Developing new innovation models: Shifts in the innovation landscapes in emerging economies and implications for global R&D management

Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial shift in the global innovation landscape. Multinationals from developed economies are increasingly globalizing their R&D activities and are developing an “open innovation” model to source innovations from outside the firm, including from emerging economies such as those in Asia. In addition, emerging economy firms, which traditionally have played a secondary role in the global innovation landscape, have now begun to catch up in developing their own innovative capabilities. This study explores the implications of this new innovation landscape for CEOs of multinationals and emerging economy firms, as well as for international management scholars and educators. While the multinationals might appropriate rents from their existing capabilities and source new ones in emerging economies, they may be threatened by weak intellectual property rights regimes and unintended knowledge spillovers to local firms, creating potential competitors. Firms in the emerging economies can learn from and catch up with investing multinationals, but to do so they need to develop their own innovative capabilities and move from a process to a product focus and from imitation to innovation.     

A method for comparative analysis of fertility dynamics represented by sequences of fertility schedules

A method to compare fertility sequences, each of which represents a cyclical fluctuation around an underlying trend, is presented. Each fertility sequence is viewed as composed of a time trend in childspacing pattern and a corresponding trend in terminal fertility rate. The procedure involved in comparing each component of one fertility sequence with the corresponding component of another is described and illustrated. Using hypothetical data it is shown, among other things, that ifA andB are two cyclical fluctuations in fertility such that (i) the cycles in both are of the same length, (ii) the terminal fertility components of the two are identical, and (iii) the trend in the mean age at childbirth associated withA is higher than the corresponding trend associated withB, then, replacingB withA need not necessarily result in lowering the long-run rates of increase in the birth sequence.     

Gambling and the family: From the stress‐coping‐support Perspective 1

Abstract

Aims: To apply the stress‐coping‐support perspective to the study of the effects of problem gambling in the family. Specifically, to examine the ways in which family members cope and the nature and sources of support they receive. To compare coping strategies of family members of gamblers with those of individuals living with other addictive behaviour in the family. Design: Cross‐sectional interview and questionnaire study of close relatives of problem gamblers. Participants: Sixteen close family members of gamblers from separate families, mainly parents and partners. Data: Semi‐structured interview; adapted version of the Coping Questionnaire (CQ). Findings: Data from the CQ and qualitative analysis of interview data suggested considerable use of ‘engaged’ (specifically controlling) ways of attempting to cope with such problems, comparable to the use of such strategies by relatives of people with alcohol or drug problems, but little use of ‘tolerant‐accepting’ and ‘withdrawal’ ways. Interview data on the support received (or not) by family members confirmed previous research showing that relatives of people with addiction problems often feel unsupported, but particularly appreciate positive emotional and practical support for themselves and their problem gambling relatives. Conclusions: The stress‐coping‐support perspective, previously applied to families with alcohol and drug problems, also offers an appropriate framework for understanding problem gambling and the family.     

The effect of income on fertility among Canadian women

This study compares the fertility of three generations of immigrant women in Canada and examines whether the same set of predictors accounts for differential fertility among the three groups. The analysis of current family size of the three generations and the two age groups, 18–34 and 35–49, of currently married or cohabiting women reveals considerable variation in the effects of sociodemographic and economic variables on fertility. These variations suggest that education and religiosity are more related to the fertility of the first-generation women, religiosity is more related to the fertility of the second-generation women, and religious preference, religiosity, and expected income are more related to the fertility of the third-generation women. Whereas expected income exerts consistently significant effects on the fertility of all the three generations of younger cohorts, relative income affects the fertility only of first-generation women of younger cohorts. She earned her Ph.D. in demography from the Department of Sociology, University of Alberta. Her research interests include differential fertility and new reproductive technologies. Her publications have appeared inSocial Biology, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Journal of Bio-Social Science, Biology and Society, and elsewhere. Direct all correspondence to Dr. Vijaya Krishnan, 11247-79 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 0P2.     

Disabled People in a Newly Industrialising Economy: opportunities and challenges in Malaysia

Malaysia is one of the fastest developing countries in the world and by the year 2020 it will become an industrialised nation according to the Malaysian government's strategic plans. This dynamic situation poses numerous opportunities and challenges for disabled people in Malaysia. Two positive outcomes are opportunities in the employment sector as well as infrastructure developments. However, there are new challenges especially with regards to mainstreaming of educational and vocational training along with the need for a dynamic placement service. The rise in industrial accidents creates a new challenge, along with the changing demographic trends which could have a negative impact on disabled people. What is striking is that disabled people and their organisations are beginning to articulate these changes and making a claim for inclusion in Malaysian society.     

Accounting Performance and Capacity Investment Decisions: Evidence from California Hospitals

Capacity decisions involve trade‐offs between the cost of capacity and the opportunity costs of lost sales. Accounting researchers posit that accounting performance provides sufficient information about these trade‐offs and thus can be used to formulate simple rules to assist capacity decisions. Empirical research has not examined the role of accounting information in capacity investment decisions at the department level in a multiproduct firm in the presence of social costs. Empirical analyses using department‐level data from California hospitals for the period 1998–2005 show that hospitals are more likely to make capacity investments in departments with high accounting performance. However, in the presence of demand variability, the association between accounting performance and capacity investment is attenuated because of the resulting increase in noise in accounting performance measures. Thus, the weight on accounting performance as a decision tool for capital investments reduces when there is demand variability. Another factor that reduces the weight on accounting performance is capacity utilization. Higher capacity utilization can lead to turning away or rerouting of patients to other hospitals and negatively impacts reputation and quality of care, which increases the hospital's social costs. Hence, hospitals do not require high accounting performance before investing in a department with high capacity utilization. This empirical evidence of the role of accounting performance in capacity investment decisions fills a gap in the capacity investment literature and furthers our understanding of the interactions between accounting performance and the operational determinants of firms’ capacity investment behavior.     

Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling of a Mixture of Toluene and Xylene in Humans

A physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for a mixture of toluene (TOL) and xylene (XYL), developed and validated in the rat, was used to predict the uptake and disposition kinetics of TOL/XYL mixture in humans. This was accomplished by substituting the rat physiological parameters and the blood:air partition coefficient with those of humans, scaling the maximal velocity for hepatic metabolism on the basis of body weight^0.75, and keeping all other model parameters species-invariant. The human TOL/XYL mixture PBPK model, developed based on the quantitative biochemical mechanism of interaction elucidated in the rat (i.e., competitive metabolic inhibition), simulated adequately the kinetics of TOL and XYL during combined exposures in humans. The simulations with this PBPK model indicate that an eight hour co-exposure to concentrations that remain within the current threshold limit values of TOL (50 ppm) and XYL (100 ppm) would not result in significant pharmacokinetic interferences, thus implying that data on biological monitoring of worker exposure to these solvents would be unaffected during co-exposures.     

Catching‐up or Leapfrogging in the Indian IT Service Sector: Windows of Opportunity,Path‐creating,and Moving up the Value Chain

Indian IT service firms are successfully competing with world leaders and research on the industry is emerging. Providing analysis at firm rather than industry level, this article identifies the windows of opportunity open to Indian firms, with the following findings: (i) the catching‐up process by Indian IT firms can be classified as a three‐stage ‘body shopping–offshoring–global delivery model’, comparable with the three steps in original equipment, own‐design and own‐brand manufacturing; (ii) the window of opportunity for Indian firms was primarily the techno‐economic paradigm shift, and secondarily the government's regulation and support of the industry; and (iii) Indian firms initially partially re‐invented their own path by offshoring and created their own global delivery model, gradually moving to higher value‐added services.