The manner in which technological capability and marketing capability can be successfully leveraged is an important research issue. Based on the resource-management model, this study aims to answer two research questions: (1) whether technological capability and marketing capability are complementary or supplementary capabilities; and (2) how technological capability and marketing capability can be used appropriately to respond to environmental turbulence. Based on a face-to-face interview survey of 212 Chinese firms, we find that technological capability and marketing capability have synergistic effects. We also find that technological turbulence enhances the performance effect of technological capability, but impedes that of marketing capability; whereas market turbulence advances the performance effect of marketing capability, but impedes that of technological capability. Thus, the appropriate way to leverage technological capability and marketing capability is to integrate them and to deploy technological capability to respond to technological turbulence and marketing capability to respond to market turbulence.

The alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7 nAChR), consisting of homomeric α7 subunits, is a ligand-gated Ca2+-permeable ion channel implicated in cognition and neuropsychiatric disorders. Enhancement of α7 nAChR function is considered to be a potential therapeutic strategy aiming at ameliorating cognitive deficits of neuropsychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and schizophrenia. Currently, a number of α7 nAChR modulators have been reported and several of them have advanced into clinical trials. In this brief review, we outline recent progress made in understanding the role of the α7 nAChR in multiple neuropsychiatric disorders and the pharmacological effects of α7 nAChR modulators used in clinical trials.

Research Summary: This study addresses a theoretical dilemma regarding how alliance network constraint (reflected by network cohesion) affects a firm's alliance formation with new partners. Using a network pluralism approach, we separate a firm's ego alliance network into two activity-based networks-an exploratory network and an exploitative network-based on the primary value chain activity involved in each alliance. We argue that the cohesion of exploratory or exploitative networks has an inverted U-shaped effect on the addition of new partners in the same activity-based network, and a positive effect on the addition of new partners in the other network. Results based on data from the biotechnology industry largely support our predictions with one exception. Our study contributes to both scholarly understanding of network embeddedness and alliance practice. Managerial Summary: The structure of firms' ongoing alliance networks may have paradoxical implications for their efforts to search for and form alliance with new partners. That is, when a firm's alliance partners are tightly connected with each other, the cohesive network tends to both encourage and impede the focal firm to add new partners. We resolve this dilemma by showing that when a firm is deeply entrenched in a cohesive alliance network conducting a certain type of activities (e.g., R&D activities), it may not easily add new R&D alliance partners. However, it may still be able to escape from the cohesive R&D alliance network by seeking new partners conducting other activities (e.g., manufacturing activities).

A useful theoretical lens for understanding innovation in the strategy and entrepreneurship literatures is knowledge recombination. According to a recombination logic, innovations come about by recombining knowledge components, each of which is associated with a core scientific or technological concept. Interactions among a set of recombined components give rise to new meanings and functions that become the basis of an innovation. The singular focus on the components of knowledge underlying an innovation makes knowledge recombination stand out from other theoretical approaches. The rapid growth in research utilizing a recombination logic suggests that the time is ripe for stepping back and assessing its key insights. Therefore, this review provides a framework for a recombination perspective and considers how the literature using a recombination approach has progressed over time, including identification of key features of knowledge components, influences on how components are recombined, and the outcomes of recombination. Finally, a number of new directions for research are proposed.

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