Managing paradoxes of ambidexterity: The impact of exploration and exploitation on firm performance

This dissertation examines the impacts of exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity on firm performance in three essays. Since exploration and exploitation have their own advantages and disadvantages, there are many debates over their impacts on firm performance. To synthesize the conflicting empirical results, the first essay conducted a meta-analytic study and demonstrates that ambidexterity in the product domain increases firm performance while ambidexterity in the market domain does not significantly influence firm performance. In addition, the results show that it is not necessary for all firms (e.g., resource-constrained firms) to pursue ambidexterity. Thus, the second and third essays examine how to leverage exploration and exploitation among two types of resource-constrained firms: U.S.-based international small- and medium-sized enterprises (ISMEs) and emerging-market (EM) firms. In the second essay, I examined contingences of the impacts of exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity on performance of U.S.-based ISMEs. The results based on 119 ISMEs show that the impacts of exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity on firm performance depend on home-host country similarity and adaptive marketing capability. For instance, when ambitious ISMEs want to pursue ambidexterity, they should do so in a similar foreign country because home-host country similarity could mitigate the negative influence of ambidexterity on firm performance. In the third essay, I examined how relative-exploration orientation mobilizes EM firms’ acquired marketing resources from firms based in developed economies. The results show that brand resources integration increases post-merger performance when relative-exploration orientation is high, and market resources integration increases post-merger performance when relative-exploration orientation is low. The major contribution of this dissertation is enriching understandings of exploration and exploitation and provide relevant guidance for firms on selecting appropriate strategies to increase firm performance

The role of the Viviparous1 (Vp1) gene in anaerobic inhibition of maize embryo germination

An anaerobic or hypoxic environment surrounding the plant seed or embryo is thought to be a crucial factor in controlling maturation and the germination transition. In this thesis, we find a relationship between anaerobically induced germination arrest and the Viviparous1 (Vp1) gene, which is a central transcription factor in the abscisic acid (ABA) hormone signaling pathway in seeds. The loss-of-function mutant and semi-quantitative RT-PCR results both demonstrate a role of Vp1 in the anaerobic inhibition of germination. This pathway appears to be ABA-independent because an ABA-deficient mutant and an inhibitor of ABA biosynthesis both fail to release embryos from repression. Gibberellin (GA)\u27s ability to reverse the germination inhibition imposed by anaerobiosis indicates an interaction of this hormone with oxygen and Vp1. This paper provides new ideas on the physiological control of one of the most complicated programs in plant development: the transition between maturation and germination

The role of the Viviparous1 (Vp1) gene in anaerobic inhibition of maize embryo germination

An anaerobic or hypoxic environment surrounding the plant seed or embryo is thought to be a crucial factor in controlling maturation and the germination transition. In this thesis, we find a relationship between anaerobically induced germination arrest and the Viviparous1 (Vp1) gene, which is a central transcription factor in the abscisic acid (ABA) hormone signaling pathway in seeds. The loss-of-function mutant and semi-quantitative RT-PCR results both demonstrate a role of Vp1 in the anaerobic inhibition of germination. This pathway appears to be ABA-independent because an ABA-deficient mutant and an inhibitor of ABA biosynthesis both fail to release embryos from repression. Gibberellin (GA)'s ability to reverse the germination inhibition imposed by anaerobiosis indicates an interaction of this hormone with oxygen and Vp1. This paper provides new ideas on the physiological control of one of the most complicated programs in plant development: the transition between maturation and germination.</p

Reliability of net-zero energy systems for South Wales

Wales is committed to meeting the Net-zero emissions target by 2050. To meet this challenge unprecedented changes in the energy system are required in South Wales. There are various pathways to achieve net-zero emissions in South Wales. These pathways are usually compared based on their costs. However, energy supply reliability assessment is required to determine the security of these scenario pathways. A probabilistic dynamic reliability assessment framework is proposed, which combines the Improved Universal Generating Function and the Improved Fisher optimal algorithm. This technique reduces the computational burden of reliability assessment by 95% with a similar accuracy compared with Monte Carlo Simulations. The impacts and sensitivities of energy sources and technologies on supply reliability in High Electrification and High Hydrogen scenarios are measured. As the penetration level of local renewables increases five-fold in 2050 compared with 2020, Loss of Load Expectation increases from 3 to 10–12 h/year in High Electrification and High Hydrogen scenarios. In summer, the reliability of energy supply is more sensitive to changes in the assumptions on failure probabilities of energy conversion devices, whereas the system's reliability in winter is mainly impacted by the availability of imported energy to South Wales

A systematic data-driven Demand Side Management method for smart natural gas supply systems

International audienceAdvanced sensor and communication technologies can make natural gas supply systems smarter than ever before, in both system management and operation. This paper presents the development of a novel data-driven Demand Side Management, whose framework includes demand forecasting, customer response analysis, prediction of dynamic condition of the gas network, quick supply reliability evaluation, multi-objective optimization and decision-making. The aims of this DSM method are to smooth load profiles, improve company profit and enhance system reliability, by means of a dynamic pricing strategy. To verify the effectiveness of the developed framework, a case study is considered, concerning the management of a relatively complex gas supply system, wherein four different pricing periods are introduced for comprehensively testing. The results in the case study show that the DSM framework is able to effectively achieve the targets of peak shaving and valley filling. Besides, it can significantly and stably improve the system efficiency and reliability, for different pricing periods. Finally, pricing period determination is discussed in relation to the features of performance