Sustainability of patent-based competitive advantage in the U.S. communications services industry

Patents have long been assumed to provide firms with competitive advantage, but longitudinal results suggest that some types of patent content provide more enduring advantage than others do. The duration of advantage appeared to wane with time in the highly-dynamic U.S. communications-services industry during a period when technological changes occurred rapidly within it (1998–2012). Results suggest patents integrating technology streams that were different from the technologies of focal-patents’ grants contributed more to sustaining firms’ profit margins during this period than did focal patents that exploited extant technological knowledge. We found that firms who continually pushed their organization’s knowledge envelope outward to incorporate more unknown technologies sustained higher profit margins for a longer duration of time than did firms whose patented inventions were predominantlyincremental—even within difficult settings where competition grew so intense that firms’ average operating margins were deteriorating.     

Prison visitation as human ‘right’ or earned ‘privilege’? The differing tales of England/Wales,and Scotland

Prison visitation has been widely recognised as an important feature of a just and humane prison system, providing important benefits for prisoners and their family in maintaining ties. However, emphasis on maintaining prisoner–family ties over the sentence has remained a low priority for the prison service in England and Wales, with prison visits ideologically framed as a ‘privilege’ rather than a ‘right’ for prisoners. This paper contrasts England and Wales with Scotland where a diverging approach to supporting visitation and family contact has been implemented. In Scotland, a strong focus on human rights as a justification for these policies has occurred, in tandem with more palatable historical context of penal welfarism. This paper assesses differences between the two governmental approaches to prison visitation, situated in discussion of some of the broader resettlement outcomes which may be garnered via these policy responses.     

The effect of digital technology on prisoner behavior and reoffending: a natural stepped-wedge design

Objectives

Although prisons aspire to rehabilitate offenders, they fail to prepare prisoners for release into our modern digitally sophisticated society. The objectives of the current study were to assess the impact of digital technology on the culture of prisons, and on prisoners’ ability to self-manage their behavior and reoffending.

Method

Using a natural stepped-wedge design, 13 prisons in the UK were examined that had installed self-service technology over a period of 7 years. A longitudinal multi-level model was used to analyze frequencies of disciplinary proceedings within and between the prisons before and after installation. Reoffending was examined in comparison with a control sample. Quantitative results were supported by a prisoner survey and usage data.

Results

Prison disciplinary offenses were significantly reduced over a two-year period, and reoffending in the first year after release was reduced by 5.36% compared to a 0.78% reduction in comparison prisons. The prisoner survey and usage data suggested that prisoners felt much more in control of their lives in prison and much more confident in coping with technology in the outside world.

Conclusions

The changes created by the introduction of digital technology offer the opportunity to make prisons more efficient for staff, and places of improved learning and rehabilitation for prisoners, contributing to a safer society. This study offers an important contribution to the field of corrections, providing the first quantitative assessment of the effect of prisoner self-service technology on prisoner behavior and reoffending.

     

Running Away From Home: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Risk Factors and Young Adult Outcomes

Little is known about the adolescent risk factors and young adult health-related outcomes associated with running away from home. We examined these correlates of running away using longitudinal data from 4,329 youth (48% female, 85% white) who were followed from Grade 9 to age 21. Nearly 14% of the sample reported running away in the past year at Grade 10 and/or Grade 11. Controlling for demographics and general delinquency, running away from home was predicted by lack of parental support, school disengagement, greater depressive affect, and heavier substance use at Grade 9. In turn, runaways had higher drug dependence scores and more depressive symptoms at age 21 than non-runaways, even after taking these antecedent risk factors into account. Runaway status did not predict alcohol dependence risk at age 21. Results highlight the importance of substance use and depression, both as factors propelling adolescents to run away and as important long-term consequences of running away.     

“Humanitarian aid is never a crime”: humanitarianism and illegality in migrant advocacy

I analyze the case of humanitarian pro-migrant activists in southern Arizona between 2000 and 2010 to explore how contending groups wield law and legality claims in a dynamic policy environment. Humanitarian activists both evade and engage the law. They appeal to a higher law to elude charges that they are acting illegally, while seeking assurances that their actions are within the law. Law enforcement agents rely on the authority and technical neutrality of the law in redefining humanitarian aid as illegal, while expanding their own claims to carry out humanitarian work. This case study of advocacy on behalf of “illegal” migrants highlights how both activists and those who enforce the law redefine legality in strategic ways.     

Determination of illicit drugs in seized materials: role of sampling and analysis in estimation of measurement uncertainty

The determination of illicit active ingredients in seized materials, in order to assess penal or administrative offences, is routinely carried out in many forensic toxicology laboratories. This paper presents main features of the protocol adopted in the Authors' laboratory for the above investigations. In particular, sampling and analysis are considered as the same measurement process quantifying their combined contribution to overall measurement uncertainty. Aspects concerning representative sampling in the case of single and multiple items are discussed. The effects of material heterogeneity are considered by analyzing separately distinct primary samples taken from different parts of the sampling target. Possible errors due to particles dimension that could arise when sub-sampling are also considered. Analytical precision, bias and other matrix effects are studied in order to quantify the component of the overall measurement uncertainty associated to the analysis of prepared test samples. Typical scenarios arising when measurement results are used to assess compliance with specification limits are also discussed revealing the crucial role of measurement uncertainty.     

Political competition and politician quality: evidence from Italian municipalities

We use data from Italian local level governments for the years 1985?C2008 to investigate whether political competition affects the quality of politicians, as measured by some ex-ante characteristics such as educational level and type of job held. We handle endogeneity problems through an instrumental variable approach using as an instrument for political competition a variable taking into account whether the previous Municipal Council survived until the end of its legislative term. Two Stage Least Square estimates support the view that political competition positively affects politician quality. Results are robust to different measures of political competition and to different estimation strategies.