Alliances and the innovation performance of corporate and public research spin-off firms

We explore the innovation performance benefits of alliances for spin-off firms, in particular spin-offs either from other firms or from public research organizations. During the early years of the emerging combinatorial chemistry industry, the industry on which our empirical analysis focuses, spin-offs engaged in alliances with large and established partners, partners of similar type and size, and with public research organizations, often for different reasons. We seek to understand to what extent alliances of spin-offs with other firms (either large- or small- and medium-sized firms) affected their innovation performance and also how this performance may have been affected by their corporate or public research background. We find evidence that in general alliances of spin-offs with other firms, in particular alliances with large firms, increased their innovation performance. Corporate spin-offs that formed alliances with other firms outperformed public research spin-offs with such alliances. This suggests that, in terms of their innovation performance, corporate spin-offs that engaged in alliances with other firms seemed to have benefitted from their prior corporate background. Interestingly, it turns out that the negative impact of alliances on the innovation performance of public research spin-offs was largely affected by their alliances with small- and medium-sized firms

Organizing risk: organization and management theory for the risk society

Risk has become a crucial part of organizing, affecting a wide range of organizations in all sectors. We identify, review and integrate diverse literatures relevant to organizing risk, building on an existing framework that describes how risk is organized in three ‘modes’ – prospectively, in real-time, and retrospectively. We then identify three critical issues in the existing literature: its fragmented nature; its neglect of the tensions associated with each of the modes; and its tendency to assume that the meaning of an object in relation to risk is singular and stable. We provide a series of new insights with regard to each of these issues. First, we develop the concept of a risk cycle that shows how organizations engage with all three modes and transition between them over time. Second, we explain why the tensions have been largely ignored and show how studies using a risk work perspective can provide further insights into them. Third, we develop the concept of risk translation to highlight the ways in the meanings of risks can be transformed and to identify the political consequences of such translations. We conclude the paper with a research agenda to elaborate these insights and ideas further

Meteorological analysis : third progress report.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/3586/5/bac4618.0003.001.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/3586/4/bac4618.0003.001.tx

Meteorological analysis : fourth progress report.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/3587/5/bac4618.0004.001.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/3587/4/bac4618.0004.001.tx

Meteorological analysis : fifth progress report.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/3588/5/bac4618.0005.001.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/3588/4/bac4618.0005.001.tx

Meteorological analysis : final report.

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/3589/5/bac4618.0006.001.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/3589/4/bac4618.0006.001.tx