Organizing to Strategize in the Face of Interactions: Preventing Premature Lock-In

Motivated by real examples that run contrary to conventional wisdom, we examine how firms organize themselves to strategize well. Interactions among decisions make strategizing difficult. They raise the spectre that a firm\u27s strategizing efforts will get stuck in a web of conflicting constraints prematurely, before managers explore a wide enough range of possibilities. A key role of organizing is to free strategizing efforts and encourage broad search. At the same time, organizing must ensure that strategizing efforts are stabilized once the firm discovers an effective set of choices. The need to balance search and stability, we argue, is a central challenge of organizing. We explore this challenge with an agent-based simulation of firms that organize to strategize in the face of interactions. The results shed light on our counterintuitive examples. They show why and when firms may benefit from unnecessary overlap between departments; how and when firms can increase firm-wide search by reining in the search efforts of individual managers; and how and when a change in organizational structure — e.g., a shift from decentralization to integration — may reflect an effective sequence of organizing, rather than a reversal of early mistakes. The disparate examples share an underlying logic. The unnecessary overlap, the reining-in of managers, the period of decentralization — all can be seen as organizational mechanisms that help ensure the broad, early search that a firm needs when interactions among strategic decisions raise the danger of locking-in on a strategy prematurely

Influence of nanosecond microwave pulses on the level of cortycosterone

This article describes experimental data on 30 nonlinear rats exposed to microwave radiation at frequencies 8, 13, 16 and 22 pulse per second (pps) in order to record corticosteron changes as an indicator of stress in rodent blood. During the experiment, it was found that the most significant increase is observed at frequencies 13, 16 pps and at 22, 8 pps a decrease and a slight increase in corticosteron were recorded respectively

Анализ применимости численных алгоритмов для моделирования процессов в топке котла с циркулирующим кипящим слоем

Моделирование различных задач связано с решением систем дифференциальных уравнений с большим числом неизвестных, что приводит к их упрощению и соответственно отражается на качестве расчета. Данная работа направлена на оценку применимости тех или иных математических алгоритмов для получения качественного моделирования процессов в энергетических котлах с циркулирующим кипящим слоемModeling of various tasks related to the solution of systems of differential equations with a large number of unknowns, which leads to their simplification and, accordingly, affect the quality of the calculation. This work aims to assess the applicability of those or other mathematical algorithms to obtain a quantitative simulation of processes in power boilers with circulating fluidized bed

Long-term outcome prediction by clinicopathological risk classification algorithms in node-negative breast cancer--comparison between Adjuvant!, St Gallen, and a novel risk algorithm used in the prospective randomized Node-Negative-Breast Cancer-3 (NNBC-3) trial.

Defining risk categories in breast cancer is of considerable clinical significance. We have developed a novel risk classification algorithm and compared its prognostic utility to the Web-based tool Adjuvant! and to the St Gallen risk classification. After a median follow-up of 10 years, we retrospectively analyzed 410 consecutive node-negative breast cancer patients who had not received adjuvant systemic therapy. High risk was defined by any of the following criteria: (i) age <35 years, (ii) grade 3, (iii) human epithelial growth factor receptor-2 positivity, (iv) vascular invasion, (v) progesterone receptor negativity, (vi) grade 2 tumors >2 cm. All patients were also characterized using Adjuvant! and the St Gallen 2007 risk categories. We analyzed disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). The Node-Negative-Breast Cancer-3 (NNBC-3) algorithm enlarged the low-risk group to 37% as compared with Adjuvant! (17%) and St Gallen (18%), respectively. In multivariate analysis, both Adjuvant! [P = 0.027, hazard ratio (HR) 3.81, 96% confidence interval (CI) 1.16-12.47] and the NNBC-3 risk classification (P = 0.049, HR 1.95, 95% CI 1.00-3.81) significantly predicted OS, but only the NNBC-3 algorithm retained its prognostic significance in multivariate analysis for DFS (P < 0.0005). The novel NNBC-3 risk algorithm is the only clinicopathological risk classification algorithm significantly predicting DFS as well as OS

Long-term outcome prediction by clinicopathological risk classification algorithms in node-negative breast cancer—comparison between Adjuvant!, St Gallen, and a novel risk algorithm used in the prospective randomized Node-Negative-Breast Cancer-3 (NNBC-3) trial

Background: Defining risk categories in breast cancer is of considerable clinical significance. We have developed a novel risk classification algorithm and compared its prognostic utility to the Web-based tool Adjuvant! and to the St Gallen risk classification. Patients and methods: After a median follow-up of 10 years, we retrospectively analyzed 410 consecutive node-negative breast cancer patients who had not received adjuvant systemic therapy. High risk was defined by any of the following criteria: (i) age 2 cm. All patients were also characterized using Adjuvant! and the St Gallen 2007 risk categories. We analyzed disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: The Node-Negative-Breast Cancer-3 (NNBC-3) algorithm enlarged the low-risk group to 37% as compared with Adjuvant! (17%) and St Gallen (18%), respectively. In multivariate analysis, both Adjuvant! [P = 0.027, hazard ratio (HR) 3.81, 96% confidence interval (CI) 1.16-12.47] and the NNBC-3 risk classification (P = 0.049, HR 1.95, 95% CI 1.00-3.81) significantly predicted OS, but only the NNBC-3 algorithm retained its prognostic significance in multivariate analysis for DFS (P < 0.0005). Conclusion: The novel NNBC-3 risk algorithm is the only clinicopathological risk classification algorithm significantly predicting DFS as well as O

Kinetic oxygen measurements by CVC96 in L-929 cell cultures

Generally animal and human cells use oxygen during their whole life. Consequently the oxygen use is a simple indicator to test the vitality of cells. When the vitality decreases by the delivery of toxic substances the decrease can be observed directly by the oxygen-use of the cells. To get fast information of the vitality of cells we have measured the O(2)-tension by testing a new model of a bioreactor, the Cell Vitality Checker 96 (CVC96), in practical application. With this CVC96, soon a simple test will exist for the measurement of the oxygen use. In this respect the question had to be answered whether the use in the laboratory is easy and whether oxygen as a parameter in the vitality test can also be applied in future for problems in the field of material testing

The Digital Transformation of Search and Recombination in the Innovation Function: Tensions and an Integrative Framework*

Search and recombination are important mechanisms in the creativity phase of innovation. Digital transformation and the resulting pervasive digitalization of the innovation function have often been associated with increasing possibilities for search and recombination. In this paper, by systematically integrating the search and recombination literature with the literature on digitalization, we demonstrate that digitalization may engender new idiosyncratic tensions in the organizational antecedents of search and recombination and, by implication, in their likely outcomes. We propose that, depending on the interactions among the idiosyncratic tensions identified herein, knowledge recombination might spur very different outcomes, including knowledge layering, knowledge integration, knowledge grafting, or even no recombination at all (which we label “search for the sake of search”). These outcomes may not always be the initially planned desired outcomes. Finally, we provide implications of our integrative framework pertaining to product development and to organizing for innovation