ICT-based innovation and its competitive outcome: the role of information intensity

Purpose Prior research highlights the vital role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for innovation in response to environmental conditions. However, there is a lack of studies that analyse the determinants of ICT investments on the innovation activities of firms in relation with their impacts on the industrial and competitive dynamics using large data sets. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors investigate the effects of ICT investments on the industrial and competitive dynamics for a large and representative panel data set. All the industries are included, and lagged effects of ICT investments are studied. The model is tested on a seven-year panel (2008–2014) of 231 Italian industries using two-stage least squares instrumental-variables estimators with industry time and fixed effects. Findings The results indicate that munificent industries and higher ICT spending are interrelated facts, showing that in sectors with more growth opportunities firms invest more in ICT and this leads to higher industry concentration, greater profit dispersion and higher competitive turbulence in the sector. Also, the paper shows that SMEs can rarely take advantage of their ICT-based innovation to start high-growth phenomena. Practical implications The results suggest that ICT-based innovation may create competitive advantages that are hard to sustain over the long-term raising important implications for managers involved in ICT-enabled innovations and policy-makers involved in building programs to foster innovation. Originality/value Against the backdrop of today’s digital transformation, the paper enriches our understanding on the disruptive effects exerted by the digitalization of the innovation process and provides a base to continue the investigation of industrial changes and competitive dynamics

The impact of IT–business strategic alignment on firm performance: The evolving role of IT in industries

This study proposes and validates a new industry taxonomy to understand the use of IT that generates superior economic returns based on the specific economic and competitive characteristics of four different industry types and the strategic role of IT in each of these industry environments. Our findings extend the well-established industry taxonomy on the strategic role of IT (Automate, Informate, Transform) by considering how IT is changing the nature of the product/service in industries where transformational logics prevail. We found that in industries where the product/service is digital in nature, the firms that achieve higher economic returns are those where IT is used to support dual strategies based on the integration of cost leadership and differentiation. Conversely, in other industries - with the exception of those producing commodities - the firms that achieve superior returns are those that use IT to support differentiation. The results of this study can help managers make intelligent decisions about competitive strategies and IT investments, depending on the business environment of the sector in which the firm operates and the generative potential of emerging technologies to do new things

Merging of globular clusters within inner galactic regions. II. The Nuclear Star Cluster formation

In this paper we present the results of two detailed N-body simulations of the interaction of a sample of four massive globular clusters in the inner region of a triaxial galaxy. A full merging of the clusters takes place, leading to a slowly evolving cluster which is quite similar to observed Nuclear Clusters. Actually, both the density and the velocity dispersion profiles match qualitatively, and quantitatively after scaling, with observed features of many nucleated galaxies. In the case of dense initial clusters, the merger remnant shows a density profile more concentrated than that of the progenitors, with a central density higher than the sum of the central progenitors central densities. These findings support the idea that a massive Nuclear Cluster may have formed in early phases of the mother galaxy evolution and lead to the formation of a nucleus, which, in many galaxies, has indeed a luminosity profile similar to that of an extended King model. A correlation with galactic nuclear activity is suggested.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to ApJ, main journa

Stem-like and highly invasive prostate cancer cells expressing CD44v8-10 marker originate from CD44-negative cells

In human prostate cancer (PCa), the neuroendocrine cells, expressing the prostate cancer stem cell (CSC) marker CD44, may be resistant to androgen ablation and promote tumor recurrence. During the study of heterogeneity of the highly aggressive neuroendocrine PCa cell lines PC3 and DU-145, we isolated and expanded in vitro a minor subpopulation of very small cells lacking CD44 (CD44neg). Unexpectedly, these sorted CD44neg cells rapidly and spontaneously converted to a stable CD44high phenotype specifically expressing the CD44v8-10 isoform which the sorted CD44high subpopulation failed to express. Surprisingly and potentially interesting, in these cells expression of CD44v8-10 was found to be induced in stem cell medium. CD44 variant isoforms are known to be more expressed in CSC and metastatic cells than CD44 standard isoform. In agreement, functional analysis of the two sorted and cultured subpopulations has shown that the CD44v8-10pos PC3 cells, resulting from the conversion of the CD44neg subpopulation, were more invasive in vitro and had a higher clonogenic potential than the sorted CD44high cells, in that they produced mainly holoclones, known to be enriched in stem-like cells. Of interest, the CD44v8-10 is more expressed in human PCa biopsies than in normal gland. The discovery of CD44v8-10pos cells with stem-like and invasive features, derived from a minoritarian CD44neg cell population in PCa, alerts on the high plasticity of stem-like markers and urges for prudency on the approaches to targeting the putative CSC

Hygienic and dietetic guidelines for implant-supported full-arch immediate loading prostheses

Introduction: Proper oral hygiene and diet are important considerations for success in implant prosthodontics. However, detailed hygienic and dietetic guidelines for patients rehabilitated with implant-supported, immediate loading prostheses are lacking in the literature. Methods: The authors have developed a dietary and hygienic protocol for patients rehabilitated with implant-supported, full-arch, immediate loading prostheses in order to avoid occlusal overloads during osseointegration and optimize healing. Results: The dietary and hygienic guidelines provided in this paper emphasize the importance of maintaining proper oral hygiene and diet to support osseointegration and soft tissue healing during postsurgery healing periods. Conclusions: The protocol presented has been an effective instrument to obtain and maintain osseointegration in patients rehabilitated with full-arch, immediate loading prostheses

Merging of globular clusters within inner galactic regions. I. Do they survive the tidal interaction?

The main topic of this paper is the investigation of the modes of interaction of globular clusters (GCs) moving in the inner part of a galaxy. This is tackled by means of high-resolution N-body simulations, whose first results are presented in this article. Our simulations dealt with primordial very massive (order of 10^7 solar masses) GCs that were able to decay, because of dynamical friction, into the inner regions of triaxial galaxies on a time much shorter than their internal relaxation time. To check the disruptive role of both tidal forces and GC-GC collisions, we maximised the tidal interaction considering GCs on quasi-radial orbits. The available CPU resources allowed us to follow 8 oscillations of the GCs along their orbits and the main findings are: i) clusters with an initial high enough King concentration parameter (c>=1.2), preserve up to 50% of their initial mass; ii) the inner density distribution of the survived clusters keep a King model profile; iii) GC-GC collisions have a negligible effect with respect to that caused by the passage through the galactic center; iv) the orbital energy dissipation due to the tidal interaction is of the same order of that caused by dynamical friction; v) complex sub-structures like "ripples" and "clumps" formed, as observed around real clusters. These findings support the validity of the hypothesis of merging of GCs in the galactic central region, with modes that deserve further careful investigations.Comment: LaTeX 2e, AASTeX v5.x, 23 pages with 14 figures. Accepted for publication on the Astrophysical Journal. Final version with major change

The Globular Cluster Luminosity Function as a Distance Indicator: Dynamical Effects

The dynamical evolution of the globular cluster systems in galaxies is predicted, based on the standard dynamical theory normalized to the example of the Milky Way. The major processes varying with the galactocentric distance are the tidal shocks and dynamical friction. Our simple model explains, on a quantitative basis, the observed differences of the inner and outer populations of globular clusters. We can thus calculate corrections for dynamical evolution for the luminosity function of globular clusters with the assumption that the initial luminosity function is identical in all galaxies (and we can test this assumption as well, in certain cases). Then we can compute the expected distribution of absolute magnitudes and compare it with the observed distribution of apparent magnitudes to estimate the distance moduli for M31 and M87. Using this new method we find dm(M31)=24.05 +- 0.23, dm(M87)=30.83 +- 0.17, as compared to current best estimates using other methods of dm(M31)=24.30 +- 0.20, dm(M87)=31.0 +- 0.1. As a check on the method we compute, and compare with observations, the differences between the inner and outer globular clusters in all three galaxies. This new method, coupled with HST observations, promises to provide an independent method of estimating distances to galaxies with recession velocities < 10,000 km/s, or D < 100 Mpc.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures; submitted to ApJ Letter