Subnational institutionals, political capital, and the internationalization of entrepreneurial firms in emerging economies

This study advances the institution-based view of strategy by integrating it with firm-specific capability considerations. In particular, we investigate the integrative influence of subnational-level home country institutional environments and firm-level political capital, as an important way to seek resources, on emerging economy entrepreneurial firms’ internationalization. With data from Chinese entrepreneurial firms, we find that the development of subnational institutional environments in the home country is related to firms’ degree of internationalization. Furthermore, while political capital with low-level governments enhances the effect of subnational institutions on internationalization, political capital with high levels of government has no such moderation effect. Theoretical and empirical contributions and implications are discussed

Social trust and angel investors' decisions: a multilevel analysis across nations

Informal investors' decisions are embedded in and influence by the institutional environment. This paper advanced a multilevel model on how institutional factors moderate the decision of informal investors. It is postulated that formal institutional factors (rule of law, regulation quality) and informal ones (social trust, institutional uncertainty tolerance) can enhance information flow, collaboration, and sanctioning mechanisms in a society; as a result, they moderate the importance of decision factors of informal investors. Multilevel modeling on data from 27 countries (over 90,000 people) shows that the institutional factors heighten the positive relationship between individual's having start-up skills and informal investment, but surprisingly dampen that between seeing opportunity in new business and informal investment. These moderating effects are robust even after wealth, cultural values, and other factors are controlled. This study contributes to the research interaction of entrepreneurship and institutional theory. It also sheds light on the differential effects of improved institutions on informal investment. Different from most people would believe, improved institutions could actually cast adverse effects on informal investment, as smart, opportunity-driven individuals can have many other choices to put their investment

The valproate mediates radio-bidirectional regulation through RFWD3-dependent ubiquitination on Rad51

Ionizing radiation (IR) can induce DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in tumor cells during radiotherapy (RT), but the efficiency of RT is limited because of the toxicity to normal cells. Locating an adjuvant treatment to alleviate damage in normal cells while sensitizing tumor cells to IR has attracted much attention. Here, using the 7,12-dimethylbenz[α]anthracene (DMBA)-induced malignant transformed MCF10A cells, we found that valproate (VPA), a histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), radiosensitized transformed cells while alleviated IR-induced damage in normal cells at a safe dose (0.5 mM). We further demonstrated the decrease of homologous recombination (HR)-associated Rad51 in the transformed cells was related to the increase of its ubiquitination regulated by E3 ligase RFWD3 for the radiosensitization, which was opposite to normal cells, indicating that RFWD3-dependent ubiquitination on Rad51 was involved in the VPA-mediated radio-bidirectional effect. Through DMBA-transformed breast cancer rat model, VPA at 200 mg/kg radiosensitized tumor tissue cells by increasing RFWD3 and inhibited Rad51, while radioprotected normal tissue cells by decreasing RFWD3 and enhanced Rad51. In addition, we found high-level Rad51 was associated with tumorigenesis and poor prognosis in breast cancer patients. Our findings uncovered RFWD3-dependent Rad51 ubiquitination was the novel mechanism of VPA-mediated radio-bidirectional effect, VPA is a potential adjuvant treatment for tumor RT

Analysis of characteristics of infectious pathogens in malignant tumors combined with bloodstream infection and significance of serum glucose detection

Background and purpose: The incidence rate of bloodstream infection (BSI) in patients with malignant tumor increases gradually with the progress of anti-tumor treatment. The treatment outcome is closely related to the infection of pathogen. At the same time, blood glucose also has a significant impact on the occurrence and development of the disease in this type of patients. This research aimed to retrospectively analyze the distribution characteristics of infectious pathogens isolated in patients with malignant tumors combined with bloodstream infection, the significance of serum glucose detection and prognostic value of its variation trend. Methods: Data of 434 malignant tumor patients with BSI and 409 patients without BSI treated in Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center were retrospectively analyzed in this research. We utilized SPSS 26.0, Graphpad, Medcalc and Office software etc. to statistically analyze all the data covering clinical characteristics, infectious pathogens and biochemical parameters which were collected from Oct. 2019 to Dec. 2022. Results: The top three isolates in malignant tumor patients with BSI were Escherichia coli (29.4%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.8%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4.8%). There were two or more mixed pathogenic bacteria in 8.5% patients. There were totally 100 deadly strains, among which the top three isolates were Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, accounting for 21.0%, 12.0% and 10.0% of the diseases, respectively. Survival analysis showed that mixed infection had a poorer prognosis compared to single infection (P=0.000). The fasting blood glucose level at the initial stage of symptoms was significantly higher in malignant tumor patients with BSI (median 7.39 mmol/L, interquartile range 5.95-9.88 mmol/L) than in tumor patients without BSI (median 5.97 mmol/L, interquartile range 5.25-7.06 mmol/L, P=0.000). The area under curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the patients with BSI determined by the fasting glucose level at the beginning of the disease was 0.718, which was higher compared with procalcitonin (PCT), the classic diagnostic marker (AUC=0.708). The combination of these two parameters could even improve diagnostic efficiency (AUC=0.761). Furthermore, survival analysis showed that the prognosis of patients with high level of fasting glucose at the beginning of BSI was poor (HR=3.067, 95% CI: 1.375-6.838, P=0.000). In addition, the greater the glycemic variability at the beginning of BSI, the higher the risk of death was shown (HR=2.150, 95% CI: 1.125-4.109, P<0.01). Conclusion: It is suggested that patients with clinically suspected BSI should use antibiotics based on the distribution of isolates, and glucose levels should be monitored to access the infection early so as to take timely intervention and obtain greater treatment benefits

Home country supportiveness/unfavorableness and outward foreign direct investment from China

What drives the outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) by emerging market firms (EMFs)? Drawing on a strategy tripod framework, this article proposes a theoretical model to predict OFDI by EMFs from China. Specifically, we use institution- and industry-based views to examine two facets of home country environment, namely the supportiveness from home government and unfavorableness from home industry, as important determinants of OFDI, and compare the relative strength of these effects. Further, we use resource-based view to argue that the effect of the home country environment is contingent on the international experience portfolios of EMFs

Angel investor's selection criteria: a comparative institutional perspective

Despite the important role of angel investors as critical financial providers for new ventures, little is known regarding how institutions make their investment decisions. While angels make decisions based on selection criteria during the first stage, they are also embedded within and affected by different institutional settings and as a result weight these criteria differently than other investors. We compare angel investors' selection criteria in China and Denmark using the comparative institutional perspective. We use a policy capturing approach and hierarchy linear modeling, revealing that since Chinese angels are embedded within relationship-based institutional settings they tend to reply more on strong ties such as family and friends in management team, as well as weighting risks less compared to Danish angels operating within more rule-based institutional contexts