Performance Implications of Diversification in Professional Service Firms: The Role of Synergies

There is growing interest in the Professional service firms because they are seen as archetype of the knowledge-based economy. In this study we look at under researched area of exploitation of synergies in professional service firms and its implications for performance. Overcoming the uni-dimensional nature of extant studies, we examine the performance implications of diversification along the twin dimensions of services they offer and the knowledge of the industry domain of their clients. We hypothesize that moderate levels of coherence in these dimensions lead to improved performance while excess coherence in these domains lead to diminished performance. These predictions are tested and supported by data from the Indian IT industry which is synonymous with emergence of knowledge economy in India. Our study thus contributes to the theory of diversification of professional service firms.

Measuring Institutional Relatedness

Firms in most emerging economies are engaged in seemingly un-related activities. This is particularly observed in the case of business groups which dominate the landscape of these economies. Initially, diversification in emerging economies that was not based on product or technological considerations was considered value reducing. However, according to the new emerging consensus unrelated diversification is a strategic response to the institutional voids that exist in such economies. Despite major breakthroughs in conceptualizing this institutional relatedness, the empirical support for this concept has come only through case studies and hence is not generalizable. Creating an appropriate measure of institutional relatedness is a challenge because it has to take into account the .unique and invisible. nature of institutional relatedness. An appropriate measure should capture the myriad reasons used by firms to combine various businesses in emerging economies as a response to various institutional voids, without giving undue importance to any specific rationale. Besides, the measure should not be a fixed value; it should be allowed to change to help gauge the impact of institutional transitions on relatedness. Finally, it should provide for the uniqueness of each firm when it ventures into areas not tried by other firms. In this paper we purport to address this lacuna in research by proposing an empirically implementable measure for institutional relatedness having the features described above. We also show that the empirical estimates for India of our measure of relatedness are in consonance with the tendencies observed by studies using the case-study method and seem to be linked with the institutional transitions that have been observed in recent years.

Empirical Assessment of Coherence in Information Technology Firms

Coherence is the ability to discover new – potentially profitable – combinations of various types of knowledge assets where complementarity is the basis for relevant combinations. Assets are considered complementary if doing (more of) any one of them increases the returns to doing (more of) others. Despite its strategic importance, few studies have addressed the issue of coherence in the Information Technology (IT) industry. This paper develops a novel methodology assess the extent of complementarity and coherence in the IT firms grounded in ‘sensemaking’, evolutionary economics, and strategic management. This paper uses managerial perspective for defining businesses. Managers and IT experts identify a typical IT firm based on the dimensions of applications (verticals) and specializations (service lines). Another feature of this paper is the use of survivor principle for assessing complementarity. The results on complementarity suggest that in case of applications, the boundaries between Transport & Ports and Airlines & Railways are getting blurred and these could become a generic combination. Similarly, in case of specializations Software maintenance migration and RDBMS, Datawarehousing & Datamining could become a generic combination. The results also suggest that there is substantial scope for improvement in coherence in both applications and specializations. Analysis of coherence also indicates greater fungibility of knowledge in applications than knowledge in specializations. Another finding is that the IT firms retain coherence with large number of applications but not with large number of specializations. Finally, as the number of applications and specializations reach a critical limit, the average coherence shows a definite decline.

Application of A Distributed Nucleus Approximation In Grid Based Minimization of the Kohn-Sham Energy Functional

In the distributed nucleus approximation we represent the singular nucleus as smeared over a smallportion of a Cartesian grid. Delocalizing the nucleus allows us to solve the Poisson equation for theoverall electrostatic potential using a linear scaling multigrid algorithm.This work is done in the context of minimizing the Kohn-Sham energy functionaldirectly in real space with a multiscale approach. The efficacy of the approximation is illustrated bylocating the ground state density of simple one electron atoms and moleculesand more complicated multiorbital systems.Comment: Submitted to JCP (July 1, 1995 Issue), latex, 27pages, 2figure

Assembly and architecture of the EBV B cell entry triggering complex.

Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus of the gammaherpesvirinae sub-family that predominantly infects humans through epithelial cells and B cells. Three EBV glycoproteins, gH, gL and gp42, form a complex that targets EBV infection of B cells. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II molecules expressed on B cells serve as the receptor for gp42, triggering membrane fusion and virus entry. The mechanistic role of gHgL in herpesvirus entry has been largely unresolved, but it is thought to regulate the activation of the virally-encoded gB protein, which acts as the primary fusogen. Here we study the assembly and function of the reconstituted B cell entry complex comprised of gHgL, gp42 and HLA class II. The structure from negative-stain electron microscopy provides a detailed snapshot of an intermediate state in EBV entry and highlights the potential for the triggering complex to bring the two membrane bilayers into proximity. Furthermore, gHgL interacts with a previously identified, functionally important hydrophobic pocket on gp42, defining the overall architecture of the complex and playing a critical role in membrane fusion activation. We propose a macroscopic model of the initiating events in EBV B cell fusion centered on the formation of the triggering complex in the context of both viral and host membranes. This model suggests how the triggering complex may bridge the two membrane bilayers, orienting critical regions of the N- and C- terminal ends of gHgL to promote the activation of gB and efficient membrane fusion

Investigation of structural, magnetic and optical properties of rare earth substituted bismuth ferrite

Polycrystalline BiFeO3 and rare earth substituted Bi 0.9R0.1FeO3 (BRFO, R=Y, Ho and Er) compounds were prepared by rapid solid state sintering technique. Structural phase analysis indicated that all the compounds stabilized in rhombohedral structure (R3c space group) and a small orthorhombic phase fraction was observed in BRFO compounds. From the Raman spectra results, the changes in the phonon frequencies (A1) and line widths suggested lattice distortion in the BRFO compounds as was evidenced in the XRD analysis. Compared to the linear variation of magnetization with magnetic field (M-H) shown by BFO, an obvious M-H loop was observed in BRFO compounds which could be due to the suppression of space modulated spin structure and was explained on the basis of weak ferromagnetism and field induced spin reorientation. UV-Vis spectroscopy evidenced a change in local FeO6 environment due to shift in the 6A 1g→4T2g energy transition band. BRFO compounds with improved remnant magnetization and coercive field are applicable for magnetoelectric devices

Sensitization of Gold Dust in 430 Grade Stainless Steel

\u27Gold dusting\u27 is a surface defect that is sometimes observed on cold-rolled AISI type 430 stainless steel. Gold dusting is characterized by a sparkling appearance, which results from small flakes of metal on the cold rolled surface, the flakes are mostly elongated in the rolling direction. The processing steps include continuous casting, hot rolling, continuous annealing, and pickling. One possibility is that the flakes of metal are grains that had been undercut by intergranular corrosion such intergranular corrosion may occur during pickling after the annealing step (which itself follows hot rolling). If intergranular corrosion does occur during this pickling step, the intergranular cavities would be elongated by subsequent cold rolling; this can account for the observed morphology of gold dusting. If the steel has been sensitized, intergranular corrosion may occur during pickling. Pickling is commonly carried out by electrolytic descaling in a neutral sodium sulphate solution followed by immersion in a nitric acid/hydrofluoric acid bath. The sensitized type 430 stainless steel does, indeed, suffer intergranular corrosion in a nitric acid/hydrofluoric acid bath, while it is largely unaffected during electrolytic pickling. Hence, sensitization is a possible cause of gold dusting

A Geometric Variational Approach to Bayesian Inference

We propose a novel Riemannian geometric framework for variational inference in Bayesian models based on the nonparametric Fisher-Rao metric on the manifold of probability density functions. Under the square-root density representation, the manifold can be identified with the positive orthant of the unit hypersphere in L2, and the Fisher-Rao metric reduces to the standard L2 metric. Exploiting such a Riemannian structure, we formulate the task of approximating the posterior distribution as a variational problem on the hypersphere based on the alpha-divergence. This provides a tighter lower bound on the marginal distribution when compared to, and a corresponding upper bound unavailable with, approaches based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence. We propose a novel gradient-based algorithm for the variational problem based on Frechet derivative operators motivated by the geometry of the Hilbert sphere, and examine its properties. Through simulations and real-data applications, we demonstrate the utility of the proposed geometric framework and algorithm on several Bayesian models