Racing for radical innovation

How motorsport companies harness network diversity for discontinuous innovation.

Racing for radical innovation:how motorsport companies harness network diversity for discontinuous innovation

The motorsport industry is a significant part of the UK economy. According to industry estimates approximately 4,500 companies are involved in the UK Motorsport and Performance Engineering Industry and its wide-ranging support activities. The industry has an annual turnover of £6.0 billion, and contributes £3.6 billion worth of exports. The Motorsport Industry Association estimates that the support side of the sector alone "involving events management, public relations, marketing, sponsorship and a host of other support functions" accounts for approximately £1.7 billion of the yearly industry total. And in terms of employment, UK Motorsport supports 38,500 full and part-time jobs, including 25,000 engineers.

Networks of learning : how motorsport companies collaborate and share knowledge:evidence from the UK and Italian motorsport industries

The motorsport industry is a high value-added and highly innovative business sector. The UK’s leading racing car manufacturers are world class centres of research, development and engineering. However, individual firms in the sector do not have the range and depth of capabilities to compete independently in motorsport’s dynamic and competitive environment. Industry attention has therefore progressively focused on how networks of collaborating firms can work together to develop new products, improve business processes and reduce costs. This report presents findings from a three year Cardiff Business School study which examined the ways in which firms collaborate as part of wider networks. The research involved gathering data from over 120 firms in the UK and Italian motorsport sectors.

Estimating the SCAN*PRO model of store sales: HB, FM or just OLS?

In this paper we investigate whether consideration of store-level heterogeneity in marketing mix effects improves the accuracy of the marketing mix elasticities, fit, and forecasting accuracy of the widely-applied SCAN*PRO model of store sales. Models with continuous and discrete representations of heterogeneity, estimated using hierarchical Bayes (HB) and finite mixture (FM) techniques, respectively, are empirically compared to the original model, which does not account for store-level heterogeneity in marketing mix effects, and is estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS). The empirical comparisons are conducted in two contexts: Dutch store-level scanner data for the shampoo product category, and an extensive simulation experiment. The simulation investigates how between- and within-segment variance in marketing mix effects, error variance, the number of weeks of data, and the number of stores impact the accuracy of marketing mix elasticities, model fit, and forecasting accuracy. Contrary to expectations, accommodating store-level heterogeneity does not improve the accuracy of marketing mix elasticities relative to the homogeneous SCAN*PRO model, suggesting that little may be lost by employing the original homogeneous SCAN*PRO model estimated using ordinary least squares. Improvements in fit and forecasting accuracy are also fairly modest. We pursue an explanation for this result since research in other contexts has shown clear advantages from assuming some type of heterogeneity in market response models. In an Afterthought section, we comment on the controversial nature of our result, distinguishing factors inherent to household-level data and associated models vs. general store-level data and associated models vs. the unique SCAN*PRO model specification.

Relationships: Food Safety and Organizational Behavior

A growing body of literature explores the relationship between organizational behavior and food safety in restaurants, but most findings are based on two participant observation studies which, while rick with insights, limit the generalizability of the results. This study attempts to overcome this limitation by surveying a sample of student-cooks enrolled in three South Florida culinary schools. Results indicate that restaurant managers must realize that the practice of food safety involves more than microbiology and HACCF!

Stable isotope ratios and paleoceanaographic reconstructions from sediment cores 80-548 and 161-978A

Largely continuous millennial-scale records of benthic d18O, Mg/Ca-based temperature, and salinity variations in bottom waters were obtained from Deep Sea Drilling Project Site 548 (eastern Atlantic continental margin south of Ireland, 1250 m water depth) for the period between 3.7 and 3.0 million years ago. This site monitored mid-Pliocene changes in Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) documented by continuously high Nd values between -10.7 and -9. Site 978 (Alboran Sea, 1930 m water depth) provides a complementary record of bottom water variability in the westernmost Mediterranean Sea, which is taken to represent MOW composition at its source. Both sites are marked by a singular and persistent rise in bottom water salinities by 0.7-1.4 psu and in densities by ~1 kg m-3 from 3.5 to 3.3 Ma, which is matched by an average 3 °C increase in bottom water temperatures at Site 548. This event suggests the onset of strongly enhanced deep-water convection in the Mediterranean Sea and a related strengthened MOW flow, which implies a major aridification of the Mediterranean source region. In harmony with model suggestions, the enhanced MOW flow has possibly intensified Upper North Atlantic Deep Water formation.

Dog-human dietary relationships in Yup'ik western Alaska : The stable isotope and zooarchaeological evidence from pre-contact Nunalleq

Acknowledgements This work was funded by a PhD studentship to EM from the Natural Environment Research Council (2210 GG005 RGA1521) and an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K006029/1) grant to RK, KB and Charlotta Hillerdal (Aberdeen). Material was excavated from Nunalleq by staff and students from the University of Aberdeen, volunteer excavators and residents of Quinhagak. Logistical and planning support for the excavation was provided by Qanirtuuq Incorporated, Quinhagak, and the residents of Quinhagak.

Mécanismes de suppression tumorale impliqués lors de la sénescence induite par les oncogènes

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Do the Messages Matter? An Investigation of Classroom Messages and College Students’ Personal Theories about Education

Students hold a number of personal theories about education that influence motivation and achievement in the classroom: theories about their own abilities, knowledge, and the learning process. Therefore, college instructors have a great interest in helping to develop adaptive personal theories in their students. The current studies investigated whether specific messages that instructors send in college classroom might serve as a mechanism of personal theory development. Across 2 studies, 17 college instructors and 401 students completed surveys assessing their personal theories about education at the beginning and end of college courses. Students and instructors reported hearing and sending many messages in the classroom, including instructor help messages, conciliatory messages, uncertainty in the field messages, differential ability messages and generalized positive and negative feedback. Between-class and within-class differences in message reports were associated with students’ personal theories at the end of their courses, controlling for initial personal theories. Students’ initial personal theories were also related to the messages students reported hearing. The findings demonstrate the utility of assessing non-content messages in college classrooms as potential mechanisms for changing students’ personal theories in college. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Mécanismes de suppression tumorale impliqués lors de la sénescence induite par les oncogènes

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

GIS technologies and spatial organization patterns among hunter-gatherers: an archaeological case study from Southern Patagonia (southern South America)

This paper discusses some aspects of hunter-gatherer spatial organization in southern South Patagonia, in later times to 10,000 cal yr BP. Various methods of spatial analysis, elaborated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) were applied to the distributional pattern of archaeological sites with radiocarbon dates. The shift in the distributional pattern of chronological information was assessed in conjunction with other lines of evidence within a biogeographic framework. Accordingly, the varying degrees of occupation and integration of coastal and interior spaces in human spatial organization are explained in association with the adaptive strategies hunter-gatherers have used over time. Both are part of the same human response to changes in risk and uncertainty variability in the region in terms of resource availability and environmental dynamics.