Do firms develop dynamic capabilities differently? The case of professional services firms in New Zealand

<p>Differences in dynamic capabilities (DCs) help explain firms’ abilities to change. DCs research has explored what DCs might be and generic categorisations of them after they have emerged, but little light has been thrown on the specific practices that enable or inhibit their emergence. This study explores how DCs emerge and why firms might develop DCs differently under the same market conditions. This thesis sought to understand these questions and respond to calls for longitudinal empirical studies to extend DC theory by studying the paths of four professional services firms in New Zealand over three decades. Using a multi-case study design and thematic analysis, this research applied Teece’s (2007) framework of sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities to identify the presence of DCs within each case, before attempting to identify the enablers and inhibitors influencing the development of such capabilities. While elements of each generic class of DC were evident in each case, the findings suggest that in order to utilise DCs to adapt effectively to environmental changes, a firm must deploy all three classes of capabilities at the same time. This research contributes to the DC literature by proposing a prioritised typology of antecedents that may help stimulate Teece’s sensing, seizing and transforming DCs, while identifying the rigidities that could inhibit their development. The empirical results reported on in this thesis suggest that similar firms’ development of DCs may be different because of idiosyncratic leadership and culture that can limit a firm’s ability to perceive the importance of DCs. Other characteristics that inhibit the development of DCs include centralised, non-participative cultures and high internal (or inward looking) orientation. These results extend current theory about triggers for developing DCs by identifying that the strongest triggers may be either serious macro-economic events or internally driven by firm-defined goals or strategies.</p>

Do firms develop dynamic capabilities differently? The case of professional services firms in New Zealand

<p>Differences in dynamic capabilities (DCs) help explain firms’ abilities to change. DCs research has explored what DCs might be and generic categorisations of them after they have emerged, but little light has been thrown on the specific practices that enable or inhibit their emergence. This study explores how DCs emerge and why firms might develop DCs differently under the same market conditions. This thesis sought to understand these questions and respond to calls for longitudinal empirical studies to extend DC theory by studying the paths of four professional services firms in New Zealand over three decades. Using a multi-case study design and thematic analysis, this research applied Teece’s (2007) framework of sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities to identify the presence of DCs within each case, before attempting to identify the enablers and inhibitors influencing the development of such capabilities. While elements of each generic class of DC were evident in each case, the findings suggest that in order to utilise DCs to adapt effectively to environmental changes, a firm must deploy all three classes of capabilities at the same time. This research contributes to the DC literature by proposing a prioritised typology of antecedents that may help stimulate Teece’s sensing, seizing and transforming DCs, while identifying the rigidities that could inhibit their development. The empirical results reported on in this thesis suggest that similar firms’ development of DCs may be different because of idiosyncratic leadership and culture that can limit a firm’s ability to perceive the importance of DCs. Other characteristics that inhibit the development of DCs include centralised, non-participative cultures and high internal (or inward looking) orientation. These results extend current theory about triggers for developing DCs by identifying that the strongest triggers may be either serious macro-economic events or internally driven by firm-defined goals or strategies.</p>

Cortex-Like Complex Systems: What Occurs Within?

We consider cortex-like complex systems in the form of strongly connected, directed networks-of-networks. In such a network, there are spiking dynamics at each of the nodes (modelling neurones), together with non-trivial time-lags associated with each of the directed edges (modelling synapses). The connections of the outer network are sparse, while the many inner networks, called modules, are dense. These systems may process various incoming stimulations by producing whole-system dynamical responses. We specifically discuss a generic class of systems with up to 10 billion nodes simulating the human cerebral cortex. It has recently been argued that such a system’s responses to a wide range of stimulations may be classified into a number of latent, internal dynamical modes. The modes might be interpreted as focussing and biasing the system’s short-term dynamical system responses to any further stimuli. In this work, we illustrate how latent modes may be shown to be both present and significant within very large-scale simulations for a wide and appropriate class of complex systems. We argue that they may explain the inner experience of the human brain.

Maximized redundant and synergistic information transfers predict the rise in the output gene expression noise in a generic class of coherent type-1 feed-forward loop networks

We apply the partial information decomposition principle to a generic coherent type-1 feed-forward loop (C1-FFL) motif with tunable direct and indirect transcriptional regulations of the output gene product and quantify the redundant, synergistic, and unique information transfers from the regulators to their target output species. Our results which are obtained within the small-noise regime of a Gaussian framework reveal that the redundant and synergistic information transfers are antagonistically related to the output noise. Most importantly, these two information flavors are maximized prior to the minimization and subsequent growth of the output noise. Therefore, we hypothesize that the dynamic information redundancy and synergy maxima may possibly be utilized as efficient statistical predictors to forecast the increasing trend of the fluctuations associated with the output gene expression dynamics in the C1-FFL class of network motifs. Our core analytical finding is supported by exact stochastic simulation data and furthermore validated for a diversified repertoire of biologically plausible parameters. Since, the output gene product serves essential physiological purposes in the cell, a predictive estimate of its noise level is supposed to be of considerable biophysical utility.

Fractional Integral Inequalities for Exponentially Nonconvex Functions and Their Applications

In this paper, the authors define a new generic class of functions involving a certain modified Fox–Wright function. A useful identity using fractional integrals and this modified Fox–Wright function with two parameters is also found. Applying this as an auxiliary result, we establish some Hermite–Hadamard-type integral inequalities by using the above-mentioned class of functions. Some special cases are derived with relevant details. Moreover, in order to show the efficiency of our main results, an application for error estimation is obtained as well.

Late time approaches to the Hubble tension deforming H(z), worsen the growth tension

Many late time approaches for the solution of the Hubble tension use late time smooth deformations of the Hubble expansion rate H(z) of the Planck18/ΛCDM best fit to match the locally measured value of H0 while effectively keeping the comoving distance to the last scattering surface and Ω0mh2 fixed to maintain consistency with Planck CMB measurements. A well known problem of these approaches is that they worsen the fit to low z distance probes. Here we show that another problem of these approaches is that they worsen the level of the Ω0m − σ8 growth tension. We use the generic class of CPL parametrizations corresponding to evolving dark energy equation of state parameter $w(z)=w_0+w_1\frac{z}{1+z}$ with local measurements H0 prior and identify the pairs (w0, w1) that satisfy this condition. This is a generic class of smooth deformations of H(z) that are designed to address the Hubble tension. We show that for these models the growth tension between dynamical probe data and CMB constraints is worse than the corresponding tension of the standard Planck18/ΛCDM model. We justify this feature using a full numerical solution of the growth equation and fit to the data, as well as by using an approximate analytic approach. The problem does not affect recent proposed solutions of the Hubble crisis involving a SnIa intrinsic luminosity transition at zt ≃ 0.01.

New Study of the Existence and Dimension of the Set of Solutions for Nonlocal Impulsive Differential Inclusions with a Sectorial Operator

In this article, we are interested in a new generic class of nonlocal fractional impulsive differential inclusions with linear sectorial operator and Lipschitz multivalued function in the setting of finite dimensional Banach spaces. By modifying the definition of PC-mild solutions initiated by Shu, we succeeded to determine new conditions that sufficiently guarantee the existence of the solutions. The results are obtained by combining techniques of fractional calculus and the fixed point theorem for contraction maps. We also characterize the topological structure of the set of solutions. Finally, we provide a demonstration to address the applicability of our theoretical results.

Nuove ricerche sull’Attila Flagellum Dei di Nicolò da Càsola

My article focuses on the Franco-Italian poem Attila Flagellum Dei, composed by Nicolò da Càsola, an Italian notary, in the second half of the XIV century for the Estensi in Ferrara, in order to celebrate the heroic origins of the family: actually, it is the first encomiastic poem dedicated to them, before the major works by Boiardo and Ariosto. The poem is witnessed by a single manuscript (divided into two tomes), supposedly in the hand of the author himself. My study provides a new biographic profile of Nicolò and his family, also through an overview of some archival documents from the Archivio di Stato in Bologna. The article also presents a brief summary of the narration, and outlines the principal characters, the positive ones (Forest and Gilius in particular) as well as the negative ones (Attila), seen as prototypes alluding to other fictional or historical figures (Forest = Hector of Troy; Attila = the entire Visconti’s family). At last, my paper offers a sample (the proem) of the critical and commented edition I am working at. The text is preceded by an analysis that illustrates its peculiar linguistic features, with a particular regard on the rhymes: indeed, far from being representative of the generic class of Franco-italian works composed by Italo-Romance authors, the poem Attila Flagellum Dei shows a combination of hypercharacterized French and Italo-Romance dialects of Northern Italy.

New Study of Existence and Dimension of the Set of Solutions for Nonlocal Impulsive Differential Inclusions With Sectorial Operator

In this article, we are interested in a new generic class of nonlocal fractional impulsive differential inclusions with linear sectorial operator and Lipschitz multivalued function in the setting of finite dimensional Banach spaces. By modifying the definition of PC-mild solutions initiated by Shu, we succeeded to determine new conditions that sufficiently guarantee the existence of the solutions. The results are obtained by combining techniques of fractional calculus and fixed point theorem for contraction maps. We also characterize the topological structure of the set of solutions. Finally, we provide a demonstration to address the applicability of the theoretical results.

Families of vector fields with many numerical invariants

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>We study bifurcations in finite-parameter families of vector fields on <inline-formula><tex-math id="M1">\begin{document}$S^2$\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula>. Recently, Yu. Ilyashenko, Yu. Kudryashov, and I. Schurov provided examples of (locally generic) structurally unstable <inline-formula><tex-math id="M2">\begin{document}$3$\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula>-parameter families of vector fields: topological classification of these families admits at least one numerical invariant. They also provided examples of <inline-formula><tex-math id="M3">\begin{document}$(2D+1)$\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula>-parameter families such that the topological classification of these families has at least <inline-formula><tex-math id="M4">\begin{document}$D$\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula> numerical invariants and used those examples to construct families with functional invariants of topological classification.</p><p style='text-indent:20px;'>In this paper, we construct locally generic <inline-formula><tex-math id="M5">\begin{document}$4$\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula>-parameter families with any prescribed number of numerical invariants and use them to construct <inline-formula><tex-math id="M6">\begin{document}$5$\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula>-parameter families with functional invariants. We also describe a locally generic class of <inline-formula><tex-math id="M7">\begin{document}$3$\end{document}</tex-math></inline-formula>-parameter families with a tail of an infinite number sequence as an invariant of topological classification.</p>