Die Geschäftsführung als Enabler der digitalen Transformation in kleinen Unternehmen

The management as enabler of digital transformation in small companiesThe advent of digital technologies is causing companies of all sizes and industries to change dramatically. The integration of digital technologies offers them the potential to renew processes, products and services, as well as business models. While the path to digital transformation has already been researched for large and medium-sized companies, it remains unclear which capabilities are necessary in small companies and companies that offer a service directly to the customer. Further, it remains unclear how these capabilities are developed. Based on a qualitative empirical study, we show the decisive role of the manager in the process of digital transformation. Furthermore, our results show how managers of small companies use their own social capital, the renewal of their own managerial cognition and the development of organizational digitalization skills to go through a digital transformation

Atomic force microscopy investigation of chemically stabilized pericardium tissue

Native and chemically stabilized porcine pericardium tissue was imaged by the contact mode atomic force microscopy (AFM), in air. Chemically stabilized pericardium is used as a tissue-derived biomaterial in various fields of the reconstructive and replacement surgery. Collagen type I is the main component of the fibrous layer of the pericardium tissue. In this study, the surface topography of collagen fibrils in their native state in tissue and after chemical stabilization with different cross-linking reagents: glutaraldehyde (GA), dimethyl suberimidate (DMS) and tannic acid (TA) was investigated. It has been found that chemical stabilization causes considerable changes in the surface topography of collagen fibrils as well as in the spatial organization of the fibrils within the tissue. The observed changes in the D-spacing pattern of the collagen fibril correspond to the formation of intrafibrilar cross-links, whereas formation of interfibrilar cross-links is mainly responsible for the observed tangled spatial arrangement of fibrils and crimp structure of the tissue surface. The crimp structure was distinctly seen for the GA cross-linked tissue. Surface heterogeneity of the cross-linking process was observed for the DMS-stabilized tissue. SDS-PAGE electrophoresis was performed in order to evaluate the stabilization effect of the tissues treated with the cross-linking reagents. It has been found that stabilization with DMS, GA or TA enhances significantly the tissue resistance to SDS/NaCl extraction. The relation between the tissue stability and changes in the topography of the tissue surface was interpreted in terms of different nature of cross-links formed by DMS, GA and TA with collagen