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Research summary: Extending research on the effect of experience on acquisition outcomes, we examine how the differential in previous M&A experience between the target and the acquirer affects the value they, respectively, obtain when the acquirer takes over the target. Drawing on literature about organizational learning, negotiation, and information economics, we theorize that the party with greater experience will be able to obtain more value. Furthermore, we theorize that the effect of differential M&A experience on value obtained is contingent on the level of information asymmetry the acquirer faces with respect to the target, specifically as a function of the target's product-market scope and whether the deal is friendly. We test and find support for these predictions in a sample of 1,241 M&As over a 30-year period. Managerial summary: Corporate strategy is about a firm's scope and development decisions and outcomes, but corporate strategizing is incomplete unless managers anticipate the moves of other economic actors. We demonstrate the importance of these points when it comes to learning to make acquisitions. Using an innovative research design and theory that enables comparison between acquirer and target gains, we show that whatever their firm's acquisition history and capabilities, acquisitive managers should mind the negotiation and other pitfalls that arise when target firms possess ample acquisition experience of their own. We also demonstrate that the effect of experience advantage, whereby the more experienced party benefits, depends on the target firm's scope and whether the deal is friendly—two dimensions that acquirers can and should take into account.

The Future of Nursing explores how nurses' roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in America's increasingly complex health system. At more than 3 million in number, nurses make up the single largest segment of the health care work force. They also spend the greatest amount of time in delivering patient care as a profession. Nurses therefore have valuable insights and unique abilities to contribute as partners with other health care professionals in improving the quality and safety of care as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted this year. Nurses should be fully engaged with other health professionals and assume leadership roles in redesigning care in the United States. To ensure its members are well-prepared, the profession should institute residency training for nurses, increase the percentage of nurses who attain a bachelor's degree to 80 percent by 2020, and double the number who pursue doctorates. Furthermore, regulatory and institutional obstacles-including limits on nurses' scope of practice-should be removed so that the health system can reap the full benefit of nurses' training, skills, and knowledge in patient care. In this book, the Institute of Medicine makes recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing.

Nurses make up the largest segment of the health care profession, with 3 million registered nurses in the United States. Nurses work in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, public health centers, schools, and homes, and provide a continuum of services, including direct patient care, health promotion, patient education, and coordination of care. They serve in leadership roles, are researchers, and work to improve health care policy. As the health care system undergoes transformation due in part to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the nursing profession is making a wide-reaching impact by providing and affecting quality, patient-centered, accessible, and affordable care. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released the report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health , which made a series of recommendations pertaining to roles for nurses in the new health care landscape. This current report assesses progress made by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/AARP Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action and others in implementing the recommendations from the 2010 report and identifies areas that should be emphasized over the next 5 years to make further progress toward these goals.

PurposeAvoided emissions refer to greenhouse gas emission reductions that are a result of using a product or are emission removals due to a decision or an action. Although there is no uniform standard for calculating avoided emissions, market actors have started referring to avoided emissions as “Scope 4” emissions. By default, making a claim about Scope 4 emissions gives an appearance that this Scope of emissions is a natural extension of the existing and accepted Scope-based emissions accounting framework. The purpose of this study is to explore the implications of this assumed legitimacy.Design/methodology/approachVia a desktop review and interviews, we analyse extant Scope 4 company reporting, associated accounting methodologies and the practical implications of Scope 4 claims.FindingsUpon examination of Scope 4 emissions and their relationship with Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions, we highlight a dynamic and interdependent relationship between quantification, commensuration and standardization in emissions accounting. We find that extant Scope 4 assessments do not fit the established framework for Scope-based emissions accounting. In line with literature on the territorializing nature of accounting, we call for caution about Scope 4 claims that are a distraction from the critical work of reducing absolute emissions.Originality/valueWe examine the implications of assumed alignment and borrowed legitimacy of Scope 4 with Scope-based accounting because Scope 4 is not an actual Scope, but a claim to a Scope. This is as an act of accounting territorialization.

Sensitivity to scope is considered a desirable property of contingent valuation studies and often treated as a necessary condition for validity. We first provide an overview of scope insensitivity explanations put forth in the environmental valuation literature. Then we analyze data from a contingent valuation survey eliciting willingness-to-pay to prevent oil spills of four different magnitudes in Arctic Norway. In the baseline analysis, the scope inference is ambiguous. There is only statistical difference in willingness to pay to avoid a very large versus small oil spill (NOK 1869 and NOK 1086, respectively). However, further explorations show that several confounding factors suggested in the literature influence the scope inference. The scope sensitivity improves when we control for subjective probabilities of amenity provision, exclude respondents based on the debriefing questions, take into consideration the sample sizes, and impose diminishing marginal utility. Overall, the analysis supports an emerging view in the contingent valuation literature suggesting that statistical scope insensitivity is not a sufficient reason for deeming a study invalid.

This study aims to identify and compare the national scope of research at the country level, dealing with two groups of countries: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and a group of countries at the forefront in developing mainstream science (WORLD). We wish to explore whether similar or different patterns arise between the two groups at the global and disciplinary level, becoming apparent in their proportion of research related to local perspectives or topics. It is found that Latin America and the Caribbean countries present a greater proportion of local production. The trend to publish national-oriented research is related to disciplinary fields. Even though English is the dominant language of publication, the lingua franca is more likely to appear in the national scope of research, especially for Latin America and the Caribbean countries but also in the rest of non-Anglophone countries. Some implications and limitations for further studies are described.

BackgroundAn articulated laparoscope comprises a rigid shaft with an articulated distal end to change the viewing direction. The articulation provides improved navigation of the operating field in confined spaces. Furthermore, incorporation of an actuation system tends to enhance the control of an articulated laparoscope.MethodsA preliminary prototype of a scope actuation system to maneuver an off-the-shelf articulated laparoscope (EndoCAMaleon by Karl Storz, Germany) was developed. A user study was conducted to evaluate this prototype for the surgical paradigm of video-assisted thoracic surgery. In the study, the subjects maneuvered an articulated scope under two modes of operation: (a) actuated mode where an operating surgeon maneuvers the scope using the developed prototype and (b) manual mode where a surgical assistant directly maneuvers the scope. The actuated mode was further assessed for multiple configurations based on the orientation of the articulated scope at the incision.ResultsThe data show the actuated mode scored better than the manual mode on all the measured performance parameters including (a) total duration to visualize a marked region, (a) duration for which scope focus shifts outside a predefined visualization region, and (c) number of times for which scope focus shifts outside a predefined visualization region. Among the different configurations tested using the actuated mode, no significant difference was observed.ConclusionsThe proposed articulated scope actuation system facilitates better navigation of an operative field as compared to a human assistant. Secondly, irrespective of the orientation in which an articulated scope’s shaft is inserted through an incision, the proposed actuation system can navigate and visualize the operative field.

The value-based approach to strategy argues that a firm's ability to capture value depends on the extent of its added value. In this paper, I empirically test the link between added value and value capture using a longitudinal dataset of United Kingdom law firm performance, capabilities, and client relationships. In this setting, competitors relevant for defining a firm's added value are those that share a client with the firm. Further, within a client relationship, value creation, and hence added value, can be decomposed in two parts: product-line capability and client-specific scope economies. I find that added value, measured at the level of each buyer-supplier relationship, is a driver of relationship stability and supplier profitability. This suggests that suppliers with similar capabilities might enjoy different economic returns depending on the composition of their set of relevant competitors. These findings shed light on the conditions under which firms can appropriate returns from their capabilities. They indicate that concepts from cooperative games can be fruitfully applied to empirical studies of firm performance and to the elaboration of insights from the resource-based view of the firm.

During 1980–2000, an average of 310 companies per year went public in the United States. Since 2000, the average has been only 99 initial public offerings (IPOs) per year, with the drop especially precipitous among small firms. Many have blamed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the 2003 Global Settlement’s effects on analyst coverage for the decline in IPO activity. We find very little support for the conventional wisdom, and we offer an alternative explanation. Our economies of scope hypothesis posits that the advantages of selling out to a larger organization, which can speed a product to market and realize economies of scope, have increased relative to the benefits of operating as an independent firm.