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ICT-based innovation and its competitive outcome: the role of information intensity
Purpose
Prior research highlights the vital role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for innovation in response to environmental conditions. However, there is a lack of studies that analyse the determinants of ICT investments on the innovation activities of firms in relation with their impacts on the industrial and competitive dynamics using large data sets. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors investigate the effects of ICT investments on the industrial and competitive dynamics for a large and representative panel data set. All the industries are included, and lagged effects of ICT investments are studied. The model is tested on a seven-year panel (2008â2014) of 231 Italian industries using two-stage least squares instrumental-variables estimators with industry time and fixed effects.
Findings
The results indicate that munificent industries and higher ICT spending are interrelated facts, showing that in sectors with more growth opportunities firms invest more in ICT and this leads to higher industry concentration, greater profit dispersion and higher competitive turbulence in the sector. Also, the paper shows that SMEs can rarely take advantage of their ICT-based innovation to start high-growth phenomena.
Practical implications
The results suggest that ICT-based innovation may create competitive advantages that are hard to sustain over the long-term raising important implications for managers involved in ICT-enabled innovations and policy-makers involved in building programs to foster innovation.
Originality/value
Against the backdrop of todayâs digital transformation, the paper enriches our understanding on the disruptive effects exerted by the digitalization of the innovation process and provides a base to continue the investigation of industrial changes and competitive dynamics
The impact of ITâbusiness strategic alignment on firm performance: The evolving role of IT in industries
This study proposes and validates a new industry taxonomy to understand the use of IT that generates superior economic returns based on the specific economic and competitive characteristics of four different industry types and the strategic role of IT in each of these industry environments. Our findings extend the well-established industry taxonomy on the strategic role of IT (Automate, Informate, Transform) by considering how IT is changing the nature of the product/service in industries where transformational logics prevail. We found that in industries where the product/service is digital in nature, the firms that achieve higher economic returns are those where IT is used to support dual strategies based on the integration of cost leadership and differentiation. Conversely, in other industries - with the exception of those producing commodities - the firms that achieve superior returns are those that use IT to support differentiation. The results of this study can help managers make intelligent decisions about competitive strategies and IT investments, depending on the business environment of the sector in which the firm operates and the generative potential of emerging technologies to do new things
Genome-wide association studies in kidney diseases: Quo Vadis
A genome-wide association (GWA) study is a genetic epidemiology approach designed to scan genetic variation across the entire human genome in order to identify genetic associations with phenotypic traits as well as the presence or absence of a disease. Hundreds of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), the most common form of genetic variant, serve as markers. SNPs are assayed and related to diseases or health-related conditions applying bioinformatics algorithms. This has become feasible thanks to the recent technological improvements in the so-called high-throughput technologies. The analysis identifies regions (loci) with statistically significant differences in allele or genotype frequencies between cases and controls and so the variations are said to be âassociatedâ with the diseas
Direct UV observations of the circumstellar envelope of alpha Orionis
Observations were made in the IUE LWP camera, low dispersion mode, with alpha Ori being offset various distances from the center of the Long Wavelength Large Aperture along its major axis. Signal was acquired at all offset positions and is comprised of unequal components of background/dark counts, telescope-scattered light, and scattered light emanating from the extended circumstellar shell. The star is known from optical and infrared observations to possess an extended, arc-minute sized, shell of cool material. Attempts to observe this shell with the IUE are described, although the deconvolution of the stellar signal from the telescope scattered light requires further calibration effort
Merging of globular clusters within inner galactic regions. II. The Nuclear Star Cluster formation
In this paper we present the results of two detailed N-body simulations of
the interaction of a sample of four massive globular clusters in the inner
region of a triaxial galaxy. A full merging of the clusters takes place,
leading to a slowly evolving cluster which is quite similar to observed Nuclear
Clusters. Actually, both the density and the velocity dispersion profiles match
qualitatively, and quantitatively after scaling, with observed features of many
nucleated galaxies. In the case of dense initial clusters, the merger remnant
shows a density profile more concentrated than that of the progenitors, with a
central density higher than the sum of the central progenitors central
densities. These findings support the idea that a massive Nuclear Cluster may
have formed in early phases of the mother galaxy evolution and lead to the
formation of a nucleus, which, in many galaxies, has indeed a luminosity
profile similar to that of an extended King model. A correlation with galactic
nuclear activity is suggested.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to ApJ, main journa
Stem-like and highly invasive prostate cancer cells expressing CD44v8-10 marker originate from CD44-negative cells
In human prostate cancer (PCa), the neuroendocrine cells, expressing the prostate cancer stem cell (CSC) marker CD44, may be resistant to androgen ablation and promote tumor recurrence. During the study of heterogeneity of the highly aggressive neuroendocrine PCa cell lines PC3 and DU-145, we isolated and expanded in vitro a minor subpopulation of very small cells lacking CD44 (CD44neg). Unexpectedly, these sorted CD44neg cells rapidly and spontaneously converted to a stable CD44high phenotype specifically expressing the CD44v8-10 isoform which the sorted CD44high subpopulation failed to express. Surprisingly and potentially interesting, in these cells expression of CD44v8-10 was found to be induced in stem cell medium. CD44 variant isoforms are known to be more expressed in CSC and metastatic cells than CD44 standard isoform. In agreement, functional analysis of the two sorted and cultured subpopulations has shown that the CD44v8-10pos PC3 cells, resulting from the conversion of the CD44neg subpopulation, were more invasive in vitro and had a higher clonogenic potential than the sorted CD44high cells, in that they produced mainly holoclones, known to be enriched in stem-like cells. Of interest, the CD44v8-10 is more expressed in human PCa biopsies than in normal gland. The discovery of CD44v8-10pos cells with stem-like and invasive features, derived from a minoritarian CD44neg cell population in PCa, alerts on the high plasticity of stem-like markers and urges for prudency on the approaches to targeting the putative CSC
Nature of the constant factor in the relation between radial breathing mode frequency and tube diameter for single-wall carbon nanotubes
Resonance Raman scattering is used to determine the radial breathing mode (RBM) frequency (ÏRBM) dependence on tube diameter (dt) for single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). We establish experimentally the ÏRBM=227.0/dt as the fundamental relation for pristine SWNTs. All the other RBM values found in the literature can be explained by an upshift in frequency due mostly to van der Waals interaction between SWNTs and environment
Macrophagic inflammatory response next to dental implants with different macro-and micro-structure: An in vitro study
Hygienic and dietetic guidelines for implant-supported full-arch immediate loading prostheses
Introduction: Proper oral hygiene and diet are important
considerations for success in implant prosthodontics. However,
detailed hygienic and dietetic guidelines for patients rehabilitated
with implant-supported, immediate loading prostheses are lacking
in the literature.
Methods: The authors have developed a dietary and hygienic
protocol for patients rehabilitated with implant-supported, full-arch,
immediate loading prostheses in order to avoid occlusal overloads
during osseointegration and optimize healing.
Results: The dietary and hygienic guidelines provided in this paper
emphasize the importance of maintaining proper oral hygiene and
diet to support osseointegration and soft tissue healing during postsurgery
healing periods.
Conclusions: The protocol presented has been an effective
instrument to obtain and maintain osseointegration in patients
rehabilitated with full-arch, immediate loading prostheses
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