We introduce quality differentiation into a Ricardian model of international trade. The choice of quality allows firms -- for a given product -- to tailor their output to match the skills of workers in their country. It therefore weakens comparative advantages across products. We demonstrate that this basic observation has profound consequences: (1) Quality differentiation supports a pattern of international specialization where industrialized countries are active across the full board of products, complex and simple ones, while developing countries systematically specialize in the simple products. We present novel stylized facts that point to such a pattern of international specialization in the data. (2) Our theory implies that the gains from international specialization across products mostly accrue to developing countries. (3) It motivates the use of a censored regression model to estimate the link between a country's GDP per capita and the quality of its exports. Following this empirical strategy, we find a much stronger relationship than when using OLS, in line with our theory.
Early life stress (ELS) affects stress- reactivity via limbic brain regions implicated such as hippocampus and amygdala. Social support is a major protective factor against ELS effects, while subjects with ELS experience reportedly perceive less of it in their daily life. The workplace, where most adults spend a substantial amount of time in their daily lives, might serve as a major resource for social support. Since previous data demonstrated that social support attenuates stress reactivity, we here used a psychosocial stress task to test the hypothesis that work-related social support modulates the effects of ELS. Results show decreased amygdala reactivity during stress in ELS subjects who report high levels of work- related social support, thereby indicating a signature for reduced stress reactivity. However, this effect was only observable on the neural, but not on the behavioral level, since social support had no buffering effect regarding the subjective experience of stress in daily life as well as regarding feelings of uncontrollability induced by the stress task. Accordingly, our data suggest that subjects with ELS experiences might benefit from interventions targeted at lowering their subjective stress levels by helping them to better perceive the availability of social support in their daily lives.
Ecosystems are an increasingly important phenomenon, but we know surprisingly little about the processes and practices underlying ecosystem emergence. This paper aims to provide further insights about how incumbents proactively engage in the creation of ecosystems, by studying in-depth and in real time the transformation of an automotive supplier from a hierarchically organized value chain to an ecosystem. We draw on institutional theory to conceptualize ecosystem emergence as a form of radical institutional change that requires the development of a new institutional logic. Our emerging findings indicate that ecosystem emergence is influenced by (i) multiple nested organizational fields, (ii) sector-wide change templates which create isomorphic pressures across different fields, (iii) an unowned change process whose evolution can be shaped with participative and collaborative strategizing.
Ambidexterity research has proposed a variety of drivers to reconcile the conflicting forces of exploration and exploitation. However, little is known about how these drivers interact and whether they act as complements or substitutes. Based on a two-stage survey study amongst small and medium-sized enterprises, we find that structural drivers, leadership drivers, and informal drivers of ambidexterity do not demonstrate complementarity as is generally assumed, but may rather act at cross-purposes with each other. This finding permits the development of important theoretical insights for ambidexterity research and for the broader theory on organizational capabilities.
The purpose of this paper is helping managers and leaders in healthcare develop viable organizations that deliver high-level services. Health organizations such as hospitals are exceedingly complex. Therefore, we use Integrative Systems Methodology, a framework designed especially as an enabler for coping with complexity. Within that framework, we combine quantitative and qualitative methods to describe and explain organizational phenomena evolving over time. Rather than a large survey, we use a real-life case study. A single-case setting has been chosen, to
enable long-term and in-depth exploration. The case spans 30 years, covering the evolution of the oncological care system of Carinthia, which is a federal state of Austria. The contribution of the chapter is in providing deep insights. It lays open the structures underlying the viability of health organizations. The chapter also provides
well-grounded advice for how to build a robust health organization in a context of complexity and change.
Health‐care systems all over the world are facing a formidable challenge. The issue is providing an integral kind of care, with the patient at the centre, rather than technology or doctors. Our research question is: How must health‐care systems be designed to provide holistic, patient‐centred care, at excellent quality and bearable cost? The main topic of this chapter is organization. This is a transdisciplinary, socio‐technical undertaking with far‐reaching implications. Organizational innovation is needed, and it can yield better and more abundant fruits than mere technological creations can. The purpose of this chapter is to explore an exemplar of a long‐term process aimed at achieving a holistic system design. The case is from health care. We trace back the process by which a comprehensive oncological care system was built in the Austrian province of Carinthia, with Klagenfurt as its capital. The study covers a period of roughly 30 years, until 2015. It reports on strong successes, but also some downsides along the way. The chapter delivers several counterintuitive insights and powerful lessons for both practitioners and insights.
