Ambidextrous Organizational Culture, Contextual Ambidexterity and New Product Innovation:A Comparative Study of UK and Chinese High‐tech Firms

Contextual ambidexterity is of paramount importance for new product innovation and organizational success, particularly in high-tech firms operating in a dynamic environment. Whilst it is recognized that contextual ambidexterity is grounded in organizational culture, existing research has not crystallized what kind of organizational culture enables contextual ambidexterity and consequently new product innovation. In this paper, drawing on data from 150 UK and 242 Chinese high-tech firms, we conceptualize ambidextrous organizational culture as a higher-order construct consisting of organizational diversity and shared vision, and examine its impacts on contextual ambidexterity and consequently on new product innovation outcomes. Using structural equation modelling, we find significant relationships among ambidextrous organizational culture, contextual ambidexterity and new product innovation outcomes; contextual ambidexterity mediates the relationship between ambidextrous organizational culture and new product innovation outcomes. Our findings also suggest that the above relationships are robust in the UK-China comparative research context, and that contextual ambidexterity and new product innovation outcomes are dependent on business unit level heterogeneity (i.e. ambidextrous organizational culture and R&D strength) rather than industry or cross-cultural differences.Economic and Social Research Council, the U

Identification of compounds with anti-human cytomegalovirus activity that inhibit production of IE2 proteins

Using a high throughput screening methodology we surveyed a collection of largely uncharacterized validated or suspected kinase inhibitors for anti-human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) activity. From this screen we identified three structurally related 5-aminopyrazine compounds (XMD7-1, -2 and -27) that inhibited HCMV replication in virus yield reduction assays at low micromolar concentrations. Kinase selectivity assays indicated that each compound was a kinase inhibitor capable of inhibiting a range of cellular protein kinases. Western blotting and RNA sequencing demonstrated that treatment of infected cells with XMD7 compounds resulted in a defect in the production of the major HCMV transcriptional transactivator IE2 proteins (IE2-86, IE2-60 and IE2-40) and an overall reduction in transcription from the viral genome. However, production of certain viral proteins was not compromised by treatment with XMD7 compounds. Thus, these novel anti-HCMV compounds likely inhibited transcription from the viral genome and suppressed production of a subset of viral proteins by inhibiting IE2 protein production

Collaborative Strategic Foresight and New Product Development in Chinese Pharmaceutical Firms

We integrate insights from open innovation and collaborative strategic foresight (CSF) to theorize collaborative innovation practice. Adopting a case-based approach, we draw qualitative insights from two Chinese pharmaceutical firms - one private and one state-owned, both engaged in new product development (NPD) projects. Focusing on how firms leverage CSF to support their NPD, we offer an interpretive account of how the two firms take different approaches to orchestrating their strategic partnerships to identify, explore, and exploit opportunities for innovation. This article sheds light on how focal firms, through SF practices of perceiving, prospecting, and probing, translate ideas and insights gained from collaborating partners into action to support their innovation processes. Expanding and shifting the focus of traditional strategic foresight from an inward-looking orientation to an outward-looking CSF, we show how focal firms could tap into distributed knowledge embedded in sources located beyond the theoretical boundaries of the firm. We argue that appropriately managed CSF at different stages of NPD could help companies to better sense, seize, and integrate potentialities and limits otherwise overlooked by their competitors. We reveal that the type of ownership, an unexplored factor, explains a firm's different CSF approaches (explorative versus exploitative) in innovation for NPD

Defining genetic determinants of the Metabolic Syndrome in the Framingham Heart Study using association and structural equation modeling methods

The Metabolic Syndrome (MetSyn), which is a clustering of traits including insulin resistance, obesity, hypertension and dyslipidemia, is estimated to have a substantial genetic component, yet few specific genetic targets have been identified. Factor analysis, a sub-type of structural equation modeling (SEM), has been used to model the complex relationships in MetSyn. Therefore, we aimed to define the genetic determinants of MetSyn in the Framingham Heart Study (Offspring Cohort, Exam 7) using the Affymetrix 50 k Human Gene Panel and three different approaches: 1) an association-based "one-SNP-at-a-time" analysis with MetSyn as a binary trait using the World Health Organization criteria; 2) an association-based "one-SNP-at-a-time" analysis with MetSyn as a continuous trait using second-order factor scores derived from four first-order factors; and, 3) a multivariate SEM analysis with MetSyn as a continuous, second-order factor modeled with multiple putative genes, which were represented by latent constructs defined using multiple SNPs in each gene. Results were similar between approaches in that CSMD1 SNPs were associated with MetSyn in Approaches 1 and 2; however, the effects of CSMD1 diminished in Approach 3 when modeled simultaneously with six other genes, most notably CETP and STARD13, which were strongly associated with the Lipids and MetSyn factors, respectively. We conclude that modeling multiple genes as latent constructs on first-order trait factors, most proximal to the gene's function with limited paths directly from genes to the second-order MetSyn factor, using SEM is the most viable approach toward understanding overall gene variation effects in the presence of multiple putative SNPs