Auction with aftermarket for budget constrained bidders

The paper compares different auction formats for sale of a single patented innovation for budget constrained bidders. This unit decreases the marginal cost of production in the aftermarket for its owner by an amount which depends on the money invested on the development of this technology. As the bidders have a fixed budget that must be used to pay the final auction price and also to develop the new technology, the winner has incentives to pay a low amount for his unit to increase the amount available to invest in cost reduction. Conversely the loser has incentives to induce induce a higher price to be paid by the winner in order to increase aftermarket profits. This conflict of interest generates the willingness to pay (WTP) for the patent through an endogenous process, which may end up by stablishing a higher WTP for the lowest financed firm. Given this background, the case in which the players have different initial budgets may generate multiple equilibria for all studied auction mechanisms. These equilibria produce di¤erent consumer surplus and, thus, a central government with an unti-trust behavior is able to choose the auction that generates the re�ned equilibrium leading to the highest consumer surplus.Market design; auction; aftermarket; budget constraints; investment

The Early and Rapid Development of Global Startups

Global Startups (GSs) are identified as the most radical manifestation of International New Ventures (INV)/Born Globals (BGs) since they are able to sell more than 25% of their products in foreign countries and coordinate several business activities in different markets after few years from their foundation. They are usually founded by entrepreneurs who start the international path before the official foundation of their ventures. The focus on the coordination of many activities across countries and the presence in several markets allow to identify some common aspects they have with BGs, but also some different features. For instance, like BGs these firms are characterized by a proactive behavior in the research of opportunities. Instead, unlike BGs, they are involved in the coordination of several cross-border activities among which exportation, offshore, R&D, joint ventures, or production subsidiaries. Furthermore, in literature scholars focus on factors that drive companies to choose a global approach and on factors that favor an early and rapid expansion. Nevertheless, the studies identified were conducted mainly on BGs or on high-tech startups; only few of them specifically focus on the development of GSs. For this reason, a more comprehensive framework focused on this type of firms could help in clarifying what elements drive towards a global approach, and which of them support their development. The principal aim of this study is to understand and examine the elements that drive firms towards the choice of an early and rapid global approach, analyzing those factors that support the growth of Global Startups. To achieve our objective, a multiple case study method will be adopted by focusing on GSs as firms that are able to coordinate several value-chain activities in many countries, within three years from their foundation. As suggested by the literature, the analysis of entrepreneur characteristics and firm’s traits is important in order to understand how they influence the firm’s global expansion. Then, for examining the development of GSs, a framework based on Baronchelli and Cassia (2008, 2014) and few other studies (Cannone et al., 2012; Bailetti, 2012) has been developed. Several factors identified in literature as important drivers for a global approach, and supporters of the early and rapid expansion of GSs has been included

Democratising software and applications development: a multiple case study

Purpose: By following Davis’ technology acceptance model (1989), the authors investigate the factors affecting the adoption of graphic user interface (GUI) oriented technologies able to democratise software and applications development for various business purposes as alternatives to customised software processes from the users’ perspective. Methodology: We developed a multiple-case study by collecting primary data through semi-structured interviews with key informants from three Italian companies adopting GUI-oriented technologies. We triangulated data by analysing secondary sources such as internal reports, online articles and social networks (e.g., LinkedIn) and developed a content analysis using NVIVO software. Findings: The content analysis shows that users link the utility of GUI-oriented technologies with their need for a flexible and fast enough tool to create solutions and demonstrate to customers results almost immediately by considerably shortening the time-to-market, mapping and building business processes rapidly. Moreover, the technologies’ user-friendliness is associated with the possibility of autonomous training, the development of applications with a relatively limited level of technological knowledge by prioritising requirements over details, and easy integration with other external elements. However, some cultural and non-technical barriers and resistances to technology adoption were mentioned. Research limitations/implications: The paper presents some limitations, mainly regarding the sample size. Concerning implications, the first concerns managers’ ability to evaluate the GUI-oriented technology features by matching them with the company’s needs for maximising its digital impact. The second one regards the managers’ awareness of GUI-oriented technology in reducing repetitive activities and accelerating the application development and release. Originality/value: Compared to past studies, which mainly focused on testing the consistency of the model, this study adopted the TAM perspective to identify the main antecedents of adopting an unexplored GUI-oriented technology

Auction with aftermarket for budget constrained bidders

The paper compares different auction formats for sale of a single patented innovation for budget constrained bidders. This unit decreases the marginal cost of production in the aftermarket for its owner by an amount which depends on the money invested on the development of this technology. As the bidders have a fixed budget that must be used to pay the final auction price and also to develop the new technology, the winner has incentives to pay a low amount for his unit to increase the amount available to invest in cost reduction. Conversely the loser has incentives to induce induce a higher price to be paid by the winner in order to increase aftermarket profits. This conflict of interest generates the willingness to pay (WTP) for the patent through an endogenous process, which may end up by stablishing a higher WTP for the lowest financed firm. Given this background, the case in which the players have different initial budgets may generate multiple equilibria for all studied auction mechanisms. These equilibria produce di¤erent consumer surplus and, thus, a central government with an unti-trust behavior is able to choose the auction that generates the re�ned equilibrium leading to the highest consumer surplus

Tecnologie digitali e nuovi modelli di business per le imprese Born Global

Inquadramento della ricerca. L’applicazione delle tecnologie digitali sta modificando i modelli di business tradizionali, riconfigurando le strutture organizzative e relazioni di quelle esistenti. Obiettivo del paper. Comprendere l’impatto delle tecnologie digitali nel plasmare i modelli di business delle imprese nel loro percorso di internazionalizzazione. Metodologia. Analisi di due casi studio di imprese che hanno sviluppato il loro percorso di internazionalizzazione affidandosi alle tecnologie digitali. Risultati. Le tecnologie digitali e gli strumenti di progettazione collaborativa possano rappresentare la base per nuovi modelli di business che sfruttano le opportunità derivanti dalla crescente connettività di persone e imprese. Emergono nuove tipologie di imprese Born Global, con un ruolo di “digital-based process coordinator”, per la gestione di progetti complessi. Limiti della ricerca. Lo studio è stato condotto in un solo Paese e, al suo interno, una sola regione. Sarebbe opportuno che ulteriori studi prendessero in considerazione casi di altre regioni e altri Paesi, nonché settori diversi. Implicazioni manageriali. L’emergere di nuovi ruoli apre spazi di mercato per aziende in grado di offrire servizi specializzati che non si basano solo su caratteristiche tecniche e informatiche, ma coniughino competenze digitali con capacità di coordinamento e relazionali, anche informali, che ancora caratterizzano le interazioni di business Originalità del paper. Il paper evidenzia come le tecnologie digitali permettono la nascita di nuovi ruoli e nuovi modelli di business in settori tradizionalmente ancorati alla produzione di beni a bassa tecnologia. In questi settori, la digitalizzazione permette di organizzare in modo innovativo il legame fra produttori e utenti finali, anche nella dimensione internazionale del mercato. Le imprese Born Gobal possono arricchirsi di questo profilo, che ne identifica il ruolo nella base digitale del modello di business

Pola Interaksi Sosial Pekerja Tambang Emas Di Desa Karya Baru Kecamatan Dengilo Kabupaten Pohuwato Provinsi Gorontalo

Pertambangan di Indonesia merupakan sektor yang berfungsi mendapatkan devisa negara paling besar. Dan pertambangan menjadi usaha kerja yang diminati oleh masyarakat umum terutama di daerah untuk mencari pendapatan. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui Pola Interaksi Sosial Pekerja Tambang di Desa Karya Baru Kecamatan Kecamatan Dengilo Kabupaten Pohuwato Provinsi Gorontalo dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif pendekatan deskriptif. Teknik Pengumpulan data dalam penelitian ini yaitu dengan menggunakan teknik observasi, wawancara, dokumentasi dan triangulasi. Metode analisis data yaitu pengumpulan dan pengambilan data dari informan yang dikumpulkan melalui wawancara yang sudah ditulis dan direkam, lalu mereduksi data yaitu merangkum data yang sudah dikumpulkan, lalu penyajian data yaitu sekumpulan informasi yang telah tersusun lalu dilakukan penarikan kesimpulan. Hasil dari penelitian ini menujukan bahwa Pola Interaksi Sosial Pekerja Tambang Emas meliputi : a). Kerja sama (Cooperation), b). Persaingan (Competition), c). Akomodasi (Acomodation), dan d). Pertikaian atau pertentangan (Conflict).  Kata Kunci : Pola Interaksi Sosial, Tamban

Determinazione delle proprietà del petrolio tramite spettroscopia ¹H-NMR e analisi chemiometrica

Currently, the refiners have to cope with an increasing demand of high quality distillates of tighter specifications, while facing the need to process increasingly heavier and poorer quality crudes. Furthermore, the recent trends to process heavy and lower cost crudes spurred the interest on residue upgrading, normally referred to as bottom of the barrel processing, as a means to fully exploit the crudes’ heavy fractions. To reach these goals, refiners are looking at optimizing production and improving selection of crudes and crude mixtures to be processed which can only be achieved through a detailed knowledge of the composition and quality of feed and finished products. Generally, to know the yield and the quality of the crude oils, it is necessary to perform an atmospheric distillation and to characterize their fractions at laboratory level (crude assay). In order to characterize the crude residue, a vacuum distillation is needed and the physical-chemical properties of the resulting fractions must be measured. The time required for these characterization measurements is between 2 and 3 weeks, the amount of sample needed is large, up to 10 Kg, and the overall routine is generally expensive in terms of instruments, man-hours and consumables. Furthermore, crudes quality is not constant and tends to fluctuate over time and with field. To ensure technically, economically, and environmentally proper refining operations there is a substantial need for fast analytical methods for characterization of crude oils and their residua. During this PhD research, as a fast and viable alternative, 1H NMR spectroscopy, combined with chemometrics, has been used. To exploit the full information content of the NMR data acquired on complex systems, as crude oils, chemometric regression techniques as partial least squares (PLS) have been developed. The proton NMR spectra of neat crude samples have been recorded using a 300-MHz laboratory spectrometer. PLS regression models for prediction were built using analytical data obtained at the SARTEC laboratory. The attention was focused on the study of the most common crude assay properties such as API gravity, TBP distillation yields, KUOP factor, pour point, total acidity number and sulfur, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen content. Successively, it was proved that also other important physical-chemical parameters can be predicted using the NMR. Among these asphaltenes, carbon residue, metal content, and especially the breakdown of aromatic classes content which, despite their impact on process, have been overlooked in previous researches. In addition, this thesis, demonstrates the possibility to predict most of the properties of atmospheric and vacuum distillation residua directly from the 1H NMR spectra of crudes. The speed of this method and most of all the possibility to avoid the distillation of the sample prior to analysis, opens to the opportunity to use real time property data of residua to evaluate process strategies and to assess the impact on downstream processes. Chemometric modelling was carried out for the most important property of residua, i.e. yields, density, viscosity, sulfur content, asphaltenes, carbon residue, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon content

Ocular UV protection : revisiting safe limits for sunglasses standards.

The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) establishes that the safe limits regarding\ud ultraviolet radiation exposure in the spectral region 180nm–400nm incident upon the unprotected eye(s) should not\ud exceed 30 Jm-2 effective spectrally weighted (spectral weighting factors are provided by ICNIRP); and the total\ud (unweighted) ultraviolet radiant exposure in the spectral region 315nm–400nm should not exceed 104 Jm-2. However, it\ud should be considered that the spectral range from 180nm–280nm does not reach the surface of the Earth, since it is\ud absorbed by the ozone layer of the atmosphere. The Brazilian Standard for sunglasses protection, NBR15111(2004), as\ud well as the British Standard BSEN1836(2005) and American Standard ANZI Z80.3(2009), requires the UV protection in\ud the spectral range 280nm–380nm, but does not take into account the total (unweighted) UVA radiant exposure. These\ud limits are discussed in this work and calculations have been made for 27 state capitals of Brazil to understand the limits\ud that should be involved in order to protect the eyes of the Brazilian population. These calculations and considerations\ud may be extended to other countries as well. As a conclusion, we show that the upper limit for the UVA protection of\ud 400nm should be included in the Brazilian standard, as well as the irradiance limits. Furthermore, the parameters for the\ud resistance to irradiance test required on the Brazilian standard are also discussed herein as well the significance of this\ud test. We show that the test should be performed by the sun simulator for a longer period than currently required.FAPESP - Proc 2012/11171-