Dynamic Capability and Coopetition

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes in company management, valuing coopetition as a collective strategy by strengthening the dynamic capabilities defined by Teece et al. as the firm's ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure external and internal competencies in rapidly changing environments. The adaptive capacity will prepare the company for adversity; the absorptive capacity favors the acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and application of external knowledge to create and maintain competitive advantages, and the capacity to innovate allows the identification of new business opportunities. The research showed that for the studied group, the good use of the dynamic absorption and adaptation capacities present in coopetition strongly contributes to the development of innovation competences, thus achieving and sustaining competitive advantage.

Biological control of the Asian chestnut gall wasp in Portugal: Insights from a mathematical model

In recent years, the Asian gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus has invaded chestnut trees and significantly affected the Portuguese chestnut production. Studies in other countries, such as Japan or Italy, have shown that the parasitoid Torymus sinensis can successfully achieve biological control of D. kuriphilus. Mathematical models help us to understand the dynamics of the interaction between the pest D. kuriphilus and its parasitoid T. sinensis and, consequently, they can help to implement measures that enhance crop pest management. In this work, the evolution of the density of D. kuriphilus and T. sinensis across time and space is studied through the numerical solution of models that include parameters based on observations made in Portugal. Simultaneous releases of the parasitoid are simulated at various locations and at different times. The results indicate that, in the case of a small and homogeneous orchard, biological control can be effective, but, in the case of extensive domains, the pest control is much more difficult to achieve. In order for biological control to be efficient, it is necessary to implement, in each chestnut-producing region, a collective strategy based on the annual monitoring of infestation levels.

Collective Strategy Condensation: When Envy Splits Societies

Human societies are characterized by three constituent features, besides others. (A) Options, as for jobs and societal positions, differ with respect to their associated monetary and non-monetary payoffs. (B) Competition leads to reduced payoffs when individuals compete for the same option as others. (C) People care about how they are doing relatively to others. The latter trait—the propensity to compare one’s own success with that of others—expresses itself as envy. It is shown that the combination of (A)–(C) leads to spontaneous class stratification. Societies of agents split endogenously into two social classes, an upper and a lower class, when envy becomes relevant. A comprehensive analysis of the Nash equilibria characterizing a basic reference game is presented. Class separation is due to the condensation of the strategies of lower-class agents, which play an identical mixed strategy. Upper-class agents do not condense, following individualist pure strategies. The model and results are size-consistent, holding for arbitrary large numbers of agents and options. Analytic results are confirmed by extensive numerical simulations. An analogy to interacting confined classical particles is discussed.

Building Post-COVID Response Expertise to Transform Education Systems

The impact of COVID19 has brought a growing sense of chaos in the education systems and has severely disrupted academic progress across the globe by forcing education institutions to adopt a rapid re-design of teaching and learning systems. Among the many COVID-inspired challenges that faced education institutions was how to ensure survival, preparedness and growth after the pandemic. However, the same challenges have presented humanity with many opportunities to re-think and re-engineer a new way of doing business, a successful future is mostly held on the level of preparedness amongst education institutions to manage the future crises in the best way possible. There has never been a greater need and opportunity than this moment for the education sector to work much closer together to produce a collective strategy and plan that will redefine the future outlook of the broader education sector. It must be a plan that must proactively tackle possible challenges and risks and guide the education institutions into how to harness and apply the opportunities presented by covid 19. This chapter introduces the theory of chaos as a means of adapting to any crisis disturbances as it offers practical reflections through a philosophical window that goes from identifying patterns in crisis to creating new forms of creating order. The purpose of this chapter is to clarify a link between reflective practices and discussion case research on the idea around the suggested Adaptative Reflective Cycle (ARC) as a pandemic response model.

Appraising performance gains

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings Performance appraisals are a key tool for organizations to implement a competitive strategy, as well as improve the overall organizational understanding of the collective strategy goals. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The Long “Race” to Diversity in Otolaryngology

The number of health disparities disproportionately affecting minority communities continue to rise. Thus, it is imperative to assess whether equity within medical school enrollment and along the academic pipeline has mirrored this growth, especially among elite surgical specialties such as otolaryngology. Census and educational data from 2010 and 2018 were used to assess the current otolaryngology, surgery, and internal medicine physician and faculty workforce diversity across each stage of the academic medicine trajectory by race and ethnicity. We found that disparities exist in medical school enrollment for minority students such that Hispanic/Latinx representation was only 30% and Black representation only 50% of their respective proportions in the US population in 2018. Disparities in achieving full professorship were also observed across all 3 specialties but most prominently in otolaryngology, with 1% Black representation among otolaryngology professors in 2018. A collective strategy toward diversifying the otolaryngology workforce should be explored.

4. Governing

‘Governing: still the strong centre?’ looks at the British reputation for strong government, and whether this is the same as effective government. Britain is a traditional example of a ‘power-hoarding’ polity, and the power of the British government was evident in the response to the financial crisis. However, there are tensions, not least between the priorities of ministers and civil servants. Historically, disagreements between prime ministers and their chancellors have led to breakdowns. Policy formulation is not the same as policy delivery, and governments have struggled to square their departmental structure and the need for collective strategy when actions are required outside the nation state.