Clarifying Resource Dependence: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Dependence and Autonomy in Entrepreneurial Firms

Entrepreneurial firms face dependence on other firms in the external environment to access resources critical for the development and survival of the firm. While substantial research has examined resource dependence and how firms may remedy such dependencies, the literature often fails to acknowledge key factors that can predict and explain firm behavior and outcomes in such situations. Firms are shown to enter into inter-organizational relationships in order to remedy resource dependencies, but studies typically evaluate such relationships according to their structure, rather than the resource being sought. Research also frequently ignores the role of autonomy in resource dependence. As gaining autonomy is the primary goal of resource dependence remedies, studies thus often assume autonomy is gained or may fail to consider the social complexity of the environment. Resource dependence remedies are also shown to vary in terms of their relationship to performance, creating additional questions within the literature. This dissertation seeks to shed light on these issues by considering the type of resource sought during a dependence remedy, the role of autonomy in dependence remedies, and how remedies relate to firm performance

Yahweh

...But there\u27s another way to come at our understanding of the character of God, and that\u27s by looking at the names and the titles that the word of God uses to describe him. When I meet someone for the first time, the first thing I asked them is, what? What\u27s your name

Father

...And I\u27m sure you must be wondering if there\u27s any possibility in this morning\u27s lecture of your learning something new. How many times have you heard about the Fatherhood of God? That\u27s such a worn out theme in our religious experience that it would seem unlikely that you would learn anything this morning that you haven\u27t heard a million times before, but I think you will learn something new today. I hope that you will learn something new today, because what I want to talk about in terms of the Fatherhood of God involves things that I have learned since I was in College,..

Elohim

...And today I\u27d like to direct your attention to this name, Elohim, which is the particular name for God that has perhaps more than any other, provoked the most controversy in higher critical theories of the Old Testament. Because as soon as we see this name Elohim, we see the problem. And the problem is found at the end of the word. Who knows what the problem is? What\u27s the problem? It\u27s the Hebrew plural ending

Holiness And Justice

guess we\u27d all like to find a magic formula, secret recipe that would give us instant spiritual growth or spiritual maturity and understanding in three easy lessons. I\u27ve seen materials in bookstores that promise to do that for us, but I\u27ve never seen any of them deliver. But tonight I have for you good news. I can give you a quick way, a shortcut to spiritual growth and deeper understanding. And here it is. You want to grow quickly, go through the scripture, and every time that you find a passage of scripture that you do not understand, Mark it with a question mark, and then go back and try to find out what it means. So that way you focus your attention on what you don\u27t know. But that\u27s only one part of the recipe. The most important part of the recipe is this. Go through the Bible. And every time you find something in scripture that you don\u27t like, put a star next to it

Academic Collective Bargaining: Patterns and Trends

Educational services, particularly higher education, has slowly and methodically become one of the most heavily unionized segments, with much greater representation than traditional labor segments. Despite these changes, the increase in academic collective bargaining has not been well documented. Consequently, the purpose of the current paper is to examine recent trends in academic collective bargaining and to compare these trends with the current unionization and collective bargaining situation in other major industries in the United States. We begin with a comparative analysis of unionization in the United States by industry. The summary data we present indicate that the educational services industry is the third largest industry category in the United States and is the most highly unionized industry in the nation. Next, we tighten our focus to examine recent patterns and trends in academic collective bargaining. The data suggest that colleges and universities are a major sector in the overall employment landscape of the United States with academic collective bargaining representing one of the most important growth segments within the U.S. labor movement. In short, higher education unionization is expanding at a faster rate than overall union growth with the expansion of graduate student employee unionization as an area of special interest

Academic Collective Bargaining: Patterns and Trends

Educational services, particularly higher education, has slowly and methodically become one of the most heavily unionized segments, with much greater representation than traditional labor segments. Despite these changes, the increase in academic collective bargaining has not been well documented. Consequently, the purpose of the current paper is to examine recent trends in academic collective bargaining and to compare these trends with the current unionization and collective bargaining situation in other major industries in the United States. We begin with a comparative analysis of unionization in the United States by industry. The summary data we present indicate that the educational services industry is the third largest industry category in the United States and is the most highly unionized industry in the nation. Next, we tighten our focus to examine recent patterns and trends in academic collective bargaining. The data suggest that colleges and universities are a major sector in the overall employment landscape of the United States with academic collective bargaining representing one of the most important growth segments within the U.S. labor movement. In short, higher education unionization is expanding at a faster rate than overall union growth with the expansion of graduate student employee unionization as an area of special interest

Targeting of Rac GTPases blocks the spread of intact human breast cancer

High expression of Rac small GTPases in invasive breast ductal carcinoma is associated with poor prognosis, but its therapeutic value in human cancers is not clear. The aim of the current study was to determine the response of human primary breast cancers to Rac-based drug treatments ex vivo. Three-dimensional organotypic cultures were used to assess candidate therapeutic avenues in invasive breast cancers. Uniquely, in these primary cultures, the tumour is not disaggregated, with both epithelial and mesenchymal components maintained within a three-dimensional matrix of type I collagen. EHT 1864, a small molecule inhibitor of Rac GTPases, prevents spread of breast cancers in this setting, and also reduces proliferation at the invading edge. Rac1+ epithelial cells in breast tumours also contain high levels of the phosphorylated form of the transcription factor STAT3. The small molecule Stattic inhibits activation of STAT3 and induces effects similar to those seen with EHT 1864. Pan-Rac inhibition of proliferation precedes down-regulation of STAT3 activity, defining it as the last step in Rac activation during human breast cancer invasion. Our data highlights the potential use of Rac and STAT3 inhibition in treatment of invasive human breast cancer and the benefit of studying novel cancer treatments using three-dimensional primary tumour tissue explant cultures

Climate oscillations, glacial refugia, and dispersal ability: factors influencing the genetic structure of the least salmonfly, Pteronarcella badia (Plecoptera), in Western North America

Background: Phylogeographic studies of aquatic insects provide valuable insights into mechanisms that shape the genetic structure of communities, yet studies that include broad geographic areas are uncommon for this group. We conducted a broad scale phylogeographic analysis of the least salmonfly Pteronarcella badia (Plecoptera) across western North America. We tested hypotheses related to mode of dispersal and the influence of historic climate oscillations on population genetic structure. In order to generate a larger mitochondrial data set, we used 454 sequencing to reconstruct the complete mitochondrial genome in the early stages of the project. Results: Our analysis revealed high levels of population structure with several deeply divergent clades present across the sample area. Evidence from five mitochondrial genes and one nuclear locus identified a potentially cryptic lineage in the Pacific Northwest. Gene flow estimates and geographic clade distributions suggest that overland flight during the winged adult stage is an important dispersal mechanism for this taxon. We found evidence of multiple glacial refugia across the species distribution and signs of secondary contact within and among major clades. Conclusions: This study provides a basis for future studies of aquatic insect phylogeography at the inter-basin scale in western North America. Our findings add to an understanding of the role of historical climate isolations in shaping assemblages of aquatic insects in this region. We identified several geographic areas that may have historical importance for other aquatic organisms with similar distributions and dispersal strategies as P. badia. This work adds to the ever-growing list of studies that highlight the potential of next-generation DNA sequencing in a phylogenetic context to improve molecular data sets from understudied groups