Knowledge sharing in technology alliances

knowledge, alliance, technology

Realizing radical innovation in established high-tech companies : a micro-institutional perspective

This dissertation investigates how intrapreneurs with ideas for technological or strategic explorations (i.e. radical technological innovation) deal with the (initial) lack of legitimacy of these ideas viz. established and institutionalized interests, norms and beliefs at the organizational level. Based on longitudinal qualitive data of six case studies it is found that intrapreneurs deploy different strategies to deal with a lack of legitimacy of their ideas (either through conformation, selection, transformation, non-conformation, or tolerance) to gain access to necessary resources and remain in control of explorative goal setting and action execution. The choice for one of these strategies is partly determined by the heterogeneity, ambiguity, regulatory force and resource scarcity of the (micro-) institutional environmen

Transparency dilemmas, information technology and alliances in agriculture and food industry

alliance, agriculture, food industry

Optimising water distribution systems using a weighted penalty in a genetic algorithm

Genetic algorithms (GAs) have become the preferred water system design optimisation technique for many researchers and practitioners. The main reason for using GAs is their ability to deal with nonlinear complex optimisation problems. The optimal decision in terms of designing, expansion/extending, addition or rehabilitation of water supply systems has to review possible options and select a cost-effective and efficient solution. This paper presents a new approach in determining a penalty value depending on the degree of failure, of the set pressure criteria, and the importance of the link supplying a specific node. Further modifications are also made in the cross-over and mutation procedures to ensure an increase in algorithm convergence. EPANET, a widely used water distribution network simulation model, is used in conjunction with the proposed newly developed GA for the optimisation of water distribution systems. The developed GA procedure has been incorporated in a software package called GANEO, which can be used to design new networks, analyse existing networks and prioritise improvements on existing networks. The developed GA has been tested on several international benchmark problems and has proved to be very efficient and robust. The EPANET hydraulic modelling software as well as the developed GANEO software, which performs the optimisation of the water distribution network, is freeware. The software provides a tool for consulting engineers to optimise the design or rehabilitation of a water distribution network.Keywords: optimising, water distribution system, genetic algorith

'Beauty adorns virtue'

This thesis deals with dress in Leonardo’s portraits of women: his Ginevra de’ Benci, the Lady with an Ermine, La Belle Ferronnière, the portrait cartoon of Isabella d’Este and Mona Lisa. Leonardo portrayed his sitters in strikingly plain dress, without the sumptuous gold brocaded silk fabrics and lavish jewellery favoured by their contemporaries. This preference for austerity is discussed in the context of Leonardo’s art theory and his vision of female beauty. As the portraits are studied chronologically, a picture emerges of Leonardo’s approach to dress in portraiture and how that approach developed over time.Medieval and Early Modern Studie

Physiological Genomics of the Rat Renal Failure QTLs Rf-1 through Rf-5

Linkage analysis of a cross of FHH and renal-resistant ACI rats revealed five QTLs, named Rf-1 through Rf-5 influencing susceptibility to renal damage. This thesis describes the physiological genomics of the rat renal failure QTLs Rf-1 through Rf-5. Congenic rats were generated carrying one of the Rf-QTLs or the Rf-1 in combination with another Rf-QTL. Experiments were performed on Rf-1, Rf-3, Rf-4 and Rf-5 single congenics, and Rf-1+2, Rf-1+3, Rf-1+4, Rf-1+4 and Rf-1+5 double congenic rats. Susceptibility to the development of renal damage was assessed using four models, i.e. the two-kidney (2K) control situation, 2K with L-NAME induced hypertension, unilateral nephrectomy (UNX), and UNX with LNAME induced hypertension. Since previous studies showed that FHH rats have an impaired renal blood flow autoregulation, all congenic rats were tested for the presence of renal blood flow autoregulation. Besides these experiments we also tested the applicability of the remnant kidney model (RKM) to assess differences between the Rf-congenic strains. The outcome of the various physiological genomic studies presented in this thesis regarding the rat renal failure QTLs Rf-1 through Rf-5 led to the following conclusions: The Rf-1 region of the FHH contains one or more genes directly influencing renal susceptibility and impairing renal autoregulation. Whether these genes are the same needs to be further investigated. The direct effect of the Rf-2 region could not yet be tested. When the Rf-2 region is combined with the Rf-1 region, a significant increase in renal damage is seen when compared with Rf-1 alone. Furthermore, the Rf2 region, also harboring the blood pressure QTL Bpfh-1, increases blood pressure. The Rf-3 region contains genes directly influencing renal susceptibility. Renal damage susceptibility in Rf-3 single congenics is comparable to that of Rf-1 single congenics. When Rf-1 and Rf-3 are combined a significant synergistic interaction is present. The Rf-3 congenic rats do have a normal renal autoregulation. The mechanisms by which Rf-3 influences the development of renal damage still remains to be detected. Genes in the Rf-4 region do not directly influence renal susceptibility. However, when combined with Rf-1 a significant synergistic interaction is present. The Rf-4 congenic rats do have a normal autoregulation. The mechanisms by which Rf-4 indirectly influences the development of renal damage is still unknown and should be further investigated. The Rf-5 region does not contain genes that directly influence renal susceptibility. In addition, the Rf-5 region shows no synergistic interaction with the Rf-1 region. The RKM is not a very suitable model to analyze renal susceptibility in rats carrying Rf-regions of the FHH rats. The four models we used, especially the UNX and 2K+L-NAME model appear more suitable to assess differences in susceptibility to develop renal damage

Forecasting Interest Rates with Shifting Endpoints

textabstractMany economic studies on inflation forecasting have found favorable results when inflation is modeled as a stationary process around a slowly time-varying trend. In contrast, the existing studies on interest rate forecasting either treat yields as being stationary, without any shifting endpoints, or treat yields as a random walk process. In this study we consider the problem of forecasting the term structure of interest rates with the assumption that the yield curve is driven by factors that are stationary around a time-varying trend. We compare alternative ways of modeling the time-varying trend. We find that allowing for shifting endpoints in yield curve factors can provide gains in the out-of-sample predictive accuracy, relative to stationary and random walk benchmarks. The results are both economically and statistically significant