Failure of the Mercantilism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Failure of the Mercantilism - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that  the mercantilists believed that the presence of more gold and silver bullions in a country translated to a better economy than any country with minimal gold and silver reserves. The theorists believed and encouraged countries not to use their gold deposits for trade even when the people desperately needed these products. The mercantilists had the idea that any successful trade meant the gain of one party and the loss of the other party. They never viewed the trade between two countries as being mutually beneficial. They encouraged their countries to influence the international trade and ensure that the citizens did not compromise their gold and silver deposits.This essay stresses that  the mercantilists developed ideas that were meant to promote the interests of the merchants since they were believed to be a significant source of a country’s gold and silver reserves. The government placed the role of attracting more gold and silver to the country to the merchants and also entrusted them with implementing relevant measures that would seek to regulate the economy. Malynes, for example, states that the merchants more specifically the bankers would develop appropriate measures that would see the increase in the supply of specie into the country. Malynes rejected any effects of the exchange rate in influencing external trade and trusted the â€Å"tricks of the bankers† to solve the economic problem experienced in the country.

Inferior quality Essay Example for Free

Inferior quality Essay Group decision making is a valid procedure that most of the times ensures that the answers and decision provided are of high quality as compared to individual decision making. It nevertheless is highly dependent on the technique of group decision making that was applied. The obvious assumptions to support this claims is that many people have the ability to bring more information to the table and explore various alternatives from different perspectives therefore living little room for mistakes. The end product of their critical evaluation of information more often than not results to creative ideas. In fact the more diverse the group is the better the ideas (Viteles 1953, 7). Mostly group decision making comes in to play when the option available necessitates inputs and opinions from more than one person. Even then it should be noted that as much as the answers from a group may be of high quality there no two groups that will function similarly while in the decision making process. The implication is therefore that one group may be proactive and others might require a facilitator in order to function effectively (Kerr King 1984, 17). The process is therefore a complex one and is achievable through various methods: Authoritarian Style The authoritarian style functions like a dictatorship. In this method the power to make the ultimate and final decision rests on one person. This person usually dictates the entire process and has the greatest say in the final outcome. Mostly this method is applied in cases where a powerful person and a key decision maker in the company is present. As much as the final answer may be of high quality many people are usually against this method especially those whose ideas were not incorporated in the final outcome. The minority control method has often been used to try and counter the negatives of this style (Rollison 2008, 14). Brainstorming Another method that a group can use to reach a quality decision is by the use of brainstorming. The method is mostly useful when the decision making process is starting from scratch. It mostly entails creating a variety of options and then weighing them before choosing the one that best fits. It is a popular method because of the fact that it gives each member of the group complete freedom. In some cases brain storming sessions have facilitator who has the function of ensuring that the group does not deviate. The facilitator also has the responsibility and the freedom to start the discussion, probe, and even provide some useful hints subtle (Griffin 1993, 56). This method of group decision-making is very effective because it puts value on every participant’s point of view and the final outcome is usually by consensus. Voting based method The voting based technique is often used when a group is presented by a set of defined alternatives and yet they are required to pick one that they think will ensure maximum value. Participants in this case are given the option of choosing the alternative they think is best. Unlike brainstorming this style puts little value on each individual’s opinions (Gordon 1983, 32). Basically the quality of the answer provided in a group discussion is also highly dependent on the style the group used to make their final decision. The assumption is that the authoritarian style may not provide the same quality of answers as brainstorming and voting. But generally a quality outcome is to be anticipated because the members are able to combine their individual strengths while offsetting their weaknesses. A set of different competence and skills is applied on the problem at hand before a solution is reached (Hogan 2003, 15). The group process also eliminates the chances of a biased answer as would be the case in individual decision making. Group decision making additionally embraces and evaluates an idea from broader perspective which is a result of the various unique perceptions of individuals in the group. In the case of an individual, the final outcome may easily be an influence of a preconceived idea or notion. It is therefore difficult for the person to be able to single handedly critic his views and therefore change direction because he already has a fixed picture in his mind of how things should be done. The wrong option therefore may be for example based on religious affiliation, cultural differences, or social status and therefore the outcome may in fact not be rational (Schwarz 2002, 53-52). Individual’s answers most of the time occur by default and no other alternatives are usually brought in to play for evaluation before the conclusion is made. The surrounding circumstances additionally tend to influence the final outcome therefore events will sometimes overpower the person’s ability to make a rational decision. This probably may not have great implication when for example you want to buy cologne but may mean a lot of deficits if the decision to be made is meant for a commercial entity. Decisions made by a lot of individuals are of quality because they have a higher chance of being implemented than individual decisions especially when it comes for example at the company level. This is simply because as the group discusses the individuals are able to comprehensively grasp the weight of the decision and understand the course of action needed to implement it. It is also the result of the boosted team spirit brought about by the consideration of each person’s idea and therefore greater commitment to achieve the goals is gained (Kroon 1995, 10-12). Gordon (1983, 37) observes that the results of a group can be homogeneous depending on various factors. In the case of a multi cultural group for instance the answers are bound to be of even better quality considering that the individuals have different diverse backgrounds therefore the strategies for decision making will definitely be different. Conflicts may arise because of the different perceptions but the group in itself has the power to look for means to deal with those conflicts and thereby presenting an appropriate and quality decision. Additionally members in the group that is making a decision are usually interested in making an appropriate decision and have little consideration for the kind of relationships that exist between the individuals. Furthermore compromise that occurs during the whole process may serve to enhance the coming up of creative solutions. But the decision making in highly cohesive groups may not necessarily result into a quality decision. This may be first and foremost because of groupthink. Groupthink describes the tendency of people in a group that is highly cohesive to seek consensus so strongly such that their ability and willingness to critically evaluate each others ideas is lost or weakened. Groupthink is mostly a result of the group collective rationalization or overestimating its ability to make decisions in the face of extraordinary risks. With such a mindset it becomes very hard for the group to spot or identify any loopholes in the answers given during their discussion session. The other cause for groupthink could be the closed mindedness of the group. This is because while they are making an effort to conform they assume that their exists inherent morality. Therefore conviction that all the decisions made will be correct is developed making them less conscious of any questionable ethical outcomes of their answers. Moreover groupthink can simply be the result of the pressure to ensure uniformity is achieved. This pressure could be direct on dissenters to force them to conform maybe with a consequence of a reward or punishment. Mind guards also force members to uniformity because they discourage members from taking different perspectives and basically filter what is right and what is wrong for the discussion (Straub 1999, 73). Additionally the urge to maintain their status aspirations and social status may make a highly cohesive group to make very irrational and therefore not quality decisions. The two are very important ingredients for any group and may influence the level of their integration into the society. And as a matter of fact the members that feel that they are of a lesser status may perceive the views of those members with a higher status in society as ‘rational’ even though they might harbor doubts concerning the outcomes. Additionally still some of the ‘classy ‘members may discredit the views of others or better still a member with inferiority complex may shy away from giving his opinion that would have greatly assisted in making the appropriate and effective decision. In conclusion a group decision-making process may only guarantee limited rationality and quality in outcomes. From the discussion above it might be quiet unrealistic to expect total quality of answers. This is because among the other issues there are a lot of emotions involved before a consensus is made and therefore some people views might have to be compromised yet their could be a probability that the forgone perception could have led to a better answer. Word Count: 1487 References list Gordon, J. , 1983, A diagnostic approach to organizational behaviour. Allyn and Bacon, United States. Griffin, R. , 1993, Management. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Hogan, C. , 2003, Practical Facilitation: A Toolkit of Techniques. Kogan Page Publishers, United Kingdom. Johnson, D. Pierce, F. , 1991, Joining together: group theory and group skills. Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Kerr, K. King, H. , 1984, Procedures for meetings and organizations. Taylor Francis, United Kingdom. Kroon, J. , 1995, General management. Pearson, South Africa. Rollinson, D. 2008, Organisational behaviour and analysis: an integrated approach. Financial Times Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Schwarz, R. , 2002, The skilled facilitator: a comprehensive resource for consultants, facilitators, managers, trainers, and coaches. John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Food Contamination Essay -- essays research papers fc

The Center for Disease control has estimated that illnesses directly resulting from food contamination cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths each year in the United States. The rise of food-related illnesses can be mostly attributed to increased eating out. Half of every dollar spent on food in this country is spend on food prepared outside of the home. As the amount of people involved preparing our food rises, so does the risk of contracting an illness from food (Levitt). The people at the greatest risk are the elderly, infants, pregnant women, and those with immune disorders; this high risk group comprises 25 percent of the US population. (Who).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To prevent food contamination, the food must be handled carefully, and not be placed in any condition that would promote bacterial growth. Those who have a job that involves preparing and serving food have the responsibility to protect those whom they handle the food for (Cliver). Food poisoning results from the growth of certain bacteria, and is a concern of the business as well as the consumer. A single case of food poisoning can instantly cause a restaurant to no longer exist. To prevent contamination which might result in illness, chopping boards should be sanitized thoroughly and frequently. The employees’ hands should also be washed regularly. It is acceptable to handle raw food with bare hands, however with cooked or ready to eat food disposable gloves or other utensils such as spoons, spatulas, or tongs should be used. Latex gloves should be changed at least once every hour or if they become torn or contaminated. It is never acceptable to reuse glov es after they have been removed once (Public Health).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A common source of food poisoning is cross contamination. This occurs when raw food mixes with cooked food (Hollingsworth). It can happen when the same utensil or surface is used in food preparation. Fecal Materials can also contaminate food before it reaches the one who prepares it (â€Å"E. Coli Now†).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the most common causes of food poisoning is Campylobacter bacteria, manifesting 8 million cases and 800 deaths each year (Cliver). It is the leading cause of diarrheal illness in the United States, and responsible for five to fourteen percent of all diarrheal illness wo... ...p;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lurk In Food.† 1999. 18 Jan. 2001.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ARS News and Information. Doris Stanley Lowe. â€Å"Food Irradiation and Chlorine Team Up to   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kill E. coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella† 1999. 18 Jan. 2001.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   U.S. Department of Agriculture. FSIS. â€Å"HACCP Implementation: First Year Salmonella Test   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Results.† 1999. 17 Jan. 2001. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. â€Å"Preventing Foodborne Illness: Listeriosis.† 2000.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  8 Jan. 2001. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. â€Å"Listeriosis.† 2000. 18 Jan 2001.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Electric Library. â€Å"HHS Initiaties to Reduce Foodborne Illness.† 1999. 18 Jan. 2001.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Computer Crime :: essays research papers

Computer Crime Advances in telecommunications and in computer technology have brought us to the information revolution. The rapid advancement of the telephone, cable, satellite and computer networks, combined with the help of technological breakthroughs in computer processing speed, and information storage, has lead us to the latest revolution, and also the newest style of crime, "computer crime". The following information will provide you with evidence that without reasonable doubt, computer crime is on the increase in the following areas: hackers, hardware theft, software piracy and the information highway. This information is gathered from expert sources such as researchers, journalists, and others involved in the field. Computer crimes are often heard a lot about in the news. When you ask someone why he/she robbed banks, they world replied, "Because that's where the money is." Today's criminals have learned where the money is. Instead of settling for a few thousand dollars in a bank robbery, those with enough computer knowledge can walk away from a computer crime with many millions. The National Computer Crimes Squad estimates that between 85 and 97 percent of computer crimes are not even detected. Fewer than 10 percent of all computer crimes are reported this is mainly because organizations fear that their employees, clients, and stockholders will lose faith in them if they admit that their computers have been attacked. And few of the crimes that are reported are ever solved. Hacking was once a term that was used to describe someone with a great deal of knowledge with computers. Since then the definition has seriously changed. In every neighborhood there are criminals, so you could say that hackers are the criminals of the computers around us. There has been a great increase in the number of computer break-ins since the Internet became popular. How serious is hacking? In 1989, the Computer Emergency Response Team, a organization that monitors computer security issues in North America said that they had 132 cases involving computer break-ins. In 1994 alone they had some 2,341 cases, that's almost an 1800% increase in just 5 years. An example is 31 year old computer expert Kevin Mitnick that was arrested by the FBI for stealing more then $1 million worth in data and about 20,000 credit card numbers through the Internet. In Vancouver, the RCMP have arrested a teenager with breaking into a university computer network. There have been many cases of computer hacking, another one took place here in Toronto, when Adam Shiffman was charged with nine counts of fraudulent use of computers and eleven counts of mischief to data, this all carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail.

Helmet Laws

Every year there are 38. 8 deaths per year and overall deaths of riders under 21 almost tripled due to motorcycle accidents, according to, The Insurance Industry Study in The Motorcycle Helmet Law a no-brainer — to both sides By Barry Millman, Staff Writer (Sun Herald / Venice, FL). Due to this statistic I think that there’s a big dilemma which has an obvious answer to it, people in many states are opposing the law that enforces motorcyclists to wear helmets they think it should be a choice but in reality what’s more important.Your safety or a choice, I think the helmet law should be enforced in every state it could be the one thing that saves you in a time that you really might need it. The no helmet law for motorcyclist is like a death sentence to those riding on these heavy dangerous machinery’s. Most people think that it is okay to cruise down the highway with a lot of other cars around them. Whether or not the motorcyclist’s riding without helm ets takes precautions while on the road you never know what can happen on the road. The cars on the road around you that are thousands of pounds can instantly kill you especially if you’re on a motorcycle with no helmet.One day you could be riding behind a car on the highway and the car all of the sudden the car in front gets in a wreck and flips and smashes the motorcyclist. And the next day you end up in a hospital unconscious or worse; dead. Another reason why the motorcycle helmet law should be required; is for head injuries. Most motorcyclist that end up in an accident and were wearing a helmet, are most likely too get a dangerous head injury including traumatic brain injury, which is the leading cause of death and disability in motorcycle accidents.Brain injuries can result in memory loss, loss of coordination, seizures, and inability to continue any hobbies, and or continue working. According too the article Motorcycle Accidents Relating to Brain Injuries by: Peter Ken t, â€Å"Motorcyclists, even those who wear helmets, are most likely to sustain non-penetrative injuries to the front of the head, damaging parts of the brain responsible for speech and higher functions. Those without helmets may also be susceptible to a penetrating brain injury, in which an object enters the head and skull, damaging the soft tissue of the brain itself.Helmets Essential to Prevent Traumatic Brain Injury† So see the reasons are there it up to you weather or not you want to take the responsibility and wear a helmet on the road. Another important reason why I think the helmet law should be enforced is because the people who are most likely to wear a helmet in a state that doesn’t require one is someone older and or with a little bit more common sense. By that I mean most young adults 18-30 will not wear a helmet if its not required.Some reasons for this might be that it doesn’t look cool or its uncomfortable, and they want to be able too feel free and be able to feel they’re face and hair. The reason I think this is so important is because if a rider were to get in an accident and be of 21 years of age and get a traumatic brain injury his life is over before its even started in most cases. When I was just the age of 12 I witnessed my father get into a really dangerous accident on the track.He races on his motorcycle on occasion for fun because its something he’s done almost all his life. He was wearing a helmet and he broke both hands had to have metal plates put in and surgery twice on the same hand. His helmet was crushed a little bit and the doctor told him that if he were not wearing a helmet he would probably not be here today. So that is why I think the helmet law should be enforced in every state because, no matter how many precautions you take on the road you never know what can happen.

Intro to Afro American Studies Essays - African Slave Trade

Intro to Afro American Studies Essays - African Slave Trade October 15, 2015 Intro to Afro American Studies Bi-Weekly Essay #3 What are some of the similarities and differences in practices of self-determination of Africans in the U.S. and their counterparts throughout the hemisphere? Abstract: Both Africans in the Western Hemisphere and Africans in the United States practiced self-determination. They practiced self-determination in many ways such as marronage and quilombismo as a means to bring African people together to determine their own statehoods and form their own allegiances. Africans used their difference to fight one another rather than uniting themselves in the 18th and 19th century. However, Africans began to realize that if they wanted to conquer enslavement they would have to overcome the dominating social structure. The Africans in the Western hemisphere used the knowledge passed down from their griots when practicing self-determination. They did this more often than the Africans in the U.S. because they underestimated them and they were uneducated for a while. Africans in the U.S. were more aware of what was happening around them versus the other parts of the world. Although, Africans were divided by suffering from the injustice of slavery. they we re able to preserve their culture and use such as their means to resist. Critical Review of Scholarship: To begin answering this question, I will use the information provided during lectures as well as the readings. One of sources is coming from Black Self Determination: A Cultural History of the Faith of Fathers. This source will be used to elaborate on what self-determination is and how it evolved. The second source is Quilombismo: An Afro-Brazilian Political Alternative. This source will be used to further elaborate on what quilombismo is and how it effective in helping the African race as a whole in the practice of self-determination. Another source I will use to elaborate on marronage is the Black Movements in America by Cedric Robinson. My other evidence will come from class lectures and Dr.Carr particularly from the human social organization and their influence over people and nations. Discussion: To completely understand the practices of self-determination within the African community, you have to define what self-determination is. Self Determination is the uniqueness of culture (Dr.Carr). It is the process by which a person or group controls their own life, decides their own statehood and forms their own allegiances. (Franklin P., V. Black Self Determination: A Cultural History of the Faith of the Fathers. Southern Historical Association, 1986. Print.) From the small movements such as spiritual and secular slave songs, the Federal Writers Project and addresses in front of the Congress have demonstrated what self-determination means in the African community. The Western Hemisphere Africans and the U.S. Africans used maroonage to practice e self-determination. Maroonage was a common way Africans resisted throughout the hemisphere. Maroon is a based word from the Spanish culture. Maroons are small private communities that served as a safe refuge for runaway slaves and indentured servants. (Robinson, Cedric J. Black Movements in America. New York: Routledge, 1997. Print.) They were fugitive communities where escapees went. These maroons gave slaves hope of a community where they could have a new home and are apart of a safe haven to rebuild their families. Unfortunately these maroons never lasted so long because of the pressure it created on the Europeans. Regardless of the hardships of slavery, Africans did not let anyone take their culture from them. Their culture is what kept them dehumanized. Abolition always followed the Blacks regardless of where they were from. Because the Africans seemed less than the Europeans, the Africans wanted to create something to become equal with the higher powers. They combined their religion to create Afro Catholicism in hopes in acceptance of their religion to become equal as the Europeans. North Americans began practicing Afro Christianity as a means of resistance and a way Africans could gather publically. Quilombismo significance was the value in the tactics and strategies of survival, resistance and progress of African communities in contemporary Brazil (Nascimento Do, Abdias. Quilombismo: An Afro- Brazilian Political Alternative. Journal of Black Studies, 1980. Print.) Quilombismo revealed itself as a factor capable of mobilizing the Black masses in a disciplined manner when the Afro-Brazilians registered the quilombist concept. Quilombismo is in a constant process

Recommended Business Writing Style Guides

Recommended Business Writing Style Guides MOST RECOMMENDED The Gregg Reference Manual:A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting, 11th EditionWilliam A. Sabin, McGraw-Hill, 2011 The Gregg Reference Manual is intended for anyone who writes, edits, or prepares material for distribution or publication. For over fifty years this manual has been recognized as the best style manual for business professionals who want to master the on-the-job standards of business professionals. FOR NEWSLETTERS AND BLOGS The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media LawEdited by Darrell Christian, Sally Jacobsen, and David Minthorn, Associated Press, 2010 The Associated Press Stylebook, first published in 1977, clarified the news organization's rules on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage. Now in its sixth edition, the Stylebook is the standard style guide for most U.S. newspapers, magazines, public relations, and consulting firms. FOR PROOFREADERS The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th EditionThe University of Chicago Press, 2010â€Å"Chicago† is the bible of book publishers. We refer to â€Å"Chicago,† but it is a specialist’s volume. Unless you’re a professional editor or proofreader, this style guide is not needed by most business writers. FOR EVOLVING LANGUAGE Garner's Modern American Usage, 3rd EditionBryan A. Garner, Oxford University Press, 2009I like this resource because it includes a "Language-Change Index," which indicates how well accepted a term is, ranging from Stage 1, widely considered incorrect, to Stage 5, universally accepted as correct. Because business writing language is ever-evolving, this is a helpful guidebook to determine if a usage is now acceptable. FOR UK AND US ENGLISH STYLE DIFFERENCES The Economist Style Guide, 2011 Edition This guide contains a very helpful section on American and British English. American and British business writing is essentially identical. There are spelling and minor punctuation differences, that this text illustrates perfectly. By the way, you should construct documents in your style. If you are British and writing to an American, for example, use British English, rather than American English. Do not use idiomatic expressions or vague phrasings, of course. There is never any significant misunderstanding between UK and US English, as long as one avoids idiom and writes clearly. Trying to adopt a style and voice that is not your own rings false. INTERNAL STYLE GUIDE Do you wish to compile style guidelines, unique to your organization? For example, you may have specific terms you want used with consistency in all documents. Many organization compile an internal style guide, and share it with all employees. Many thanks to the ASTD LinkedIn group for sharing a generic internal style guide, which you can use as a model. (Yet, another reason you should join LinkedIn if you have not yet done so!) Download a copy of this Business Writing Style Guide Internal Template.

Free Essays on Poverty And Unemployment

â€Å"Poverty is produced by circumstances, not individuals.† (Fincher and Wulff, 1998) The expansion of international poverty and unemployment in the world over the last few decades has been associated with the onset of rapid growth of the capitalist market. Economic crisis or boom assists in the growth of the so-called ‘poverty sector’(James, 2002), leading to unemployment and social unrest. When comparing the poverty and unemployment within countries such as Australia and Indonesia, several distinctions can be made of the various extent of these problems. For one, Australia is classified as a ‘First World’ country, whilst Indonesia experiences the poverty of the ‘South’ or the ‘Third World’. Consequently, this produces various measurements of poverty in each of these countries and also indicates the definition of poverty in Australia and Indonesia. Other differences between the situations of poverty with these neighbours are that there are various classes, education levels and different primary industries. In w ake of Suharto’s regime and the economic crisis in Indonesia, the country also faces challenges protecting workers and dealing with international debt, problems that Australia seems to have conquered. Following the economic crisis, Indonesia experienced many social impacts, however, these have been â€Å"neither been uniform nor homogenous across the archipelago† (Maxwell, 1999). The common measurement of poverty is from the Central Bureau of Statistics, that poverty has almost doubled from its pre-crisis level of 11 per cent to around 20 per cent (Maxwell, 1999). Despite this, some sources indicate that approximately 100 million Indonesians would sink below the poverty line, which includes almost 50 per cent of the population (Pettifor, 2002). Within Australia poverty is seen at 13 per cent, with an estimated total of 2.4 million Australian’s now living in poverty (ACOSS, 2001). Even though... Free Essays on Poverty And Unemployment Free Essays on Poverty And Unemployment â€Å"Poverty is produced by circumstances, not individuals.† (Fincher and Wulff, 1998) The expansion of international poverty and unemployment in the world over the last few decades has been associated with the onset of rapid growth of the capitalist market. Economic crisis or boom assists in the growth of the so-called ‘poverty sector’(James, 2002), leading to unemployment and social unrest. When comparing the poverty and unemployment within countries such as Australia and Indonesia, several distinctions can be made of the various extent of these problems. For one, Australia is classified as a ‘First World’ country, whilst Indonesia experiences the poverty of the ‘South’ or the ‘Third World’. Consequently, this produces various measurements of poverty in each of these countries and also indicates the definition of poverty in Australia and Indonesia. Other differences between the situations of poverty with these neighbours are that there are various classes, education levels and different primary industries. In w ake of Suharto’s regime and the economic crisis in Indonesia, the country also faces challenges protecting workers and dealing with international debt, problems that Australia seems to have conquered. Following the economic crisis, Indonesia experienced many social impacts, however, these have been â€Å"neither been uniform nor homogenous across the archipelago† (Maxwell, 1999). The common measurement of poverty is from the Central Bureau of Statistics, that poverty has almost doubled from its pre-crisis level of 11 per cent to around 20 per cent (Maxwell, 1999). Despite this, some sources indicate that approximately 100 million Indonesians would sink below the poverty line, which includes almost 50 per cent of the population (Pettifor, 2002). Within Australia poverty is seen at 13 per cent, with an estimated total of 2.4 million Australian’s now living in poverty (ACOSS, 2001). Even though...

Retail Service Management Key Indicators Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Retail Service Management Key Indicators - Essay Example Since the data sheet had already summarized the major monthly indicators (with little or no primary data sets), the analysis below concentrated on the examining the temporal patterns across the three months. For the purposes of tracking the repair order, mailing reminders and financial summaries across time, key indicators were analyzed across the months January through March. Since most of the data was categorical (by month), histogram polygons were constructed. To provide a frame of reference for the period under analyses, where relevant and necessary, average and standard deviation of the respective indicators were calculated. For purposes of clarity, results of only some of the most important indicators, namely active number of customers, number of customers lost, percent sales of Smart link, investment returns on each US $ 1 spent are presented and discussed. This is an important variable indicating the proportion of the various maintenance and repair jobs undertaken at the company. Accordingly, based on the data provided, frequency histogram was constructed to depict the proportion of the different maintenance tasks undertaken. ... 3. Retail revenue sales trend: Based on the graph already provided in the data sheet, discussion is provided on the contribution that Smart Link sales have made over the gross sales during the different days of the survey period. 4. Percentage share accounted by the different zip codes: The relative contribution made by the different zip codes for their share of the services and how these have changed from month to month has been analyzed. The mean per cent share of the different zip code was computed across the three months. Results: Repair order, mailing and financial summary results: Over the three months of reporting, a total of 4056 services were completed, with January accounting for the highest (37% of the services) and March, the least (30% of the services) (Figure 1). The mean number of active customers over the three months was 233954 (average standard deviation) with little variation across the months (Figure 2). The number of completed services ranged between 1210 (in March 2006) to 1490 (in January 2006). On an average there was only a 6 to 8 per cent loss of customers over the three months (Figure 2). Figure 1: Per cent services completed by Smart link from January to March 2006.Total customers serviced for the three months=4056. Figure 2: Frequency histogram of active and lost customers from January to March 2006 by Smart link. Two of the most important financial status parameters, namely, per cent of Smart link sales and the investment return for every dollar spent, increased from January to February but thereafter decreased in March 2006. For example, the investment returns increased from $215.52 in January to

Eculturation and Cognition of Children Research Paper

Eculturation and Cognition of Children - Research Paper Example Learning of culture in any community or society takes place at an early stage when a child is born and may continue throughout the lifetime of the individual. Therefore, the aspect of learning and using key aspects of a particular culture constitute a process to an individual, which anthropologists have termed as enculturation. Therefore, this research paper will explore the concept of enculturation and how it impact or influence the cognition process of children. Research methodology to be utilized will largely constitute qualitative research techniques. Secondary data will be relied upon in generating useful information for this study and reliable library books, electronic books, journals and useful websites will be utilized. Enculturation and Cognition of Children Talcott Parsons, one of the credited scholars in the field of sociology is remembered for noting that new generation of children being born are as a result of a process known as ‘recurrent barbarian invasionâ€℠¢ (Grunlan and Mayers,1988, p.77). The scholar went ahead to explain this concept by stating that children being born into this world do not have culture of their own. ... As they enter the world, the children slowly are expected to live and cope within the different cultural context they find themselves in and to do this they require to adopt certain and specific cultural aspects. Therefore, such children have to go through a process of acquiring these cultural aspects and it is this process anthropologists have termed as enculturation while sociologists have termed it as socialization (Grunlan and Mayers, 1988). What is enculturation? The concept of enculturation was originated by an anthropologist known as J.M. Herskovits. In a scholarly work published in 1948 and titled ‘Man and his Works, the Science of Cultural Anthropology’, Herskovits defines and describes enculturation as â€Å"the aspects of the learning experience that mark off man from other creatures and by means of which he believes competence in his culture† (cited in Somani and University of Maryland, 2008, p.15). Herskovits went further to expound on this definition by stating that, enculturation constitute a process that is characterized by conscious and unconscious conditioning that is carried out by any particular society’s set customs limits. As this process takes place, Herskovits observes that apart from achieving all adjustments to social living, there is also derivation of all kinds of satisfaction that constitute part of social experiences and in most cases are achieved from individual expression and not from association with others in the group (Somani and University of Maryland, 2008). As a procedure, Herskovits contend that all individuals in one way or the other have to go through the process of enculturation in order for such individuals to fit well and become members of any particular society. According to the writer, the

Representations of Love Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Representations of Love - Essay Example This essay compares and contrasts Shakespeare's ideas about love in three of his most popular plays, Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night. The play Midsummer night's dream revolves around the fundamental difficulties of love. Through out the play this universal concept has been discussed through the effective use of contrast. Shakespeare has used symbolism to develop his ideas in the play and to present a fair view regarding the theme. In Act I, scene I Theseus and Hippolyta discuss their wedding which is to scheduled in four days, from here the story begins and the play gradually describes the ideas of love and the magical powers of dreams. Shakespeare presents his personal views on love with the help of this play. An analysis of the play points out that Shakespeare was of the view that although love is a beautiful emotion cherished by all individuals but finding love is the hardest of all as an individual has to face a lot of tension and stress to find love. The central idea of the play is to prove that a childish love, which is known as teenage love, is foolish in nature. He has included four central characters in the play which are young children who fall in love with the young girls. Eventually at the end of the play, they discover their foolishness. William successfully conveyed his message that teenage love is slightly foolish in nature. The other play under scrutiny is the Twelfth Night which is most simply put is a story of cross dressing and mistaken identity. It is filled with sexual tension between characters and poetic words on love. Twelfth Night is nearly as much a study of service and master-servant relations as it is a comedy of romantic love. The relationships and tensions between lovers are clearly discernible in the play's manifold variations. Viola's status as Orsino's servant is the condition of possibility and impossibility of her love for him and also of Olivia's erotic desire for her as Cesario; Orsino himself embodies courtly infatuation as a form of service in his dotage on Olivia; Malvolio exemplifies, Sonnet-like, the servant's fantasy of social elevation through erotic conquest; Antonio's homoerotic affection for Sebastian restates in a different key courtly devotion to the belove. O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou, That notwithstanding thy capacity Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there, Of what validity and pitch so'er, But falls into abatement and low price Even in a minute. (1.1.9-14) Orsino's opening meditation on his unrequited love for Olivia encompasses some of the most famous lines and images in the whole Shakespeare canon. The lines also identify the major themes and concerns of Twelfth Night. In the lines above, the references to love and to the sea encompass elements that will resound throughout the action of the play. Orsino compares the capacity of love to the capacity of the ocean in its ability to be. The third play is the Merchant of Venice which centers on the struggle between Portia and Antonio for Bassanio's affection, or the competition between friendship and marriage. In the Elizabethan context Antonio and Bassanio's relationship does not

Fitmath in Afterschool and Why It Is Effective Dissertation

Fitmath in Afterschool and Why It Is Effective - Dissertation Example School time and various resources are frequently diverted from various types of physical Education and openings for physical action for example recess. (HRDC, 2001). The program Fitmath the kids, under goes numerous stages in which they study how to turn out to be fit both bodily and mentally, the significance of having well eating habits with nourishing foodstuff, and to maintain body in correct shape, additionally to thorough mathematical abilities. And it helps to accomplishing and learning maths with fun and pleasure. (Wenger). According to Nancy Protheroe in his article called, what does Good Math Instruction look like? Says that, it entails good teachers, effectual math surroundings, and a curriculum that is more than a mile broad and an inch deep. This research article points out that it takes more than a good trainer to teach math. According to MUCHA in his article says that, Mathematics subject has always been an essential constituent of person thought and culture, and the d evelopment of technology in current times has further enlarged its significance. Nowadays mathematics is a crucial partner in areas where once it played no particular role. (Mucha). Fit math is one of the most significant programs in schools in the 21st century. It connects healthy academics and eating. This program assists students in increasing self-assurance in their physical capability, in addition to enhancing familiarity, by way of expressions in the fields of physiology, anatomy, and mathematics. Fundamental fact acquisition is a significant part of building up higher-order math abilities. (Springer). On the other hand, getting learners with a history of academic rebelliousness to engage in various activities associated to acquisition of various skills can be difficult. (Lynn Arthur Steen 2010). According to Michelle Kulas in her acrtcile called, Need for After-School Exercise Programs says that, program related to after-school fitness build exercise fun for children. Dependi ng on the style of program, it will help the child to study a new sport or have the alternative to join in in a large variety of exercise activities. She also says that, because of this exercise program it will helps to develop health of the kids by being physically active at the same time as also playing with and cooperating with other kids in a supervised setting. Also After-School Exercise Programs will be capable to create new friends and may enjoy superior self-assurance and self-esteem. (Kulas, 2011) According to Sam Piha in his article called AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS: WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT AND HOW SHOULD WE MEASURE SUCCESS says that, after school programs offer young people with the various types of learning practices and opportunities that may not be obtainable to kids in their homes or classrooms. And also they recommend young people opportunities to study new things and build up significant skills that are essential to achievement in school and in life. The article Effective M athematics Instruction says that, Mathematics instruction is an extremely complex procedure that tries to create abstract ideas more tangible, difficult thoughts comprehensible and multifaceted evils solvable. Visual depictions bring

Global Managerial Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Global Managerial Economics - Essay Example The increase in the economic activity becomes an opportunity for workers because of the increase in the demand of a new integrated global market as well as the dynamism of the flow of capital. When a company goes global in its business strategy, for instance, it could invest in an overseas country to take advantage of the cheap labor, hence, generating jobs for the work force in that particular locale. This is especially helpful for workers in the Third World countries which lack financial capital to support enterprise that would lead to employment opportunities. Ideally, it is hoped that the growth generated by these trade breakthroughs would close the income gap of workers in developing and industrial countries. On the other hand, the current trend in international trade becomes disadvantageous to workers when the increase in competition among enterprises causes local firms to fold-up, leaving a trail of unemployed or underpaid workers behind. The entry of multinational companies in a particular market - with the advantage of its resources - swallow small and medium sized companies in mergers or drive them out of business because it could afford to lower its products prices. We see the most adverse impact of globalization in the agriculture industry of smaller countries and those whose governments are barred to subsidize their industries. 1 Another disadvantage, which is technically not a consequence of globalization per se but the lack of state policies and regulation on this new economic phenomenon, is the bad labor standards of the multinational companies. The current international trading system follows the trade liberalization and deregulation terms dictated by the World Trade Organization. There are already several milestones achieved by the world body mainly in the lowering of tariffs as well as in the cooperation of its member-states in legislating policies in line with deregulation. However, one of the most serious challenges in achieving the

Fitmath in Afterschool and Why It Is Effective Dissertation

Fitmath in Afterschool and Why It Is Effective - Dissertation Example School time and various resources are frequently diverted from various types of physical Education and openings for physical action for example recess. (HRDC, 2001). The program Fitmath the kids, under goes numerous stages in which they study how to turn out to be fit both bodily and mentally, the significance of having well eating habits with nourishing foodstuff, and to maintain body in correct shape, additionally to thorough mathematical abilities. And it helps to accomplishing and learning maths with fun and pleasure. (Wenger). According to Nancy Protheroe in his article called, what does Good Math Instruction look like? Says that, it entails good teachers, effectual math surroundings, and a curriculum that is more than a mile broad and an inch deep. This research article points out that it takes more than a good trainer to teach math. According to MUCHA in his article says that, Mathematics subject has always been an essential constituent of person thought and culture, and the d evelopment of technology in current times has further enlarged its significance. Nowadays mathematics is a crucial partner in areas where once it played no particular role. (Mucha). Fit math is one of the most significant programs in schools in the 21st century. It connects healthy academics and eating. This program assists students in increasing self-assurance in their physical capability, in addition to enhancing familiarity, by way of expressions in the fields of physiology, anatomy, and mathematics. Fundamental fact acquisition is a significant part of building up higher-order math abilities. (Springer). On the other hand, getting learners with a history of academic rebelliousness to engage in various activities associated to acquisition of various skills can be difficult. (Lynn Arthur Steen 2010). According to Michelle Kulas in her acrtcile called, Need for After-School Exercise Programs says that, program related to after-school fitness build exercise fun for children. Dependi ng on the style of program, it will help the child to study a new sport or have the alternative to join in in a large variety of exercise activities. She also says that, because of this exercise program it will helps to develop health of the kids by being physically active at the same time as also playing with and cooperating with other kids in a supervised setting. Also After-School Exercise Programs will be capable to create new friends and may enjoy superior self-assurance and self-esteem. (Kulas, 2011) According to Sam Piha in his article called AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS: WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT AND HOW SHOULD WE MEASURE SUCCESS says that, after school programs offer young people with the various types of learning practices and opportunities that may not be obtainable to kids in their homes or classrooms. And also they recommend young people opportunities to study new things and build up significant skills that are essential to achievement in school and in life. The article Effective M athematics Instruction says that, Mathematics instruction is an extremely complex procedure that tries to create abstract ideas more tangible, difficult thoughts comprehensible and multifaceted evils solvable. Visual depictions bring

Intel Corporation PEST and Value Chain Analysis Essay

Intel Corporation PEST and Value Chain Analysis - Essay Example In the year 2001, the IT industry faced global decrease in demand for IT products which adversely affected the balance of trade of US and other countries (Buffet 2011). In this regard, the US government improved its tax laws, labor policy, tariffs and trade liberalization policies to attract the global consumption for IT products from US manufacturers. Robert (1990) undertook a study to examine the impact of Japanese trade liberalization policy and tariffs in semiconductor market on the US manufacturers. This positive political environment acts as an opportunity for Intel Corporation to capitalize upon its products and expand globally. 2) Economic Factors: The US mixed economy has a GDP growth rate of 2.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011 which is a decrease by 0.4 percent from previous year (Bureau of Economic Analysis). The International Monetary Fund reported that the Gross World Product of the US GDP is $15 trillion dollars that is 23 percent at the market exchange rates (Grey hill Advisors). Furthermore, it observed that this amount is equivalent to 20 percent of Purchasing Power Parity or PPP (DeNavas-halt, Proctor & Smith 2011). US ranks third largest exporter. Its public debt amounts to $15.03 trillion dollars and poverty is 15.1 percent according to 2010 estimates (Treasury). The CPI Inflation has been estimated as 3.5 percent between October 2010-2011 period (United States Bureau of Labor Statistics). According to 2009 estimates of World Bank, the US economy is largely based on its private sector enterprises accounting for 86.4 percent of its economy. The large contribution of private sector in US economy means an opportunity for Intel to expand and benefit from the overall affirmative macro-environment factors. However, PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted... Intel Corporation is the US leading semiconductor manufacturer that maintains a significant global market share of semiconductor industry. In the recent global recession has adversely affected the US economy. However, the recovery has created a tremendous increase in the exports for semiconductor based microprocessor chips throughout the world. The US economy’s growth is largely due to the major contributions of this sector. As a result, the US economy is growing and encouraging the future revolution in the semiconductor technology. The global trade liberalization movement in response to the global demand for newer and updated technological products has reduced trade tariffs that US government welcomes with open arms. As a result, the growth of microprocessors and other PC components picked tremendous volume to become the largest contributor of revenue for the US economy. Intel Corporation has a favorable macro-environmental analysis which only has one issue and that is the un precedented recession of the US economy. In terms of value chain analysis, Intel Corporation has a sound value chain that is helping it to maintain its competitive edge over other competitors like AMD.

Adventure of the Speckled Band Essay Example for Free

Adventure of the Speckled Band Essay Compare how James Watson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Create Fear and Tension in Talking in Whispers and The Adventure of the Speckled Band  In the novel Talking in Whispers and the short story The Adventure of the Speckled Band both Watson and Doyle use fear and tension within their stories to get the attention of the reader. Both authors create fear and tension but they create it in different ways and they use different writing techniques to create fear and tension one reason for this could be that the stories were written at different periods of time. The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was written towards the end of the 19th century and is set in Victorian England, whereas Talking in Whispers by James Watson was written towards the end of the 20th century and is set in Chile. Both Stories however contain elements of fear and tension. In the course of my essay I shall examine the different ways that both authors use fear and tension to their advantage. James Watson creates fear and tension in the novel Talking in Whispers by using many different writing techniques. These techniques are very effective in creating fear and tension. Watson uses techniques such as juxtapositioning, identifying the reader with the characters, chapter endings, direct speech and inter-chapters. These all, when used correctly create fear and tension.  The fear and tension created by James Watson when he uses juxtapositioning is very effective as it gives you one scene and in the next paragraph you get a total contrast of it. This surprises the reader, which builds up suspense and a feel of uncertainty. An example of juxtapositioning from Watsons novel would be. The crowd thundered its joy.  From tomorrow all will be different.  Andres knew for certain his friend Horacio was dead  From this example you can see that the crowd thunders with joy is a scene of hope, promise and joy but then immediately afterwards you get a scene of violence, horror and despair Andres knew for certain his friend Horacio was dead. This all helps to build up tension and fear.  Watson makes you feel sorry and sad and angry for characters if anything happens to them. Watson does this by identifying the reader with Andres. What Watson does is he lets you into Andres mind he lets you see his feelings he lets you feel his pain he lets you know his sorrow. An example of this technique would be near to the end of page 12. Jordan Clement GCSE English Coursework 4/27/2007  I should have let myself be taken theres no honour in this, skulking in brambles with only a scratch to show for my bravery.  From this example you can see Watson lets you know what Andres is feeling and thinking. From the sentence I should have let myself be taken we know that Andres is not a coward and will not back down to the CNI (Chiles secret police) we also know from this that Andres is going to try to avenge his family and friends. This starts to build up the fear and tension within the novel. Another main way James Watson builds up a lot of tension and fear within Talking In Whispers is by using chapter endings. What James Watson does is he leaves you at a pinnacle at the end of most chapters which makes the reader want to read on and see what will happen to Andres or Isa and or Don Chailey this is a very effective way to build up tension within a novel a works very well in this particular novel. A good example of chapter endings would be the end of chapter three. All youll be needing is a cool head, lots of luck and he leaned forwards with exaggerated secrecy. And a porters uniform  This creates tension because you want to know what will happen next, you want to know what the importance of the porters uniform is, and you want to know will Andres get caught. This makes you want to read on and it makes you think what will happen to Andres. This technique builds up fear and tension throughout the novel.  In Talking in Whispers Watson uses other common techniques of writing which all helps in building up fear and tension, he uses techniques such as similes, imagery and metaphors. His mind stayed where it was, unmolested, a little black box inside something nothing could get at. Resting like a mouse in hole.  The simile like a mouse in a hole portrays Andres mind when he was being tortured. They could hurt his body but they couldnt touch his mind it was resting like a mouse in a hole. The sentence resting like a mouse in hole also uses imagery as well as using a simile the simile creates the image of his mind being a mouse resting in hole unaware of what is happening to Andres body. In the torture scene on pages 105 106 Andres calls his torturers not by their names but by names that reflect their personality he calls his torturers snake and the hog the names are metaphors, which lets you know the personality of the characters. Snake for example is a cunning and devious animal and extremely deadly. This again is another type of imagery it lets you see pictures from words. This way of writing is very effective when it comes to creating fear and tension. Jordan Clement GCSE English Coursework 4/27/2007  Another way fear and tension is created in Talking in Whispers is by telling you what is happening in Chile at the time. This does not move the story any further forward with Andres it just tells you the evilness of the Junta. This technique is called  Inter-chapters and is very effective in causing the reader to perhaps fear the Junta.

Analyse Nestles Outsourcing Strategies Marketing Essay

Analyse Nestles Outsourcing Strategies Marketing Essay Nestle is world leading food and beverage company in the world. Nestle made up of merging with a number of food companies, Nestlà ©, the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company and Rowntrees of York. Henri Nestles story started in Switzerland in 1986 by milk producing for infant. Then the companys products have become successful so they expanded products and sales until in 1905 Nestle merged with the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. In 1988 Nestlà © acquired Rowntrees, the famous British confectioners (Nestle, 2012).Nestle has produced a wide range of products and services, such as, baby foods, bottled water, cereals, chocolate and confectionery, coffee, culinary, chilled frozen food, dairy, drinks, food service healthcare nutrition, ice cream, pet care, sport nutrition, weight management. In addition, it has several brands, including Hà ¤agen-Dazs, Nescafà ©, Coffeemate, Maggi, Kitkat, Milo. Nestles headquarter is located in Vevey, Switzerland, but the company has 450 factories a nd operations in 86 countries (Nestle, 2012). In 2012, Nestles sales was 92.2 billion Swiss Franc (Martello And Child-Villiers 2012). Nestle sets their mission that Good Food, Good Life which means nestle offers their customers the excellence tasting and plentiful nutrition including healthy and wellness from every morning to night (Nestle, 2012). Because Nestle is a world company and produce a wide range of product, many processes are complicated, so the company cannot run all processes by itself. One of the supporters is outsourcing which help the company in several aspects such as cost reduction, unnecessary task reduction. In this report shows analyse Nestles outsourcing strategies in task 1 and demonstrates Nestles challenges and suggest solutions based on outsourcing theories in task 2. The final section is conclusion. Task 1 Analyse Nestles Outsourcing Strategies Information technology system outsourcing One of the significant tools of outsourcing to help business improve efficiency is information technology (IT). The Nestles objectives of outsourcing are cost reduction and reduce task which is not important, so the company can focus on their core processes.(Nestle, 2012) What Nestle uses to determine that the company should outsource or keep it in-house are how the processes or operations important and capacity of its own according McIvors theory (2008).McIvors theory (2008) explains that if any processes are the core processes of the company and the company is less potential, the company should consider that whether the processes can be copied. If the processes can be easy to replicate, the company should keep in-house, on the other hand, if they are difficult to copy, the company can outsource. Analysing Nestle, Nestle outsources IT system because Nestle which is the food company is less potential in this function when compare with the company which directly respond IT system, so the outsourcing from specialise outsourcing could provide better results. In addition, only IT system is not core competitive advantages for the food company, however, it is critical factor to support Nestle, so outsource IT help Nestle can focus on their core business such as food production. According Han and Mithas (2003) states Information technology (IT) provides the infrastructure for the management of information. IT also provides information visibility across the supply chain; furthermore, helps reduce supply chain information complexity. As a consequence, it brings about communicative reduction between buyer and supplier as well as accurate forecasting demand, improve responsiveness and cost reduction (Willcocks and Fitzgerald 1993). In case of Nestle, they have used OmPrompt EDI services which is an outsourced service that automates the processing of orders, invoices and proof of delivery documentation from any format to any format, no intervention required (OmPrompt, 2013) to improves supply chain efficiency. In addition, OmPrompt also establishes automating communication, connected communities between suppliers, retailers, logistics service provider and distribution centre. However, normally, almost huge manufactures or retailers usually have EDI system in operations, for smaller players about 80% of companies who represent 20% of volume, they cannot afford for EDI system, and so placing the orders from them is still the problem in term of demand forecasting, errors, delays, and unnecessary costs for all partners.To solve the problem for Nesltle by changing invisible data from small retailers to visible, The manufacturer has deployed OmPrompts Intelligent Message Management service to enable them to receive  orders  from smaller retailers in the same format and with the same degree of accuracy as they do from the UKs largest supermarkets (OmPrompt, 2013). David Walker (2013), Nestle customer services manager explains that the results of OmPrompt system were used to compare with the existing manual order entry processes. The output from new system shows that it was highly accurate without any mistake. As a consequence, Nestle has hugely developed accuracy of order replenishment processes. It has influenced on increasing customer satisfaction and the cost of reverse logistics reduction as well (OmPrompt, 2013). The next IT system is RFID. It is a popular technology which has been used to drive supply chain management. It does not only provide benefits as mentioned before but also helps the company can control and become more centralisation. In addition, From RFID is the automated systems; it can reduce a number of employees and tasks, such as receiving and putting away, picking and shipping goods. It also contributes to supply chain flow quicker and reduce risk of holding many of stocks. (Anderson, 2006) For example, Nestle Chile S.A. outsources Ryder to manage its distribution network in South American country. William Beltran (2006) said outsourcing Ryder help Nestle monitors their supply chain from centre easier because Ryder applied radio frequency identification (RFID) devices with transportations and two distribution centres which serve more than six hundreds customers and handle about sixty to eighty vehicles a day. The result was Nestle can see track their vehicles and manage wareho use better (RFID CENTER, 2013), so Nestle can reduce time to launch new product to the market and increase customer satisfaction. Moreover, Macfarlane and Sheffi (2003) describe that RFID can improve product security, track the problems, save cost and energy. For instance, in Italy, Nestle installed RFID tags with ice cream products and readers in trucks, distribution center and retailers freezers or refrigerators to check temperature that it is not too warm or too cold. The data is shown across of logistics process in real time. The company can know whenever any freezer or refrigerator is broken and can protect product spoilage which leads to lose revenue and stock (Wessel, 2008). In addition, RFID can reduce cost and energy. Nestle can identify some freezers and refrigerators they set too cold, so they cause wasting energy and cost. Marasi ,a supply chain ice cream and frozen food project and quality manager at Nestlà © Italy, states, we estimate that the cost for freezer energy across Italy is several million euros. If we just save 5 to 10 percent, this is a big savings and a boost to the environment (Wesse l, 2008). Furthermore, the data which is collected is used to send to improve the potential of the company by research and develop team (Wessel, 2008). Logistics and supply chain outsourcing Nestle outsources Geodis to manage its logistics and supply chain in France. Nestle target is reduced transportation cost which is about 10-15% of finished product (ElAmin, 2006).   In the beginning, Nestle assigned Geodis to study its supply chain flow to identify the area which will be improved. After six months, Geodis sent the result and recommendation solutions to Nestle. After considering the result, Nestle appointed Geodis as its logistics provider for three years for all it transportation flow. In return Geodis has made performance guarantees relating to quality, optimisation and total cost reduction. Geodis will be looking to improve Nestles transport and supply chain flows, logistics, management of service providers and invoice checking, among other factors (ElAmin, 2006)  . Following the agreement Geodis have to manage production flow for six Nestle France plants. The process made up of 17,000 transport orders per year from 182 suppliers and 250 contries (ElAmin, 2006). In term of contracting and relationship, we can notice that Nestle used a short term contract in the beginning to ensure the outsourcing company that can respond Nestles need by assigning the outsourcing company as a third party to identify the Nestle problems and solutions. This step shows relationship between Nestle and Geodis that they are unfamiliar, so Nestle had to measure Geodis performance before they offer larger jobs and long term contract. When Geodis can do the job well, so Nestle was satisfied the result and offer the long term contract and shift relationship with Geodis from 3PL to 4PL to manage its all supply chain. They become more close relationship. However, Renew contracting in the future also depends on Geodiss performance for Nestle. On the other hand, if the result from Geodis after six months is not done well, Nestle can change the company or give recommendation to improve the outsourcing performance. This choice is better than offering long term contract for u nfamiliar company. It also can reduce long term risk, if the outsourcing company is ineffective. In addition, expert outsourcing can support companys strategy and reduce company tasks. When the companys market is expanded, a number of facilities and equipments have to increase to support more inventories. In some aspects the company has to spend more money to support larger markets, therefore using expert outsourcing companies can be an option to reduce cost because they are usually ready in term of competency, equipments and resources. For Nestles example, in the past decade, Nestles products in Malaysia are increased demand several-fold. It is the Nestles reason to change pallet management from doing in-house to outsourcing to CHEP, the worlds leading experts in pallet pooling. Nestlà © Malaysias Group Operations Manager, Supply Chain Division, Zainal Malek Bapoo said CHEP specialises in pallets and the worry for Nestlà © Malaysia is gone, which allows us to concentrate on our core competency (CHEP, 2013). CHEPs strengths understand the processes and are ready to provide enough pallet volume for Nestles need. It helps Nestle get more flexibility in control in peak time such as in festivals or important events which usually has high demands. Nestle and CHEP also cooperate to find solution for the problem as a partner. Whats more, CHEP can support Nestles strategy such as lean management. Nestles lean strategic target is to reduce pallet losses to low level, optimising usage along the supply chain. CHEPs solution can increase supply chain efficiency, reduce cost and losses (CHEP, 2013). Task 2 Nestles Challenges and Solution Corporate social responsibility  (CSR)  and ethic challenge From Nestle is the world company, so ethic and responsibility for social and environment are important. For example, in February 2012 Nestle joined Fair Labour Association to create sustainable supply chain and prevent child labour on cocoa supply chain in Ivory Coast (CNN, 2012). As a result, when Nestle outsources any company, Nestle should identify this standard to the third party or set the criteria in the contract or agreement to the third party following the same way that Nestle responds to social otherwise Nestle might force problems from what outsource do. For instance, when independent investigator examines Nestles cocoa processes in Ivory Coast, they found that Nestles outsourcing using child labours to harvest raw cocoa for a long time (CNN, 2012, Thetimes100, n.d.B). Cost reduction in the supply chain is very critical, but taking advantages from child labour is the issue which many companies around the world such as Coke, KFC,Mcdonald are concerning is one of the CSR whic h the company should show responsibility.(Ronnie,2000 Lobe,2004 Farcic,2012 ). In this case, it also destroyed Nestles reputation and image although Nestle did not do that directly, but it came from what third party or supplier do. Although it is difficult to check all process of outsourcing, Nestle should prepare processes to cross-check outsourcings operation. For example, sending staff to visit the outsource processes and give recommendation to improve and find solution for the problems. The good case study which Nestle can use to be example is IKEA, home furnishing company focusing on sustainability and social responsibility from all processes of supply chain, so IKEA set its vision that to create a better everyday life for many people. IKEA uses suppliers to provide raw material in primary stage to produce products. IKEA checks the environmental impacts and keep an eye on responding to the social at suppliers. Furthermore, IKEA sets conditions such as no allowing child labour, emissions reduction, to the suppliers before sign the contract. Every condition help to develop sustainability and social. To control suppliers, IKEA also analyses documents and records and visit on-site on occasions to make sure its suppliers are still following the agreements. IKEA works with UNICEF to develop community program in India to prevent child and raise awareness (Thetimes100, n.d.A). In addition, Nestle can adapt the result from launch cocoa plan Indonesia, the worlds third largest coffee producing country (CNN, 2012). Nestle assigns research and develop team in France to study about how to improve productivity, and then send their staff to help the farmers improve lives. Nestlà © and partners to train farmers provide plant expertise and support supply chain transparency. It also aims to improve livelihoods by focusing on projects related to nutrition education, water and rural development (Badasha,K, 2012). Nestle can use this concept to launch in Ivory Coast as well. It can help the farmers improve effective and earn more money; on the other hand, Nestle will get more raw materials. It means win-win situation, which can cause sustainability to the supply chain. Supplier Selection Challenge In 2007 Nestle outsourced Barry Callebaut to manufacture its chocolate products while Hersheys and Cadbury which are chocolate companies also chose Barry Callebaut to produce their products. Until 2012 Nestle decided to stop outsourcing from any company and keep production at York where can produce 8000 tons of dark chocolate for Kit Kat (BarryCallebaut, 2012, Nieburg, 2012).   Before outsourcing should be carefully considered in many respects such as Nestles capacity, relationship between outsource company and competitors. When we consider the situation we can see that Nestle is large food company. Chocolate is the popular products and Nestle familiars with productive processes for a long time (Nestle, 2013). Producing chocolate can be the core process and strength of the company, so Nestles potential can support chocolate production by itself. Although outsourcing Barry Callebaut reduced Nestles tasks and boost Nestle performance up, Barrt Callebaut also is outsourced from Hershey and Cadbury which are Nestles competitors. As a result, Nestle should make sure that its important information will not be shared to competitors because many times competitors have close relationship with third party. When Nestle stop outsourcing from Barry Callebaut. Barry Callebaut use knowledge from Nestle to support competitors or create own products to challenge Nestles mar ket. In this case, Nestle should invest to develop its potential at the beginning to keep significant processes in-house or find effective companies which can rely on only Nestle and improve relationship with them, however, Nestle should study more about background of the outsource company including its customer or any company which they are supporting. Supply Chain Challenge Nestle establishes its huge logistics by using two largest UK distribution centre in York and Bardon in Leicestershire. In 2002 Nestle faced problems of over and under utilisation with two distribution centre because it sold off a critical part of Premier food business although Nestle outsourced TDG, one of the greatest supply chain providers to control operation in two hubs. Nestle assigns York to respond Nestlà ©s confectionery products, the rest of products including food section are handled by Bardon. After selling food part, it made Bardon be under utilisation, while York was supporting confectionery products over utilisation. It created unbalancing usage (Total-logistics. n.d.).   Re-engineering to solve the problem One of the possible solutions mitigate under utilisation affect of the food sectors by analyse and redesign function of two distribution centres to balance usage and improve to be regional centres by changing the existing responsibility for each hub from the old pattern to mix products in each distribution centre. It means each distribution centres should be assigned to carry the full range of products, so over utilisation from confectionery products could be shared to under utilisation in Bardon. In addition, it could reduce lead time in supply chain when shift distribution centres to be regional centres because in several cases Nestle negotiate with its customers to pick up the products at Nestles site (Total-logistics. n.d.)  , so Nestle could arrange the shortest distance between customers and its regional centres, on the other hand Nestle can also arrange its transportation and regional centres to suite the customers in each area. It makes Nestle increase responsiveness and save cost al well. However, the two hubs have to be linked in term of information system, processes and transportation. They should be generated by Nestle and TDG cooperation. For example, TDG at Bardon and also covered the AUTOSTORE warehouse management system (WMS) running all product movements at both sites. All of which would need to fit hand in glove with Nestlà ©s SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system located at the companys Croydon headquarters (Total-logistics. n.d.).   Conclusion As we can see, many things from outsourcing are support Nestle business such as IT, logistic and supply chain etc. The two main benefits from outsourcing are cost reduction and unnecessary operational reduction to help outsourcer can focus on the core operation of the business. As a result, many factors should be considered before outsource such as core competitive and potential of the company not only outsourcing but also the outsourcer to get the most value from outsourcing and not generate the bad impact to the company. Some perspectives from Nestle reflect and demonstrate outsourcing strategies and challenge from this report and can be studies more in the future.

Dress Code Dilemma :: School Education Clothing Essays

Dress Code Dilemma Dear Dr. Pettigrew, Imagine this situation: I walk into my third period class and my teacher says to me, â€Å"Joell I think your skirt is too short. You need to get it checked by the office.† I do not understand why my first or second period teacher said nothing to me about my skirt. However, I go to the office, and wait for the principal or vice principal to measure my skirt. Forty-five minutes pass and it is time for my fourth period class. Finally, the principal steps out of her office and measures my skirt. According to the dress code, a skirt has to be four and a half inches above the knees, but mine is five inches. I now have two options: 1) I could put on my gym clothes that I have worn in gym class all week or 2) I could sit in the in-school suspension room, missing more classes until one of my parents can bring me a change of clothes. If I choose not to put on my dirty gym clothes and both of my parents are not able to bring me a change of clothes, then I am forced to sit in the in-school suspension room for the rest of the day. In this situation, I chose to have my mother bring me a change of clothes. When she arrived twenty minutes later, she was furious and demanded to speak with the principal. She wanted to know why her daughter had to miss three classes. This experience examines a policy I struggled with while attending Mars High School. There is a great deal of confusion about what is considered legal or illegal according to the dress code. Students’ getting cheated out of class time is the detrimental result of this confusion. Now that I have graduated, I want to express my concern because my younger cousin is going to be a freshman next year and I do not want her to face the same hassles. I feel our administration places too much emphasis on the specifics of the dress code and forces students to miss important education.

The Ambiguous Nature of Hamlet :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Hamlet

The Ambiguous Nature of Hamlet       In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the protagonist exhibits a puzzling, duplicitous nature. Hamlet contradicts himself throughout the play. He endorses both the virtues of acting a role and that of being true to one's self. He further supports both of these conflicting endorsements with his actions. This ambiguity is demonstrated by his alleged madness, for he does behave madly, only to become perfectly calm and rational an instant later. These inconsistencies are related with the internal dilemmas he faces. He struggles with the issue of revenging his father's death, vowing to kill Claudius and then backing out, several times. Upon this point Hamlet stammers through the play. The reason for this teetering is directly related to his inability to form a solid opinion about role playing. This difficulty is not present, however, at the start of the play.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the first act, Hamlet appears to be very straightforward in his actions and inner state. When questioned by Gertrude about his melancholy appearance, Hamlet says, "Seems, madam? Nay it is. I know not `seems.' (1.2.76). This is to say "I am what I appear to be." Later In Act I,   Hamlet makes a clear statement about his state when he commits himself to revenge. In this statement the play makes an easy to follow shift. This shift consists of Hamlet giving up the role of a student and mourning son. Hamlet says, I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,  Ã‚   All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,  Ã‚   That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live  Ã‚   Within the book and volume of my brain (1.5.99-103).    Hamlet is declaring that he will be committed to nothing else but the revenge of his father's death. There is no confusion about Hamlet's character. He has said earlier that he is what he appears to be, and there is no reason to doubt it. In the next act, however, Hamlet's status and intentions suddenly, and with out demonstrated reason, become mired in confusion. When Hamlet appears again in act two, it seems that he has lost the conviction that was present earlier. He has yet to take up the part assigned to him by the ghost. He spends the act walking around, reading, talking with Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and the players. It is not until the very end of the act that he even mentions vengeance.

With Reference To A Conflict Over The Use Of A Local

Paragraph 1: Introduction to Heathers, include; Cost E. Billion How it operates . 2 main parallel runways-landing occur at same time 2. 1 cross-wind runway 3. Most blow south/south west to west, so planes take off into the wind to provide â€Å"life† 4. Plane passes every 90 seconds How it has tried to adapt to locals needs (no fighting through night†¦ ) Night time fighting not generally allowed (after pm or before am) Compare to Trump's development. For example has it been adapted for people's needs.Don't visually benefit locals, but brings in tourists and income to area. Paragraph 2: The planning process of the Terminals and why it was necessary; Trading with Mounties overseas How the airport won't be able to cope with more traffic without another terminal Compare to Trump's development (was it really that necessary for the complex to be built in that particular area) nearly wasn't allowed there because the it is an area of outstanding beauty, but Scottish government ma de it okay for Trump to develop his ideas.Paragraph 3: The main arguments for and against terminal 5; FOR: rapid growth in air travel, reputation, airport capacity, competition with Europe, its important as a global â€Å"hub†, local economic value, tourism and the eider significance. AGAINST: industry is heavy subsided, economy is overstated, HACK and FOE. MAIN BODY OF ESSAY -Paragraph 4: Economic reactions within groups and weather their satisfied Against Aviation's contribution to the economy is overstated. It is only the 26th biggest industry in Britain, half the size of the IT industry and a tenth the size of banking and finance.The aviation industry is heavily subsided. Airlines pay no VAT on aviation fuel, a tax concession worth E billion a year in the sass and estimated to be worth El 6 billion by 2020. Airlines pay nothing towards the noise and pollution they cause as there is no environmental levy. For Competition with Europe – The position of Heathers as Rup ee's number one airport is being challenged by other European airports, such as Paris Charles De Gaulle (COG), Amsterdam Siphon and Frankfurt, all of which plan to expand capacity.Without expanding its own capacity, Heathers would fight to keep its place. Its importance as a global ‘hub' – Several business routes from Heathers, such as to Achaean and Bangles (India) and Los Angels ND Seattle (USA), rely on connecting traffic for 50% of their customers. They bring value to the airport and the LIKE economy by making routes financially feasible that would not be based on local demand alone.The wider significance – Although the enquiry noted that Weather's contribution to the Auk's gross domestic product (GAP) is probably underestimated (as there are no data to measure its influence in the Auk's and Loon's economy), the economic importance of Heathers is linked to its capacity. Restricting Heathers to 60 million passengers each year could affect the attraction of Lon don and the Oxford international investors. TO would contribute substantially to the LIKE economy, and to the success of London as a financial centre and its ability to attract further investment.

Distinctive Marketing, IT Capabilities, and Strategic Types: A Cross-National Investigation

Distinctive Marketing and Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types: A Cross-National Investigation ABSTRACT Keywords: strategic typology, firm capabilities, cross-national, Japan, China The authors examine the relationship between strategic type and development of distinctive marketing, market-linking, technology, and information technology (IT) capabilities to implement innovation strategy. They hypothesize that prospectors must build technical and IT capabilities, whereas defenders develop market-linking and marketing capabilities. The authors collect data from 709 firms across the United States, Japan, and China.They find support for their capability hypotheses, as well as for some of their cross-national hypotheses that are based on cultural and business environment differences among the three countries. In particular, they find support for the hypotheses that Japanese firms have greater technology and IT capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Th ey conclude with implications for management. The strategic typology of Miles and Snow (1978) has received much attention in the marketing and management literature over the past two decades (e. g. Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Griffin and Hauser 1996; Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon 1986; McDaniel and Kolari 1987; McKee, Varadarajan, and Pride 1989; Parry and Song 1993, 1994; Ruekert and Walker 1987; Song and Xie 2000; Walker et al. 2003). Almost 30 years after its initial appearance in the literature, their typology is viewed widely as having stood the test of time and is still the most popular and commonly accepted model of strategic types in the management literature, having been applied in many different industry settings (DeSarbo et al. 005; DeSarbo et al. 2006; Hambrick 2003). Miles and Snow envision strategy as the patterns in the decisions by which a strategic business unit (SBU) aligns itself with its environment, and they categorize SBUs according to these patterns. The critical underlying variable in their typology is the rate of change in an SBU’s products or markets. Using an exploratory empirical study, Miles and Snow propose four strategic types—prospectors, analyzers, defenders, and reactors—and suggest that each of the first three types chooses a different competitive strategy ith respect to products and/or markets: Prospectors will innovate technologically and seek out new markets, analyzers will prefer a â€Å"second-but-better† strategy, and defenders will focus on maintaining a secure niche in a relatively stable Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto Journal of International Marketing  © 2008, American Marketing Association Vol. 16, No. 1, 2008, pp. 4–38 ISSN 1069-031X (print) 1547-7215 (electronic) 4 product or service area.Miles and Snow suggest that all three of these strategic types can be successful if the SBU matches its strategy to the competitive en vironment and develops and deploys appropriate capabilities. Capabilities have been broadly defined as â€Å"complex bundles of skills and accumulated knowledge that enable firms [or SBUs] to coordinate activities and make use of their assets† (Day 1990, p. 38). In this article, we examine the relationship between Miles and Snow’s (1978) strategic type and four capability constructs: technology, market linking, marketing, and information technology (IT).Day (1994) suggests that both technology and market-linking capabilities (or â€Å"insideout† and â€Å"outside-in† capabilities, respectively) are critical to sustained competitive advantage and superior performance (see also Day 1990; Day and Wensley 1988). Technology capabilities, which enable the organization to improve production process efficiencies and ultimately reduce its costs and increase its competitiveness, include financial management, cost control, technology development, logistics, manufact uring, and other processes with an internal emphasis.Market-linking capabilities, which enable the organization to use its technology capabilities to exploit marketplace opportunities, include market sensing, channel bonding, customer linking, technology monitoring, and spanning processes such as purchasing and new product development (Day 1994). Marketing capabilities, such as customer and competitive knowledge, skill in market segmentation and targeting, and effective marketing program design, should also be related to an organization’s performance. In a ioneering study, Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) link marketing capabilities to the four strategic types and find that prospectors are superior in marketing capabilities. The marketing literature suggests that obtaining market and competitive information and diffusing it throughout the organization lead to better market orientation, better performance, and sustainable competitive advantage (Day 1994; Jaworski and Kohl i 1993). The literature also suggests that IT capabilities are increasingly important means to these ends.Research in both the marketing and new product streams has recognized the difficulty of communication across functional boundaries and has identified ways to improve both the quantity and quality of information (Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Griffin and Hauser 1992, 1993, 1996; Montoya-Weiss and Calantone 1994; Parry and Song 1993, 1994; Ruekert and Walker 1987; Song, Thieme, and Xie 1998; Song and Xie 2000; Swink and Song 2007). All four capability constructs include significant marketing processes. The original, exploratory Miles and Snow (1978) research finds relationships between firm capabilities andInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 5 strategic types in a limited number of industries. A subsequent study in this research stream empirically examines the relationships between marketing capabilities and strategic types and also validates a scale for assessing a business unit’s strategic type (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990). Two recent studies by DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006) propose and empirically test models that include a range of capabilities in addition to marketing capabilities.DeSarbo and colleagues (2005) use SBU data from three countries (the United States, China, and Japan) to derive a descriptive strategic typology that improves on the Miles and Snow typology in terms of explanatory power; this study is extended by DeSarbo and colleagues (2006) to a predictive model that examines causalities between strategic capabilities and SBU performance. The first objective of the current study is to examine the relationships between an SBU’s strategic type and its development of the four distinctive organizational capabilities technology, market linking, marketing, and IT). This research extends the previously mentioned research stream (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; DeSarbo et al. 2005; DeSarbo et al. 200 6) in that we seek to quantify and to better understand these relationships. The second objective is to build and test hypotheses regarding cross-national differences and their effects on the relationships between strategic type selection and the capabilities, a topic in which no empirical work has been conducted so far. We gather empirical data from three countries: the United States, China, and Japan.As China and Japan are the two largest East Asian economies, and together with the United States make up the three largest economies worldwide as measured by purchasing power (World Bank 2000), it is important to examine how firms from these countries compare with respect to their capabilities and strategies. Although DeSarbo and colleagues (2005) use a three-country database to build their descriptive typology, the research does not use the extant international marketing and management literature to build or test hypotheses of cross-national differences.We believe that the cross-nati onal hypothesis testing constitutes a clear extension to the work of Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) and DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006). We first propose a set of four hypotheses relating an SBU’s relative capabilities to its selection of strategic type, as well as four additional hypotheses expressing expected crossnational differences in the magnitudes of the capabilities. We then test these hypotheses using a data set of 709 managers from the United States, Japan, and China. Our empirical results largely confirm these hypotheses. We conclude by 6 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C.Anthony Di Benedetto providing theoretical implications and some possible prescriptions for managers seeking to improve their organization’s strategy selection. In this section, we define the Miles and Snow (1978) typology and discuss the implication of the strategic selection. We then define the four capability constructs and develop four hypotheses relating the capability co nstructs to strategic type. The Miles and Snow (1978) strategic types differ in the rate at which they change products or markets in response to environmental change. According to Miles and Snow, prospectors are the leaders of change in their industry.They operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997). They value being â€Å"first in† in new product and market areas as market pioneers even if not all these efforts prove to be highly profitable (Robinson and Fornell 1985; Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992). They often need to respond rapidly to early signals involving areas of opportunity, and these responses often lead to a new round of competitive actions. Nevertheless, prospectors may not maintain market strength in all the areas they enter.They compete principally through launching new products and meeting new marketplace opportunities. Consequently, they devote significant res ources to new product development, market research, and other marketing expenses (Hambrick 1983; McDaniel and Kolari 1987; Shortell and Zajac 1990; Walker et al. 2003). Prospectors also rely on close ties with the channel of distribution to anticipate customer needs and environmental changes (Walker et al. 2003). Sony’s audio products SBU, which is responsible for innovations such as the Walkman, is an example of a typical prospector organization.Defenders attempt to locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area. They are less risk oriented than prospectors; typically they do not look outside well-defined product-market domains for new opportunities (McDaniel and Kolari 1987; Shortell and Zajac 1990). Rather than invest time in new product or market development, they tend to offer a more limited range of products or services than their competitors, and they focus on resource efficiency and cost-cutting process improvements to try to protect their domain by offering higher quality, superior service, lower prices, and so forth (Hambrick 1983).Defenders are normally not at the forefront of developments in the industry. Walker and colleagues (2003) distinguish between two defender strategies: price cutting and competitive differentiation. Unlike Sony’s audio SBU, Matsushita’s audio division, a typical defender organization, is likely to focus not on developing products but rather on cutting manufacturing costs (Lieberman and Montgomery 1988). HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT The Miles and Snow Strategic Typology Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 7 Analyzers show qualities of both defenders and prospectors.They attempt to maintain a stable, limited line of products or services, while moving out quickly to follow a carefully selected set of the more promising new developments in the industry (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997). Analyzers are seldom â€Å"first in† with new products or services. However, by carefully monitoring the actions of major competitors in areas compatible with their stable product-market base, they are frequently â€Å"second in† with a more cost-efficient product or service (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997).For example, they might develop a new product in a stable market domain or sell established products in new geographic markets or through new distribution channels. They can operate in different domains, perhaps one stable and one more turbulent (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Miles and Snow (1978, p. 73) characterize analyzers as â€Å"avid followers of change,† always ready to pursue a promising, emerging product or market with a later-entrant, â€Å"second-but-better† strategy (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992).They can initiate product and/or market development, but less often than prospectors; at the same time, they can focus on stability and efficiency, but to a lesser extent than defenders (Hambrick 1983). Reactors typically lack long-term plans and any consistent strategy, instead reacting to environmental pressures as necessary (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Empirical study has suggested that prospectors, analyzers, and defenders all perform well (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Miles and Snow 1978) and generally outperform reactors.We are interested primarily in the relative capabilities of the three potentially successful archetypal strategic types, so we do not explicitly include reactors in our hypotheses. We have gathered data from reactor organizations, however, and included them in our analysis section. To create economic value, sustain competitive advantage, and achieve superior profitability, an organization requires a wide range of capabilities. Although it would be impossible to list them all, certain categories of capabilities common to many organizations have been identified and used in prior research (e. . , Day 1994; DeSarbo et al. 2006). Technology capabilities—such as financial management, cost control, technology development, and logistics—enable an organization to keep costs down and to differentiate its offerings from those of competitors. Market-linking capabilities—such as sensing market trends, channel and customer linking, and technology monitoring—enable an organization to be responsive to changing customer needs and to use its technical capabilities effectively to exploit external possibilities (Day 1994). Marketing capabilities—such as skill in segmentation,Organizational Capabilities 8 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto targeting, pricing, and advertising—enable the organization to take advantage of its market-sensing and technological capabilities and to implement effective marketing programs (Song and Parry 1997a, 1997b). Finally, IT capabilities enable the organization to diffuse market information effectively across all rel evant functional areas so that it can direct new product development. Not all organizations will have all of these capabilities (Day and Nedungadi 1994; Day and Wensley 1988).Furthermore, organizations will solidify and even develop their particular capabilities through time according to their strategic type, as Miles and Snow’s (1978) classification posits. For example, prospectors tend to compete by anticipating new product or marketplace opportunities and by implementing technological innovation; continued, successful prospecting will have the effect of strengthening inside-out and IT capabilities. The subsequent sections explore the hypothesized relationships between strategic type and organizational capabilities.Market-linking and -sensing capabilities enable the organization to compete by sensing market changes effectively, anticipating shifts in the market environment, creating and retaining durable links with customers, and creating strong bonds with channel members s uch as wholesalers and retailers. These capabilities enable the organization to sense marketplace requirements before competitors and to connect its other capabilities to the external environment (Day 1994). Organizations of all strategic types need well-developed market-linking capabilities.For defenders, however, such capabilities are particularly critical because these organizations must correctly and quickly anticipate changes in the market and their customers’ needs if they are to maintain their prominence within their existing product-market domain (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990). Because defenders attempt to locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area, they tend to offer a more limited range of products or services than their competitors, and they try to protect their domain by offering higher quality, superior service, lower prices, and so forth.To be effective in achieving these objectives, defenders must possess a high lev el of market-linking capabilities. Walker and colleagues (2003) also note that tracking changes in customer needs and competitive behavior is especially important to a differentiated defender strategy. They note that defenders should be strongest in business functions related to their competitive strategy, such as market sensing and linking. Although prospectors should also have good market-linking capabilities, their ability to sustain competitive advantage is more closely tied to the development of new products, markets, and technologies.Therefore, although Market-Linking Capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 9 market-linking capabilities are important to prospectors and analyzers, defenders will need them most. Our expectations about organizational strategy types and market-linking capabilities (relative to competitors) can be summarized as follows: H1: Along the prospectors–analyzers–defenders continuum, prospectors have the least rel ative marketlinking capabilities, nd defenders have the greatest. Technical capabilities involve the manufacturing processes, technology, new product development, production facilities, and forecasting of technological change in the industry. They are contained within the organization and activated by market, competitor, and external challenges and opportunities. By increasing efficiency in the production process, they can reduce costs and improve consistency in delivery and, therefore, competitiveness (Day 1994).Although technical capabilities are likely to be important for all strategic types, they should be most important to prospectors, which prosper in unstable, changing environments, especially those marked by rapid technological change such as biotechnology, medical care, and aerospace (Walker et al. 2003). Because prospectors use a first-to-market strategy and typically operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992), they must be able to develop new technologies, products, and markets rapidly (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; McDaniel and Kolari 1987).Walker and colleagues (2003) note that prospectors require strength in product research and development (R&D) and product engineering, and they perform best when the amount spent on product R&D is high. Because defenders typically locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area, they tend to be less interested in developing new products and technologies and therefore will depend less on technical capabilities. Formally, H2: Along the prospectors–analyzers–defenders continuum, prospectors have the greatest relative technical capabilities, and defenders have the least.Marketing capabilities include knowledge of the competition and of customers and skill in segmenting and targeting markets, in advertising and pricing, and in integrating marketing activity. Conant, Mokwa, and Varadaraj an (1990) find that prospector firms have distinctive competencies in marketing planning, allocation of marketing resources, revenue forecasting, and control of marketing activities. However, although both prospectors and defenders require skills in Technical Capabilities Marketing Capabilities 10 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto arketing and market research to succeed (Song and Parry 1997a, b), certain marketing capabilities will be of most importance to defender firms because they are most concerned about protecting products and retaining customers (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Walker and colleagues (2003) note that differentiated defenders must be able to communicate their products’ unique advantages so as to sustain customer satisfaction and loyalty. Low-cost defenders must be able to standardize effective marketing programs across all customer segments so as to reduce overall marketing costs.Thus, because both differentiated and low-cost defenders rely on marketing capabilities, they should develop them to a greater degree than should other strategic types. H3: Along the prospectors–analyzers–defenders continuum, prospectors have the lowest relative marketing capabilities, and defenders have the greatest. A firm active in product development must be able to gather technical and market information effectively and disseminate it throughout the organization (Jaworski and Kohli 1993; Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Narver and Slater 1990).These IT capabilities facilitate internal communication and cross-functional integration (Song et al. 2007). Better IT is associated with greater strategic flexibility and, ultimately, with better performance and greater organizational success (Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj, and Konsynski 1999; Swanson 1994). Day (1994) notes that more creative use of IT should lead to better firm performance, and other researchers have found that better information transmission across functional areas leads to m ore successful new products (Griffin and Hauser 1992, 1993, 1996; Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon 1986; Moenaert and Souder 1996).As we discussed previously, prospectors typically operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition. They also rely on the rapid development of new products and new markets (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992). Therefore, prospectors need relatively high IT skills to respond rapidly to early signals involving areas of opportunity. Miles and Snow (1978) note that prospectors tend to have the most complex coordination and communication mechanisms.Because of the technologically advanced nature of the products they develop, prospectors are also more likely to encounter conflicts among marketing, R&D, engineering, and possibly other functional areas (Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Walker et al. 2003). This makes even more critical prospectors’ ability to communicate as effectively as possible and to ensure the free flow of informati on throughout the organization. In addition, prospectors might need greater strategic flexibility than other strategic types because they must constantly monitor and target emerging technology IT CapabilitiesInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 11 and product opportunities; better IT contributes to greater strategic flexibility (Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj, and Konsynski 1999). Formally, we propose the following: H4: Along the prospectors–analyzers–defenders continuum, prospectors have the greatest relative IT capabilities, and defenders have the lowest. CROSS-NATIONAL HYPOTHESES The cultural differences among Japan, China, and the United States are well documented in the literature (Hofstede 1980; Tse et al. 1988). Japanese and Chinese cultures are collectivistic and long-term oriented, whereas the U.S. culture is individualistic and short-term oriented. Japan and China emphasize group harmony and cohesiveness, whereas the United States values freedom of c hoice and competition (Hofstede 1980). The business environments in both Japan and China reflect these cultural tendencies. In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) encourages investment in key technologies and fierce competition among Japanese firms in selected industries (Kagono et al. 1985). These policies have helped strengthen Japan’s competitiveness in the global marketplace. In addition, METI’s olicies have recently encouraged new initiatives, such as growth in IT and support for environmentally friendly products (Elder 2000). The keiretsu, or interorganizational business groups, also strongly support technology development in Japan (Lai 1999; Lincoln, Gerlach, and Ahmadjian 1996; Miwa and Ramseyer 2002). A major manufacturer might work cooperatively with its suppliers and distributors (vertical keiretsu) or with other manufacturers (horizontal keiretsu) to perfect a new technology; consider, for example, the consortium of Japanese firms tha t worked with Sony in the development of the global positioning system (Campbell 1999).In addition to technology and IT capabilities, Japanese firms in many industries possess formidable marketing and marketlinking capabilities. Their cultural predilection toward group harmony and cohesiveness has led Japanese firms to value long-term relationships with their suppliers, distributors, and customers (Kagono et al. 1985; Kotabe et al. 1991; Smith, Peterson, and Wang 1996; Tse et al. 1988). These relationships enable Japanese manufacturers to link with their customer markets effectively and to develop appropriate marketing strategies and programs.Since the end of World War II, Japanese firms have closed the gap between themselves and their U. S. competitors in terms of marketing capabilities, in some industries surpassing them. As an example, Japanese carmakers are renowned for their excellence in customer research. Use of observational research techniques has enabled Toyota, Nissan, an d Honda to develop cars that are 12 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto ideally suited to the unique demands of the U. S. marketplace (Shirouzu 2001).Japanese carmakers were also among the first to use Quality Function Deployment techniques (e. g. , the House of Quality; see Hauser and Clausing 1988), which ensure that market needs drive all the subsequent steps in product development and manufacturing processes, including product engineering, process planning, and production (Griffin 1992). It was the U. S. carmakers that had to learn these techniques from Japanese carmakers to catch up (Dyer 1996). This literature suggests that Japanese firms are at least equal to their U. S. ompetitors in terms of marketing capabilities and, because of their cultural tendency toward group harmony and cohesiveness, could possess even stronger market-linking capabilities. The Chinese business environment differs from that of Japan, though the two countries share some cultural traits. Despite recent economic reforms, many Chinese firms remain state-owned enterprises, characterized by shared government and firm authority (Schermerhorn and Nyaw 1991). Since the 1970s, investment in technology and innovation has been supported strongly by government policy to stimulate Chinese economic growth and to boost global competitiveness.As decentralization has occurred, stateowned enterprises have increased their decision-making authority on issues such as products and prices (Henley and Nyaw 1986; Laaksonen 1988; Schermerhorn and Nyaw 1991), and smaller collective enterprises with even less government control have become more prevalent (Parry and Song 1994). Nevertheless, Chinese government policy continues to prioritize technology capability investment. However, our review of the literature on Chinese state-owned enterprises reveals little evidence that the Chinese government has prioritized or funded marketing, market-linking, or IT capabilities.In summary, the l iterature suggests that Japanese government and keiretsu policy favor technology and IT capability development, whereas Chinese government policy favors technology development. In addition, the marketing and marketlinking capabilities of Japanese firms are well established, whereas Chinese governmental policy has not supported the development of these capabilities On the basis of this evidence, we propose the following: H5: Japanese firms have greater market-linking capabilities than U. S. and Chinese firms of the same strategic type.H6: Japanese and Chinese firms have greater technology capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 13 H7: Japanese and U. S. firms have greater marketing capabilities than Chinese firms of the same strategic type. H8: Japanese firms have greater IT capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Note that H5–H8 can be tested for each of the four strategic types separa tely—thus the qualifier â€Å"of the same strategic type. † RESEARCH DESIGNInstrument Development and Cross-Cultural Validation Process Our constructs are defined using competitive capability theory (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Day 1994) and must be operationalized using valid, reliable measures (Churchill 1979). We used a four-step instrument development procedure to develop new scales for market-linking, technical, marketing, and IT capabilities and to ensure crosscultural validity. (For a fuller discussion of the instrument development procedure, see DeSarbo et al. 2005. ) Step 1: Measurement Items for Each Capability Type.We identified relevant measurement scales from the marketing literature. We grouped the scale items derived from these scales into the four capability types. To this initial pool of items for each capability type, we added new items in instances in which we believed that not all the dimensions of the construct had been sufficiently covere d. To ensure content validity and appropriateness of items, we refined the scales through in-depth focus interviews in two SBUs. Managers at these SBUs were asked their opinions about salient issues in SBU capabilities.They were also asked to evaluate whether the theoretical model described their own experiences adequately. Next, managers commented on their perceptions of the relevance and completeness of the scale items drawn from the literature review and previous case studies. Finally, we tested and validated the Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) strategic typology scale. Step 2: Scale Development. Following Churchill (1979), we assessed construct validity of the scales being developed and corrected any scale items that might still be ambiguous.Seven judges (two professors and five doctoral students with background in measurement development) sorted the items from the first step into the four capability scales, following Davis’s (1986) procedure. Construct convergence and divergence were examined by assessing interrater reliability (for assessment statistics, see DeSarbo et al. 2005). Step 3: Instrument Pretesting. Using the judges’ comments, we reexamined all scale items and eliminated inappropriate or ambiguous items or any that were inconsistently classified.We then combined the four scales into an overall instrument 14 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto for additional pretesting. We distributed the instrument to 32 managers in the two SBUs to further assess scale reliability and validity; two problematic items were deleted. Then, the instrument was distributed to 41 executive MBA students taking a new product development class. We subjected the results to factor analysis and assessment of reliability. (Factor loadings and reliability test results are available on request. We deleted two more items, which resulted in a questionnaire including all items judged to have high consistency and face validity. Step 4: Cr oss-Cultural Validation of the Research Instrument. To ensure that the translation was accurate and that the question meanings were not altered, we used a double-translation method to translate the questionnaire into Japanese and Chinese (Adler 1983; Douglas and Craig 2006; Sekaran 1983). After translation, we conducted field research in six Japanese firms and two Chinese firms in which we examined SBU capabilities and innovation strategies.The purposes of the field research were to establish the content validity of the concepts and the hypothesized relationships among the constructs; to establish equivalence of the constructs, concepts, measures, and samples; and to assess the possibility of cultural bias and response format bias (Douglas and Craig 2006). The field research studies were conducted over a ninemonth period with multiple visits to the companies. The field research studies were important for several reasons. First, they facilitated an assessment of construct (conceptual , functional, and category) equivalence.Second, they indicated that the measurement scales were appropriate for studying capability and strategic types in Japanese and Chinese context. Third, the field research results suggested that it is more appropriate to ask the respondents to rate their SBU on each of the capability scale items relative to their major competitors (for exact wording, see Appendix A). Appendix A provides a list of the final measure measurement items and the response format employed in the questionnaire. The following sections briefly summarize the four scales.Market-Linking Capabilities. We measured market-linking capabilities using several scale items derived from Day (1994). The items measure relative capability in creating and managing durable customer relationships, creating durable relationships with suppliers, retaining customers, and bonding with channel members. Technical Capabilities. We also measured technical capabilities according to a set of scale i tems derived from Day (1994). These items measure relative capabilities in the prediction ofInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 15 technological change, technology and new product development, manufacturing processes, and production facilities. Marketing Capabilities. We measured marketing capabilities using a set of scale items derived from Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990). These items measure knowledge of customers, knowledge of competitors, integration of marketing activities, skills in segmentation and targeting, and effectiveness of pricing and advertising programs. IT Capabilities.We defined IT capabilities as the relative capabilities that help an organization create technical and market knowledge and facilitate intraorganizational communication flow. We developed items to measure the possession of IT systems for new product development, cross-functional integration, technology and market knowledge creation, and internal communication. We subjected th ese items to the measurement development procedure described previously. We obtained the data from a large-scale mail survey of the companies listed in Ward’s Business Directory, the Directory of Corporate Affiliations, and the World Marketing Directory.We drew a proportionate-stratified random sample of 800 firms from each country, using each industry as a stratum. The data collection consisted of three stages: presurvey, data collection on SBU strategies, and data collection on relative capabilities. In the first stage, we sent a one-page survey and an introductory letter requesting participation to all the selected firms and offered a list of available research reports to participating firms. The letter requested each firm to select an SBU/division for participation and provide a contact person in that SBU/division.Of the 2400 firms contacted, 392 in the United States, 429 in Japan, and 414 in China agreed to participate and provided the necessary contacts at the SBU/divis ion level. In the second stage, on strategic types, we contacted the designated SBU managers directly and mailed a questionnaire and personalized letter to each manager. We employed a three-wave mailing on the basis of the recommendations of Dillman (1978). We received data on the multi-item measures of the strategic types from 308 firms in the United States, 354 firms in Japan, and 352 firms in China.Two items at the end of the instrument assessed respondents’ confidence in their ability to answer the questions. Respondents with a low level of confidence (less than 6) were excluded from the final sample. In the third stage, on the four capabilities, we sent another questionnaire to the SBU managers, followed again by a three-wave mailing. This time, we received data on the rela- Data 16 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto tive capabilities from 216 U. S. firms, 248 Japanese firms, and 245 Chinese firms.These sample sizes represent response rates of 27. 0% in the United States, 31. 0% in Japan, and 30. 6% in China. The final sample includes the following industries: computer-related products; electronics; electric equipment and household appliances; pharmaceuticals, drugs, and medicines; machinery; telecommunications equipment; instruments and related products; air conditioning; chemicals and related products; and transportation equipment. The majority of participating SBUs/divisions had annual sales of $11 million–$750 million and 100–12,500 employees.Appendix A presents all of the measures used in this study. We asked respondents to rate their SBU on each of the capability scale items relative to their major competitors. We used an 11-point scale to elicit levels of agreement, with values ranging from 0 (â€Å"much worse than our competitors†) to 10 (â€Å"much better than our competitors†). We used the data collected in the second phase of the collection process to classify the SBU/division into the four strategic types. We adopted the 11-item scale from Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990).We classified the SBU’s strategic type (prospector, analyzer, defender, or reactor) using the â€Å"majority-rule decision structure† (for details, see Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990) with the following modification: For an SBU to be classified as a prospector or a defender, it must have at least seven â€Å"correct† answers. Before testing our hypotheses, we performed principal factor analyses with Varimax rotation on all the variables measuring the four relative capabilities for all three countries. To assess measurement invariance, we examined factor structure similarity (Mullen 1995).We retained variables using the following criteria: (1) Each factor must contain the same scale items across all three countries, (2) each item’s factor loading must be comparable across all three countries, and (3) for each factor, the factor loading must exceed . 40. This procedure produced four factors and reduced the total number of variables to 21. We made comparisons among the factor structures of the three countries using visual inspection, the salient similarity index, and Pearson correlation of the factor loadings across the three countries. The factor loadings appear in Table 1.As indicated, all factors are distinguishable and well defined for all three countries. The percentage of the variance explained by the four factors is 72% for the United States, 71% for Japan, and 69% for China. The examination of the diagonal of the factor score covariance matrix indicates that all factors for the three Measures ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Factor Analysis of the Capability Scales Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 17 Table 1. Principal Component Factor Analysis: Rotated Factor Patterns United States Market-Linking Capabilities Market-sensing capabilities Customer-linking (i. e. creating and managing durable customer relationships) capab ilities Capabilities of creating durable relationships with our suppliers Ability to retain customers Channel-bonding capabilities (creating durable relationships with channel members such as wholesalers, retailers) Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor Technical Capabilities Manufacturing processes Technology development capabilities Ability of predicting technological changes in the industry Production facilities New product development capabilities Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor Marketing Capabilities Knowledge of competitors Effectiveness of advertising programs Integration of marketing activities Skill to segment and target markets Effectiveness of pricing programs Knowledge of customers Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor IT Capabilities IT systems for facilitating crossfunctional integration IT systems for new product development projects IT systems for internal communication (e. g. , across diff erent departments, levels of the organization) IT systems for facilitating technology knowledge creation IT systems for facilitating market knowledge creation Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor . 71 . 80 . 90 . 58 . 86 . 85 . 62 . 89 4. 22 20. 1 . 97 . 93 . 90 . 92 . 91 6. 10 29. 1 . 85 Japan .81 China .88 .80 . 81 . 79 .77 . 71 . 57 .79 . 66 . 70 .65 3. 04 14. 4 .44 1. 68 8. 0 .67 2. 64 12. 6 .79 . 78 . 78 . 77 . 71 2. 51 12. 0 70 . 81 . 69 . 73 . 78 4. 36 20. 7 .95 . 95 . 94 . 95 . 90 . 86 5. 69 27. 1 .95 . 86 . 94 . 93 . 83 . 83 5. 39 25. 7 .90 . 89 .83 . 80 .75 . 66 . 74 1. 66 7. 9 .85 . 65 . 57 5. 08 24. 2 .46 . 67 . 63 1. 75 8. 3 18 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto countries are internally consistent and well defined by the measurement items. We provide the final set of included measurement items in Appendix A and the construct reliabilities (as measured by Cronbach’s ? ) and item-to-total correlations in Appendix B. All 12 construct reliabilities (three countries ? four constructs) exceeded the . 70 level that Peter (1979) recommends.To test H1–H4 in each of the three country settings, we performed multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) to compare the scores on each of the four multi-item relative capability scales across all four strategic types using SAS general linear model procedure. For each capability scale, we obtained a multiple-item scale by a simple average of the items. As Table 2 shows, the MANOVA F-statistic was significant for all four relative capabilities and in all three countries, so we computed pairwise comparisons to examine the nature of the differences in relative capabilities among the four strategic types. We also include the t-test results of the pairwise comparisons in Table 2.The results in Table 2 provide support for H1–H4 in all three countries. (A hypothesis is supported if at least one pairwise comparison is significant and the direction is in t he hypothesized direction. ) As H1 hypothesized, the relative marketlinking capabilities of defenders and analyzers are significantly greater than those of prospectors in all three countries, though the difference between defenders and analyzers is not significant. For example, in the United States, mean scores on market-linking capabilities are 2. 69, 2. 35, and 1. 67 for defenders, analyzers, and prospectors, respectively. The F-statistic from the analysis of variance is 3. 52, which is significant at p < . 05.T-tests of the paired comparisons showed that both the defender mean and the analyzer mean were significantly larger than the prospector mean (D > P; A > P) at the p < . 05 level. We obtained similar results for the Japanese and Chinese samples. These findings are consistent with H1. Prospectors have lower market-linking capabilities than defenders and analyzers because the latter two strategic types rely primarily on their market-sensing and -linking abilities to serve thei r current markets with their current products and technologies. The results also support H2 (prospectors have greater technical capabilities than defenders) in all three countries.For the United States, the prospector and defender means were 3. 42 and 2. 25, respectively, significantly different at p < . 05. Both prospectors’ and analyzers’ technical capabilities are greater than those of defenders in Japan. The means for prospector, analyzer, and defender were 8. 75, 8. 47, and 7. 84, respectively; both prospector and analyzer means were significantly Tests of H1–H4: Possession of Capabilities by Different Strategic Types Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 19 20 Table 2. Analysis of Variance Results: Relative Capabilities and Strategic Types Strategic Type Prospector 1. 67 (1. 67) 3. 42 (2. 70) 1. 75 (1. 50) 7. 5 (1. 49) 6. 72 (1. 79) 5. 48 (1. 09) 5. 05 (1. 72) 2. 37 (1. 75) 3. 26 (1. 99) 1. 98 (2. 38) 2. 78 (2. 46) 2. 25 (2. 59) 2. 46 (2. 90) 2. 16* 7. 47** 31. 96** 2. 35 (1. 82) 2. 69 (1. 79) 2. 46 (2. 01) 3. 52** Univariate Defender Reactor F-Value Paired Comparisons Hypothesis (t-Tests)a D > P; A > P P>D D > A; D > P; D > R; A > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R Countries/Relative Capabilities Analyzer Supportedb Yes Yes Yes Yes United States Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Japan 1. 03 (. 91) 8. 75 (1. 23) 3. 58 (2. 36) 9. 48 (. 87) 9. 00 (1. 01) 3. 9 (2. 88) 8. 47 (1. 20) 7. 84 (1. 35) 3. 68 (2. 73) 8. 72 (1. 09) 1. 96 (1. 12) 2. 07 (1. 19) 2. 51 (1. 56) 7. 42 (1. 42) 4. 82 (2. 29) 8. 46 (1. 28) 19. 17** 12. 02** 2. 24* 11. 28** D > P; A > P; R > D; R > A; R > P P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R R > D; R > A; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > R Yes Yes No Yes Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto IT capabilities Strategic Type Prospector 1. 21 (1. 28) 8. 53 (1. 27) 2. 9 2 (2. 20) 8. 96 (1. 10) 8. 58 (1. 13) 7. 94 (1. 33) 7. 59 (1. 60) 13. 38** 3. 37 (2. 52) 3. 9 (2. 82) 4. 13 (2. 45) 2. 30* 7. 81 (1. 28) 7. 43 (1. 19) 6. 79 (1. 85) 15. 69** 2. 17 (1. 52) 2. 22 (1. 49) 2. 71 (1. 74) 11. 21** Univariate Defender Reactor F-Value Paired Comparisons Hypothesis (t-Tests)a D > P; A > P; R > A; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > R; D > R D > P; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R Countries/Relative Capabilities Analyzer Supportedb Yes Yes Yes Yes China Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types *p < . 10. **p < . 05. aSignificant differences at p < . 0 are reported. bA hypothesis is supported if at least one pair is significantly different in the hypothesized direction. Notes: Each cell shows the mean; standard deviations are in parentheses. P = prospector, A = analyzer, D = defender, and R = reactor. Table 2. Continued 21 higher than the defender mean at p < . 05. In China, prospectors scored higher than analyzers and defenders on this capability (prospector, analyzer, and defender means were 8. 53, 7. 81, and 7. 43, respectively; the prospector mean was significantly higher than the other two means at p < . 05). H3 was supported in the United States and China samples. For the U. S. ample, defenders had significantly greater marketing capabilities than analyzers, and analyzers had significantly greater marketing capabilities than prospectors. The defender, analyzer, and prospector means on relative marketing capabilities in the United States were 3. 26, 2. 37, and 1. 75, respectively, all significantly different from one another at p < . 05 according to the pairwise t-tests. For the Chinese sample, the only differences are the pair between defenders and prospectors and the pair between reactors and prospectors. However, for the Japanese samples, the hypothesis was not supported. The three â€Å"archetypal† strategic types we re insignificantly different and, notably, rather low.The reactors had significantly greater marketing capabilities than all other three strategic types. Finally, H4 was also supported in all three countries. Almost without exception, prospectors had greater IT capabilities than analyzers, which in turn had greater IT capabilities than defenders. For example, in the U. S. sample, the relative IT capabilities for prospectors, analyzers, and defenders were 7. 95, 6. 72, and 5. 48, respectively, all significantly different from one another at p < . 05. Similar results were found in Japan and China. In summary, our expectations, expressed in our hypotheses, were that prospectors would be strongest in technical and IT capabilities and defenders in market-linking and marketing capabilities.We find support for all these hypotheses in all three countries, and all significant findings were in the hypothesized directions. The next set of hypotheses involves expected cross-national differences in terms of the relationship between capabilities and strategic types due to cultural or business environment differences. Before discussing the direct empirical testing of these hypotheses, however, we explain some preliminary findings regarding cross-national differences using data from Table 2. Market-Linking Capabilities. Reactors had significantly greater relative market-linking capabilities than did other strategic types in both Japan and China, but not in the United States. Market-linking capability = 2. 51 and 2. 71 in Japan and China, respectively; in each case, this is the highest capability mean. ) Miles and Snow (1978) find that reactors Tests of H5–H8: Cross-National Similarities and Differences 22 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto did not implement strategies consistently and therefore did not fully develop internal capabilities that would enable them to compete successfully. Our results suggest that this expectation is not borne out in Japan or China, possibly because some firms in these countries have well-developed market-linking capabilities but choose to compete as reactors rather than defenders.That is, superior market-sensing skills enable these firms to act successfully as prospectors in certain markets and as adapters or defenders in others. This finding appears to be supported by the H3 results, at least for Japanese firms. Reactors in Japan have significantly greater relative marketing capabilities than all other strategic types. Leaders of a multinational organization doing business against a Japanese competitor should keep in mind that a firm apparently lacking a consistent strategy (i. e. , displaying reactive behavior) may be nonetheless highly skilled in marketing and market linking and, therefore, a surprisingly formidable opponent. Technical Capabilities.Although H2 was largely supported, it is worthwhile to note that across all four strategic types, managers from U. S. firms rated their technica l capabilities (relative to competitors) substantially lower than did their Japanese or Chinese counterparts. The means for the United States were 2. 2–3. 4 on a ten-point scale, and comparable means in Japan and China were 7–9. This finding suggests that in Japan and China, all strategic types (including defenders and reactors) have well-developed relative technical capabilities. Again, a U. S. firm in competition against, for example, a Japanese defender should not infer low technical capabilities from its competitor’s defensive posture. Marketing Capabilities.Finally, it was surprising to note that H3, which involves relative marketing capabilities, was not supported in Japan and only partially supported in China. As we noted previously, Japanese reactor firms have the greatest relative marketing capabilities; all other firms are insignificantly different on this capability. In China, defenders rate significantly higher than prospectors in this (as hypothesiz ed), but we found no other significant differences among the archetypal strategic types. Cross-National Differences. To test the cross-national hypotheses (H5–H8), we performed additional analyses to compare the means on each relative capability construct across countries for each of the four strategic types using SAS general linear model procedure.We used the same procedure described previously: a MANOVA followed by a series of pairwise t-tests to identify significant differences. As Table 3 shows, the F-statistic was significant for 13 of the 16 possible comparisons. Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 23 Consider first the technology and IT capability hypotheses (H6 and H8). Table 3 shows that across all four strategic types, Japanese and Chinese SBUs rate significantly higher than U. S. SBUs in relative technical capabilities. As an example, technical capabilities for prospectors were rated as 8. 75, 8. 53, and 3. 42 for Japan, China, and the United St ates, respectively (significant at p < . 05).This is directly supportive of H6. Japanese and Chinese SBUs also rated significantly higher than their U. S. counterparts in relative IT capabilities across all four strategic types; therefore, we find only partial support for H8. For prospectors, IT capabilities were 9. 48, 8. 96, and 7. 95 for Japan, China, and the United States, respectively (significant at p < . 05). High relative IT capability among Japanese SBUs was expected according to H8, but the high relative IT capability among Chinese SBUs was unanticipated and is worthy of further research. We found less support for the market-linking and marketing capability hypotheses (H5 and H7).Cross-national differences are not very pronounced in the case of relative marketlinking capabilities. As Table 3 shows, U. S. prospector SBUs rate significantly higher than their Japanese and Chinese counterparts, and U. S. defenders rate significantly higher than their Japanese counterparts. The se findings are contradictory to the expectations of H5. Given the evidence of Japanese market-linking expertise, it is surprising that Japanese SBUs rate significantly higher than U. S. or Chinese competitors in market linking only in the case of reactors. In addition, H7 is only partially supported. Japanese and Chinese prospectors and analyzers rate significantly higher than their U. S. ounterparts on relative marketing capabilities. For example, in the case of prospectors, marketing capabilities are rated as 4. 58, 2. 92, and 1. 75 for Japan, China, and the United States, respectively (significant at p < . 05). Although we expected high relative marketing capability for Japan, we did not expect the significantly lower marketing capabilities among U. S. SBUs. Nevertheless, consistent patterns appear with respect to the cross-national hypotheses and suggest directions for further research. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION According to the Miles and Snow (1978) typology, organizations ado pt certain mechanisms to respond to environmental changes.That is, they choose to be pioneers in product or market development or to protect existing positions within their niches, or they seek some kind of intermediate position between these two extremes. As a result, firms exhibit relatively consistent strategies, or patterns of product-market innovation decisions, in response to environmental shifts. Furthermore, a firm that pursues a given strategy develops certain capabilities that help it implement that strategy, thus increasing the likelihood that it will continue to use the same strategy in response to future environmental shifts. As Ham- 24 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di BenedettoStrategic Types/ Relative Capabilities United States 1. 67 3. 42 1. 75 7. 95 9. 48 8. 96 33. 14** 3. 58 2. 92 13. 91** 8. 75 8. 53 202. 00** 1. 03 1. 21 4. 74** Country Japan China Univariate F-Value Cross-Country Comparisonsa U. S. > China; U. S. > Japan Japan > U. S. ; China > U . S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Prospectors Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Analyzers 2. 35 2. 78 2. 37 6. 72 9. 00 8. 58 3. 59 3. 37 8. 47 7. 81 230. 38** 5. 46** 58. 07** 1. 96 2. 17 1. 16n. s. — Japan > China; Japan > U. S. China > U. S. Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Defenders 2. 69 2. 25 3. 26 5. 48 8. 72 3. 68 3. 69 7. 94 7. 84 7. 43 2. 07 2. 22 2. 70* 163. 99** . 54n. s. 121. 94** U. S. > Japan Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. — Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types IT capabilities Table 3. Analysis of Variance Results: Cross-National Comparisons 25 26 Table 3.Continued Country Un ited States 2. 46 2. 46 1. 98 5. 05 8. 46 7. 59 4. 81 4. 13 7. 42 6. 79 2. 51 2. 71 . 17n. s. 38. 68** 7. 99** 28. 82** Strategic Types/ Relative Capabilities Japan China Univariate F-Value Cross-Country Comparisonsa Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. — Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Reactors Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto *p < . 10. **p < . 05. aSignificant differences at p < . 10 are reported. Notes: n. s. = not significant. brick (1983, p. ) notes, â€Å"prospectors tend to want to continue prospecting; defenders tend to want to continue defending. † Among the capabilities Miles and Snow investigate are technology, structure, management processes, and power distribution. As we noted previously, the Miles and Snow (1978) typology is, above all, a typology of innovation strategies. In this study, we mapped four ca pabilities of interest to innovating firms (market-linking, technical, marketing, and IT capabilities) onto the Miles and Snow strategic typologies. We hypothesized (in H1–H4) that prospectors, which typically pursue a first-mover strategy through product-market innovation, would need to build up technical and IT capabilities.Similarly, defenders, which are most concerned with preserving protected market segments with existing technology, must develop market-linking and marketing capabilities. We found supporting evidence for all these hypotheses in firms from all three countries. We then developed and tested a set of cross-national hypotheses (H5–H8), based on cultural and business environment differences existing among the United States, Japan, and China. Our development and empirical testing of these hypotheses represent a significant advance of the literature beyond the contributions of DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006). We found clear support for one of the four hypotheses (H6), partial support for two others (H7 and H8), and no support for the last (H5).In general, the cultural and business environment prevalent in Japan and China has given SBUs in those countries relative advantages in technology and IT capabilities (H6 and H8), yet we did not observe anticipated advantages in market-linking and marketing capabilities (H5 and H7). This study has some implications for theory development and further research. In general, the results support the hypotheses that relative to other organizations, prospectors develop greater technical and IT capabilities so that they can pursue first-to-market initiatives and that defenders develop greater market-linking and marketing capabilities so that they can respond effectively to marketplace changes.These findings lend support to the Miles and Snow (1978) typology and to the contention that organizations tend to respond in certain, consistent ways to environmental change. Therefore, our findings can be i nterpreted as further empirical support of the Miles and Snow typology, originally conceived after an exploratory study of a limited number of industries but empirically supported in other settings (Hambrick 2003). Our findings are also consistent with Hambrick’s (1983) contention that prospectors want to keep prospecting and consequently develop the capabilities most closely related to Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 27 prospecting more than do other firms. Because IT has evolved only in the past few years, further research should explore the impact of IT on strategic choices.Because no existing theories are sufficient to enable us to predict a priori the nature of cross-national differences in the relationship between the four capabilities and strategic types, further research also should examine further our preliminary results regarding cross-national differences in relative capabilities. In addition, note that our model provides evidence of the val idity of Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan’s (1990) 11-item scale for assessing strategic type in both Japan and China. We believe that this is the first application of this scale in China and one of the first in Japan (for an earlier Japanese application, see Dyer and Song 1997). There are several notable managerial implications. The Miles and Snow (1978) typology suggests that organizations must do a sincere internal and external assessment when planning strategic moves for future competition.The external assessment should include analysis not only of likely opportunities or developments in product, market, and technology but also of past moves by primary competitors classified by strategic type. In the internal assessment, the organization’s leaders must identify honestly the firm’s strengths and recognize its weaknesses in light of external challenges. They must then choose a strategic stance, deciding how it can best capitalize on the strengths and overcome th e weaknesses. Although this recommendation is hardly new, it is important in this context to recognize that there is a mutually complementary relationship between capabilities and strategies.Relative strengths in technology and IT capabilities might suggest that a prospector (or even an analyzer) strategy could be a more appropriate choice than a defender strategy. Consistent, successful pursuit of a prospector strategy over time should help a firm develop these relative strengths and enable it to retain its competitive advantage. This implicitly suggests also that a firm that recognizes itself as a reactor type should use its internal assessment to decide which â€Å"archetypal† strategic type it should strive to become. Cross-national differences in strategic type also carry managerial implications. Previously, we noted several