scholarly journals Are cooperative firms more agile? A contingency perspective on small and medium-sized enterprises in agglomerations and peripheral areas

Author(s):  
Elisabeth F. Mueller ◽  
Carola Jungwirth

Abstract In this study of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in German key technology industries, we investigate whether cooperating with others is an effective strategy for SMEs to enhance their organizational agility. Taking a contingency perspective, we are specifically interested in whether this effect depends on the firm’s location in an agglomerated or a peripheral area. Results show that a greater number of cooperative relationships with others is positively associated with SMEs’ organizational agility. This effect is stronger for agglomerated than for peripheral firms, suggesting that agglomerated SMEs can seize the abundant opportunities to cooperate in order to counter agglomeration diseconomies such as organizational inertia and mimetic behavior. This finding highlights the importance of absorbing external knowledge gained in cooperative relationships for SMEs’ organizational agility. Thereby, the study offers a novel perspective on how agglomerated SMEs can actively prevent being negatively affected by the downsides of agglomerations.

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 550
Author(s):  
Ilaria Mariotti ◽  
Dante Di Matteo

Coworking spaces are “serendipity accelerators” designed to host creative people and entrepreneurs. While recent literature has started exploring the indirect effects of coworking spaces on the local context, little is still known on how coworking spaces may directly affect the coworkers’ economic performance and wellbeing. Using a novel dataset based on a survey of 326 CWs working in the Italian coworking spaces in 2018, this paper explores the potential economic impact for coworkers, depending on whether a coworking space is localized in a peripheral or an urban area. Through a propensity-score matching approach, we found that being located in a peripheral area for coworkers may represent an opportunity to earn more than working in an urban center. The same holds for the organization coworkers belong to.


1962 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44
Author(s):  
ANN FIELDEN ◽  
G. M. HUGHES

1. Electrical activity of single units has been studied in small bundles of nerve fibres split off from the connectives between abdominal ganglia of the dragonfly nymph. Many units showed a resting discharge but activity of other units was only found when the insect was stimulated mechanically. 2. In some fibres the resting discharge was unaffected by mechanical stimulation and such spontaneous activity showed different patterns. These units were identified as interneurones and a prominent feature of their discharge was an irregular firing over long periods and the formation of characteristic intermittent bursts. 3. Responses to tactile or proprioceptive stimulation were investigated in primary sensory fibres and interneurones. The latter showed excitatory and inhibitory effects which were often related to the site of the peripheral stimulus. 4. Primary sensory fibres generally gave action potentials of smaller amplitude and were excited by stimulation of more localized areas. Many fibres traverse at least one connective after they enter a segmental ganglion and most ascend or descend ipsilaterally, but some crossing-over of sensory fibres occurs in the ganglia. 5. Interneurones were classified according to the nature of the peripheral areas from which they received their input. Ipsilateral, contralateral, and bilateral fibres have all been found but so far there is no evidence for any asymmetric fibres. Fibres responding to stimulation of a single segment or of many segments were found. Some of the latter extended over the whole length of the body and it is clear that spikes may be initiated in many of the ganglia through which an interneurone passes. 6. It is evident from this work that a given peripheral area is represented centrally by many interneurones and a great deal of convergence from different areas may occur on individual interneurones.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Wang ◽  
Feng Ming Luo ◽  
Dan Liu ◽  
Jia Shen Liu ◽  
Ye Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: There is limited information on difference of epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcomes of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan (the epicenter) and Sichuan (the peripheral area) in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted to investigate the differences in the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 between the epicenter and peripheral areas of pandemic and thereby generate information that would be potentially helpful in formulating clinical practice recommendations to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: The Sichuan & Wuhan Collaboration Research Group for COVID-19 established two retrospective cohorts that separately reflect the epicenter and peripheral area during the early pandemic. The epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients in the two groups were compared. Multivariate regression analyses were used to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with regard to the outcomes.Results: The Wuhan (epicenter) cohort included 710 randomly selected patients, and the peripheral (Sichuan) cohort included 474 consecutive patients. A higher proportion of patients from the periphery had upper airway symptoms, whereas a lower proportion of patients in the epicenter had lower airway symptoms and comorbidities. Patients in the epicenter had a higher risk of death (aOR=7.64), intensive care unit (ICU) admission (aOR=1.66), delayed time from illness onset to hospital and ICU admission (aOR=6.29 and aOR=8.03, respectively), and prolonged duration of viral shedding (aOR=1.64). Conclusions: The worse outcomes in the epicenter could be explained by the prolonged time from illness onset to hospital and ICU admission. This could potentially have been associated with elevated systemic inflammation secondary to organ dysfunction and prolonged duration of virus shedding independent of age and comorbidities. Thus, early supportive care could achieve better clinical outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 2349-2358
Author(s):  
Saeedeh Shafiee Kristensen ◽  
Mitra Shafiee ◽  
Sara Shafiee

AbstractIncreasingly competitive and multifaceted business landscapes and the accelerating pace of innovation require organizations to build in-house capability to evaluate the effectiveness of their design and redesign their organizational structure to drive agile product development. The purpose of this research is to examine how the ability of an organization to implement agile is affected by the organization design. A case study based on 35 semi-structured interviews and field observations at a leading, large-size, Danish software development company was carried out. Adopting the contingency perspective, this paper presents the relevant organizational elements that can increase organizational agility and how the companies can leverage the advantages of the design. Accordingly, it provides a framework that compromises eighteen core organizational practices grouped into four categories (organizational structure and governance, culture and people, IT tools and data infrastructure, and processes) to understand the effect of organization design on agile product development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Wang ◽  
Feng Ming Luo ◽  
Dan Liu ◽  
Jia Sheng Liu ◽  
Ye Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: There is limited information on the difference in epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcomes of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan (the epicenter) and Sichuan (the peripheral area) in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted to investigate the differences in the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 between the epicenter and peripheral areas of pandemic and thereby generate information that would be potentially helpful in formulating clinical practice recommendations to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: The Sichuan & Wuhan Collaboration Research Group for COVID-19 established two retrospective cohorts that separately reflect the epicenter and peripheral area during the early pandemic. The epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients in the two groups were compared. Multivariate regression analyses were used to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with regard to the outcomes.Results: The Wuhan (epicenter) cohort included 710 randomly selected patients, and the peripheral (Sichuan) cohort included 474 consecutive patients. A higher proportion of patients from the periphery had upper airway symptoms, whereas a lower proportion of patients in the epicenter had lower airway symptoms and comorbidities. Patients in the epicenter had a higher risk of death (aOR=7.64), intensive care unit (ICU) admission (aOR=1.66), delayed time from illness onset to hospital and ICU admission (aOR=6.29 and aOR=8.03, respectively), and prolonged duration of viral shedding (aOR=1.64). Conclusions: The worse outcomes in the epicenter could be explained by the prolonged time from illness onset to hospital and ICU admission. This could potentially have been associated with elevated systemic inflammation secondary to organ dysfunction and prolonged duration of virus shedding independent of age and comorbidities. Thus, early supportive care could achieve better clinical outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min-Su Kim ◽  
Hyung-Bin Lim ◽  
Woo-Hyuk Lee ◽  
Yeo-Kyoung Won ◽  
Gi-Yup Nam ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose: To study the bilateral choroidal thickness (CT) symmetry and difference in uncomplicated pachychoroid subjects using wide-field swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT).Methods: All subjects underwent a wide-field 16-mm 1-line scan using SS-OCT. Bilateral CT was measured at, and compared among, the following 12 points: 3 points at 900-µm intervals from the nasal optic disc margin (nasal peripapillary area), 1 point at the subfovea, 6 points at 900-µm intervals from the fovea to the nasal and temporal areas (macular area), and 2 peripheral points 5,400 and 8,100 µm from the fovea (peripheral area). Associations between interocular CT differences in the various measurement areas and clinical factors were analyzed.Results: There was no statistically significant differences in CT between the right and left eyes in any area (all p > 0.05); they all showed significant positive correlations (all p < 0.01). However, the correlation coefficients (ρ) were smaller for the nasal peripapillary and peripheral areas compared to the macular area. In addition, the interocular axial length differences were significantly associated with interocular CT differences in the macular area, but not in the nasal peripapillary or peripheral area. No other clinical factor was associated with interocular CT differences in any area.Conclusions: The CTs in each region were bilaterally symmetrical in subjects with uncomplicated pachychoroid. However, interocular difference in CT increased from the center to the periphery, indicating that the anatomical variation of the nasal peripapillary and peripheral choroid was greater than that of the macula.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Wang ◽  
◽  
Feng Ming Luo ◽  
Dan Liu ◽  
Jia Sheng Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background There is limited information on the difference in epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcomes of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan (the epicenter) and Sichuan (the peripheral area) in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted to investigate the differences in the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 between the epicenter and peripheral areas of pandemic and thereby generate information that would be potentially helpful in formulating clinical practice recommendations to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods The Sichuan & Wuhan Collaboration Research Group for COVID-19 established two retrospective cohorts that separately reflect the epicenter and peripheral area during the early pandemic. The epidemiology, clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients in the two groups were compared. Multivariate regression analyses were used to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with regard to the outcomes. Results The Wuhan (epicenter) cohort included 710 randomly selected patients, and the peripheral (Sichuan) cohort included 474 consecutive patients. A higher proportion of patients from the periphery had upper airway symptoms, whereas a lower proportion of patients in the epicenter had lower airway symptoms and comorbidities. Patients in the epicenter had a higher risk of death (aOR=7.64), intensive care unit (ICU) admission (aOR=1.66), delayed time from illness onset to hospital and ICU admission (aOR=6.29 and aOR=8.03, respectively), and prolonged duration of viral shedding (aOR=1.64). Conclusions The worse outcomes in the epicenter could be explained by the prolonged time from illness onset to hospital and ICU admission. This could potentially have been associated with elevated systemic inflammation secondary to organ dysfunction and prolonged duration of virus shedding independent of age and comorbidities. Thus, early supportive care could achieve better clinical outcomes.


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