ERP and four dimensions of absorptive capacity: lessons from a developing country

Enterprise resource planning systems can grant crucial strategic, operational and information-based benefits to adopting firms when implemented successfully. However, a failed implementation can often result in financial losses rather than profits. Until now, the research on the failures and successes were focused on implementations in large manufacturing and service organizations firms located in western countries, particularly in USA. Nevertheless, IT has gained intense diffusion to developing countries through declining hardware costs and increasing benefits that merits attention as much as developed countries. The aim of this study is to examine the implications of knowledge transfer in a developing country, Turkey, as a paradigm in the knowledge society with a focus on the implementation activities that foster successful installations. We suggest that absorptive capacity is an important characteristic of a firm that explains the success level of such a knowledge transfer.Publicad

Association of <em>CLEC16A</em> with human common variable immunodeficiency disorder and role in murine B cells.

Common variable immunodeficiency disorder (CVID) is the most common symptomatic primary immunodeficiency in adults, characterized by B-cell abnormalities and inadequate antibody response. CVID patients have considerable autoimmune comorbidity and we therefore hypothesized that genetic susceptibility to CVID may overlap with autoimmune disorders. Here, in the largest genetic study performed in CVID to date, we compare 778 CVID cases with 10,999 controls across 123,127 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the Immunochip. We identify the first non-HLA genome-wide significant risk locus at CLEC16A (rs17806056, P=2.0 &times; 10(-9)) and confirm the previously reported human leukocyte antigen (HLA) associations on chromosome 6p21 (rs1049225, P=4.8 &times; 10(-16)). Clec16a knockdown (KD) mice showed reduced number of B cells and elevated IgM levels compared with controls, suggesting that CLEC16A may be involved in immune regulatory pathways of relevance to CVID. In conclusion, the CLEC16A associations in CVID represent the first robust evidence of non-HLA associations in this immunodeficiency condition

Genome-wide association study identifies a psoriasis susceptibility locus at TRAF3IP2.

Psoriasis is a multifactorial skin disease characterized by epidermal hyperproliferation and chronic inflammation, the most common form of which is psoriasis vulgaris (PsV). We present a genome-wide association analysis of 2,339,118 SNPs in 472 PsV cases and 1,146 controls from Germany, with follow-up of the 147 most significant SNPs in 2,746 PsV cases and 4,140 controls from three independent replication panels. We identified an association at TRAF3IP2 on 6q21 and genotyped two SNPs at this locus in two additional replication panels (the combined discovery and replication panels consisted of 6,487 cases and 8,037 controls; combined P = 2.36 &times; 10⁻&sup1;⁰ for rs13210247 and combined P = 1.24 &times; 10⁻&sup1;⁶ for rs33980500). About 15% of psoriasis cases develop psoriatic arthritis (PsA). A stratified analysis of our datasets including only PsA cases (1,922 cases compared to 8,037 controls, P = 4.57 &times; 10⁻&sup1;&sup2; for rs33980500) suggested that TRAF3IP2 represents a shared susceptibility for PsV and PsA. TRAF3IP2 encodes a protein involved in IL-17 signaling and which interacts with members of the Rel/NF-&kappa;B transcription factor family

A typology of operational approaches for stakeholder analysis and engagement

Stakeholder analysis and engagement are the main tasks in stakeholder management. To identify operational approaches for stakeholder analysis and engagement, six interviews and a questionnaire survey were conducted in Hong Kong, and an additional 15 interviews were held in Australia. The main finding is a typology of practical approaches for practitioners in construction. A total of 30 approaches are comprised in the typology, and they are classified by application. To test the usefulness of the typology, action research is applied to two real‐life projects in Australia. The implication is that the selection of the approaches is an art and a contingency approach as well, requiring practitioners’ judgments. Each approach has its strengths and limitations, so the most appropriate way for effective stakeholder management is to use a combination of elements from each approach as circumstances dictate. This study can serve as a reference for the systematic consideration of the project management team about the operational approaches for stakeholder management in construction projects.Stakeholder analysis, stakeholder engagement, contingency,