A supply side story for a threshold model: Endogenous growth of the free and open source community

The study of social institutions producing and disseminating knowledge has mainly concentrated on two main concepts: Science and Technology. This paper examines a recent institutional form that seems not to resemble either of the other two; that is, knowledge-intensive communities, where individuals freely exchange knowledge through information and communication technology. Using free and open source software as an example, we develop a model where this phenomenon is confronted with Technology with respect to its ability to attract researchers.

Anti-counterfeiting strategy unfolded: A closer look to the case of a large multinational manufacturer

Research Summary: We examine in detail how one large mobile phone manufacturer develops its anti-counterfeit strategy and seizes counterfeit products on the market. We couple qualitative data (observations from 150 counterfeit sales points worldwide, two focus groups, a survey with 151 respondents, interviews with 90 informants) with econometric analysis of 3,333 fights the focal firm undertook against more than 2,000 counterfeiters in 75 countries over 6 years (2006–2011). We focus on firm's seizure of counterfeit products when consumers' safety is at risk. As the firm is more sensitive to product safety than counterfeiters, we found that the firm generally performs larger seizures when unsafe products are involved, but this is less true in the firm's main market, likely because higher profitability offers higher incentives to counterfeiters. Managerial Summary: In companies' fight against counterfeiters, product safety plays a pivotal role. We suggest that companies have a particularly high incentive to seize counterfeit products when the product carries potential safety risks, because the occurrence of safety issues seriously harms its reputation. This research explores the anti-counterfeit strategy undertaken by a large manufacturer operating in the market of mobile phones and in the market of ancillary products (e.g., batteries and chargers). Results show that larger seizures occur in the ancillary rather than in the mobile phone market because while authentic companies have high incentives to seize mobile phone and accessories, as both involve safety risks, counterfeiters have a greater incentive in the main market and thus put less effort in ancillary markets

Crowdfunding as Donations to Entrepreneurial Firms

The bulk of today's (“preorder-,” “reward-,” “gift-,” and “donation-based”) crowdfunding raises funds for small, private entrepreneurial ventures without granting funders private claims to the projects’ income or the ability to guarantee the realization and delivery of project outcomes. We theorize and show empirically – via a mixed-method approach applied to a representative and remarkably informative case – that the payoff structure for crowdfunders, akin to a public good contribution problem, leads to the tangible value of main project outputs exerting little influence on contributions to crowdfunding. This then raises the question of which funder motivations fund seekers may have to address to crowdfund their projects. We demonstrate the especially large role of non-pecuniary motivations and pinpoint three particular motivations that profit-seeking entrepreneurs may stimulate to be financed through crowdfunding. The findings hold important implications for entrepreneurs’ crowdfunding strategies, platform design, and our understanding of how this funding institution works in general. The study also adds to emerging research on the implications of the public good nature of crowdfunding

Elementary art education : an expendable curriculum?

This ethnographic study was initiated by the concern that elementary art education is an endangered subject, not only marginalised but expendable. This concern was based on informal conversations with pre- and in-service teachers and observations during pre-service teacher evaluations in elementary schools in Ontario, Canada. From these conversations and observations, it seemed that the emphasis in elementary schools is on core subjects with anything else deemed to provide balance alongside initiatives to improve literacy, numeracy, character, and inclusion. The school day is teeming with subjects and initiatives and the resulting crowded curriculum may be affecting teaching and learning in non-core subjects, such as art, negatively. In addition to such external issues are individual challenges faced by generalist teachers with little or no background in visual arts. These teachers’ lack of comfort with art might, I surmised at the start of this study, impede the effective planning, implementation, and assessment of art education. To understand what impacts art education, specifically visual arts instruction, I used a variety of interpretive enquiry methods to interrogate what makes art in elementary schools a vulnerable if not an expendable subject. Initially seeking to find out if art was expendable, I went beyond this to explore perceptions of teachers on teaching art through a localised small-scale study involving 19 elementary teachers in two school boards in north-eastern Ontario. I conducted interviews, recorded observations, and read related documents to answer my research questions, which were as follows: Why is art education important, or not, for students, educators, parents, and other stakeholders? Is art jettisoned in favour of implementing other policies and curricular subjects? Do teachers use other programmes and initiatives as an excuse not to teach art? How do teachers feel about teaching art? Is art expendable? Nussbaum’s (1997) capacities (critical self-examination, connectedness with the world, narrative imagination, scientific understanding) provide the theoretical framework for the study, support the analysis of the state of art education, and help defend its importance at the elementary level. Possible barriers to effective art education (history, policy, practice, economics, geography) and how they may affect learners’ ability to connect with the capacities through visual arts instruction are also analysed and discussed. Through this study, I found that elementary art education is threatened in the participants’ schools for a number of reasons including external issues (minimal attention to, inconsistent delivery of, and poor funding for the mandated art curriculum; a high focus on literacy, numeracy, and other initiatives) and internal issues (discomfort with teaching art; wide range of concepts of art). The study concludes with concerns regarding overall problems with miscommunication and disconnection that threaten effective elementary art education. Recommendations for addressing external and internal issues, and these overall problems are outlined, along with plans to improve art education in pre-service teacher education, in-service practice, and the world beyond the classroom.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Does Co-Location Accelerate Knowledge Outflows from FDI? The Role of MMC Subsidiaries' Technology Sourcing Strategies

Despite the strategic importance of the knowledge outflows from FDI for local firms’ competitiveness, no study has focused on the speed at which this phenomenon takes place. However, this issue is crucial since the speed at which firms absorb external knowledge influences the time they need to carry out subsequent innovations, their ability to adapt to external changes and enter new markets, thus ultimately affecting their chances to achieve a competitive advantage. This paper tries to fill this gap, by investigating the temporal patterns of knowledge outflows between foreign subsidiaries and firms located in host-regions. Combining International Business literature with insights on Innovation Strategy, we provide evidence on the timing of this phenomenon, and discuss the role played by multinational firms’ technology sourcing strategies

Social Interactions vs Revisions, What is important for Promotion in Wikipedia?

In epistemic community, people are said to be selected on their knowledge contribution to the project (articles, codes, etc.) However, the socialization process is an important factor for inclusion, sustainability as a contributor, and promotion. Finally, what does matter to be promoted? being a good contributor? being a good animator? knowing the boss? We explore this question looking at the process of election for administrator in the English Wikipedia community. We modeled the candidates according to their revisions and/or social attributes. These attributes are used to construct a predictive model of promotion success, based on the candidates's past behavior, computed thanks to a random forest algorithm. Our model combining knowledge contribution variables and social networking variables successfully explain 78% of the results which is better than the former models. It also helps to refine the criterion for election. If the number of knowledge contributions is the most important element, social interactions come close second to explain the election. But being connected with the future peers (the admins) can make the difference between success and failure, making this epistemic community a very social community too