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The Chi-Nu project to measure prompt fission neutron energy spectra for the major actinides has now completed two measurements, for neutron-induced fission of 239Pu and 235U for incident neutron energies from 1 to 20 MeV, and has almost completed the prompt fission neutron spectrum measurement for 238U. In addition, similar data have been taken for spontaneous fission in some other isotopes, and a measurement of fission neutron spectra from 240Pu(n, f) is in progress. These measurements are done at the same facility, with the same equipment and analyzed in a similar way. A useful way to look at such data is to examine ratios of the prompt fission neutron spectra among actinides, as some of the experimental uncertainties involved in these data are the same from isotope to isotope, making the ratios of fission neutron spectra less dependent on the experimental and analysis details. We discuss here the ratios of prompt fission neutron spectra between 239Pu(n, f) and 235U(n, f) , as well as the evolution of the mean fission neutron energy for 239Pu(n, f) and 235,238U(n, f) with increasing incident neutron energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholders receive diverse signals regarding a firm's environmental practices, influencing their reactions and subsequently impacting the firm's market value. This study acknowledges these signals as either positive (stemming from the firm's environmental initiatives) or negative (emanating from environmental controversies highlighted by external sources). Our analysis not only scrutinizes the impact of these positive and negative signals on firm market value but also explores their specific characteristics, encompassing volume, persistence, and strength. Additionally, we investigate the interplay between environmental initiatives and controversies on firm market value. The results derived from examining a sample of 346 publicly listed firms spanning from 2006 to 2022 reveal the contrasting effects that positive and negative signals exert on a firm's market value. Moreover, we find an interaction effect between these signals, which emphasizes the necessity of considering signal characteristics for a comprehensive understanding of their implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the Chi-Nu experiment at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center is to measure the prompt fission neutron spectra from major actinides using a double time-of-flight method with a pulsed, white incoming neutron source. Fission events are detected with a parallel-plate avalanche counter and outgoing neutrons are detected with either a 6Li-glass or liquid scintillator detector array for low- or high-energy neutrons, respectively. A detector response matrix for the interaction of neutrons with the experimental environment for neutrons measured with the Chi-Nu 6Li-glass detector array has been calculated to obtain a full understanding of the measured Chi-Nu data and also to allow for nearly instantaneous production of simulated Chi-Nu data spectra. Prompt fission neutron spectra corresponding to 19 incoming neutron energy ranges from 0.7-20 MeV have been extracted using the ratio-of-ratios method with Chi-Nu 6Li-glass data on the neutron-induced fission of 235U. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the barriers perceived by companies and empirically analyse their influence on eco-innovation. Thus, in the article, we consider financial, knowledge, market, and regulatory barriers, since they have been shown to be crucial in the context of innovation management. For the empirical analysis, we use data from Flash Eurobarometers 426, 456 and 498. The three samples used include European companies and provide information on the development of eco-innovative activities, as well as on their drivers and barriers. The use of these data allows us not only to analyse the barriers to eco-innovation, but also their possible changes between the three years selected; 2015, 2017 and 2021. The results obtained show that the perception of barriers is positively related with eco-innovation, forming part of the experiential learning process. Financial and regulatory barriers show some predominance, although in 2021 knowledge and market barriers also become particularly relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to expand our understanding of how media coverage of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) negatively affects a firm's market value. Drawing on attribution theory, we contend that three features of CSI controversies reported by the media -- i.e. the type of stakeholder involved, the scope of controversies, and the persistence of controversies - determine what stakeholders consider to be the drivers under firms' misconduct, shaping their reaction and, therefore, the negative impact of CSI on firm market value. The results, based on an international sample of 535 firms and 2,502 observations along the period 2002-2020, show that the scope and persistence of CSI controversies are detrimental for firm market value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature we can identify two main approaches for sizing model-driven Web applications: one based on design measures and another based on functional measures. Design measures take into account the modeling primitives characterizing the models of the specific model-driven approach. On the other hand, the functional measures are obtained by applying functional size measurement procedures specifically conceived to map the modeling primitives of the model-driven approach into concepts of a functional size measurement method. In this paper, we focus our attention on the Object-Oriented Hypermedia (OO-H) method, a model-driven approach to design and develop Web applications. We report on the results of an empirical study carried out to compare the ability of some design measures and OO-HFP (a model-driven functional size measurement procedure) to predict the development effort of Web applications. To this aim, we exploited a dataset with 30 Web projects developed using OO-H. The analysis highlighted that each design measure was positively correlated with the Web application development effort. However, the best estimation model obtained by exploiting the Manual Stepwise Regression employed only the measure Internal Links (IL). Furthermore, the study highlighted that the estimates obtained with the IL based prediction model were significantly better than those achieved using the OO-HFP based prediction model. These results seem to confirm previous investigations suggesting that Function Point Analysis can fail to capture some specific features of Web applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The main object of this paper is to study the determinants of eco-innovations worldwide. The rising world's temperature and the increase of natural disasters occurred in most recent years have increased the concerns about the sustainability of the economic activity. In this regard, ecological innovation has been gaining a special relevance in the past years. Despite this, countries are heterogeneous in terms of producing green innovations. This provides us with an opportunity to understand its determinants and to offer a guidance on how to act for both, companies and governments. The study moves into this direction and tries to understand the institutional factors that would explain differences between countries regarding the number of eco-innovations. We test our hypotheses on data collected from PATSTAT. In particular, the study focuses on the production of green patents in countries belonging to the OECD for the period 2007-2015. The emphasis is placed on institutional factors and the results show that intellectual property rights, the effectiveness of the judicial system and protectionism are determining factors of eco-innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to gain further understanding of those factors that explain how multinational enterprises (MNEs) internationalize and compete in foreign countries. In particular, we underscore the role of MNEs country of origin when examining the influence of cultural distance on entry mode decisions. Moreover, we argue that the entry mode choice will subsequently determine the way subsidiaries innovate. Based on arguments from transaction cost theory, our contention is that shared-owned subsidiaries will present lower adoption speed of innovations than fully-owned subsidiaries. Finally, the moderating role of the host country environment in reducing potential opportunism is considered. We test our hypothesis on the mobile telecommunication sector during the period 2000-2017. Based on information of 18 multinational groups that operate in the five continents, our findings mostly support our hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We complement extant FMA literature by systematically bringing in the institutional context, a hitherto missing dimension. We focus on two components of the formal and informal institutional context - a country's market supporting institutions and a country's cultural orientation towards uncertainty, respectively - and we elaborate on their interplay with FM's performance and its persistence over time. We argue that market-supporting institutions are detrimental for first mover's performance and that uncertainty-avoiding societies tend to favor first's movers. We also propose that the effect of informal institutions on FMA is stronger when formal institutions are weaker. Building on our theory, we develop a comprehensive taxonomy of the enabling and disabling institutional conditions to achieve FMA. We test our hypotheses in the context of the world telecommunication industry and model estimations support our predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms develop their activities in a network of multiple players. Consequently, interfirm rivalry is not only a matter of direct competitors, but also of indirect. In spite of this, the literature on competitive dynamics tends to focus on analyzing rivalry as an exclusive function of the competitive relationship between a focal firm and its direct rivals. In this article, we extend competitive dynamics literature by considering how focal firms are affected by the relationships of their rivals with third-party firms. Specifically, we study the effect that the multimarket contacts of rivals produces on the performance of the focal firm. Additionally, we incorporate the idea that there are different strategic groups in the industry, and that this fact affects the intensity of multimarket contact externalities. Our results show that multimarket contact among firms causes externalities that indirectly affect firms that are not directly involved in this competitive relationship. We find that multimarket contact externalities differ between and within strategic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]