An Assessment of the Exporting Literature: Using Theory and Data to Identify Future Research Directions

Exporting research is an established facet of the field of international marketing. That stated, the radical increase in recent export activity necessitates a sustained research effort devoted to the topic. In this article, the authors provide a qualitative review of the core theoretical exporting areas and evaluate the exporting domain quantitatively over six decades (1958–2016). For the quantitative analysis, they use multidimensional scaling and apply established bibliometric principles to offer an understanding of the field and to provide suggestions for future exporting research. For the evaluations, the authors used data from 830 articles with 52,191 citations from 35 journals. Using cocitation analysis as the basis to evaluate the data, they propose a series of intellectual structure implications on exporting that relate to internationalization process stages, dynamic capabilities, knowledge scarcity, social networks, export marketing strategy, absorptive capacity and learning, and nonlinear performance relationships involving marketing channel relationships

Evaluation de l'effet obervateur dans les relevés de végétation des prairies.

peer reviewedDescription of the subject. A field study has been conducted on 24 grasslands with five different botanical experts in order to assess inter-observer bias when making botanical surveys as well as the possible consequences in terms of descripting a semi-natural habitat. Objectives. Fieldwork has been conducted to understand the most important factors of variability affecting botanical surveys conducted by several observers. These results were used to suggest practical solutions to enhance the quality of such surveys. Method. Five observers performed a complete botanical survey of 24 grassland plots in the Famenne (Wallonia, Belgium) in June 2009. All surveys were statistically analyzed in order to detect and quantify the sources of variability between observers. The main parameters compared are the habitat diagnosis made on the field by the experts, the rate of detection of the characteristic species as well as their coverage in each plot. Results. Regarding habitat identification, the biggest differences between observers are seen in plots where the composition is intermediate between a habitat in good and in bad status. Overall, there was a slight tendency to undervalue the quality of the habitat. The analysis revealed that the primary cause of variability between observers is the fact that the experts did not always strictly follow the criteria for habitat identification. As regards the comparison between observers, several sources of variability were identified. The main ones are the variability of the estimated coverage of some plants, the variability of the detection rate of characteristic species, as well as the variability of the prospecting effort that can be sub-optimal in each plot. Conclusions. Some of the sources of variability that have been pointed out can be resolved easily, other have to be taken in consideration when comparing the results of surveys in the future. The solutions proposed to reduce the variability between observers are to encourage better self-control of the parameters to be taken into account at each step of the work, the organization of targeted training courses and more standardized prospecting efforts. Keywords. Grassland, detection rate, cover rate, observer effect, bias, prospection, monitoring, habitat, identification

Agriculture shapes the dietary spectrum of Myotis emarginatus, a bat species originally foraging under dense vegetation cover.

Insectivorous European bats, being effective generalist predators, have long been suggested to reduce agricultural damage by consuming many crop pest species. However, few, if any, data corroborates bats regulation of pest species harmful to trees or livestock, despite their high economic relevance. Here, we thus focused on a bat species foraging in closed or semi-open habitats, while also opportunistically visiting cowsheds, Myotis emarginatus. Using DNA metabarcoding, we described two COI markers within 195 bat fecal pellets collected across 5 localities in Belgium and during 3 sampling sessions along the breeding season, to characterize the bat dietary spectrum and evaluate the incidence of forest and cattle pests. We detected 65 potential pest species, from all sampling localities, across all sessions and in 97% of the analyzed samples. While 60% of these species belonged to the Lepidoptera, the most consumed pests (frequency of occurrence >60%) were the Diptera Stomoxys calcitrans and Musca domestica, which, by disturbing feeding and their ability to transmit pathogens, reduce milk and meat production. As flies’ consumption increases along the breeding season, prevention in farms should be reinforced during the summer. In addition, 76.9% and 38.9% of pest species targeted, respectively, forest and fruit trees. Our results highlight bats role as natural samplers and regulators of pest entomofauna and thereby their importance as allies of both forest managers and farmers

Experimental Setup and Method to Assess the Micromotion of Femoral Revision Implants

The aim of this study is to assess the initial stability of a femoral revision stem, taking into account possible non-rigid behaviour of the implant. A new in vitro measuring method to determine the micromotion of femoral revision implants is presented. Both implant and bone induced displacements under cyclic load are measured locally.To adequately evaluate the initial stability of femoral implants, the non-rigid behaviour cannot be ignored.status: publishe