The institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities within industry–university collaborative ventures

Due to the changing competitive landscape, organizations must increasingly focus on acquiring external knowledge to advance new technologies. This study examines the institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities between industrial firms and university research centers. Data were collected from 189 firms collaborating with 21 university research centers in the US. Results show that knowledge transfer activities are facilitated when industrial firms have more mechanistic structures, cultures that are more stable and direction-oriented, and when the firm is more trusting of its university research center partner. Implications for both industry and universities, including their effect on firm performance, are discussed.     

Does exposure to a traumatic event make organizations resilient?

Why do some organizations bounce-back from traumatic events more quickly than others? While the research on organizations offers extensive insights on recovery from economic or technological shocks, there is limited understanding of how organizations recover from life-threatening events such as terrorist attacks. In this study, we build on the research on resilience and argue that organizational recovery from a traumatic event is informed by the perception of threat. Higher perception of threat increases inter-organizational collaboration and the care associated with the deployment of slack as well as to learning. We tested our arguments with a sample of US and non-US firms before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and found that, due to spatial proximity, US firms’ higher perception of threat led to a larger increase in the frequency of inter-organizational alliances than that of non-US firms. This preference was more frequently directed towards local partners and demonstrated a distinct emphasis on slack and learning. Contrary to conventional wisdom, our findings suggest that organizational resilience in the face of a traumatic event benefits not from immunity but from spatial proximity to the threat. Proximity increases the perception of threat, and with it, the impetus for adaptation.     

A neural network clustering model for miscellaneous components production planning

The growing importance of providing service to customers, e.g. post-sale assistance, supplying of spare parts, upgrading and integration of new elements in installed systems, enhances the importance of planning and management of upgrading parts in most manufacturing industries. These parts are generally characterized by high technical heterogeneity and have a highly variable and difficult to forecast demand. In some areas (especially the most dynamic, e.g. high-tech products), these kinds of components are quite common, and represent a very strong relation between the manufacturing firm and the market. These parts are generally too many to be efectively supported on a planning database system with individual records and too heterogeneous ( and sometimes with a too high value) to be supported all together in a single record. In this paper, we want to study the application of adaptive techniques for the clustering of these components in classes based on the similarities in their market behaviour in order to build an optimal database for planning production and supplying of these components.     

Development and Spanish translation of the Weinberg Center Risk and Abuse Prevention Screen (WC-RAPS)

Barriers for enhanced detection, identification, and reporting of elder abuse include the paucity of appropriate, valid, easily administered screening tools. This article describes the qualitative methods used in the development of the Weinberg Center Risk and Abuse Prevention Screen (WC-RAPS), and of its Spanish version. Focus groups and cognitive interviews were instrumental in identifying problematic items, underscoring potential response errors, and informing about putative causes for divergent interpretations of item-intent. Seven of the 11 original items were modified, a double-barreled item was segregated into two, one item deleted, and three additional items included to create the final 13 WC-RAPS items. The multi-step approach implemented for the Spanish conversion evidenced deviation from the original intended meaning for one item. The readability for English and Spanish versions was also assessed. Screening for elder abuse, if implemented systematically can be instrumental in identifying unrecognized abuse and preventing reoccurrence.     

NEIGHBORHOOD DISORDER AND INDIVIDUAL COMMUNITY CAPACITY: HOW INCIVILITIES INFORM THREE DOMAINS OF PSYCHOSOCIAL ASSESSMENT

This article examines contextual models to bring together the disorder and community capacity perspectives, since both are grounded in social (dis)organization theory and cumulative causation. We analyze how individual and neighborhood characteristics, social and physical disorder, and crime affect three individual community capacity outcomes: city quality of life, neighborhood safety, and household moving intentions. The “broken windows” downward spiral suggests that neighborhood incivilities may decrease multiple psychosocial assessments, or, individual community capacities. Consistent with prior research, we find that social and physical disorder decreases all three outcomes. Second, we find that both disorders also mediate neighborhood effects, including socioeconomic status and residential stability. Third, these direct and indirect disorder effects are not altered by prior victimization or neighborhood crime rates. Reducing disorder will, in turn, improve three distinct domains and geographic scales of individual community capacity, and can also reduce the adverse effects of other local area capacity deficits.     

Intergenerational solidarity between parents and adult children: a qualitative research among cohabiting and married children in Italy

The objective of this article is to compare the patterns of intergenerational solidarity between adult children who cohabit or are married and their own parents or their partner's parents through the analysis of 50 in-depth interviews. The research did not reveal any different behavioural patterns between cohabiting and married couples. Financial support provided by own parents or partner's parents and the presence of small children constituted positive factors which intensified the frequency of contacts and improved the quality of the relationship. In the event of illness of a parent, both the married and cohabiting couples provided assistance, especially when the illness was not disabling and there were no other kin relatives. When this was not possible, a private caregiver was hired or close family members provided assistance. Only those respondents who cohabited with a partner awaiting divorce were less willing to maintain contacts with their partner's parents. The presence of a family formed by previously married partners and the old age of the parents of the latter compromised the quality of the relationship and the willingness to provide assistance.     

Researching ethnic ‘others’: conducting critical ethnographic research in Australia and Scotland

In many parts of the world, classrooms are characterised by cultural and ethnic diversity. Increasingly, researchers are interested in exploring these rich and socially complex contexts. However, research into ‘the ethnic other’ can present complex ethical and methodological challenges. In this paper, the authors discuss, with reference to their respective studies in Australia and Scotland, their mission to give voice and agency to research participants and develop research relationships that reduce the power imbalance between researcher and researched. They conclude by suggesting that critical ethnographic research methods can assist in alleviating some of the difficulties inherent in research conducted in contexts where researchers are cultural outsiders. The authors also argue the need for protocols to be developed for research into ethnic minority communities.     

‘If I’m going to teach about the world,I need to know the world’: developing Australian pre-service teachers’ intercultural competence through international trips

Increasingly, there is an imperative to prepare teachers who can address the needs of ethnically and racially diverse learners. One way to do so is to make available to pre-service teachers opportunities for an international experience so that they might learn about the world and develop better understandings of cultural diversity and difference. In this article, I draw on the findings of a qualitative study that aimed to investigate pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the value of an international experience to their development as teachers. I present excerpts of interview data that highlight how fourteen Australian pre-service teachers who went to India to live and teach for a month, made sense of their experiences. Findings raise concerns about how they saw the trip primarily as an opportunity for tourism and how it became a vehicle through which postcolonial and neocolonial views were developed and maintained. I conclude by making recommendations for teacher education as well as for the organisation of the trip.     

Building Industry–University Research Centers: Some Strategic Considerations

This paper reviews the importance of industry–university relationships and the strategic considerations within the context of these partnerships in university research centers. We have identified several factors that are particularly important to industry in building relationships with university centers. These include: acquiring skills, knowledge and gaining access to university facilities; organizational cultures that are more organic; flexible university policies for intellectual property rights, patents and licenses; and the presence of champions. Firms also have explicit collaborative strategies for partnering with universities where firms can be segmented into three distinct clusters: Collegial Players, Aggressive Players and Targeted Players. Collegial Players are often large firms working with universities and university-sponsored consortia on topics of interest that have long-term value rather than promise immediate commercial opportunities. Aggressive Players are both large and small firms who employ university relationships specifically to develop and commercialize a wide range of marketable products and services. Targeted Players are often smaller firms, largely interested in using university relationships to address specific issues central to their business. We conclude by discussing key implications for both industry and universities.