Competitive Brokerage, Information Technology and Internal Resources

To thrive in the current embedded and electronic competitive environment, organizations must achieve advantageous positions within their networks of competition. We strengthen the understanding of the genesis of network structures by examining the IT-enabled capabilities and internal resource endowment that determine an advantageous position in competition networks, which we term as competitive brokerage. We propose that firms should consider their competitive brokerage position to elaborate a successful e-business strategy. We employ a two-stage Tobit regression on a longitudinal competition network that spans 13 industries and demonstrate that commercial, technical and intangible resources influence competitive brokerage. We find that IT-enabled information management capability strengthens the effects of intangible resources to attain a competitive brokerage position. Our study contributes towards the IT business value, resource base view and competitive dynamics literatures. Overall, our results demonstrate that IT plays a critical role in enabling firms to face multi-market competition in the embedded economy

IT Orientation Effects on Obstacles and Facilitators of Innovation: An Emerging Economy Perspective in Mexico

Innovation is a crucial determinant in the survival and growth of firms in emerging economies such as Mexico and other Latin American countries. These firms face obstacles in the form of institutional challenges and rigidity towards change. This study explores how two types of IT orientation to innovation –Internal IT Orientation to Innovation (IIOI) and External IT Orientation to Innovation (EIOI), help firms to overcome three types of obstacles to innovation typically prevalent in LATAM economies-economic, policy, and internal. We argue that IIOI has a mitigating role for internal obstacles, while EIOI enables firms to overcome policy and economic obstacles to innovation. We argue that IIOI complements economic facilitators, and EIOI complements policy facilitators to innovation. Using a unique dataset of Mexican firms, we provide support for our hypotheses. The results contribute to theory and practice by highlighting how specific IT orientations help overcome specific obstacles and complement specific facilitators

Do CEO’s Long-Term Performance Incentives Induce IT Investments? Theory, Evidence, and Industry Contingencies

Understanding the antecedents of IT investment decisions is a significant line of enquiry in the IT business value literature. Although previous research has shown a positive link between long-term performance plans and corporate decision making, the association between the use of long-term performance plans and IT investment is understudied in the extant literature. Drawing on agency theory, we posit that the existence of a long-term performance plan and a greater percentage of compensation based on long-term measures are associated with a greater percentage of IT investments to sales. We further propose that these relationships are contingent upon the nature of the industry and the IT role within the industry. Specifically, we assert that high-tech industries witness stronger associations between long-term performance plans and IT investments, while industries where IT plays a transformative role witness weaker relationships. Our empirical analysis of 173 firms in the Unites States supports our theoretical propositions

Strategic Intent, Contract Duration, and Performance: Evidence from Micro-Outsourcing

Micro-outsourcing is the process of sourcing work to smaller firms or individuals using online sites. Several websites provide a platform to match clients and vendors for sourcing jobs. A typical issue with micro-sourcing is information asymmetry regarding the actual expertise of vendors. Online platforms bridge this gap using vendors’ prior histories and client evaluations. In this study, we examine how the strategic intents of vendors as captured by the platform play a moderating role on the relationship between project contract duration and client evaluation of vendor performance. Our empirical analysis uses project level data of over 6000 completed micro-outsourcing IT projects obtained from a leading micro-sourcing IT platform. We find that competency-focused strategic intent and goal-focused strategic intent positively moderate the relationship between project contract duration and client evaluation of vendor performance; whereas cost-focused strategic intent negatively moderates this relationship. Contributions and implications for research and practice are discussed

Overcoming Innovation Deficiencies in Mexico: Use of Open Innovation through IT and Closed Innovation through IT by Small and Medium Enterprises

Innovation is critical for development, especially in less-developed regions. We examine how Open Innovation through IT (an external collaboration approach) and Closed Innovation through IT (an internal collaboration approach) compare in helping small and medium enterprises overcome two challenges to achieve innovation: technological deficiency and government support deficiency. We hypothesize that Closed Innovation through IT is more important than Open Innovation through IT in helping firms overcome lack of technological abilities. We also hypothesize that Open Innovation through IT is more important than Closed Innovation through IT in helping firms overcome lack of government support through inter-organizational interactions and collaboration. Findings from a unique dataset of 389 small and medium enterprises in Mexico support our hypotheses. Our study highlights that small and medium enterprises can achieve greater innovation returns by orienting their IT-enabled innovation efforts in an open or closed fashion to address a specific deficiency

How Foreign and Domestic Firms Differ in Leveraging IT-Enabled Supply Chain Information Integration in BOP Markets: The Role of Supplier and Client Business Collaboration

Although attractive to foreign and domestic firms, bottom-of-pyramid (BOP) markets pose unique challenges. Research suggests that IT-enabled supply chain information integration (IT-SCII) helps firms collaborate with suppliers and clients in broad business activities, operate in a unique context, and overcome salient challenges in BOP markets. Anecdotal evidence and research suggest that foreign and domestic firms have differing advantages: While foreign firms have considerable global experience, domestic firms have substantial local market knowledge. We draw on the ownership-location-internalization (OLI) framework to theorize that domestic and foreign firms leverage IT-SCII differently because of their differing ownership-based advantages in BOP markets. We hypothesize that the influence of IT-SCII on client business collaboration and the influence of client business collaboration on firm performance are stronger for domestic firms than for foreign firms. Conversely, we hypothesize that the influence of IT-SCII on supplier business collaboration and the influence of supplier business collaboration on firm performance are stronger for foreign firms than for domestic firms. We test our hypotheses in the automotive parts manufacturing BOP market comprising foreign and domestic firms in India. Partial least squares and econometric analyses of 172 firms reveal broad support for our hypotheses. By incorporating the OLI framework into IT-enabled supply chain literature, our study contributes to theory and practice by highlighting that IT-SCII has differing implications for foreign and domestic firms in BOP markets

Inferring Supplier Quality in the Gig Economy: The Effectiveness of Signals in Freelance Job Markets

Inferring quality of labor suppliers is a challenge in the gig economy. Many online freelance job markets address this challenge by incorporating signals. We test effectiveness of two kinds of information signals as indicators of supplier quality: skill signal (which reflects suppliers’ skill and potential), and achievement signal (which reflects suppliers’ past achievement). We theorize that two job characteristics in cross-national labor demand settings strengthen effectiveness of these signals: job duration, and cultural distance. Econometric analysis on a dataset from a leading online freelance job marketplace containing information on jobs posted by buyers and completed by suppliers located across several countries supports our hypotheses. We find that both skill and achievement signals are more effective at inferring supplier quality in jobs involving longer duration, and in jobs involving greater cultural distance between buyers and suppliers

Differences in the immune response elicited by two immunization schedules with an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in a randomized phase 3 clinical trial

BACKGROUND: The development of vaccines to control the COVID-19 pandemic progression is a worldwide priority. CoronaVac® is an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine approved for emergency use with robust efficacy and immunogenicity data reported in trials in China, Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, and Chile. METHODS: This study is a randomized, multicenter, and controlled phase 3 trial in healthy Chilean adults aged ≥18 years. Volunteers received two doses of CoronaVac® separated by two (0-14 schedule) or four weeks (0-28 schedule). 2,302 volunteers were enrolled, 440 were part of the immunogenicity arm, and blood samples were obtained at different times. Samples from a single center are reported. Humoral immune responses were evaluated by measuring the neutralizing capacities of circulating antibodies. Cellular immune responses were assessed by ELISPOT and flow cytometry. Correlation matrixes were performed to evaluate correlations in the data measured. RESULTS: Both schedules exhibited robust neutralizing capacities with the response induced by the 0-28 schedule being better. No differences were found in the concentration of antibodies against the virus and different variants of concern between schedules. Stimulation of PBMCs with MPs induced the secretion of IFN-g and the expression of activation induced markers for both schedules. Correlation matrixes showed strong correlations between neutralizing antibodies and IFN-g secretion. CONCLUSIONS: Immunization with CoronaVac® in Chilean adults promotes robust cellular and humoral immune responses. The 0-28 schedule induced a stronger humoral immune response than the 0-14 schedule. FUNDING: Ministry of Health, Government of Chile, Confederation of Production and Commerce & Millennium Institute on Immunology and Immunotherapy, Chile. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: NCT04651790

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Where are we now with European forest multi-taxon biodiversity and where can we head to?

The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research gaps; iii) discuss its research potential. We established a research network to fit data on species, standing trees, lying deadwood and sampling unit description from 34 local datasets across 3591 sampling units. A total of 8724 species were represented, with the share of common and rare species varying across taxonomic classes: some included many species with several rare ones (e.g., Insecta); others (e.g., Bryopsida) were represented by few common species. Tree-related structural attributes were sampled in a subset of sampling units (2889; 2356; 2309 and 1388 respectively for diameter, height, deadwood and microhabitats). Overall, multitaxon studies are biased towards mature forests and may underrepresent the species related to other developmental phases. European forest compositional categories were all represented, but beech forests were overrepresented as compared to thermophilous and boreal forests. Most sampling units (94%) were referred to a habitat type of conservation concern. Existing information may support European conservation and SFM strategies in: (i) methodological harmonization and coordinated monitoring; (ii) definition and testing of SFM indicators and thresholds; (iii) data-driven assessment of the effects of environmental and management drivers on multi-taxon forest biological and functional diversity, (iv) multi-scale forest monitoring integrating in-situ and remotely sensed information. Forest biodiversity Multi-taxon Sustainable management Biodiversity conservation Forest stand structurepublishedVersio