Qualitative comparative analysis as a method for innovation research: analysing legal innovations in OECD countries

"The article presents Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as a method for innovation research. Based on set-theory, a key feature of QCA is the possibility to examine the necessary and the sufficient conditions for the institutionalisation of innovations. QCA aims to identify equifinal explanations for a social phenomenon, which consist of a combination of several conditions. This approach distinguishes QCA from qualitative and quantitative methods. Furthermore, QCA combines a comparative and a case-oriented approach, which is especially interesting for the analysis of innovations as context-sensitive and contingent phenomena. QCA as a research approach and method is outlined briefly, with special regard to the tasks of innovation research. Its application is presented in a study of the conditions for equal pay regulations in OECD countries. The analysis shows that the relevant actors for the institutionalisation of equal pay regulations are either women's movements or unions but that neither are solely sufficient for this legal innovation. Instead QCA also captures the context conditions for their impact on the enactment of equal pay regulations." (author's abstract

Revolution or Negotiated Regime Change? Structural Dynamics in the Process of Democratization: the Case of South Korea in the 1980s

This study examines the interaction between the pro-democratic movement and the authoritarian military regime of South Korea in the 1980s. Contemporary democracy research is dominated by two opposing theoretical views: Voluntarist approaches tend to conceive the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy as a negotiated process. Structural approaches view the transition to democracy more or less as an outcome of structural conditions, in particular the balance of power between incumbents and challengers of a regime. We consider both perspectives not as competing alternatives but rather as accounts of two different structural dynamics: In some stages of the democratization process, it is more appropriate to interpret the confrontation between pro-democratic challengers and power holders as a (structurally determined) non-cooperative game. In other situations, both sides may recognize that cooperation (and negotiation) leads to a better outcome than a pure strategy of confrontation. The analysis focusses on the interplay between the two structural dynamics on the empirical case of South Korea in the 1980s. A process tracing analysis highlights three critical junctures in which the democratization process shifted from sequences of non-cooperation to sequences of cooperation and back. On this basis, we develop an analytical process model that integrates the two (opposing) theoretical approaches on the temporal dimension

Critique and Social Change: An Introduction

This introduction of the HSR Special Issue on "Critique and Social Change: Historical, Cultural, and Institutional Perspectives" addresses the question of how critique and social change are interrelated. Conflicts and disputes are considered to be a major source of critique. We distinguish three types of conflicts: (1) Value conflicts result from the ongoing process of rationalization and the differentiation of relatively autonomous "value spheres" (Weber) such as politics, economy, science, law, etc. (2) The growth and expansion of these value spheres, e.g. the growth of capitalism, in turn produce new forms of inequalities and leads to distributional conflicts. (3) As questions of distribution and inclusion are closely linked, critique also originates from identity conflicts, which address the social recognition of individuals and collectivities. In order to understand how critique is related to social change, we suggest that critique can be studied either as a condition for or as an effect from social change. Based on this distinction we provide an overview over the contributions of this volume

Embryonic Development in Arabidopsis Thaliana: From the Zygote Division to the Shoot Meristem

Postembryonic organ formation of plants is fueled with cells from the stem cell niches in the shoot and root meristems. During the last two decades many players that regulate stem cell maintenance have been identified. With these factors in hand, the mechanisms establishing stem cell niches during embryo development can be addressed. Here we discuss current models of how the shoot meristem stem cell niche arises during Arabidopsis embryo pattern formation

Bedingungen der relativen Lohngleichheit von Frauen und Männern – Eine vergleichende Analyse von OECD-Staaten

Der Beitrag untersucht die Bedingungen der realtiven Lohngleichheit zwischen Frauen und Männern in OECD Staaten. Mit einer Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) werden Typen von Bedingungskonstellationen ermittelt, die hinreichend für die relative Gleichheit der Löhne von Frauen und Männern sind. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf dem Einfluss des Lohngleichheitsrechts, der Zivilgesellschaft und Frauen in Führungspositionen

Energy Star: A Competitive Advantage?

Voluntary government programs such as ENERGY STAR have been created to promote energy efficiency within different organizations and businesses, and this study is dedicated to discovering whether or not businesses that become certified building partners with ENERGY STAR obtain a competitive advantage. Through two different methods of analysis, an observational analysis and a test of means, data on profitability ratios from twenty-five ENERGY STAR partners are examined to determine if partnering with ENERGY STAR results in a competitive advantage

O∣|R∣|P∣|E -- A Data Semantics Driven Concurrency Control

This paper presents a concurrency control mechanism that does not follow a 'one concurrency control mechanism fits all needs' strategy. With the presented mechanism a transaction runs under several concurrency control mechanisms and the appropriate one is chosen based on the accessed data. For this purpose, the data is divided into four classes based on its access type and usage (semantics). Class $O$ (the optimistic class) implements a first-committer-wins strategy, class $R$ (the reconciliation class) implements a first-n-committers-win strategy, class $P$ (the pessimistic class) implements a first-reader-wins strategy, and class $E$ (the escrow class) implements a first-n-readers-win strategy. Accordingly, the model is called \PeFS. The selected concurrency control mechanism may be automatically adapted at run-time according to the current load or a known usage profile. This run-time adaptation allows \Pe to balance the commit rate and the response time even under changing conditions. \Pe outperforms the Snapshot Isolation concurrency control in terms of response time by a factor of approximately 4.5 under heavy transactional load (4000 concurrent transactions). As consequence, the degree of concurrency is 3.2 times higher.Comment: 20 pages, 7 tables, 15 figure

ZLL/AGO10 maintains shoot meristem stem cells during Arabidopsis embryogenesis by down-regulating ARF2-mediated auxin response

Increased ARF2 expression enhances the frequency of shoot meristem termination in zll-1. (DOC 48 kb

The WUS homeobox-containing (WOX) protein family

The plant-specific WOX family of homeobox proteins have key functions in plant development

Lorentz meets Fano spectral line shapes: A universal phase and its laser control

Symmetric Lorentzian and asymmetric Fano line shapes are fundamental spectroscopic signatures that quantify the structural and dynamical properties of nuclei, atoms, molecules, and solids. This study introduces a universal temporal-phase formalism, mapping the Fano asymmetry parameter q to a phase {\phi} of the time-dependent dipole-response function. The formalism is confirmed experimentally by laser-transforming Fano absorption lines of autoionizing helium into Lorentzian lines after attosecond-pulsed excitation. We also prove the inverse, the transformation of a naturally Lorentzian line into a Fano profile. A further application of this formalism amplifies resonantly interacting extreme-ultraviolet light by quantum-phase control. The quantum phase of excited states and its response to interactions can thus be extracted from line-shape analysis, with scientific applications in many branches of spectroscopy.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure