Incentives and ratcheting in a multiproduct firm: a field experiment

We develop a model and derive behavioral predictions for a multiproduct sales force subject to goals set based on past performance. We test these predictions using a field experiment in which 53 salespersons from a Chilean beverage company face exogenous variations in monthly sales goals. Confirming our predictions, we found that (1) absent strategic considerations—no goal ratcheting—salespersons increase (decrease) sales in the product category for which the return to effort increases (decreases), (2) including strategic considerations behavior reverses: salespersons who expect high goal ratcheting decrease (increase) sales in the category for which the return to effort increases (decreases), (3) sales did not change for the average salespersons, reflecting heterogeneity in the expectations of goal ratcheting rather than unresponsiveness to incentives. Our study points at the importance of the dynamics of incentive design, in particular, the importance of understanding the dynamics of goal setting in firms

Using a Gridded Global Dataset to Characterize Regional Hydroclimate in Central Chile

Central Chile is facing dramatic projections of climate change, with a consensus for declining precipitation, negatively affecting hydropower generation and irrigated agriculture. Rising from sea level to 6000 m within a distance of 200 km, precipitation characterization is difficult because of a lack of long-term observations, especially at higher elevations. For understanding current mean and extreme conditions and recent hydroclimatological change, as well as to provide a baseline for downscaling climate model projections, a temporally and spatially complete dataset of daily meteorology is essential. The authors use a gridded global daily meteorological dataset at 0.25° resolution for the period 1948–2008, adjusted by monthly precipitation observations interpolated to the same grid using a cokriging method with elevation as a covariate. For validation, daily statistics of the adjusted gridded precipitation are compared to station observations. For further validation, a hydrology model is driven with the gridded 0.25° meteorology and streamflow statistics are compared with observed flow. The high elevation precipitation is validated by comparing the simulated snow extent to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images. Results show that the daily meteorology with the adjusted precipitation can accurately capture the statistical properties of extreme events as well as the sequence of wet and dry events, with hydrological model results displaying reasonable agreement with observed streamflow and snow extent. This demonstrates the successful use of a global gridded data product in a relatively data-sparse region to capture hydroclimatological characteristics and extremes

Cultural Evolution Theory and Organizations

Fully explaining organizational phenomena requires exploring not only “how” a phenomenon works – i.e., the details of its internal structure and mechanisms – but also “why” the phenomenon is present in the first place – i.e., explaining its origins and the ultimate reasons for its existence. The latter is particularly important for central questions in organizational research such as the nature of organizations, the evolution of organizational culture, or the origin of organizational capabilities. In this article, we propose that cultural evolution theory (CET) can be usefully applied to organizational scholarship to pursue such “origin” questions. CET has adapted ideas and methods from evolutionary biology to successfully explain the evolution of culture in human societies, exploring the origins of various social phenomena such as religion, technological progress, large-scale cooperation, and cross-cultural psychological variation. We elaborate how CET can be also applied to understand the evolution and origin of important organizational phenomena. We discuss how CET provides ultimate explanations using micro-evolutionary formal models and deploying macro-evolutionary tools for empirical analysis. We provide a detailed application of these ideas to explain the origin of productive organizations (e.g., firms, partnerships, guilds). We also propose several avenues for future research; in particular, we explore how CET can serve as an overarching theoretical framework that helps integrate the myriad of theories that explain how organizations operate and evolve

The evolution of productive organizations

Organizations devoted to the production of goods and services, such as guilds, partnerships and modern corporations, have dominated the economic landscape in our species’ history. We develop an explanation for their evolution drawing from cultural evolution theory. A basic tenet of this theory is that social learning, under certain conditions, allows for the diffusion of innovations in society, and therefore, the accumulation of culture. Our model shows that these organizations provide such conditions by possessing two characteristics, both prevalent in real world organizations: exclusivity of membership and more effective social learning within their boundaries. The model and its extensions parsimoniously explains the cooperative nature of the social learning advantage, organizational specialization, organizational rigidity and the locus of innovation. We find supportive evidence for our predictions using a sample of pre-modern societies drawn from the Ethnographic Atlas. Understanding the nature of these organizations informs the debate about their role in society

Organizational Culture, Adaptation, and Performance

Prior research emphasizes how organizational culture can hinder organizational adaptation. In this study, we investigate how organizational culture can help promote organizational adaptation to environmental changes, using a formal model from cultural evolution theory. In the model, organizational members face a trade-off between innovating versus following tradition (because environmental changes are uncertain). Members can also decide to help others who are following the tradition, thereby improving its diffusion. Organizational leaders shape the culture of their organization, which influences members’ decisions to choose innovation or tradition or to help others following tradition. Culture comprises two dimensions: beliefs and prosocial values. We find that increasing the accuracy of beliefs leads to improvements in both innovation and following tradition, thereby mitigating the trade-off between them and boosting adaptation and performance. On prosocial values, we find that increasing their intensity reduces the cost of following tradition but at the expense of reduced adaptation, resulting in an inverted-U relationship between intensity of prosocial values and performance. Overall, we show how leaders can fine-tune the dimensions of organizational culture to foster improvements in adaptation and performance. The formal model we introduce is novel to the literature and offers a way of studying adaptation to a changing environment and to incorporate social learning into models of adaptation under bounded rationality. Funding: J. Poblete was supported by Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingenieria [Grant ANID PIA/PUENTE AFB230002]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16791

Landslides induced by the 2010 Chile megathrust earthquake: a comprehensive inventory and correlations with geological and seismic factors

The 2010 Mw=8.8 Maule earthquake, which occurred in the subduction contact between the Nazca and the South American tectonic plates off the coast of Chile, represents an important opportunity to improve understanding of the distribution and controls for the generation of landslides triggered by large megathrust earthquakes in subduction zones. This paper provides the analysis of the comprehensive landslide inventory for the Maule earthquake between 32.5° S and 38.5° S°. In total 1226 landslides were mapped over a total area of c.120,500 km2 , dominantly disrupted slides. The total landslide volume is c. 10.6 Mm3. The events are unevenly distributed in the study area, the majority of landslides located in the Principal Andean Cordillera and a very constrained region near the coast on the Arauco Peninsula, forming landslide clusters. Statistical analysis of our database suggests that relief and lithology are the main geological factors controlling coseismic landslides, while the seismic factor with higher correlation with landslide occurrence is the ratio between peak horizontal and peak vertical ground accelerations. The results and comparison with other seismic events elsewhere suggest that the number of landslides generated by megathrust earthquakes is lower than events triggered by shallow crustal earthquakes by at least one or two orders of magnitude, which is very important to consider in future seismic landslide hazard analysis

The G\=oMartini approach: Revisiting the concept of contact maps and the modelling of protein complexes

We present a review of a series of contact maps for the determination of native interactions in proteins and nucleic acids based on a distance-threshold. Such contact maps are mostly based on physical and chemical construction, and yet they are sensitive to some parameters (e.g. distances or atomic radii) and can neglect some key interactions. Furthermore, we also comment on a new class of contact maps that only requires geometric arguments. The contact map is a necessary ingredient to build a robust G\=oMartini model for proteins and their complexes in the Martini 3 force field. We present the extension of a popular structure-based G\=o-like approach for the study of protein-sugar complexes, and also limitations of this approach are discussed. The G\=oMartini approach was first introduced by Poma et al. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2017, 13(3), 1366-1374 in Martini 2 force field and recently, it has gained the status of gold-standard for protein simulation undergoing conformational changes in Martini 3 force field. We discuss several studies that have provided support to this approach in the context of the biophysical community.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figure

Factor V Leiden and prothrombin G20210A among Chilean patients with venous and arterial thrombosis

Iván Palomo. Departamento de Bioquímica Clínica e Inmunohematología, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile. Casilla 747,Talca, Chile.Factor V Leiden and G20210A mutation of prothrombin gene are two important genetic polymorphisms associated with an increased risk for thrombosis. Aim: To establish the prevalence of factor V Leiden and prothrombin G20210A mutation in the Chilean population and their association to venous and arterial thromboembolism. Material and methods: A case-control study was conducted where 149 patients with thrombosis (87 with arterial and 62 with venous thrombosis) confirmed by CAT-scan, electrocardiogram and cardiac enzymes or Doppler depending on the case, and 160 healthy blood donors were genetically analyzed for the presence of both polymorphisms. Results: Factor V Leiden mutation was found in 5.4% of patients and in 1.3% of healthy controls (p=0.04). Heterozygosity for G20210A prothrombin mutation was found in 5.4% of patients and in 2.5% of the control group (p=NS). When arterial and venous thrombosis were considered as separate entities, 4.6% of patients with arterial thrombosis and 6.5% with venous thrombosis presented factor V Leiden (p=NS). Likewise, 8.1% of patients with venous thrombosis and 3.5% of patients with arterial thrombosis had G20210A prothrombin mutation (p=NS). Conclusions: In non selected consecutive Chilean patients with arterial and venous thrombosis the frequency of factor V Leiden and prothrombin G20210A is less than we could expect from their prevalence in the general populatio

Occupational Therapy experiences of Child and Youth mental health: ann approach to rights and participation practices

This article corresponds to an essay that has for purpose to show occupational therapy experiences of intervention in child and adolescent mental health. It is intended to reflect how this discipline, from the professional practice, contributes to guarantee rights, from health care devices.The document has four intervention experiences in public health context, that are bound to the founding principles of theinternational Convention of Children Rights, which constitute the pillars for the exercise of the rights established in the treaty.As part of the analysis of this document, it is concluded how relevant it results the development of public politics related to the needs of this population; because if not, “normal practices” are reproduced, and they affect the autonomy of the subject.In this way, it is important to develop located interventions, to promote the inclusion and participation of boys, girls and young boys as social actors

Intraspecific variability of popcorn S7 lines for phosphorus efficiency in the soil.

The expansion of agriculture, coupled with the need for sustainable cropping, is one of the greatest challenges of the scientific community working on the generation of new cultivars adapted to abiotic stress conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the variability of popcorn lines as to responsiveness and efficiency in phosphorus use, as a first step towards the implementation of a breeding program interested in the practice of sustainable agriculture. Twenty-five popcorn lines were evaluated in two locations with different phosphorus levels in the soil, using a randomized block design. The following traits were measured: plant height, ear height, female flowering date, male flowering date, male-female flowering interval, ear diameter, ear length, 100-grain weight, grain yield, popping expansion, and expanded popcorn volume per hectare. A combined analysis of variance and test of means were performed, and the lines were classified as to their phosphorus use efficiency, according to their production performance in the different environments. The genetic diversity between the lines was estimated by Tocher?s and UPGMA clustering methods, using generalized Mahalanobis distance. Lines L59, P7, P2, P3, P4, P8, P10, P9, L66, L70, L69, and P5 were efficient and responsive, whereas lines L75, L80, L61, L77, L63, L65, P1, L54, L53, L88, and L71 were inefficient and nonresponsive. Genetic variability was greater in the environments with low phosphorus in the soil, suggesting that the selection pressure exerted in the stressing environment is a decisive factor to obtain a higher expression of variability