Outsourcing and its implications for market success : negative curvilinearity, firm resources, and competition

Over the past few decades, outsourcing has become a widely discussed and researched means for firms to change their performance. In this article, we attempt to link outsourcing to the market success of firms, specifically their market share. We argue that although firms may be able to increase their market share through outsourcing, this is only true up to a point, beyond which market share actually decreases as a consequence of further outsourcing. There is, in other words, a negatively curvilinear (inverted U) relationship between outsourcing and market share. We also hypothesize that the outsourcing–market share relationship is moderated negatively by both the strength of firm resources and the extent of competition in a firm‘s market. We empirically confirm these arguments through a panel data analysis containing over 19,000 observations on manufacturing firms, and offer some case examples to illustrate the mechanisms driving these results. We discuss implications for marketing research and practice

Sampling strategies for accurate computational inferences of gametic phase across highly polymorphic major histocompatibility complex loci

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genes of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) are very popular genetic markers among evolutionary biologists because of their potential role in pathogen confrontation and sexual selection. However, MHC genotyping still remains challenging and time-consuming in spite of substantial methodological advances. Although computational haplotype inference has brought into focus interesting alternatives, high heterozygosity, extensive genetic variation and population admixture are known to cause inaccuracies. We have investigated the role of sample size, genetic polymorphism and genetic structuring on the performance of the popular Bayesian PHASE algorithm. To cover this aim, we took advantage of a large database of known genotypes (using traditional laboratory-based techniques) at single MHC class I (N = 56 individuals and 50 alleles) and MHC class II B (N = 103 individuals and 62 alleles) loci in the lesser kestrel <it>Falco naumanni</it>.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Analyses carried out over real MHC genotypes showed that the accuracy of gametic phase reconstruction improved with sample size as a result of the reduction in the allele to individual ratio. We then simulated different data sets introducing variations in this parameter to define an optimal ratio.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results demonstrate a critical influence of the allele to individual ratio on PHASE performance. We found that a minimum allele to individual ratio (1:2) yielded 100% accuracy for both MHC loci. Sampling effort is therefore a crucial step to obtain reliable MHC haplotype reconstructions and must be accomplished accordingly to the degree of MHC polymorphism. We expect our findings provide a foothold into the design of straightforward and cost-effective genotyping strategies of those MHC loci from which locus-specific primers are available.</p