Electronic Alliances: Outsourcing for Competitive Advantage

While several studies have examined the role of strategic alliances in outsourcing, as a way to manage the client-vendor relationship, no systematic attempt has been made to integrate the knowledge from the strategic management literature. The study contributes to this line of research, by developing a framework that weaves the Relational-Theory View with the outsourcing literature. This synthesis leads to the proposition that the more an outsourcing alliance meets the conditions of Relational-Theory, the higher the rent generating potential for the partners. Specific scenarios are generated based on the strategic value of the considered process, as well as the existence and the visibility of the appropriate capability

Top quark longitudinal polarization near the threshold in l+ l- annihilation

We show that the longitudinal polarization of the top quarks produced in the annihilation of e+ e- or mu+ mu- into tbar t at energies near the threshold is not affected by the large Coulomb-type corrections, which greatly modify the total cross section. Thus the longitudinal polarization, although small, may provide an independent information on the mass and the width of the top quark, largely independent of the uncertainty in alpha_s.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX, no figures, added references, corrected typo

DURATION OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE DUE TO EMERGING TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION (22)

The objective of this study is to provide a framework for predicting the expected duration of a competitive advantage due to adoption of an emerging technology, and suggest a process for generating technology specific benchmark of expected duration for the average adopting firm. Our framework integrates elements from the technology adoption (diffusion) cycle, hype cycles of emerging technologies, and the resource based view conceptualization of number of firms associated with a perfectly competitive market equilibrium. The objective of this synthesis is to generate a framework for estimating average technology diffusion time and standard deviation. Given the prevailing assumption that technology diffusion follows an approximate bell shaped distribution, we can use these two values to estimate the duration of a technology adoption related competitive advantage. We demonstrate the empirical estimation of expected duration of competitive advantage for an emerging technology (cloud computing) and a mature one (ERP)

IT Innovation Capability and Returns on IT Innovation Persistence

Prior studies have shown that the IT innovation capability, a company\u27s ability to innovate systematically with IT, is not easily replicated (persistent), and the persistence tends to be more pronounced during periods when economy-wide IT budgets are declining (hard IT budgets), such the post-Y2K period. Building on resource based view we argue that companies that systematically innovate with IT have a sustained competitive advantage versus their competitors who are adopting an opportunistic approach to IT innovation or choose not to innovate with IT, and the advantage is stronger during periods of hard IT budgets. Both of these arguments were strongly supported when tested on a sample of 1,057 large US firms by indicating increased return on sales, return on assets, and growth

CONTRIBUTION AND REWARD OF SENIOR IT EXECUTIVES IN IT CAPABLE FIRMS

The main objective of this study is to propose and test a pattern of positive reciprocity between senior IT executives (sITes) and firms with superior dynamic IT capability (ITC). Results based on panel data of 1326 large US firms from a wide spectrum of industries over a 13 year period (1997-2009) support the following positions: 1. There is a positive association between accrued sources of managerial power of sITes, such as structural and expert power, and a firm\u27s ability to develop superior ITC. 2. Firms that achieve such ITC superiority are more likely to signal their appreciation and reward their sITes with more structural power (a proxy for higher compensation). If sITes value these rewards, they are more likely to stay longer with their firm. 3. There is a positive association between continuity of an already successful IT leadership and a firm’s ability to sustain its ITC superiority (durable ITC heterogeneity), thus setting in motion a virtuous cycle of positive reciprocity between sITes and IT capable firms. These findings have several and significant implications for top management teams, directors, and sITes

Dynamics of an inchworm nano-walker

An inchworm processive mechanism is proposed to explain the motion of dimeric molecular motors such as kinesin. We present here preliminary results for this mechanism focusing on observables like mean velocity, coupling ratio and efficiency versus ATP concentration and the external load F.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Vortex Pull by an External Current

In the context of a dynamical Ginzburg-Landau model it is shown numerically that under the influence of a homogeneous external current J the vortex drifts against the current with velocity $V= -J$ in agreement to earlier analytical predictions. In the presence of dissipation the vortex undergoes skew deflection at an angle $90^{\circ} < \delta < 180^{\circ}$ with respect to the external current. It is shown analytically and verified numerically that the angle $\delta$ and the speed of the vortex are linked through a simple mathematical relation.Comment: 19 pages, LATEX, 6 Postscript figures included in separate compressed fil

Primal Cutting Plane Methods for the Traveling Salesman Problem

Most serious attempts at solving the traveling salesman problem (TSP) are based on the dual fractional cutting plane approach, which moves from one lower bound to the next. This thesis describes methods for implementing a TSP solver based on a primal cutting plane approach, which moves from tour to tour with non-degenerate primal simplex pivots and so-called primal cutting planes. Primal cutting plane solution of the TSP has received scant attention in the literature; this thesis seeks to redress this gap, and its findings are threefold. Firstly, we develop some theory around the computation of non-degenerate primal simplex pivots, relevant to general primal cutting plane computation. This theory guides highly efficient implementation choices, a sticking point in prior studies. Secondly, we engage in a practical study of several existing primal separation algorithms for finding TSP cuts. These algorithms are all conceptually simpler, easier to implement, or asymptotically faster than their standard counterparts. Finally, this thesis may constitute the first computational study of the work of Fleischer, Letchford, and Lodi on polynomial-time separation of simple domino parity inequalities. We discuss exact and heuristic enhancements, including a shrinking-style heuristic which makes the algorithm more suitable for application on large-scale instances. The theoretical developments of this thesis are integrated into a branch-cut-price TSP solver which is used to obtain computational results on a variety of test instances