Being resilient for society: evidence from companies that leveraged their resources and capabilities to fight the COVID-19 crisis

This study adopts a resilience perspective to explain how companies managed to contribute innovative solutions to fight the COVID-19 crisis. We studied how five companies operating in different industries (three in automotive, one in printing, and one in rubber and plastic products manufacturing) managed to reorganize activities and employ their R&D and innovation capabilities to enhance their resilience. Simultaneously, they increased the health system’s capacity to cope with the outbreak. Through a qualitative inductive study, based on interviews with company managers, we found that the firms mobilized their resources and capabilities to expand their ability to adapt and cope with adversity at the organizational level. In addition, moved by the sensitivity to the extreme context and a perceived sense of urgency, the firms deployed the same endowments to strengthen the community’s response to a crisis. Our study shows that an organization can directly and positively foster the broader social system’s resilience. This study contributes to the innovation literature by identifying innovation capabilities as fundamental antecedents of resilience building for organizational response, paving the way for strengthening the link between resilience and innovation

Boc-Protection on L-DOPA: an Easy Way to Promote Underwater Adhesion

The ability of mussels to adhere to underwater surfaces has attracted a lot of attention from the scientific community. As proteins containing L-DOPA (3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-l-alanine) are involved in their adhesion, a common strategy to synthesize adhesives is the incorporation of this amino acid into other compounds. Herein, we report a study on four compounds of the family of Bocx-(L-DOPA)n-OMe (x = 1–3; n = 1,2), that we prepared through simple synthetic steps. Three of them showed the capability of underwater adhesion: while they are not adhesive in the dry phase, the adhesiveness is triggered when the dried sample is immersed in water or any aqueous solutions. The introduction of protecting groups stabilizes L-DOPA, preventing the oxidation of the catechol moiety, and enhances the hydrophobicity, helping the removal of water from the surface to bind. These molecules show good adhesiveness, with different properties, so they may be all used as adhesives for different purposes. These outcomes pave the way for new applications for these materials as green and biocompatible adhesives

Epidemiology of legionnaires’ disease in italy, 2004–2019: A summary of available evidence

Legionnaires’ disease (LD) incidence has been increasing in several European countries since 2011. Currently, Italy is experiencing high notification rates for LD, whose cause still remains scarcely understood. We sought to summarize the available evidence on the epidemiology of LD in Italy (2004–2019), characterizing the risk of LD by region, sex, age group, and settings of the case (i.e., community, healthcare, or travel-associated cases). Environmental factors (e.g., average air temperatures and relative humidity) were also included in a Poisson regression model in order to assess their potential role on the annual incidence of new LD cases. National surveillance data included a total of 23554 LD cases occurring between 2004 and 2019 (70.4% of them were of male gender, 94.1% were aged 40 years and older), with age-adjusted incidence rates increasing from 1.053 cases per 100,000 in 2004 to 4.559 per 100,000 in 2019. The majority of incident cases came from northern Italy (43.2% from northwestern Italy, 25.6% from northeastern Italy). Of these, 5.9% were healthcare-related, and 21.1% were travel-associated. A case-fatality ratio of 5.2% was calculated for the whole of the assessed timeframe, with a pooled estimate for mortality of 0.122 events per 100,000 population per year. Poisson regression analysis was associated with conflicting results, as any increase in average air temperature resulted in reduced risk for LD cases (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR] 0.807, 95% Confidence Interval [95% CI] 0.744–0.874), while higher annual income in older individ-uals was associated with an increased IRR (1.238, 95% CI 1.134–1.351). The relative differences in incidence between Italian regions could not be explained by demographic factors (i.e., age and sex distribution of the population), and also a critical reappraisal of environmental factors failed to sub-stantiate both the varying incidence across the country and the decennial trend we were able to identify

HOW TO ENHANCE PATENT COMMERCIALISATION? AN ANALYSIS OF PATENT AGGREGATORS IN EUROPE

© 2018 World Scientific Publishing Europe Ltd. In this study, we investigate the phenomenon of patent aggregators, entities that license or acquire patents from third parties with the goal of commercialising them through sale, licensing, enforcement, or the creation of new patent-based companies. We classify patent aggregators into four distinct types according to the following two main dimensions: the level of value added to a technology and the aggressiveness of their commercialisation strategy. We then construct a comprehensive map of patent aggregators established in Europe and analyse four case studies in greater depth. We discuss and compare characteristics of patent aggregators, their patent aggregation and commercialisation strategies, their main barriers and key success factors. Our findings lead to several policy and managerial recommendations

Technological Diversification and Strategic Alliances

This contribution examines empirically the relationship between the internal technological profile and the diversification through strategic alliances of the largest 219 industrial firms world-wide. It explores three related issues. First, the paper shows that firms? internal technological diversification is more pronounced than external technological diversification. Second, it confirms the idea that technological diversification is more pronounced than product and market diversification. Finally, by means of multiple correlation analysis, this work studies the relationship between firms? economic performance, internal technological diversification and diversification through strategic alliances. The empirical investigation combines firm level data on US patents, strategic technological alliances, production and marketing alliances, and firms' economic performances

Technological diversification and strategic alliances

This contribution examines empirically the relationship between the internal technological profile and the diversification through strategic alliances of the largest 219 industrial firms world-wide. It explores three related issues. First, the paper shows that firms? internal technological diversification is more pronounced than external technological diversification. Second, it confirms the idea that technological diversification is more pronounced than product and market diversification. Finally, by means of multiple correlation analysis, this work studies the relationship between firms? economic performance, internal technological diversification and diversification through strategic alliances. The empirical investigation combines firm level data on US patents, strategic technological alliances, production and marketing alliances, and firms' economic performances

The strategic use of patents and its implications for enterprise and competition policies

This report was commissioned as a study into the strategic use of patents. In the course of its case investigations and legislative reviews the European Commission became aware of changes in the use of intellectual property, in particular the use of patents. It was noted that firms’ uses of intellectual property are becoming increasingly strategic. This raised concerns about the implications of firms’ patenting behaviour for enterprise and competition policy. The following report contains a comprehensive review of patenting behaviour, the extent to which patenting is becoming more strategic and the implications this has for competition and enterprise policies

Fluorine Effect in the Gelation Ability of Low Molecular Weight Gelators

The three gelators presented in this work (Boc-D-Phe-L-Oxd-OH F0, Boc-D-F1Phe-L-Oxd-OH F1 and Boc-D-F2Phe-L-Oxd-OH F2) share the same scaffold and differ in the number of fluorine atoms linked to the aromatic ring of phenylalanine. They have been applied to the preparation of gels in 0.5% or 1.0% w/v concentration, using three methodologies: solvent switch, pH change and calcium ions addition. The general trend is an increased tendency to form structured materials from F0 to F1 and F2. This property ends up in the formation of stronger materials when fluorine atoms are present. Some samples, generally formed by F1 or F2 in 0.5% w/v concentration, show high transparency but low mechanical properties. Two gels, both containing fluorine atoms, show increased stiffness coupled with high transparency. The biocompatibility of the gelators was assessed exposing them to fibroblast cells and demonstrated that F1 and F2 are not toxic to cells even in high concentration, while F0 is not toxic to cells only in a low concentration. In conclusion, the presence of even only one fluorine atom improves all the gelators properties: the gelation ability of the compound, the rheological properties and the transparency of the final materials and the gelator biocompatibility