Incentives and ratcheting in a multiproduct firm: a field experiment

We develop a model and derive behavioral predictions for a multiproduct sales force subject to goals set based on past performance. We test these predictions using a field experiment in which 53 salespersons from a Chilean beverage company face exogenous variations in monthly sales goals. Confirming our predictions, we found that (1) absent strategic considerations—no goal ratcheting—salespersons increase (decrease) sales in the product category for which the return to effort increases (decreases), (2) including strategic considerations behavior reverses: salespersons who expect high goal ratcheting decrease (increase) sales in the category for which the return to effort increases (decreases), (3) sales did not change for the average salespersons, reflecting heterogeneity in the expectations of goal ratcheting rather than unresponsiveness to incentives. Our study points at the importance of the dynamics of incentive design, in particular, the importance of understanding the dynamics of goal setting in firms

Using a Gridded Global Dataset to Characterize Regional Hydroclimate in Central Chile

Central Chile is facing dramatic projections of climate change, with a consensus for declining precipitation, negatively affecting hydropower generation and irrigated agriculture. Rising from sea level to 6000 m within a distance of 200 km, precipitation characterization is difficult because of a lack of long-term observations, especially at higher elevations. For understanding current mean and extreme conditions and recent hydroclimatological change, as well as to provide a baseline for downscaling climate model projections, a temporally and spatially complete dataset of daily meteorology is essential. The authors use a gridded global daily meteorological dataset at 0.25° resolution for the period 1948–2008, adjusted by monthly precipitation observations interpolated to the same grid using a cokriging method with elevation as a covariate. For validation, daily statistics of the adjusted gridded precipitation are compared to station observations. For further validation, a hydrology model is driven with the gridded 0.25° meteorology and streamflow statistics are compared with observed flow. The high elevation precipitation is validated by comparing the simulated snow extent to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) images. Results show that the daily meteorology with the adjusted precipitation can accurately capture the statistical properties of extreme events as well as the sequence of wet and dry events, with hydrological model results displaying reasonable agreement with observed streamflow and snow extent. This demonstrates the successful use of a global gridded data product in a relatively data-sparse region to capture hydroclimatological characteristics and extremes

Datasets for transcriptomics, q-proteomics and phenotype microarrays of polyphosphate metabolism mutants from Escherichia coli

Indexación: Scopus.Author acknowledges Fondecyt Grants 1120209, 1121170 and Anillo ACT-1107Here, we provide the dataset associated with our research article on the polyphosphate metabolism entitled, “Multi-level evaluation of Escherichia coli polyphosphate related mutants using global transcriptomic, proteomic and phenomic analyses”. By integrating different omics levels (transcriptome, proteome and phenome), we were able to study Escherichia coli polyphosphate mutant strains (Δppk1, Δppx, and Δppk1-ppx). We have compiled here all datasets from DNA microarrys, q-proteomic (Isotope-Coded Protein Labeling, ICPL) and phenomic (Phenotype microarray) raw data we have obtained in all polyP metabolism mutants.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352340917300860?via%3Dihu

Перспективы развития биотехнологий

В статье затронуты проблемы демографического кризиса. Рассмотрены вопросы развития биотехнологий, а так же существующие виды биотехнологий. Более глубоко рассмотрен такой вид биотехнологии как биомедицина, представлены существующие наработки ученых в этой сфере. При изучении был сделан вывод, что развитие биотехнологии, в честности биомедицины приведет к повышению продолжительности жизни, а вследствие решения демографической проблемы.The article touches upon the problems of the demographic crisis. The questions of development of biotechnologies, as well as existing types of biotechnologies are considered. Deeply considered this kind of biotechnology as biomedicine, presents the existing developments of scientists in this field. The study concluded that the development of biotechnology, in the honesty of biomedicine, will lead to an increase in life expectancy, and as a result of solving the demographic problem

Cultural Evolution Theory and Organizations

Fully explaining organizational phenomena requires exploring not only “how” a phenomenon works – i.e., the details of its internal structure and mechanisms – but also “why” the phenomenon is present in the first place – i.e., explaining its origins and the ultimate reasons for its existence. The latter is particularly important for central questions in organizational research such as the nature of organizations, the evolution of organizational culture, or the origin of organizational capabilities. In this article, we propose that cultural evolution theory (CET) can be usefully applied to organizational scholarship to pursue such “origin” questions. CET has adapted ideas and methods from evolutionary biology to successfully explain the evolution of culture in human societies, exploring the origins of various social phenomena such as religion, technological progress, large-scale cooperation, and cross-cultural psychological variation. We elaborate how CET can be also applied to understand the evolution and origin of important organizational phenomena. We discuss how CET provides ultimate explanations using micro-evolutionary formal models and deploying macro-evolutionary tools for empirical analysis. We provide a detailed application of these ideas to explain the origin of productive organizations (e.g., firms, partnerships, guilds). We also propose several avenues for future research; in particular, we explore how CET can serve as an overarching theoretical framework that helps integrate the myriad of theories that explain how organizations operate and evolve

Organizational Culture, Adaptation, and Performance

Prior research emphasizes how organizational culture can hinder organizational adaptation. In this study, we investigate how organizational culture can help promote organizational adaptation to environmental changes, using a formal model from cultural evolution theory. In the model, organizational members face a trade-off between innovating versus following tradition (because environmental changes are uncertain). Members can also decide to help others who are following the tradition, thereby improving its diffusion. Organizational leaders shape the culture of their organization, which influences members’ decisions to choose innovation or tradition or to help others following tradition. Culture comprises two dimensions: beliefs and prosocial values. We find that increasing the accuracy of beliefs leads to improvements in both innovation and following tradition, thereby mitigating the trade-off between them and boosting adaptation and performance. On prosocial values, we find that increasing their intensity reduces the cost of following tradition but at the expense of reduced adaptation, resulting in an inverted-U relationship between intensity of prosocial values and performance. Overall, we show how leaders can fine-tune the dimensions of organizational culture to foster improvements in adaptation and performance. The formal model we introduce is novel to the literature and offers a way of studying adaptation to a changing environment and to incorporate social learning into models of adaptation under bounded rationality. Funding: J. Poblete was supported by Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingenieria [Grant ANID PIA/PUENTE AFB230002]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16791

The evolution of productive organizations

Organizations devoted to the production of goods and services, such as guilds, partnerships and modern corporations, have dominated the economic landscape in our species’ history. We develop an explanation for their evolution drawing from cultural evolution theory. A basic tenet of this theory is that social learning, under certain conditions, allows for the diffusion of innovations in society, and therefore, the accumulation of culture. Our model shows that these organizations provide such conditions by possessing two characteristics, both prevalent in real world organizations: exclusivity of membership and more effective social learning within their boundaries. The model and its extensions parsimoniously explains the cooperative nature of the social learning advantage, organizational specialization, organizational rigidity and the locus of innovation. We find supportive evidence for our predictions using a sample of pre-modern societies drawn from the Ethnographic Atlas. Understanding the nature of these organizations informs the debate about their role in society

Response of Growing Dairy Bulls to Dietary Tannin in Rations with Varying Energy Levels

This study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary tannin on growth performance, rumen fluid characteristics, and apparent total-tract digestibility in growing Holstein-Friesian x Sahiwal bulls fed low and high energy rations. Eighteen growing bulls with initial body weight (BW) of 162.8±12.7 kg at 15±0.80 months were used in an unbalanced randomized complete block design set-up in a 2x2 factorial arrangement. The experimental animals were blocked by their respective BW. Animals were fed with concentrates containing metabolizable energy (ME) at 2.47 and 2.72 Mcal/kg without or with 20g/kg tannin in dry matter basis. At the final week of the trial, rumen fluid and fecal samples were collected for the rumen fluid characteristics and apparent total-tract digestibility analyses. No differences (p>0.05) were observed between the growth performance, rumen gas production, volatile fatty acids as well as organic matter, crude protein, and energy digestibility. High energy concentrates had higher (p<0.05) dry matter and neutral detergent fiber digestibility than low energy concentrates. Low energy concentrates without tannin had cheaper (p<0.001) total feed cost but feed cost per kilogram BW gain was similar (p>0.05) across treatments. Feed savings costs of US$ 17.58 per animal were attained in feeding low energy concentrates without tannin. Therefore, feeding concentrates containing 2.47 Mcal/kg ME without additional tannin can still be fed economically to growing cattle without any adverse effect on growth, ruminal fermentation characteristics, and apparent total-tract digestibility