Contract Types, Institutional Distance and Operational Performance: Evidence from Global Trade Flows in the LNG Industry

Supporting Information is available online at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8551.12672#support-information-section .We would like to express our gratitude to Kpler for granting us access to its database in order to process their data and conduct this research study. The views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of their institutions and organizations. [Correction added on 7th of November 2022, after first online publication: Figure 1 and hypotheses numbers have been updated in this version.].Copyright © 2022 The Authors. In this study, we examine the relationship between contract types, institutional distance and operational performance in the context of cross-border trade in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry. Drawing on the buyer–supplier long-term relationships literature, we argue for a negative link between short-term contractual agreements and operational performance. Further, drawing insights from institutional theory, we contend that a high level of formal and informal institutional distance between the origin (i.e. supplier) and destination (i.e. buyer) countries reduces operational performance. We also argue that formal and informal institutional distance mitigates the negative effect of short-term contracts on operational performance. Finally, we draw on the role of ‘asymmetry in distance’ by examining the direct and moderating effect of both the relevance and direction of formal institutional distance. We test our assumptions using LNG global trade flows from 39 source countries to 44 destination countries over the 2008–2017 period (a total of 17,447 shipments). Our study extends our knowledge on the operational performance implications of buyer–supplier relationships and stresses the important role formal and informal institutional distance plays as a direct and moderating effect on this relationship

The Effect of Foreign Divestment on Subsequent Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of Spatial and Temporal Dispersion of Prior Divestment Experience

A free video abstract to accompany this article can be found online at: https://youtu.be/3aRL0bU7VH4Supporting information is available online at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8551.12786#support-information-section .Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Previous research has stressed the importance of the relationship between foreign divestment and subsequent firm performance. Yet, controversy remains, as some authors suggest that foreign divestment has a positive effect on firm performance, and others propose that foreign divestment has negative performance effects. To help reconcile this controversy, we first explicate existing arguments and argue that in the context of retail (de-)internationalisation, foreign divestment will have a predominantly negative effect on retailers’ financial performance. We then draw on organisational learning theory to argue that this negative performance effect of foreign divestment is contingent on (a) the spatial dispersion of previously divested foreign operations (i.e. the extent of geographical diversity of the foreign divestments the multinational enterprise [MNE] has conducted over a specified period of time), and (b) the temporal dispersion of previously divested foreign operations (i.e. the time between prior divestment episodes). Drawing on a panel of some of the largest retail MNEs over the 20-year period 1997–2016, we find that foreign divestment has a negative effect on retailers’ subsequent performance. Our results also indicate that the negative performance effect of foreign divestment is effectively mitigated by retailers’ prior divestment experience in spatially diverse and temporally dispersed settings

Identification of type III hyperlipoproteinemia by electrophoresis on cellulose acetate and indirect (Schiff's) staining

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32788/1/0000161.pd

Granular cell tumour of the soft tissues: a case report and literature review

Granular cell tumours (GCT) of the soft tissues are rare benign tumours but some time may be difficult to distinguish from malignant neoplasms. It is important that clinicians are aware of their existence. We present a new case of GCT of the soft tissues followed by a brief review of literature

Enabling the use of a planning agent for urban traffic management via enriched and integrated urban data

Improving a city’s infrastructure is seen as a crucial part of its sustainability, leading to efficiencies and opportunities driven by technology integration. One significant step is to support the integration and enrichment of a broad variety of data, often using state of the art linked data approaches. Among the many advantages of such enrichment is that this may enable the use of intelligent processes to autonomously manage urban facilities such as traffic signal controls. In this paper we document an attempt to integrate sets of sensor and historical data using a data hub and a set of ontologies for the data. We argue that access to such high level integrated data sources leads to the enhancement of the capabilities of an urban transport operator. We demonstrate this by documenting the development of a planning agent which uses such data as inputs in the form of logic statements, and when given traffic goals to achieve, outputs complex traffic signal strategies which help transport operators deal with exceptional events such as road closures or road traffic saturation. The aim is to create an autonomous agent which reacts to commands from transport operators in the face of exceptional events involving saturated roads, and creates, executes and monitors plans to deal with the effects of such events. We evaluate the intelligent agent in a region of a large urban area, under the direction of urban transport operators

Sialoblastoma- long-term follow-up and remission for a rare salivary malignancy

Sialoblastoma is a rare salivary neoplasm which presents either congenitally or during early infancy. It was originally considered a benign neoplasm, however a number of reported cases have documented locoregional recurrence and distant metastases. Currently, there is no consensus on the appropriate treatment for this neoplasm. We report on long term follow-up of a patient with metastatic sialoblastoma, and a brief discussion of the possible treatment modalities currently being considered

An unusual cause of haemoptysis in a young male

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumours are reported to occur in a variety of sites, including the head and neck, abdominal organs, central nervous system and urinary tract. They only rarely occur in the lung. We report a case of a 25-year-old male admitted with haemoptysis. His chest radiograph showed a peripheral right lung opacity and computed tomography revealed a right lower lobe soft tissue density mass. Bronchoscopy and fine needle aspiration were unhelpful. a diagnosis of pulmonary carcinoma was made, and the patient underwent a right lower lobectomy. On pathology, the tumor was found to be an inflammatory pseudotumor. These lesion are extremely rare, constituting less than 1% of pulmonary malignancies, but are known to occur in young patients. We believe clinicians need to retain an index of suspicion for the presence of this disease in young patients, which can masquerade as more common malignancies