博士(経済学) / 乙第409号 / ii, x, 194p / Hitotsubashi University(一橋大学)

Nous étudions les méthodes de management stratégique de l’entreprise familiale qui favorisent l’internationalisation performante et durable. Sur base de quatre cadres théoriques, la création de valeur économique durable, le socle stratégique, le modèle séquentiel d’Uppsala et l’apprentissage organisationnel, nous avons émis l’hypothèse qu’une stratégie d’internationalisation est performante et durable si les méthodes de management stratégique de l’entreprise familiale reposent sur des variables endogènes sociales et économiques. Au travers d’un cas longitudinal de recherche-intervention qualimétrique, nous avons ainsi identifié et mesuré les facteurs endogènes de performance durable de son internationalisation. Deux facteurs dominants de performance et deux de durabilité lui procurent un avantage concurrentiel : des pratiques de pilotage et de contrôle de trois natures incrémentales managériale, organisationnelle et informationnelle, la renégociation fréquente du « pacte organisationnel de vie commune », la mesure de ces facteurs incorporels et endogènes mobilisés et l’organisation de l’apprentissage tiré de l’expérience. / We study family businesses’ strategic management methods that promote sustainable and efficient internationalization. Based on four theoretical frameworks, sustainable economic value creation, strategic base, Uppsala’s sequential model, and organizational learning, we have ventured the following research hypothesis: the internationalization strategy boosts sustainable performance if family businesses’ strategic management methods rely on social and economic endogenous variables. Through a longitudinal intervention-research case, we have identified and measured its internationalization sustainable performance endogenous factors. Two main performance factors and two main sustainability factors provide competitive advantage for it: steering and controlling practices with three incremental functions (management, organization, and information), regular negotiation on “how to live together organizational agreement”, measurement of intangible and endogenous factors, and organization of experience-based learning.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Nearly half a century after independence, the Cameroon economy has experienced little or no growth in per capita incomes in spite of the enormous natural and human potentials of the country and in spite of the huge packages of aid and subsequent debt relief received from the international donor community, suggesting a more profound cause to the development problems facing the country. Under the current WTO rules-based system of multi-lateral trade management, Cameroon, like other poor countries, is left with limited scope for effective implementation of industrial and trade policies that could bail her out of her present predicament. Against this backdrop, this study seeks to explore the fundamental determinants of sustainable growth within the context of the Cameroonian economy. While acknowledging the role of openness to international markets in promoting growth, its effects could only be maximised with the attainment of certain threshold conditions such as the availability of basic skills, provision of vital infrastructure services and public goods, and good governance. In a nutshell, for development to happen, the country needs not only well functioning markets, but also good governments that do not steal the fruits of workers' labour. Drawing on the endogenous growth models, the study suggests that incentives for investment in knowledge capital, for infrastructure provision and for good governance could bail the country out of its low level traps, setting it on the path of sustainable growth in an evermore globalising world economy.

In my doctoral project, I studied the evolution of retroviruses and long-term interactions with their hosts. Retroviruses infect a broad range of species including possibly all vertebrates. They are unique in their ability to efficiently create endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) - viral copies integrated into the host genomes and consequently inherited by successive generations as usual genomic locus. ERVs represent a significant portion of vertebrate genomes and play an important role in a variety of cellular processes and pathologies; however, their sequences are still largely unexplored. The results of my work contributed to the uncovering of ancient evolutionary history of retroviruses. In this regard, I employed the ERV sequences, as they represent "genetic fossils" of viral infections that occurred throughout entire retroviral evolution. By discovery and analysis of ancient ERV lineages, I shed light on the deep history of retroviruses and revealed how the past infections shaped the evolution of vertebrate antiviral defense. In addition to the investigation of retroviral evolution, I also studied process of ongoing endogenization and fixation of newly emerged ERVs in a mammalian host population. In this part of my work, I focused on a unique model of ERV that have been recently invading mule deer genome.

Preeclampsia (PE) is a multisystem disorder that contributes to maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity worldwide. It is characterized by de-novo hypertension and proteinuria or other maternal organ damage after 20 weeks of gestation. Evidence suggested that endogenous digitalis-like factor (EDLF) contributes to the pathogenesis of PE, and that the potential source of EDLF is the placenta. EDLF can inhibit the sodium pump (SP) specifically and may lead to hypertension, it has also been associated with hypoxia, oxidative stress and other abnormalitites present in PE.We studied whether normal human placenta responded to SP inhibition casued by EDLF with a change in abundance of lipids in the placental cytosol, and whether there was a characteristic set of lipid changes that could serve as a signature for EDLF exposure if there were such changes. Placenta tissues from 20 normal pregnancies were incubated for 48 hr in the presence and absence of ouabain, a widely studied EDLF, followed by tissue homogenization, lipid extraction, and the study of lipids using a mass spectrometery (MS) based lipidomics approach. 1207 lipidomic markers were surveyed by paired Student t-test, among which 26 markers had significantly different abundances between cases and control at the FDR=0.05 level. A set of 8 lipidomic markers were selected by a statistical model built with a sparse partial least squares discriminant analysis method (sPLS-DA) and a bootstrap procedure. All eight markers were then chemically characterized and partially identified using tandem MS. These markers might be used to identify placentas that have been previously exposed to EDLF in return.Endogenous peptides and small proteins might contribute to the pathophysiology of various diseases. Therefore, we investigated the potential peptidomic profile of placenta tissues in response to EDLF exposure as well. Placenta tissues from 20 normal pregnancies were incubated for 25 hr with and without the addition of ouabain, followed by homogenization, protein depletion, and the study of the peptides by a LC-MS based peptidomics approach. 275 peptidomic markers were evaluated by Student t-test. A set of 8 markers was chosen using a logistic regression model build with the Akaike information criterion (AIC). However, no peptidomics markers or set of markers showed specific, statististically significantly different changes in abundances between cases and controls after applying a false discovery rate (FDR) correction or using more conservative methods to overcome over-fitting. Using an optimal sPLS- DA, cross-validation studies and logistic regression models, we also found that the addition of any peptidomic marker to the previously selected lipidomic profile was unlikely to help identify placentas that had been exposed to EDLF.Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and the number of AD cases worldwide is currently estimated to be 36 million. The exact pathogenesis of AD remainsiielusive and available therapeutic strategies can only delay its progession temporarily. Several hypotheses have been proposed regarding the pathophysiology of AD and the beta-amyloid (Aβ) hypothesis is considered the core mechanism. However, the majority of studies concerning AD, or AD biomarkers specifically, have ignored a potentially important variable that is gender, despite reported gender differences in the risk of developing AD, the risk factors, clinical symptoms and CSF biomarkers of the disease, among many other aspects.We analyzed data obtained from a previous study of diagnostic serum lipid biomarkers for AD with the consideration of potential gender difference. Firstly, we studied the interaction between gender and disease stage using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Lipid markers that showed statistically significant interaction were selected after applying a FDR correction. Secondly, using a lasso logistic regression model with binary classification (control vs. all AD stages), we identified gender-specific markers and found different coefficient estimates for different genders as well. Lastly, we build a new ordinal model with the addition of a gender-specific marker using a Bayesian lasso probit ordinal regression model. The predictive performance of the new model was found to be statistically significantly better than the previous model which was built without the consideration of gender.In conclusion, we successfully discovered, chemically characterized lipidomic markers indicative of EDLF exposure in placenta and detected gender-specific lipid markers for AD.

The primary objective of this study was to develop an empirical model that accounts for factors affecting the demand for international tourist hotels, and that enables demand estimation and projection of demand, in the context of the metropolitan Seoul area. Models were hypothesized to explain market behavior of selected segments of the hotel industry. Demand Model I accounted for international hotel demand incorporating such explanatory variables as price, trade volume and events. Both demand and price were treated as endogenous variables and the time-dependent error processes were all examined. Demand Model I was further expanded by incorporating segmentation variables. The inclusion of segmentation variables into the model in Demand Model II enabled the analysis of the interdependence of market segments that affects demand. Along with the incorporation of a time series structure, a system of equations was employed for Demand Model II. The results indicated that the explanatory variables, which were own price, the number of events and the volume of trade, had a significant impact on international hotel demand. The results from the demand equations also revealed that the demand for a segment is significantly influenced by price and demand for other segments. A cross-segment substitution effect on the demand side is quite relevant for the international lodging market in Seoul and demand for a market segment fluctuates in the same direction as the total market demand changes. From the price equations, the market price of lodging services was found to be related to demand and supply influences simultaneously. The results also indicated that seasonality and economic factors, such as exchange rates and consumer price index, have significant influence directly on international lodging prices. Such factors also were found to have indirect effects on the demand level. / Ph. D.

With the increased demands of therapeutic proteins, there is going to be a need for new purification technologies which have high throughput, high yield and high resolution. Three purification technologies were explored as potential new technology to isolate recombinant and endogenous milk proteins: Expanded bed adsorption chromatography(EBAC) combined with hydrophobic interaction chromatography(HIC), Recycle continuous flow electrophoresis(RCFE) and Free flow isoelectric focusing(FFIEF). The first process(EBAC/HIC) used with Zn2+ as a selective precipitating agent, purified recombinant human protein C(rhPC) and IgG(contaminated with less than 1% IgA) from swine milk with high resolution and high yield while processing about 10-20 grams in a single operation. The second process(RCFE) was able to isolate the active sub-populations of rhPC from major milk contaminants( - and -pig casein) as wells as from the inactive sub-populations of rhPC. RCFE was able to process 1.5g total protein per hour on a small scale and is currently being researched to process 1kg total protein per hour. The third and final purification process(FFIEF) sub-fractionated 100mg of immuno-purified rhPC into 50 fractions. The FFIEF was able to produce a linear pH gradient over the range of 3-10 using 2% ampholytes. The fractionated rhPC showed differing degrees of activity that resulted from the -carboxylated glutamic acids and the sialic acids. / Ph. D.

There is now increasing evidence that for the U.S. economy, the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor, “sigma”, is rising over time. To account for this, we propose a microfounded model, where the evolution of “sigma”, and, hence, the shape of the aggregate production function occur endogenously. We develop a Schumpeterian growth model in which firms can undertake R&D activities that stochastically lead to the discovery of production technologies characterized by a higher elasticity of substitution between capital and labor. Improved possibilities for factor substitution mitigate the diminishment of the marginal product of capital and spur capital accumulation. Due to successful innovations, the steady state of the economy entails higher levels of the capital stock and the output good. Moreover, our numerical simulations show that the timing of innovations is important: two economies with the same steady-state elasticity of substitution between capital and labor can differ in terms of their steady-state levels of the capital stock and the output good.

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Research supports that social connection is important in both humans and animals. In humans, having a cohesive support/social network system and healthy attachments in childhood predict low risk of later addiction (i.e. substance use disorder), as does perceived support from a religious or other cohesive community. Moreover, personal characteristics such as identifying as religious or spiritual can predict low risk for addiction, but little is known about the intersection of neuroscience and religion/spirituality in this regard. Conversely, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have repeatedly been shown to predict later addiction. However, the role of the body’s neuro-hormonal responses, such as the endogenous opioid and oxytocin systems in this process merits further exploration, such as how the production or deprivation of endogenous opioids impact later substance use patterns. Existing research also provides evidence that individuals decrease pursuit of interpersonal connections and social bonds when they use substances that activate opioid receptors. This has been found with both substances of abuse and medications used to treat addiction (e.g., methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone). Research has also demonstrated that addiction often results in situations of social isolation. However, it remains to be elucidated whether the substances of abuse physiologically meet that need for connection. Importantly, research across numerous fields indicates that intentionally increasing interpersonal connection may be an effective treatment for addiction. However, less is known about how specific characteristics of communities impact the quantity, quality, or effectiveness of care and support for a person with addiction [...] / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1292/thumbnail.jpg