Effects of Mud from a Zinc-plating Plant and Zeolite Saturated with Zinc on Portland Cement Hydration and Properties of Hardened Cement Pastes

This work investigates the impact of mud from a zinc-plating plant and zeolite saturated with zinc on early hydration processes of ordinary Portland cement. During the first 48 hours of hydration, the addition of mud significantly affects the cement hydration kinetics. The partial replacement of cement with zeolite saturated with zinc ions, reduces the negative impact of mud on the hydration processes. Samples with the additions showed lower compressive strength than the sample without additions. With regard to the standard limits for this type of cement, mud shares are eligible up to 5 wt. % and a mixture of mud and saturated zeolite up to 10 wt. %

Introduction to the open innovation paradigm

This chapter introduces the teacher and the student to the open innovation paradigm. It points out the rationale for open innovation from the historical point of view and describes the differences between closed and open innovation. As open innovation has been observed in numerous contexts, this chapter addresses theories related to open innovation on one side and practical implications on the other. We discuss the incentives for firms to engage in open innovation, as well as the shortcomings from engaging in it. Competitiveness results from generating value propositions that differ from competitors’ value propositions. Innovation increases the customers’ value propositions and generates revenues for innovators or owners of innovation (Schumpeter, 1934). Innovation also generates value to the society, even if the innovator does not capture the majority of its profits (Teece, 1986). This chapter first defines innovation and then explains how open innovation helps firms to innovate easier and faster. Section 3.1.1. “Why open innovation?” defines innovation and describes how firms innovate. It augments the historical perspectives on innovation by depicting the differences between linear technology-driven innovation, linear market-driven innovation and the chain link model of innovation, thereby portraying the rationale for the theory of open innovation.. Section 3.1.2. “What is open innovation?” defines open innovation by presenting the differences between open and closed innovation on one side, and inbound, coupled and outbound innovation on the other side. Section 3.1.3. “Main incentives for open innovation” explains how firms benefit from engaging in open innovation, as well as the conditions that need to be satisfied for firms to extract value from open innovation. Section 3.1.4. “Open innovation in a broader context” describes theories that adopt or can be associated with open innovation. Section 3.1.5. “Critique to open innovation theory” exemplifies the drawbacks of the open innovation theory by explaining theoretical shortcomings and managerial implications

The impact of open-border organization culture and employees' knowledge, attitudes, and rewards with regards to open innovation: an empirical study

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to fill a significant research gap in academic literature pertaining to Open Innovation. In order to do so, this paper empirically tests the impact of organizational culture, employees' knowledge, attitudes, and rewards as antecedents and mediators of Open Innovation adoption in organizations, facilitating a more thorough understanding by utilizing an empirical multi-level approach. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyses the results of the "Identification of Industrial Needs for Open Innovation Education in Europe" survey through a quantitative analysis using logistic regression models. This survey includes 528 employees working in 28 different industrial sectors in 37 countries, most of which are in Europe. Findings: The results suggest a positive impact of organizational characteristics on the adoption of Open Innovation (i.e. including the adoption of outside-in and inside-out open innovation activities in participating organizations), showing that the openness of an organization's culture increases its likelihood of adopting an Open Innovation paradigm. More importantly, the results highlight the positive mediating effect of employees' knowledge and rewards on this relationship. Practical implications: The proposed multi-level approach offers new insight into organizational knowledge. It enables the improvement of Open Innovation and Knowledge Management practices in organizations by assisting practitioners and academics in recognizing the relationship between organizational culture; employees' knowledge, attitudes, and rewards; and the adoption of the Open Innovation paradigm. Social implications: This paper offers a possible explanation on why open-border cultures are more likely to have a successful open innovation adoption, by relating it to factors that advance in the presence of an open-border culture, such as active participation of OI relative departments in knowledge sourcing and knowledge exchange, and rewarding employees for open innovation activities. Originality/value: This paper presents a new framework which links organizational culture to Open Innovation, moving on from merely examining culture in terms of its positive or negative impact on Open Innovation adoption. It contributes to research on the Open Innovation paradigm and Knowledge Management by highlighting the significance of antecedents and mediators from a multi-level perspective using multiple units of analysis. Most previous studies focus on a single unit of analysis

The role of geographical distance on the relationship between cultural intelligence and knowledge transfer

Purpose: This paper's purpose is to investigate the ways in which the geographical distance between headquarters and subsidiaries moderates the relationship between cultural intelligence and the knowledge transfer process. Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 103 senior expatriate managers working in Croatia from several European and non-European countries was used to test the hypotheses. Data were collected using questionnaires, while the methodology employed to test the relationship between the variables was Partial least square. Furthermore, interaction-moderation effect was utilised to test the impact of geographical distance and, for testing control variables, Partial least square multigroup analysis was used. Findings: Cultural Intelligence plays a significant role in the knowledge transfer process performance. However, geographical distance has the power to moderate this relationship based on the direction of knowledge transfer. In conventional knowledge transfer, geographical distance has no significant impact. On the contrary, data have shown that, in reverse knowledge transfer, geographical distance has a moderately relevant effect. We supposed that these findings could be connected to the specific location of the knowledge produced by subsidiaries. Practical implications: Multinational companies should take into consideration that the further away a subsidiary is from the headquarters, and the varying difference between cultures, cannot be completely mitigated by the ability of the manager to deal with cultural differences, namely cultural intelligence. Thus, multinational companies need to allocate resources to facilitate the knowledge transfer between subsidiaries. Originality/value: The present study stresses the importance of cultural intelligence in the knowledge transfer process, opening up a new stream of research inside these two areas of research

Entrepreneurship education from a Croatian medical student's perspective

There has been an ongoing interest in establishing efficient methods of entrepreneurial education (EE). Within our knowledge, there is no academic research that interrogates entrepreneurship and EE for medical students. This research seeks to explore the perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship for medical students and investigate their expectations in EE. Firstly, perceptional differences in feasibility and desirability were investigated through cluster analysis. In the following step, ANOVA tests were used to examine differences in EE expectations. The data was collected using a survey questionnaire, which was developed and funded by the Tempus FoSentHE Project Consortium. Findings show that students can be clustered into four groups by taking perceived feasibility and desirability into consideration. Statistical differences were recorded for only seven of the twenty educational and entrepreneurial activities. In conclusion, students value networking activities, real experience, and prefer lecturers who are experienced entrepreneurs

Hydration Study of Ordinary Portland Cement in the Presence of Lead(II) Oxide

The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of the addition of lead(II) oxide on hydration heat and specific conductivity of a CEM I Portland cement. The heat released during hydration was determined by differential microcalorimetry up to 48 hours of hydration and the specific conductivity by a digital conductometer. Thermogravimetric analysis was employed in the characterization of the cement structure. The hydration heat results show that the addition of lead(II) oxide affects the cement hydration kinetics. Kinetic curves show that higher content of lead(II) oxide slows down the hydration processes and the heat values are lower. Addition of lead(II) oxide significantly delays the time to the appearance of maximum conductivity. Setting time is prescribed by standard for a particular type of cement and can be determined based on the appearance of specific conductivity maximum, which occurs at the setting time. It wasfound that the acceptable amount of lead (II) oxide in cement system was w = 0.25 wt. %