The Impact of R&D Offshoring on the Home Knowledge Production of OECD Investing Regions

This paper investigates the relationship between home and offshore R&D activities on the knowledge production of the investing home region. Debate is ongoing on whether R&D offshoring complements the R&D performed at home. In the light of increased offshoring of innovative activities to emerging countries, we explicitly focus on Brazil, Russia, India, China, Singapore and Taiwan. We suggest that complementarity should obtain, when home region and offshore R&D activities are dissimilar as well as when offshore R&D activities is about modular and less complex technologies. We ground our predictions on arguments related to geographical technological specialisation and reverse knowledge transfer from offshore locations to home regions within the more general open innovation trend. Using a theoretical framework based on the international business literature and the regional system of innovation perspective, we estimate a knowledge production function for a sample of 221 regions from 21 OECD countries with home region patent applications as the dependent variable. Our test supports our predictions on the complementarity between home region and offshore R&D.Home Region R&D; Offshore R&D; Knowledge Production; Complementarity; Emerging Countries

The Buenos Aires water concession

The signing of a concession contract for the Buenos Aires water and sanitation system in December 1992, attracted worldwide attention, and caused considerable controversy in Argentina. It was one of the world's largest concessions, but the case was also interesting for other reasons. The concession was implemented rapidly, in contrast with slow implementation of privatization in Santiago, for example. And reform generated major improvements in the sector, including wider coverage, better service, more efficient company operations, and reduced waste. Moreover, the winning bid brought an immediate 26.9 percent reduction in water system tariffs. Consumers benefited from the system's expansion and from the immediate drop in real prices, which was only partly reversed by subsequent changes in tariffs, and access charges. And these improvements would probably not have occurred under public administration of the system. Still, the authors show information asymmetries, perverse incentives, and weak regulatory institutions could threaten the concession's sustainability. Opportunities for the company to act opportunistically - and the regulator, arbitrarily - exist, because of politicized regulation, a poor information base, serious flaws in the concession contract, a lumpy and ad hoc tariff system, and a general lack of transparency in the regulatory process. Because of these circumstances, public confidence in the process has eroded. The Buenos Aires concession shows how important transparent, rule-based decision-making is to maintain public trust in regulated infrastructure.Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water Conservation,Water and Industry,Decentralization,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Water Conservation

A first checklist of the lichen-forming fungi of the Venezuelan Andes

Basing on an evaluation of the literature and some unpublished collections, 745 taxa of lichen forming-fungi are reported from the Venezuelan Andes, including 10 infraspecific taxa. Of these taxa 37 are new records for Venezuela: Actinoplaca vulgaris (Müll. Arg.) Vezda & Poelt, Asterothyrium decipiens (Rehm) R. Sant., Calopadia foliicola (Fée) Vezda, C. fusca (Müll. Arg.) Vezda, C. phyllogena (Müll. Arg.) Vezda, Chrysothrix chlorina (Ach.) J. R. Laundon, Cystocoleus ebeneus (Dillwyn) Thwaites, Diploschistes scruposus (Schreb.) Norm., Echinoplacaleucotrichoides (Vain.) R. Sant., Fellhanerabouteillei (Desm.) Vezda, F.dominicana (Vain.) Vezda, F. fuscatula (Müll. Arg.) Vezda, F. sublecanorina (Nyl.) Vezda, Gyalectidium filicinum Müll. Arg., Lecidea limosa Ach., Lepraria neglecta Auct., Ochrolechia africana Vain., Peltigera vainioi Gyelnik, Phyllobathelium nigrum R. Sant. & Tibell, Phyllophialealba R. Sant., Polymeridiumalbidum (Müll. Arg.) R. C. Harris, Porina epiphylla (Fée) Fée, Racodium rupestre Pers., Ramalina asahinae W. Culb. & C. Culb., R. calcarata Krog & Swinsc., R. puiggarii Müll Arg., R. rectangularis Nyl., Rhizoplaca melanophthalma (DC.) Leuckert & Poelt, Strigula antillarum (Fée) Müll. Arg., S. platypoda (Müll. Arg.) R. C. Harris, Tapellaria epiphylla (Müll. Arg.) R. Sant., T.nana (Fée) R. Sant., Tephromela aglaea (Sommerf.) Hertel & Rambold, Tricharia vainioi R. Sant., Trichothelium epiphyllum Müll. Arg., T. bipindense F. Schill. and Vezdaea foliicola Sérusiaux. Another 4 species are new records only for the Venezuelan Andes: Dimerellaepiphylla (Müll. Arg.) Malme, Porinaatrocoerulea Müll. Arg., Ramalina peruviana Ach. and Woessia apiahica (Müll. Arg.) Sérus. A list of synonyms used in the consulted literature is added. Four new combinations are proposed: Dictyonema zahlbruckneri (Schiffn.) V. Marcano, Heterodermia tropica (Kurok.) Sipman, Parmelinopsis cleefii (Sipman) V. Marcano & Sipman and Phyllobaeislinearis (De Vries) V. Marcano & Sipman

Introduction to a Special Issue on the Impact of Immigrant Legalization Initiatives: International Perspectives on Immigration and the World of Work

This article is the third in a series to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ILR Review. The series features articles that analyze the state of research and future directions for important themes the journal has featured over its many years of publication. In this issue, we also feature a special cluster of articles and book reviews on one of the most critical labor market issues across the globe—the legalization and integration of immigrants into national labor markets. Despite the urgent need for immigration reform in the United States, there is a paucity of US research that looks at the impact of a shift from unauthorized to legal immigrant status in the workplace. The US immigration literature has also paid little attention to immigrant legalization policies outside of the United States, despite the fact that other countries have implemented such policies with far more regularity. The articles in this special issue draw on studies of legalization initiatives in major immigrant destinations: Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Together they underscore the importance of cross-national perspectives for understanding the range of legalization programs and their impact on immigrant workers, the workplace, and the labor market. These findings contribute to key questions in migration scholarship and inform the global policy debate surrounding the integration and well-being of immigrant

Cross-sectional and longitudinal risk of physical impairment in a cohort of postmenopausal women who experience physical and verbal abuse.

BackgroundExposure to interpersonal violence, namely verbal and physical abuse, is a highly prevalent threat to women's health and well-being. Among older, post-menopausal women, several researchers have characterized a possible bi-directional relationship of abuse exposure and diminished physical functioning. However, studies that prospectively examine the relationship between interpersonal abuse exposure and physical functioning across multiple years of observation are lacking. To address this literature gap, we prospectively evaluate the association between abuse exposure and physical functioning in a large, national cohort of post-menopausal women across 12 years of follow-up observation.MethodsMultivariable logistic regression was used to measure the adjusted association between experiencing abuse and physical function score at baseline in 154,902 Women's Health Initiative (WHI) participants. Multilevel modeling, where the trajectories of decline in physical function were modeled as a function of time-varying abuse exposure, was used to evaluate the contribution of abuse to trajectories of physical function scores over time.ResultAbuse was prevalent among WHI participants, with 11 % of our study population reporting baseline exposure. Verbal abuse was the most commonly reported abuse type (10 %), followed by combined physical and verbal abuse (1 %), followed by physical abuse in the absence of verbal abuse (0.2 %). Abuse exposure (all types) was associated with diminished physical functioning, with women exposed to combined physical and verbal abuse presenting baseline physical functioning scores consistent with non-abused women 20 years senior. Results did not reveal a differential rate of decline over time in physical functioning based on abuse exposure.ConclusionsTaken together, our findings suggest a need for increased awareness of the prevalence of abuse exposure among postmenopausal women; they also underscore the importance of clinician's vigilance in their efforts toward the prevention, early detection and effective intervention with abuse exposure, including verbal abuse exposure, in post-menopausal women. Given our findings related to abuse exposure and women's diminished physical functioning at WHI baseline, our work illuminates a need for further study, particularly the investigation of this association in younger, pre-menopausal women so that the temporal ordering if this relationship may be better understood

Nursing Practice During a Mission in Nepal: Ethics and Leadership

The ability of nurses to reflect or critically examine the impact of professional standards of practice, legal guidelines, and ethical frameworks that influence and guide their practice is essential to help patients achieve quality of life and wellness. Regardless of the location and setting where nursing takes place, contextual factors such as the benefits and potential harm resulting from the care provided, availability of resources, the nurse’s scope of practice, and evidence-based practice guidelines, all affect a nurse’s ability to practice in a safe, ethical, competent, caring, and compassionate manner. Using an exploratory case study to investigate nurses’ (n=9) view of their practice during a 15-day mission in Nepal, semi-structured interviews, perusal of documents, archival records, physical artifacts, and observation contributed to understanding the experience of nursing in the mission. A modified version of constant comparative analysis was employed to examine, code, and triangulate data into themes. Benner’s (2001) novice-to-expert levels of proficiency and an ethics of care provided the conceptual frameworks to support and facilitate the research through an Interpretivist lens. A strength-base care approach to nursing practice and the examination of the critical role of effective and ethical mission leadership also assisted to understand nursing practice in the mission. The findings demonstrate the impact of individual, group, and situational factors on the participants’ ability to nurse during the mission and practice in a safe, ethical, competent, caring, and compassionate manner. Given the lack of available literature and research, the findings of this study contribute to the current yet limited knowledge about nursing practice during missions

The Effect of Servant Leadership on Nonprofit Workplace Conflict

Workplace conflict depletes nonprofit organizations of valuable time and energy. Organizations spend millions of dollars because of the financial and human cost of unresolved interpersonal conflict in the workplace that stem from ineffective leadership behaviors. A leader’s ineffective behaviors have been linked to the organizational pressures that can cause and spread counterproductive workplace behavior, which results in interpersonal conflict and great financial cost. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine the relationship between servant leadership behaviors and interpersonal workplace conflict in nonprofit organizational settings in the United States. Specifically, the intended goal of this research was to understand if leaders utilizing a servant leadership style reduced interpersonal conflict in the workplace. Correlational analysis investigated the relationships between servant leadership and interpersonal workplace conflict, using an online survey of 329 nonprofit employees in the United States. Participants completed the Servant Leadership Survey that measures servant leadership behaviors through eight subscales and the Interpersonal Conflict in Organizations Scale that measures interpersonal workplace conflict through four subscales. Overall, results suggested a significant negative relationship between higher levels of servant leadership and lower levels of interpersonal workplace conflict. The results support the initial hypothesis that higher levels of servant leadership lead to lower levels of interpersonal conflict in the workplace

MECHANICAL IMPROVEMENT OF HARDENING AND TEMPERING STEEL WITH THE ADDITION OF SiC AND TiCN NANOPARTICLES IN THE STEEL MELT

Novel processing technologies have allowed the reinforcement of several steel grades and alloys through the fine dispersion of different types of particles. However, the addition of ceramic particles in the steel melt causes agglomeration and coarsening phenomena. For this reason, little research has been carried out to add ceramic particles in steel in the traditional steelmaking process. Here we report a hardened and tempered steel grade that is reinforced for the first time through the addition of ceramic nanoparticles, such as TiCN and SiC, into the steel melt at laboratory scale. The results obtained from the tensile tests and hardness measurements reveal the mechanical behaviour of the steel grade is enhanced after the addition of the nanoparticles.Authors would like to thank the financial support of the Basque Government, as well as to thank Neomat Co. and Sidenor Aceros Especiales S.L. for supplying, respectively, the nanoparticles and the commercial steel grade used in this investigation

From Terrorists to Outlaws: Transnational and Peripheral Articulations in the Making of Nation and Empire

This paper traces some of the peripheral and transnational articulations that form an essential part of our exile journey from the South. In our approach we emphasize the connections that link the North to the South and the complicity of the North in the construction of peripheral/marginal bodies.Cet article retrace les articulations peripheriques et transnationales qui forment une partie essentielle de notre exil du Sud. Dans notre approche nous mettons l'accent sur les liens qui relient le Nord, au Sud et la complicite du Nord dans les constructions d'organismes peripheriques et marginaux

Exploration during turbulent times an analysis of the effects of R&D cooperation on radical innovation performance during the economic crisis

During the recent economic recession, firms have been less willing to invest in innovation, which often is an uncertain and long-term process. This reduction did not occur equally for all firms, and recent literature has analysed the characteristics of those firms which maintain or even raise their innovative efforts during the crisis. Technological collaboration has been recognised as one of the most important external sources that affects innovation performance. However, how economic recession has changed the impact of R and D collaboration on innovation performance has received few attention. This paper investigates the effect of different external cooperation patterns of firms before and during the last economic recession. We highlight the role of geographical and organizational diversity of knowledge sources, as well as the effect of past experience. We find that R and D cooperation has a stronger effect on radical innovation performance during the economic recession than before, this being true irrespectively of the geographical location of the partners. This benefit from cooperation during the economic turmoil is higher in the case of firms having a diverse portfolio of partners. In addition, we also find that past experience in R and D cooperation positively affects innovation performance during the crisis