An empirical investigation into the antecedents of knowledge dissemination at the strategic business unit level

The development of new products requires not only the continuous generation and acquisition of knowledge, but also the continuous dissemination of knowledge. New product development is a complex and multifunctional process that requires cross-functional input and effective coordination among specialized functional areas. However, the dissemination of knowledge does not always happen spontaneously. People with a technical background are often highly individualistic and do not naturally share knowledge. So, at least in a technical environment, the dissemination of knowledge must be fostered by the organization. In management research, particularly on technology and innovation management, there has been an explosion of interest in enhancing communication in new product development. The facilitating factors this research identifies would seem intuitively useful in enhancing knowledge dissemination; however, most of this research does not refer to knowledge dissemination explicitly, and these enhancing factors have not been empirically tested for this specific use. Research on knowledge and its management has not given much attention to the way knowledge in an organization is generated and disseminated, and the factors that can facilitate these processes. If such factors are mentioned, they are not empirically tested and their relative impact is not addressed. In this study we identified important factors in enhancing knowledge dissemination, validated the factors empirically, and determined their relative impact. We focused on technological knowledge, not on the individual level, but on the firm level. We deduced 17 potential facilitating factors from management research. After in-depth interviews executed at IBM, Philips, Microsoft, Motorola, Sony, Intel, and Merck, we made a selection of these factors on the basis of their perceived applicability by practitioners. In the end, 11 factors remained and these were empirically tested in 277 US high-technology firms, at the strategic business unit level. The results indicate that individual commitment to the firm, a long-term perspective on R&D, organizational crises, and the availability of lead user and supplier networks facilitate knowledge dissemination, while organization redundancy impedes it. Other potential factors, such as the use of information technologies, appear to be non-significant

Information technology, knowledge processes, and innovation success

Despite the obvious linkage between information technologies (IT) and knowledge processes and the apparent strategic importance of both, little research has done to explicitly examine how, if at all, IT and knowledge processes affect firm outcomes. The purpose of this study is to bridge this important gap and investigate whether knowledge processes mediate the relationship between IT and performance. An empirical test of research hypotheses involves collecting data from 277 high-technology firms. The results support our proposed mediating model, which provides a more complete understanding than heretofore of the IT-performance process. Our study concludes with a discussion of its implications for both IT design and knowledge management

Weerbaar substraat: praktijkproeven : ontwikkeling toets methodiek en eerste toetsing op gewasschade van tien concepten bij tomaat, komkommer en gerbera

De sector is op zoek naar nieuwe gewas bescherming zoals “weerbaar telen”. Hierbij wordt gestuurd op een ziekte- en plaag onderdrukking via het substraat en op een sterke- en productie verhogende plant. Er werden een tiental concepten onderzocht op fytotoxicit eit. De keuze van de concepten werd gebaseerd op beschikbaarheid van bouwstenen, gebruik in de praktijk, het aanschake len van meerdere mechanismen en experimentele meerwaarde. Het aanschakelen van meerdere mechanismen is belangrijk omdat dit de kans op weerbaarheid verhoogt tegen diverse ziekten en plagen. Ook werden meetmethoden verder uitgewerkt om weerbaarheid van substraat en plant in de praktijk te kunnen meten

Categorizing Different Approaches to the Cosmological Constant Problem

We have found that proposals addressing the old cosmological constant problem come in various categories. The aim of this paper is to identify as many different, credible mechanisms as possible and to provide them with a code for future reference. We find that they all can be classified into five different schemes of which we indicate the advantages and drawbacks. Besides, we add a new approach based on a symmetry principle mapping real to imaginary spacetime.Comment: updated version, accepted for publicatio

Classical Yang-Mills Black hole hair in anti-de Sitter space

The properties of hairy black holes in Einstein–Yang–Mills (EYM) theory are reviewed, focusing on spherically symmetric solutions. In particular, in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space (adS) stable black hole hair is known to exist for frak su(2) EYM. We review recent work in which it is shown that stable hair also exists in frak su(N) EYM for arbitrary N, so that there is no upper limit on how much stable hair a black hole in adS can possess

Novel Approach to Confront Electroweak Data and Theory

A novel approach to study electroweak physics at one-loop level in generic ${\rm SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y}$ theories is introduced. It separates the 1-loop corrections into two pieces: process specific ones from vertex and box contributions, and universal ones from contributions to the gauge boson propagators. The latter are parametrized in terms of four effective form factors $\bar{e}^2(q^2)$, $\bar{s}^2(q^2)$, $\bar{g}_Z^2(q^2)$ and $\bar{g}_W^2 (q^2)$ corresponding to the $\gamma\gamma$, $\gamma Z$, $ZZ$ and $WW$ propagators. Under the assumption that only the Standard Model contributes to the process specific corrections, the magnitudes of the four form factors are determined at $q^2=0$ and at q^2=\mmz by fitting to all available precision experiments. These values are then compared systematically with predictions of ${\rm SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y}$ theories. In all fits \alpha_s(\mz) and \bar{\alpha}(\mmz) are treated as external parameters in order to keep the interpretation as flexible as possible. The treatment of the electroweak data is presented in detail together with the relevant theoretical formulae used to interpret the data. No deviation from the Standard Model has been identified. Ranges of the top quark and Higgs boson masses are derived as functions of \alpha_s(\mz) and \bar{\alpha}(\mmz). Also discussed are consequences of the recent precision measurement of the left-right asymmetry at SLC as well as the impact of a top quark mass and an improved $W$ mass measurement.Comment: 123 pages, LaTeX (33 figures available via anonymous ftp), KEK-TH-375, KEK preprint 93-159, KANAZAWA-94-19, DESY 94-002, YUMS 94-22, SNUTP 94-82, to be published in Z.Phys.

Non-AIDS defining cancers in the D:A:D Study-time trends and predictors of survival : a cohort study

BACKGROUND:Non-AIDS defining cancers (NADC) are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV-positive individuals. Using data from a large international cohort of HIV-positive individuals, we described the incidence of NADC from 2004-2010, and described subsequent mortality and predictors of these.METHODS:Individuals were followed from 1st January 2004/enrolment in study, until the earliest of a new NADC, 1st February 2010, death or six months after the patient's last visit. Incidence rates were estimated for each year of follow-up, overall and stratified by gender, age and mode of HIV acquisition. Cumulative risk of mortality following NADC diagnosis was summarised using Kaplan-Meier methods, with follow-up for these analyses from the date of NADC diagnosis until the patient's death, 1st February 2010 or 6 months after the patient's last visit. Factors associated with mortality following NADC diagnosis were identified using multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression.RESULTS:Over 176,775 person-years (PY), 880 (2.1%) patients developed a new NADC (incidence: 4.98/1000PY [95% confidence interval 4.65, 5.31]). Over a third of these patients (327, 37.2%) had died by 1st February 2010. Time trends for lung cancer, anal cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma were broadly consistent. Kaplan-Meier cumulative mortality estimates at 1, 3 and 5 years after NADC diagnosis were 28.2% [95% CI 25.1-31.2], 42.0% [38.2-45.8] and 47.3% [42.4-52.2], respectively. Significant predictors of poorer survival after diagnosis of NADC were lung cancer (compared to other cancer types), male gender, non-white ethnicity, and smoking status. Later year of diagnosis and higher CD4 count at NADC diagnosis were associated with improved survival. The incidence of NADC remained stable over the period 2004-2010 in this large observational cohort.CONCLUSIONS:The prognosis after diagnosis of NADC, in particular lung cancer and disseminated cancer, is poor but has improved somewhat over time. Modifiable risk factors, such as smoking and low CD4 counts, were associated with mortality following a diagnosis of NADC