Partial Exit Research Articles

Il futuro come Utopia?

This paper aims to understand how the first phase of exit from the pandemic has changed the temporality of everyday life and produced an affective atmosphere characterized by a positive attitude towards the future. I will start by analyzing the link between utopia and everyday life: on the one hand, as a privileged area of prefigurative practices in the different versions of utopian realism, and on the other, as trapped in the present in the theories of presentification. I will then examine some emblematic cases of a ‘need for the future’ that emerged in the first exit from the pandemic in the spring-summer 2021. Finally, starting from the affective and temporally complex nature of the present as conceptualized by Berlant (Berlant, 2011; Berlant, 2008) and Coleman (Coleman, 2020b; Coleman, 2020a), I will try to account for the push toward the future that the partial exit from the pandemic has perhaps brought out.

Теоретико-методологическое исследование терминологической соподчиненности инновационной и цифровой экономики

The article considers the digital transformation as a main factor of modern economic development. It has given rise to the simultaneous co-existence in the conceptual field of scientific research of two related terms: innovation economy and digital economy. In order to differentiate their essential characteristics, the different approaches to the definition of these concepts are considered. Based on a critical analysis of existing interpretations of the innovation economy, the main elements of its definition are highlighted. The article presents the genesis of the term “digital economy”, reveals the content of resource-oriented, reproductive, socio-economic, epistemological and transformational approaches to its determination. In addition to the existing ones, an innovative approach is proposed and its essential characteristics are revealed. In order to establish the nature of the relationship and interdependence of the categories under consideration, two hypotheses reflecting the relationship between the innovation and digital economy are formulated based on the approaches prevailing in the scientific literature. The first of them assumes the integration of the digital economy into the innovation economy with the assignment to it of the functionality of industry intensification and information and communication support for innovative development. According to the second hypothesis, the digital and innovative economies are considered as two relatively independent and at the same time intersecting in terms of information components of the definition. There has been established the terminological subordination of the concepts of digital economy and innovation economy: from the perspective of the innovation paradigm of post-industrial society, the digital economy appears to be a new, more advanced form of innovation, which is facilitated by the systematic application of digital methods, technologies and tools. The digital economy, on the one hand, is considered as an integral part of innovation, on the other hand, the gradual loss of the digital tools of innovation status leads to a partial exit of the digital economy from the field of innovation and the formation of a relatively independent level of economic development

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Founder Power and Exit via Initial Public Offering

Founders can voluntarily exit their ventures via initial public offerings (IPOs). This study builds on power theory to develop and test a model of founder exit using a dataset of 313 founders from 177 entrepreneurial IPOs between 2002 and 2010. We largely find support for the model—a negative relationship between founder power and full exit. To capture the underlying mechanism of the power–exit relationship, we conducted two experiments in which we randomly assigned decision makers to either a high- or low-power condition. We find that decision makers in the low-power condition are more likely to use a full exit via IPO than those in the high-power condition, and that frustration mediates this relationship. However, founders can also engage in partial exits, including a managerial partial exit in which the founder leaves management but keeps ownership, and a financial partial exit in which the founder divests ownership but remains in management. We find that the negative relationship between founder power and exit is more negative for full exits than for partial exits. With this paper, we contribute to the literature on exit by identifying a novel mechanism—frustration—underlying power’s influence on the likelihood and type of founder exit.

50 Effect of colony-stimulating factor 2 on competence of bovine blastocysts to survive vitrification

Colony-stimulating factor 2 (CSF2) is an important maternal regulator of embryonic development. Treatment of invitro-produced embryos with CSF2 from Days 5 to 7 after insemination increased competence of embryos to establish pregnancy after transfer. One action of CSF2 is to protect embryos from stress. Treatment with CSF2 reduced heat-shocked induced apoptosis in morulae and regulated expression of multiple genes involved in cellular stress responses in the blastocyst. Here we tested whether CSF2 would promote survival of embryos to another stress: cryodamage caused by vitrification. Ovaries were recovered from an abattoir and used to harvest cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs). Groups of 10 COCs were matured for 20-22h. After maturation, COCs were fertilised with 1×106mL−1 isolate-purified spermatozoa from a pool of frozen-thawed semen from 3 bulls. Fertilization proceeded for 20-22h. Cumulus cells were removed from putative zygotes using 1000UmL−1 hyaluronidase by agitation and putative zygotes were cultured in groups of 30 in 50-µL drops of synthetic oviducal fluid-bovine embryo 2 (SOF-BE2) medium until Day 7 after insemination. Drops of cultured embryos were randomly assigned to receive either 10ngmL−1 recombinant bovine CSF2 or vehicle [90% (vol/vol) SOF-BE2 and 10% (vol/vol) Dulbecco's phosphate-buffered saline containing 1mgmL−1 bovine serum albumin) on Day 5. Blastocyst-stage embryos were selected for vitrification at Day 7. Blastocysts were vitrified in open-pulled straws and rewarmed according to procedures of Vajta et al. (1996 Theriogenology 45, 683-689). After warming, embryos were cultured for 72h in groups of 5-12 in SOF-BE2 containing 10% fetal bovine serum and 50 µM dithiothreitol. Blastocysts were assessed for re-expansion (defined as restoration of a reconstituted blastocoele) and hatching (defined as partial or completion exit from the zona pellucida). A total of 11 replicates were performed using 1745 zygotes treated with CSF2 and 1690 zygotes treated with vehicle. The number of blastocysts vitrified were 280 for CSF2 and 289 for vehicle. Data on percent presumptive zygotes becoming blastocysts and on blastocyst re-expansion and hatching after thawing were calculated for each replicate and analysed by analysis of variance using the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS (SAS Institute Inc.). The percentage of putative zygotes that became blastocysts was not affected by treatment (21.5±1% for CSF2 vs. 20.9±1% for vehicle). Overall, CSF2 increased (P=0.021) the percentage of blastocysts that re-expanded (77.8 + 0.05% vs. 73.3 + 0.05%), but there was no effect of CSF2 on the percentage of blastocysts that underwent hatching (39.3 + 0.06% vs. 37.4 + 0.06%). In conclusion, CSF2 increased blastocyst survival following vitrification. Further work will be performed to evaluate whether CSF2 also increases survival of vitrified embryos after embryo transfer. Support was provided by NIH R01 HD088352.

Constrained Regulatory Exit in Energy Law

In recent years, the federal government’s efforts to open up competitive electricity markets have transformed how we think about the regulation of energy. In many respects, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) broad “deregulatory” efforts, which commenced in the 1990s, might appear to be a case of paradigmatic regulatory exit as defined by J.B. Ruhl and Jim Salzman. But our case study of FERC’s restructuring of wholesale electricity markets reveals some important institutional features that make exit in federalism contexts, and under federal statutory duties, a rich and difficult problem. In the context of energy, exit from one regulatory sphere can create regulatory gaps. This has led FERC, which largely exited the regulation of wholesale electricity rates, to increase regulation in other spheres. It has also invited forms of intergovernmental exchange, as states have emulated or otherwise responded to FERC’s regulatory modifications in the areas in which states have jurisdiction. In this sense, the transition to competitive energy supply markets has involved constrained exit characterized by a hydraulic back-and-forth between regulators and institutions in an effort to ensure that statutory duties are fulfilled and other public needs are met. This assessment of regulatory exchange has a prescriptive implication: a federal regulator seeking to exit specific forms of conventional regulation needs to proactively develop strategies to facilitate regulatory exchange, while simultaneously preserving its authority over important substantive values related to its regulatory mission. Attention to “offsetting” regulations is often necessary to ensure that problematic regulatory gaps will not arise. In the energy context, these strategies might also include the use of mechanisms that give other institutions a voice in implementing exit strategies, as well as better ex ante regulatory planning for market enforcement that will continue after partial exit. We argue that it is not only a good strategy for federal regulators to recognize this hydraulic feature of exit, but that cooperative federalism statutes such as the Federal Power Act often require them to do so.

The challenge of researching “partial exit” and “rootedness” among upper-middle classes in European cities

ABSTRACTThe rise of mobilities has paved the way for important changes within cities and the possibility for urban upper-middle classes to exit from their cities and national societies, disinvesting on them, while still taking profits in a process of deterritorialization with important consequences at the collective level. Investigating the extent to which upper-middle classes shaped and are still rooted (or not) in their cities is a challenge, even more when international comparison is involved. In this paper we focus on two methodological aspects: 1) the different social meaning that upper-middle classes and the social groups composing them can have considering three Western European countries and four cities: Paris, Lyon, Milan and Madrid. 2) How we generated our data through personal interviews with European managers, and the conceptual framework that informed the understanding of rootedness, exit or partial exit of our managers.

Home bitter home: How labor protection influences firm offshoring

Drawing on the home country literature, we argue that firms headquartered or located in countries with strong labor protection may face challenges in their domestic operations. These firms are likely to initiate offshoring to enhance operational efficiency. Building on this argument, we also examine the boundary conditions moderating this proposed effect including labor productivity and employee stock ownership. Results based on a sample of information technology firms operating within five developed countries during 1990–2010 provide support for these arguments. These findings suggest that offshoring can be a partial exit strategy for firms to address the institutional challenges in their home country.

The corrosion of occupational pensions solidarity in the Netherlands

By embedding pre-funded occupational pensions into the status order of a neo-corporatist system of industrial relations, the Netherlands has developed a second pillar that is second to none in terms of size, inclusiveness and solidarity. But this has also led to a universal financialisation of retirement provision, making the income of the elderly population contingent on the vagaries of financial markets. Two financial crises within less than a decade ended the illusion that such generosity can come at a low price, and thus be reconciled with competitive labour costs. The Dutch government initiated a series of reforms that gave employers a partial exit from shouldering the risks of retirement, reduced generosity and recently also started to undermine the extent of solidaristic redistribution. Hence, occupational pensions are gradually being disembedded from the status order crucial for their comparative good performance in the past with regard to reconciling social and financial sustainability.

Inmigración de ‘calidad de vida’ y partial exit: un estudio a partir de los casos de Mérida (México) y Barcelona (España)

Las ciudades de Mérida (México) y Barcelona (España) se localizan en regiones que comparten un fuerte atractivo turístico asociado a sus valores patrimoniales, a suscondiciones climáticas y a su localización geográfica próxima a la costa. Además, entre la población de países vecinos con mayor poder adquisitivo se ha ido extendiendo la ideade que el mejor clima y el diferencial de costes de vida existente permiten conseguir en estas ciudades lo que se conoce como una “gran calidad de vida”. De esta forma, personas pertenecientes a las clases medias de Estados Unidos y Canadá, en el caso mexicano, y de Francia, Alemania e Inglaterra u otros países comunitarios, en el caso español, y que no tienen lazos laborales en sus países de origen (generalmente por estar jubilados, pero también por disponer de pequeñas rentas), localizan su residencia en estas ciudades. Por otra parte, el desarrollo del trabajo a distancia y la internacionalización económica han contribuido al aumento de la movilidad de cuadros medios corporativos desplazados aotros países. El conjunto de estos factores socioeconómicos, unido a una peculiar estrategia de producción residencial y turística en las regiones de acogida, da lugar a una gamade situaciones que se encuentran entre el turismo, el partial exit y la inmigración. A partir de diferentes metodologías cuantitativas y cualitativas, este artículo analiza las características y la distribución territorial de los migrantes internacionales de clases medias en ambas ciudades, como punto de partida para estudiar el impacto de este fenómeno en la gentrificación y la segregación residencial. Los resultados obtenidos en ambas ciudades van en una misma dirección. En ambos casos se trata de un fenómeno emergente de crecimiento continuo, en el que las migraciones de clases medias aumentan en importancia y visibilidad, con lo que se refuerzan e incrementan las pautas residenciales segregativaspreexistentes en esas ciudades.

Strategies to shape the international order: exit, voice and innovation versus expulsion, maintenance and absorption

ABSTRACT This article describes the strategies of emerging and dominant countries as they struggle over the shape of the international order. The article extends Hirschman’s tripod of exit, voice and loyalty as responses to organisational decline, using Ostrom’s work on social dilemmas. A country’s reaction to the declining legitimacy of the post-1945 international order depends largely on whether it is a traditional OECD donor country or a developing or emerging country from the South. Developing and emerging countries are engaging in selective and partial exit, voice and innovation to change things, while dominant powers are using maintenance, absorption and expulsion to maintain their status.

NOTES ON THE MARGIN: AN OVERVIEW OF NMA'S MORTGAGE MARKET STUDY

This article presents the findings of a sector study conducted by the Netherlands Competition Authority on the Dutch mortgage market. Following the outbreak of the financial crisis, the average margins in the Dutch mortgage market increased sharply and reached historically high levels. In 2011, the margins fell back to pre-financial crisis levels. The historically high margins were accompanied by significant increases in concentration due to a merger between two relatively large banks and the (partial) exit of several smaller (foreign) banks. In the study, we found no indication that the temporary high margins were driven by collusive conduct. The price leadership bans of the European Commission can also not explain the margin developments around 2009, because these developments precede their introduction. There is, however, some evidence that the bans have led to higher prices in the Dutch mortgage market.

Exit behaviour of investment companies: the choice of exit channel

For investment companies, selling a portfolio company represents a critical phase in the investment life cycle. The choice of exit channel (initial public offering, secondary buyout, or trade sale) is of particular importance. This paper analyses factors relevant to exit channel selection, deploying a sample of 1,435 European buyout exits between 1992 and 2010. We differentiate between factors which refer to characteristics of the selling investment company and characteristics of the transaction object. Our analysis yields evidence that the reputation of the selling investment company, syndicate size, quality of the transaction object, as well as partial exit are associated with exit channel type. Moreover, our analysis reveals that the economic context and conditions in the capital markets significantly influence the choice of exit channel.

Controlling the Urban Fabric: The Complex Game of Distance and Proximity in European Upper‐Middle‐Class Residential Strategies

AbstractThis article presents an open discussion of the processes of urban secession and gentrification in contemporary European cities, arguing that intergroup social dynamics in urban spaces are generally more complex than either extreme mutual avoidance or the colonization of neighbourhoods by the wealthiest groups. We analyse the residential strategies of urban upper‐middle class managers in various European metropolitan areas through in‐depth semi‐structured interviews to argue that these groups develop complex strategies of proximity and distance in relation to other social groups. The development of these ‘partial exit’ strategies takes place through specific combinations of practices that allow groups to select the dimensions they are willing to share with other social groups, and those in which they prefer a more segregated social environment for themselves and their families. The responses of our interviewees were consistently more nuanced and complex than suggested by a simplistic theory about their drive to withdraw from society, forcing us to develop more sophisticated conceptual frameworks to account for the growing prevalence of multi‐layered identities and spheres of reference and solidarity, specific combinations of elective segregation and local involvement, and more active patterns of mobility combined with local embeddedness.

TonB-Dependent Transporter FhuA in Planar Lipid Bilayers: Partial Exit of Its Plug from the Barrel

TonB-dependent transporters (TBDTs), which transport iron-chelating siderophores and vitamin B(12) across the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, share a conserved architecture of a 22-stranded β-barrel with an amino-terminal plug domain occluding the barrel. We previously reported that we could induce TBDTs to reversibly open in planar lipid bilayers via the use of urea and that these channels were responsive to physiological concentrations of ligands. Here we report that in the presence of urea, trypsin can cleave the amino-terminal 67 residues of the plug of the TonB-dependent transporter FhuA, as assessed by gel shift and mass spectrometry assays. On the bilayer, trypsin treatment in the presence of urea resulted in the induced conductance no longer being reversed upon removal of urea, suggesting that urea opens intact FhuA channels by pulling the plug at least partly out of the barrel and that removal of the urea then allows reinsertion of the plug into the barrel. When expressed separately, the FhuA plug domain was found to be a mostly unfolded structure that was able to occlude isolated FhuA β-barrels inserted into the membrane. Thus, although folded in the barrel, the plug need not be folded upon exiting the barrel. The rate of insertion of the β-barrels into the membrane was tremendously increased in the presence of an osmotic gradient provided by either urea or glycerol. Negative staining electron microscopy showed that FhuA in a detergent solution formed vesicles, thus explaining why an osmotic gradient promoted the insertion of FhuA into membranes.

Transnational mobility and rootedness: the upper middle classes in European cities

AbstractSome authors argue that ‘mobilities’ form the distinctive feature of late modern societies and represent a new social cleavage between cosmopolitan mobile élites and urban residents more rooted in their local neighbourhoods. One assumption in contemporary discourses of rootedness is that this new transnational or global society entails an ongoing process of uprooting individuals and a mainly mobile élite packing up and relocating. In this article, we draw on empirical comparative research to examine the patterns and dynamics of mobility and belonging across European borders among upper‐middle‐class managers in four cities – Paris, Madrid, Milan and Lyon. We suggest that these new urban upper‐middle‐class managers display flight responses, or ‘partial exit’ strategies, which operate at various levels to enable them to protect and control their interests while holding onto the reins of power in their local communities. Our study adopts a micro‐level perspective to explore individual experiences, strategies, motivations and values based on interviews with 480 managers in these cities.

Fate of the Product Mix of a Firm with a Mandate to Adopt a Food Quality Metasystem: The Case of Adoption of the SLS in the Fruit Processing Sector in Sri Lanka

This study assesses the impact of a number of characteristics pertaining to fruit processing firms in the Western Province in Sri Lanka to adopt the Sri Lankan Standards (SLS). It hypothesized that in the presence of a "mandatory" government regulation to adopt the SLS on the firm, the decision of the management to "invest" on it without removing any of their major products in the product mix or to exercise a "product exit" (i.e. removing a major product) will depend on factors such as the type of ownership, recent modifications made to the facility by introducing modern processing technologies, other enhanced food safety controls in place, whether the firm is involved with international markets, availability of skilled labour, and annual returns of the firm (adjusted to the number of employees and major products). The primary data collected through a series of in-depth personnel interviews with quality assurance managers and site visits to 36 firms during May to July 2005 were analyzed using Logit Regression technique. The results suggest that firms that modify their facilities, hire skilled labour, promote exports, and possess other advanced food safety controls have a tendency to adopt the SLS without a partial exit. The outcome of the analysis elaborates that policy makers must take into account the business environment of the firm implicitly and explicitly in their attempts to adopt the mandate for the implementation of enhanced food safety controls like the SLS on agri-food processing enterprises. DOI: 10.4038/sjae.v7i0.1822 <em>Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics</em>, Vol. 7, 2005 pp.33-50

Internal apparatus of neuropil in coelomata: Reconstruction of the earlier stages of its evolution

Based on previously obtained data on structural organization and evolution of neuropil in annelids and phoronids, reconstruction of their internal apparatus has been performed. Four structural types are identified: the first—the initial, the most primitive state characteristic of neuropil of articulates (polychaetes with intraepidermal nervous system); the second—peculiar to neuropil of polychaetes in the beginning of the exit of the nervous system from epidermis; the third—the specific state of neuronal interrelations in leeches, when the internal apparatus contains no local interneurons, but is formed by intensive local arborization of associative neurons with intersegmental connections; the fourth—the initial state of the internal apparatus peculiar to Tentaculata, which is structurally incomparable with that in the primitive articulates. It has been shown that the initial state of neuronal structure of the internal apparatus of primitive polychaetes oweniids and phoronids, although has externally similar basiepidermal position, is incomparable architectonically. Therefore, at present, determination of the internal apparatus can be achieved only in general as a system of local interneurons, which provides to an extent of precision the afferent—efferent connections in neuropil and contributes to integration of these connections with the cerebropetal and cerebrofugal pathways. Complication of the internal apparatus structure in jointed Trochozoa with the ganglionic type of the nervous system has its own specific features. Four levels of its differentiation have been identified: (1) start of exit of the abdominal ganglion from epidermis (polychaetes nephthyds); (2) complete or partial exit of the nervous system form epidermis (most of polychaetes, oligochaetes); (3) replacement of local interneurons of the internal apparatus by a morphologically rearranged system of intersegmental associative neurons of the functionally similar nature (with exception of leeches, this process is typical to different extent of crustacean and arachnids); (4) intensive development of the system of local interneurons, which is peculiar to the internal apparatus of insects.

A cross-country comparison of full and partial venture capital exits

This paper considers the issue of when venture capitalists (VCs) make a partial, as opposed to a full exit, for the full range of exit vehicles. A full exit for an initial public offerings (IPO) involves a sale of all of the venture capitalist’s holdings within one year of the IPO; a partial exit involves sale of only part of the venture capitalist’s holdings within that period. A full acquisition exit involves the sale of the entire firm for cash; in a partial acquisition exit, the venture capitalist receives (often illiquid) shares in the acquiror firm instead of cash. In the case of a buyback exit (in which the entrepreneur buys out the venture capitalist) or a secondary sale, a partial exit entails a sale of only part of the venture capitalist’s holdings. A partial write-off involves a write down of the investment. We consider the determinants of full and partial venture capital exits for all five exit vehicles. We also perform a number of comparative empirical tests on samples of full and partial exits derived from a survey of Canadian and US venture capital firms. The data offer support to the central hypothesis of the paper: that the greater the degree of information asymmetry between the selling VC and the buyer, the greater the likelihood of a partial exit to signal quality. The data also indicate differences between the US and Canadian venture capital industries, and highlight the impact of legal and institutional factors on exits across countries.

The Impact of HACCP on Costs and Product Exit

AbstractDetailed information on firm level food safety costs is reported. Survey data for small and very small meat processors are modeled. Economies of scale in implementing Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems are investigated. Results indicate that even after controlling for scale, very small plants incur higher compliance costs. Diseconomies of scope are assessed using the probability and number of products discontinued due to HACCP. Such “partial exit” is positively related to the current range of items produced and the need for facility modification. However, no evidence is found for higher levels of partial exit in very small plants.

The principle of a double crystal electron interferometer.

Sinusoidal interference fringes have been observed recently using a double crystal interferometer and convergent beam electron diffraction techniques. However, the formation mechanism of the interference fringes is not understood completely. In this paper, we explain this effect using wave theory and discuss the coherence conditions necessary for this special interferometer. The excitation errors of partial exit waves leaving a crystal, which is used as a wave splitter, are found to be responsible for the formation of the interference fringes. The double crystal interferometer used in the electron diffraction manifests a new interference mechanism. Compared with two-beam interference in real space, we observe the interference effect in the reciprocal space, i.e. in the Fourier space. This effect may enable us to undertake holography in the Fraunhofer diffraction plane and measure both the phase and amplitude information of reflections. The phase information of reflections contains information on the position of atoms and the symmetry of a unit cell. Furthermore, such an interferometer has no rigorous coherence conditions.