Organizing the innovation process : complementarities in innovation networking

This paper contributes to the developing literature on complementarities in organizational design. We test for the existence of complementarities in the use of external networking between stages of the innovation process in a sample of UK and German manufacturing plants. Our evidence suggests some differences between the UK and Germany in terms of the optimal combination of innovation activities in which to implement external networking. Broadly, there is more evidence of complementarities in the case of Germany, with the exception of the product engineering stage. By contrast, the UK exhibits generally strong evidence of substitutability in external networking in different stages, except between the identification of new products and product design and development stages. These findings suggest that previous studies indicating strong complementarity between internal and external knowledge sources have provided only part of the picture of the strategic dilemmas facing firms

Distribution, relative abundance and developmental morphology of paralarval cephalopods in the Western North Atlantic Ocean

Paralarval and juvenile cephalopods collected in plankton samples on 21 western North Atlantic cruises were identified and enumerated. The 3731 specimens were assigned to 44 generic and specific taxa. This paper describes their spatial and temporal distributions and their developmental morphology. The smallest paralarvae recognized for a number of species are identified and illustrated. The two most abundant and most frequently collected taxa were identifiable to species based on known systematic characters of young, as well as on distribution of the adults. These were the neritic squids Loligo pealeii and Illex illecebrosus collected north of Cape Hatteras, both valuable fishery resources. Other abundant taxa included two morphotypes of ommastrephids, at least five species of enoploteuthids, two species of onychoteuthids, and unidentified octopods. Most taxa were distributed widely both in time and in space, although some seasonal and mesoscale-spatial patterns were indicated. The taxa that appeared to have distinct seasonal distribution included most of the neritic species and, surprisingly, the young of the bathypelagic cranchiids. In eight seasonal cruises over the continental shelf of the middle U.S. Atlantic states, neritic taxa demonstrated approximately the same seasonal patterns during two consecutive years. Interannual differences in the oceanic taxa collected on the shelf were extreme. The highest abundance and diversity of planktonic cephalopods in the oceanic samples were consistently found in the vicinity of the Gulf Stream. Only eight of the oceanic taxa appeared to have limited areal distributions, compared with twelve taxa that were found throughout the western North Atlantic regions sampled in this study. Many taxa, however, were not collected frequently enough to describe seasonal or spatial patterns. Comparisons with published accounts of other cephalopod surveys indicate both strengths and weaknesses in various sampling techniques for capturing the young of oceanic cephalopods. Enoploteuthids were abundant both in our study and in other studies using midwater trawls in several areas of the North Atlantic. Thus, this family probably is adequately sampled over its developmental range. In contrast, octopoteuthids and chtenopterygiids are rare in collections made by small to medium-sized midwater trawls but are comparatively common in plankton samples. For families that are relatively common in plankton samples, paralarval abundance, derived similarly to the familiar ichthyoplankton surveys of fisheries science, may be the most reliable method of gathering data on distribution and abundance. (PDF file contains 58 pages.

Feasibility of Implementing Technology-Assisted Intervention for the Treatment of Mental Health-Related Problems in Rural Communities

In recent years advances in technology have begun to permeate the everyday lives of citizens in the United States. Technology has affected the way people send and receive information, communication, and entertainment. The world is more connected today than at any other time in history. However, despite this connectivity, there are still rural populations in the United States that remain underserved and disconnected in many areas, including mental health services. This study seeks to understand the feasibility of serving the mental health needs of rural residents through a method of delivery called technology-assisted intervention (TAI). This study polled referral sources, service providers, service facilities, state and professional organizations\u27 rules and regulations, and insurance reimbursement as they pertain to the delivery of mental health services through TAI. The results of this study suggest that there would be a referral base from the sources polled, interest from the service providers, and a willingness to provide space from service facilities. State laws and professional organizations that mental health professionals belong to did not identify any ethical issues that would be associated with TAI, and reimbursement from insurance companies was also discovered to be accessible. Suggestions and recommendations for further research into the establishment of rural mental health and TAI were also discussed

The Historical Basis for a Methodist Theodicy

Review of theology relating to Methodist beliefs as well as other related systems of theology

Natural age dispersion arising from the analysis of broken crystals, part I. Theoretical basis and implications for the apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometer

Over the last decade major progress has been made in developing both the theoretical and practical aspects of apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry and it is now standard practice, and generally seen as best practice, to analyse single grain aliquots. These individual prismatic crystals are often broken and are fragments of larger crystals that have broken during mineral separation along the weak basal cleavage in apatite. This is clearly indicated by the common occurrence of only 1 or no clear crystal terminations present on separated apatite grains, and evidence of freshly broken ends when grains are viewed using a scanning electron microscope. This matters because if the 4He distribution within the whole grain is not homogeneous, because of partial loss due to thermal diffusion for example, then the fragments will all yield ages different from each other and from the whole grain age. Here we use a numerical model with a finite cylinder geometry to approximate 4He ingrowth and thermal diffusion within hexagonal prismatic apatite crystals. This is used to quantify the amount and patterns of inherent, natural age dispersion that arises from analysing broken crystals. A series of systematic numerical experiments were conducted to explore and quantify the pattern and behaviour of this source of dispersion using a set of 5 simple thermal histories that represent a range of plausible geological scenarios. In addition some more complex numerical experiments were run to investigate the pattern and behaviour of grain dispersion seen in several real data sets. The results indicate that natural dispersion of a set of single fragment ages (defined as the range divided by the mean) arising from fragmentation alone varies from c. 7% even for rapid (c. 10 ∘C/Ma), monotonic cooling to over 50% for protracted, complex histories that cause significant diffusional loss of 4He. The magnitude of dispersion arising from fragmentation scales with the grain cylindrical radius, and is of a similar magnitude to dispersion expected from differences in absolute grain size alone (spherical equivalent radii of 40 to 150 μm). This source of dispersion is significant compared with typical analytical uncertainties on individual grain analyses (c. 6%) and standard deviations on multiple grain analyses from a single sample (c. 10-20%). Where there is a significant difference in the U and Th concentration of individual grains (eU), the effect of radiation damage accumulation on 4He diffusivity (assessed using the RDAAM model of Flowers et al. (2009)) is the primary cause of dispersion for samples that have experienced a protracted thermal history, and can cause dispersion in excess of 100% for realistic ranges of eU conentration (i.e. 5-100 ppm). Expected natural dispersion arising from the combined effects of reasonable variations in grain size (radii 40-125 μm), eU concentration (5-150 ppm) and fragmentation would typically exceed 100% for complex thermal histories. In addition to adding a significant component of natural dispersion to analyses, the effect of fragmentation also acts to decouple and corrupt expected correlations between grain ages and absolute grain size and to a lesser extent between grain age and effective uranium concentration (eU). Considering fragmentation explicitly as a source of dispersion and analysing how the different sources of natural dispersion all interact with each other provides a quantitative framework for understanding patterns of dispersion that otherwise appear chaotic. An important outcome of these numerical experiments is that they demonstrate that the pattern of age dispersion arising from fragmentation mimics the pattern of 4He distribution within the whole grains, thus providing an important source of information about the thermal history of the sample. We suggest that if the primary focus of a study is to extract the thermal history information from (U-Th)/He analyses then sampling and analytical strategies should aim to maximise the natural dispersion of grain ages, not minimise it, and should aim to analyse circa 20-30 grains from each sample. The key observations and conclusions drawn here are directly applicable to other thermochronometers, such as the apatite, rutile and titanite U-Pb systems, where the diffusion domain is approximated by the physical grain size

Transparency and disclosure in supply chains: modern slavery and worker voice

Under section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA), large British companies are required to report on their efforts to monitor and protect the labour rights of their employees and workers on an annual basis. There are however criticisms. First, there is no requirement to audit Modern Slavery statements and this raises question over the credibility of the information that companies report. Second, the MSA is a soft governance tool that allows too much reporting flexibility. While the original intention behind this was to encourage companies to get to know their supply chains in the first place and subsequently focus on improving their reporting over time, there have been general calls to tighten up the non-mandatory reporting requirements of the MSA in the hope that this would in turn result in better quality of reporting. In this report, we present the key findings for our detailed examination of the Modern Slavery Statements of the largest 100 British companies. In order to examine the statements, we devised a detailed index, based on (a) the mandatory and optional aspects of the Modern Slavery Act (2015, s. 54), (b) content recommended by CORE (2017) and (c) additional criteria based on consultation with The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, an internationally based labour rights NGO with an office in London. We focus on 6 information categories. Apart from the General Information, which covers mostly mandatory disclosures, the remaining five categories were optional under section 54. These five categories are: Organisation and Structure of Supply chains, OS; Due Diligence, DD; Risk Assessment, RA; Codes of Conduct/Policies/Strategy(ies), CPS; and Training collaboration, TC. We find that of the five non-mandatory information categories, companies prioritise reporting on two: RA procedures and DD processes These are the categories of most importance to investors. We find that any changes to reporting on these two categories are positively linked to reporting on CPS but not to those on OS and TC. While the level of reporting for all the three latter categories were lower than reporting on RA and DD, the reason why changes in CPS is closely linked those of the RA and DD lies in the way companies report to illustrate their parallel efforts to devise the necessary CPS to support the outcome of RA and facilitate the implementation of DD processes. However, the same could not be said about OS and TC. It was evident that while companies are reluctant to draw attention to potential challenges and problematic areas along their supply chains, they show limited efforts on their training programmes, raising questions over how in-depth corporate efforts have been in changing their culture on labour rights issues and/or perhaps the more serious challenges that they encounter in the process of devising training programmes. While our findings reveal an interesting reporting pattern, we can see areas that we still have very limited knowledge of before any meaningful proposals can be made to move the labour rights reporting agenda forward. We anticipate that there are complexities and challenges that companies face along their supply chains, especially in areas that are outside their national jurisdictions and where the legal framework can be either weak or non-existent and/or regional norms and cultures are in a way that can make it controversial or costly for companies to devise training programmes at local level

Benevolent authoritarianism, paternalism and religious humanitarianism in Sri Lanka: a dependent or autonomous HR?

This article examines the cases of five Sri Lankan export-oriented companies, each situated within global production networks (GPN) with British companies at the apex. In examining their managerial practices, a strong similarity to the practices associated with Anglo-Saxon paternalism is identified. However, these observed parallels are a product of local circumstances and the particular location within the GPN rather than a consequence of any emulation of British practices. The resulting system reflects a high power-dependency relationship that employers hold over ­employees. In this sense, the emergent HR system is partly dependent on the position in the GPN and partly autonomous. The system is characterised by a gendered division of labour and by the proximity of managerial oversight over the issue of worker autonomy. The factory setting has lower levels of worker autonomy and dependency compared to tea harvesting. One outlying exception to the general paternalistic approach, in one of the companies studied, is where the religious and ethnic makeup of the workforce is not shared with management, leading to increased conflict with the unionised workforce. The nature of Sri Lankan paternalism is specific and endogenous, but the conditions creating this paternalism are likely to be replicated elsewhere