Marine animals show diverse and flexible sexual systems. Here, we review several advancements of theoretical studies made in the last decade. (i) Sex change in coral fishes is often accompanied by a ...long break in reproductive activity. The delay can be shortened by retaining the inactive gonad for the opposite sex. (ii) Barnacles adopt diverse sexual patterns. The game model was analysed assuming that newly settled larvae choose either growth or immediate reproduction and large individuals adjust male-female investments. (iii) Some parasitic barnacles produce larvae with sexual size dimorphism and others produce larvae with the sex determined after settlement on hosts. (iv) In some fish and many reptiles, sex is determined by the temperature experienced as eggs. The dynamics of sex hormones were studied when the enzymatic reaction rates were followed by the Arrhenius equation. The FMF pattern (male at intermediates temperature; female both at high and low temperatures) required some reactions with enhanced temperature dependence at higher temperatures. The game model provides a useful framework for understanding diverse sexual patterns if we incorporate various constraints, such as unpredictability, cost of trait change and social situations. For further developments, we need to consider constraints imposed by physiological and molecular mechanisms.
The paper deals with a class of parameterized equilibrium problems, where the objectives of the players do possess nonsmooth terms. The respective Nash equilibria can be characterized via a ...parameter-dependent variational inequality of the second kind, whose Lipschitzian stability, under appropriate conditions, is established. This theory is then applied to evolution of an oligopolistic market in which the firms adapt their production strategies to changing input costs, while each change of the production is associated with some “costs of change”. We examine both the Cournot-Nash equilibria as well as the two-level case, when one firm decides to take over the role of the Leader (Stackelberg equilibrium). The impact of costs of change is illustrated by academic examples.
The paper has the goal to analyse the correlation of the flexibility of all organizational functions. Based upon theoretical and practical studies, the decrease of flexibility into an "activity area" ...of organizations implies a diminution on a large scale of the flexibility of the processing system as a law expression of the decreasing outputs within economy. Therefore, at the level of each organizational function there are several major directions ensuring the flexibility of the "ensemble".
Imagine you've experienced project heat death at least once. The term "heat death" comes from the second law of thermodynamics: entropy within a closed system increases over time without bound until ...the system collapses. In software, the entropy we experience most is in the design. Most of the code we add increases design entropy. Project heat death occurs when the design rots to the point where starting over is cheaper than continuing. Project heat death seems inevitable, yet when a large-scale project dies, people often stand around, surprised, asking "why us?" To do better next time, you need a sense of what problems to look for, and you need to start solving them before they spiral out of control. The author hopes this department helps in both regards.
Jogar videogame a princípio é só diversão, mas esse mercado movimenta por ano quase 2 trilhões de dólares. Porém, apesar dos números, não são muitos os estudos acadêmicos sobre esse mercado. Desse ...modo, essa pesquisa pretende ampliar um pouco esse conhecimento, particularmente, sobre as influências na intenção de compra de um videogame novo. Existem diversas teorias sobre os fatores que a influenciam direta, ou indiretamente, no qual para este estudo foi utilizado um modelo adaptado baseado na Theory of Consumption Values. Para adaptação da escala, foi realizada uma varredura sobre as gerações de videogames, mercado e particularidades desse produto, seguida de uma survey respondida por 403 jogadores e analisada por meio de SEM-PLS. Os resultados demonstraram que os valores utilitários e hedônicos, bem como o custo de mudança e risco percebido influenciam consideravelmente a intenção de compra.
A theoretical framework of organizational change Jacobs, Gabriele; van Witteloostuijn, Arjen; Christe-Zeyse, Jochen
Journal of organizational change management,
08/2013, Volume:
26, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Purpose - Organizational change is a risky endeavour. Most change initiatives fall short on their goals and produce high opportunity and process costs, which at times outweigh the content benefits of ...organizational change. This paper seeks to develop a framework, offering a theoretical toolbox to analyze context-dependent barriers and enablers of organizational change. Starting from an organizational identity perspective, it aims to link contingency-based approaches, such as environmental scan, SWOT and stakeholder analysis, with insights from organizational behaviour research, such as knowledge sharing and leadership.Design methodology approach - The framework is informed by long-lasting field research into organizational change in an international policing environment. The theories in the framework are selected from the perspective of field validity in two ways; they were chosen because the topics covered by these theories emerged as relevant during the field research and therefore it can be expected they have applicability to the field. The authors' insights and suggestions are summarised in 13 propositions throughout the text.Findings - The analysis provides a clear warning that organizational change is more risky and multifaceted than change initiators typically assume. It is stressed that the external environment and the internal dynamics of organizations co-determine the meaning of managerial practices. This implies that cure-all recipes to organizational change are bound to fail.Originality value - This paper makes an ambitious attempt to cross disciplinary boundaries in the field of organizational change research to contribute to a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of change processes by integrating perspectives that focus on the internal context and the external environment of organizations.
We study a two-period model of policy-making where (i) changes of current policies impose costs on all individuals that increase linearly with the magnitude of the policy shift and (ii) political ...power changes over time. We show that policy polarization is minimal for intermediate marginal costs. In turn, welfare is a single-peaked function of the marginal cost. One interpretation is that societies with political institutions that impose positive but moderate costs on political reforms simultaneously achieve the highest welfare and the lowest policy polarization.
Purpose
– Research on the effectiveness of organizational change initiatives tends to focus primarily on the positive benefits of organizational change including improved financial performance. ...Rarely are negative outcomes examined, such as financial losses resulting from change initiatives. However, negative outcomes are possible, common, and understudied. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between organizational change and financial loss.
Design/methodology/approach
– The research used a database of insurance losses from a global reinsurance company over a 30-year period. Each loss event was examined to determine the cause of the loss, the amount of loss, and type of organizational change if any that preceded the loss.
Findings
– The results indicate that losses attributed to the organization and its employees are preceded by an organizational change initiative more often than not. In particular, the occurrence of losses attributable to the organization and its employees were preceded more often by organizational changes involving mergers, acquisitions and changes to ownership, changes involving downsizing, changes involving restructuring, but not changes to reporting relationships.
Originality/value
– This research represents one of the few studies to examine financial loss from a wide variety of different types of organizational change and the only that has examined these questions using data from insurance losses. Findings support the growing theoretical movement focussing on the risks of organizational change.
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