Promoting Innovation

This Essay proceeds as follows. We briefly introduce the concept of creative destruction and its place in Schumpeter’s work in Part II. In Part III we explain why a truly Schumpeterian competition policy demands more than a laissez faire approach. We explain why the law must preserve opportunities and incentives for creative destruction at all stages of innovation and we review four key policy areas of antitrust law from this innovation-focused perspective: unilateral conduct cases (Part III.A), cases at the intersection of IP and antitrust (Part III.B), Sherman Act section 1 cases (Part III.C), and merger policy (Part III.D). In Part IV we turn our attention to how the federal antitrust agencies can prioritize innovation through case selection and competition advocacy

Are there news gaps in rural/regional Australia? Researching media plurality beyond Finkelstein

Rural/regional news is emerging as a vital area of media policy and research throughout the world as industry bodies, governments and academics grapple with debates concerning the future of news in a complex digital world. However, there has been little examination of media plurality at the rural/regional level, or research into the sustainability of the sector in Australia. Such concerns go to questions of what roles industry and government might play in ensuring its future. The Finkelstein report in 2012 noted that many rural/regional newspapers in Australia had limited resources and consequently low capacity for in-depth coverage of local issues. In the meantime, the funding model of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (which services rural/regional areas as part of its charter) has come under intense scrutiny by the federal Liberal-National Party coalition government. Signs from abroad – especially from the United Kingdom – are troubling. Several independent inquiries have called for policy initiatives to address what British scholars describe as the growing “democratic deficit” created by the closure of hundreds of local UK newspapers since 2004. This paper canvasses current and emerging media policy settings in the UK, the United States and Australia before posing some broader questions on the future of rural/regional news in Australia

Exploring alternative purchasing strategies: just-in-time or just enough?

What are the prevalent purchasing strategies used by manufacturing firms to purchase components that are critical to the quality of their most important products? This research reports the findings from data on purchasing strategies collected from 248 companies. The data indicate that although firms seem to be moving away from a transaction-based purchasing strategy towards partnership relations necessary for successful just-in-time strategies, firms are likely to embrace one of four hybrid purchasing strategies that on a spectrum would fall somewhere between the two pure strategies. These identified strategies offer purchasing managers viable alternatives to moving directly into a just-in-time environment

Fifteen-year survival of endoscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in patients aged 18 years and younger

Background: The current body of literature surrounding anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) survival and the variables contributing to further ACL injuries after primary ACL reconstruction in children and adolescents is limited, with no long-term evidence examining the incidence and contributing factors of further ACL injuries in this younger patient population. Purpose: To determine the long-term survival of the ACL graft and the contralateral ACL (CACL) after primary reconstruction in patients aged 18 years and to identify the factors that increase the odds of subsequent ACL injuries. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: Patients having undergone primary ACL reconstruction at age 18 years between 1993 and 1998 who were included in a prospective database by a single surgeon were considered for this study. Single-incision endoscopic ACL reconstruction was performed with either an autologous bone–patellar tendon–bone graft or a hamstring tendon graft. At a minimum of 15 years after ACL reconstruction, patients completed a subjective survey involving the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) questionnaire in addition to questions regarding current symptoms, further ACL injuries, family history of ACL injury, and current level of activity. Results: A total of 288 adolescents (age range, 13-18 years) met the inclusion criteria, of whom 242 (84%) were reviewed at a mean of 16 years and 6 months after ACL reconstruction. Of these patients, 75 (31%) sustained a further ACL injury: 27 (11.2%) suffered an ACL graft rupture, 33 suffered a CACL injury (13.6%), and 15 sustained both an ACL graft rupture and a CACL injury (6.2%) over 15 years. Survival of the ACL graft was 95%, 92%, 88%, 85%, and 83% at 1, 2, 5, 10, and 15 years, respectively, and survival of the CACL was 99%, 98%, 90%, 83%, and 81%, respectively. Survival of the ACL graft was less favorable in those with a family history of ACL injury than in those without a family history (69% vs 90%, respectively; hazard ratio [HR], 3.6; P = .001). Survival of the CACL was less favorable in male patients than in female patients (75% vs 88%, respectively; HR, 2.1; P = .03) and in those who returned to competitive team ball sports than in those who did not (78% vs 89%, respectively; HR, 2.3; P = .05). Conclusion: After ACL reconstruction in patients aged 18 years, a further ACL injury occurred in 1 in 3 patients over 15 years. The 15-year survival rate of the ACL graft was 83%, and the 15-year survival rate of the CACL was 81%. The ACL graft and CACL were most vulnerable within the first 5 years after index surgery. A family history of ACL rupture significantly increased the risk for ACL graft ruptures, and a CACL injury was more common in male patients and those who returned to team ball sports. High IKDC scores and continued participation in sports were maintained over the long term after ACL reconstruction in the adolescent population

Bottled Water Logistics and Forecasting

CASE OVERVIEW This case presents an interesting and very real dilemma: In 2005, Walmart committed to selling “products that sustain people and the environment.” However, despite environmental and social concerns of the category that include energy required for transport and storage, the plastic used for bottling, the potential lack of purity due to chemicals leeching from the plastic, massive waste, and the cost relative to tap water, consumers want and continue to buy bottled water. Thus the espoused goals of the company are in seeming conflict with its business model. Bottled water is an item under public scrutiny, and producers were already working on solutions such as less plastic in bottles. But what responsibility does Walmart have? Lee Scott provided the answer to this dilemma in his interview with the Wall Street Journal when he said that as long as consumers demanded bottled water, Walmart would sell it. With that backdrop, what can managers do? Overall, the case implies four possible approaches to this challenge: discontinue selling all bottled water products; change consumer demand; redesign the supply network; or Improve forecasting

Bottled Water Mini Case

CASE OVERVIEW This case presents an interesting and very real dilemma: In 2005, Walmart committed to selling “products that sustain people and the environment.” However, despite environmental and social concerns of the category that include energy required for transport and storage, the plastic used for bottling, the potential lack of purity due to chemicals leeching from the plastic, massive waste, and the cost relative to tap water, consumers want and continue to buy bottled water. Thus the espoused goals of the company are in seeming conflict with its business model. Bottled water is an item under public scrutiny, and producers were already working on solutions such as less plastic in bottles. But what responsibility does Walmart have? Lee Scott provided the answer to this dilemma in his interview with the Wall Street Journal when he said that as long as consumers demanded bottled water, Walmart would sell it. With that backdrop, what can managers do? Overall, the case implies four possible approaches to this challenge: discontinue selling all bottled water products; change consumer demand; redesign the supply network; or improve forecasting. This case is not designed for full forecasting analysis

PinR mediates the generation of reversible population diversity in Streptococcus zooepidemicus

Opportunistic pathogens must adapt to and survive in a wide range of complex ecosystems. Streptococcus zooepidemicus is an opportunistic pathogen of horses and many other animals, including humans. The assembly of different surface architecture phenotypes from one genotype is likely to be crucial to the successful exploitation of such an opportunistic lifestyle. Construction of a series of mutants revealed that a serine recombinase, PinR, inverts 114 bp of the promoter of SZO_08560, which is bordered by GTAGACTTTA and TAAAGTCTAC inverted repeats. Inversion acts as a switch, controlling the transcription of this sortase-processed protein, which may enhance the attachment of S. zooepidemicus to equine trachea. The genome of a recently sequenced strain of S. zooepidemicus, 2329 (Sz2329), was found to contain a disruptive internal inversion of 7 kb of the FimIV pilus locus, which is bordered by TAGAAA and TTTCTA inverted repeats. This strain lacks pinR and this inversion may have become irreversible following the loss of this recombinase. Active inversion of FimIV was detected in three strains of S. zooepidemicus, 1770 (Sz1770), B260863 (SzB260863) and H050840501 (SzH050840501), all of which encoded pinR. A deletion mutant of Sz1770 that lacked pinR was no longer capable of inverting its internal region of FimIV. The data highlight redundancy in the PinR sequence recognition motif around a short TAGA consensus and suggest that PinR can reversibly influence the wider surface architecture of S. zooepidemicus, providing this organism with a bet-hedging solution to survival in fluctuating environments

IPD—the Immuno Polymorphism Database

The Immuno Polymorphism Database (IPD) (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ipd/) is a set of specialist databases related to the study of polymorphic genes in the immune system. IPD currently consists of four databases: IPD-KIR, contains the allelic sequences of Killer-cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptors; IPD-MHC, a database of sequences of the Major Histocompatibility Complex of different species; IPD-HPA, alloantigens expressed only on platelets; and IPD-ESTAB, which provides access to the European Searchable Tumour Cell-Line Database, a cell bank of immunologically characterized melanoma cell lines. The IPD project works with specialist groups or nomenclature committees who provide and curate individual sections before they are submitted to IPD for online publication. The IPD project stores all the data in a set of related databases. Those sections with similar data, such as IPD-KIR and IPD-MHC share the same database structure. The sharing of a common database structure makes it easier to implement common tools for data submission and retrieval. The data are currently available online from the website and ftp directory; files will also be made available in different formats to download from the website and ftp server. The data will also be included in SRS, BLAST and FASTA search engines at the European Bioinformatics Institute