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A widespread consensus in strategy literature argues that firms acquire positions of advantage and competitive capability by assembling or “organizing” sets of uniquely complementary resources, activities, or assets. In this regard, value is created not only in identifying unique and valuable combinations of existing resources, but also in seeing unique and valuable ways to modify or cospecialize these assets. With the envisioned strategic bundle defined, the manager must then determine how to form, organize, and create this bundle. In particular, the manager must decide which assets, activities, and resources must be “owned” and which can be accessed contractually. We argue that although integration does have certain advantages over market transactions, it does not necessarily lead to the expansion of the scale and scope of the firm, because firms would also fail, particularly as they become larger in size. While established theories articulate this organizational failure puzzle in terms of incentive explanations and measurement difficulties, recent advancement in organizational economics and business strategy sees this as a result of influence activities, and social comparison and social attachment processes. These elements can serve as new building blocks for a more comprehensive theory of the nature and the boundary of the firm. Three future research trajectories – both theoretical and empirical in this realm – are suggested.

In this paper, we analyse the behaviour of the solution of the Navier—Stokes equations near the corner of the driven cavity where the moving band touches the wall. At this point, the solution is singular. Since the singularity does not depend on the Reynolds number, it is sufficient to study the problem in the case of infinite viscosity, which is governed by the Stokes equations. We present an analytical asymptotic solution near the corner. Furthermore, numerical results are given, which were gained by an efficient multigrid algorithm. We will see that, for decreasing meshsize, the numerical solution converges to the derived analytical solution near the corner.

We study the sparse grid combination technique as an efficient method for the solution of fluid dynamics problems. The combination technique needs only O(h^–1_n(log(h^–1_n))^d–1) grid points for d‐dimensional problems, instead of O(h^–d_n) grid points used by the full grid method. Here, h_n = 2^–n denotes the mesh width of the grids. Furthermore, provided that the solution is sufficiently smooth, the accuracy (with respect to the L₂‐ and the L_∞‐norm) of the sparse grid combination solution is O(h^α_n(log(h^–1_n))^d–1), which is only slightly worse than O(h^α_n) obtained by the full grid solution. Here, α includes the order of the underlying discretization scheme, as well as the influence of singularities. Thus, the combination technique is very economic on both storage requirements and computing time, but achieves almost the same accuracy as the usual full grid solution. Another advantage of the combination technique is that only simple data structures are necessary. Where other sparse grid methods need hierarchical data structures and thus specially designed solvers, the combination method handles merely d‐dimensional arrays. Thus, the implementation of the combination technique can be based on any “black box solver”. However, for reasons of efficiency, an appropriate multigrid solver should be used. Often, fluid dynamics problems have to be solved on rather complex domains. A common approach is to divide the domain into blocks, in order to facilitate the handling of the problem. We show that the combination technique works on such blockstructured grids as well. When dealing with complicated domains, it is often desirable to grade a grid around a singularity. Graded grids are also supported by the combination technique. Finally, we present the first results of numerical experiments for the application of the combination method to CFD problems. There, we consider two‐dimensional laminar flow problems with moderate Reynolds numbers, and discuss the advantages of the combination method.

In a world with over 8 billion people, ensuring sustainable food sources is paramount. This chapter explores the pivotal role of aquaculture in addressing the challenges of marine conservation and sustainable resource use. Aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14, aquaculture emerges as a solution to relieve pressure on wild fish stocks and enhance food security. The chapter emphasises the rapid growth of this sector and underscores the importance of international cooperation and policies like the Global Ocean Treaty in ensuring marine biodiversity. While acknowledging the potential of aquaculture, the chapter delves into environmental concerns surrounding fishmeal and fish oil in feed. It advocates for innovative technologies and ingredients to establish a circular bioeconomy. The significance of higher education in advancing sustainable aquafeed technology, breeding, and genetics is highlighted, with a discussion on milestones achieved by experts like Dr John E. Halver and Professor Simon J. Davies. Examining technological advances, the chapter explores molecular genetics, transgenics, and gene editing, particularly CRISPR biosciences, as transformative tools for enhancing aquaculture productivity and sustainability. Environmental impacts are addressed, proposing solutions such as Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) and Multitrophic Aquaculture Systems (MTA) to minimise ecological footprints. Throughout, there is a strong emphasis on the integral role of research and education in fostering sustainable aquaculture practices. The chapter advocates for specialised courses and programs in higher education to prepare the next generation for the challenges and opportunities in aquaculture, ensuring its contribution to global food security and environmental stewardship.

This paper gives a bibliographical review of the finite element and boundary element parallel processing techniques from the theoretical and application points of view. Topics include: theory – domain decomposition/partitioning, load balancing, parallel solvers/algorithms, parallel mesh generation, adaptive methods, and visualization/graphics; applications – structural mechanics problems, dynamic problems, material/geometrical non‐linear problems, contact problems, fracture mechanics, field problems, coupled problems, sensitivity and optimization, and other problems; hardware and software environments – hardware environments, programming techniques, and software development and presentations. The bibliography at the end of this paper contains 850 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with presented subjects that were published between 1996 and 2002.

It is estimated that the largest share of future food fish will come from aquaculture production and that sustainable aquaculture is a precondition to realising this potential. Sustainable aquaculture will also play a key role in achieving several of the targets set out in SDG14. It is now established that most of the aquafeed ingredients used today are not sustainable and cannot support the projected growth of the sector, hence the need for sustainable alternatives. Sustainable aquaculture is multidimensional, therefore, this chapter focuses on sustainable feed ingredient sourcing. The authors explored a group of highly promising emerging novel ingredients known as microbial ingredients (MIs), means of producing them and how they can help achieve sustainable aquaculture and SDG14 targets. Specifically, the chapter narrows down on producing MIs from Norwegian spruce tree hydrolysates using a biotechnological approach and how Foods of Norway, a centre for research-based innovation at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences is leading efforts to produce feed-worthy MIs from industrial and agricultural by-products through biotechnology-based valorisation. MIs such as yeast, fungi, and bacterial meal can support the growth of Atlantic salmon without compromising the health of the fish. Thus, MI has a net positive impact on climate and can help achieve some targets in SDG14 by reducing pressure on marine resources used as fish feed ingredients. Suggestions on how to address current bottlenecks in scaling up MIs have also been provided in the chapter.

The purpose of this paper is to test the cognitive construct of optimism (positive future outcome expectancies) and the age-gender differences in Indian sample.

The sample consists of 363 older, middle-aged and younger male and female employees. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey based research design.

Results revealed that middle-aged employees have high levels of optimism as compared to the old age and younger employees. Further, the males reflected high optimism levels in comparison to female employees in middle and old aged adult employees, whereas females have higher optimism level in younger age in Indian select organisations.

The study suggests that the continuous changes in the lifespan lead to changes in one’s attitude and hence results in behavioural changes. The research indicates that optimism should be cultivated in the individuals by providing training and development to promote the competence and skill-building events which would help in enhancing the productivity resulting in better understanding of the scenario at workplace.

The work supplements the existing literature on positive attitude or outcome expectancies by adding to the lifespan development theory.

Building on the resource-based view of the firm and complex systems theory, we argue that the effective utilization of knowledge-intensive teamwork (KITwork) can be a source of sustained competitive advantage for firms that pursue a variety of strategies and compete in a variety of industries. KITwork is a multi-dimensional, multi-level social process that promotes knowledge flows within and between organizations. Through KITwork, the knowledge resources of individual employees are transformed into a capability that contributes to the effectiveness of knowledge-based organizations. After introducing and explaining the concept of KITwork, we explore the challenges that organizations must address in order to design HRM systems that support and facilitate KITwork.

According to Sen's theoretical framework of capability (1985), individuals reach their full potential once they have the freedom, intended as the set of functionings at their disposal, to do so. However, many critiques have been developed against the lack of embeddedness of the capability approach in social and political relations and structures. In this article, the authors investigate the influence of three institutional contexts (Belgium, the Netherlands and France) on the respective work-related functionings of self-employed and regular workers, with a focus on human capital investment and institutional support offered to them.

Data from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) are used to highlight similarities and differences in building work-related functionings for regular and self-employed workers. A regression analysis is provided at the country level.

In the three labour markets, the authors find that the building of work-related functionings is more successful for regular employees, especially as regards institutional support. Self-employed workers, on the other hand, need to rely on their individual capability as regards employment protection and human capital investment. However, the authors find interesting differences between the three institutional contexts. In both Belgium and France, self-employed workers are subject to higher instability in terms of changes in salary and hours worked, whereas atypical work is better positioned in the Dutch labour market. The Netherlands is also characterised by a less significant gap between regular and self-employed workers with respect to participation in training.

In this article, the authors contextualise Sen's (1985) theoretical framework by taking into account the institutional differences of labour markets. In particular, the authors provide a novel application of his capability approach to regular and self-employed workers in an economically relevant European area.

The purpose of this paper is to present a computationally efficient approach for the stochastic modeling of an inhomogeneous reluctivity of magnetic materials. These materials can be part of electrical machines such as a single-phase transformer (a benchmark example that is considered in this paper). The approach is based on the Karhunen–Loève expansion (KLE). The stochastic model is further used to study the statistics of the self-inductance of the primary coil as a quantity of interest (QoI).

The computation of the KLE requires solving a generalized eigenvalue problem with dense matrices. The eigenvalues and the eigenfunction are computed by using the Lanczos method that needs only matrix vector multiplications. The complexity of performing matrix vector multiplications with dense matrices is reduced by using hierarchical matrices.

The suggested approach is used to study the impact of the spatial variability in the magnetic reluctivity on the QoI. The statistics of this parameter are influenced by the correlation lengths of the random reluctivity. Both, the mean value and the standard deviation increase as the correlation length of the random reluctivity increases.

The KLE, computed by using hierarchical matrices, is used for uncertainty quantification of low frequency electrical machines as a computationally efficient approach in terms of memory requirement, as well as computation time.