In the operations management field, operational practices like total quality management or just in time have been seen as a way to improve operational performance and ultimately financial performance. Empirical support for this effect of operational practices in financial performance has been, however, limited due to research design and the inherent difficulties of using performance as a dependent variable. In this paper, we tested the relationship between selected operational practices (quality management, just in time, ISO certification and services outsourcing) in financial performance outcomes of profitability and growth. A sample of 1200 firms, operating in São Paulo, Brazil, was used. Analysis using multiple regression explored the direct effect of practices and their interaction with industry dummies. Results did not support the existence of a positive relationship with financial performance. A negative relationship of outsourcing with both profitability and growth was found, supporting some critical views of the outsourcing practice. A weaker negative relationship between ISO certification and growth was also found. Some interactions between practices and industries were also significant, with mixed results, indicating that the effect of practices on performance might be context dependent.

that though CFTRinh-172 can bind to both open and closed state of the channel, at least one additional step, presumably reflecting inhibitorinduced conformational changes, is required to shut down the conductance following binding of the inhibitor to the channel. Our data also indicate that stabilization of the open state leads to more potent inhibition: K 1/2 is reduced to nanomolar range for locked-open CFTR channels. Interestingly, we found that although there is >95% homology between pig and human proteins, pig CFTR is significantly less sensitive to CFTRinh-172 (K 1/2 = 8.05 5 3.38 mM for pig CFTR vs K 1/2 = 1.24 5 0.14 mM for human CFTR). This result is especially puzzling since the open time for pig CFTR is~5 times longer than that of human CFTR. Like its human counterpart, pig CFTR, locked open with PPi, becomes more sensitive to CFTRinh-172 (K 1/2 = 2.21 5 0.41 mM). However, compared to human CFTR locked open with PPi, pig channels are >100 fold less sensitive to the inhibitor. We also found that dog CFTR behaves very similarly to pig CFTR, including a longer open time and a lower sensitivity to CFTRinh-172. Sequence analysis and chimera approach allowed us to reveal the region between the R-and NBD2-domains as largely responsible for this difference in sensitivity. Experiments further identifying responsible amino acid residue(s) are under way.