The role of network administrative organizations in the development of social capital in inter-organizational food networks

This paper is concerned with the role of network administrative organizations (NAOs) in the development of social capital in inter‐organizational networks aiming at supporting their members to innovate in the food sector through interacting with one another. A multi‐case study approach is used whereby three Belgian inter‐organizational networks are investigated i.e. Wagralim, R&eacute;seau‐Club and Flanders Food. Our study shows that there are many options available to NAOs to build social capital within the networks they are responsible for; options which we propose to categorize in three main distinct groups: creation of boundary objects, careful selection of members and effective communication.</p

Knowledge Exchange in Innovation Networks: How Networks Support open Innovation in Food SMEs

Knowledge exchange is a prerequisite for learning and consequently for innovation. Through open innovation, the innovating firms establish ties with other organizations, in order to innovate. At the baseline, open innovation is thus the exchange of knowledge through in- and out-flows of the knowledge at a company. Formal networks can provide access to other organizations and otherwise unavailable knowledge and resources and are seen as the locus of innovation. Four main categories of knowledge exchange can be distinguished: socialization, combination, articulation, and internalization. Within these categories, distinct but interdependent processes of knowledge exchange take place as described in the innovation production process (IPP) which consists of three main steps, knowledge accumulation, knowledge transformation, and knowledge exploitation (Roper et al., 2008). The objective of this paper is to explore how formal networks contribute to the categories of knowledge exchange and to each of the three steps of the IPP in order to conclude on how networks can facilitate open innovation among their members.Data are collected by means of three case-studies conducted in three Flemish formal networks which focus on enhancing the innovativeness and learning capabilities of micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).Our findings confirm the importance of networks in the process of knowledge exchange and innovation for SMEs in the food sector. The most important role of the networks is to create the appropriate environment according to the type of knowledge and the step(s) in the innovation production process focused on. Furthermore, it appears to be a very important task of the network to stimulate actively knowledge transformation into innovation outputs such as new or improved technology or product prototypes. Thereby, not only short-term effects should be aimed at, but also long-term effects e.g. for organizational innovation, should be taken into account.In conclusion, all three networks follow very different approaches in order to facilitate, stimulate and support knowledge exchange and innovation among their members. Based on the results, managerial as well as policy implications are posed towards network members, i.e. the SMEs, network coordinators and researchers

Is Finger-counting Necessary for the Development of Arithmetic Abilities?

Is finger-counting necessary for the development of arithmetic abilities

Network Competence and Open Innovation Behaviour in the Food Sector: An Empirical Investigation

In today business world where knowledge and resources are increasingly spread among organizations, enterprises often develop a wide variety of relationships with other organizations in order to access new technologies, know-how and resources. Increasingly, the use of external resources for innovation – also referred as inbound open innovation in literature – is seen as a key factor to remain innovative and hence competitive. While the impact of open innovation on the firm’s innovativeness and performance has received quite some attention by scholars, the mechanisms that push firm to open up their innovation process remain under investigated. The aim of this paper is to contribute to fill in this gap by developing and testing empirically a research framework on the firm specific factors impacting the firm’s degree of openness. In order to reach the research objective, an extensive literature review was performed based on which several research hypotheses were developed. A web-questionnaire was then designed and distributed to the CEOs of food SMEs in Europe. A major result of this study is that network competence – defined as the firm’s ability to establish and use relationships with other organization – drives the firm’s openness in terms of ambidexterity (i.e. new versus existing relationships) and breadth (number of external sources or search channels that the firm relies upon in its innovative activities)

Genetic snapshots of the Rhizobium species NGR234 genome

BACKGROUND: In nitrate-poor soils, many leguminous plants form nitrogen-fixing symbioses with members of the bacterial family Rhizobiaceae. We selected Rhizobium sp. NGR234 for its exceptionally broad host range, which includes more than I 12 genera of legumes. Unlike the genome of Bradyrhizobium japonicum, which is composed of a single 8.7 Mb chromosome, that of NGR234 is partitioned into three replicons: a chromosome of about 3.5 Mb, a megaplasmid of more than 2 Mb (pNGR234b) and pNGR234a, a 536,165 bp plasmid that carries most of the genes required for symbioses with legumes. Symbiotic loci represent only a small portion of all the genes coded by rhizobial genomes, however. To rapidly characterize the two largest replicons of NGR234, the genome of strain ANU265 (a derivative strain cured of pNGR234a) was analyzed by shotgun sequencing. RESULTS: Homology searches of public databases with 2,275 random sequences of strain ANU265 resulted in the identification of 1,130 putative protein-coding sequences, of which 922 (41%) could be classified into functional groups. In contrast to the 18% of insertion-like sequences (ISs) found on the symbiotic plasmid pNGR234a, only 2.2% of the shotgun sequences represent known ISs, suggesting that pNGR234a is enriched in such elements. Hybridization data also indicate that the density of known transposable elements is higher in pNGR234b (the megaplasmid) than on the chromosome. Rhizobium-specific intergenic mosaic elements (RIMEs) were found in 35 shotgun sequences, 6 of which carry RIME2 repeats previously thought to be present only in Rhizobium meliloti. As non-overlapping shotgun sequences together represent approximately 10% of ANU265 genome, the chromosome and megaplasmid may carry a total of over 200 RIMEs. CONCLUSIONS: 'Skimming' the genome of Rhizobium sp. NGR234 sheds new light on the fine structure and evolution of its replicons, as well as on the integration of symbiotic functions in the genome of a soil bacterium. Although most putative coding sequences could be distributed into functional classes similar to those in Bacillus subtilis, functions related to transposable elements were more abundant in NGR234. In contrast to ISs that accumulated in pNGR234a and pNGR234b, the hundreds of RIME elements seem mostly attributes of the chromosome