The Influence of Top Management Team’s Corporate Governance Orientation on Strategic Renewal Trajectories

Using the upper echelons perspective together with corporate governance and strategic renewal literature, this paper investigates how top managers’ corporate governance orientation influences a firm’s strategic renewal trajectories over time. Through both a qualitative analysis (1907-2004) and a quantitative analysis (1959-2004), we investigate this under-researched question within the context of a large incumbent firm: Royal Dutch Shell plc. Our results indicate that top managers having an Anglo-Saxon corporate governance orientation are more likely to pursue exploitative and external-growth strategic renewal trajectories, while those having a Rhine corporate governance orientation are more likely to pursue exploratory and internal-growth strategic renewal trajectories. We also found a positive moderating effect of the proportion of shareholders from the Anglo-Saxon countries on exploitative and external-growth strategic renewal trajectories. Our findings indicate that top managers’ corporate governance orientation can be an important antecedent of strategic renewal and of organisational ambidexterity, both of which influence corporate longevity.corporate governance;strategic renewal;exploitation and exploration;Royal Dutch Shell;top management team;upper echelons perspective

Coevolutionary Competence in the Realm of Corporate Longevity: How Long-lived Firms Strategically Renew Themselves

Understanding the phenomena of corporate longevity and self-renewing organizations has become an important topic in recent management literature. However, the majority of the research contributions focus on internal determinants of longevity and self-renewal. Using a co-evolutionary framework, the purpose of this paper is to address the dynamic interaction between organizations and environments in the realm of sustained strategic renewal, i.e. corporate longevity. To this end, we will focus on the competence of long-lived firms to coevolve due to the joint effect of managerial intentionality and environmental selection pressures. Building on coevolutionary framework, we develop a conceptual framework that highlights an organization’s coevolutionary competence. Two longitudinal case studies are presented illustrating the arguments.strategic renewal;corporate longevity;competence-based management;adaptive open systems;coevolutionary competence

A catalogue of low-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy, LMC, and SMC (Fourth edition)

We present a new edition of the catalogue of the low-mass X-ray binaries in the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. The catalogue contains source name(s), coordinates, finding chart, X-ray luminosity, system parameters, and stellar parameters of the components and other characteristic properties of 187 low-mass X-ray binaries, together with a comprehensive selection of the relevant literature. The aim of this catalogue is to provide the reader with some basic information on the X-ray sources and their counterparts in other wavelength ranges ($\gamma$-rays, UV, optical, IR, and radio). Some sources, however, are only tentatively identified as low-mass X-ray binaries on the basis of their X-ray properties similar to the known low-mass X-ray binaries. Further identification in other wavelength bands is needed to finally determine the nature of these sources. In cases where there is some doubt about the low-mass nature of the X-ray binary this is mentioned. Literature published before 1 October 2006 has, as far as possible, been taken into account.Comment: 45 pages, catalogue include

On Local Equivalence, Surface Code States and Matroids

Recently, Ji et al disproved the LU-LC conjecture and showed that the local unitary and local Clifford equivalence classes of the stabilizer states are not always the same. Despite the fact this settles the LU-LC conjecture, a sufficient condition for stabilizer states that violate the LU-LC conjecture is missing. In this paper, we investigate further the properties of stabilizer states with respect to local equivalence. Our first result shows that there exist infinitely many stabilizer states which violate the LU-LC conjecture. In particular, we show that for all numbers of qubits $n\geq 28$, there exist distance two stabilizer states which are counterexamples to the LU-LC conjecture. We prove that for all odd $n\geq 195$, there exist stabilizer states with distance greater than two which are LU equivalent but not LC equivalent. Two important classes of stabilizer states that are of great interest in quantum computation are the cluster states and stabilizer states of the surface codes. To date, the status of these states with respect to the LU-LC conjecture was not studied. We show that, under some minimal restrictions, both these classes of states preclude any counterexamples. In this context, we also show that the associated surface codes do not have any encoded non-Clifford transversal gates. We characterize the CSS surface code states in terms of a class of minor closed binary matroids. In addition to making connection with an important open problem in binary matroid theory, this characterization does in some cases provide an efficient test for CSS states that are not counterexamples.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages; Revised introduction, minor changes and corrections mainly in section V

Pest-predator spatial relationships in winter rape: implications for integrated crop management

Douglas Warner, Les J Allen-Williams, Andrew W Ferguson, and Ingrid H Williams, 'Pest–predator spatial relationships in winter rape: implications for integrated crop management', Pest Management Science, Vol. 56 (11): 977-982, November 2000, doi: 10.1002/1526-4998(200011)56:113.0.CO;2-U. Copyright © 2000 Society of Chemical IndustryThe brassica pod midge (Dasineura brassicae) is an important and widespread pest of winter and spring oilseed rape throughout Europe. Pods infested by D brassicae larvae split prematurely, releasing seeds, and the larvae drop to the soil into which they burrow to pupate. At this stage in its lifecycle D brassicae is potentially vulnerable to predation by carabid beetles foraging on the soil surface. This is the first study in the UK to focus on carabid beetles as predators of D brassicae in the oilseed rape crop. The spatio-temporal distributions of larvae of D brassicae dropping to the soil from the crop canopy and of adult carabid beetles active on the soil surface were analysed in two consecutive years. Insect samples were collected from spatially referenced sampling points across each crop. Counts of insects were mapped and analysed, and the degree of spatial association between predator and prey determined using Spatial Analysis by Distance Indices (SADIE). Carabid species abundant and active during peak drop of first generation D brassicae larvae included Agonum dorsale, Amara similata, Harpalus rufipes and Nebria brevicollis. The larvae of D brassicae had a marked edge distribution within the crop. SADIE analysis revealed significant spatial association between larvae of D brassicae and adult H rufipes (P <0.05) in 1998, but not with adults of A dorsale, A similata or N brevicollis. In 1999, there was strong spatial association only between larvae of D brassicae and adult A dorsale (P <0.01). Aggregation of N brevicollis adults occurred in some areas of greatest D brassicae larval counts in 1999, but overall spatial association was not signi®cant. The distributions are discussed in terms of their relevance to integrated crop management (ICM) strategies and spatial targeting of insecticides.Peer reviewe

The Mid-Infrared Emitting Dust Around AB Aur

Using the Keck I telescope, we have obtained 11.7 micron and 18.7 micron images of the circumstellar dust emission from AB Aur, a Herbig Ae star. We find that AB Aur is probably resolved at 18.7 micron with an angular diameter of 1.2" at a surface brightness of 3.5 Jy/arcsec^2. Most of the dust mass detected at millimeter wavelengths does not contribute to the 18.7 micron emission, which is plausibly explained if the system possesses a relatively cold, massive disk. We find that models with an optically thick, geometrically thin disk, surrounded by an optically thin spherical envelope fit the data somewhat better than flared disk models.Comment: ApJ in press, 4 color figure