Exploring the antecedents of potential absorptive capacity and its impact on innovation performance

This paper builds upon the theoretical framework developed by Zahra and George [Absorptive capacity: a review, reconceptualization, and extension. Academy of Management Review 2002;27:185–203] to empirically explore the antecedents of potential absorptive capacity (PAC), i.e. the ability to identify and assimilate external knowledge flows. Based on a sample of 2464 innovative Spanish firms, we find evidence that R&D cooperation, external knowledge acquisition and experience with knowledge search are key antecedents of a firm's PAC. Also, during periods of important internal reshaping, when there are significant changes in strategy, design of the organization and marketing, firms exert more effort to accumulate PAC. Finally, we find that PAC is a source of competitive advantage in innovation, especially in the presence of efficient internal knowledge flows that help reduce the distance between potential and realized capacity.     

The influence of organizational identification on organizational knowledge management (KM)

Information technology (IT) outsourcing vendor organizations contain isolated business units whose creation and sustenance greatly facilitate business operations. But they also introduce important challenges for organizational knowledge management (KM). In this paper, based on 7 months of intensive field-work at India Inc., a leading Indian IT firm, we looked at how members’ identification with two organizations, their own and their client organization, influences their compliance with an organizational KM initiative. The findings show that members have difficulties in complying with the expectations of the organizational KM initiative owing to a stronger identification with their client organizations. At the same time, they comply readily with KM initiatives at the business unit level. The findings show that KM managers at India Inc. use the help of middle level managers in the business units in their efforts to improve members’ compliance with organizational KM. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed.     

社会转型背景下小组工作教学的思考

本文基于小组工作教学实践,从社会转型的视角思考了小组工作教学的相关问题:教师与学生不平等权利关系;学生丧失了对原初崇高专业使命的追求;学生在实践工作中自信不足、行动力弱,缺乏带领小组的能量等问题。并提出变革课堂权利关系、实现对学生赋权;回归社会工作的专业使命;教师与学生共同生产小组工作知识与技术的教学实践路径。     

On parallel policies for ranking and selection problems

In this paper we develop and test experimental methodologies for selection of the best alternative among a discrete number of available treatments. We consider a scenario where a researcher sequentially decides which treatments are assigned to experimental units. This problem is particularly challenging if a single measurement of the response to a treatment is time-consuming and there is a limited time for experimentation. This time can be decreased if it is possible to perform measurements in parallel. In this work we propose and discuss asynchronous extensions of two well-known Ranking & Selection policies, namely, Optimal Computing Budget Allocation (OCBA) and Knowledge Gradient (KG) policy. Our extensions (Asynchronous Optimal Computing Budget Allocation (AOCBA) and Asynchronous Knowledge Gradient (AKG), respectively) allow for parallel asynchronous allocation of measurements. Additionally, since the standard KG method is sequential (it can only allocate one experiment at a time) we propose a parallel synchronous extension of KG policy – Synchronous Knowledge Gradient (SKG). Computer simulations of our algorithms indicate that our parallel KG-based policies (AKG, SKG) outperform the standard OCBA method as well as AOCBA, if the number of evaluated alternatives is small or the computing/experimental budget is limited. For experimentations with large budgets and big sets of alternatives, both the OCBA and AOCBA policies are more efficient.     

Generalized method of moments for an extended gamma process

In reliability theory, a widely used process to model the phenomena of the cumulative deterioration of a system over time is the standard gamma process (SGP). Based on several restrictions, such as a constant variance-to-mean ratio, this process is not always a suitable choice to describe the deterioration. A way to overcome these restrictions is to use an extended version of the gamma process introduced by Cinlar (1980), which is characterized by shape and scale functions. In this article, the aim is to propose statistical methods to estimate the unknown parameters of parametric forms of the shape and scale functions. We here develop two generalized methods of moments (Hansen 1982 Hansen, L. P. 1982. Large sample properties of generalized method of moments estimators. Econometrica 50 (4):1029–54.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), based either on the moments or on the Laplace transform of an extended gamma process. Asymptotic properties are provided and a Wald-type test is derived, which allows to test SGPs against extended ones with a specific parametric shape function. Also, the performance of the proposed estimation methods is illustrated on simulated and real data.     

地震死亡人数预测与巨灾保险基金测算

巨灾保险制度在很大程度上依赖于巨灾损失的建模分析。由于巨灾损失通常存在极端值,一般的统计分布很难对其进行有效拟合。本文以我国大陆地区1950-2015年期间的地震灾害为研究样本,基于二维泊松过程建立了地震灾害死亡人数的预测模型。根据地震死亡人数的分布特征,将地震灾害分为非巨灾事件和巨灾事件,分别用右截断的负二项分布和右截断的广义帕累托分布拟合死亡人数;用齐次泊松过程描述地震灾害在给定期间的发生次数;用Panjer迭代法和快速傅里叶变换计算地震死亡人数在特定时期的分布以及风险度量值;用蒙特卡罗模拟法测算我国地震死亡保险基金的规模和纯保费水平。与传统的巨灾模型相比,本文提出的方法同时考虑了地震灾害发生的时间和地震死亡人数两个维度,并用贝叶斯方法估计模型参数,对地震死亡人数的拟合更加合理,为完善我国地震死亡保险提供了一种新的思路。     

Public relations master's education deliverables: How practitioners and educators view strategic practice curriculum

A national sample of practitioners (PRSA members) and academics provided their perceptions of what graduate students of public relations should study (N = 463). Despite expectations of difference between practitioners and educators, they agreed that a master's program graduate should have knowledge of business and understand how globalization shapes public relations. Still, a master's of public relations program graduate should also write well, speak well, and have had some “capstone” experience.     

少数民族地区非物质文化遗产保护与传承研究——基于铜仁市马岩村和云舍村舀纸工艺的调查与思考

近年来,我国掀起了文化建设与发展的大潮,保护非物质文化遗产资源作为文化建设的重要组成部分,得到了各级职能部门和学术界的广泛关注。舀纸工艺作为一项传统的非物质文化遗产项目,如何契合文化发展与改革的总体趋势和基本要求,把握主线,突出特色,加强其有效保护与活态传承,是一个迫切而持续的过程。     

On being moved

In this paper, drawing on Henri Bergson's writing knowledge is seen as a virtual asset, i.e. , a resource that transgresses the distinction between past, present and future. Knowledge is never solely related to the actual present, but is continuously related to and associated with previous experiences and anticipated futures. By conceptualizing knowledge as a virtual asset, the notion of knowledge is freed from its commonplace metaphor of being a stock of skills and know-how that the organization can make use of. In this perspective, knowledge can never be fully conceived of as a stock, but must always be related to practices and activities. As a consequence, knowledge management theory needs to redirect its attention towards practices, rather than theorizing in terms of the taxonomies of knowledge employed by organizations.     

History,Culture and Organization Studies

Research by Barley, Meyer and Gash (1988) showed that the publication of Peters and Waterman's In Search of Excellence (1982) coincided with culture becoming a popular and acceptable topic for organization theorists. This helped establish the dominance of a conception of culture that proffered an instrumental view of the relation between managerial practice and management knowledge, Barley, Meyer and Gash (1988) suggested. They saw this as a relatively recent occurrence. While we do not deny the possibility of the instrumental relation as depicted in Barley, Meyer and Gash (1988), we do not concur with their judgement that the study of culture is a relatively novel interruption of previously more academic concerns. On the contrary, we suggest that, while the relationship between practice and knowledge is borne out by a genealogical analysis of culture, the time period for such analysis should be drawn both more widely and more deeply to be an adequate test of Barley, Meyer and Gash's (1988) hypotheses. We argue that the relationship postulated in the hypothesis supported by their research - that academic research on culture has increasingly been prejudiced by instrumental concerns that developed in the lead up to, and in the wake of, the 'excellence' studies - defies social science traditions. We show this by enlarging the canvass of culture. The purposeful use of organizational culture as a management tool returns culture to those origins revealed by genealogical analysis that uncovers its etymology and sociology.