Inter-organizational linkages and resource dependence

Few studies have examined the relationship between inter-industry, inter-corporate ownership (ICO) patterns and inter-industry resource exchange patterns. Using data from Statistics Canada, this paper reveals a positive association between the degree of ICO linkages and the degree of input–output dependence among Canadian industry groups. This provides empirical support for the primary assertion of resource dependence theory: that corporations employ ICO linkages to manage their input–output dependence resulting from recurrent resource exchanges. This research differs from extant tests of resource dependence in that it uses data for the population of firms (over a size threshold) in Canada and includes all forms of interdependence between enterprises. The findings suggest scenarios in which corporations can adopt ICO linkages to manage resource dependence and reduce transaction costs

The history of multiple adverse childhood experiences in patients with schizophrenia is associated with more severe symptomatology and suicidal behavior with gender-specific characteristics

The current study aims to compare the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) between patients with schizophrenia and non-psychiatric control group, and to analyze the association of having suffered multiple ACEs with clinical symptoms of schizophrenia and suicidal behavior. A multicenter, cross-sectional study was conducted across three facilities in Buenos Aires, Argentina. One-hundred patients with schizophrenia and 50 healthy subjects were assessed with the Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire (ACE-Q), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). We observed that the prevalence of at least one ACE in schizophrenic patients was almost double in comparison with the non-psychiatric control group. Multiple ACEs were associated with persistent auditory hallucinations and lower negative symptoms in both sexes. Higher frequency of death ideation and a higher number of suicide attempts were reported among women. The strength of this study is the possibility of comparing the presence of ACEs between schizophrenic patients and non-psychiatric control using the same questionnaire in an under-reported sample of low socio-economic patients assisted in public hospitals. A limitation is that the history of ACEs relied on the retrospective assessment of childhood experiences, and adults could over-report ACEs because of recall bias.Fil: Prokopez, Cintia R.. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital Neuropsiquiatrico Braulio Aurelio Moyano.; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Farmacología; ArgentinaFil: Vallejos, Miguel Angel. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital Municipal "José Tiburcio Borda"; ArgentinaFil: Farinola, Romina. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital Municipal "José Tiburcio Borda"; ArgentinaFil: Alberio, Germán. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital Neuropsiquiatrico Braulio Aurelio Moyano.; ArgentinaFil: Caporusso, Gabriela B.. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Interzonal de Agudos "Eva Perón"; ArgentinaFil: Cozzarin, Linda G.. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Interzonal de Agudos "Eva Perón"; ArgentinaFil: Chiapella, Luciana Carla. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Departamento de Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Fuentes, Pamela. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires. Hospital Neuropsiquiatrico Braulio Aurelio Moyano.; ArgentinaFil: Daray, Federico Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Farmacologia; Argentin

Complementarities between organisational strategies and innovation

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether organizational strategies in various manufacturing industries are complementary with innovation. In particular, our interest is to discover which organizational strategies are complementary with major innovations (world-first and Canada-first). Knowledge of complementarity should pave the way for creating sustainable competitive advantage because the use of a complex strategy may be difficult to imitate. In other words, competitive advantage increases as the complexity of the strategy increases (i.e. because the number of strategy combinations follows a power law), which acts as a barrier to potential imitators (Rivkin, J.W. (2000) Imitation of Complex Strategies. Management Science, 46(6), 824-844.). Because of the static nature of our results (productivity and profit are for 1997), their interpretation can only be tentative. Thus, our research is really a first step along the road to understanding the (potential) importance of complementarities among firm strategies. Caveats aside, managers may want to compare their own firm's emphasis on particular strategies against what is empirically determined to be complementary with innovation and high-performance within their industry. The frequency of complementary pairs that involve innovation range from 40 to 50% depending on whether we are talking about profit, productivity, or strategies. This result is important—as it means that innovation outcomes are statistically significant for both increased productivity and increased profit. Furthermore, innovation was found to be complementary with many organizational strategies. The complementary strategies across industries were quite different, but this was expected to occur.Innovation, Strategy, Complementarity, Supermodular, Submodular,

Assessing Value-Based Plans in Public R&D Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

Part 11: e-GovernanceInternational audienceThere is a need for research regarding how to manage public research and development (R&D) to create societal values. The paper focuses on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in a case study, the microelectronics research center. Twenty-four factors (e.g. mission, internal R&D, collaboration and management-related factors) were constructed in a hierarchy model for assessing three innovation plans: knowledge, societal and commercial orientation. The AHP analysis reveals that commercial orientation has the highest impact score on innovation factors. However, given that the selected case study is a taxpayer-funded public R&D organisation, societal expectations have to be factored into their innovation plans. Hence, the paper provides a sensitivity analysis as a result of which a suggestion is made to increase the priority of collaboration-related factors to improve the impact of societal orientation

Sustainability of metals production: the case of copper

Economic and engineering models are developed for the cost of copper production in the USA in an attempt to answer the question: is copper mining sustainable, particularly if energy costs increase? A translog cost function is employed to develop the economic model. The independent variables are capital, labour, energy, and material prices, copper ore grade and time. The engineering model examines the energy required to mine and concentrate a kilogram of copper. The findings from the models support the proposition that the cost of producing copper will be lower on average in real terms in 2020 than it was in 2002. Time, representing the technology trend, is introduced into the economic model as a natural number, implying that the rate of technical change is constant; however, when time is introduced as the natural log of time, implying a decreasing rate of technological improvement, the increase in energy price is no longer offset by technology improvements, and a twofold increase in the price of energy will result in a forecast increase in the relative cost of producing copper. The true amount by which technology change can offset energy price increases and mineral grade decreases may well lie somewhere between that predicted from the chosen economic model and that flowing from the model, including the technology trend as the natural log of time

The impact of research and technology organizations on firm competitiveness. Measurement and determinants

Impact evaluation, Collaboration, Innovation, Universities, Technology transfer, O21, O25, O33,