The antecedents and the outcomes of foreign market knowledge accumulation – the dynamic managerial capability perspective

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to establish the antecedents and the outcomes of foreign market knowledge (FMK) accumulation in the context of emerging economies. The antecedent is dynamic managerial capability (DMC) with managerial human capital, social capital and cognition as its dimensions. The outcomes are financial and non-financial performances. This study bridges the gap by linking individual-level capability and FMK accumulation to achieve performance. Design/methodology/approach: This study has utilized a survey-based approach to collect data. The sample consists of 365 export manufacturing firms operating in the apparel industry of Bangladesh. Structural equation modeling analysis has been used to test the hypothesized model. Findings: The direct effects of managerial social capital and managerial cognition on FMK accumulation are positively significant. The results also show that FMK accumulation fully mediates the relationship between: managerial social capital and financial and non-financial performances and managerial cognition and financial and non-financial performances. Practical implications: Export manufacturing entrepreneurs in the low-tech industry should focus more on the network development and leverage on their cognitive mentality as a global mindset to succeed in international markets. These two factors are critical to accumulate foreign knowledge. Originality/value: This study provides empirical evidence on dynamic managerial capability and FMK accumulation of export manufacturing firms in low-tech emerging economies context. Out of the three building blocks of DMC, this study has found that managerial social capital and managerial cognition of entrepreneurs are crucial as antecedents to FMK accumulation and firm performance

Measurement scale of international opportunity identification in early internationalization firms

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop the international opportunity identification (IOI) scale through psychometric evaluation in an emerging economy context. Design/methodology/approach: Samples consist of international firms operating in the apparel industry in Bangladesh. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the first wave of responses to unfold the underlying dimensions of IOI. The second wave of data was used to confirm the validity of IOI scale through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Findings: EFA suggests a unidimensional scale, which is supported by CFA. The relationship between IOI and financial performance is significant and confirms nomological validity. Results also confirm the validity and reliability of the IOI scale. Originality/value: This study indicates that IOI is a reliable and valid scale to measure the strategic action of the international firms operating in emerging economies, and has a positive relationship with financial performance

Implementation of a herd management system with wireless sensor networks

This paper investigates an adaptation of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to cattle monitoring applications. The proposed solution facilitates the requirement for continuously assessing the condition of individual animals, aggregating and reporting this data to the farm manager. There are several existing approaches to achieving animal monitoring, ranging from using a store and forward mechanism to employing GSM-based techniques; these approaches only provide sporadic information and introduce a considerable cost in staffing and physical hardware. The core of this study is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks by using alternative cheap, low power consumption sensor nodes capable of providing real-time communication at a reasonable hardware cost. In this paper, both the hardware and software has been designed to provide a solution which can obtain real-time data from dairy cattle whilst conforming to the limitations associated with WSNs implementations

The Impact of the Guide Vane on the BIWT System for the Distributed Wind Generation in the Urban Area

This paper reports a study on the impact of the guide vane on the Building Integrated Wind Turbine (BIWT) system for the distributed wind generation in the urban area. The guide vane is combined with the rotor to concentrate and accelerate the incoming wind to drive the turbine for power generation. The improved BIWT system has several advantages over the conventional BIWT system; it does not require the structural reinforcement of the building because it generates electricity based on the wind pressure acting on the building’s wall. Furthermore, the guide vane conceals the rotor from the view of pedestrians to maintain the aesthetic value of the building. The analysis focuses on the installation of the BIWT design at a high-rise building. The study evaluates the wind dynamics characteristic on the building’s wall using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. Consequently, the producible power output is estimated based on the wind dynamics characteristic. The effectiveness of the BIWT with the guide vane is evaluated on the actual wind data measured at Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Kudat. The result shows that the guide vane increases the producible power output by 129.09%

On the motifs distribution in random hierarchical networks

The distribution of motifs in random hierarchical networks defined by nonsymmetric random block--hierarchical adjacency matrices, is constructed for the first time. According to the classification of U. Alon et al of network superfamilies by their motifs distributions, our artificial directed random hierarchical networks falls into the superfamily of natural networks to which the class of neuron networks belongs. This is the first example of ``handmade'' networks with the motifs distribution as in a special class of natural networks of essential biological importance.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Orbital-selective Mott transitions: Heavy fermions and beyond

Quantum phase transitions in metals are often accompanied by violations of Fermi liquid behavior in the quantum critical regime. Particularly fascinating are transitions beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson concept of a local order parameter. The breakdown of the Kondo effect in heavy-fermion metals constitutes a prime example of such a transition. Here, the strongly correlated f electrons become localized and disappear from the Fermi surface, implying that the transition is equivalent to an orbital-selective Mott transition, as has been discussed for multi-band transition-metal oxides. In this article, available theoretical descriptions for orbital-selective Mott transitions will be reviewed, with an emphasis on conceptual aspects like the distinction between different low-temperature phases and the structure of the global phase diagram. Selected results for quantum critical properties will be listed as well. Finally, a brief overview is given on experiments which have been interpreted in terms of orbital-selective Mott physics.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figs, mini-review prepared for a special issue of JLT

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters