Luis Almeida Costa

Licensing and bundling

Abstract A common problem in licensing contracts is that contractual language does not necessarily guarantee that the license will effectively be exclusive. The practical difficulty is that the licensor may be able to invent around this restriction. We show that commodity bundling may provide a mechanism for the innovating firm to credibly commit to act less aggressively after licensing a product innovation. As a result, bundling and licensing may be complementary strategies. Even if the innovating firm does not have the incentive either to license or to bundle, it may still have the incentive to follow a licensing plus bundling strategy. We identify a second remedy for the licensor’s commitment problem: a royalty. We show that, under certain conditions, a royalty may be used as a commitment device enabling the licensor to credibly — and costlessly — establish exclusivity.

Towards an Organizational Model of Attitude Change

Building on the growing literature that views organizations as complex adaptive systems, this paper proposes a general model to analyze the relationship between organizational context and attitudes. In particular, we focus on how the system of formal and informal communication channels that characterize an organization and the timing of information flows affect the dynamic process of attitude change. We also use a stylized version of the model to illustrate how the general framework is able to generate insights that are relevant to particular situations.

A case of fulminant Type 1 diabetes following anti-PD1 immunotherapy in a genetically susceptible patient

Programmed cell death-1 protein (PD-1) is an immune checkpoint that has gained popularity in the treatment of several advanced cancers. Inhibiting this checkpoint is known to enhance immune response, but is also known to diminish immune tolerance and to increase autoimmune toxicity. We discuss a case of rapid onset fulminant Type 1 diabetes induced by treatment with anti-programmed cell death-1 monoclonal antibody, nivolumab, in a patient with late-stage non-small-cell lung adenocarcinoma. The patient had no history of previous diabetes but did reveal a high-risk genotype for Type 1 diabetes development (DR3-DQ2; DR4-DQ8). This finding supports that acute Type 1 diabetes can be an important adverse effect of immunotherapies targeting T-cell activation regulation. Because of the severity of this adverse effect, physicians should be aware of it, and studies directed to the detection of new biomarkers for early risk stratification (e.g., HLA) should be sought.

The Strategic Deployment of Quality-Improving Innovations

How can a firm deploy an innovation to fully realize its rent potential? We use a game-theoretic model to study the deployment of innovations that enhance the quality of an existing product. Three deployment strategies are compared: captive use, where the firm uses the innovation to enhance the competitive position of its own product; licensing, where the firm shares the innovation with competitors; and independent selling, where the firm incorporates the innovation in a complementary product or service that is sold separately to consumers. We study how the interplay of efficiency and competitive considerations favors certain deployment options over others.

Smoking habits of sixth year medical students and anti-smoking measures in Portugal

OBJECTIVES To study the smoking habits of 6th year Portuguese medical students and assess their knowledge and acceptance of anti-smoking measures and how they felt these would impact on public health. MATERIAL AND METHODS We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study, in which a self-administered, anonymous questionnaire was made available online to the target population (6th year Portuguese medical students). The relationships between some of the variables were analysed using contingency tables and the chi2 test, with p<0.05 taken as statistically significant. RESULTS We obtained 255 answers to our questionnaire. We found an 18.04% prevalence of smokers. The majority of smokers smoked 1 - 10 cigarettes per day, with men smoking more, and most of them had begun their habit between 13 and 18 years of age, with women beginning later. 36.96% of smokers had already made an attempt to quit smoking. The great majority of the respondents agreed with the anti-smoking measures listed in the questionnaire. Furthermore, they expected these measures to have a positive impact on smoking and on smoking-related morbidity and mortality. Only 34.90% of the students judged smoking cessation to be sufficiently taught in their curricula. CONCLUSIONS The results are in accordance with the population in general in terms of the prevalence of smokers, the age of beginning smoking and a high prevalence of women smokers. There appears to be across-the-board agreement with anti-smoking measures, along with hope for a reduced general and individual consumption and morbi-mortality.

The Manager as Change Agent : Communication Channels, Timing of Information, and Attitude Change

To the extent that attitudes influence behavior, the object of aligning organizational goals and individual behavior translates into a problem of alignment of attitudes. This article proposes a deductive model to analyze how the organizational context affects a top managers ability to disseminate a given attitude through the organization. We consider two elements of organizational context: (1) the system of formal and informal communication channels that characterize an organization, and (2) the timing of information flows. More specifically, this article focuses on the situations where the top manager is a strong change agent, whose attitude does not change as a result of the interaction with other organization members. Our results suggest that the organizational structure, the timing of information flows, and the prevailing configuration of attitudes are all intervening variables when it comes to the selection of the best approach to organizational change.

Prevalence and pROgnostic impact of anemia and IRON deficiency in patients hospitalized in an internal medicine ward: the PRO-IRON Study

To assess prevalence, predictive factors, and prognostic impact on in‐hospital mortality of anemia, iron deficiency anemia (IDA), iron deficiency with or without anemia (ID), and iron deficiency without anemia (IDWA) in patients admitted to an internal medicine ward.

Diseconomies of Time Compression

This paper discusses the concept of time compression diseconomies and its importance to the sustainability of competitive advantage. It focuses on a key driver of time compression costs, the time-dependency of resource accumulation, and illustrates the effects of three characteristics of this accumulation process (productivity, cycle time and absorption constraints). The effects are illustrated using a stylized stocks-flows simulation with the iThink software.

The Dynamics of Resource Erosion

The paper discusses patterns of resource erosion (alternatively called resource decay, leakage, depreciation). Taking a stocks-flows perspective, erosion is conceptualized as the loss of value per period (e.g. a year) of an asset stock (e.g. R&D capital, brand loyalty) as a consequence of a variety of mechanisms (e.g. R&D spill-overs, customers leaving, expiration of a patent). The paper discusses two patterns of erosion, linear and exponential, and explores their strategic implications. The paper also discusses some unexpected outcomes that may result from the combined effect of common growth and decay patterns, as well as additional difficulties that stem from inference lags.

Economies of Resource Accumulation

This paper discusses when firms may expect economies in the accumulation of resources (asset mass efficiencies). Specifically, we describe situations in which the accumulation of a resource benefits from a “success breeds success” dynamic that creates an exponentially growing gap between resource levels of early movers and imitators. Early movers can expect such an advantage where products or services have high evaluation costs, durability, trial costs, network value and cost, impulse characteristics, and dependence on complementary products. Where the accumulation of one resource depends on the level of another resource, accumulation economies may also be expected. The mechanisms are illustrated using stylized stocks-flows simulations with the iThink software.