Management Quality and Innovation in Emerging Countries

I study the relationship between management quality and innovation input, and output of firms in ten emerging countries using data from the Management, Organization and Innovation (MOI) Survey. I find that management quality is tightly connected to the decisions of firms to invest in R&D. An improvement in management quality from the 25th percentile to the median is associated with a 3.3 percentage point increase in the propensity to invest in R&D. Furthermore, there are positive but weak association between management quality and product innovation. The empirical results for individual management practices show that the quality of incentive management is intimately connected to innovation performance. The quality of monitoring management is related to higher inputs into innovation, but not to innovation output. The quality of incentive management is related to higher input into innovation, but not to innovation output. All results hold after controlling for differences in management quality by industries. Additional analysis of management quality asymmetry shows that the results are driven mainly by firms with low quality management

The Polyphonic Embodied Self and Educational Organization: A Case of Theory Transplantation

Building on Bakhtin’s theories of polyphony and carnival, the article develops the concept of the polyphonic embodied self and uses it to suggest ways of rethinking educational organizations. The article examines a special relation of individual to the collective body, inspired by the grotesque body as a natural part of carnival time in the Middle ages, also allowing for resistance. Carnival creates parallel utopian human communities – and the basis for dreams. The unofficial world was marked by anti-power, by breaking taboos, and the ambivalent laughter culture was essential in the chaotic, but united multi-voiced body of carnival. According to Bakhtin’s dialogic approach, organizations can be viewed as systems of relations among individuals and with the world. The authors treat this as a case of transplanting a theory into a non-native context and reflect on what could be the rules for such an application.acceptedVersio

Essays in Economics of Innovation

V této disertační práci jsou zkoumány různé aspekty inovací, kvality managementu, politické ekonomie a korupce. V první kapitole, společně s Martinem Srholcem, ekonometricky testujeme hypotézu, že inovace zavedené před finanční krizí ovlivnily pravděpodobnost přežití firem a jejich následnou výkonnost. Pro tyto účely byly použity unikátní údaje o podnicích v rozvíjejících se zemích východní a jižní Evropy, získané z průzkumu Světové banky. Výsledky obecně potvrzují vazbu mezi inovacemi a přežitím finanční krize. Nicméně firmy, které byly identifikovány jako nadměrní inovátoři, měly během krize mnohem větší pravděpodobnost úmrtí, zatímco opatrní inovátoři na tom byli lépe. Firmy, které se přepjaly, které byly před krizí ohledně inovací příliš smělé, dosáhly horších výsledků. Pokud jsou inovace zdrojem ekonomického blahobytu a pokud krize ničí jinak životaschopné inovační projekty, včetně těch, které mohou táhnout následnou hospodářskou obnovu, otevírá se prostor pro veřejné politiky v podobě snahy zmírnit dopady těchto tržních nedokonalostí, které se projevují během hlubokých recesí. Ve druhé kapitole je empiricky zkoumán vliv kvality managementu na vstupy a výsledky inovací. Použita jsou firemních data z deseti rozvíjejících se zemí, která byla získána z Šetření o řízení, organizaci a inovacích...This dissertation deals with topics related to innovation, management quality, political economy and corruption. In Chapter 1 (which is co-authored by Martin Srholec), we econometrically test the hypothesis that pre-crisis innovation affected firms' survival odds and performance thereafter using a unique micro dataset of shareholding companies from emerging countries in Eastern and Southern Europe derived from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys. Overall, the results indicate that the innovation-survival connection holds. Nevertheless, firms identified as those that innovated excessively before the crisis turned out to be far more likely to die, whereas cautious innovators came out better off. Firms that stretched their resources too much, or that were too bold, faced dire consequences. If an appetite for risky innovation is sociably desirable and the crisis weeds out viable businesses, including those that may drive the recovery, there is a role for public policy to mitigate the short-lived selection inefficiencies that proliferate during severe recessions. In Chapter 2 we study the impact of management quality on the innovation input and output of firms in ten emerging countries using data from the Management, Organization and Innovation (MOI) Survey. We find the effects of management quality on...CERGEFaculty of Social SciencesFakulta sociálních vě

Proton Affinities of the Silatranes and Their Analogues

Ab initio calculations with full geometry optimization have been used to investigate the O and N atom proton affinities and the molecular structures of silatranes (RSi(OCH2CH2)3N), as well as the related compounds RSi(OCH3)3, RSi(OCH2)3CH, and RSi(OCH2CH2)3CH, where R = F, Cl, CH3, SiH3, utilizing the 6-31G(d) basis set. It is found that larger electron donor substituents R induce large proton affinities. The silatranes have stronger proton affinities than the other compounds because of the transannular Si−N interaction. For silatranes, only a small difference between the O and N atom proton affinities is found. The silatrane Si−R bond distances are apparently determined by the degree of the anomeric effect in the R−Si−O fragment and transannular Si−N interactions

Redefinition of Plurality

The notion of \u27double message\u27 is commonly perceived as a negative one in the educational context. Many believe that an educational institution, and even better, a whole community, must convey a consistent moral message to the youth. This paper aims to show that the consistency of a message is not always good, and that truly educational moral message is always a double message, an ambivalent and a self-contradicting one. To preserve the polyphony of a moral message, I argue, is more important than to observe the cohesion of such a message

Dialogue with Evil

This paper is a direct result of comments Dr. Barbara Thayer-Bacon gave me on one of my previous papers. I have been exploring possible implications of Mikhail Bakhtin\u27s notions of dialogue and polyphony for educational theory. The assumption I borrowed from Bakhtin is that dialogue is the end and everything else in a means. In other words, Bakhtin seemed to reject any absolutes with the exception of dialogical relation. I thought, and still do now, that this is a very productive idea, and that dialogue understood as a relation can effectively describe something very central to human existence. Among other things, I suggested that education must foster a student\u27s ability to hear a multitude of human voices, and maintain internal dialogue. To do this, one must develop an ability not only to attend to the other in dialogue, but also to maintain and strengthen the other\u27s argument. To maintain an ability of moral judgement, one has to keep one\u27s enemy very much alive, both as a viable partner of dialogue, and as an internal voice within

Autonomous Vehicles within the Urban Space and Transport Security Challenges: Legal Aspect

Nowadays autonomous vehicles are getting widespread use in different parts of the world. In some countries, they are being tested within the urban traffic whereas other counties have been already operating them. Such vehicles possess a number of obvious advantages. We cannot but agree that these cars are the future. However, before complete implementation and mass use of autonomous transport on public roads, it is necessary to resolve a number of problems concerning their safety towards road-users. Except for ethical, economic, and other aspects, it also embraces the legal aspect

In the Event of Learning

This is an essay in four movements: it begins with Marx\u27s notion on alienation, and then shows a form of alienation specific to education. The third movement examines Mikhail Bakhtin\u27s treatment of alienation in connection with his participative thinking theory, and the final one suggests ways of overcoming educational alienation based on Bakhtin\u27s notion of eventness of Being. The purpose of this exercise is not to bring Bakhtin into educational theory for the sake of simply enlarging the discussion. Rather, I worry about directions taken by contemporary critiques of education

On the Essence of Education

This is a contribution to the project of redefining the educational theory as a discipline, not merely as a field for application of other disciplines. If educational theory is a discipline, it should provide a unique lens to view the entire social world. Educational theory would then not only contemplate the world of schooling, or even the expanded world of educational experiences outside of schools. It would also offer an insight on the educational aspects of the economy, of politics, of communication, of culture, etc. Zooming out away from schooling allows zooming in on educatio