Alignment of the firm business model in the digitization process : path dependence and reconfiguration at the case of banking business models

The present paper analyses the impact of digitization on business models in the banking industry. With this analysis the study aims to answer the question: How are banks digitizing their business models and what are the roles of path dependencies and ambidexterity in the digitization process of business models? As this study reveals, the banking industry in particular is of relevance to the discussion of digitization since it must reconfigure their business model to changing customer needs in the new digital environment and reinvent their role in the disrupted ecosystem. Banks must drive the digital innovation agenda by linking up with FinTechs and technology providers, as well as cooperate with each other to sustain their competitive position and share costs. Finally, banks have to go beyond traditional innovation strategies by not only restructuring legacy infrastructures from the ground up but by reinventing their organisations with viable organisational structures and core technological capabilities. In order to come to these conclusions, developing a digital business model framework has been one element of the extant research in order to provide a holistic assessment tool on how digitization impacts a company’s business model. The literature review of 80 academic and management articles revealed that the BMI and digitization theory is rather fragmented and that further theoretical streams like path dependence and ambidexterity needed to be investigated to answer the research question. Lastly, banking experts where interviewed to test the developed framework and to gather industry data for which limited empirical evidence exists.Esta tese analisa o impacto da digitalização em modelos de negócio na indústria bancaria. Este estudo pretende responder à seguinte pergunta: Como estão os bancos a digitalizar os seus modelos de negócio e quais são os papéis da dependência e da ambidestria no processo de digitalização dos modelos de negócio? A indústria bancaria torna-se relevante de estudo no processo da digitalização pois deve reconfigurar o seu modelo de negócio devido a mudanças nas preferências dos consumidores neste novo ambiente digital e reinventar o seu papel num novo ecossistema. Os bancos devem entrar na era digital através de ligações com empresas tecnológico-financeiras e provedoras de tecnologia, e estabelecer parcerias com cada uma para mantar uma posição competitiva e partilhar custos. Devem ainda não só restruturar infra-estruturas desde baixo até cima mas também aplicar estruturas organizacionais viáveis e capacidades tecnológicas core. Estas conclusões derivam de vasta pesquisa académica em como construir uma estrutura de modelo de negocio e assim poder fornecer uma ferramenta holística que quantifique em quanto a digitalização impacta os componentes do modelo de negocio de cada empresa. A análise de 80 trabalhos académicos e artigos de gestão revelaram que inovação nos modelos de negócio e a teoria da digitalização é bastante fragmentada e que outras teorias como a dependência de caminhos e a ambidestria precisam de ser investigadas para responder à questão de investigação. Por último, foram entrevistados especialistas bancários para testar a estrutura desenvolvida e para colectar dados da indústria para cada evidência empírica existente

Environmental dynamics as a structuring factor for microbial carbon utilization in a subtropical coastal lagoon

Laguna de Rocha belongs to a series of shallow coastal lagoons located along South America. It is periodically connected to the sea through a sand bar, exhibiting a hydrological cycle where physicochemical and biological gradients are rapidly established and destroyed. Its most frequent state is the separation of a Northern zone with low salinity, high turbidity and nutrient load, and extensive macrophyte growth, and a Southern zone with higher salinity and light penetration, and low nutrient content and macrophyte biomass. This zonation is reflected in microbial assemblages with contrasting abundance, activity, and community composition. The physicochemical conditions exerted a strong influence on community composition, and transplanted assemblages rapidly transformed to resembling the community of the recipient environment. Moreover, the major bacterial groups responded differently to their passage between the zones, being either stimulated or inhibited by the environmental changes, and exhibiting contrasting sensitivities to gradients. Addition of allochthonous carbon sources induced pronounced shifts in the bacterial communities, which in turn affected the microbial trophic web by stimulating heterotrophic flagellates and virus production. By contrast, addition of organic and inorganic nutrient sources (P or N) did not have significant effects. Altogether, our results suggest that (i) the planktonic microbial assemblage of this lagoon is predominantly carbon-limited, (ii) different bacterial groups cope differently with this constraint, and (iii) the hydrological cycle of the lagoon plays a key role for the alleviation or aggravation of bacterial carbon limitation. Based on these findings we propose a model of how hydrology affects the composition of bacterioplankton and of carbon processing in Laguna de Rocha.This might serve as a starting hypothesis for further studies about the microbial ecology of this lagoon, and of comparable transitional systems.Fil: Alonso, Cecilia. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Piccini, Claudia. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas "Clemente Estable"; UruguayFil: Unrein, Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús). Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas "Dr. Raúl Alfonsín" (sede Chascomús); ArgentinaFil: Bertoglio, Florencia. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Conde, Daniel. Universidad de la República; UruguayFil: Pernthaler, Jakob. Universitat Zurich; Suiz

Multi-spot live-image autofocusing for high-throughput microscopy of fluorescently stained bacteria

Screening by automated high-throughput microscopy has become a valuable research tool. An essential component of such systems is the autonomous acquisition of focused images. Here we describe the implementation of a high-precision autofocus routine for imaging of fluorescently stained bacteria on a commercially available microscope. We integrate various concepts and strategies that together substantially enhance the performance of autonomous image acquisition. These are (i) nested focusing in brightfield and fluorescence illumination, (ii) autofocusing by continuous life-image acquisition during movement in z-direction rather than at distinct z-positions, (iii) assessment of the quality and topology of a field of view (FOV) by multi-spot focus measurements and (iv) acquisition of z-stacks and application of an extended depth of field algorithm to compensate for FOV unevenness. The freely provided program and documented source code allow ready adaptation of the here presented approach to various platforms and scientific questions

Antibiotic effects of three strains of chrysophytes (Ochromonas, Poterioochromonas) on freshwater bacterial isolates

We investigated the antibiotic effects of extracts of freeze-dried biomass and culture supernatants from the mixotrophic chrysophyte species Ochromonas danica, Poterioochromonas sp. strain DS, and Poterioochromonas malhamensis on bacterial strains isolated from lake water. Methanolic biomass extracts inhibited the growth of all tested strains, albeit to a different extent, whereas aqueous biomass extracts only affected bacteria of the genus Flectobacillus. The antibiotic action of supernatants from flagellate cultures could be mostly attributed to lipophilic substances, but the growth of bacteria affiliated with Flectobacillus and Sphingobium was also affected by hydrophilic compounds. A comparison of biomass extracts from light- and dark-adapted cultures of Poterioochromonas sp. strain DS showed that the growth-inhibiting factor was unrelated to chlorophyll derivatives. Supernatants from a dark-adapted, phagotrophically grown flagellate culture had stronger antibiotic effects and affected more bacterial strains than the supernatant from a light-adapted culture. Significant growth reduction of a Flectobacillus isolate was already induced by extremely low concentrations of lipophilic extracts from these supernatants. Our results show that metabolites of the studied flagellates − either released actively or during cell lysis − may selectively affect the growth of some aquatic bacteria even in very small doses and thus potentially affect microbial community composition. Moreover, the antibiotic potential of mixotrophic chrysophytes may change with their nutritional mod

Selbst- und Fremdbestimmung – ein Dialog zwischen Rechtswissenschaft und Biologie

Ist Selbstbestimmung denkbar ohne Fremdbestimmung? Kann es das eine geben, ohne dass sich das andere ebenfalls bemerkbar macht? Ein Staatslehrer und ein Biologe versuchen, diesen Gedanken mit Beispielen aus ihrem jeweiligen Wissenshintergrund zu illustrieren. Obwohl die Begrifflichkeit der Selbst- und Fremdbestimmung ihren Ursprung in den Geisteswissenschaften hat – insbesondere in der Beziehung des Individuums zu Staat und Gesellschaft – lassen sich auch in der Biologie entsprechende Analogien finden, beispielsweise im Zusammenspiel unterschiedlicher Organisationsebenen des Lebendigen, oder bei den Interaktionen zwischen Arten und Artengemeinschaften. Es ist dabei nicht unsere Absicht, gesellschaftliche Vorgänge biologistisch zu interpretieren oder biologische Gegebenheiten zu vermenschlichen; stattdessen wollen wir das intellektuelle Vergnügen der Autoren vermitteln, gemeinsam eine konkrete These aus der Perspektive zweier entfernter Disziplinen zu erörtern

Diverse syntrophic partnerships from deep-sea methane vents revealed by direct cell capture and metagenomics

Microorganisms play a fundamental role in the cycling of nutrients and energy on our planet. A common strategy for many microorganisms mediating biogeochemical cycles in anoxic environments is syntrophy, frequently necessitating close spatial proximity between microbial partners. We are only now beginning to fully appreciate the diversity and pervasiveness of microbial partnerships in nature, the majority of which cannot be replicated in the laboratory. One notable example of such cooperation is the interspecies association between anaerobic methane oxidizing archaea (ANME) and sulfate-reducing bacteria. These consortia are globally distributed in the environment and provide a significant sink for methane by substantially reducing the export of this potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The interdependence of these currently uncultured microbes renders them difficult to study, and our knowledge of their physiological capabilities in nature is limited. Here, we have developed a method to capture select microorganisms directly from the environment, using combined fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunomagnetic cell capture. We used this method to purify syntrophic anaerobic methane oxidizing ANME-2c archaea and physically associated microorganisms directly from deep-sea marine sediment. Metagenomics, PCR, and microscopy of these purified consortia revealed unexpected diversity of associated bacteria, including Betaproteobacteria and a second sulfate-reducing Deltaproteobacterial partner. The detection of nitrogenase genes within the metagenome and subsequent demonstration of 15N2 incorporation in the biomass of these methane-oxidizing consortia suggest a possible role in new nitrogen inputs by these syntrophic assemblages

Small-scale spatial beta diversity of bacteria in the mixed upper layer of a lake

Bacterial community composition among individual, experimentally generated 'lake snow' particles may be highly variable. Since such aggregates are seasonally abundant in the mixed upper layer of lakes, we hypothesized that particle-attached (PA) bacteria disproportionally contribute to the small-scale spatial beta diversity of pelagic communities. Community composition was analysed in sets of small (10 mL) samples collected from a pre-alpine lake in May, July and October 2018. Bacteria were classified as free-living (FL) or PA depending on their presence in large, 5-μm pre-filtered reference samples. FL exhibited clear seasonal differences in community composition and assembly. They were spatially uniform in May and July, and only a few FL taxa exhibited significant spatial variability. Spatial heterogeneity of FL in October was caused by high alpha and beta diversity of rare taxa, many with a presumably 'tychoplanktic' (alternating attached and free-living) lifestyle. The spatial beta diversity of PA was always high, and only about 10% of their seasonal richness was present in any single sample. Thus, most compositional variability of pelagic bacteria at spatial scales of cm to m either directly or indirectly originated from PA. On a functional level, this genotypic heterogeneity might affect the spatial distribution of rare metabolic traits

A Novel Algorithm for the Determination of Bacterial Cell Volumes That is Unbiased by Cell Morphology

The determination of cell volumes and biomass offers a means of comparing the standing stocks of auto- and heterotrophic microbes of vastly different sizes for applications including the assessment of the flux of organic carbon within aquatic ecosystems. Conclusions about the importance of particular genotypes within microbial communities (e.g., of filamentous bacteria) may strongly depend on whether their contribution to total abundance or to biomass is regarded. Fluorescence microscopy and image analysis are suitable tools for determining bacterial biomass that moreover hold the potential to replace labor-intensive manual measurements by fully automated approaches. However, the current approaches to calculate bacterial cell volumes from digital images are intrinsically biased by the models that are used to approximate the morphology of the cells. Therefore, we developed a generic contour based algorithm to reconstruct the volumes of prokaryotic cells from two-dimensional representations (i.e., microscopic images) irrespective of their shape. Geometric models of commonly encountered bacterial morphotypes were used to verify the algorithm and to compare its performance with previously described approaches. The algorithm is embedded in a freely available computer program that is able to process both raw (8-bit grayscale) and thresholded (binary) images in a fully automated manner

A Novel Algorithm for the Determination of Bacterial Cell Volumes That is Unbiased by Cell Morphology

The determination of cell volumes and biomass offers a means of comparing the standing stocks of auto- and heterotrophic microbes of vastly different sizes for applications including the assessment of the flux of organic carbon within aquatic ecosystems. Conclusions about the importance of particular genotypes within microbial communities (e.g., of filamentous bacteria) may strongly depend on whether their contribution to total abundance or to biomass is regarded. Fluorescence microscopy and image analysis are suitable tools for determining bacterial biomass that moreover hold the potential to replace labor-intensive manual measurements by fully automated approaches. However, the current approaches to calculate bacterial cell volumes from digital images are intrinsically biased by the models that are used to approximate the morphology of the cells. Therefore, we developed a generic contour based algorithm to reconstruct the volumes of prokaryotic cells from two-dimensional representations (i.e., microscopic images) irrespective of their shape. Geometric models of commonly encountered bacterial morphotypes were used to verify the algorithm and to compare its performance with previously described approaches. The algorithm is embedded in a freely available computer program that is able to process both raw (8-bit grayscale) and thresholded (binary) images in a fully automated manne

Flow sorting of marine bacterioplankton after fluorescence in situ hybridization

We describe an approach to sort cells from coastal North Sea bacterioplankton by flow cytometry after in situ hybridization with rRNA-targeted horseradish peroxidase-labeled oligonucleotide probes and catalyzed fluorescent reporter deposition (CARD-FISH). In a sample from spring 2003 >90% of the cells were detected by CARD-FISH with a bacterial probe (EUB338). Approximately 30% of the microbial assemblage was affiliated with the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium lineage of the Bacteroidetes (CFB group) (probe CF319a), and almost 10% was targeted by a probe for the beta-proteobacteria (probe BET42a). A protocol was optimized to detach cells hybridized with EUB338, BET42a, and CF319a from membrane filters (recovery rate, 70%) and to sort the cells by flow cytometry. The purity of sorted cells was >95%. 16S rRNA gene clone libraries were constructed from hybridized and sorted cells (S-EUB, S-BET, and S-CF libraries) and from unhybridized and unsorted cells (UNHYB library). Sequences related to the CFB group were significantly more frequent in the S-CF library (66%) than in the UNHYB library (13%). No enrichment of beta-proteobacterial sequence types was found in the S-BET library, but novel sequences related to Nitrosospira were found exclusively in this library. These bacteria, together with members of marine clade OM43, represented >90% of the beta-proteobacteria in the water sample, as determined by CARD-FISH with specific probes. This illustrates that a combination of CARD-FISH and flow sorting might be a powerful approach to study the diversity and potentially the activity and the genomes of different bacterial populations in aquatic habitats