Measuring the Distribution of Returns Among Stakeholders: Method and Application to US and Japanese Auto Companies

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A Survey Of New Product Development: Can Decentralization Alone Deliver?

Geographic decentralization of the new product development (NPD) process is seen by many as a necessary means to increase innovation and its cost-effectiveness.  Decentralization promotes innovation in many ways, especially by allowing better access to local knowledge pools.  This study's results, based on a survey of top executives in large manufacturing firms around the globe, give only mixed support to this view.  Decentralization is associated with increases in revenues from new product but the performance of firms with geographically decentralized NPD is inferior otherwise.  The key culprits seem to be the decrease in involvement of NPD stakeholders in firms with geographically decentralized NPD and the inability of firms with geographically decentralized NPD to generate a greater level of radical innovations. The study results are broadly consistent with academic research in this area

Knowledge Accumulation and Dissemination in MNEs: A Practice-Based Framework

Much has been written on the importance of knowledge accumulation and transfer within the network firm but two questions remain. First, what are the specifics of this process, particularly for high tacit content knowledge? Second, how can firms create a sustainable competitive advantage from knowledge acquired from outside the firm? We address the first question by proposing that the mechanisms of external knowledge capture and internal knowledge transfer can best be understood and studied not at the level of networked subsidiary firms, but at the micro-organizational level of Communities of Practice (CoPs). We then offer a model of the dynamics of organizational learning in network organizations, such as MNEs, which builds on this unit of analysis. This framework clarifies the link between CoPs and Networks of Practice (NoPs), by offering a novel conceptual model of how knowledge, particularly tacit, embedded knowledge, is absorbed. The framework also proposes a new link - that between CoPs and Internal Networks of Practice (INoPs), as another essential ingredient to knowledge accumulation and transfer within firms. We also propose that the firm-level architectural knowledge that is developed through INoPs is valuable and rare. In combination with the component knowledge that is developed through NoPs, architectural knowledge can create novel knowledge that may be a source of competitive advantage

Research Note On The Incremental Value Of Knowledge Workers

As firms seek to manage knowledge, they rely increasingly on knowledge workers. The assumption is often that the incremental value from hiring these knowledge workers accrues to firms, but theory indicates that it may not. In this research note, we examine this question.  We perform a cross-sectional study of 30 investment banks in the period 1992-96.  We use gross value of mergers and acquisitions business as a proxy for gross performance, and pre-tax operating income as a proxy for net performance.  The dependent variable and measure of knowledge workers is the number of “star” analysts, as measured by Wall Street Journal/Zacks rankings.  Our results strongly support the hypothesis that the number of star analysts in investment banking is positively associated with gross performance, and weakly support the hypothesis that they are not positively associated with net performance. If future research could generalize these conclusions, they could have implications for design of compensation systems in industries significantly employing knowledge workers

Structural and Electrical Remodeling of the Sinoatrial Node in Diabetes: New Dimensions and Perspectives

The sinoatrial node (SAN) is composed of highly specialized cells that mandate the spontaneous beating of the heart through self-generation of an action potential (AP). Despite this automaticity, the SAN is under the modulation of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). In diabetes mellitus (DM), heart rate variability (HRV) manifests as a hallmark of diabetic cardiomyopathy. This is paralleled by an impaired regulation of the ANS, and by a pathological remodeling of the pacemaker structure and function. The direct effect of diabetes on the molecular signatures underscoring this pathology remains ill-defined. The recent focus on the electrical currents of the SAN in diabetes revealed a repressed firing rate of the AP and an elongation of its tracing, along with conduction abnormalities and contractile failure. These changes are blamed on the decreased expression of ion transporters and cell-cell communication ports at the SAN (i.e., HCN4, calcium and potassium channels, connexins 40, 45, and 46) which further promotes arrhythmias. Molecular analysis crystallized the RGS4 (regulator of potassium currents), mitochondrial thioredoxin-2 (reactive oxygen species; ROS scavenger), and the calcium-dependent calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII) as metabolic culprits of relaying the pathological remodeling of the SAN cells (SANCs) structure and function. A special attention is given to the oxidation of CaMKII and the generation of ROS that induce cell damage and apoptosis of diabetic SANCs. Consequently, the diabetic SAN contains a reduced number of cells with significant infiltration of fibrotic tissues that further delay the conduction of the AP between the SANCs. Failure of a genuine generation of AP and conduction of their derivative waves to the neighboring atrial myocardium may also occur as a result of the anti-diabetic regiment (both acute and/or chronic treatments). All together, these changes pose a challenge in the field of cardiology and call for further investigations to understand the etiology of the structural/functional remodeling of the SANCs in diabetes. Such an understanding may lead to more adequate therapies that can optimize glycemic control and improve health-related outcomes in patients with diabetes

The final acylation step in aromatic dithiolopyrrolone biosyntheses: Identification and characterization of the first bacterium N-benzoyltransferase from Saccharothrix algeriensis NRRL B-24137

The last step in the biosynthesis of dithiolopyrrolone antibiotics was thought to involve the transfer of acyl group from acyl-CoA to pyrrothine/holothin core. In Saccharothrix algeriensis NRRL B-24137, two acyltransferases, an acetyltransferase and a benzoyltransferase were proposed to catalyze this step. We have previously identified, in Sa. algeriensis genome, two open read frames, actA and actB patiently encoded these enzymes. This study focuses primarily on the characterization of the protein encoded by actA. After cloning and expressing of actA in Escherichia coli BL21, the recombinant protein encoded by actA was purified. Selectivity of ActA for pyrrothine/holothin as substrate and different acyl-CoA as co-substrate was evaluated using two acyls-groups, linear and aromatic. The enzyme was shown to prefer aromatic groups over linear groups as donor group; further neither product nor transfer was observed for linear groups. Therefore ActA has been determined to be a pyrrothine/holothin N-benzoyltransferase which can either pyrrothine (Km of 72 μM) or holothin (Km of 129.5 μM) as substrates and benzoyl-CoA (Km of 348.65 and 395.28 μM) as co-substrates for pyrrothine and holothin, respectively. The optimum pH and temperature has been shown to be 8, 40 °C, respectively. ActA is the first enzyme characterized as N-benzoyltransferase in bacteria