This study examines the effects of downsizing actions and implementation strategies on market performance. While downsizing actions reduce costs, they also produce a loss of valuable human capital that can exceed the benefits resulting from the lay-offs. In support of this argument, the results showed that downsizing had a negative effect on market returns and the effects grow increasingly negative with larger downsizing actions. However, the market reacts more positively to downsizing actions when reallocation strategies are used and to large downsizing actions when disengagement incentives are applied. The results of this research suggest the importance of carefully managing valuable resources to create positive returns.

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Corporate entrepreneurship is important to firms' long-term competitiveness, and crossfunctional fertilization contributes to firm innovation. Thus, cross-functional teams have become popular in the design and development of new products, but there has been little research on the specific characteristics and processes of such teams over time. This research longitudinally studied a cross-functional new product design team using multiple methods. The results suggested that organizational context, specifically top management team support and organizational politics, has more significant influence on team success than internal team characteristics. While the team experienced a positive beginning with few differences among the team members, conditions rapidly deteriorated because of a lack of top management support and dysfunctional organizational politics. Thus, the results have Implications for effective management of cross-functional teams. This intensive longitudinal case study produced rich and valuable information and provides useful implications for corporate entrepreneurship and directions for future research on cross-functional teams."... any company or commercial organization that is not continually developing, acquiring and adapting advancing technology likely has made an unintentional strategic decision to be out of business within a few years" (Merrifield, 1993, p. 383).The technological revolution and intense global competition present major challenges to firms' ability to maintain their competitiveness (Bettis & Hitt, 1995;Hitt, Keats, & DeMarie, 1998). This rapid change and diffusion of new technology, along with substantial competition in domestic and international markets, has placed increasing importance on firms' ability to innovate and introduce new innovations into the marketplace (Franko, 1989). In fact, innovation may be required to maintain or achieve competitive parity, much less a competitive advantage in many global markets. Thus, corporate entrepreneurship is important. Corporate entrepreneurship is the sum of a company's innovation, renewal and venturing efforts (Zahra, 1995). The new competitive landscape Spring, 1999

Constant compressive stress creep experiments in the temperature and stress ranges of 1770 to 2020 K and 35 to 373 MPa have been performed on polycrystalline alpha SIC. Specimens having average grain sizes of 3.5, 4.9, and 7.5 ,urn have been studied in order to determine the grain size dependence of steady-state creep in this material and to distinguish the relative contributions of diffusion-accommodated grann boundary sliding and dislocation glide. Analysis of steady-state creep rate data revealed different kinetics of creep below and above 1920 K as follows: activation energies of 387-541 and 838-877 kJ/mol, stress exponents of 1 .O-1.4 and 1.4-2.5, and inverse grain size exponents of 2.5 and 4. The m value of 2.5 indicated Coble-controlled creep with a contribution of Nabarro-Herring creep in the low-temperature range. The m value was less reliable for the high-temperature range because of the large differences in the microstructures of the three materials. The large number of high aspect ratio grains with increasing average grain size resulted in different contributions of diffusion-accommodated grain boundary sliding and dislocation glide between these materials. [