the rich experience of community will take us by the hand and lead us, proud professors, to the purest origin of human knowledge with a flair of joie de vivre: the refreshing purity of the new and the authentic value of ingenuity that will allow us to be ourselves in that very moment: a community that self-organizes, builds projects of life and culture, and determines its own destiny

    Neuroplasticity of Ipsilateral Cortical Motor Representations, Training Effects and Role in Stroke Recovery

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    This thesis examines the contribution of the ipsilateral hemisphere to motor control with the aim of evaluating the potential of the contralesional hemisphere to contribute to motor recovery after stroke. Predictive algorithms based on neurobiological principles emphasize integrity of the ipsilesional corticospinal tract as the strongest prognostic indicator of good motor recovery. In contrast, extensive lesions placing reliance on alternative contralesional ipsilateral motor pathways are associated with poor recovery. Within the predictive algorithms are elements of motor control that rely on contributions from ipsilateral motor pathways, suggesting that balanced, parallel contralesional contributions can be beneficial. Current therapeutic approaches have focussed on the maladaptive potential of the contralesional hemisphere and sought to inhibit its activity with neuromodulation. Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation I seek examples of beneficial plasticity in ipsilateral cortical motor representations of expert performers, who have accumulated vast amounts of deliberate practise training skilled bilateral activation of muscles habitually under ipsilateral control. I demonstrate that ipsilateral cortical motor representations reorganize in response to training to acquisition of skilled motor performance. Features of this reorganization are compatible with evidence suggesting ipsilateral importance in synergy representations, controlled through corticoreticulopropriospinal pathways. I demonstrate that ipsilateral plasticity can associate positively with motor recovery after stroke. Features of plastic change in ipsilateral cortical representations are shown in response to robotic training of chronic stroke patients. These findings have implications for the individualization of motor rehabilitation after stroke, and prompt reappraisal of the approach to therapeutic intervention in the chronic phase of stroke

    Management Development Through Cultural Diversity

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    This stimulating, clearly written and well-structured text is a comprehensive introduction to the principles of management and organisational behaviour, as well as a corrective to the eurocentric bias of most management texts. It develops a trans-cultural perspective which draws on insights from across the world to examine different management styles, cultures and stages of business development. Contents include: * Orientation * Primal Management - Western including America * Rational Management - Northern including Scandinavia * Developmental Management - Eastern including Japan * Metaphysical Management - Southern including South Africa * Developing yourself as a manager Each section examines core management theory and literature, cultural orientation and related prominent theories. The numerous case studies use appropriate examples from a wide range of international organisations. The uniquely wide-ranging perspective make this a valuable text for all those interested in general management, international business, organisational behaviour and corporate strategy

    Changing innovation systems in the developing country context: technology transfer and the new technological capabilities in the materials industry in Turkey

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    This thesis is concerned with analysing the extent that technology transfer contributes to the improvement and development of technological capabilities through learning at the firm level in a developing country context, and the impact of this process on the emergence and changes of key characteristics of innovation systems. Therefore, it investigates how innovation systems change over time and how they were influenced by technology transfer activities in the materials industry in Turkey between 1967 and 2001. As a contribution to the theory, the concept of technological capability is used as a bridge from the notion of technology transfer to that of the innovation system. Innovation system studies tend to rely on R&D statistics via innovation surveys for empirical analyses, whereas these could well be defined by qualitative data collected on technological capabilities through interviews. This thesis follows the latter route within an analytical framework that is designed for a firm-centred analysis. The qualitative data obtained from the interviews were transformed into categorical quantitative data to be used in multinomial logistic regression and linear regression analyses. This thesis shows firstly that firm-level capabilities were increasing over time during the period from 1967 to 2001 in the materials industry in Turkey. They were also increasing over time with the rising level of technological capabilities in the firms and the firms’ involvement in both collaborative relationships and in-house activities. Secondly, firmlevel capabilities shape the way the interactions in the innovation system change. As their level of technological capabilities deepen, firm interactions increase and shift to a moderate degree in plausible directions towards domestic agents, which are predominantly universities and research institutes. These findings support the firmdriven nature of the innovation systems
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