This paper builds on agency and institutional theory to extend the analysis of the effects of ownership and control on R&D investments by considering the influence of different types of ownership and ...of institutional corporate governance systems. Our empirical analysis is based on a unique dataset of 1000 firms publicly-traded in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the UK). Controlling for industry- and firm-level effects, our findings show that higher shareholding by families is negatively associated with R&D investment. Moreover, widely-held firms invest less in R&D in the United Kingdom than in Continental European countries, thus suggesting the existence of a greater pressure towards the reduction of R&D in market-based governance systems. The results are robust against possible sample selection biases due to firms’ discretional R&D disclosure.
•Explores how firms’ degree of openness for innovation is related to the strength of their appropriability strategy.•Overall appropriability strategy has a concave relationship with external search ...breadth and collaboration breadth.•The concave link with appropriability strategy is stronger for collaboration breadth than for external search breadth.•Some evidence suggests that the links are weaker when firms do not draw from or collaborate with their competitors.
To innovate, firms often need to draw from, and collaborate with, a large number of actors from outside their organization. At the same time, firms need also to be focused on capturing the returns from their innovative ideas. This gives rise to a paradox of openness—the creation of innovations often requires openness, but the commercialization of innovations requires protection. Based on econometric analysis of data from a UK innovation survey, we find a concave relationship between firms’ breadth of external search and formal collaboration for innovation, and the strength of the firms’ appropriability strategies. We show that this concave relationship is stronger for breadth of formal collaboration than for external search. There is also partial evidence suggesting that the relationship is less pronounced for both external search and formal collaboration if firms do not draw ideas from or collaborate with competitors. We explore the implications of these findings for the literature on open innovation and innovation strategy.
The dynamic capabilities framework has had a significant impact on strategic management theory and practice, but the sizable literature on the topic has not always been unified. This paper begins ...with a restatement of the framework encompassing clarifications and extensions that have occurred since it was introduced. The paper highlights key elements that have been omitted or poorly integrated into the dynamic capabilities literature: the role of individual action by entrepreneurial managers, the role of resources, strategy, and the distinction between ordinary and dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities is advanced as a multidisciplinary framework to explain long-run enterprise performance. Ambidexterity and other related frameworks are tailored versions of dynamic capabilities. Linkages between (strategic) management theory and (Austrian) economic theory are explored. The concepts of x-inefficiency and d-ineffectiveness are compared.
We study how an individual's exposure to external information regulates the evaluation of entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurial action. Combining data from interviews, a survey, and a ...comprehensive web log of an online user community spanning eight years, we find that technical information shaped opportunity evaluation and that social information about user needs drove individuals to entrepreneurial action. Our empirical findings suggest that reducing demand uncertainty is a central factor regulating entrepreneurial action, an insight that received theories of entrepreneurial action have so far overlooked.
Biodiversity is the basis for the maintenance and functioning of ecosystems. Genetic diversity is at the heart of biodiversity, and therefore an understanding of the current state of plant genetic ...diversity can contribute to the future provision of sustainable ecological values and services by ecosystems. This study was conducted in the Irtysh River basin (five tributaries) with the dominant species of river valley forests, Betula pendula. Sampling points were set up at approximately 10 km intervals within each tributary using a random sampling method for genetic diversity studies based on chloroplast microsatellite molecular markers. The results indicated that (1) nine alleles were identified in 198 samples. The genetic diversity of Betula pendula was relatively rich in all tributaries (I = 0.216~0.546); genetic diversity was significantly higher in the downstream area of the basin than in the midstream and upstream areas of the basin. Genetic differentiation was at a low level in the tributaries except for the Berezek River, where genetic differentiation was high. (2) Genetic variation was mainly derived from within populations, accounting for 62% of the total genetic variation. The genetic distance was significantly positively correlated with the geographical distance (p < 0.05). The Betula pendula population structure was divided into two major groups. (3) Twelve haplotypes were identified in the basin. The dominant haplotypes in the upper tributaries were H2 and H4, while in the lower tributaries these were H1 and H3. Therefore, this paper suggests the future establishment of a germplasm resource bank for populations of the Berezek River, and the implementation of priority conservation measures for the downstream populations with higher genetic diversity, so as to realize the sustainable ecological value of the valley forests of the Betula pendula.
Many countries have seen a two-wave pattern in reported cases of coronavirus disease-19 during the 2020 pandemic, with a first wave during spring followed by the current second wave in late summer ...and autumn. Empirical data show that the characteristics of the effects of the virus do vary between the two periods. Differences in age range and severity of the disease have been reported, although the comparative characteristics of the two waves still remain largely unknown. Those characteristics are compared in this study using data from two equal periods of 3 and a half months. The first period, between 15th March and 30th June, corresponding to the entire first wave, and the second, between 1st July and 15th October, corresponding to part of the second wave, still present at the time of writing this article. Two hundred and four patients were hospitalized during the first period, and 264 during the second period. Patients in the second wave were younger and the duration of hospitalization and case fatality rate were lower than those in the first wave. In the second wave, there were more children, and pregnant and post-partum women. The most frequent signs and symptoms in both waves were fever, dyspnea, pneumonia, and cough, and the most relevant comorbidities were cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and chronic neurological diseases. Patients from the second wave more frequently presented renal and gastrointestinal symptoms, were more often treated with non-invasive mechanical ventilation and corticoids, and less often with invasive mechanical ventilation, conventional oxygen therapy and anticoagulants. Several differences in mortality risk factors were also observed. These results might help to understand the characteristics of the second wave and the behaviour and danger of SARS-CoV-2 in the Mediterranean area and in Western Europe. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings.
Microplastics have been increasingly documented in freshwater ecosystems in recent years, and growing concerns have been raised about their potential environmental health risks. To assess the current ...state of knowledge, with a focus on the UK, a literature review of existing freshwater microplastics studies was conducted. Sampling and analytical methodologies currently used to detect, characterise and quantify microplastics were assessed and microplastic types, sources, occurrence, transport and fate, and microplastic-biota interactions in the UK’s freshwater environments were examined. Just 32% of published microplastics studies in the UK have focused on freshwater environments. These papers cover microplastic contamination of sediments, water and biota via a range of methods, rendering comparisons difficult. However, secondary microplastics are the most common type, and there are point (e.g. effluent) and diffuse (non-point, e.g. sludge) sources. Microplastic transport over a range of spatial scales and with different residence times will be influenced by particle characteristics, external forces (e.g. flow regimes), physical site characteristics (e.g. bottom topography), the degree of biofouling, and anthropogenic activity (e.g. dam release), however, there is a lack of data on this. It is predicted that impacts on biota will mirror that of the marine environment. There are many important gaps in current knowledge; field data on the transport of microplastics from diffuse sources are less available, especially in England. We provide recommendations for future research to further our understanding of microplastics in the environment and their impacts on freshwater biota in the UK.
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•Microplastics have been found in UK freshwater environments.•Secondary microplastics are the predominant type in surface waters and sediments.•Fibers and fragments are predominantly ingested by biota.•Existing information is fragmented, incomplete and biased.•Recommendations for future microplastics research in UK freshwaters are proposed.
Freshwater microplastics is an emerging issue which requires synergized research efforts. With a focus on the UK, this review confirms that secondary is the most common but unregulated type and that some key freshwater bodies are unstudied.
Microplastic pollution within the marine environment is of pressing concern globally. Accordingly, spatial monitoring of microplastic concentrations, composition and size distribution may help to ...identify sources and entry pathways, and hence allow initiating focused mitigation. Spatial distribution patterns of microplastics were investigated in two compartments of the southern North Sea by collecting sublittoral sediment and surface water samples from 24 stations. Large microplastics (500−5000 μm) were detected visually and identified using attenuated total reflection (ATR) Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The remaining sample was digested enzymatically, concentrated onto filters and analyzed for small microplastics (11−500 μm) using Focal Plane Array (FPA) FTIR imaging. Microplastics were detected in all samples with concentrations ranging between 2.8 and 1188.8 particles kg−1 for sediments and 0.1–245.4 particles m−3 for surface waters. On average 98% of microplastics were <100 μm in sediments and 86% in surface waters. The most prevalent polymer types in both compartments were polypropylene, acrylates/polyurethane/varnish, and polyamide. However, polymer composition differed significantly between sediment and surface water samples as well as between the Frisian Islands and the English Channel sites. These results show that microplastics are not evenly distributed, in neither location nor size, which is illuminating regarding the development of monitoring protocols.
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•All 46 analyzed sediment and surface water samples contained microplastics.•Microplastic concentrations were higher in sediment than surface water samples.•Polymer composition differed significantly between surface waters and sediments.•Microplastics <500 μm were more abundant and divers in polymer type than large ones.•Particles smaller 100 μm dominated clearly in both environmental compartments.
Capsule: Microplastic concentrations and compositions differ significantly between environmental compartments. Geographic distribution patterns are revealed by a statistical approach. Microplastics <500 μm are more abundant and diverse than >500 μm ones, rendering the exclusive analysis of later ones insufficient for environmental risk assessment.
Citizens in democracies complain that political parties’ positions on major issues are too ambiguous for them to confidently understand. Why is party position ambiguity so common? Are party positions ...ambiguous because political parties fail in forming clear policies or because they deliberately blur their positions? Rationality of Irrationality argues that political parties are motivated to strategically blur their position on an issue when they struggle with a certain disadvantage in the issue. Specifically, political parties present an ambiguous position when their own supporters are divided in their stances on the issue. A political party also blurs position stances when voters do not acknowledge that the party has the ability and integrity to solve problems related to the issue. Political parties blur their position in these cases because ambiguous party positions divert voters’ attention from the issue. Voters support a political party whose policy positions on major issues are close to their own stances. However, voters cannot confidently and exactly estimate party positions on an issue when they are only ambiguous.
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