Corporate decision-making in R&D outsourcing and the impact on internal R&D employment intensity

This article aims to assess whether firms’ strategies of R&D outsourcing determine changes in their internal R&D employment intensity. Four strategic decisions are investigated: to start, increase, decrease or stop outsourcing. It is found that internal R&D employment intensity decreases when firms decide to start, to increase, or to stop R&D outsourcing. However, this finding hides important differences according to the type and the location of the contractor. In general, firms prefer a mix of different types of contractors at different locations. Started outsourcing of R&D to research centers within the nation and increased R&D outsourcing to research centers within the region appear to decrease the internal R&D employment intensity. Decreasing outsourcing to national universities in another region also has a negative impact on internal R&D employment intensity. A corporate decision to stop R&D outsourcing to other firms within the nation but outside the region has a positive impact on the internal R&D employment intensity. The latter is the only effect that is not only statistically significant but is also substantial in magnitude

Do Managers Reciprocate? Field Experimental Evidence From a Competitive Market

A substantive amount of lab experimental evidence suggests that the norm of reciprocity has important economic consequences. However, it is unclear whether the norm of reciprocity survives in a natural and competitive environment with experienced agents. For this purpose we analyze data from a natural field experiment conducted with sales representatives who were instructed to randomly distribute product samples as gifts to their business partners. We find that distributing gifts to store managers boosts sales revenue substantially, which is consistent with the notion of reciprocity. However, the results underline that the nature of the relationship between market participants crucially affects the prevalence of reciprocal behavior.reciprocity, gift exchange, field experiment

Global existence for diffusion-electromigration systems in space dimension three and higher

We prove existence of global weak solutions for the Nernst-Planck-Poisson problem which describes the evolution of concentrations of charged species $X_1, ..., X_P$ subject to Fickian diffusion and chemical reactions in the presence of an electrical field, including in particular the Boltzmann statistics case. In contrast to the existing literature, existence is proved in any dimension. Moreover, we do not need the assumption $P = 2$ nor the assumption of equal diffusivities for all $P$ components. Our approach relies on the intrinsic energy structure and on an adequate nonlinear and curiously more regular approximate problem. The delicate passing to the limit is done in adequate functional spaces which lead to only weak solutions

Putting Reciprocity to Work - Positive versus Negative Responses in the Field

We study the role of reciprocity in a labor market field experiment. In a recent paper, Gneezy and List (2006) investigate the impact of gift exchange in this context and find that it has only a transient effect on long run outcomes. Extending their work to examine both positive and negative reciprocity, we find consonant evidence in the positive reciprocity condition: the gift does not work well in the long run (if at all). Yet, in the negative reciprocity treatment we observe much stronger effects: a wage reduction has a significant and lasting negative impact on efforts. Together, these results highlight the asymmetry of positive and negative reciprocity that exists in the field, and provide an indication of the relative importance of each in the long run.reciprocity, gift exchange, field experiment

The currency of reciprocity - gift-exchange in the workplace

What determines reciprocity in employment relations? We conducted a controlled field experiment to measure the extent to which monetary and non-monetary gifts affect workers' performance. We find that nonmonetary gifts have a much stronger impact than monetary gifts of equivalent value. We also observe that when workers are offered the choice, they prefer receiving the money but reciprocate as if they received a nonmonetary gift. This result is consistent with the common saying, 'it's the thought that counts.' We underline this point by showing that also monetary gifts can effectively trigger reciprocity if the employer invests more time and effort into the gift's presentation. --field experiment,reciprocity,gift exchange,non-monetary gifts,in-kind gifts

BACL is a novel brain-associated, non-NKC-encoded mammalian C-type lectin-like receptor of the CLEC2 family

Natural Killer Gene Complex (NKC)–encoded C-type lectin-like receptors (CTLRs) are expressed on various immune cells including T cells, NK cells and myeloid cells and thereby contribute to the orchestration of cellular immune responses. Some NKC-encoded CTLRs are grouped into the C-type lectin family 2 (CLEC2 family) and interact with genetically linked CTLRs of the NKRP1 family. While many CLEC2 family members are expressed by hematopoietic cells (e.g. CD69 (CLEC2C)), others such as the keratinocyte-associated KACL (CLEC2A) are specifically expressed by other tissues. Here we provide the first characterization of the orphan gene CLEC2L. In contrast to other CLEC2 family members, CLEC2L is conserved among mammals and located outside of the NKC. We show that CLEC2L-encoded CTLRs are expressed as non-glycosylated, disulfide-linked homodimers at the cell surface. CLEC2L expression is fairly tissue-restricted with a predominant expression in the brain. Thus CLEC2L-encoded CTLRs were designated BACL (brain-associated C-type lectin). Combining in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, we show that BACL is expressed by neurons in the CNS, with a pronounced expression by Purkinje cells. Notably, the CLEC2L locus is adjacent to another orphan CTLR gene (KLRG2), but reporter cell assays did neither indicate interaction of BACL with the KLRG2 ectodomain nor with human NK cell lines or lymphocytes. Along these lines, growth of BACL-expressing tumor cell lines in immunocompetent mice did not provide evidence for an immune-related function of BACL. Altogether, the CLEC2L gene encodes a homodimeric cell surface CTLR that stands out among CLEC2 family members by its conservation in mammals, its biochemical properties and the predominant expression in the brain. Future studies will have to reveal insights into the functional relevance of BACL in the context of its neuronal expression