bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Patterns of Interactive Learning in a High-tech Region
Authors: Meeus Marius T.H. , Oerlemans Leon A.G. , Hage Jerald 
Published: March 2007

This paper aims at developing a theoretical framework that explains levels of interactive learning. Interactive learning is defined as the exchange and sharing of knowledge resources conducive to innovation between an innovator firm, its suppliers, and/or its customers. Our research question is: Why do levels of interactive learning of innovator firms, their customers, and/or suppliers vary? Our theoretical framework combines a resource-based perspective with an activity-based account of interactive learning. It starts with a resource-based argument, which is specified by introducing competing and complementary theoretical arguments such as the complexity and structuring of innovative activities, and sectoral technological dynamics. The strength of internal knowledge resources can either hamper or facilitate levels of interactive learning. We assume that more complex innovative activities urge firms to co-ordinate and exchange information between users and producers, which implies a higher level of interactive learning. The structuring of innovative activities, as well as sectoral technological dynamics can foster interactive learning. To test our theoretical claims, we estimated six models predicting the level of interactive learning of innovator firms with: (1) their customers (here the innovating firms are the producers); (2) their suppliers (here the innovating firms are the customers); (3) with customers and suppliers split by size (four separate models). These analyses allow a comparison of the antecedents of interactive learning of innovator firms performing dual roles, and having a different size. Both monotonic and non-monotonic effects of the complexity of innovative activities, the strength of the internal knowledge base, and monotonic effects of the structuring of innovative activities are tested. Our findings suggest that our theoretical model best fits the interactive learning of small- and medium-sized innovator firms. Interactive learning with customers is positively associated with the complexity and structuring of innovative activities, and with moderate scores of the cross-product term of `complexity of innovative activities and the strength of knowledge resources'. Interactive learning with customers is positively affected by higher technological dynamics. Stronger internal knowledge resources yield positive effects on interactive learning with suppliers up to a threshold point. Once this threshold is crossed, the effects of stronger knowledge resources become negative. Interactive learning with suppliers as well as with customers is positively associated with internal and external structuring of innovative activities, but is not affected by sectoral technological dynamics.
Subsidiary Embeddedness and Competence Development in MNCs A Multi-Level Analysis
Authors: Andersson Ulf , Forsgren Mats , Holm Ulf 
Published: March 2007

Recent research on the competitive advantage of multinational corporations (MNC) has emphasized the importance of the ability of subsidiaries to assimilate new knowledge from their external environment. Such an ability is important for the individual subsidiary's own performance as well as for the possibility it affords the MNC to combine and use resources from different parts of the corporate system. This paper explores the nature of business embeddedness at the subsidiary level and its role at the corporate level. It is suggested that the subsidiaries' embeddedness in a network of business actors can explain why certain subsidiaries demonstrate higher achievements than others, both in terms of their market performance and regarding their importance for competence development within the MNC. It is argued that the closer a subsidiary's external business relationships with suppliers and customers the easier it will be to assimilate new knowledge from outside, the more it will be able to innovate and therefore the more it will be able to advance its performance in the local market. Further, because embeddedness influences the innovative capacity of subsidiaries, it is also claimed to be a decisive factor in explaining which subsidiaries will contribute to competence development at the corporate level. Hypotheses concerning the relationships between a subsidiary's external technical embeddedness, market performance and the subsidiary's importance for competence development at the level of the MNC are formulated and tested in a LISREL model. Data is used from 97 subsidiaries belonging to 20 global divisions of 13 Swedish multinational corporations. The results indicate that a subsidiary's extemal technical embeddedness can be a strong predictor of both its own expected market performance and its role as a provider of competence to other MNC units. The paper concludes with a discussion about the role that a subsidiary can play as a bridgehead between external and intemal units of an MNC and the negative impacts that might occur if a subsidiary's business network is too embedded.
Governmentality Matters: Designing an Alliance Culture of Inter-Organizational Collaboration for Managing Projects
Authors: Clegg Stewart R. , Pitsis Tyrone S. , Rura-Polley Thekla , Marosszeky Marton 
Published: March 2007

The concept of governmentality was developed by Michel Foucault to address the specificity of contemporary neo-liberal forms of governance — premised on the active consent and subjugation of subjects, rather than their oppression, domination or external control. These neo-liberal forms of governance are evident in new forms of alliance contracting in the construction industry. We review the major innovations in organization form in the sector, before considering the specific management practices of surveillance and control that are typically associated with governance in these projects. Project management has been a historically evolving field. This paper reports on an example of governmentality applied to the practice of project management. While governmentality refers to the design of project governance as an activity, the management of projects as a mode of organization, irrespective of the mode of governance, is highly complex and uncertain. These themes have already been widely addressed in organization theory. Here, we draw on recent treatments of them that combine transaction costs and resource dependence perspectives. Moreover, we argue that projects also display an acute sense of temporality, as Schutzian-influenced approaches have explored. In the context of governmentality, complexity, uncertainty and temporality are addressed in a specific and highly innovative project management. The research methods used in the ethnography are spelt out, as well as the methods used in constructing the interpretation of the case. Economies in authoritative surveillance have been sought through building collaborative commitment and transparency into the moral fibre of a project. The governmental tools used to do this are a strong project culture, monetized key performance indicators, and a stake-holder conception of the project to bind different organizational stakeholders together. The case does not record an unqualifiedly successful project: the governmentality that was constructed had limits, as the case spells out. The failure indicates some issues that the stakeholder theory of the firm will need to address. We conclude that governmentality projects premised on stakeholder conceptions are particularly susceptible to discrepancies between ambition and outcome. In such a context, the constant injunction to improve may itself be an integral part of the governmental method. Hence, governmentality is particularly appropriate for understanding quality management issues.
One, a Hundred, Thousands of Industrial Districts. Organizational Variety in Local Networks of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Authors: Paniccia Ivana 
Published: March 2007

This paper discusses the nature of industrial districts as effective organization modes and some of their claimed distinctive features, such as 'extended division of labour' and 'co-operation' as a rule governing inter-firm relationships. Over a period of 40 years, 24 local productive systems of SMEs in Italy are compared with respect to both economic and social characteristics. The 'canonical' features of the industrial district were only found in a few local systems and at certain periods of time. The model of the industrial district is not always associated with superior performance, and other typologies of local systems may show even better results. The comparison also highlights different models of labour organization combined with different sets of socio-economic factors and apparently conflicting rules governing inter-firm relationships. Trust, 'confidence', co-operation, price, power and conflict as well as deceit may co-exist in the same typology of local system. These rules flow into one another as contingencies evolve in what appears to be a sort of biological pattern of evolution.
Socializing Aesthetics and `Selling Like Gangbusters'
Authors: Rusted Brian 
Published: March 2007

If Cultural Studies has contributed anything to aesthetics in recent decades, it has been a sense of political immediacy: matters of style, taste, and judgement are now unquestionably matters of power. Organizational research on aesthetics does not reflect this development. For almost twenty-five years Cultural Studies and organizational research have had parallel interests in the study of culture, symbolism, ritual, and so on. Critical perspectives on power and ideology have had currency for both fields, but organizational researchers have not reflected these topics in discussions of taste, style, and aesthetics. After reviewing aesthetics as a paradigm of cultural research in organizations, this article suggests some consequences of marginalizing the concern with power and aesthetics in Cultural Studies. The discussion is grounded in an ethnography of a Chicago-based entertainment firm. In the business of producing live entertainment for Fortune 500 clients, the company's roots extended deep into American vaude-ville traditions. The aesthetic knowledge of musical style and entertainer traditions formed the basis of this company's practice. Data is drawn from interviews with theatrical agents, producers, orchestra leaders and performers. Mapping the recuperation of vaudeville into corporate settings suggests the radically contextual nature of aesthetic practice.
Use of a Multiprocessor for Control of a Robotic System
Authors: Klein Charles A. , Wahawisan Weerakiat 
Published: March 2007

In the control of robotic systems, multiprocessors have a number of potential advantages over single-processor configurations. These advantages include the possibility of modular future expansion, increased speed, and fault tolerance. This paper describes both the hardware and software design of a multiprocessor system and its use in controlling the OSU Hexapod vehicle, a complex robotic system. With the design of an inexpensive, high-density, eight-channel parallel line unit (PLU), it is possible to link five LSI-11 processors in a fully connected configuration. This configuration is very valuable for experimentation, since trials of tree, star, and loop structures can be made by simply ignoring links that are not needed. First, a tree structure is used to implement a hierarchical control algorithm run on a previously used uniprocessor system. Next, fault-tolerant features are added so that failed units are automatically replaced by spare units or, if all spares are in use, the necessary tasks are covered by the central processor, with a decrease in servoing frequency. To decentralize control to improve overall reliability, a ring structure is also used. If a processor fails, the ring is automatically reconfigured to isolate the faulty unit. Another application for the multiprocessor in the control of the OSU Hexapod vehicle is for real-time optimization of leg tip forces. This task demonstrates the usefulness of the multiprocessor in a task that is not strictly parallel in form.
Use of Force and Attitude Sensors for Locomotion of a Legged Vehicle over Irregular Terrain
Authors: Klein Charles A. , Olson Karl W. , Pugh Dennis R. 
Published: March 2007

A number of legged vehicles are being developed for their mobility characteristics over irregular terrain. One such vehicle is The Ohio State University Hexapod vehicle ( OSU Hexapod) . Recently, the vehicle has been modified so that it can successfully walk over uneven terrain. Each of the feet has been equipped with two semiconductor strain gauges to measure lateral forces and a piezoelectric load cell to measure vertical forces. A vertical gyroscope and pendulums for orientation sensing have also been added. The control of locomotion over rough terrain can be decomposed into two complementary control processes, attitude control and active compliance. Attitude control is used to maintain the body tilt in a desired orientation, and active compliance is used to provide a suspension system by distributing force loading among the legs. It has been found that optimal force setpoints for the active-compliance algorithm can be calculated in closed form. This paper discusses the sensing hardware and the control system needed for legged locomotion over irregular terrain. Experimental results are provided for both statically determinate and indeterminate hexapod gaits.
Dynamic Walk of a Biped
Authors: Miura Hirofumi , Shimoyama Isao 
Published: March 2007

The authors have developed five kinds of biped locomotive robots so far. They are named BIPER-1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. All of them are statically unstable but can perform a dynamically stable walk with suitable control. BIPER-1 and BIPER-2 walk only sideways. BIPER-3 is a stilt-type robot whose foot contacts occur at a point and who can walk sideways, back ward, and forward. BIPER-4's legs have the same degrees of freedom as human legs. BIPER-5 is similar to BIPER-3, but in the case of BIPER-5 all apparatus, such as the computer, are mounted on it. This paper deals with the control theory used for BIPER-3 and BIPER-4. In both cases, basically the same control method is applied. The most important point is that the mo tion of either robot during the single-leg support phase can be approximated by the motion of an inverted pendulum. Ac cordingly, in this paper, dynamic walk is considered to be a series of inverted-pendulum motions with appropriate condi tions of connection.
A Study of Design and Control of a Quadruped Walking Vehicle
Authors: Hirose Shigeo 
Published: March 2007

The paper addresses some of the fundamental problems of energy efficiency, design, and adaptive gait control of quadru ped walking vehicles. The design principle of a leg called a gravitationally decoupled actuator ( GDA) is shown to be indispensable for realizing energetically efficient walking mo tion. A novel mechanism, the three-dimensional Cartesian- coordinate pantograph ( PANTOMEC), which follows the GDA principle and has a lightweight structure, is introduced. A constructed quadruped walking vehicle model is then de scribed : the walking vehicle has the PANTOMEC leg mecha nisms, eight tactile sensors and a posture detector, and is hierarchically controlled by a microcomputer. Comparatively high energy efficiency and a certain degree of terrain adapt ability is demonstrated. It is thus shown that a practical walking vehicle can be designed using the proposed method. The adaptive gait control problem is formalized, and an algorithm for terrain-adaptive gait control is presented. By computer simulation, it is shown that the algorithm produces an efficient gait while avoiding "deadlock" positions in nego tiating terrain. The algorithm is shown to be applicable for the control of future quadruped walking vehicles with visual sensors.
Geometric Optimization of Serial Chain Manipulator Structures for Working Volume and Dexterity
Authors: Vijaykumar R. , Waldron K.J. , Tsai M.J. 
Published: March 2007

Broadly speaking, the regional structure of a manipulator, which consists of the three inboard joints and their associated members, determines the workspace shape and volume. The orientation structure, which for a six-degrees-of-free dom manipulator consists of the three outboardjoints and members, determines the geometric dexterity or orientation potential of the manipulator. It is possible to determine the optimal dimensions of the regional structure for a given total length, using straightforward geometric arguments. By the use of the spherical counterpart of Grashof's theorem formu lated by Freudenstein (1964-65), it is also possible to show that there is an optimum geometry of the orientation structure. Two methods of characterizing geometric dexterity are utilized in this paper. The first is the concept of a dexterous workspace, which is a portion of the workspace within which the hand may assume any orientation. Although the dex terous workspace is a very useful concept for theoretical purposes, it is of limited practical utility because mechanical joint motion limits usually preclude its existence in real industrial robot structures. The second method of character izing geometric dexterity is to trace the portion of the work space within which the hand can assume a specified orienta tion. In this paper, the geometric conditions for the existence of a dexterous workspace are formulated for geometrically optimum, six-revolute manipulator structures. The optimiza tion criteria used include,freedom from geometric singular ities. We show that for an optimal geometry, singular posi tions can be completely excluded with small reductions of the joint motion ranges. These reductions have a negligible effect on the geometric performance of the system.
Determining a Depth Map Using a Dual Photometric Stereo
Authors: Ikeuchi Katsushi 
Published: March 2007

This paper describes a method for determining a depth map from a pair of surface-orientation maps obtained by a dual photometric stereo. A photometric stereo system determines surface orientations by taking three images from the same position under different lighting conditions, based on the shading information. A photometric stereo system can deter mine surface orientations very rapidly, but cannot determine absolute depth values. This paper proposes a dual photomet ric stereo system to obtain absolute depth values. A dual photometric stereo generates a pair of surface-ori entation maps. Then, the surface-orientation maps can be segmented into isolated regions with respect to surface orien tations, using a geodesic dome for grouping surface orienta tions. The resulting left and right regions are compared to pair corresponding regions. The following three kinds of constraints will be used to search for corresponding regions efficiently: a surface-orientation constraint, an area con straint, and an epipolar constraint. Region matching is done iteratively, starting from a coarse segmented result and pro ceeding to a fine segmented result, using a parent-children constraint. The horizontal difference in the position of the center of mass of a region pair determines the absolute depth value for the physical surface patch imaged onto that pair. This system takes only a few minutes on a Lisp machine to determine an absolute depth map in complicated scenes and could be used as an input device for a bin-picking system.
Design and Modeling of a Computer- Controlled Planar Manipulator
Authors: Nye Theodore W. , LeBlanc David J. , Cipra Raymond J. 
Published: March 2007

This paper describes the design of a computer-controlled planar manipulator and the modeling necessary to derive the dynamic equations of motion. The planar manipulator was built as an experimental research device for work in kine matics, dynamics, controls, design, and sensor development. The device consists of three joints and three links with a gripper and operates in a horizontal plane on air bearings. The planar manipulator was instrumented for position, veloc ity, and torque feedback from each joint and is controlled either manually, using a teach pendant, or directly from a computer. A modularity feature was also designed into the robot to allow for interchanging any electromechanical com ponents and to enable structural substitutions for investiga tions into flexibility and vibrations. The completed robot successfully exceeded performance specifications and design criteria. The next phase of the research focused on the development and evaluation of a computer model designed to simulate the open-loop dynamic behavior of the three-link, three-jointed, high-speed planar manipulator. Describing equations were developed for both the servo actuator and arm dynamics at each joint. Significant terms included were coulomb, viscous, and hysteresis damping; and centripetal, Coriolis, and cou pling inertial effects induced by relative motions of the arm structure. The model used the voltage into the power ampli fiers for each servo drive as the system input, and the joint angular position, velocity, and acceleration as the system output. Results from various inputs including a step-input function, a sinusoidal-input function, and a ramp-input func tion were found to compare closely with experimental data measured from the actual planar manipulator built during the course of the research.
A Direct Minimization Approach for Obtaining the Distance between Convex Polyhedra
Authors: Bobrow James E. 
Published: March 2007

Computational methods used for the automatic generation of robot paths must be fully developed if truly automated manu facturing systems are to become a reality. An important requirement for determining feasible robot paths is the ability to compute the distance between the various elements of the robot and the workspace fixtures, jigs, and machinery. In this research, it is assumed that the robot and workspace solid geometry are represented as a collection of convex polyhe drons, and an efficient numerical algorithm for determining the minimum distance between two such polyhedrons is presented. In addition to determining the minimum distance between solids, the algorithm can also be used to efficiently ascertain whether a collision has occurred. The numerical technique presented uses a sequence of constrained minimizations to obtain the closest three-dimen sional points on any two solid objects. Computational effi ciency is achieved with the algorithm presented because only the collection of planes (points and normals) which define the solids are used for the analysis. The bounding lines and vertices do not need to be explicitly calculated during the minimization procedure. The algorithm uses a direct ap proach for minimizing the nonlinear distance function which generates a sequence of search directions along the surfaces of the objects to obtain the global minimum. An extensive set of numerical tests are used to demonstrate the performance of the algorithm.