Dynamic capabilities - what do we 'actually' know? : a systematic assessment of the field and a research agenda

How organizations deal and manage strategic change is a fundamental problem in management studies. An important way increasingly chosen to implement strategies is through programmes. Programme Management is an emerging discipline that aims to research how programmes could be more effective in delivering their expected strategic benefits. In order to obtain this, it is recognised that successful programmes require a continuous development of capabilities at different levels and on a context-dependent basis. My research project aims to use the theoretical lens of dynamic capabilities to explore how different capabilities could be integrated, built, and reconfigured in a context of Programme Management. In order to establish robust bases for the PhD, this thesis presents a systematic literature review (and its formal protocol) of the dynamic capabilities view of the firm. In doing so, in this MRes thesis I test for the level of reification of the concept of dynamic capabilities and highlight some major theoretical challenges. I observe that the field is currently affected by a conversational misalignment that is hindering the potential for further research. In particular, the argument is that empirical and conceptual developments have grown from the same foundations but with low mutual influence. In addition, I utilize content and thematic analysis to explore areas where future efforts may be fruitfully directed. Overall, findings show how dynamic capabilities are an emerging field where several research gaps may be identified. However, they also highlight how it is fundamental to clarify on which theoretical foundations any research builds. Finally, I introduce some interesting findings that may be of help for an operationalization in a Programme Management context. In particular, I suggest that a high-potential and unexplored theme is how dynamic capabilities are created and sustained in the inter-organizational relationship between business service providers and their client firms

Network based scoring models to improve credit risk management in peer to peer lending platforms

Financial intermediation has changed extensively over the course of the last two decades. One of the most significant change has been the emergence of FinTech. In the context of credit services, fintech peer to peer lenders have introduced many opportunities, among which improved speed, better customer experience, and reduced costs. However, peer-to-peer lending platforms lead to higher risks, among which higher credit risk: not owned by the lenders, and systemic risks: due to the high interconnectedness among borrowers generated by the platform. This calls for new and more accurate credit risk models to protect consumers and preserve financial stability. In this paper we propose to enhance credit risk accuracy of peer-to-peer platforms by leveraging topological information embedded into similarity networks, derived from borrowers' financial information. Topological coefficients describing borrowers' importance and community structures are employed as additional explanatory variables, leading to an improved predictive performance of credit scoring models

Grandi aziende in crisi: il caso Parmalat

Il lavoro tratta del risanamento del Gruppo Parmalat,con particolare riferimento al ruolo della leadership e del contesto sociale, secondo il seguente schema: - storia e cause della crisi - strategie di risanamento - risultati del piano di ristrutturazione - problematiche apert

On the quantification of arterial wall mechanical properties using invasive and non-invasive experimental investigations and analytical techniques

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonCardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Therefore, understanding their aetiology and development is a fundamental goal for biomedical research. Large arteries play a pivotal role in cardiovascular physiology; their elastic properties allow transforming the intermittent heart pulsation into a relatively steady flow. However, age-related microstructural changes of the arterial wall impair their compliant function, with negative consequences on the heart and other organs, including the brain. For this reason, arterial stiffness, assessed clinically by pulse wave velocity (PWV), has gained a central role in the prediction of cardiovascular risk. This thesis aimed to advance our understanding of the performance of the arterial wall, devising effective methods for the characterisation of its complex mechanical behaviour and, more specifically, stiffness both in vivo and ex vivo. The first part of this work comprises invasive ex vivo studies on arterial mechanics. The formulation of a novel tri-layered model of the arterial wall allowed investigating the layer-specific contribution to the macroscopic behaviour of arteries, providing a structural explanation to the pressure-dependence of arterial stiffness. Furthermore, the effects of the age-related remodelling of the wall microstructure on its non-linear behaviour were directly assessed via analysis of mechanical data of human donors’ aortae. The second part of this work consisted of the development and application of non-invasive techniques for the clinical assessment of arterial mechanics. First, the hysteresis area and the different slopes of the systolic and diastolic arms of the carotid pressure-diameter loops were used to quantify arterial viscoelasticity in a cohort of healthy people and hypertensive and diabetic patients. Second, exponential modelling of the carotid pressure-area relationship was used to define the relationship between local PWV, exponential parameters and blood pressure. This allowed assessing arterial stiffness independently of acute inter-subject differences in blood pressure. Furthermore, the viability of a new technique using ultrasound-based PWV to operate an exponential conversion of local diameter distension waveform into non-invasive pressure has been evaluated.Addenbrooke’s hospita

Trends and Patterns in the Nexus Between Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation: a Bibliometric Review and Research Agenda

Scholars’ interest in social entrepreneurship (SE) and social innovation (SI) has been growing in recent decades. Despite the literature’s contribution to the scientific maturity of these fields via rigorous bibliometric reviews, whether social innovation occurs within social entrepreneurship is still unclear. The extant reviews also remain limited by their use of traditional bibliometric indicators. We therefore address these theoretical and methodological limitations via a bibliometric analysis of the intersection of these two theoretical domains, combining co-citation analysis, historiography, and bibliographic coupling. Demonstrating the recent theoretical evolution of social innovation research under the social entrepreneurship umbrella, we document the beginning of a new trend that can open new research pathways. Thus, we contribute to academic research by documenting the theoretical developments, clusters, and groups of interests at the intersection of SE and SI. Finally, our suggestions for future research may support the proliferation of and cross-pollination among these studies

Effects of extra mass on the pelagic behavior of a seabird

Satellite transmitters and geographic-positioning-system devices often add substantial mass to birds to which they are attached. Studies on the effects of such instruments have focused on indirect measures, whereas the direct influence of extra mass on pelagic behavior is poorly known. We used 2.5-g geolocators to investigate the effect of extra mass on the pelagic behavior of Cory's Shearwaters (Calonectris diomedea) by comparing the traits of a single foraging trip among a group carrying 30-g weights, a group carrying 60-g weights, and a control group. The weights were attached to the birds' backs using typical techniques for attaching satellite transmitters to seabirds. The extra mass increased the duration of the birds' trips and decreased their foraging efficiency and mass gained at sea. These indirect effects may be related to foraging traits: weighted birds showed a greater search effort than control birds, traveled greater distances, covered a greater foraging area, and increased the maximum foraging range. Furthermore, the time spent on the sea surface at night was greater for weighted than for control groups, which showed that the extra mass also affected activity patterns. Our results underline the need to quantify the effects of monitoring equipment commonly used to study the pelagic behavior of seabirds. We suggest that geolocators can be used to obtain control data on foraging-trip movements and activity patterns

Network based credit risk models

Peer-to-Peer lending platforms may lead to cost reduction, and to an improved user experience. These improvements may come at the price of inaccurate credit risk measurements, which can hamper lenders and endanger the stability of a financial system. In the article, we propose how to improve credit risk accuracy of peer to peer platforms and, specifically, of those who lend to small and medium enterprises. To achieve this goal, we propose toaugment traditional credit scoring methods with “alternative data” that consist of centralitymeasures derived from similarity networks among borrowers, deduced from their financialratios. Our empirical findings suggest that the proposed approach improves predictiveaccuracy as well as model explainability

Exact many-body scars and their stability in constrained quantum chains

Quantum scars are non-thermal eigenstates characterized by low entanglement entropy, initially detected in systems subject to nearest-neighbor Rydberg blockade, the so called PXP model. While most of these special eigenstates elude an analytical description and seem to hybridize with nearby thermal eigenstates for large systems, some of them can be written as matrix product states (MPS) with size-independent bond dimension. We study the response of these exact quantum scars to perturbations by analysing the scaling of the fidelity susceptibility with system size. We find that some of them are anomalously stable at first order in perturbation theory, in sharp contrast to the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. However, this stability seems to breakdown when all orders are taken into account. We further investigate models with larger blockade radius and find a novel set of exact quantum scars, that we write down analytically and compare with the PXP exact eigenstates. We show that they exhibit the same robustness against perturbations at first order.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

P24 Restored Physiological Local Carotid Pulse Wave Velocity After Bariatric Surgery in Obese Subjects

AbstractObesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular events and is associated with increased arterial stiffness [1,2]. However, the effect of drastic changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) on arterial mechanics has not been fully investigated. Our study aimed at evaluating changes in local carotid PWV (cPWV) in obese patients before and 6 months after bariatric surgery. N = 20 obese subjects free of cardiovascular events and diabetes (44 ± 9 years, 5 men, BMI = 48.8 ± 7.5 kg/m2) undergoing bariatric surgery were recruited in the Pisa University Hospital (Italy). Flow and diameter waveforms were acquired by ultrasound scanner (Aloka Alpha10, Hitachi Group, Japan) (1 kHz) at the right common carotid artery at baseline, after a 32.4 ± 7.6 days diet period, and 6.5 ± 2.7 months post-intervention. The lnDU-loop method was used for the estimation of cPWV [3]. Basal cPWV was 6.05 ± 1.21 m/s. The 1-month diet period produced a 2 kg/m2 reduction in BMI, while cPWV decreased by approx. 0.6 m/s. 6–7 months after bariatric surgery, BMI dropped to 35.3 ± 6.5 kg/m2 and cPWV furtherly decreased of approx. 0.9 m/s reaching a mean value of 4.57 ± 1.02 m/s (76% of the basal value) (Figure 1). Bariatric surgery and the consequent intensive weight loss produced a significant decrease of arterial stiffness and restored cPWV to physiological values of age-matched healthy subjects [4]. The fast reversal of increased arterial stiffness suggests a functional mechanism possibly related to a reduced haemodynamic load. Moreover, while having a small effect on the BMI, 1-month diet regulation effectively decreased cPWV by 10%, possibly indicating the short-term positive effects of a healthy lifestyle on haemodynamics