The Impact of Resource-Strategy Correspondence on Marketing Performance-Financial Performance Tradeoffs:

We suggest that the relationships between strategy and financial performance and between strategy and marketing performance depend on the resource bundle and strategy of a firm. The better the correspondence between strategy and resource bundle, the better the performance. We empirically test and find support for this explanation. By building empirically calibrated models of the marketing and financial performance, we are able to show that, indeed, the optimum strategies for the two are not the same and more importantly that the difference varies depending on the resource bundle of a firm

Dynamic capabilities to match multiple product generations and market rhythm

Purpose : The purpose of this paper is to provide greater insights to managers seeking to time properly the launches of innovative new products (NPs) across multiple generations. This paper aims to address the rhythm matching problem by developing a typology and a conceptual framework of the interaction between a firm’s technological readiness to launch NPs and a market’s receptivity in influencing a firm’s long-term performance. Design/methodology/approach –:Based on the new product development (NPD) and diffusion of innovation literatures, the paper develops a model explicitly to address the rhythm matching problem by highlighting the interaction between a firm’s technological readiness to launch new products and a market’s receptivity in influencing a firm’s long-term performance. The logic of this model may be described as follows: long-term performance is a function of matching: products to customer needs, marketingmix dynamics to customer segments and buying behavior dynamics, and logistics, supply chain management, and inventory to market dynamics and financial efficiency; uncertainty in: knowledge of needs, market segments and their dynamics, and market dynamics is all a function of time, as is financial efficiency. Therefore, a firm’s long-term performance is a function of these matches over time. Findings : Deriving from the proposed model and typology, it was found that in independent rhythm windows, the management focus is on a single generation and each successive generation can be planned independently. In market- imposed windows, firms aim at adapting their own NP readiness rhythm to the market receptivity rhythm. In firm-imposed windows, firms have the initiative to drive the market receptivity rhythm. In dynamically resultant windows, everything is more complicated because firms’ NP readiness rhythm and market receptivity rhythm influence each other. Originality/value : The model and typology developed in this paper are a breakthrough result of synthesizing various traditions of NPD and diffusion of innovation research. It is believed that the paper provides a rich conceptual framework drawing together extant research on the development and introduction of new products. The framework is intended both to explicitly inform managers of the importance of rhythm matching as well as to the factors that influence such matching. It is also intended to provide a lens with which further research can be directed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of resource utilization in NPD and the long- term success of the firms

Resource Configurations, Generic Strategies, and Firm Performance: Exploring the Parallels Between Resource-Based and Competitive Strategy Theories in a New Industry

Purpose – This paper, anchored in the resource-based view of the firm, attempts to develop linkages between firm-level resources, Porter’s competitive strategy space and firm performance and explores them in the context of a new industry – the marketing technology industry. Design/methodology/approach – In the marketing technology industry the authors classify resource configurations (generalists, specialists, innovators) which group firms with distinctive competences on similar resource dimensions. They then map these firm-level resource configurations onto their respective optimal strategies in the industry’s competitive strategy space. Findings – The major findings are: some firms that are close together in strategy space vary in performance; some firms that are close together in strategy space belong to quite different resource configurations; firms that belong to the same resource configuration (i.e. are close together in resource space and distant from others) vary in performance; given the origin (i.e. resource configuration) of a new entrant there exists an optimal strategy that can be theoretically defined; and corresponding to each resource configuration there seems to exist a unique optimal region in strategy space. Originality/value – It is one of few attempts to empirically explore the parallels between firm level resource-based and industry level competitive strategies

Universal observation of multiple order parameters in cuprate superconductors

The temperature dependence of the London penetration depth \lambda was measured for an untwined single crystal of YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta} along the three principal crystallographic directions (a, b, and c). Both in-plane components (\lambda_a and \lambda_b) show an inflection point in their temperature dependence which is absent in the component along the c-direction (\lambda_c). The data provide convincing evidence that the in-plane superconducting order parameter is a mixture of s+d-wave symmetry whereas it is exclusively s-wave along the c-direction. In conjunction with previous results it is concluded that coupled s+d-order parameters are universal and intrinsic to cuprate superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Q-dependence of the inelastic neutron scattering cross section for molecular spin clusters with high molecular symmetry

For powder samples of polynuclear metal complexes the dependence of the inelastic neutron scattering intensity on the momentum transfer Q is known to be described by a combination of so called interference terms. They reflect the interplay between the geometrical structure of the compound and the spatial properties of the wave functions involved in the transition. In this work, it is shown that the Q-dependence is strongly interrelated with the molecular symmetry of molecular nanomagnets, and, if the molecular symmetry is high enough, is actually completely determined by it. A general formalism connecting spatial symmetry and interference terms is developed. The arguments are detailed for cyclic spin clusters, as experimentally realized by e.g. the octanuclear molecular wheel Cr8, and the star like tetranuclear cluster Fe4.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figures, REVTEX

Sequence Effects on DNA Entropic Elasticity

DNA stretching experiments are usually interpreted using the worm-like chain model; the persistence length A appearing in the model is then interpreted as the elastic stiffness of the double helix. In fact the persistence length obtained by this method is a combination of bend stiffness and intrinsic bend effects reflecting sequence information, just as at zero stretching force. This observation resolves the discrepancy between the value of A measured in these experiments and the larger ``dynamic persistence length'' measured by other means. On the other hand, the twist persistence length deduced from torsionally-constrained stretching experiments suffers no such correction. Our calculation is very simple and analytic; it applies to DNA and other polymers with weak intrinsic disorder.Comment: LaTeX; postscript available at http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/~nelson/index.shtm

Quantum Statistics of Interacting Dimer Spin Systems

The compound TlCuCl3 represents a model system of dimerized quantum spins with strong interdimer interactions. We investigate the triplet dispersion as a function of temperature by inelastic neutron scattering experiments on single crystals. By comparison with a number of theoretical approaches we demonstrate that the description of Troyer, Tsunetsugu, and Wuertz [Phys. Rev. B 50, 13515 (1994)] provides an appropriate quantum statistical model for dimer spin systems at finite temperatures, where many-body correlations become particularly important.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Physical Review Letter