Authoritarianism versus participation in innovation decisions

Why do innovation projects fail? The most common answers are (A) the implementation differs from what was planned; (B) despite positive expected payoffs, there is an ex-ante positive probability that payoff can be negative (risk). As a third option, we consider the fallibility of individuals who evaluate innovation projects using their limited information-processing capabilities (bounded rationality). Furthermore, we compare the overall organizational performance of two decision mechanisms. First, an informal Collective Decision as an unanimity participative mechanism to decide on technological innovation adoption and, second, a centralized Authority decision. Authority-based decision-making results in higher commission errors (acceptance of projects that an unbounded rational decision-maker would reject) and lower omission errors (rejection of projects that an unbounded rational decision-maker would accept) than Collective Decision. In a dynamic technological adoption process where a sequence of randomly generated innovation projects is evaluated using the two mechanisms, the simulations show that, in the short-term, omission errors dominate and Authority is preferred to Collective Decision; however, in the mid and long terms, commission errors dominate and Collective Decision is preferred to Authority, especially if Collective Decision does not incorporate social influence. With Collective Decision, the ratio of projects that fail is lower, more innovation projects are rejected, and fewer innovation projects are accepted, which can be interpreted as resistance to innovation

The role of the organization structure in the diffusion of innovations

Diffusion and adoption of innovations is a topic of increasing interest in economics, market research, and sociology. In this paper we investigate, through an agent based model, the dynamics of adoption of innovative proposals in different kinds of structures. We show that community structure plays an important role on the innovation diffusion, so that proposals are more likely to be accepted in homogeneous organizations. In addition, we show that the learning process of innovative technologies enhances their diffusion, thus resulting in an important ingredient when heterogeneous networks are considered. We also show that social pressure blocks the adoption process whatever the structure of the organization. These results may help to understand how different factors influence the diffusion and acceptance of innovative proposals in different communities and organizations

Fasciola hepatica co-infection enhances Th1 immune response in the adventitial layer of non-fertile Echinococcus granulosus cysts

32 páginas, 5 figuras.Cystic echinococcosis is a widespread zoonosis caused by the larval stage of the tapeworm Echinococcus gran-ulosus. In intermediary hosts, two types of echinococcal cysts can be found: fertile, which produce protoscoleces, the infective form of the parasite to dogs; and infertile, that do not present protoscoleces and therefore are not able to continue with the parasite life cycle. The adventitial layer, the local immune response against the cyst, plays an important role in cyst fertility. Grazing cattle can often feature Fasciola hepatica co-infection, a parasite known to modulate the host systemic immune response. In this work the cellular Th1/Th2 immune profiles were evaluated in the adventitial layer of fertile and non-fertile cysts with and without co-infection with Fasciola hepatica. Measuring with immunohistochemistry and qPCR in adventitial layer, we report that non-fertile cysts present higher levels of Th1 cytokines (IFN-γ (P<0.0001) and TNF-α (P<0.05)), and fertile cysts have higher levels of Th2 cytokines (IL-4 (P<0.001)). Co-infection with Fasciola hepatica is associated with a decrease in the expression of IL-4 (P<0.05) and an increase in the expression of IFN-γ (P<0.0001) in the adventitial layer of fertile cysts. Non-fertile cysts were associated with higher levels of Th1 cytokines in the adventitial layer, with IFN-γ expression enhanced by F. hepatica co-infection (P<0.0001), confirming that polyparasitism should be considered in the treatment and control of naturally infected cattle.The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. We thank all the people who indirectly participated in this work, including vol-unteers, professionals and technical staff of the Escuela de Medicina Veterinaria, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello. This work was supported by FONDECYT-ANID, grant number 1190817 (RP); Universidad Andres Bello, internal project DI-1388-16/I (MJ)

The Role of the Organization Structure in the Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion and adoption of innovations is a topic of increasing interest in economics, market research, and sociology. In this paper we investigate, through an agent based model, the dynamics of adoption of innovative proposals in different kinds of structures. We show that community structure plays an important role on the innovation diffusion, so that proposals are more likely to be accepted in homogeneous organizations. In addition, we show that the learning process of innovative technologies enhances their diffusion, thus resulting in an important ingredient when heterogeneous networks are considered. We also show that social pressure blocks the adoption process whatever the structure of the organization. These results may help to understand how different factors influence the diffusion and acceptance of innovative proposals in different communities and organizations