Complementarity Patterns Research Articles

Environmental corporate social responsibility practices and firm innovation: Complementarities and empirical evidence from Spanish firms

This study examines the complementarity effect of combining different types of environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) practices on firm innovation. We apply the complementarity approach to test whether the adoption of different ECSR practices (i.e. practices for fewer materials per unit produced [materials], less energy per unit produced [energy], or decreasing environmental impact [impact]) generates super-additive effects on firms’ innovation, measured by innovations type: adoption, new-to-the-market, and new-to-the-firm innovation. We use data from the Spanish Community Innovation Survey for the period 2009–2014. The results show that the best combination of ECSR practices depends on the innovation type. For innovation adoption, all possible combinations of the three practices produce super-additive effects; however, the complementarity patterns differ for new-to-the-market and new-to-the-firm innovations. For new-to-the-market innovation, energy practices appear to be a key factor in fostering innovation when combined with materials or impact practices. For new-to-the-firm innovation, the combination of these three ECSR practices shows complementarity effects. These findings provide useful insights for the design of corporate social responsibility strategies.

The chemistry between us: Illuminating complementarity patterns in interpersonal role-play assessment via moment-to-moment analyses.

In assessment and selection, organizations often include interpersonal interactions because they provide insights into candidates' interpersonal skills. These skills are then typically assessed via one-shot, retrospective assessor ratings. Unfortunately, the assessment of interpersonal skills at such a trait-like level fails to capture the richness of how the interaction unfolds at the behavioral exchange level within a role-play assessment. This study uses the lens of interpersonal complementarity theory to advance our understanding of interpersonal dynamics in role-play assessment and their effects on assessor ratings. Ninety-six MBA students participated in four different flash role-plays as part of diagnosing their strengths and weaknesses. Apart from gathering assessor ratings and criterion measures, coders also conducted a fine-grained examination of how the behavior of the two interaction partners (i.e., MBA students and role-players) unfolded at the moment-to-moment level via the Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) measurement tool. In all role-plays, candidates consistently showed mutual adaptations in line with complementarity principles: Affiliative behavior led to affiliative behavior, whereas dominant behavior resulted in docile, following behavior and vice versa. For affiliation, mutual influence also occurred in that both interaction partners' temporal trends in affiliation were entrained over time. Complementarity patterns were significantly related to ratings of in situ (role-playing) assessors but not to ratings of ex situ (remote) assessors. The effect of complementarity on validity was mixed. Overall, this study highlights the importance of going beyond overall ratings to capture behavioral contingencies such as complementarity patterns in interpersonal role-play assessment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Consumer preferences for food away from home: Dine in versus delivery

AbstractFood away from home (FAFH) is an integral part of U.S. consumer diets, with food delivery orders becoming more popular in recent years. However, little research has been done on whether choice patterns vary across dining settings and how this might affect the impact food policies such as a red meat tax would have on consumer welfare. We target this gap by implementing a food menu basket‐based experiment (FM‐BBCE) to determine consumer preferences and demand for FAFH in two dining settings: in‐restaurant dining and food delivery. The FM‐BBCE approach enables us to (a) identify the substitution and complementarity patterns between various food types (meat vs. plant‐based food) and courses (appetizers, main courses, and side dishes), and (b) determine the demand and welfare impact of a red meat tax across the two settings. We find that respondent's orders in the delivery setting are typically higher in calories, and most items act as complements for one another, whereas menu items are substitutes in the dine‐in setting. Consumers were generally more price elastic in dine‐in versus delivery settings. Sociodemographics influence choice; for example, urban consumers have a higher preference for plant‐based meat alternatives than rural or suburban respondents. These sociodemographic differences extend to the welfare effects of a red meat tax that we simulate, which is regressive toward low‐income individuals in the delivery setting but not in the dine‐in setting. Findings from this study provide new insights on FAFH consumption, which can be used by producers, policymakers, and academics.

Combining Re-Analyzed Climate Data and Landcover Products to Assess the Temporal Complementarity of Wind and Solar Resources in Iraq

Considering the spatial–temporal variation of renewable energy (RE) resources, assessment of their complementarity is of great significance for decision-makers to increase the stability of power output and reduce the need for storage systems. In this regard, the current paper presents a roadmap to assess the temporal complementarity patterns between wind and solar resources for the first time in Iraq. A new approach based on re-analyzed climate data, Landcover products, and geographical information system (GIS) is proposed. As such, renewable resource datasets are collected for 759 locations with a daily timescale over five years. Landcover classes are translated into wind shear coefficients (WSCs) to model wind velocity at turbine hub height. Then, the Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) is applied to calculate the complementarity indices for each month of the year. Results of this investigation reveal that there are significant synergy patterns spanning more than six months in the southwestern regions and some eastern parts of Iraq. The highest complementarity is observed in March and December with a value of −0.70 and −0.63, respectively. Despite this promising potential, no typical temporal complementarity has been discovered that would completely eliminate the fluctuations of clean power generation. However, the synergistic properties yielded by this work could mitigate the reliance on storage systems, particularly as they cover important regions of the country. The proposed approach and tools can help improve the planning of renewable energy systems.

Competition in the international niobium market: A residual demand approach

Niobium is a highly strategic mineral, of which Brazil holds almost all the world's reserves, followed by Canada. This study investigates the prevailing market power for niobium at the country level by using the residual demand approach suggested by Goldberg and Knetter (1999). The empirical evidence on the US and European Union (EU) destination markets, indicates a significant and similar market power for Brazil and yet a non-negligible intra-block trade that might play some role in the EU destination market. Moreover, some complementarity patterns are detected in connection to ferrovanadium alloys.

Complementarity patterns in cognitive therapy for major depressive disorder

AbstractBackgroundInterpersonal theories suggest that cohesion between two individuals can be described by the degree to which they communicate harmoniously or, the complementarity, of their interactions (Gurtman, 2001; Kiesler, 1996). Friendly complementarity within therapy dyads is linked to both alliance and treatment outcome (Kiesler & Watkins, 1989; von der Lippe, Monsen, Rønnestad & Eilertsen, 2008; Samstag et al., 2008; Tracey, Sherry & Albright, 1999).AimThe purpose of this study was to identify complementarity patterns that may help or hinder the effectiveness of cognitive therapy (CT) for depression.MethodThe Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (Benjamin, 1974) was used to code CT sessions for individuals with depression. Dyads (N = 16) were divided into high‐ and low‐change groups. Lag Sequential Analysis (Sackett, 1979) was used to analyse first order sequences in client and therapist interpersonal behaviour.FindingsAs expected, complementarity was better among high‐change dyads for affiliative behaviour. Low‐change dyads demonstrated stronger patterns of complementarity along the autonomy axis.ConclusionThis preliminary investigation illustrates different communication patterns among high‐ and low‐change dyads. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Substitution and complementarity patterns between traditional transport means and car sharing: a person and trip level analysis

Car sharing is a new transport mode which combines characteristics of private and collective traditional transport means. Understanding the relationship of this mode with existing ones is very important for policy makers to create an efficient transport system and to properly address public resources. This paper aims to analyze the interaction of car sharing with the existing offer of competing modes, using data from a specific travel survey administered in the city of Turin, where both free-floating and one-way station based car sharing services are offered. All transport modes operating in the study area were considered. Bivariate models were estimated to study the propensity to have a car sharing subscription and the substitution patterns between different travel means for a representative random sample of trips taken by the Turin population. Results show that the current car sharing system is perceived as efficient and useful; car sharing members are young males, living in high-income and low-size household with, in particular, a high number of workers and low number of available cars; moreover, the presence of private parking near home has a strong negative impact. There is evidence that car sharing can substitute car driving trips, while the evidence that the same can happen with biking and walking trips is not supported by models but only marginally seen from descriptive statistics. There is also some complementarity between car sharing and public transport and a strong complementarity between car sharing and bike sharing, so that policy makers should jointly promote those modes.

Trust Ecologies and Channel Complementarity for Information Seeking in Cancer Prevention

Our paper extends channel complementarity theory, which has focused on evidence of complementarity and patterns of channel use, by elucidating the notion of trust complementarity. We examined trust, an information-carrier characteristic and a core construct in health-focused decision-making to understand cancer information seeking, based on data from two nationally representative surveys in Singapore. Trust is found to be differential, relational, and ecological, with implications for individuals’ access to and reliance on doctors, family/friends, newspapers/magazines, radio, TV, and the Internet for cancer prevention information. In an ideal trust complementarity environment, an individual should be able to traverse a range of communication channels seamlessly. Our findings however suggest that although individuals trust different channels complementarily, their trust patterns are limited and fettered. We identified two types of trust ecologies shaped by dual-channel and polymorphic complementarity patterns that suggest that health information seekers are trapped within specific trust ecologies that prevent them from navigating a broader range of communication channels for cancer prevention.

One taxon does not fit all: Herb-layer diversity and stand structural complexity are weak predictors of biodiversity in Fagus sylvatica forests

Since adequate information on the distribution of biodiversity is hardly achievable, biodiversity indicators are necessary to support the management of ecosystems. These surrogates assume that either some habitat features, or the biodiversity patterns observed in a well-known taxon, can be used as a proxy of the diversity of one or more target taxa. Nevertheless, at least for certain taxa, the validity of this assumption has not yet been sufficiently demonstrated.We investigated the effectiveness of both a habitat- and a taxa-based surrogate in six European beech forests in the Apennines. Particularly, we tested: (1) whether the stand structural complexity and the herb-layer species richness were good predictors of the fine-scale patterns of species richness of five groups of forest-dwelling organisms (beetles, saproxylic and epigeous fungi, birds and epiphytic lichens); and (2) the cross-taxon congruence in species complementarity and composition between herb-layer plants and the target taxa.We used Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs), accumulation curves and Procrustes analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of these surrogates when species richness, complementarity and composition were considered, respectively.Our results provided a limited support to the hypothesis that the herb-layer plants and the stand structural complexity were good surrogates of the target taxa. Although the richness of the herb-layer plants received a stronger support from the data than structural complexity as a predictor for the general patterns of species richness, the overall magnitude of this effect was weak and distinct taxa responded differently. For instance, for increasing levels of herb-layer richness, the richness of lichens showed a marked increase, while the richness of saproxylic fungi decreased. We also found significantly similar complementarity patterns between the herb-layer plants and beetles, as well as a significant congruence in species composition between herb-layer plants and saproxylic fungi. Finally, when different stand structural attributes were considered singularly, only the total amount of deadwood received support from the data as a predictor of the overall species richness.At the fine scale of this study, herb-layer plants and stand structural complexity did not prove to be effective surrogates of multi-taxon biodiversity in well-preserved southern European beech forests. Rather than on weak surrogates, these results suggest that sound conservation decisions should be supported by the information provided by comprehensive multi-taxonomic assessments of forest biodiversity.

Historical impact of technological change on the US mass media advertising expenditure

Historically, the U.S. advertising industry has been experiencing enormous movements as a result of rapid advances in the media technology and the business cycle. In this paper, we study the historical behavior of the U.S. advertising industry, correcting for inflation. We find that the introduction of new media cause structural breaks in the mean growth rates of advertising expenditure for the incumbent media. In addition, we find that random components of media advertising spending follow a long-term equilibrium where the cross-elasticities across newer and older media can show substitution or complementarity patterns depending on the type of audience. We examine the influence of the economic conditions on the aggregated advertising expenditure, and on each media spending. We also measure the impact of the recent takeoff in mobile advertising.

Analysis of Complementarity Requirements for Plant MicroRNA Targeting Using a Nicotiana benthamiana Quantitative Transient Assay

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) guide RNA-induced silencing complexes to target RNAs based on miRNA-target complementarity. Using a dual-luciferase based sensor system in Nicotiana benthamiana, we quantitatively assessed the relationship between miRNA-target complementarity and silencing efficacy measured at both the RNA and protein levels, using several conserved miRNAs and their known target sites from Arabidopsis thaliana. We found that naturally occurring sites have variable efficacies attributable to their complementarity patterns. We also observed that sites with a few mismatches to the miRNA 3' regions, which are common in plants, are often equally effective and sometimes more effective than perfectly matched sites. By contrast, mismatches to the miRNA 5' regions strongly reduce or eliminate repression efficacy but are nonetheless present in several natural sites, suggesting that in some cases, suboptimal miRNA efficacies are either tolerated or perhaps selected for. Central mismatches fully abolished repression efficacy in our system, but such sites then became effective miRNA target mimics. Complementarity patterns that are functional in animals (seed sites, 3'-supplementary sites, and centered sites) did not reliably confer repression, regardless of context (3'-untranslated region or open reading frame) or measurement type (RNA or protein levels). Overall, these data provide a robust and empirical foundation for understanding, predicting, and designing functional miRNA target sites in plants.

Protein-Protein Interaction Site Predictions with Three-Dimensional Probability Distributions of Interacting Atoms on Protein Surfaces

Protein-protein interactions are key to many biological processes. Computational methodologies devised to predict protein-protein interaction (PPI) sites on protein surfaces are important tools in providing insights into the biological functions of proteins and in developing therapeutics targeting the protein-protein interaction sites. One of the general features of PPI sites is that the core regions from the two interacting protein surfaces are complementary to each other, similar to the interior of proteins in packing density and in the physicochemical nature of the amino acid composition. In this work, we simulated the physicochemical complementarities by constructing three-dimensional probability density maps of non-covalent interacting atoms on the protein surfaces. The interacting probabilities were derived from the interior of known structures. Machine learning algorithms were applied to learn the characteristic patterns of the probability density maps specific to the PPI sites. The trained predictors for PPI sites were cross-validated with the training cases (consisting of 432 proteins) and were tested on an independent dataset (consisting of 142 proteins). The residue-based Matthews correlation coefficient for the independent test set was 0.423; the accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity were 0.753, 0.519, 0.677, and 0.779 respectively. The benchmark results indicate that the optimized machine learning models are among the best predictors in identifying PPI sites on protein surfaces. In particular, the PPI site prediction accuracy increases with increasing size of the PPI site and with increasing hydrophobicity in amino acid composition of the PPI interface; the core interface regions are more likely to be recognized with high prediction confidence. The results indicate that the physicochemical complementarity patterns on protein surfaces are important determinants in PPIs, and a substantial portion of the PPI sites can be predicted correctly with the physicochemical complementarity features based on the non-covalent interaction data derived from protein interiors.

Trade Agreements and Trade Opportunities: A Flexible Approach for Modeling Australian Export and Import Elasticities

Patterns of trade have changed enormously over the last 30 years, particularly due to the economic emergence of several Asian countries. With the increasing international tendency for bilateral preferential trade agreements, it is important for countries to be aware of trade substitution possibilities. This paper estimates import and export price elasticities for Australia and its major trading partners in Europe and Asia, 1958 to 2002, using a fully flexible version of the Symmetric Normalized Quadratic aggregator function. Imports and exports are disaggregated into six regions, covering 17 countries. Our results illuminate the (changing) substitution and complementarity patterns for Australian foreign trade, highlighting trading opportunities in the face of a changing international environment.