DSpace Collection:
https://hdl.handle.net/10171/4750
2024-03-29T04:35:09ZInnovation as a practice: Why automation will not kill innovation
https://hdl.handle.net/10171/69302
Title: Innovation as a practice: Why automation will not kill innovation
Abstract: As a result of contemporary culture’s focus on continuous innovation and “change before you have to,” innovation has been identified with economic gains rather than with creating added value for society. At the same time, given current trends related to the automation of business models, workers seem all but destined to be replaced by machines in the labor market. In this context, we attempt to explore whether robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be able to innovate, and the extent to which said activity is exclusively inherent to human nature. Following the need for a more anthropological view of innovation, we make use of MacIntyrean categories to present innovation as a domain-relative practice with creativity and practical wisdom as its corresponding virtues. We explain why innovation can only be understood within a tradition as it implies participating in inquiry about the principle and end of practical life. We conclude that machines and “intelligent” devices do not have the capacity to innovate and they never will. They may replicate the human capacity for creativity, but they squarely lack the necessary conditions to be a locus of virtue or engage with a tradition.2023-01-01T00:00:00ZLicensing decision: a rent dissipation lens applied to product market competition, openness to external knowledge and exogenous sunk costs
https://hdl.handle.net/10171/69285
Title: Licensing decision: a rent dissipation lens applied to product market competition, openness to external knowledge and exogenous sunk costs
Abstract: The fear of rent dissipation has been proposed as the main reason firms are hesitant to enter markets for technology. In this paper we investigate conditions under which firms are particularly reluctant to out-license their technologies due to shifts in the relative magnitudes between potential rent dissipation and revenue effects. Specifically, we offer theoretical arguments and empirical evidence suggesting that firms operating under higher product market competition are more reluctant to license their technologies. Firms’ openness to external knowledge, while having a direct positive association with greater licensing rates, also partially mitigates the negative effect of increasing product market competition. Exogenous sunk costs, however, increase firms’ reluctance to out-license and also further fuel the negative association between out-licensing and product market competition. The empirical investigation builds on a sample of 227 licensors involved in licensing contracts in the US pharmaceutical industry from 1986 to 2005. The study has substantial implications for management, research, and policymakers.2018-01-01T00:00:00ZVolatility persistence in metal prices
https://hdl.handle.net/10171/69199
Title: Volatility persistence in metal prices
Abstract: This article deals with the analysis of volatility persistence in a group of metal prices, namely gold, silver, copper, platinum, aluminium, palladium, lead, zinc and tin, using monthly data from January 1994 to February 2023. Applying fractional integration techniques, the findings show that all series are highly persistent, although the prices for Gold and Silver display a limited mean reversion. The volatility was approximated by the absolute and squared returns and the results show that in the case of the annual difference returns, the series are persistent and the evidence of mean reversion is only observed for Gold and Silver. In the case of monthly differences, the hypothesis of short memory (d = 0) behavior cannot be rejected in all cases. For the absolute returns, the values are all positive, denoting a long memory ranging from 0.14 for Gold to 0.18 for Silver. For the squared returns, the values are slightly smaller but positive, ranging from 0.11 (Gold) to 0.16 (Aluminum and Palladium). The supply-side economic policy should be intensified in the case of the most volatile metals.2024-01-01T00:00:00ZOffshore outsourcing from a catholic social teaching perspective
https://hdl.handle.net/10171/69197
Title: Offshore outsourcing from a catholic social teaching perspective
Abstract: We explore offshore outsourcing through the lenses of Catholic Social Teaching (CST). First, we review the outcomes of the 30-year debate in business ethics on issues related to offshore outsourcing. We then cluster authors into two groups—the justice-centered approach and the welfare-centered approach—corresponding to different perspectives on the ethical challenges of offshoring. In the second part, we present and apply the four fundamental principles of the CST (human dignity, subsidiarity, solidarity and the common good) to offshoring, in dialogue with the previous debate. The unity and interconnection among the CST’s fundamental tenets provide a cohesive framework that integrates the points made by the justice-centered and welfare-centered approaches, while introducing the principle of solidarity, more focused on the worker as a person and their flourishing. CST also stresses the need to initiate processes oriented toward structural changes for the sake of human dignity and the common good.2022-01-01T00:00:00Z