As music listening is moving from tangible products to digital services, record labels seem to have difficulties in adjusting their business models to the new reality. This study investigates how S ...

Regional clusters of companies are becoming an increasingly important focus of government industrial policy makers and researchers. A cluster is a network of companies in an industrial sector where suppliers, customers, consultants, etc. interact together with regional policymakers and universities. Sometimes the individual firms compete, and sometimes they collaborate. The delimited characteristics of a cluster to a regional area and an industrial sector, makes it possible to view the cluster as an arena or laboratory. The concept of regions as laboratories, which is the base for the present paper, does not have a policy orientation. Instead, it stresses the interactive and cooperative aspects, which emerge organically in a regional cluster. The paper presents the formation of a research arena in cooperation between the University College of Boras and the industry organization of Swedish mail order companies for studies of learning and innovations in IT usage within the cluster. The strategy to establish the arena, formulation of research questions and initial experiences are presented.

Radio and TV have been characterised by two trends over the past decades; an increased number of channels and greater concentration of ownership. Competition for listeners/viewers between larger and larger conglomerates appears to have resulted in a decrease in the range of output, despite a marked increase of commercial recordings and registration of new works. These observations are supported by a comprehensive statistical analysis over the last decade in Sweden complemented with similar US studies. The study concludes that the traditional music industry’s business model needs to be radically revised to meet consumers’ preference for access to more diversity. Current “legal” digital services offered by the established industry have not been able to compete with “free” P2P services, not merely because of the price difference, but rather because of lack of diversity and rigid demands regarding Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.

An incident that occurred in a product development project is analyzed to see how participants cope differently with surprising situations. Variety in coping generates cognitive dissonance in the project team, which means that the situation not only is complex for the individual team member but that it is difficult to trace, here and now, causal chains on a collective level. The situation is aggravated if the problem occurs in an alliance setting, as more consultation is required to trace deviations from the expected and reach agreements on solutions. Furthermore, if the alliance is between companies in the car industry, with its articulated brand values, coping with surprises can be extremely stressful, with time schedules and budgets under pressure. This analysis was made possible by the authors being permitted to video-film project management meetings and project members responding, individually, to the playback of a video sequence from a meeting they attended with the attached question “What is going on here?”

PD98059 blocks mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) by inhibiting its activator, MAP kinase kinase (MEK). We have previously found that PD98059 only transiently inhibits spontaneous axonal outgrowth from adult mouse dorsal root ganglia (DRG) explants, whereas it causes sustained inhibition of nerve growth factor (NGF)‐stimulated growth. Surprisingly, the present results showed that outgrowth stimulation by neurotrophin‐3 (NT‐3), interacting with another neuronal subgroup, was markedly enhanced by PD98059 and also by U0126, another inhibitor of MAPK activation. In contrast, the effects of glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), which stimulates still another subgroup of DRG neurons, was opposed by PD98059. Axonal outgrowth in vitro can also be strongly increased by a prior axotomy in vivo. The increased outgrowth in preaxotomized explants was effectively inhibited by the presence of PD98059. Immunocytochemistry based on whole‐mount labelling revealed the presence of neuronal MAPK, which was found to be activated by NGF, NT‐3, and GDNF in separate axonal populations and by a prior axotomy in a majority of growing axons. The results suggest that there are important differences in the NGF and NT‐3 signalling pathways, which may involve positive and negative control mechanisms by MAPK activation, respectively. Other findings indicate that GDNF exerts its growth effects by activation of MAPK and that expression of the conditioning effect in vitro in preaxotomized preparations also requires activation of MAPK. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Abstract This paper deals with action in the complex,setting of a large product develeopment,project ‐ a new,year model,of a car. The prespective,is that of one engineer,who,has discovered,a problem with the prototype,car he is driving (a noise problem). He wants a mandate to study and propose a solution, but the issue is lost to a colleague. The analysis is based on a video recording,of the project management,meeting,and audiotapes,of participants’explanations,to the conversation,as it is replayed to them individually. It seems like the focus person,(Charlie) fails to control the definition of the problem. The “bracketing” of an issue in meetings, and floor management as a means of making meetings efficient, are discussed. GRI report 2000:7,Bracketing an issue Sten Jönsson & Anders Edström - 1 -

The effect on axonal outgrowth of inhibition of phospholipase A2 activity was studied in a recently developed in vitro model, where dorsal root ganglia with attached spinal roots and nerve stumps from young adult mice were cultured in an extracellular matrix material (Matrigel). The phospholipase A2 inhibitors 4-bromophenacyl bromide and oleyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine dose-dependently reduced axonal outgrowth from the sciatic nerve stump. A similar inhibitory effect was seen when only the cut nerve end was exposed to the inhibitors in a compartmental culture system. The local effect of phospholipase A2 inhibition was further investigated on axons established in culture, using time-lapse recording. Exposure to phospholipase A2 inhibitors caused the retraction of filopodia extensions and a reduction in growth cone motility within a few minutes. After removal of inhibition, normal growth cone motility and axonal growth were regained. Nerve cell bodies and axons, in contrast to Schwann cells, showed immunoreactivity after staining with an antiserum against secretory phospholipase A2, and elevated levels of the enzyme could be detected after culture for 24 h. The immunoreactive protein was of approximately 170,000 molecular weight (phospholipase A2-170) as determined by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting. The localization of phospholipase A2-170 in axons growing into the Matrigel was also demonstrated by use of a whole-mount technique. The results of this study show the importance of continuous phospholipase A2 activity for growth cone motility and axonal outgrowth in the mammalian peripheral nerve, and suggest the involvement of an axonally localized enzyme.

This paper analyses a video recorded exchange in a product development management group with a specific focus on the controller in action. This specimen of data serves to illustrate how larger issues of strategy and structure can be captured in the micro processes of a team. It is found that the controller seems to attend to rule making at the interface between alliance partners rather than chasing cost reductions to meet target costs. The latter task is effectively delegated to the responsible engineers through the design of the project and its time schedule. While we usually think of the controller as representing the principal or at least serve in an agency setting these findings point to a role as rule designer, i.e., as designer of the context in which cost control takes place. Action, here and now, will focus on diagnosis and maintenance of that context.

This paper deals with communication across functional and cultural borders in product development in an alliance context. It shows how the multiple levels of co-ordination in an alliance increase complexity. Product development takes place in meetings in a nexus of meetings. Communication is studied by the use of video. Sequences from such recordings are played back to participants who assist in the interpretation of communicative situations. It was found that participants tend to become myopic in their attributions of implications of behaviour in meetings, which hampers communication efficiency. It is suggested that Complexity Theory provides an explanation and that a solution can be sought in feedback of video sequences and reflection on communication problems.

Explanted preparations of peripheral nerves with attached dorsal root ganglia of adult mammals and amphibia survive for several days in serum-free medium and can be used to study axonal regeneration in vitro. This review outlines the methods which we routinely use and how they may be applied to study different aspects of axonal regeneration. When the peripheral nerves are crushed in vitro, axons regenerate through the crush site into the distal stump within 1 day (mouse) or 3 days (frog). The outgrowth distance of the leading sensory axons can be determined with the use of a simple method based on axonal transport of labelled proteins. A compartmentalised system permits selective application of drugs and other agents to either ganglia or peripheral nerve containing the regenerating axons and has been used to study selected aspects of regeneration including influence of non-neuronal cells, retrograde signalling, axonal release of proteins during regeneration and the role of phospholipase A2 activity. Explanted preparations may also be cultured in a layer of extracellular matrix material (matrigel), in which spontaneous outgrowth of a large number of naked axons from the cut ends of nerves starts within 1 day and continues for several days. This provides an opportunity to study the direct effects of different agents on axonal elongation. Preparations cultured in collagen gels show sparse spontaneous axonal growth, but this can be increased by addition of certain growth factors. The phenotype of the regenerating axons can be studied using immunohistochemical methods.