The influence of boards of directors’ characteristics on strategic decision-making: Evidence from Greek companies

This article is available open access from the publisher’s website at the link below.This study explores the influence Boards of Directors’ demographic characteristics on the process of making strategic decisions. Empirical testing is based on a sample of 105 Greek companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. The results suggest that educational level affect both the financial reporting and the hierarchical decentralisation in the strategic decision-making process. Also, functional background of executives was found to be related with financial reporting. However, the educational specialty did not appear to have any significant influence on the strategic decision-making process. In light of these findings, implications for practitioners are made and avenues for future research are suggested

Strategic decision-making processes as a mediator of the effect of board characteristics on company innovation: A study of publicly-listed firms in Greece

Based on the Upper Echelons Theory that suggests the demographic characteristics of executives are linked to organisational processes and outcomes, the paper proposes that strategic decision-making processes mediate the relationship between board members’ demographic characteristics and corporate innovation relating to product, process and organization. Based on questionnaires completed by 101 CEOs of Greek listed firms, the findings confirm that reporting and formalization as decision processes mediate the effect of board characteristics on innovation. Sound financial and formal mechanisms encourage Greek executives to take risks and invest in product or service innovation. Findings show that the executives’ educational level is positively associated with financial reporting and rule formalization activities due to the changes that have been occurred in the Greek education system over recent decades. Functional background is found to influence only financial reporting activities. Finally, the managerial implications of this study are discussed

Clustering and networking among small independent hotels: developments over ten years

This paper reports on networking activities amongst a cluster of independent hotels with a view to analysing key variables in network development for SMEs. A comparative, longitudinal element is introduced by reference to an earlier study of the same phenomenon, ten years earlier. Of particular interest is the influence of various forms of social capital in the development of informal networks and the inter-play between co-operation and competition over time. Given the time gap between the two studies, the effect of sectoral changes on network development is also examined. The research revisits and extends a previous study of many of the same hotels which were investigated in 1995 over their formal and informal links that were found to be influenced by such factors across two classifications - the business as unit (proximity, perceptions of quality) and the individual respondent (personal social networks and ethnicity). Extending that analysis, social capital concepts and relevant references to embedded networks and kinship groups and co-operative game rules will be introduced in this paper. A highly concentrated population of small, independent hotels in Central London had been identified in the previous research project and it is from this sample that the current research drew and extended its own sample of hotels. With such a high number of hotels in the area a mixture of ‘snowball’ sampling and self-selection was successfully employed. Of the original 29 hotels, 22 have been re-interviewed and complemented by another 19. Of the remainder of the original sample, several had subsequently merged or failed to survive the intervening period. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with owner-managers in all cases using a structured questionnaire that replicated as much as possible of the original questionnaire, with both open and closed questions to allow some individual expression on relevant topics. The quantitative data obtained will be analysed using UCINET software to generate visual representations of networks alongside statistical and cluster analyses. Both academic and policy implications are likely to arise from this research, such as novel insights from such an unique periodic comparison of networks development, the influence of social capital on (formal and informal) network activities and the changing influence and consolidation of hotel groups through mergers and franchising

Histone Monoubiquitination in Chromatin Remodelling: Focus on the Histone H2B Interactome and Cancer.

Chromatin remodelling is a major mechanism by which cells control fundamental processes including gene expression, the DNA damage response (DDR) and ensuring the genomic plasticity required by stem cells to enable differentiation. The post-translational modification of histone H2B resulting in addition of a single ubiquitin, in humans at lysine 120 (K120; H2Bub1) and in yeast at K123, has key roles in transcriptional elongation associated with the RNA polymerase II-associated factor 1 complex (PAF1C) and in the DDR. H2Bub1 itself has been described as having tumour suppressive roles and a number of cancer-related proteins and/or complexes are recognised as part of the H2Bub1 interactome. These include the RING finger E3 ubiquitin ligases RNF20, RNF40 and BRCA1, the guardian of the genome p53, the PAF1C member CDC73, subunits of the switch/sucrose non-fermenting (SWI/SNF) chromatin remodelling complex and histone methyltransferase complexes DOT1L and COMPASS, as well as multiple deubiquitinases including USP22 and USP44. While globally depleted in many primary human malignancies, including breast, lung and colorectal cancer, H2Bub1 is selectively enriched at the coding region of certain highly expressed genes, including at p53 target genes in response to DNA damage, functioning to exercise transcriptional control of these loci. This review draws together extensive literature to cement a significant role for H2Bub1 in a range of human malignancies and discusses the interplay between key cancer-related proteins and H2Bub1-associated chromatin remodelling

Incremental, Inductive Coverability

We give an incremental, inductive (IC3) procedure to check coverability of well-structured transition systems. Our procedure generalizes the IC3 procedure for safety verification that has been successfully applied in finite-state hardware verification to infinite-state well-structured transition systems. We show that our procedure is sound, complete, and terminating for downward-finite well-structured transition systems---where each state has a finite number of states below it---a class that contains extensions of Petri nets, broadcast protocols, and lossy channel systems. We have implemented our algorithm for checking coverability of Petri nets. We describe how the algorithm can be efficiently implemented without the use of SMT solvers. Our experiments on standard Petri net benchmarks show that IC3 is competitive with state-of-the-art implementations for coverability based on symbolic backward analysis or expand-enlarge-and-check algorithms both in time taken and space usage.Comment: Non-reviewed version, original version submitted to CAV 2013; this is a revised version, containing more experimental results and some correction

Comparison of Cultivation Methods Impact on Playability of \u3cem\u3eAgrostis stolonifera\u3c/em\u3e Greens

Creeping bentrgrass putting greens require intense management due to stoloniferous growth (thatch accumulation) and excessive wear and traffic by equipment and golfers. Increases in thatch and soil compaction are often managed with cultivation practices, which lead to downtime for golfers. Field research was conducted in Knoxville, TN, and Elizabethtown, KY, to compare new and traditional cultivation methods for their impact on playability on creeping bentgrass putting greens. Treatments included air injection, dry sand injection, solid tine cultivation topdressed with sand, hollow tine cultivation topdressed with sand, and non-treated control. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design replicated three times at two locations. As determined 15 minutes after treatments, air injection resulted in the least reduction of green turfgrass cover, no ball roll reduction from the control, and lower reductions in surface firmness compared to other methods tested. Hollow tine had the greatest reduction in green turfgrass cover, lowest ball roll distance, and greatest reductions in surface firmness. Air injection had a lower impact on surface characteristics than hollow or solid cultivation. Because turf cover, ball roll, and firmness can all affect putting green playability, these findings indicate that air injection cultivation has the smallest impact on golfers immediately after a cultivation event

Photoproduction of the f(1)(1285) meson

The f(1)(1285) meson withmass 1281.0 +/- 0.8MeV/c(2) and width 18.4 +/- 1.4MeV (full width at half maximum) was measured for the first time in photoproduction from a proton target using CLAS at Jefferson Lab. Differential cross sections were obtained via the eta pi(+)pi(-), K+(K) over bar (0) pi(-), and (K-K0)pi(+) decay channels from threshold up to a center-of-mass energy of 2.8 GeV. The mass, width, and an amplitude analysis of the eta pi(+)pi(-) final-state Dalitz distribution are consistent with the axial-vector J(P) = 1(+) f(1)(1285) identity, rather than the pseudoscalar 0(-) eta(1295). The production mechanism is more consistent with s-channel decay of a high-mass N* state and not with t-channel meson exchange. Decays to eta pi pi go dominantly via the intermediate a(0)(+/-) (980)pi(-/+) states, with the branching ratio Gamma [a(0)pi (no (K) over barK)]/Gamma[eta pi pi (all)] = 0.74 +/- 0.09. The branching ratios Gamma (K (K) over bar pi)/Gamma(eta pi pi) = 0.216 +/- 0.033 and Gamma (gamma rho(0))/Gamma(eta pi pi) = 0.047 +/- 0.018 were also obtained. The first is in agreement with previous data for the f(1)(1285), while the latter is lower than the world average

A Common Eider × King Eider Hybrid Captured on the Kent Peninsula, Nunavut

On 25 June 2002, we captured and recorded measurements of a male common eider (Somateria mollissima) × king eider (S. spectabilis) hybrid at Nauyak Lake, on the Kent Peninsula, Nunavut. This is the first documented capture of a hybrid eider, rarely observed in North America. Structural body measurements and mass of the hybrid were intermediate compared to those of Pacific common eiders (S. m. v-nigrum) at the same study site and king eiders at a nearby study site during the same time of year. The plumage of the captured hybrid had characteristics of both parent species. Mate pairing on overlapping spring staging or wintering areas of common and king eiders may occasionally result in hybrid offspring.Le 25 juin 2002, nous avons capturé un hybride composé d’un eider à duvet (Somateria mollissima) × un eider à tête grise (S. spectabilis) au lac Nauyak, dans la péninsule de Kent, au Nunavut, puis nous avons pris note de ses mesures. Il s’agit de la première capture répertoriée d’un eider hybride, ce qui est rarement observé en Amérique du Nord. Les mesures et la masse de la structure corporelle de l’hybride étaient intermédiaires comparativement à celles des eiders à duvet du Pacifique (S. m. v-nigrum) du même lieu d’étude et à celles des eiders à tête grise d’un lieu d’étude avoisinant pendant la même période de l’année. Le plumage de l’hybride que nous avons capturé présentait des caractéristiques des deux espèces. Il arrive parfois que les accouplements aux haltes migratoires du printemps ou aux aires d’hivernage partagées par les eiders à duvet et les eiders à tête grise donnent lieu à une progéniture hybride