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It has been widely acknowledged that today’s business world is characterized by severe competition. To remain competitive, firms have to employ alternative strategies to keep up with the fast paced development. One such strategy is coopetition; firms collaborate in some areas to combine their resources while competing in other areas. Thus, instead of trying to master everything within a company’s own walls, emphasis is towards gaining access to external resources and coordinating the wide array of expertise in the best possible way to achieve competitive advantage. In addition, growing requirements from the customer end force firms to combine their resources to be able to put together tailored solutions. This entails a notable customer input in product development and firm’s ability to utilize market knowledge can not be undermined. However, before the feedback gained from the market can act as a source of competitive edge, it has to be further processed into a form in which it offers strategic value for the company. This research aims to study how market knowledge is utilized to create competitive in the interface of inter- and intra-organizational coopetition. Even though competition is often considered to take place between firms, competitive elements can also be found within firms. For that reason, we include both inter- and intra-organizational coopetition in the research. In terms of the process involved in market knowledge utilization, three steps are appointed; transfer, translation and transformation of knowledge. To perform the research, we selected a high technology company belonging to SME category present in the information security business as case company. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted on three different occasions. Due to the sensitive nature of the research topic, the case company remains anonymous and is referred to as Case Company in the research. By ensuring respondents’ anonymity, the gained responses are more likely to be honest and thus more reliable and comprehensive. The empirical findings revealed differences in market knowledge utilization between inter- and intra-organizational coopetition. While coopetition taking place between firms was characterized with dominating competitive element and protection of one’s own assets, only preliminary stages of market knowledge utilization were found to be present. This entailed that knowledge transformation was absent in the inter-organizational context. On the other hand, on the intra-organizational level a collective approach to knowledge coordination was employed and attention had been paid on establishing sufficient structural conditions to support the knowledge utilization process. Thus, the process within the company was more efficient and it completed the knowledge utilization process at the inter-organizational level as knowledge transformation took place only within Case Company. While coopetition is a rather new field of study, we believe that the performed research provided information on inter- and intra-organizational coopetition in an SME present in the high technology industry and gave insights of the knowledge exchange both within and across companies. In the end, we have built up a model including the most important findings of the study. The figure entails the market knowledge utilization processes visualized in both inter- and intra-organizational contexts.

This dissertation involved linking a clinical cystic fibrosis (CF) data registry with administrative databases to evaluate clinical, demographic, and geographical predictors of hospitalization in CF patients living in Ontario over a 10 year period. In addition, this work assessed the ability of administrative data to identify individuals with CF using the clinical registry as the reference standard. Sex was an independent predictor of hospitalization rates for individuals with CF. Females had a significantly higher hospitalization rate compared to males even after adjusting for important clinical factors suggesting that this finding is not simply due to worse CF disease. In those between 7 and 19 years of age, the adjusted hospitalization rate was 38% higher in females (rate ratio[RR] 1.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11-1.73). Similarly in those over the age of 19, females had a 30% higher hospitalization rate compared to males (RR 1.30, 95% CI 1.06-1.59). Other significant predictors associated with higher hospitalization rates in both age groups were lower lung function, worse nutritional status, pancreatic insufficiency, and the presence of CF-related diabetes. The presence of Burkholderia cepacia complex in the sputum was a significant predictor in those over the age of 19 years (RR 1.54, 95% CI 1.26-1.89). Distance to CF centre, community size and socioeconomic status were not significant predictors of hospitalization rates in either age group. There was no significant trend in hospitalization rates over time once rates were adjusted for markers of disease severity (p=0.08). Comparing administrative data with the CF registry data, administrative data captured hospitalizations more comprehensively. Despite CF being a specific diagnosis, health administrative databases alone were insufficient to reliably and accurately identify individuals with CF unless they had been hospitalized. The reason for the gender disparity seen within this dissertation is likely multifactorial. There may be differences in outpatient management between the sexes, hormonal influences may modulate disease severity causing higher hospitalization rates, and patient and provider-level influences may affect the decision to hospitalize a patient. Further research is needed in this area to elucidate the factors contributing to this gender gap.

Objective: To evaluate the utilization and cost of drugs for the treatment of asthma and COPD in Lithuania in 2006-2009. Methodology: The data on the sales of drugs for asthma and COPD for the year 2006-2009 was obtained from SoftDent, JSC, database. The utilization of the R03 group (drugs for obstructive airway diseases) of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification was analysed. The utilization was expressed as DDD/1000 inhabitants per day. The pharmacoeconomical analysis was performed implementing cost-minimisation and reference pricing methodologies. Results: The total use of drugs for asthma and COPD increased from 23,70 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day in 2006 to 28,67 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day in 2009. The most significant increase is found in the use of inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2-agonist combinations. The costs for drugs for the treatment of asthma and COPD increased from 59,71 million Litas in 2006 to 80,12 million Litas in 2008 and decreased to 79,25 million Litas in 2009. The use of drugs of the ATC group R03 is about 2 times higher in Norway, Denmark and Finland and about 1,6 times lower in Estonia. The pharmacoeconomical analysis shows marked savings if the lowest of the second lowest prices of one DDD were implemented as the reference price. The most considerable saving is found to be for inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2-agonist combinations – using the lowest basic price of one DDD as the reference price, total 18,04 million Litas would... [to full text] / Tikslas: Įvertinti vaistų, vartojamų astmai ir lėtinei obstrukcinei plaučių ligai (LOPL) gydyti suvartojimą ir išlaidas Lietuvoje 2006-2009 metais. Metodika: Duomenys apie vaistų, vartojamų astmai ir LOPL gydyti pardavimus 2006-2009 metais gauti iš UAB SoftDent duomenų bazės. Analizuojami vaistai yra klasifikuojami R03 grupėje (vaistai obstrukcinėms plaučių ligoms) pagal Anatominę Terapinę Cheminę (ATC) klasifikaciją. Vaistų suvartojimas išreikštas DDD skaičiumi, tenkančiu tūkstančiui gyventojų per vieną dieną. Farmakoekonominė analizė atlikta taikant kaštų mažinimo ir referentinės kainos metodus. Rezultatai: Bendras vaistų astmai ir LOPL gydyti suvartojimas Lietuvoje išaugo nuo 23,70 DDD/1000 gyventojų per dieną 2006 metais iki 28,67 DDD/1000 gyventojų per dieną 2009 metais. Didžiausias suvartojimo augimas nustatytas inhaliuojamų gliukokortikosteroidų/ilgo veikimo β2-agonistų kombinuotų preparatų grupėje. Išlaidos vaistų, vartojamų astmai ir LOPL gydyti augo nuo 59,71 mln. Litų 2006 metais iki 80,12 mln. Litų 2008 metais ir 2009 metais sumažėjo iki 79,25 mln. Litų. Vaistų, klasifikuojamų R03 grupėje pagal ATC klasifikaciją, suvartojimas Lietuvoje yra apie 2 kartus mažesnis nei Norvegijoje, Danijoje ir Suomijoje ir apie 1,6 karto didesnis nei Estijoje. Farmakoekonominė analizė pateikia ženklius galimo taupymo pavyzdžius, jei mažiausia ar antra mažiausia vieno DDD kaina būtų taikoma kaip referentinė kaina. Reikšmingiausi farmakoekonominės analizės rezultatai nustatyti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Šiame darbe buvo atlikta gyvūninės kilmės atliekų utilizavimo proceso analizė. Pagrindinis uždavinys- rasti būdą prognozuoti utilizavimo proceso pabaigą ir tuo sumažinti energijos suvartojimą. Naudojausi laiko eilučių prognozavimo modeliu. Aprašiau savo metodą pasikeitimo taškui rasti. Taip pat buvo panaudota tiesinė regresija. Galimybė prognozuoti pasikeitimo tašką leistų žymiai sumažinti utilizavimo proceso savikainą. / I this work, an analysis of animal waste utilization process was performed. The main task was to find a way to predict the end of the desiccation process, because possibility to predict this end point may reduce energy consumption. I used the time series forcasting model and proposed method for the change point detection. Linear regression was also used for this task.