University of Southern California

About: University of Southern California is a education organization based out in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 73160 authors who have published 169955 publications receiving 7838906 citations. The organization is also known as: USC & University of Southern CA.

Absorptive capacity configurations in supply chains: gearing for partner-enabled market knowledge creation

Abstract: The need for continual value innovation is driving supply chains to evolve from a pure transactional focus to leveraging interorganizational partner ships for sharing information and, ultimately, market knowledge creation. Supply chain partners are (1) engaging in interlinked processes that enable rich (broad-ranging, high quality, and privileged) information sharing, and (2) building information technology infrastructures that allow them to process information obtained from their partners to create new knowledge. This study uncovers and examines the variety of supply chain partnership configurations that exist based on differences in capability platforms, reflecting varying processes and information systems. We use the absorptive capacity lens to build a conceptual framework that links these configurations with partner-enabled market knowledge creation. Absorptive capacity refers to the set of organizational routines and processes by which organizations acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge to produce dynamic organizational capabilities. Through an exploratory field study conducted in the context of the RosettaNet consortium effort in the IT industry supply chain, we use cluster analysis to uncover and characterize five supply chain partnership configurations (collectors, connectors, crunchers, coercers, and collaborators). We compare their partner-enabled knowledge creation and operational efficiency, as well as the shortcomings in their capability platforms and the nature of information exchange. Through the characterization of each of the configurations, we are able to derive research propositions focused on enterprise absorptive capacity elements. These propositions provide insight into how partner-enabled market knowledge creation and operational efficiency can be affected, and highlight the interconnected roles of coordination information and rich information. The paper concludes by drawing implications for research and practice from the uncovering of these configurations and the resultant research propositions. It also highlights fertile opportunities for advances in research on knowledge management through the study of supply chain contexts and other interorganizational partnering arrangements.

Biodemographic Trajectories of Longevity

Abstract: Old-age survival has increased substantially since 1950 Death rates decelerate with age for insects, worms, and yeast, as well as humans This evidence of extended postreproductive survival is puzzling Three biodemographic insights—concerning the correlation of death rates across age, individual differences in survival chances, and induced alterations in age patterns of fertility and mortality—offer clues and suggest research on the failure of complicated systems, on new demographic equations for evolutionary theory, and on fertility-longevity interactions Nongenetic changes account for increases in human life-spans to date Explication of these causes and the genetic license for extended survival, as well as discovery of genes and other survival attributes affecting longevity, will lead to even longer lives

Variance components testing in the longitudinal mixed effects model.

Abstract: This article discusses the asymptotic behavior of likelihood ratio tests for nonzero variance components in the longitudinal mixed effects linear model described by Laird and Ware (1982, Biometrics 38, 963-974). Our discussion of the large-sample behavior of likelihood ratio tests for nonzero variance components is based on the results for nonstandard testing situations by Self and Liang (1987, Journal of the American Statistical Association 82, 605-610).

Information Technology and the Changing Fabric of Organization

Abstract: Technology has been an important theme in the study of organizational form and function since the 1950s. However, organization science's interest in this relationship has declined significantly over the past 30 years, a period during which information technologies have become pervasive in organizations and brought about significant changes in them. Organizing no longer needs to take place around hierarchy and the collection, storage, and distribution of information as was the case with “command and control” bureaucracies in the past. The adoption of innovations in information technology (IT) and organizational practices since the 1990s now make it possible to organize around what can be done with information. These changes are not the result of information technologies per se, but of the combination of their features with organizational arrangements and practices that support their use. Yet concepts and theories of organizational form and function remain remarkably silent about these changes. Our analysis offers five affordances---visualizing entire work processes, real-time/flexible product and service innovation, virtual collaboration, mass collaboration, and simulation/synthetic reality---that can result from the intersection of technology and organizational features. We explore how these affordances can result in new forms of organizing. Examples from the articles in this special issue “Information Technology and Organizational Form and Function” are used to show the kinds of opportunities that are created in our understanding of organizations when the “black boxes” of technology and organization are simultaneously unpacked.

European integration and supranational governance

Abstract: We argue that European integration is provoked and sustained by the development of causal connections between three factors: transnational exchange, supranational organization, and European Community (EC) rule-making. We explain the transition, in any given policy sector, from national to intergovernmental to supranational governance, in two ways. First cross-border transactions and communications generate a social demand for EC rules and regulation, which supranational organizations work to supply. We thus expect that Community competences will be unevenly constructed, both across policy sectors and over time, as a function of the intensity of these demands. Second, once EC rules are in place, a process of institutionalization ensues, and this process provokes further integration. Although we recognize the importance of intergovernmental bargaining in EC politics, our theory is not compatible with existing intergovernmental theorizing.