Innovation strategies of firms: What strategies and why?

This paper analyzes various innovation strategies of firms. Using five waves of the Community Innovation Survey in Sweden, we have traced the innovative behavior of firms over a 10-year period, i.e. between 2002 and 2012. We distinguish between sixteen innovation strategies, which compose of Schumpeterian four types of innovations (process, product, marketing, and organizational) plus various combinations of these four types. First, we find that firms are not homogenous in choosing innovation strategies, instead, they have a wide range of preferences when it comes to innovation strategy and some of the innovation strategies are “commonly” used among firms. Second, using Transition Probability Matrix, we found that firms also persist to have such a diverse innovation strategy preferences. Finally, using Multinomial Logit model, we explained the determinant of each and every innovation strategies, while we gave special attention to the commonly used innovation strategies among firms.     

DNA databanks: law enforcement's greatest surveillance tool?

All fifty states have laws requiring the collection of DNA samples from certain classes of criminals. Genetic profiles are gleaned from these samples and entered into DNA databanks, after which they then can be accessed by law enforcement personnel and others. DNA forensic technologies can be used to identify criminal offenders, but they can also be used in ways that reveal health and other personal information about the target and even about his or her relations. Moreover, the rapid introduction of ever-changing types of DNA forensic techniques creates a potential for error. Such errors may wrongly implicate some individuals for a crime and may wrongly exculpate others. This Article examines weaknesses in state DNA databanking laws regarding the protection of genetic privacy and imposition of quality assurance mechanisms and suggests policies which state legislatures should incorporate into the state DNA databanking scheme.     

Vanishing vaccinations: why are so many Americans opting out of vaccinating their children?

Vaccinations against life-threatening diseases are one of the greatest public health achievements in history. Literally millions of premature deaths have been prevented, and countless more children have been saved from disfiguring illness. While vaccinations carry unavoidable risks, the medical, social and economic benefits they confer have led all fifty states to enact compulsory childhood vaccination laws to stop the spread of preventable diseases. Today, however, vaccines are becoming a victim of their success--many individuals have never witnessed the debilitating diseases that vaccines protect against, allowing complacency toward immunization requirements to build. Antivaccination sentiment is growing fast in the United States, in large part due to the controversial and hotly disputed link between immunizations and autism. The internet worsens fears regarding vaccination safety, as at least a dozen websites publish alarming information about the risks of vaccines. Increasing numbers of parents are refusing immunizations for their children and seeking legally sanctioned exemptions instead, apparently fearing vaccines more than the underlying diseases that they protect against. A variety of factors are at play: religious and philosophical beliefs, freedom and individualism, misinformation about risk, and overperception of risk. State legislatures and health departments now face a difficult challenge: respecting individual rights and freedoms while also safeguarding the public welfare. Nearly all states allow vaccination exemptions for religious reasons and a growing number provide "philosophical" opt-outs as well. However, in all but a handful of jurisdictions, neither objection is seriously documented or verified. Often, the law requires a parent to do no more than simply check a box indicating she does not wish her child to receive immunizations. The problem is exacerbated by financial incentives schools have to encourage students to opt out of vaccinations. The rise in parents opting out has caused the AMA grave concern, with many experts decrying the rise of so-called "exemptions of convenience." In some areas, nearly one out of five children have not received their recommended vaccines. The consequences are serious not only for those unprotected children, but for the rest of society as well. "Herd immunity" is threatened as more and more parents free ride off of the community's dwindling immunity, and outbreaks of diseases thought to have been conquered have already occurred. Lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers threaten them with bankruptcy, costs are being externalized onto the healthcare and legal systems, and vulnerable populations are suffering harm or even death. In the interests of social welfare, state legislatures and health departments should consider methods to ensure that the exemption process is carefully tailored to prevent check-the-box opt-outs of convenience, while still allowing exemptions for those with earnest and informed convictions or medical reasons.     

Burning bridges: why don’t organised crime groups pull back from violent conflicts?

Dominant theories of organised crime assume that criminal organisations which operate in extremely violent markets do so because they consider it financially cost-effective. This article contends that by using increasingly violent actions intended to deter competitors and government forces, criminal organisations sometimes eliminate their exit option, making the penalties for withdrawal to a less violent strategy significantly worse than those of continued violence. Based on a systematic examination of footage of public statements by 18 former associates of two Mexican organised crime groups (OCGs), La Familia Michoacana (LFM) and its offshoot Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT), this article argues that through gradual increases in their use of violence, these groups reached a ‘point of no return’. After reaching this point, desisting from further violence escalation became more hazardous than pursuing a violent path, even when the latter did not align with the organisations’ business interests.     

Economics behind the law: why number of divorce cases grows when families become wealthier?

In this paper we study the effects of increasing family wealth on the number of divorce cases in a society. We assume that, when one party of a married couple seeks for divorce, the physical family wealth is equally divided between the homemaker and the breadwinner according to the Law. Through some simple mathematical analysis we discover that the number of divorce cases will increase when the amounts of family wealth increase. Our theoretical result is well-justified by the observation from the Chinese society after the Reforms.     

Following the transfer of DNA: How far can it go?

The issue of DNA transfer is becoming increasingly important in crime scene situations, as DNA analytical techniques now detect tiny amounts. Whereas primary and secondary DNA transfers have been well studied, subsequent transfer steps have received much less focus. This study aimed to measure the detectability of a DNA source after multiple transfer events. Transfer of wet blood gave a full genetic profile well beyond the secondary transfer events on both cotton and glass substrates. Dry blood gave a full profile well beyond the secondary transfer events on glass only, but to a lesser extent than wet blood. Touch DNA only produced a full profile on the primary substrate on both cotton and glass, and detectable quantities beyond the secondary transfer event on glass only. Our results will contribute to a better understanding of the tertiary and subsequent transfer of DNA, which will allow for improved evaluation of the likelihood of alternative scenarios explaining why an individual's DNA was found at a crime scene.     

Consumer education: why the market doesn’t work

A growing literature studies the interactions between fully rational profit maximizing firms, on one side, and biased consumers, on the other side. Along these lines, this paper focuses on the consequences of quality misperception on the market equilibrium, by raising the following question: when quality bias affects consumer choice, do firms have incentives to educate their competitor’s customers in order to attract them? To tackle this issue, I incorporate consumer misperception in a Cournot-type duopoly model and consider the consequences on the market outcome. I focus on the two polar cases, when both firms either exploit consumer misperception, or educate completely their rival’s customers. I show that the market exerts conflicting forces on the firms’ incentives, such as a curse of debiasing might occur even in the presence of substitute goods. Consequently, the opportunity of a legal intervention to trigger consumer education is a key issue.     

DNA analysis and the Freedom of Information Act: information or invasion?

This note explores the possibility of release of an individual's DNA analysis to any person who requests it through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), after an individual's post-aircraft accident DNA profile has been developed by the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI). It analyzes whether the request would fall under the FOIA's 552(b)(6) exemption, which weighs a person's privacy interest against any public interest in such information, or if the release would constitute a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."