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Globalization as a corporate strategy has a long history and involves many facets of an economy. The conventional theory of globalization is concerned with the strategy of multinational corporations (MNCs) based in the traditional industrialized countries (TICs) with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) or other forms of expansion leveraging of foreign resources to sustain their growth and competitiveness in the world marketplace. Leveraging, however, is never a one-directional process. The leveraging company will inevitably provide capital and knowhow to companies in the host nations, and thereby create an opportunity of reverse leveraging for the latter, even at the expense of the former. In the long term, this leveragereverse leverage process gives rise to a cycle where the original leveraging MNCs inadvertently help develop new competing MNC's that leverage on others. There is clearly a gap in the existing literature. Therefore, this study intends to explore the processes and mechanisms of reverse leveraging employed by NIC-based companies and hopefully to develop a formal model and theory appropriate to NICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interfirm alliances provide a channel of communication between partnering firms. However, two notable communication barriers hinder the effectiveness of learning across firms. As the target knowledge is different from their existing knowledge base, the recipient firms' incumbent knowledge base may not be sufficient to identify target knowledge. In addition, inability to internalise and integrate acquired knowledge to the rest of organisation may handicap the effect of new knowledge. A growing number of recent studies have reported that the frequency of communication activities has positive contribution to the interaction quality between firms. However, we know relatively less about the role of transparency and receptivity in the relationships between communication activities and learning effectiveness. To address this issue, we designed a survey study based on the learning and knowledge transfer literature. The results of our analysis show that communication improves interfirm learning effectiveness, but such relationship is mediated by transparency and receptivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Objective: Although mean/static compliance of bladder filling can be readily assayed via cystometry, a protocol measuring compliance dynamics at a specific stage of bladder filling has not been established in human patients. For patients with pelvic organ prolapse (POP), the objective benefits of robotic-assisted sacrocolpopexy (RSCP) surgical intervention for restoring bladder functions, primarily urine storage, have yet to be established. Also, bladder compliance is a viscoelastic parameter that crucially defines the storage function. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the impact of RSCP on bladder compliance of POP patients using a pressure-volume analysis (PVA), which graphically illustrates bladder compliance., Design: A retrospective pre and postoperative study., Setting: Multiple hospitals in Taiwan., Patients: Twenty seven female POP patients (stage ≥ II)., Intervention: RSCP for POP repair., Measurements and Main Results: We retrospectively reviewed the pre- and postoperative PVAs for women with POP who underwent RSCP. The mean compliance of the entire (Cm), the early half (C1/2), and the late half (C2/2) of bladder filling were analyzed as primary outcomes. Changes in intravesical volume (ΔVive) and detrusor pressure (ΔPdet) of bladder filling, ΔPdet in the early (ΔPdet1/2) and late (ΔPdet2/2) filling, and postvoiding residual volume (Vres) were analyzed as secondary outcomes. Compared with the preoperative control, RSCP increased Cm (p = .010, N = 27) and C2/2 (p <.001, N = 27) but negligibly affected C1/2 (p = .457, N = 27). Mechanistically, RSCP decreased ΔPdet (p = .0001, N = 27) without significantly affecting ΔVive (p = .863, N = 27). Furthermore, RSCP decreased the ΔPdet2/2 (p <.001, N = 27) but not ΔPdet1/2 (p = .295, N = 27)., Conclusions: This is the first report on applying PVA in assaying dynamics of bladder compliance in patients with POP. Our results suggest that RSCP improved bladder storage in women with POP since it increased bladder compliance, particularly in the late filling, possibly by restoring the anatomical location and geometric conformation for bladder expansion., (Copyright © 2024 AAGL. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)