Bo Eriksen

The effect of quinidine on the analgesic effect of codeine

SummaryWe have studied the hypoalgesic effect of codeine (100 mg) after blocking the hepatic O-demethylation of codeine to morphine via the sparteine oxygenase (CYP2D6) by quinidine (200 mg). The study was performed in 16 extensive metabolizers of sparteine, using a double-blind, randomized, four-way, cross-over design. The treatments given at 3 h intervals during the four sessions were placebo/placebo, quinidine/placebo, placebo/codeine, and quinidine/codeine. We measured pin-prick pain and pain tolerance thresholds to high energy argon laser stimuli before and 1, 2, and 3 h after codeine or placebo.After codeine and placebo, the peak plasma concentration of morphine was 6–62 (median 18) nmol·.l−1. When quinidine pre-treatment was given, no morphine could be detected (<4 nmol·l−1) after codeine. The pin-prick pain thresholds were significantly increased after placebo/codeine, but not after quinidine/codeine compared with placebo/placebo. Both placebo/codeine and quinidine/codeine increased pain tolerance thresholds significantly. Quinidine/codeine and quinidine/placebo did not differ significantly for either pin-prick or tolerance pain thresholds.These results are compatible with local CYP2D6 mediated formation of morphine in the brain, not being blocked by quinidine. Alternatively, a hypoalgesic effect of quinidine might have confounded the results.

Industry and firm level interaction: Implications for profitability

Abstract The purpose of this manuscript is to establish whether a firm–industry interaction effect is a codeterminant of firm-level profitability and thus complements the distinct industry and firm effects targeted in previous research. Industry- and firm-specific effects are analyzed on a sample of financial performance data [return on assets (ROA)] including 9809 Danish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with 10–499 employees. The results show that a firm–industry interaction effect, not explored by previous authors, is significant as a codeterminant of financial performance.

Organization Design Constraints on Strategy and Performance

This chapter provides an extension and refinement of the information processing model of organization design (Galbraith 1973, Tushman and Nadler 1978). In the paper, I suggest that organization design constrains firms’ realized strategy, and thus influences organizational performance: I suggest that the choice of design becomes crucial for performance since organizations may face different functional demands that are determined by environments and strategic intentions, and since organization designs require costly and irreversible commitments.

Should They Stay or Should They Go? Sorting versus Human Capital Loss in Employee Turnover

According to conventional wisdom, the costs of employee turnover are substantial and something that firms should avoid. Yet the causes and consequences of employee turnover are complicated. There may be both positive effects from sorting among employees and negative effects from loss of valuable human capital. Maybe poor performance is cause for turnover rather than its consequence. This study attempts to disentangle sorting effects from the effects of human capital loss while controlling for reverse causality in a panel study of 3,033 Danish small and medium-sized firms 1995-2007. I compare fixed effect and GMM estimators and the results I report suggests substantial simultaneity bias (reverse causality) which invalidates fixed effect estimates. The substantive results suggest that sorting benefits and human capital loss are mechanisms that operate simultaneously.

Rethinking Sustained Competitive Advantage from Human Capital Again

In this paper I propose a resource-based model of sustainable competitive advantage from human capital resources. I integrate labor-market theories of job search and matching and theories of efficiency wages with earlier resource-based contributions. I develop propositions about the conditions where firms can obtain competitive advantage from mobile human capital resources where earning positive rent does not depend on appropriating quasi-rents from employees but on (a) identifying and realizing valuable matches in labor markets with informational frictions and (b) exploiting complementarities between human capital and strategically relevant resources under the firm’s control.

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks: Acquisition or Accumulation of Resources?

This study examines the tradeoffs between accumulating resources internally and acquiring resources in strategic factor markets. In the labor market context, I consider the performance implications of external hiring and internal development of human capital resources in a panel study of 3,033 Danish manufacturing firms. The study provides empirical evidence that hiring experienced workers is unprofitable, whereas building human capital resources internally is. Building human capital resources successfully appears in part to be conditional on a certain amount of on the job screening.

The Many Faces of Fit

This chapter delimits and discusses design considerations within the field of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). The relationship between human resource management (HRM) systems and strategy types is investigated and predictions are made about a simultaneous horizontal and vertical fit. In a conceptual model for SHRM the key argument is that the fit between business strategy and HRM strategy is determined by task characteristics of the strategy type and internally consistent HRM practices, i.e. a matching hypothesis.