Our study aims to investigate the mechanisms leading to focal firm’s innovation performance through the coopetitive relationships. Specifically, we argue focal firm’s two capabilities, coopetition capability and NPD capability, play a crucial role as a mediator of interfirm coopetition and its innovation performance. In order to provide new evidence on this subject, we contribute to this stream by developing a conceptual model. We argue that coopetitive behaviors of partners will influence the focal firm’s coopetition capability, which will then influence the focal firm’s NPD capability, although we assume NPD capability will have an impact on coopetition capability as well. We also argue NPD capability will not only lead to new product advantages, NPD process advantages as well, as a result of them, financial performance at the end. This paper reports the development of this model.

Predation, development, and ovipostion experiments were conducted to evaluate Amblyseius swirskii (Athias-Henriot) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) as a potential biological control agent for tomato russet mite, Aculops lycopersici (Massee) (Acari: Eriophyidae) which is a periodic pest of greenhouse tomatoes. Results show that A. swirskii attacked all developmental stages of A. lycopersici, and had a type II functional response on the prey densities given. The predation rates of A. swirskii on A. lycopersici in the presense of alternative food sources such as pollen, thrips first instar, or whitefly eggs were recorded as 74%, 56%, and 76%, respectively of the predation rate on A. lycopersici alone. Amblyseius swirskii successfully completed their life-cycle on either A. lycopersici or cattail pollen. At 25oC, 70% RH, development time of female A. swirskii fed on A. lycopersici or on cattail pollen took 5.0 and 6.2 days, respectively. For the first 10 days after moulting to the adult stage, A. swirskii fed on A. lycopersici had higher daily oviposition rate (2.0 eggs per day) than on pollen (1.5 eggs per day). From this laboratory study, it can be concluded that A. swirskii has promising traits as a predator against A. lycopersici and that their populations can be stably maintained using alternative food such as cattail pollen. We suggest that the effectiveness of A. swirskii against A. lycopersici under field conditions deserves to be investigated.

We propose an evaluation method of the relative content of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) in SWCNT soot synthesized by arc discharge using UV-VIS-NIR absorption spectroscopy. In this method, we consider the absorbance of semiconducting and metallic SWCNTs together to calculate the relative content of SWCNTs with respect to a highly purified reference. Our method provides the more reliable and realistic evaluation of SWCNT content with respect to the whole carbonaceous content than the previously reported method.

We measured the non-carbon content of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in SWCNT soot using thermogravimetric analysis. The weight increased percentage by the oxidation of metal in the raw soot is well obtained by TGA graph which was confirmed with ICP-AES, XRD, and XPS. This work will be very useful for the purity precise evaluation of SWCNT with UN-vis-NIR spectroscopy.