Multinationals, Social Agency and Institutional Change; Variation by Sector

This is the accepted manuscript version of the following article: Mike Geppert and Graham Hollinshead, ‘Editorial: Multinationals, Social Agency and Institutional Change; Variation by Sector’, Competition and Change, Vol 18(3): 195-199, June 2014. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published is available online via doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1024529414Z.00000000056 Published by SAGE Publishing. All rights reserved. © W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2014Multinational corporations (MNCs) operate at a crossroads of countervailing influences, While headquarters are typically embedded in the institutional settings of their home country, subsidiaries tend to internalize regulative and cognitive frames in their own national and regional contexts. MNCs now frequently assume highly diffuse global structures, operating across regionally dispersed horizontal and vertical networks, thereby exposing them to a global mosaic of societal, institutional and socio- economic influences. Moreover, MNCs are subjected to regulative effects emanating from transnational regulationPeer reviewe

Some Like It Hot, Some Like It Warm: Phenotyping To Explore Thermotolerance Diversity

Plants have evolved overlapping but distinct cellular responses to different aspects of high temperature stress. These responses include basal thermotolerance, short- and long-term acquired thermotolerance, and thermotolerance to moderately high temperatures. This ‘thermotolerance diversity’ means that multiple phenotypic assays are essential for fully describing the functions of genes involved in heat stress responses. A large number of genes with potential roles in heat stress responses have been identified using genetic screens and genome wide expression studies. We examine the range of phenotypic assays that have been used to characterize thermotolerance phenotypes in both Arabidopsis and crop plants. Three major variables differentiate thermotolerance assays: (1) the heat stress regime used, (2) the developmental stage of the plants being studied, and (3) the actual phenotype which is scored. Consideration of these variables will be essential for deepening our understanding of the molecular genetics of plant thermotolerance

The RootScope: A Simple High-Throughput Screening System For Quantitating Gene Expression Dynamics In Plant Roots

Background: High temperature stress responses are vital for plant survival. The mechanisms that plants use to sense high temperatures are only partially understood and involve multiple sensing and signaling pathways. Here we describe the development of the RootScope, an automated microscopy system for quantitating heat shock responses in plant roots.Results: The promoter of Hsp17.6 was used to build a Hsp17.6(p):GFP transcriptional reporter that is induced by heat shock in Arabidopsis. An automated fluorescence microscopy system which enables multiple roots to be imaged in rapid succession was used to quantitate Hsp17.6p: GFP response dynamics. Hsp17.6(p):GFP signal increased with temperature increases from 28 degrees C to 37 degrees C. At 40 degrees C the kinetics and localization of the response are markedly different from those at 37 degrees C. This suggests that different mechanisms mediate heat shock responses above and below 37 degrees C. Finally, we demonstrate that Hsp17.6(p):GFP expression exhibits wave like dynamics in growing roots.Conclusions: The RootScope system is a simple and powerful platform for investigating the heat shock response in plants

Genetic Interactions Between BOB1 And Multiple 26S Proteasome Subunits Suggest A Role For Proteostasis In Regulating Arabidopsis Development

Protein folding and degradation are both required for protein quality control, an essential cellular activity that underlies normal growth and development. We investigated how BOB1, an Arabidopsis thaliana small heat shock protein, maintains normal plant development. bob1 mutants exhibit organ polarity defects and have expanded domains of KNOX gene expression. Some of these phenotypes are ecotype specific suggesting that other genes function to modify them. Using a genetic approach we identified an interaction between BOB1 and FIL, a gene required for abaxial organ identity. We also performed an EMS enhancer screen using the bob1-3 allele to identify pathways that are sensitized by a loss of BOB1 function. This screen identified genetic, but not physical, interactions between BOB1 and the proteasome subunit RPT2a. Two other proteasome subunits, RPN1a and RPN8a, also interact genetically with BOB1. Both BOB1 and the BOB1-interacting proteasome subunits had previously been shown to interact genetically with the transcriptional enhancers AS1 and AS2, genes known to regulate both organ polarity and KNOX gene expression. Our results suggest a model in which BOB1 mediated protein folding and proteasome mediated protein degradation form a functional proteostasis module required for ensuring normal plant development

Analysing intermediary organisations and their influence on upgrading in emerging agricultural clusters

This paper analyses intermediary organisations in developing economy agricultural clusters. The paper critically engages with a growing narrative in studies of intermediaries that have stressed the ownership structure of intermediaries as a key driver for enabling knowledge transfer, inter-firm learning and upgrading of small producers in clusters. Two case studies of Latin American clusters are presented and discussed. The study suggests that in addition to ownership structure, cluster governance and the embeddedness of intermediaries in clusters are critical factors that need to be taken into account in understanding the influence of intermediaries in the upgrading of small producers in clusters

Why Social Enterprises Are Asking to Be Multi-stakeholder and Deliberative: An Explanation around the Costs of Exclusion.

The study of multi-stakeholdership (and multi-stakeholder social enterprises in particular) is only at the start. Entrepreneurial choices which have emerged spontaneously, as well as the first legal frameworks approved in this direction, lack an adequate theoretical support. The debate itself is underdeveloped, as the existing understanding of organisations and their aims resist an inclusive, public interest view of enterprise. Our contribution aims at enriching the thin theoretical reflections on multi-stakeholdership, in a context where they are already established, i.e. that of social and personal services. The aim is to provide an economic justification on why the governance structure and decision-making praxis of the firm needs to account for multiple stakeholders. In particular with our analysis we want: a) to consider production and the role of firms in the context of the “public interest” which may or may not coincide with the non-profit objective; b) to ground the explanation of firm governance and processes upon the nature of production and the interconnections between demand and supply side; c) to explain that the costs associated with multi-stakeholder governance and deliberation in decision-making can increase internal efficiency and be “productive” since they lower internal costs and utilise resources that otherwise would go astray. The key insight of this work is that, differently from major interpretations, property costs should be compared with a more comprehensive range of costs, such as the social costs that emerge when the supply of social and personal services is insufficient or when the identification of aims and means is not shared amongst stakeholders. Our model highlights that when social costs derived from exclusion are high, even an enterprise with costly decisional processes, such as the multistakeholder, can be the most efficient solution amongst other possible alternatives