Étude des pratiques d’innovation ouverte et de collaboration dans l’industrie aérospatiale canadienne : l’ouverture comme levier stratégique de l’innovation

RÉSUMÉ : L'innovation ouverte est un des sujets les plus discutés en sciences de la gestion. Dans le modèle ouvert, l’entreprise ouvre son processus d’innovation à des idées venues de l’extérieur et partage ou commercialise des idées et connaissances développées en interne. De nombreux travaux de recherche étudient dans quelle mesure et comment ce nouveau paradigme est adopté à travers différentes industries de haute technologie. Néanmoins, peu de travaux s'intéressent à l'aérospatiale, l'une des industries phares au Canada. Par ailleurs, peu de données sont disponibles sur l'innovation ouverte et ses implications. En particulier, bien que la littérature souligne les avantages de l’innovation ouverte, son impact sur la performance des entreprises n’est pas clairement démontré. L’objectif de ce projet est double. Il s’agit d’une part, de dresser un bilan de l’adoption et de la pratique de l’IO dans l’industrie aérospatiale canadienne et d’autre part, de déterminer si l’IO a un impact sur la performance en innovation. Pour cela, nous utilisons des données collectées auprès de 71 entreprises de l’industrie aérospatiale canadienne au moyen d’un questionnaire. Nous résultats montrent que les entreprises sondées ont commencé à ouvrir leur processus d’innovation. Néanmoins, cette ouverture est relative et les entreprises n’ont pas véritablement intégré tous les principes de l’innovation ouverte dans leur stratégie. Les stratégies d’ouverture les plus répandues dans notre échantillon sont la collaboration et l’externalisation des activités de recherche et développement. Nous observons que les entreprises ouvertes sont confrontées à des barrières culturelles plus importantes que les entreprises fermées en ce qui concerne l’internalisation de connaissances externes. Cela pourrait expliquer pourquoi les entreprises de l’échantillon n’ont pas intégré l’ensemble des principes de l’IO dans leur stratégie d’entreprise. Par ailleurs, nous trouvons que l’implantation de l’innovation ouverte dans l’organisation a un effet positif sur la performance en innovation. Il s’agit d’un résultat intéressant pour les gestionnaires, puisqu’il montre que l’adoption de l’innovation ouverte devrait apporter des bénéfices à leur entreprise.----------ABSTRACT : Open innovation (OI) is one of the most discussed topics in management literature. In the open model, companies open up their innovation process to external ideas and share or commercialize ideas and knowledge that were developed internally. Many research papers study if and how this new paradigm is being adopted throughout several high technology industries. Nevertheless, few studies examine the case of aerospace, one of Canada’s flagship industries. Furthermore, empirical data on OI and its implications is scarce. In particular, although the benefits of OI are acknowledged in the literature, its impact on innovation performance has yet been clearly demonstrated. The goal of this project is twofold. First, we aim at presenting a comprehensive view of OI adoption and OI practices in the Canadian aerospace industry. Then, we want to determine if OI has an impact on the firms’ innovative performance. For this purpose, we analyze data collected from 71 Canadian aerospace companies by means of a survey. Our results show that the surveyed companies have started opening up their innovation process. However, this openness is relative and the companies have not truly integrated all OI principles in their corporate strategy. Most common OI strategies within our sample are collaboration and outsourcing of research and development activities. We find that open companies face higher cultural barriers regarding inflows of external knowledge. This might explain why the surveyed companies have yet incorporated all OI principles in their corporate strategy. Furthermore, we find that OI adoption has a positive impact on innovation performance. This finding is of interest for managers since it shows adopting OI is likely to result in benefits for their company

Hem-1 Complexes Are Essential for Rac Activation, Actin Polymerization, and Myosin Regulation during Neutrophil Chemotaxis

Migrating cells need to make different actin assemblies at the cell's leading and trailing edges and to maintain physical separation of signals for these assemblies. This asymmetric control of activities represents one important form of cell polarity. There are significant gaps in our understanding of the components involved in generating and maintaining polarity during chemotaxis. Here we characterize a family of complexes (which we term leading edge complexes), scaffolded by hematopoietic protein 1 (Hem-1), that organize the neutrophil's leading edge. The Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein family Verprolin-homologous protein (WAVE)2 complex, which mediates activation of actin polymerization by Rac, is only one member of this family. A subset of these leading edge complexes are biochemically separable from the WAVE2 complex and contain a diverse set of potential polarity-regulating proteins. RNA interference–mediated knockdown of Hem-1–containing complexes in neutrophil-like cells: (a) dramatically impairs attractant-induced actin polymerization, polarity, and chemotaxis; (b) substantially weakens Rac activation and phosphatidylinositol-(3,4,5)-tris-phosphate production, disrupting the (phosphatidylinositol-(3,4,5)-tris-phosphate)/Rac/F-actin–mediated feedback circuit that organizes the leading edge; and (c) prevents exclusion of activated myosin from the leading edge, perhaps by misregulating leading edge complexes that contain inhibitors of the Rho-actomyosin pathway. Taken together, these observations show that versatile Hem-1–containing complexes coordinate diverse regulatory signals at the leading edge of polarized neutrophils, including but not confined to those involving WAVE2-dependent actin polymerization

X-exome sequencing of 405 unresolved families identifies seven novel intellectual disability genes

X-linked intellectual disability (XLID) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorder. During the past two decades in excess of 100 X-chromosome ID genes have been identified. Yet, a large number of families mapping to the X-chromosome remained unresolved suggesting that more XLID genes or loci are yet to be identified. Here, we have investigated 405 unresolved families with XLID. We employed massively parallel sequencing of all X-chromosome exons in the index males. The majority of these males were previously tested negative for copy number variations and for mutations in a subset of known XLID genes by Sanger sequencing. In total, 745 X-chromosomal genes were screened. After stringent filtering, a total of 1297 non-recurrent exonic variants remained for prioritization. Co-segregation analysis of potential clinically relevant changes revealed that 80 families (20%) carried pathogenic variants in established XLID genes. In 19 families, we detected likely causative protein truncating and missense variants in 7 novel and validated XLID genes (CLCN4, CNKSR2, FRMPD4, KLHL15, LAS1L, RLIM and USP27X) and potentially deleterious variants in 2 novel candidate XLID genes (CDK16 and TAF1). We show that the CLCN4 and CNKSR2 variants impair protein functions as indicated by electrophysiological studies and altered differentiation of cultured primary neurons from Clcn4−/− mice or after mRNA knock-down. The newly identified and candidate XLID proteins belong to pathways and networks with established roles in cognitive function and intellectual disability in particular. We suggest that systematic sequencing of all X-chromosomal genes in a cohort of patients with genetic evidence for X-chromosome locus involvement may resolve up to 58% of Fragile X-negative cases

"Måten det gis på betyr mer enn hva som gis" - Effektivisering av offentlig tilskuddsforvaltning i helsesektoren - En casestudie av Helsedirektoratet

Bakgrunn: I 2015 forvaltet Helsedirektoratet (HD) omtrent 14 milliarder kroner i tilskuddsmidler fordelt på over 180 ulike tilskuddsordninger. Mer enn 90 ansatte var involvert i søknadsbehandlingen av tilskudd. På bakgrunn av kritikk fra Riksrevisjonen har HD den senere tid forsøkt å styrke tilskuddsforvaltning ved å utvikle nye verktøy og rutiner for å oppnå en mer enhetlig og effektiv søknadsbehandling. Problemstillingen for oppgaven er å finne ut om bruken av et vurderingsskjema som støtte i søknadsbehandlingen vil ha konsekvenser for effektiviteten med hensyn til ressursbruk, reliabilitet, åpenhet og ansvarlighet. Metode: Tre ulike analyser gjennomføres for å besvare problemstillingen; (i) en spørreundersøkelse som ble sendt ut til alle de 93 sertifiserte saksbehandlere i HD, (ii) et kontrollert eksperiment med ti saksbehandlere i en tiltaksgruppe og ti i en kontrollgruppe, og (iii) kvalitative intervjuer av 11 ansatte i HD. Hovedfunn: Innføringen av vurderingsskjemaet reduserte gjennomsnittlig tidsbruk til søknadsvurdering med 40 %. For HD vil det totalt sett kunne medføre redusert ressursbruk tilsvarende fire hele årsverk (7 000 timer arbeidstid). Skjemaet viser en høy grad av reliabilitet med 63 % intra-class-correlation i eksperimentet og opp til 94 % i reell søknadsbehandling. Vurderingsverktøyet fører også til økt åpenhet både eksternt og internt ved å gjøre vurderingsprosessen mer transparent og bedre dokumentert, fra utarbeidelse av regelverket helt til klagebehandling. Til slutt har skjemaet også en positiv effekt på ansvarlighet ved å legge til rette for at avgjørelser knyttet til tilskuddsforvaltning gjennomgår streng intern prosesskontroll og forsvares som rettferdig med hensyn til likebehandlingskravet. Konklusjon: Vurderingsskjemaet viser store potensielle effektivitetsgevinster for HD og det anbefales derfor at direktoratet integrerer et tilsvarende verktøy i sine tilskuddsforvaltningsrutiner. Det vil imidlertid kreve investeringer og bør samkjøres med videre forskning på tilskuddsmottakers side av tilskuddsforvaltning

Lowe syndrome protein Ocrl1 is translocated to membrane ruffles upon Rac GTPase activation: a new perspective on Lowe syndrome pathophysiology.

International audienceOculocerebrorenal Lowe syndrome is a rare X-linked disorder characterized by bilateral cataract, mental retardation and renal Fanconi syndrome. The Lowe syndrome protein Ocrl1 is a PIP2 5-phosphatase, primarily localized to the trans-Golgi network (TGN), which 'loss of function' mutations result in PIP2 accumulation in patient's cells. Although PIP2 is involved in many cell functions including signalling, vesicle trafficking and actin polymerization, it has been difficult so far to decipher molecular/cellular mechanisms responsible for Lowe syndrome phenotype. We have recently shown that, through its C-terminal RhoGAP domain, Ocrl1 forms a stable complex with Rac GTPase within the cell. In line with this finding, we report here that upon epidermal growth factor induced Rac activation in COS-7 cells, a fraction of Ocrl1 translocates from TGN to plasma membrane and concentrates in membrane ruffles. In order to investigate the functionality of Ocrl1 in plasma membrane, we have analysed PIP2 distribution in human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) from Lowe patients versus control HDFs. As revealed by both immunodetection and green fluorescent protein-PH binding, PIP2 was found strikingly to accumulate in PDGF induced ruffles in Lowe HDFs when compared with control. This suggests that Ocrl1 is active as a PIP2 5-phosphatase in Rac induced membrane ruffles. Cellular properties such as cell migration and establishment of cell-cell contacts, which depend on ruffling and lamellipodia formation, should be further investigated to understand the pathophysiology of Lowe syndrome