Government's impact on the business environment and strategic management

Should 'government' be a fifth force in Michael Porter's model of the Competitive Advantage of Nations and, if so, what should be the appropriate level of analysis? In the strategic management literature, frameworks explaining the impact of the national environment, and more particularly of government, on firms and industries are still in their infancy. Michael Porter's 'The Competitive Advantage of Nations' proposes a new integrative framework consisting of four determinants (the so-called diamond) and aimed at a comprehensive analysis of the above-mentioned impact. After a short overview of the diamond model and a general critique, this paper will deal with the important question of whether government is adequately integrated into Porter's framework. Stated more precisely: whether government can be considered as a fifth determinant. Porter has already recognized the indirect role of government in creating competitive advantage, but denies a direct role. To demonstrate whether government does have a direct role and, if so, how large its influence is, is both a theoretical and empirical question. Although a definite answer upon this question is beyond the scope of this paper, we will contribute to this challenging question by focusing on two aspects

Using Networks For Changing Innovation Strategy: The Case of IBM

Large-scale strategic change projects in companies may be supported by using alliance networks. This paper shows that IBM’s change from an exploitation strategy towards an exploration strategy required a radically different network strategy as well. By entering into more non-equity alliances, involving new partners in the network and loosening the ties with existing partners, IBM supported its transformation from a hardware manufacturing company to a global service provider and software company

Care trajectories of chronically ill older adult patients discharged from hospital:a quantitative cross-sectional study using health insurance claims data

Background For older adults, a good transition from hospital to the primary or long-term care setting can decrease readmissions. This paper presents the 6-month post-discharge healthcare utilization of older adults and describes the numbers of readmissions and deaths for the most frequently occurring aftercare arrangements as a starting point in optimizing the post-discharge healthcare organization. Methods This cross-sectional study included older adults insured with the largest Dutch insurance company. We described the utilization of healthcare within 180 days after discharge from their first hospital admission of 2015 and the most frequently occurring combinations of aftercare in the form of geriatric rehabilitation, community nursing, long-term care, and short stay during the first 90 days after discharge. We calculated the proportion of older adults that was readmitted or had died in the 90-180 days after discharge for the six most frequent combinations. We performed all analyses in the total group of older adults and in a sub-group of older adults who had been hospitalized due to a hip fracture. Results A total of 31.7% of all older adults and 11.4% of the older adults with a hip fracture did not receive aftercare. Almost half of all older adults received care of a community nurse, whereas less than 5% received long-term home care. Up to 18% received care in a nursing home during the 6 months after discharge. Readmissions were lowest for older adults with a short stay and highest in the group geriatric rehabilitation + community nursing. Mortality was lowest in the total group of older aldults and subgroup with hip fracture without aftercare. Conclusions The organization of post-discharge healthcare for older adults may not be organized sufficiently to guarantee appropriate care to restore functional activity. Although receiving aftercare is not a clear predictor of readmissions in our study, the results do seem to indicate that older adults receiving community nursing in the first 90 days less often die compared to older adults with other types of aftercare or no aftercare. Future research is necessary to examine predictors of readmissions and mortality in both older adult patients discharged from hospital.</p

Applications of the Bayesian approach for experimentation and estimation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 2006.Page 272 blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-271).A Bayesian framework for systematic data collection and parameter estimation is proposed to aid experimentalists in effectively generating and interpreting data. The four stages of the Bayesian framework are: system description, system analysis, experimentation, and estimation. System description consists of specifying the system under investigation and collecting available information for the parameter estimation. Subsequently, system analysis entails a more in-depth system study by implementing various mathematical tools such as an observability and sensitivity analysis. The third stage in the framework is experimentation, consisting of experimental design, system calibration, and performing actual experiments. Finally, the last stage is estimation, where all relevant information and collected data is used for estimating the desired quantities. The Bayesian approach embedded within this framework provides a versatile, robust, and unified methodology allowing for consistent incorporation and propagation of uncertainty. To demonstrate the benefits, the Bayesian framework was applied to two different case studies of complex reaction engineering problems.(cont.) The first case study involved the estimation of a kinetic rate parameter in a system of coupled chemical reactions involving the relaxation of the reactive O(D) oxygen atom. The second case study was aimed at estimating multiple kinetic rate parameters concurrently to gain an understanding regarding the reaction mechanism of the oxygen addition to the transient cyclohexadienyl radical. An important advantage of the proposed Bayesian framework demonstrated with these case studies is the possibility of 'real-time' updating of the state of knowledge regarding the parameter estimate allowing for exploitation of the close relationship between experimentation and estimation. This led to identifying systematic errors among experiments and devising a stopping rule for experimentation based on incremental information gain per experiment. Additional advantages were the improved understanding of the underlying reaction mechanism, identification of experimental outliers, and more precisely estimated parameters.(cont.) A unique feature of this work is the use of Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations to overcome the computational problems affecting previous applications of the Bayesian approach to complex engineering problems. Traditional restricting assumptions can therefore be relaxed so that the case studies could involve non-Gaussian distributions, applied to multi-dimensional, nonlinear systems.by Patrick A.P. de Man.Ph.D

Topological Defects on Fluctuating Surfaces: General Properties and the Kosterlitz-Thouless Transition

We investigate the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition for hexatic order on a free fluctuating membrane and derive both a Coulomb gas and a sine-Gordon Hamiltonian to describe it. The Coulomb-gas Hamiltonian includes charge densities arising from disclinations and from Gaussian curvature. There is an interaction coupling the difference between these two densities, whose strength is determined by the hexatic rigidity, and an interaction coupling Gaussian curvature densities arising from the Liouville Hamiltonian resulting from the imposition of a covariant cutoff. In the sine-Gordon Hamiltonian, there is a linear coupling between a scalar field and the Gaussian curvature. We discuss gauge-invariant correlation function for hexatic order and the dielectric constant of the Coulomb gas. We also derive renormalization group recursion relations that predict a transition with decreasing bending rigidity $\kappa$.Comment: REVTEX, 45 pages with 11 postscript figures compressed using uufiles. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Moyal star product approach to the Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation

The Bohr-Sommerfeld approximation to the eigenvalues of a one-dimensional quantum Hamiltonian is derived through order $\hbar^2$ (i.e., including the first correction term beyond the usual result) by means of the Moyal star product. The Hamiltonian need only have a Weyl transform (or symbol) that is a power series in $\hbar$, starting with $\hbar^0$, with a generic fixed point in phase space. The Hamiltonian is not restricted to the kinetic-plus-potential form. The method involves transforming the Hamiltonian to a normal form, in which it becomes a function of the harmonic oscillator Hamiltonian. Diagrammatic and other techniques with potential applications to other normal form problems are presented for manipulating higher order terms in the Moyal series.Comment: 27 pages, no figure

The Critical Behaviour of the Spin-3/2 Blume-Capel Model in Two Dimensions

The phase diagram of the spin-3/2 Blume-Capel model in two dimensions is explored by conventional finite-size scaling, conformal invariance and Monte Carlo simulations. The model in its $\tau$-continuum Hamiltonian version is also considered and compared with others spin-3/2 quantum chains. Our results indicate that differently from the standard spin-1 Blume-Capel model there is no multicritical point along the order-disorder transition line. This is in qualitative agreement with mean field prediction but in disagreement with previous approximate renormalization group calculations. We also presented new results for the spin-1 Blume-Capel model.Comment: latex 18 pages, 4 figure

Tropological space : the imaginary space of figuration

The paper is devoted to the concept of tropological space, introduced by Michel Foucault in 1966 and alluded to in Hayden White’s tropics of discourse (1973, 1978, 2000), but never described in any detail in literary semantics or linguistic stylistics. The author presents her theory of a triple functional subdivision of stylistic figures and, consequently, of tropes (micro-, macro- and mega (meta)-level of description) and relates it to a gradually expanding tropological space of particular figures, their chains and groupings within a text. The author postulates that tropological space, the imaginary space created through figuration, is a sub-space of the Wittgensteinian logical space as well as a sub-space of textual / discursive space. Although the discussion refers mostly to literary texts, tropology – a branch of stylistics / poetics / rhetoric makes generalizations valid for the study of all kinds of texts / discourses. Figuration is assumed here to be an inherent feature of conceptual and linguistic expression. Finally, the author raises a methodological query as to the ontological status of tropological space, opting for the approach which treats it as a peculiar kind of semantic space rather than a mere metaphoric term. The discussion is based mostly on the Anglo-American studies on figuration (K. Burke, H. White, P. de Man, J. Hillis Miller, G. Hartman) that are rooted in the neo-classical rhetoric and writings of G. Vico. This line of thinking draws its philosophical inspiration from the European hermeneutics of P. Ricoeur, the Foucaultian theory of discourses and the Derridean deconstructionist ideas on the operation of language. The author brings additionally into consideration the conception of artistic space propagated by the Russian semiotic tradition and V. N. Toporov (1983/2003) in particular