Innovation and network multiplexity: R&D and the concurrent effects of two collaboration networks in an emerging economy

This study focuses on the multiplexity of firm R&D networks, and it investigates two types of boundary-spanning networks: the bipartite network between firms and government-sponsored institutions (GSIs), and the traditional firm–firm network. We apply a social network perspective to examine the effects that these kinds of networks have on firm innovativeness, in relation to the effects of the firm’s internal R&D efforts. We define the firm-GSI network as bipartite, and we investigate how the structural characteristics of this network (cohesion and centrality) affect innovativeness. We then decompose the innovational effects of firm–firm networks into two categories (intra- and inter-sector) to distinguish the effects of these collaboration networks. Furthermore, we investigate how these various external collaborative networks interact with a firm’s internal R&D efforts for driving innovativeness. Our empirical study of 420 manufacturing firms in Mexico evaluates evidence from surveys and secondary data. The findings indicate that the structural properties of both firm–GSI and firm–firm networks have positive effects on innovativeness, but firm–GSI network cohesion has a stronger negative interaction with R&D in influencing firm innovativeness. Moreover, intra-sector centrality in a firm–firm network has a stronger negative interaction with R&D than inter-sector centrality does in driving firm innovativeness. We contribute to the literature by integrating insights from the perspectives of network multiplexity, social embeddedness, and resource complementarity in regard to inter-organizational behavior. Our study also provides meaningful guidelines for both managers and policy makers. The study’s findings are robust to concerns of common method bias and alternative model specifications.     

Business of Broadcasting

Joseph S. Johnson and Kenneth K. Jones' Modern Radio Station Practices (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1972—$7.95)

Edd Routt (double letters in each name correct) The Business of Radio Broadcasting (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1972— $12.95)

Giraud Chester, Garnet Garrison, and Edgar Willis' Television and Radio (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971—$11.95)

Evelyn Sarson (ed.). Action for Children's Television (New York: Avon Discus Books, 1971— $1.25, paper)

The Fourth Network (New York: The Network Project, 102 Earl Hall, Columbia University, 1971—$3.00, paper)

William Kuhns' Exploring Television (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1971—$3.20, paper; with a Teacher's Guide available for $1.00, paper)

Wayne Green's (ed.), The Fascinating World of Radio Communications (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1971—$6.95/3.95)

The Wit and Wisdom of Archie Bunker (New York: Popular Library, 1971—.95, paper)     

“Not Just the Levees Broke”: Jazz Vernacular and the Rhetoric of the Dispossessed in Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke

This essay proposes the notion of the “jazz vernacular” as a tool specific to the Creole culture in New Orleans for understanding racial discourses of disposability both geographically and historically. We argue that the jazz vernacular is a discourse structured by musical repertoire. The jazz vernacular provides a channel for the historical pain of the black diaspora by playing in the background, both literally and figuratively, of communication in and about New Orleans. This essay considers Spike Lee's documentary When The Levees Broke to understand how the jazz vernacular frames hurricane Katrina as well as how it frames Lee's film as an intervention into “neoliberal” racial discourses. We argue that Lee's film utilizes the jazz vernacular as a metadiscourse to reinforce the ways in which residents used jazz to restructure cultural memory around the rhetoric of the dispossessed in New Orleans after Katrina. When the Levees Broke uses testimonials and affective communication to structure the narrative of Katrina through elements of the jazz vernacular like: displacement, embodiment, brashness, and improvisation to connect contemporary Creole New Orleanians to a long history of structural oppression and violence. By harnessing performative elements, Lee's film performs a jazz intervention into neoliberal discourses about freedom, defense, safety, and heroism that contrasts these discourses with the despair and the resistance of black America. Consequently, Lee's use of the jazz vernacular relies on native musical culture to recontextualize what neoliberalism had erased.     

Ontology for knowledge management in software maintenance

The concept of ontologies has been widely reported in the literature, and has been described various ontological designs, but few works try to explain in practical terms how to design an ontology. On the other side, although it is widely accepted the importance of maintenance of software products, few ontological designs focus on applying techniques to manage knowledge to get it. This paper analyzes the ontologies proposed to address this need, in order to present information that can help to software development organizations in similar works. Besides, is described a methodological process to structure an ontology that can be applied to manage knowledge in software maintenance.     

The Reliability and Validity of Quick Tests With High School Seniors

The Quick Word Test (QWT), Quick Number Test (QNT), and a number of criterion verbal and numerical tests were related with the English and Math grade point average (GPA) scores in this study. The QWT, in general, had lower correlations with English GPA scores than the criterion tests. The correlations between the QNT and the Math GPA was approximately at the same level as the criterion measures.