The negative influence of the entrepreneur’s level of higher education on the attractiveness of European SMEs as alliance partners in Brazil: the role of practical experience and international entrepreneurial orientation

Notwithstanding the contemporary relevance of alliance strategies for SME internationalisation, especially in the case of uncertain business environments, few studies have investigated human resource issues in the context of SMEs prior to alliance formation. Even more scarce are studies looking at the impact of a manager/entrepreneur’s characteristics on pre-alliance formation, despite recognition of the expected crucial role of the entrepreneur in this context and of the strong connection between an entrepreneur and their SME. Drawing on international entrepreneurship theory and empirical observations from an exploratory study, we propose a post hoc conceptual model. The exploratory empirical part of our study employs a sample of entrepreneurs from biotechnology SMEs in the United Kingdom and Germany intending to ally in a large emerging market (i.e. Brazil). Our empirical observations suggest an anomalous (at first glance) negative association between the entrepreneur’s level of higher education (a construct at the individual level) and the attractiveness of the SME as a partner firm vis-à-vis alliance formation (a construct at the firm level). Our post hoc model emphasises the role of practical experience and the corresponding levels of international entrepreneurial orientation as theorised variables mediating the observed empirical relationship. We develop theoretical propositions, and suggest practical implications and future research directions

Biology Needs a Modern Assessment System for Professional Productivity

Stimulated in large part by the advent of the Internet, research productivity in many academic disciplines has changed dramatically over the last two decades. However, the assessment system that governs professional success has not kept pace, creating a mismatch between modes of scholarly productivity and academic assessment criteria. In this article, we describe the problem and present ideas for solutions. We argue that adjusting assessment criteria to correspond to modern scholarly productivity is essential for the success of individual scientists and of our discipline as a whole. The authors and endorsers of this article commit to a number of actions that constitute steps toward ensuring that all forms of scholarly productivity are credited. The emphasis here is on systematic biology, but we are not alone in experiencing this mismatch between productivity and assessment. An additional goal in this article is to begin a conversation about the problem with colleagues in other subdisciplines of biology. � 2011 by American Institute of Biological Sciences. All rights reserved.National Science Foundation,�NSF: DEB-0935231;�Smithsonian Institution,�SI;�National Museum of Natural History,�NMNH;�California State University Long Beach,�CSULBWe are grateful to the participants who attended the four workshops on the future of systematics and biodiversity research at which these ideas were developed and discussed. Vicki Funk, John Lundberg, John Oswald, A. Townsend Peterson, L. Alan Prather, Nathan Sheffield, and Erin Tripp provided especially valuable input on earlier drafts of the manuscript. The Chicago Botanic Garden; the National Center for Evolutionary Synthesis (Durham, North Carolina); California State University at Long Beach; and the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, hosted these workshops, which were supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (DEB-0935231)

Supplementary Information - Circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system adaptations in hibernating brown bears indicate increased tissue IGF availability

Supplementary figures and tables for the manuscript entitled “Circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system adaptations in hibernating brown bears indicate increased tissue IGF availability”

Supplementary Information - Circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system adaptations in hibernating brown bears indicate increased tissue IGF availability

Supplementary figures and tables for the manuscript entitled “Circulating insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system adaptations in hibernating brown bears indicate increased tissue IGF availability”