Corporate purpose: a social judgement perspective

We apply the lens of social value-judgement theory to understand the recent turn to corporate purpose in popular and management discourse. We address two questions; why has the shift from shareholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism occurred now and what are the implications for competition amongst corporations in the future. Our analysis suggests that the shift to stakeholder capitalism is triggered by extreme inequality and a concomitant sentiment of collective nostalgia. Our social value-judgement analysis suggests that the basis of competition will shift from legitimacy based competition to competition based on authenticity. We explore the implications of authenticity based competition

Optimal Design of Robust Combinatorial Mechanisms for Substitutable Goods

In this paper we consider multidimensional mechanism design problem for selling discrete substitutable items to a group of buyers. Previous work on this problem mostly focus on stochastic description of valuations used by the seller. However, in certain applications, no prior information regarding buyers' preferences is known. To address this issue, we consider uncertain valuations and formulate the problem in a robust optimization framework: the objective is to minimize the maximum regret. For a special case of revenue-maximizing pricing problem we present a solution method based on mixed-integer linear programming formulation

Default Probability Estimation via Pair Copula Constructions

In this paper we present a novel Bayesian approach for default probability estimation. The methodology is based on multivariate contingent claim analysis and pair copula theory. Balance sheet data are used to asses the rm value and to compute its default probability. The rm pricing function is obtained via a pair copula approach, and Monte Carlo simulations are used to calculate the default probability distribution. The methodology is illustrated through an application to defaulted rms data

Building an outward-oriented social family legacy: rhetorical history in family business foundations

Scholars have recently paid growing attention to the transfer of family legacies across generations, but existing work has been mainly focused on an inward-oriented, intra-family, perspective. In this article, we seek to understand how family firms engage in rhetorical history to transfer their social family legacy to external stakeholders, what we call “outward-oriented social legacy.” By carrying out a 12-months field study in three Italian family business foundations, our findings unveil three distinctive narrative practices—founder foreshadowing, emplacing the legacy within the broader community, and weaving family history with macro—history—that contribute to transferring outward-oriented social legacies

Welfare and Revenue Guarantees for Competitive Bundling Equilibrium

We study equilibria of markets with $m$ heterogeneous indivisible goods and $n$ consumers with combinatorial preferences. It is well known that a competitive equilibrium is not guaranteed to exist when valuations are not gross substitutes. Given the widespread use of bundling in real-life markets, we study its role as a stabilizing and coordinating device by considering the notion of \emph{competitive bundling equilibrium}: a competitive equilibrium over the market induced by partitioning the goods for sale into fixed bundles. Compared to other equilibrium concepts involving bundles, this notion has the advantage of simulatneous succinctness ($O(m)$ prices) and market clearance. Our first set of results concern welfare guarantees. We show that in markets where consumers care only about the number of goods they receive (known as multi-unit or homogeneous markets), even in the presence of complementarities, there always exists a competitive bundling equilibrium that guarantees a logarithmic fraction of the optimal welfare, and this guarantee is tight. We also establish non-trivial welfare guarantees for general markets, two-consumer markets, and markets where the consumer valuations are additive up to a fixed budget (budget-additive). Our second set of results concern revenue guarantees. Motivated by the fact that the revenue extracted in a standard competitive equilibrium may be zero (even with simple unit-demand consumers), we show that for natural subclasses of gross substitutes valuations, there always exists a competitive bundling equilibrium that extracts a logarithmic fraction of the optimal welfare, and this guarantee is tight. The notion of competitive bundling equilibrium can thus be useful even in markets which possess a standard competitive equilibrium

Un metodo semplificato per la valutazione del comportamento sismico di una galleria circolare

Questo articolo illustra un'estensione dell'analisi statica non lineare, comunemente adoperata nell'analisi strutturale, alla valutazione delle sollecitazioni indotte da un evento sismico nel rivestimento di una galleria a sezione circolare. La risposta sismica del sistema galleria-terreno in direzione trasversale è descritta dalla curva di capacità, ottenuta attraverso un'analisi numerica push-over di un dominio piano comprendente la galleria e una grande porzione di terreno. La domanda sismica è invece rappresentata attraverso lo spettro elastico di risposta dell'azione considerata. Nell'articolo si illustra la struttura del metodo e se ne validano i risultati attraverso un confronto con le sollecitazioni ottenute svolgendo analisi dinamiche non-lineari in ambiente OpenSees

Comparison of physics-based, semi-empirical and neural network-based models for model-based combustion control in a 3.0 L diesel engine

A comparison of four different control-oriented models has been carried out in this paper for the simulation of the main combustion metrics in diesel engines, i.e., combustion phasing, peak firing pressure, and brake mean effective pressure. The aim of the investigation has been to understand the potential of each approach in view of their implementation in the engine control unit (ECU) for onboard combustion control applications. The four developed control-oriented models, namely the baseline physics-based model, the artificial neural network (ANN) physics-based model, the semi-empirical model, and direct ANN model, have been assessed and compared under steady-state conditions and over the Worldwide Harmonized Heavy-duty Transient Cycle (WHTC) for a Euro VI FPT F1C 3.0 L diesel engine. Moreover, a new procedure has been introduced for the selection of the input parameters. The direct ANN model has shown the best accuracy in the estimation of the combustion metrics under both steady-state/transient operating conditions, since the root mean square errors are of the order of 0.25/1.1 deg, 0.85/9.6 bar, and 0.071/0.7 bar for combustion phasing, peak firing pressure, and brake mean effective pressure, respectively. Moreover, it requires the least computational time, that is, less than 50 µs when the model is run on a rapid prototyping device. Therefore, it can be considered the best candidate for model-based combustion control applications

La extensión como herramienta para repensar el perfil social profesional.

En la actualidad las Universidades Nacionales sufren las medidas y reformas aplicadas a la educación superior en la década del 90, tendientes en su mayoría a encaminar el perfil de los graduados hacia las necesidades del mercado, recortando el presupuesto universitario y creando un vaciamiento en cuanto a la formación social y ética del profesional. Se fueron desvirtuando roles y responsabilidades de la Universidad como promover el desarrollo de cultura y ciencia orientadas a las necesidades nacionales, alejando al pueblo de este accionar, dejando de lado el trabajo mancomunado con las instituciones que lo representan para que los beneficios de la investigación y la enseñanza sean verdaderamente universales. Consideramos que la formación de grado posee escasas herramientas que contribuyan a la formación integral de un profesional comprometido con su pueblo. Queremos ser capaces de encontrar soluciones concretas para los males que lo aquejan. El estudiante universitario, especialmente de universidades públicas, no se debe sentir separado de su comunidad por la posesión del título universitario sino por el contrario, posee ciertas obligaciones que le confiere su condición de universitario porque tiene más posibilidades de comprender las realidades del mundo; tiene la obligación de ser un factor dinámico del proceso de cambio, sin perder los perfiles, también, de la realidad -Salvador Allende, año 1972-. Sobre estas premisas se desarrolla el Proyecto "Conéctate con Alto Verde" que se lleva adelante en un barrio costero de la Ciudad de Santa Fe. Engloba cuatro ejes interdisciplinarios integrados por estudiantes de todas las carreras de la Universidad Nacional del Litoral, participación de docentes y egresados en actividades particulares e instituciones del barrio. Dichos ejes son hasta el momento "Manos a la Huerta", "Sanitario-Ambiental", "Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación" y "Educación no Formal". Todos ellos surgen de las inquietudes y necesidades de los estudiantes y los diferentes actores sociales del barrio, quienes en relación dialógica logran identificar las problemáticas a abordar y en conjunto delinear soluciones. Se evidencia el crecimiento de las responsabilidades asumidas para la transformación de la realidad social desde lo académico y lo humano. Apostamos a que este proyecto fomente una verdadera educación, desarrollando el deseo de comprender, el respeto a lo que comprendan, deseen y digan los demás, nutriéndose continuamente de los saberes populares, revalorizando el conocimiento que se encuentra fuera de las paredes de la universidad contenido en nuestro pueblo.

Glutamine Synthetase 1 Increases Autophagy Lysosomal Degradation of Mutant Huntingtin Aggregates in Neurons, Ameliorating Motility in a Drosophila Model for Huntington's Disease

Glutamine Synthetase 1 (GS1) is a key enzyme that catalyzes the ATP-dependent synthesis of l-glutamine from l-glutamate and is also member of the Glutamate Glutamine Cycle, a complex physiological process between glia and neurons that controls glutamate homeostasis and is often found compromised in neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington's disease (HD). Here we report that the expression of GS1 in neurons ameliorates the motility defects induced by the expression of the mutant Htt, using a Drosophila model for HD. This phenotype is associated with the ability of GS1 to favor the autophagy that we associate with the presence of reduced Htt toxic protein aggregates in neurons expressing mutant Htt. Expression of GS1 prevents the TOR activation and phosphorylation of S6K, a mechanism that we associate with the reduced levels of essential amino acids, particularly of arginine and asparagine important for TOR activation. This study reveals a novel function for GS1 to ameliorate neuronal survival by changing amino acids' levels that induce a "starvation-like" condition responsible to induce autophagy. The identification of novel targets that inhibit TOR in neurons is of particular interest for the beneficial role that autophagy has in preserving physiological neuronal health and in the mechanisms that eliminate the formation of toxic aggregates in proteinopathies