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Theorizing piratical innovation: regulatory illegitimacy and firm growth
Get PDFThis article examines the growing phenomenon of firms in ‘winner takes all’ markets who adopt business models that prioritize exceptional levels of growth over other financial metrics. Often this growth results in firms breaking with regulatory norms, despite regulatory legitimacy being theorized as essential for resource acquisition in small firms. The article explores this apparent paradox. We propose piratical innovation as a firm level process built upon disrupting regulatory norms in a way that avoids negative legitimacy judgments. Extending labelling theory, we develop a conceptual model where piratical innovation blends a range of symbolic and substantive actions to enable these firms to maintain legitimacy amongst stakeholders, even when growth is underpinned by illegitimate acts. We conclude by considering the wider applicability of piratical innovation as a model for small firm growth, and the consequences for other firms which must compete against such innovations
Metal–silicate partitioning of W and Mo and the role of carbon in controlling their abundances in the Bulk Silicate Earth
Get PDFThe liquid metal–liquid silicate partitioning of molybdenum and tungsten during core formation must be well-constrained in order to understand the evolution of Earth and other planetary bodies, in particular because the Hf–W isotopic system is used to date early planetary evolution. The partition coefficients DMo and DW have been suggested to depend on pressure, temperature, silicate and metal compositions, although previous studies have produced varying and inconsistent models. Additionally, the high cationic charges of W and Mo in silicate melts make their partition coefficients particularly sensitive to oxygen fugacity. We combine 48 new high pressure and temperature experimental results with a comprehensive database of previous experiments to re-examine the systematics of Mo and W partitioning, and produce revised partitioning models from the large combined dataset. W partitioning is particularly sensitive to silicate and metallic melt compositions and becomes more siderophile with increasing temperature. We show that W has a 6+ oxidation state in silicate melts over the full experimental fO2 range of ΔIW -1.5 to -3.5. Mo has a 4+ oxidation state and its partitioning is less sensitive to silicate melt composition, but also depends on metallic melt composition. DMo stays approximately constant with increasing depth in Earth. Both W and Mo become more siderophile with increasing C content of the metal: we therefore performed experiments with varying C concentrations and fit epsilon interaction parameters: ε_"C" ^"Mo" = -7.03 ± 0.30 and ε_"C" ^"W" = -7.38 ± 0.57.
W and Mo along with C are incorporated into a combined N-body accretion and core–mantle differentiation model, which already includes the major rock-forming elements as well as S, moderately and highly siderophile elements. In this model, oxidation and volatility gradients extend through the protoplanetary disk so that Earth accretes heterogeneously. These gradients, as well as the metal–silicate equilibration pressure, are fitted using a least squares optimisation so that the model Earth-like planet reproduces the composition of the Bulk Silicate Earth (BSE) across 17 simulated element concentrations (Mg, Fe, Si, Ni, Co, Nb, Ta, V, Cr, S, Pt, Pd, Ru, Ir, W, Mo, and C). The effects of the interaction of W and Mo with Si, S, O, and C in metal are included. Using this model with six separate terrestrial planet accretion simulations, we show that W and Mo require the early accreting Earth to be sulfur-depleted and carbon-enriched so that W and Mo are efficiently partitioned into Earth’s core and do not accumulate in the mantle. If this is the case, the produced Earth-like planets possess mantle compositions matching the BSE for all simulated elements. However, there are two distinct groups of estimates of the bulk mantle’s C abundance in the literature: low (~100 ppm), and high (~800 ppm), and all six models are consistent with the higher estimated carbon abundance. The low BSE C abundance would be achievable when the effects of the segregation of dispersed metal droplets produced in deep magma oceans by the disproportionation of Fe2+ to Fe3+ plus metallic Fe is considered
Clinical and translational implications of new understanding of a developmental sub structure for autism
No full textA vast share of the population attributable risk for autism relates to inherited polygenic risk. A growing number of recent studies have indicated that inherited susceptibility may operate through a finite number of early developmental liabilities which, in various permutations and combinations, jointly predict familial recurrence of the convergent syndrome of social-communicative disability that defines the condition. Here we synthesize this body of research to derive evidence for a novel developmental sub structure for autism, which has profound implications for ongoing discovery efforts to elucidate its neurobiological causes, and to inform future clinical and biomarker studies, early intervention, and personalized approaches to therapy
The role and performance of supporter directors: a social exchange theory perspective
No full textSupporter directors (SD) are individuals elected to a sport organisation’s board to represent the interests of its supporters. Although their inclusion on boards is widely considered to be good ethical practice, recent research shows that SDs face distinct challenges that often inhibit them from performing effectively. The purpose of this study was to illuminate how SDs can overcome these challenges by, firstly, generating a deeper understanding of the roles of SDs in Scottish football clubs and, secondly, analysing how board-level social interaction influences SD role performance. The research method consisted of 17 interviews with individuals who are currently serving, or have previously served, as SDs on Scottish football club boards. The findings show that SDs perceive their role to encompass three elements: (1) promoting supporters’ interests in board meetings, (2) acting as a conduit of information, and (3) complying with their fiduciary duties. Drawing on social exchange theory, the findings then revealed a perception among SDs that successful performance of those roles is dependent on their ability to initiate and sustain patterns of reciprocal social exchange with their board colleagues. The research provides practical recommendations for SDs and other types of stakeholder representatives on how to improve their performance
Financial performance studies of university spin-off companies in the West Midlands
Get PDFDoubts remain over the true impact of university spin-offs (USOs), particularly those created outside elite research universities. This paper examines the financial performance of USOs from a single UK post-industrial region, the West Midlands within the framework of signalling theory. It adds to the existing literature on USO performance at company level, a currently under-represented topic, despite the attention and funding devoted to USOs by UK policymakers. By considering a single region, it brings new insight into the regional context of USOs. Key results of the study are a correlation between research strength of a university and ability of its USOs to attract external finance, but a lack of successful exits across the whole region
Managing risk as a duality of harm and benefit: a study of organizational risk objects in the global insurance industry
Get PDFThis study examines how organizations construct and manage risk objects as a duality of harm-benefit within their normal operations. It moves beyond the existing focus on accidents, disasters and crisis. We study the risk-transfer processes of 35 insurers where they navigate the tension of retaining risk in their insurance portfolio to increase the benefit of making profit and transferring risk to reinsurance to reduce the harm of paying claims. We show that organizations’ constructions of risk are underpinned by everyday risk management practices of centralizing, calculating, and diversifying. Through variation in these practices not all organizations seek balance and we, in turn, uncover the sensemaking processes of abstracting and localizing that enable organizations to prioritize harm or benefit. This contributes to the risk literature by illuminating the co-constitutive relationship between risk sensemaking processes and everyday risk management practices. Following the complex linkages involved in the construction of risk objects as sources of harm-benefit, our analysis also contributes to the literature on dualities. It shows that while immediate trade-offs between harm-benefit occur, prioritizing one element of the duality is ultimately a means for attaining the other. Thus, while initial imbalance is evident, prioritization can be an enabling approach to navigating duality
“Dancing” together: infant–mother locomotor synchrony
No full textPre-mobile infants and caregivers spontaneously engage in a sequence of contingent facial expressions and vocalizations that researchers have referred to as a social “dance.” Does this dance continue when both partners are free to move across the floor? Locomotor synchrony was assessed in 13- to 19-month-old infant–mother dyads (N = 30) by tracking each partner’s step-to-step location during free play. Although infants moved more than mothers, dyads spontaneously synchronized their locomotor activity. For 27 dyads, the spatiotemporal path of one partner uniquely identified the path of the other. Clustering analyses revealed two patterns of synchrony (mother-follow and yo-yo), and infants were more likely than mothers to lead the dance. Like face-to-face synchrony, locomotor synchrony scaffolds infants’ interactions with the outside world
The interdependence of hope and fear
Get PDFThis is part of a Critical Exchange: 'Spinoza: thoughts on hope in our political present'. It appears with articles by Justin Steinberg, Aurelia Armstrong and Martin Saar, and an introduction by Moira Gatens. My contribution to the exchange takes up Spinoza's claim that hope is always intertwined with fear. Whereas commentators have tended to argue that Spinoza qualifies this position (hope can sometimes be free of fear), I argue that he puts the unavoidable interconnection between the two affects to positive use. To make good use of hope in our own political lives we need to take account of its relationship with fear
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