Competitive Priorities and Strategic Consensus in Emerging Economies: Evidence from India

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the competitive priorities of manufacturers in India, and examine the level of agreement or strategic consensus between senior executives and manufacturing managers on manufacturing competitive priorities in light of the prevalent culture. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data collected from 156 respondents from 78 manufacturing units based on a national sample in India are used to test the hypotheses using the paired samples t‐tests and multivariate analysis of variance. Findings – A relatively high emphasis by both levels of managers on quality, compared to the other three competitive priorities, is noteworthy and consistent with the global trends. The emphasis on delivery is a close second. Differences in competitive priorities exist across managerial levels in India despite the high power distance and low individualism. Research limitations/implications – The effect of ownership as private or public company was examined and no significant differences found, but data could not be collected on the ownership structure such as wholly owned domestic firms, foreign subsidiaries, or joint ventures. and whether a firm is a supplier to a multinational company. It may also be noted that a majority of the manufacturing companies in this paper came from three industries – chemicals, fabricated metals, and electronic and electrical equipment – and, hence, the findings of the paper might have been unduly influenced by the prevalent practices in these industries. Practical implications – The paper informs global managers and firms seeking to outsource to, or invest in, India that the Indian managers place significantly high emphasis on quality and delivery, but not as much on product variety or ability to make frequent changes to product design and production volume. The managers in India need to take note of prevailing differences in managerial priorities and efforts need to be made such that the priorities are aligned and manufacturing strategy may be unified and coordinated. Originality/value – In the Indian context, this is the first study that deployed multiple respondents to understand the manufacturing competitive priorities, and also the first to examine strategic consensus in operations strategy

Floral resources of Karnataka: a geographic perspective

We compiled the data on the floral resources of Karnataka from diverse published sources and analysed the geographic patterns of distribution of floral diversity. Our database shows that Karnataka harbours 4758 species from 1408 genera and 178 families and accounts for about 27 per cent of the country's floral diversity. We computed the 'endemicity value' of different districts based on the number of endemic species (those restricted to a maximum of five districts) harboured by them and found that the most species-rich districts (viz. Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Mysore, Hassan, Udupi and Kodagu) were also characterized by high values of endemicity while the species-poor districts had low values of endemicity. However, the relation between the species richness and endemicity of the districts was not linear; the species richness increases abruptly at lower levels of endemicity but plateaus off later at high levels of endemicity. Based on the number of species packed into the families, all the 27 districts segregated distinctly into three clusters that geographically correspond with the three major agro-climatic zones of the state. Our analysis showed that though the districts along the Western Ghats are florally rich, those along the dry tracts also harbour certain unique elements of the flora; thus these dry zone districts appear to be as important as those along the Western Ghats in conserving the floral resources

Functional recombinant antibodies against human chorionic gonadotropin expressed in plants

Single-chain variable fragments, diabodies and chimeric antibodies (mouse variable domains and human immunoglobulin constant domains) were engineered by DNA recombinant technique and expressed transiently in tobacco leaves. The plants expressed the three types of antigen-binding moieties, accurately and faithfully. The yield obtained was 32 mg, 40 mg and 20 mg respectively, per kg of wet weight of leaves. The chimeric antibody had high affinity for human chorionic gonadotropin (Ka=1.9×1010M−1). All three forms of the recombinant antibodies expressed by plants inhibited the binding of hCG to receptor on Leydig cells

Do Multinational enterprises push up wages of domestic firms in the Italian Manufacturing sector?

This paper analyzes the effects of foreign direct investment on wages paid by domestic firms in the Italian manufacturing sector over the period 2002–2007. In particular, the authors investigate the im-pact of multinational enterprises on wages paid by local firms which operate in the same industry, known and horizontal wage spillovers, or have linkages with multinational enterprises in both downstream and upstream industries, known as vertical wage spillovers. By using a large panel dataset, consisting of 551,000 observations, the authors find evidence of wage spillovers only at inter-industry level and, more specifically, for those firms who supply their goods to multinational enterprises, described as backward wage spillovers. Moreover, findings suggest that the wage spillover effect is strongly affected by the technological gap between local and foreign firms: only workers employed in domestic firms with a low-medium technological absorptive capacity seem to benefit from the presence of multinational enterprises in terms of higher wages

The PROMISES study: A mixed methods approach to explore the acceptability of salivary progesterone testing for preterm birth risk among pregnant women and trained frontline healthcare workers in rural India

Introduction India has an overall neonatal mortality rate of 28/1000 live births, with higher rates in rural India. Approximately 3.5 million pregnancies in India are affected by preterm birth (PTB) annually and contribute to approximately a quarter of PTBs globally. Embedded within the PROMISES study (which aims to validate a low-cost salivary progesterone test for early detection of PTB risk), we present a mixed methods explanatory sequential feasibility substudy of the salivary progesterone test. Methods A pretraining and post-training questionnaire to assess Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) (n=201) knowledge and experience of PTB and salivary progesterone sampling was analysed using the McNemar test. Descriptive statistics for a cross-sectional survey of pregnant women (n=400) are presented in which the acceptability of this test for pregnant women is assessed. Structured interviews were undertaken with ASHAs (n=10) and pregnant women (n=9), and were analysed using thematic framework analysis to explore the barriers and facilitators influencing the use of this test in rural India. Results Before training, ASHAs' knowledge of PTB (including risk factors, causes, postnatal support and testing) was very limited. After the training programme, there was a significant improvement in the ASHAs' knowledge of PTB. All 400 women reported the salivary test was acceptable with the majority finding it easy but not quick or better than drawing blood. For the qualitative aspects of the study, analysis of interview data with ASHAs and women, our thematic framework comprised of three main areas: implementation of intervention; networks of influence and access to healthcare. Qualitative data were stratified and presented as barriers and facilitators. Conclusion This study suggests support for ongoing investigations validating PTB testing using salivary progesterone in rural settings

Effects of the fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibitor URB597 on coping behavior under challenging conditions in mice

RATIONALE: Recent evidence suggests that in addition to controlling emotional behavior in general, endocannabinoid signaling is engaged in shaping behavioral responses to challenges. This important function of endocannabinoids is still poorly understood. OBJECTIVES: Here we investigated the impact of blockade of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the degrading enzyme of anandamide on behavioral responses induced by challenges of different intensity. METHODS: Mice treated with FAAH inhibitor URB597 were either manually restrained on their backs (back test) or received foot-shocks. RESULTS: The behavior of mice showed bimodal distribution in the back test: they either predominantly showed escape attempts or equally distributed time between passivity and escape. URB597 increased escapes in animals with low escape scores. No effects were noticed in mice showing high escape scores, which is likely due to a ceiling effect. We hypothesized that stronger stressors would wash out individual differences in coping; therefore, we exposed mice to foot-shocks that decreased locomotion and increased freezing in all mice. URB597 ameliorated both responses. The re-exposure of mice to the shock cage 14 days later without delivering shocks or treatment was followed by reduced and fragmented sleep as shown by electrophysiological recordings. Surprisingly, sleep was more disturbed after the reminder than after shocks in rats receiving vehicle before foot-shocks. These reminder-induced disturbances were abolished by URB597 administered before shocks. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that FAAH blockade has an important role in the selection of behavioral responses under challenging conditions and-judging from its long-term effects-that it influences the cognitive appraisal of the challenge

Apoptosis-like cell death in Leishmania donovani treated with KalsomeTM10, a new liposomal amphotericin B

The present study aimed to elucidate the cell death mechanism in Leishmania donovani upon treatment with KalsomeTM10, a new liposomal amphotericin B. Methodology/Principal findings We studied morphological alterations in promastigotes through phase contrast and scanning electron microscopy. Phosphatidylserine (PS) exposure, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and disruption of mitochondrial integrity was determined by flow cytometry using annexinV-FITC, JC-1 and mitotraker, respectively. For analysing oxidative stress, generation of H2O2 (bioluminescence kit) and mitochondrial superoxide O2 − (mitosox) were measured. DNA fragmentation was evaluated using terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick-end labelling (TUNEL) and DNA laddering assay. We found that KalsomeTM10 is more effective then Ambisome against the promastigote as well as intracellular amastigote forms. The mechanistic study showed that KalsomeTM10 induced several morphological alterations in promastigotes typical of apoptosis. KalsomeTM10 treatment showed a dose- and time-dependent exposure of PS in promastigotes. Further,study on mitochondrial pathway revealed loss of mitochondrial membrane potential as well as disruption in mitochondrial integrity with depletion of intracellular pool of ATP. KalsomeTM10 treated promastigotes showed increased ROS production, diminished GSH levels and increased caspase-like activity. DNA fragmentation and cell cycle arrest was observed in KalsomeTM10 treated promastigotes. Apoptotic DNA fragmentation was also observed in KalsomeTM10 treated intracellular amastigotes. KalsomeTM10 induced generation of ROS and nitric oxide leads to the killing of the intracellular parasites. Moreover, endocytosis is indispensable for KalsomeTM10 mediated anti-leishmanial effect in host macrophag