Technological Innovation and Value Creation of Enterprise Innovation Ecosystem Based on System Dynamics Modeling

Based on the analysis of the dynamic interrelationships of enterprise innovation factors according to system dynamics, we build a dynamic causality diagram and a flow graph model of the enterprise innovation ecosystem to study the potential business value creation paths focusing on technological innovation. The system model is simulated using data from high-tech enterprises. Our results show that the model can reasonably simulate the operation of the enterprise innovation ecosystem. Two paths to value creation are identified: (1) input-technological innovation-commercialization of results-value creation; (2) external acquisition of technology-digestion and absorption-value creation as a complementary path. Also, the technological innovation path expands and extends the industrial chain and supply chain of enterprises and better promotes the value creation of enterprises in the same supply chain. Furthermore, our results show that R&D investment and technical cooperation investment should be allocated rationally in order to improve the utility of value creation investment.

Capital Structure Choices in Technology Firms: Empirical Results from Polish Listed Companies

The main aim of the paper is the identification of capital structure determinants, with a special emphasis on investments in the innovativeness of Polish New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs). Poland is a unique country in that it is an emerging market that was also promoted in 2018 to the status of a developed country. The study sample consisted of 31 companies listed in the Warsaw Stock Exchange that are classified as high-tech firms and covers the period 2014–2018. The following factors influencing the capital structure were analyzed: internal and external innovativeness and the firm’s size, liquidity, intangibility, age, profitability, and growth opportunities. The results of the research provide empirical evidence that liquidity, age, and investments in innovativeness determine capital structure, which provides an additional argument supporting the trade-off theory and the modified version of the pecking order theory. More specifically, the results suggest that companies whose process of investment in innovativeness is based on the external acquisition of technology are able to attract external financing, while the process based on internally generated innovativeness (R&D activity) deters external capital. The results are interesting for policymakers in emerging markets.

Evaluation of the Technological Competences Through Dissemination of Knowledge in Technological Incubators with Faph

Unlike the industrial economy that valued vertical integration, the knowledge economy stimulates and values the formation of interorganizational alliances and business arrangements built in networks. Competitiveness shifts from a one-way, individual and endogenous process within firms to an open, multidirectional, collaborative and networked process. In this context, the objective of this study is to evaluate the technological competences (using the SECI model of knowledgeconversion) present in technological incubators, through fuzzy multi-criteria methods. A hybrid mathematical methodology will be used with the integration of the Fuzzy Delphi (FDelphi) and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) methods. The FDelphi will serve to raise and validate the critical factors (criteria/subcriteria) present to evaluate technological competencies in technological incubators. The FAHP method will be applied to calculate the relative weights of the selected criteria/subcriteria that affect the problem in question. Regarding the results, the following criteria were obtained: C4 (Socialization-38%), that is, the way in which the employees of an incubator share the knowledge, the second one that stood out the most was C1 (External acquisition of knowledge-28%) sources from which employees acquire tacit and/or explicit knowledge of the incubator's external environment. This proposal is expected to improve the competitiveness of technology incubators by assessing technological skills and disseminating knowledge.

Transgenerational role of seed mycobiome – an endosymbiotic fungal composition as a prerequisite to stress resilience and adaptive phenotypes in Triticum

Illumina-MiSeq next-generation sequencing of ITS 5.8S rRNA gene demonstrated the transgenerational transmission of fungal seed-endophytes (mycobiome) across three consecutive wheat host generations under standard-control and drought conditions in the greenhouse. Drought-stressed plants experienced a positive shift in the seed mycobiome’s composition, moderated by the external acquisition of endophytic Penicillium (E+) at the seed level. Untreated (E−) and unstressed plants harbor a maximal fungal diversity of non-equilibrium ecological communities. While fungal composition in drought-stressed E− plants experienced important fluctuation, E+ plants maintained fungal ecological communities in phase equilibrium across generations. E+ plants hosted a relatively higher abundance of Ascomycota in the 2nd and 3rd seed generations of wheat, whereas higher abundance of Basidiomycota was detected in 1st generation seeds. The dynamic response of ecological communities to environmental stress is conducive to E+ plants’ active recruitment of endosymbiotic consortia in seeds, benefiting host stress resilience and phenotype. In contrast, E− plants showed an erratic distribution of detected OTUs with an increased occurrence of phytopathogens and diminished plant performance under stress. The present study gives insight into the understanding of the seed-mycobiome composition and dynamics with the potential to improve plant host traits in an adverse environment.

Adaptation and validation of the Organizational Learning Mechanism Scale (OLMS)

The purpose hereof is to adapt the Organizational Learning Mechanism Scale (OLMS), which deals with organizations’ actions to create procedures and practices for knowledge acquisition, storage, sharing, and use. The adaptation of this scale was based on the validation of the scale for the Brazilian context, and on a theme-related literature review. The adapted scale was submitted for semantic and theoretical validation by judges and for the application of a pilot test in a small sample. The data of 268 public servants who work in military and civil organizations were collected through electronic means. Once the recommended prior analyses were conducted, we performed a factorial analysis, identifying 3 factors: Internal Acquisition Mechanisms (11 items and α = 0.924), Codification and Control Mechanisms (8 items and α = 0.899), and External Acquisition Mechanism (3 items and α = 0.726), which explain a total variance of 62.20%, results that were superior to those found in the first adaptation of the OLMS. The final results point to an instrument with good statistical parameters and which is responsible for a great amount of the construct’s variance, indicating new directions for the execution of new research.

Scandinavia and Northern Germany

The long Iron Age in northern Europe (c.500 BC–750 AD) was characterized by centuries of gradual development, punctuated by major episodes of transformation in the first century BC and the mid-first millennium AD. This chapter adopts a thematic approach, starting with the economy, envisaged as the intertwining of subsistence, exploitation of natural resources, and external acquisition. These lead to wider issues such as land ownership, social stratification, and over-exploitation. A second theme is warfare, ranging from small-scale fighting in earlier centuries to the battlefields of the Roman Iron Age. Next, the implications of key changes in material culture are examined, from domestic artefacts, to grave goods, and architecture. The final theme covers narrative, belief, and ritual, as manifested in lakes with votive and war offerings, founder graves, magical use of runic inscriptions, and the ideologically tinted myths relating to Iron Age societies preserved in poems written down in later centuries.

The build-up of coercive capacities

Do governments’ military build-ups foster the outbreak of intrastate violence? This article investigates the impact of governments’ arms imports on the onset of intrastate conflicts. There is scant empirical research on the role of the external acquisition of coercive technologies, and even fewer studies explore the respective causal mechanisms of their consequences. We argue that the existing literature has not adequately considered the potential simultaneity between conflict initiation and arms purchases. In contrast, our study explicitly takes into account that weapon inflows may not only causally induce conflicts but may themselves be caused by conflict anticipation. Following a review of applicable theoretical models to derive our empirical expectations, we offer two innovative approaches to surmount this serious endogeneity problem. First, we employ a simultaneous equations model that allows us to estimate the concurrent effects of both arms imports on conflict onsets and conflict onsets on imports. Second, we are the first to use an instrumental variable approach that uses the import of weapon types not suitable for intrastate conflict as instruments for weapon imports that are relevant for fighting in civil wars. Relying on arms transfer data provided by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute for the period 1949-2013, we provide estimates for the effect of imports on civil war onset. Our empirical results clearly show that while arms imports are not a genuine cause of intrastate conflicts, they significantly increase the probability of an onset in countries where conditions are notoriously conducive to conflict. In such situations, arms are not an effective deterrent but rather spark conflict escalation.

A Case Study of a Two Wheeler Manufacturing Unit on Manufacturing Competency & Strategic Success

Competence management comprises the management, building, leveraging and deployment of strategic and operational competencies, the causal relationships and linkages between them, and the way competencies are embedded in organizational and individual resources. In-house development and external acquisition to contextual factors, for small manufacturing firms, such as the firms’ strategic orientations are inter related. This paper presents a detailed case study in a two wheeler manufacturing unit.Keywords: Manufacturing Competency, Strategic Success, Case Study, Two Wheeler Manufacturing Unit