Financial aggregation of risks for MSMEs in developing economies: a conceptual framework of financial aggregation and microinsurance effects

Business vulnerability is a function of the extent of risks faced and the ability of the business to adapt to adverse changes in circumstances. Financial Aggregation arises out of the link between economic interactions at the micro level and their macro based risks Microbusinesses in developing countries are often highly vulnerable to a range of risks including natural disasters, corruption, poor weather conditions and illness. This vulnerability creates a need for insurance but ability to take out appropriate insurance is frequently limited by financial resources, availability of insurance policies and information on these policies and financial education levels. On the supply side, microinsurers are faced with high marketing and administrative costs and the microinsurance market is further distorted by information asymmetries, adverse selection and moral hazards. This limits interest in the microinsurance market from commercial providers, with microinsurance frequently being available through non-profit agents. This paper investigates the relationship between vulnerability, risk appetite of microbusinesses and their propensity to insure. In building a conceptual framework, we explore the factors that impact financial aggregation and the uptake of microinsurance. We observe additionally that improved financial education and more effective information may help to increase the extent and quality of microinsurance

Business model innovation: how international retailers rebuild their core business logic in a new host country

Although research into the business model has received increasing attention, few studies have so far been conducted on business model innovation in an international context. The purpose of the study is to identify different patterns of business model innovation which enables international retailers to rebuild their core business logic in new host countries. On the basis of comparing and contrasting the business model changes of 15 international retailers from various home countries to one single host country (China), our study provides an in-depth understanding of business model innovation in the context of international business. By looking at the firms’ capabilities in rebuilding their core logic in the setting of a host country, we reveal six routes of retail business model innovation. Utilizing the lens of organizational learning theory and internationalization, we identify three patterns of resource deployment by international companies in the process of developing business model innovations. Our study, therefore, provides insights and guidance for multinational companies in general, international retailers in particular, as for how to successfully adapt their business model from home country to host country

Sophorolipid biosurfactants: Possible uses as antibacterial and antibiofilm agent.

Biosurfactants are amphipathic, surface-active molecules of microbial origin which accumulate at interfaces reducing interfacial tension and leading to the formation of aggregated micellular structures in solution. Some biosurfactants have been reported to have antimicrobial properties, the ability to prevent adhesion and to disrupt biofilm formation. We investigated antimicrobial properties and biofilm disruption using sophorolipids at different concentrations. Growth of Gram negative Cupriavidus necator ATCC 17699 and Gram positive Bacillus subtilis BBK006 were inhibited by sophorolipids at concentrations of 5% v/v with a bactericidal effect. Sophorolipids (5% v/v) were also able to disrupt biofilms formed by single and mixed cultures of B. subtilis BBK006 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 9144 under static and flow conditions, as was observed by scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that sophorolipids may be promising compounds for use in biomedical application as adjuvants to other antimicrobial against some pathogens through inhibition of growth and/or biofilm disruption

The relationship between innovation culture and innovation outcomes: exploring the effects of sustainability orientation and firm size

Being sustainability oriented has become a key strategy for many firms. Equally, innovation culture and innovation outcomes have long been recognized as important contributors to the growth of firms. However, the literature on sustainability and innovation provides limited understanding of the important relationship between sustainability orientation, innovation culture and innovation outcomes. Given that large firms and small firms differ in building and employing their strategic assets, firm size matters in understanding the relationship. Through the lens of resource-based view, we develop a theoretical model embedding the four components and test it using data from a global survey: the 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study. Our research contributes to sustainability literature and innovation theory by providing an integrated framework to explicate the mechanism through which the innovation culture of the firm impacts on innovative performance through the sustainability orientation of the firm. The findings advance our understanding of the extent to which sustainable orientation can explain the relationship between innovation culture and innovation outcomes. Our evidence shows that the innovation culture of a firm facilitates the sustainability orientation of the firm and that the converse also applies. The research also contributes to our knowledge of the differences between large and small firms in leveraging their strategic assets in terms of innovation culture and sustainability orientation to facilitate superior innovation outcomes. Although firm size moderates the relationship between innovation culture and innovation outcomes, the research shows that this no longer holds when sustainability orientation is included in the relationship. A strong sustainability orientation can be a competitive advantage for firms in the delivery of superior innovation outcomes

Endocrine remodelling of the adult intestine sustains reproduction in Drosophila.

The production of offspring is energetically costly and relies on incompletely understood mechanisms that generate a positive energy balance. In mothers of many species, changes in key energy-associated internal organs are common yet poorly characterised functionally and mechanistically. In this study, we show that, in adult Drosophila females, the midgut is dramatically remodelled to enhance reproductive output. In contrast to extant models, organ remodelling does not occur in response to increased nutrient intake and/or offspring demands, but rather precedes them. With spatially and temporally directed manipulations, we identify juvenile hormone (JH) as an anticipatory endocrine signal released after mating. Acting through intestinal bHLH-PAS domain proteins Methoprene-tolerant (Met) and Germ cell-expressed (Gce), JH signals directly to intestinal progenitors to yield a larger organ, and adjusts gene expression and sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) activity in enterocytes to support increased lipid metabolism. Our findings identify a metabolically significant paradigm of adult somatic organ remodelling linking hormonal signals, epithelial plasticity, and reproductive output. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06930.00

The importance of non-accessible crosslinks and solvent accessible surface distance in modelling proteins with restraints from crosslinking mass spectrometry

Crosslinking coupled to mass spectrometry (XL-MS) is becoming an increasingly popular technique for modelling protein monomers and complexes. The distance restraints garnered from these experiments can be used alone or as part of an integrative modelling approach, incorporating data from many sources. However, modelling practices are varied and the difference in their usefulness is not clear. Here, we develop a new scoring procedure for models based on crosslink data - Matched and Non-accessible Crosslink score (MNXL). We compare its performance with that of other commonly-used scoring functions (Number of Violations and Sum of Violation Distances) on a benchmark of 14 protein domains, each with 300 corresponding models (at various levels of quality) and associated, previously published, experimental crosslinks (XLdb). The distances between crosslinked lysines are calculated either as Euclidean distances or Solvent Accessible Surface Distances (SASD) using a newly-developed method (Jwalk). MNXL takes into account whether a crosslink is non-accessible, i.e., an experimentally observed crosslink has no corresponding SASD in a model due to buried lysines. This metric alone is shown to have a significant impact on modelling performance and is a concept that is not considered at present if only Euclidean distances are used. Additionally, a comparison between modelling with SASD or Euclidean distance shows that SASD is superior, even when factoring out the effect of the non-accessible crosslinks. Our benchmarking also shows that MNXL outperforms the other tested scoring functions in terms of precision and correlation to Ca-RMSD from the crystal structure. We finally test the MNXL at different levels of crosslink recovery (i.e. the percentage of crosslinks experimentally observed out of all theoretical ones) and set a target recovery of ~20% after which the performance plateaus