Unemployment and America’s competitive advantage is discussed in an article by Phin Upham. Recent work by the OECD sheds light on the dynamics of big business and small business sectors of developed countries. Data collected by governments across the world suggests that the US has a relatively small business sector compared to other developed countries. A recent [...]
Abstract: Experimental introduction of RNA into cells can be used in certain biological systems to interfere with the function of an endogenous gene. Such effects have been proposed to result from a simple antisense mechanism that depends on hybridization between the injected RNA and endogenous messenger RNA transcripts. RNA interference has been used in the [...]
Do companies which try to do new things succeed and why? Phin Upham dicusses a seminal work on the topic In Diversification, Ricardian rents, and Tobin’s q, Cynthia A. Montgomery and Birger Wernerfelt present a study on the ability of a multimarket firm to diversify its resources (factors). Montgomery and Wernerfelt test whether a multimarket firm’s average [...]
We face a prolonged economic slowdown, high unemployment and financial pain. Phin Upham discusses some of the reasons. The current popular debate among the Federati in Washington and the Literati in newsprint is over whether the world will end in fire or ice – whether the US is headed toward hyperinflation or a continued downward spiral [...]
Which tree will grow to be the tallest? A cautionary tale for investors by Phineas Upham . When looking at investing from a global perspective, sometimes it helps to see the forest rather than the trees. It is necessary to blend together different lenses to see what others are not seeing. If, for example, there were a competition [...]
In this article, Phin Upham discusses the relationship between science and history Science seems to have caught up with, or at least challenged, many of the comforting assumptions mankind used to rely on to go to sleep at night the simple form of the belief that we stand on the apex of creation. The first two [...]
How do we organize and understand the world around us? In this review of seminal scholarship on the subject Phin Upham reviews some of the major theories and integrates their conclusions. Construal, the sense in which we organize our world around facts rather than facts organizing the world for us, is a crucial concept in [...]
What is the purpose of society and its parts? Phin Upham discusses the theory of functionalism. By attempting to explore/describe aspects of society through the lens of functionalism, one is explaining objects in society in terms of what roles they play. Talcott Parsons, in particular, is not so much dealing with the specifics of society [...]
In 1897 the scholar Emile Durkheim wrote Suicide one of the first examples of rigorous sociology. It used the suicide rates in Europe to illustrate the importance of community ties to behavior. To this day it stands as a classic in sociology and has had profound impact on the way economics, sociology and psychology have [...]
Companies exist in a web of suppliers, partners and allies. How do these relationships affect success. Phin Upham discusses a seminal work in the field. In Specialized Supplier Networks as a Source of Competitive Advantage: Evidence from the Auto Industry, Jeffrey Dyer presents a compelling and interesting case for the interrelation of inter-firm specificity and [...]