Determinants of science-based cooperation: evidence in a sample of small and micro firms

We study the determining factors of cience-based cooperation in the case of small and micro firms. In this research, we propose an analytical framework based on the resource-based view of the firm and we identify a set of organisational characteristics, which we classify as internal, external and structural factors. Each factor can be linked to at least one reason, from the firm¿s point of view, to cooperate with universities and public research centres. Each reason can, in turn, be used as an indicator of a firm¿s organisational needs or organisational capacities. In order to validate the theoretical model, we estimate a logistic regression that models the propensity to participate in science-based cooperation activities within a sample of 285 small and micro firms located in Barcelona. The results show the key role played by the absorptive capacity of new and small companies.

A Forwarding Cooperation Protocol for Plain and Cluster-based Ad Hoc Networks

Peer-reviewed

Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC): new biregional trade and investment relations in a changing world economic environment$c

Includes bibliography

Ni una más. International cooperation against gender-based discrimination: the femicide case in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico

The femicide in Ciudad Juárez is a story made of extreme violence against women for different reasons, by different actors, under different circumstances, and following different behavioural patterns. All within a gender discrimination frame based on the idea that women are inferior, interchangeable and disposable according to the patriarchal hierarchy still present in Mexico, but strongly reinforced by a sort of conspiracy of silence provoked either by the high impunity rate, the governmental incompetence to solve the crimes, or the general indifference of the population. It is the story of hundreds of kidnapped, raped, in many cases tortured, and murdered young women in the border between Mexico and the United States. The murders first came into light in 1993 and up to now young women continue to “disappear” without any hope of bringing the perpetrators to justice, stopping impunity, convicting the assassins, and bringing justice to the families of the deceased girls and women. The main questions about femicide in Ciudad Juárez seem to be: why were they brutally assassinated?, why most of the crimes have not been solved yet?, why and how is Ciudad Juárez different from other border cities with the same characteristics?, which powers are behind those crimes in a city that implies mainly women as its labor force, and which has the lowest unemployment rate in the whole country? But there are also many other questions dealing more with the context, the Juarences’ lifestyles, the eventual hidden powers behind the crimes, the possible murderers’ reasons, the response of the local civil society, or the international community actions to fight against femicide there, among many other things, that are still waiting for an answer and that this paper will ‘narrate’ in order to provide a holistic panorama for the readers. But above all there is the need to remember that every single woman or girl assassinated there had a name, an identity, a family, a story to be told time after time and as many times as necessary, in order to avoid accepting these crimes just as statistics, as cold numbers that might make us forget the human tragedy that has been flagellating the city since 1993. We must remember as well that their deaths express gender oppression, the inequality of the relations between what is male and what is female, a manifestation of domination, terror, social extermination, patriarchal hegemony, social class and impunity. The city is the perfect mirror where all the contradictions of globalization get reflected. It is there where all the globalization evils are present and survive by sucking their women’s blood. It is a city where some concepts such as gender, migration and power are closely related with a negative connotation.

Government initiatives to expand access to employer-based health insurance

Employer-based health insurance is declining at records rates, which leaves an increasing number of people without access to affordable health insurance. As a result, municipalities are experiencing financial difficulties to provide health care services for their growing uninsured population. In attempt to combat this issue, three health polices have emerged within the last ten years, called Living Wage with a health insurance provision, Pay or Play, and Health Care Preference. These policies are gaining popularity as civic leaders recognize their ability to promote a public health goal by leveraging the power of city and county contracts to include a health insurance component in the competitive bidding practice for government contracts. ^ This is the first paper to conduct a retrospective analysis on whether these three health policies have been able to increase access to employer-based health insurance and/or support the local health care safety net based on the experiences of six municipalities over a 5-year period from 2001-2006. Although there was variation between the effectiveness of the policies, all three demonstrated success in that a number of contractors extended existing health insurance to employees not previously covered and the increased cost of contracting for the local government was, on average, less than 1 percent of the total operating budget. ^

Cooperative Task Execution between Modular Robots Based on Tight-Loose Cooperation Strategies

The complexity in the execution of cooperative tasks is high due to the fact that a robot team requires movement coordination at the beginning of the mission and continuous coordination during the execution of the task. A variety of techniques have been proposed to give a solution to this problem assuming standard mobile robots. This work focuses on presenting the execution of a cooperative task by a modular robot team. The complexity of the task execution increases due to the fact that each robot is composed of modules which have to be coordinated in a proper way to successfully work. A combined tight and loose cooperation strategy is presented and a bar-pushing example is used as a cooperative task to show the performance of this type of system.

The Role of Civil Society Dialogue in the EU-China Cooperation on Renewable Energy. IES Policy Brief Issue 2012/05/December 2012

Summary. Expanding EU-China institutional cooperation in the energy sector has been matched by a parallel process of stronger economic ties between European and Chinese companies in the renewable energy (RE) sector (particularly wind and photovoltaics). While the foundation of early EU-China institutional relations was based primarily on trade cooperation, international efforts to mitigate climate change and the common challenge of decreasing energy dependence in a sustainable manner brought a new dimension to their partnership in the energy sector in the mid 90s. Although the role of EU-China energy cooperation has grown tremendously in the context of EU external trade policy and EU strategy to boost its energy independence and international climate policy, the potential of civil society collaboration in this partnership has remained rather unexploited. Based on major civil society initiatives in the RE field that have been developed in recent years, this policy brief argues that civil society dialogue between China and EU could be an important driving force in deepening EU-China cooperation on RE and a bridge towards a more sustainable future.

Challenges and opportunities for reverse logistics initiatives in the automotive industry

This paper investigates the main strategies automotive companies adopt to address the issue of dealing with end-of-life vehicles and spare parts. Furthermore, it investigates the reasons behind take-back strategies, i.e how and why automotive companies undertake initiatives in reverse logistics. The research findings indicate that companies are trying to respond to the end-of-life legislation based on cost-effective approaches as well as corporate environmental responsibility. Outsourcing is used when expertise is found to extract value from scrap and there is cooperation with suppliers and vendors to facilitate the dismantling of cars and recycling of parts.