Mind the gap: Balancing alliance network and technology portfolios during periods of technological uncertainty

While clique-embeddedness is generally considered to enhance firm performance, there are also reasons to expect that under conditions of technological turbulence clique-membership is less beneficial or might even become a liability. To address this, we study the innovative performance of clique members during periods of both technological change and technological stability. We find support for the idea that companies’ ability to adapt their alliance network (i.e. forming ties beyond the scope of the clique) and their ability to adapt their technology portfolios (i.e. access to novel technological knowledge) positively influences their innovative performance during technologically turbulent periods

Co-word analysis for the non-scientific information example of Reuters Business Briefings

Co-word analysis is based on a sociological theory developed by the CSI and the SERPIA (Callon, Courtial, Turner, 1991) in the mid eighties. This method, originally dedicated to scientific fields, measures the association strength between terms in documents to reveal and visualise the evolution of scientific fields through the construction of clusters and strategic diagram. This method has since been successfully applied to investigate the structure of many scientific areas. Nowadays it occurs in many software systems which are used by companies to improve their business, and define their strategy but its relevance to this kind of application has not been proved yet. Using the example of economic and marketing information on DSL technologies from Reuters Business Briefing, this presentation gives an interpretation of co-word analysis for this kind of information. After an overview of the software we used (Sampler) and after an outline of the experimental protocol, we investigate and explain each step of the co-word analysis process: terminological extraction, computation of clusters and the strategic diagram. In particular, we explain the meaning of each parameter of the method: the choice of variables and similarity measures is discussed. Finally we try to give a global interpretation of the method in an economic context. Further studies will be added to this work in order to allow a generalisation of these results

Workload monotony, strain and non-contact injury incidence in professional football players

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyse the association of the workload monotony and workload strain with the injury incidence with professional football players taking part in European football competitions. Methods: A total of 130 elite football players, from 5 teams playing European competitions, have been followed during a season. The internal workload was calculated using the Session Rate of Perceived Exertion method and the injuries were recorded. The 4-weeks, 3-weeks, 2-weeks and 1-week monotony (mean workload divided by workload standard deviation) and strain (absolute workload multiplied by monotony) were calculated on a daily basis, using a rolling days method. Results: The 4-weeks monotony was related to injury incidence. The relative risk (RR) of injury is decreased with an increase in 4-weeks monotony (RR = 0.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.58–0.90; P = 0.004). The injury incidence was related to the 4-weeks strain. The RR of injury is increased with an increase 4-weeks strain (RR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.14–1.97; P = 0.004). Conclusions: The links between a high 4-weeks monotony and the injury incidence, and the links between a high 4-weeks strain and the injury incidence indicate that monotony and strain were associated with injury incidence in elite football players and require to be monitored

Workload and non-contact injury incidence in elite football players competing in European leagues.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between absolute and acute:chronic workload ratios and non-contact injury incidence in professional football players and to assess their predictive ability. METHODS: Elite football players (n = 130) from five teams competing in European domestic and confederation level competitions were followed during one full competitive season. Non-contact injuries were recorded and using session rate of perceived exertion (s-RPE) internal absolute workload and acute:chronic (A:C) workload ratios (4-weeks, 3-weeks, 2-weeks and week-to-week) were calculated using a rolling days method. RESULTS: The relative risk (RR) of non-contact injury was increased (RR = 1.59, CI95%: 1.18-2.15) when a cumulative 4-week absolute workload was greater than 10629 arbitrary units (AU) in comparison with a workload between 3745 and 10628 AU. When the 3-week absolute workload was more than 8319 AU versus between 2822 and 8318 AU injury risk was also increased (RR= 1.46, CI95% 1.08-1.98). Injury incidence was higher when the 4-week A:C ratio was 0.85 (RR = 1.31, CI95%: 1.02-1.70) and with a 3-week A:C ratio >1.30 versus <1.30 (RR = 1.37, CI95%: 1.05-1.77). Importantly, none of the A:C workload combinations showed high sensitivity or specificity. CONCLUSIONS: In elite European footballers, using internal workload (sRPE) revealed that cumulative workloads over 3 and 4 weeks were associated with injury incidence. Additionally, A:C workloads, using combinations of 2, 3 and 4 weeks as the C workloads were also associated with increased injury risk. No A:C workload combination was appropriate to predict injury

Effects of a Strength Training Session After an Exercise Inducing Muscle Damage on Recovery Kinetics.

Abaïdia, A-E, Delecroix, B, Leduc, C, Lamblin, J, McCall, A, Baquet, G, and Dupont, G. Effects of a strength training session after an exercise inducing muscle damage on recovery kinetics. J Strength Cond Res 31(1): 115-125, 2017-The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an upper-limb strength training session the day after an exercise inducing muscle damage on recovery of performance. In a randomized crossover design, subjects performed the day after the exercise, on 2 separate occasions (passive vs. active recovery conditions) a single-leg exercise (dominant in one condition and nondominant in the other condition) consisting of 5 sets of 15 eccentric contractions of the knee flexors. Active recovery consisted of performing an upper-body strength training session the day after the exercise. Creatine kinase, hamstring strength, and muscle soreness were assessed immediately and 20, 24, and 48 hours after exercise-induced muscle damage. The upper-body strength session, after muscle-damaging exercise accelerated the recovery of slow concentric force (effect size = 0.65; 90% confidence interval = -0.06 to 1.32), but did not affect the recovery kinetics for the other outcomes. The addition of an upper-body strength training session the day after muscle-damaging activity does not negatively affect the recovery kinetics. Upper-body strength training may be programmed the day after a competition

Recovery From Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: Cold-Water Immersion Versus Whole-Body Cryotherapy.

PURPOSE: To compare the effects of cold-water immersion (CWI) and whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) on recovery kinetics after exercise-induced muscle damage. METHODS: Ten physically active men performed single-leg hamstring eccentric exercise comprising 5 sets of 15 repetitions. Immediately postexercise, subjects were exposed in a randomized crossover design to CWI (10 min at 10°C) or WBC (3 min at -110°C) recovery. Creatine kinase concentrations, knee-flexor eccentric (60°/s) and posterior lower-limb isometric (60°) strength, single-leg and 2-leg countermovement jumps, muscle soreness, and perception of recovery were measured. The tests were performed before and immediately, 24, 48, and 72 h after exercise. RESULTS: Results showed a very likely moderate effect in favor of CWI for single-leg (effect size [ES] = 0.63; 90% confidence interval [CI] = -0.13 to 1.38) and 2-leg countermovement jump (ES = 0.68; 90% CI = -0.08 to 1.43) 72 h after exercise. Soreness was moderately lower 48 h after exercise after CWI (ES = -0.68; 90% CI = -1.44 to 0.07). Perception of recovery was moderately enhanced 24 h after exercise for CWI (ES = -0.62; 90% CI = -1.38 to 0.13). Trivial and small effects of condition were found for the other outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: CWI was more effective than WBC in accelerating recovery kinetics for countermovement-jump performance at 72 h postexercise. CWI also demonstrated lower soreness and higher perceived recovery levels across 24-48 h postexercise