Cornflake Production Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cornflake Production - Essay Example Most of the energy resources used are unclean and include mostly coal and petroleum fuels. These fuels are not only a threat to the environment but also costly. This implies that in the course of establishing and maintaining the energy management system, the most critical aspects need to be considered. The first action is to establish an energy policy to govern the use of energy in the plant. Next an energy management representative should be appointed. The resources can then be provided at this point. The main objective of the plant is to make profits (Kals & WÃ ¼rtenberger, 2012). The energy used should thus be affordable. One of the major objectives of the organization would be to minimize its costs and using cheap energy would be a great achievement. Nevertheless, this kind of energy has to be available because it would be impossible to plan on a source of energy that is difficult or too costly to find (Kals & WÃ ¼rtenberger, 2012). Given the current concern on global warming, environmental management is a key consideration in the type of energy used in industries. This concern means that high emissions should be avoided. This goal could only be achieved with energy resources that emits less carbon, sulfa, or any other chemicals that contribute to global warming (Kals & WÃ ¼rtenberger, 2012). In essence, the energy management philosophy would focus on three key factors. These factors include availability, cost, and environmental

Olympics Essay Example for Free

Olympics Essay The Olympic games were brought back by a man named Pierre de Coubertin when he made a speech to the Athletic Society of France in 1892 (Doc 1). Since the games came back they have shaped the economies, national pride and the social changes in multiple countries. The economies of the countries who host the Olympic games generally have a boost in the economy. With a few exceptions like South Korea. Even with the Olympic games being hosted in Seoul, none of their companies were selected as top sponsors. â€Å"Korean companies are not on the list.  Korea failed to avail itself of an opportunity to display its industrial and economic power to a worldwide television audience. † (Doc 7) One country that always contributed to the games was the United States. In 1980 when the games were hosted in Moscow, the USA contributed less than 200 million. Twenty years later in the year 2000, they contributed over 1,200 million when the games were hosted in Sydney. (Doc 9) Many of the documents shown had national pride behind them. Many critics talked highly of the Soviet Union when the Olympic games were to be held in Moscow for the 1980 games. Saying that the Soviet Union â€Å"is a beacon of peace, democracy, and social progress. † (Doc 6) But when it came to what they Americans thought, it was far from that. Bob Matthias form the United States, once said â€Å"You just loved to beat’em. You just had to beat’em. † (Doc 4) This is because of the long rival that these two countries have had ever since the cold war had started. His perception of the Russians was skewed because he had a long standing with them. He didn’t see them as real competitors. Some countries always went up and down, like Pakistan. There â€Å"social values which have shrunk from that of national pride to self-promotion. † (Doc 10) Ali Kabir, a sports writer states that they have lost what has once made them great, and that is work. â€Å"The current national team is clueless and has tarnished the country’s name. † For a few countries it was more than national pride, for Japan it was more of a national crusade. They felt that this was a perfect time to come back as a world trade power. (Doc 5) For other countries like Germany, it was also more than just national pride. For Hitler it was a way to show that Germans were superior. He always made protests that always helped the Germans and no one else. (Doc 3) Although he was less concerned about medals, he was more concerned about gaining propaganda. Women were on the bottom of the totem pole during that start of the Olympics in 1896. When the games were hosted in Great Britain in 1908, only two percent of athletes were women. (Doc 2) It would take a long time for women to take root in the Olympics. In 1992 the games were held in Spain and twenty nine percent of the athletes were women. A woman named Hassiba Boulmerka once said â€Å"My victories give me confidence, and they give confidence to my country. I represent my country and all the women I my country who aspire to be athletes. † (Doc 8) A document I would like to have seen would be one containing a record of how a restaurant would have increased sales. This would have shown how wealth effects the modern Olympics. The Olympics helped increase revenue in the surrounding areas of the stadiums. They produced massive amounts of national pride and the social status of women is still evolving.

Parent Firms of Joint Ventures

Parent Firms of Joint Ventures Are joint-ventures and their parent firms more closely related in terms of skill-relatedness than in terms of value-chain? Abstract The distance between joint-ventures and their parent firms is a fairly new topic of research in the field of diversification. In the process of determining the actual parent firm of a joint-venture out of all alternative industries, it turned our that both vertical- and skill-relatedness proved to be significant. The results indicate further that skill-relatedness is more predictive in this process than vertical relatedness and that joint-ventures are more likely to have parents that have skill overlap to their primary activity than industries that do not. These results hold for the entire sample and a subsample of manufacturing firms. Another finding is that joint-ventures and their parents tend to be more closely related in skills than their parents active in the joint-venture. Suggesting that joint-venture are a mechanism to reduce cognitive distance and increase the absorptive capacity of the new knowledge being transferred. 1. Introduction Diversification and relatedness between firms has been widely researched and finds their theoretical foundation in Coase (1937); Penrose (1959) and others. Coase (1937) can be regarded as one of the first to address the transaction costs theory, while Penrose (1959) addressed the resource based view of the firm. Both theories form the basis of many empirical research to understand more about diversification behavior of firms. These theories therefore form a basis for further research in diversification and especially in the distance between joint-ventures and their parents for this paper. Output produced by one industry often form the basis of production in other industries. It makes economic sense to integrate these activities into already existing activities to improve efficiency, make the company less dependable on their primary activity and expand the company, in order to achieve growth. Fan and Lang (2000) found this already before in their research about diversification. Firms tend to have secondary segments that are related in terms of in-output. This vertical integration of activities is most likely to occur when facing high market transaction costs. Neffke and Henning (2010) also investigated diversification behavior of firms using in-output relatedness. Their research however introduced a new measure of skill-relatedness, which turned out to be dominant in predicting diversification behavior of firms. Conform the resource based view, regarding human capital as the prime asset of the firm, their research firstly compared observed job switchers against the predicted job switchers between certain industries. Individuals gain, certain specific skills during their working life and can only redeploy this knowledge (â€Å"know-how†) in other industries which posses some degree of knowledge overlap. If this is not the case, switching will only hurt the individual, since he or she will be not valued for all acquired skills during his working life. This measure of skill-relatedness between industries proved to outperform in-output relatedness and supported the resource based view in diversification activities of firms. While diversification behavior and relatedness is widely researched, this is not the case for the relationship between joint-ventures and their parents. A joint-venture is a separate legal entity (Harrigan, 1988) and has at least two parents, who are in joint-control and reliable for their equity share in the joint-venture. This paper will discuss, why a joint-venture might be preferred over alternatives and how this might influence the distance between joint-ventures and their parent firms. This will provide new insights in the relationship between joint-ventures and their parent firms. In order to investigate the relationship between joint-ventures and their parent firms and testing for dominant mode in this relationship, this paper used a sample of 237 German joint-ventures between 2005-2011 and constructed an average vertical relatedness according to Fan and Lang (2000) for German industries between 2005-2007. It than included the skill-relatedness of Neffke and Henning (2010) based on Swedish labor switchers between 2004-2007. These data allowed us to make an overview of all joint-ventures and all industries in which it can have their parents. We then tagged the actual parent firms of the joint-ventures with a one and all other industries with a zero, allowing us to run a logit regression with the actual parent firms as our dependent variables. The findings indicate, that the resource based view is the dominant mode in explaining distance between joint-ventures and their parent firms. This provides more insight in the importance of close relatedness in terms of skills over other forms of relatedness. In the following chapter, we start with a theoretical framework about diversification and argue that the resource based view can be regarded as the most important in diversification moves. We will then discuss the alternative diversification possibilities and the limitations of diversification. This will be followed by a discussion of the most important strategic motives on joint-ventures choice. These strategic motives and the theoretical framework will be summarized at the end of chapter 2 and we will explain how this all will relate on the distance between joint-ventures and their parents. In chapter 3 we will discuss empirical evidence on diversification and joint-ventures and their implications on our research. Then we will follow with a data discussion and our method of research in chapter 4 and 5. The results and out findings will be presented in chapter 6 and the final chapter will discuss our outcomes, provides some more insight in the distance between both parents active in the joint-venture, limitations, policy implications and future research. 2. Theory on diversification: an introduction This paper investigates the distance between joint-ventures and their parents. Before we can have a look at this relation, we start with a theoretical framework about diversification and the implications of this framework for our research. Thereafter, we will explain more about diversification motives and the problems and limitations firms might face when diversifying. We then summarize all this and discuss how this all relate to our expected findings on joint-ventures and the relatedness with their parents. 2.1 Theoretical framework behind diversification strategies A theoretical framework behind diversification strategies will be discussed in the coming chapter. This theoretical framework provides more insights in the diversification motives of firms. After these motives have been discussed, we can discuss their influence on the distance between joint-ventures and their parents at the end of chapter 2. 2.1.1. Transaction cost theory The transaction cost view is a theory of Coase (1937) and Williamson (1975, 1985) and addresses the view that economizing is the core problem of economic organizations. The core of these problems in organizational context lay in the assumptions of incomplete information and self interest seeking firms / people. Incomplete information in contracts implies that it is impossible for individuals and firms to predict each future event, therefore all contracts are incomplete and exposed to uncertainty of future situation not foreseen by firms and individuals. If these future states / conditions change, the incentives for the individuals and firms involved might also change. In other words, there is room for self-interest of individuals. In the transaction cost theory, these assumptions of bounded rationality and self-interest seeking are paired and as a result there is room for fraud or guile of economic agents. Economic agents are driven by self-interest and the transaction costs theory a llows these agents to deceive, disguise and confuse in order to maximize their self interest. Opportunistic behavior and moral hazard are thus included in the theory of transaction costs. These assumptions are the basis for the theory of transaction cost and have some consequences, especially when it comes to contract modes and thus joint-ventures. Due to bounded rationality and opportunistic behavior of economic agents, all contracts are incomplete (Williamson, 2006). This means, economic agents have an incentive to behave to their own optimal ex post outcome if situations change which cannot be contracted. The second assumption is contract as promise (Williamson, 2006). This assumes that economic agents will fulfill contracts as promised. However, this will not be obtained if these agents are given opportunistic opportunities. â€Å"The transaction costs analysis entails an examination of the comparative costs of planning, adapting, and monitoring task completion under alternative governance structures† (Williamson, 2006, p. 58). The transaction will become the basic unit of analysis and minimizing transaction cost will result in the most efficient governance structure. Transactions differ in three ways from each other; (1) frequency at which transactions recur; (2) level of uncertainty to which they are subjected; (3) level of asset specificity involved. Since asset specificity is of crucial importance, we elaborate some more about the characteristics of asset specificity. â€Å"Asset specificity has reference to the degree to which an asset can be redeployed to alternative uses and by alternative users without sacrifice of productive value† (Williamson, 2006, p. 59). This asset specificity becomes of importance in the context of incomplete contracts, while asset specificity can take different forms; (1) physical asset specificity; (2) site specificity; (3) dedicated asset specificity and (4) human asset specificity. The complexity of a transaction is therefore highly dependent on the asset specificity (k) of the asset and investments in that asset. A supplier can for example use a general purpose technology with low asset specificity (k=0) or it might invest in a specialized technology with high asset specificity (k=1). High asset specificity is likely to involve high bilateral dependency between the parties in the transaction. Since the parties involved in the contract become vulnerable of each other, switching is difficult and costly option due to the mutual dependency and the investments done in specific assets. The buyers cannot easily turn to an alternative supplier and the current supplier is highly dependable on the demand of its current buyer. Therefore the higher the asset specificity, the more likely it become that higher contract costs have to be faced. Both parties have more incentives to devise safeguards to protect the investment in the transaction if asset specificity is high. How ever, if there is low asset specificity (k=0) and we thus have a general purpose asset, contract are easily monitored and market transactions will be preferred. Back to the diversification decision, minimizing transaction costs is regarded of crucial importance for the choice in governance mode. This implies that firms choose between a wholly owned subsidiary, a simple market transaction or a hybrid made, as a joint-venture for example. This trade-off between a joint-venture and other governance modes has been widely researched. Hennart (1991) for example found that; Japanese firms start joint-ventures with U.S. counterparts to combine intermediate inputs when they are subjected to high market transactions costs. This paper uses a relatedness in terms of in-output and can therefore measure the distance in terms of the use of intermediate products between industries. The influence on joint-ventures and partner distance will be discussed at the end of chapter 2. At this point of the paper, it is however important to understand that high relatedness in the use of intermediate products is likely to be caused due to high transaction costs. This w ould imply that if diversification has a high level of relatedness in value-chain and are thus closely relatedness in terms of vertical relatedness, this is most likely caused by high transaction costs and supports the transaction costs view of diversification.. 2.1.2. Knowledge and resource based view In the resource based view, knowledge (â€Å"know-how†) is regarded as the most important production factor within the firm. The origin of the resource based view goes back to the work of Penrose (1959), who inspired the discussion of the resource based view of the firm and the importance of resources to achieve firm growth. Penrose stated that: â€Å"the firm is a collection of productive resources (human and non-human) under administrative coordination and authoritative communication that produces goods and services for sale in the market for a profit† (Penrose, 1959, p. xvii).† â€Å"The administrative coordination and authorities communication define the boundaries of the firm† (Penrose, 1959, p. xvii). The firm specific human resources are regarded as the most important of all resources within the firm. Without these human knowledge, there can be no operating firm. As a result, the firm cannot make decisions, long-term planning, run operations and it c an certainly not make any expansions. From this point of view Penrose (1959) indentified two major causes of firm growth. First of all, causes external to the firm and secondly those causes that are internal to the firm. â€Å"External causes for firm growth, as capital constraints, cannot be fully understood without an examination of the nature of the firm itself† (Penrose, 1959, p. 532). We may therefore conclude that firm growth is endogenous to the firm; this is a result of two reasons mentioned by Penrose (1959). In order to execute plans and strategic action, human capital is required. After completion of the project/action, managerial resources will be released with increased knowledge. These resources gained experience and knowledge during the time of the expansion and can be redeployed at alternative use after the time of the expansion. The redeployed individuals with an increased knowledge and skills might improve efficiency and organization of the firm, but might also be able to development new or speci alized services. Depending on the expansion, individuals involved might also gain ‘unique knowledge of their experience; this is particularly true for certain forms of tacit knowledge, which are more difficult to transmit. The theory of firm growth of Penrose (1959) has been regarded as one of the earliest contributions to the resources based view of the firm, stressing the importance of knowledge as the key production factor within a firm. The drive of firms for growth, is a drive for new knowledge that is not accessible to the firm before their diversification. However, the motives and goals of each diversification differ and so do the resources possessed by each firm in a diversification. These differences and similarities in knowledge are of crucial importance in the resource based view, where acquiring new knowledge is the ultimate goal for achieving growth. Acquiring knowledge comes with certain problems; the â€Å"fundamental paradox† of knowledge and the difficulty arising from transferring tacit knowledge are two of those problems. In the fundamental paradox of information it is extreme difficult to determine the value of the knowledge for the buyer of the knowledge, which causes high c ontract costs. Since it is impossible for the buyer of knowledge to estimate ex ante the characteristics of what is being bought. On the other hand, if the seller of the knowledge provides this information, he will be revealing important information and transferring his â€Å"know-how† free of charge (Arrow, 1959). If the targeted knowledge, is a certain â€Å"know-how† which cannot be patented and protected against spillovers to competitive firms and other industries it become far more difficult. Certain types of knowledge cannot be put on paper and granted a patent. Firms experiences in manufacturing, distribution, and country-specific knowledge, knowledge of markets, customers and especially high educated employees cannot be patented but are of crucial importance of a firms success in the resource based view. â€Å"This type of knowledge that cannot embody specifications, designs and drawings, but instead is embedded in the individual is called ‘tacit knowledge†. (Polanyi, 1959; Hennart, 1988, p. 366). These individual characteristics of experience and social nature make transfer, coordination and spread of knowledge between firms, extreme complex and difficult (Lam, 2006). The transfer and spread of this tacit knowledge is one of the difficulties when facing diversificat ion decisions. The transfer and spread of this tacit knowledge can be done in different alliance forms, which will be discussed later in this paper. However, for now, it is important to know that diversification is undertaking to gain new knowledge, which must be for same part related to the knowledge of the firm. This is the case since the new resources must be redeployed at alternative use after a project, which might be a joint-venture for example. As for distance in diversification, higher skill-relatedness and thus diversification activities that are more closely related in skills stresses the importance of the resource based view. 2.1.3. Portfolio management theory A third and final theory behind diversification motives is the portfolio theory of Markowitz (1952). Diversification decisions of firms are important decisions taken by firms management in order to maximize the expected returns of their portfolio of investments. These investors are the shareholders of the firm and have a claim on the residual value of the company assets, when debt has been paid. In order to maximize this expected return of the firm outstanding shares, the law of large numbers will ensure that the actual yield of the portfolio will be almost the same as the expected yield. In any case, holding a diversified portfolio would be preferred over all non-diversified portfolios (Markowitz, 1952). Increasing variance in your portfolio would mean an increase in the number of projects, since each project would be successful / unsuccessful at a certain probability, which is referred to as risk. Holding a large variety, in other words, betting on more than one horse, increases yo ur probability on having a winning project. The portfolio management theory suggests that diversification tends to take place in activities that are unrelated to the primary activity of the firm. If this is the case, diversification activities (such as a joint-venture) would be unrelated to the primary activity of the firm. There would be a large distance between the firm and its diversification activities, while transaction costs and the resource based view are stressing the importance diversification in more closely related activities, although for different motives. 2.2 Different diversification alternatives In all theories discussed, the main driver for diversification is in order to achieve growth. Either, by minimizing transaction costs in the transaction costs economy or by diversification of risk, which increases the probability of a winning innovation. In all these theories is explained how they might influence the distance between diversification activities. Is there however any limit to firm growth in their challenge to innovate and to expand? According to Penrose (1959) there is no limit on the size of a firm, however the growth of the firm has some limits it can reach. In the Hercules Powder Company case study Penrose claimed: â€Å"Growth is governed by a creative and dynamic interaction between a firms productive resources and its market opportunities. Available resources limit expansion; unused resources (including technological and entrepreneurial) stimulate and largely determine the direction of expansion. While product demand may exert a predominant short-term influence, over the long term any distinction between ‘supply and ‘demand determinants of growth becomes arbitrary† (Penrose, 1959, p.1) How does this reflect to diversification strategies? Penrose (1959) distinguished between different areas of diversification. The firm can be divided into different productive activities, that consist of machines, processes, skills and materials, all closely and complementary associated in the production process, which Penrose (1959) calls the production/technology base. The firm now faces the decision to diversify into a new market using the existing technology base. It might prefer entering an existing market using a new technology base, which is referred to as horizontal/complementary expansion. The last scenario would be to enter a new market using a new technology base. As described above, the ability of a firm to expand and grow is limited by its internal resources, from which human resources is regarded as the most important. Diversification increases the creative and dynamic interaction of a firm and its resources. All these forms of diversification have implications on the expected distance between the diversification activities and thus joint-ventures and our research. Entering a new market using a new technology would probably have a larger distance in terms of skills from its primary activity than entering a new market with an existing technology. In this latest case, the technology and specific knowledge can be partially redeployed at alternative use, while this is not the case in the first alternative. The main implication from Penrose (1959) famous work is that firms diversify in order to achieve growth. According to Penrose (1959) the resource based view of the firm is the dominant view in order to achieve this growth by diversification. This would suggest that the distance between diversification activities would be more closely related in terms of skills and less closely in vertical relatedness, used as a measure for the transaction costs theory. If diversification is undertaken in order to diversify risk, conform the portfolio management theory diversification activities would not be related at all. 2.3 Limits on diversification and diversification distance? There are different diversification forms as discussed in the previous chapter. It is important to understand that firm growth is limited by its human capital (Penrose, 1959). A firm should therefore carefully choose its diversification activities. A clear understanding of these limits and where these limits depend on is extremely important to understand the distance between firms diversification activities. Since this implicitly answers the question, to what extent firms diversify and is there a limit on the distance between partners and their diversification activity? Cohen and Levinthal (1990) discuss the ‘absorptive capacity of a firm, which indicates: â€Å"the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends, which is critical to its innovative capacity† (Cohen and Levinthal (1990), p. 128). This absorptive capacity puts limits on the commercialization of new knowledge and boundaries on diversification. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) assume that a firms absorptive capacity and the individual absorptive capacities of its employers are largely a function of the firms level of prior related knowledge. Earlier research suggest that absorptive capacity might be a byproduct of a firms RD investments and others suggest that firms can also invest directly in absorptive capacity while investing in specialized educ ation/training. The key to absorptive capacity is that organizations needs prior related knowledge to assimilate and use new knowledge for exploitation. This is very important for the resource based view in our paper, since this implies that diversification activities of firms should be related in terms of skills. Since, the higher the prior knowledge in ones memory, the higher their ability to acquire new knowledge and the ability to recall and use that knowledge. What is often the case in organizations and especially expected in joint-ventures is the transfer of learning skills across bodies of knowledge that are organized and expressed in similar ways. Mowery et al. (1996) indicated that joint-ventures are the most efficient alliance form for transferring tacit knowledge, which could certainly human specific skills. As a consequence, experience or performance on one learning task may influence and improve performance on some subsequent learning task (Ellis, 1965). Cohen and Levin thal (1990) make two important assumptions about knowledge, important for diversification strategies. â€Å"Firstly, knowledge is cumulative and secondly, learning performance is greatest when the object of learning is related to what is already known† (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990, p. 131). This implicit that learning is more difficult in novel domains, in other words radical exploration of new ideas, products, technologies and standards. Diversification might offer an advantage, since with diversification comes a wider knowledge base and as a results an increasing probability that the new knowledge is already / partially known to the organization. The absorptive capacity of an organization however, does not only exist off the aggregated absorptive capacity of its individuals, but also on the ability to exploit this knowledge. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) mention there is a trade-off between high levels of absorptive capacity of an organization and the ability to exploit this. They describe this as a trade-off between inward-looking (specialization) versus outward-looking (diversify) trade-off, where excessive dominance by one or the other will be suboptimal. Exploitation can best been seen as specialization of old familiar ideas and certainties in organizational learning, while exploration can best be described as the invention of new technologies, standards, products or ideas in an organization. Cohen and Levinthal (1990) discuss also the importance for innovation of close relationship with both buyers and suppliers, suggesting a vertical relatedness would be beneficial for innovation performance. In the trade-off described, Co hen and Levinthal (1990) suggest that to the keep an effective, creative utilization of new knowledge a portion of prior knowledge should be closely related with a the firm new knowledge, and another part should be fairly diverse, although still related. If this is the case, firm diversification activities should be closely related in terms of skills supporting the resource based view of the firm. Why is it important to have both creative utilization and a portion of prior knowledge is best described by March (1991), who distinguishes between exploration and exploitation. Returns of exploration are systematically less certain than those of exploitation (March, 1991), this might influence the choice for diversification for the long term however, exploration has long run positive return although this outcome is certainly not always the case in the short run. Exploration activities therefore capture much more risk taking, uncertainty, variation, flexibility, discovery and innovation than exploitation. Exploitation is more focused on production, choice, efficiency, marketing, costs and benefits (March, 1991). The importance of exploration is best described in a model of mutual learning in an closed organization and its personnel in it (March, 1991). The organization is regarded as a storage of knowledge (consisting of procedures, norms, rules and tacit assets) and the organization, accumulate knowledge over time by learning from their personnel. â€Å"Individuals (personnel) however, are socializing the organizational beliefs, which are diffused to individuals through various forms of instruction, indoctrination, and exemplification† (March, 1991, p. 74). This mutual learning approach between organizations and individuals has implications for the choice between exploitation and exploration in organizations and has therefore consequences for the short-run and long-run incentives. In this model of mutual learning organizational code is affected by the beliefs of their personnel, the other way around, the individuals are influenced by the organizational code / norm. Important to know is, that individuals can not influence each other, the influence each other through the organizational code. What will happen in this closed model? In this organization, each adjustment in beliefs is served to eliminate the difference between the organizational code and the individual beliefs. If the individuals over time become more knowledgeable about the code, they become also more homogeneous with respect to knowledge and in the end will find an equilibrium. In this equilibrium the individuals beliefs share the same organizational code. It is therefore important to keep a portion of new knowledge in order to increase the organizational code. March (1991) also describes a second model, evaluating the role of personnel turnover in the organization and turbulence environment are considered. The length of service of an individual in an organization has a positive effect on the knowledge of the individual and therefore also a positive effect on the average knowledge of the individuals. A recruit therefore has a negative effect on the average knowledge of the individuals. The role of turnover on the organization knowledge is more complicated and is a problem of learning rates versus turnover rates. As described in model of mutual learning the strength of the recruit is, the diversity in knowledge, since the recruit posses on average less knowledge than the individual it replaces. Long serving individuals, on average know more, but their knowledge is already reflected in the organizational code over time and therefore they are less likely to contribute to the organizations knowledge base. Now consider environmental turbulence t o the organization, this can be the case of processes involving lags in adjustment rates. Consider an organization without personnel turnover, in this organization the beliefs reflected by the individual and these beliefs do not change, although the environment is changing. After some time the organizational code is systematically degraded through changes in reality and a much lower equilibrium is reached. Organizations with a moderate personnel turnover however, are resistant to these environmental shocks and adjust to the new knowledge of the recruits (diversified knowledge). March (1991) extent this model of competitive ecology in a model to compete for scarce resources and opportunities. Assuming the performance of a firm is a measure of the average value (x) and some measure of variability (v), which are normally distributed. An increase in both will increase the probability to gain competitive advantages over competitors. In this part there consist a trade-off between an increase in the mean and the variance. Which supports earlier literature, that diversification is undertaken to gain excess to new knowledge to some extent, but is expected to be related to prior knowledge of the firm. March (1991) conclude that exploration firms compete far more on variance than exploitation firms. 2.4 Implications and differences between the theories discussed The main difference between the management portfolio theory and the resource based view and the transaction costs view is that the management portfolio expect that diversification tends to take place in unrelated industries, while this is not the case for the other two theories, although at different level of relatedness. The resource based view stresses the importance of knowledge gain and the benefits of this new knowledge in diversification. Transaction costs theory however focuses more on the cost side of the transaction.Leaving the transaction costs as basic unit of analysis to determine an appropriate alliance form, which will minimizes the transaction costs of the firm. According to Wang (2007), a firm shoul

Cheetahs in Zoos :: essays research papers fc

Cheetahs in Zoos   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Cheetahs in captivity should be left there, not released into the wild, and on the same note cheetahs in the wild should be left there, not brought into captivity. A cheetah in a zoo that is released into the wild may not know what to do, having been cared for by people in an enclosed environment for a number of years and then suddenly thrust out into the wild and on its own may have adverse effects on the cat’s psyche, making it manic or exhibit unpredictable behaviors and endangering the wildlife already there.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cheetahs living in captivity generally live a great deal longer than those in the wild, the life span of wild cheetahs is about 8 to 10 years, as opposed to 12 to 17 years for those in captivity according to the National Zoological Park, a sure fire sign of a healthy life. Cheetahs are also relatively easy to tame, in comparison to other large cats, and very hard to assimilate into the wild once they’ve become accustom to human contact (NZP), which makes one wonder if they even want to be released in the first place.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While cheetahs do live longer in captivity, they do not breed as often; Steven Hunt states that up until recently cheetahs living in captivity would only have one and occasionally two litters in their lifetime, whereas cheetahs in the wild may have up to five. In recent years, however, breeding programs in zoos have become more successful, allowing for a more robust captive population and much hope for the future of the species. By maintaining the integrity of this population, a strong gene pool can be assured while keeping hold of the prospect of future release of younger cheetahs. Since these cubs may not have been tamed and may still adapt to life in the wild with relative ease.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another problem with releasing captive cheetahs into the wild is space. According to The Cheetah Spot, the cheetah’s native habitats have been cut down to less than a quarter of what they were ten years ago. This makes release of captive cheetahs not only difficult, but possibly hazardous to cheetahs already in the wild. Do to the fact that they are mostly solitary animals, females live alone unless raising cubs and males roam with, at most, four other males (NZP). Introducing more cheetahs into an already small area may very well upset the social system of cheetahs by putting them in too much contact with each other.

West Indies :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Countless of years ago a great mountain range stretched north from what is now the topmost coast of South America, the range was in a constant state of upheaval, lashed by continuous rains, swept by storms, with fire spouting from every peak finally the mountains dropped beneath the sea, quieted most of the volcanoes. The exposed peaks were covered with verdure of fantastic beauty, and left these peaks above the sea to form the chain of West Indian islands as we know today. Although they were islands surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, and are nowhere near Asian India, they were still considered the West Indian islands. Then why the concept of West Indian, we ask? Christopher Columbus, who discovered these islands, can surely explain why he gave such a name to islands that were never Indian descent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus the West Indies were given this name through his mistaken belief that he had reached the Indies, and he himself wrote of them as Las Yndias Ocidentales, referred to as the accidental Indies. After the mistake was realized they were later called them West Indies to distinguish them from the East Indies and at the time in the sixteenth century they were known as the Little Indies, while the East Indies were called the Great Indies. The native inhabitants of the West Indies and America were called Indians as a result of the same error. To distinguish them from the inhabitants of India they were to be called Amerindians or Red Indians. The islands are divided into three major groups: the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the Lesser Antilles. The Greater Antilles consist of Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica, and all the rest, except the Bahamas, are included in the group of Lesser Antilles, and were also called the C aribee Islands.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The name West Indies is often loosely applied to the mainland territories of South and Central America (the Spanish Main) and in the past was even applied to those in North America. The name America has been used as including the West Indies. The British use of Windward Islands and Leeward Islands has brought up confusion. The Spaniards correctly called all the eastern islands of the West Indian chain the Windward Islands, Islas de Balovento, and the small islands close to the northern shores of South America the Leeward Islands, Islas de Sotavento.

Overtraining, and Burnout in Child and Adolescent Athletes. Pediatrics Essay

Exercise and sports behavior has been an area of vigorous research interest. Athletes and people who compete at a high level of physical exercise are usually habituated to intense levels of activity for over a prolonged period of time. However, there is hesitation to term it as a psychological disorder or a disorder associated with characteristic patterns of psychological disturbance. People with very high levels of athletic activities may be high achievers who participated in these activities with intense physical work due to many reasons, but the most important is their sense of achievement. Many of them feel that these activities contributed to their psychological well-being and their emotional stability. A closer examination of their exercise patterns happened to be adaptive and hence has been contemplated to be contributing to the overall psychological functioning. Investigation into their lifestyles revealed that those revolved about their athletic or physical exercise activities, and many of them had disciplined, inflexible, and well-ordered routine. To be able to maintain such routines, these individuals rigidly followed a regimented running programme and often subordinated other aspects of their life such as diet, occupation, and socializing to their running. The question remains, whether this obligatory pattern of excessive exercise and physical activity have any detrimental effects on these people with high athletic activity. In this assignment, current research will be reviewed to find out the answer of this question. Overtraining or burnout is commonly regarded as a generalised stress response to a prolonged period of overload. Thus, overtraining can be defined as â€Å"an abnormal extension of the training process culminating in a state of staleness† (Weinberg and Gould, 1999). Many other terms have been used to denote this syndrome. These include staleness, burnout and failing adaptation (Hooper et al. , 1993). Tenenbaum et al. (2003) recently suggested as theoretical model of this condition (Tenenbaum et al. , 2003). Generally speaking, overtraining can be attributed to a combination of high-intensity training at excessive levels and provision of inadequate rest or insufficient time for recovery. There have been arguments as to whether a single, universally agreeable diagnostic index of burnout is possible, case studies have revealed a host of physiological and psychological symptoms. Physiologically overtraining may manifest signs of depressed immune function leading to an increased incidence of upper respiratory tract infections. The physiology alters so that there are increases in resting heart rate. Endocrinologically, there may be decreases in testosterone levels and increases in cortisol concentration. In some individuals, there may be decreases in maximal blood lactate concentration, which is otherwise expected to be high. All these may culminate into deterioration in athletic performance of the affected person, but there may be psychological symptoms which may include include mood disturbances, feelings of chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, repetitive loading injuries, and quite often insomnia (Cashmore, 2002). The prevalence of this syndrome can be estimated from Morgan (2000) that over 50% of both male and female marathon runners have at least sometimes suffered from burnout in some time. As a paradox, burned out athletes tend to try harder and perform increasingly worse. There are many factors associated with this phenomenon. Literature has revealed that these factors may include â€Å"inadequate recovery time between bouts of training, prolonged or over-intense training regimes, personal problems and inadequate coping resources† (Weinberg and Gould, 1999). Morgan (2000) also claimed that mood disturbance in these individuals may be etiologically related to burnout, although there have been disputes against this claim. In general, it has been shown that people who exercise vigorously tend to suffer from symptoms of mood changes, irritability, restlessness, insomnia, lack of appetite, or feelings of guilt. Bill Norris, the principal trainer on the American Tennis Professionals’ tennis tour, observed recently that problems of injury and burnout stem from a combination of the â€Å"never-ending pursuit of achievement and the inability of coaches to understand that the human body can only take so much for so long† (cited in Evans, 2002, p. 24). Consequently excessive stress is an important initiating event for psychological, emotional, and physical withdrawal from a formerly enjoyable sport. As Gould et al. (2002) concurs exercise or sport burnout can be defined as the â€Å"manifestation or consequence of the situational, cognitive, behavioural, and physiologic components of excessive stress† (Gould et al. 2002). This phenomenon has been embodied most strikingly in teenage sports performers or athletes, who have spectacular and sudden rise with similarly abrupt and premature decline. Many young tennis prodigies can be used as examples to illustrate this phenomenon, and even some of them despite being prolific achievers could not go to the extent that they would have. Moreover, some of them fell prey of recurring back or neck problems or other chronic injuries. History suggests that a combination of parental pressure and coaching tyranny was operational in leading to halt of many promising careers in sporting (Gould et al. 2002). There had been attempts to explain the phenomenon of sports burnout through different theoretical framework. The progression of burnout has been presumed to be due to pressure of training and development of competitive approaches. This demand is interpreted by the athletes’ psyche in a different manner, and some indeed end up seeing it as a threatening situation. If the demand is perceived to be threatening, the youth usually demonstrates physiological responses, which are characterised by fatigue or insomnia. In the next state, these physiological responses lead to strategies for coping, which in turn may manifest as diminishing levels of competitive performance. This may lead to interpersonal problems of the affected individuals and failure of coping may lead to complete withdrawal from sport or any other athletic activity. It has been argued that it is difficult to generalize since to cause this, many subjective factors, such as, self-esteem, ambition, and personal anxiety may play important roles. Lonsdale et al. (2009) had examined the potential factors contributing to the psychological impacts of sports burnout. They used self-determination theory by employing a cross-sectional design with the primary aim to investigate the behavioral regulations and athlete burnout. It has been shown that less self-determined motives showing positive associations and more self-determined motives showing negative correlations with burnout. Competence, autonomy, self-determined motivation, exhaustion, devaluation, reduced accomplishment, and global burnout play important roles in exercise and sports burnout (Lonsdale et al. , 2009). This means, personality and factors related to motivation influence the different stages of burnout process. Some authors have identified training stress as the determinant of the burnout process. This is a physical characteristic of the burnout process. This occurs due to the fact the body cannot tolerate the physical strain anymore. As an additive, competition also plays important roles. Although in some cases, some of the young people are grown up enough to cope up with the stressors associated with higher level of competition, in many cases, the young competitors experience a psychophysiological malfunction once their bodies fail to respond positively to training. This would affect their mental orientation leading to incapability of meeting the demands placed on their bodies. Brenner et al. (2007) describes burnout syndrome as a series of psychological, physiologic, and hormonal changes that may result in decreased sports performance. The common manifestations have been described as chronic muscle and joint pain, changes in the personality, resting tachycardia, and decreased performance in sports. This is commonly associated with fatigue manifested by lack of enthusiasm about practice or competition. The athlete may also encounter immense difficulty in completing the normal routines of an athlete. Burnout in sports has been recognised as a serious sequel of the syndrome of overtraining. Although this is a serious problem, it can be prevented. Usually, the athletes are encouraged to participate and practice different kinds of sports rather than one particular type of activity. Sometimes these may be prevented though various training adjustment approaches. It has been seen that steps to keep workouts interesting with age-appropriate games and training may prevent it. There should be time off from structured or organised sports at least 1 to 2 days per week, to allow the body and mind to rest. This time may be utilised in other activities. The trainer must allow longer scheduled breaks from training and competition every 2 to 3 months, but during this time, he must focus on other activities involved with cross training so his loss of skill and level of conditioning does not deteriorate (Brenner et al. , 2007). Conclusion The detrimental effects of high level exercise are numerous. There is risk of over-use injury, potential for excessive weight loss, mood disturbance, psychological burnout, eating disorders, depression, and low level of psychological wellbeing. Recently, there has been a growth of research interest in the areas of personal problems. These include stress and burnout afflicting people involved in sport and exercise. Research also suggests that not infrequently exercise habit can have adverse consequences. For certain vulnerable population practicing athletics, sports, and physical activities, exercise is associated with specific psychopathologies. Furthermore, a variety of physiological hazards to health have been demonstrated to be associated with habitual physical activity and/or sport. These include metabolic abnormalities, such as, hypothermia in swimmers or dehydration in marathon runners; disorders of hemapoeisis, such as, anemia in endurance athletes and cardiac problems, such as, arrhythmia. All these may result from prolonged vigorous athletic activity. On the contrary, it has long been known that intensive training regimens do not always enhance athletic performance. More precisely, when the nature, intensity and/or frequency of athletic training exceed the body’s adaptive capacity and lead to a deterioration in sport performance, then the condition is known as burnout or overtraining. Modern research has suggested many changes. Reference List Brenner, JS. and the Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness Overuse Injuries (2007). Overtraining, and Burnout in Child and Adolescent Athletes. Pediatrics; 119: 1242 1245. Cashmore, E. (2002). Sport psychology: The key concepts. London: Routledge Evans, R. (2002). â€Å"Breaking point†. The Sunday Times, 19 May, p. 24 (Sport). Gould, D. , Damarjian, N. , and Greenleaf, C. (2002). Imagery training for peak performance. In J. L. Van Raalte and B. W. Brewer (Eds. ), Exploring sport and exercise psychology (2nd ed. , pp. 49–74). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Hooper, S. L, Traeger Mackinnon, L, Gordon, R. D. , and Bachmann, A W. (1993). Hormonal responses of elite swimmers to overtraining. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 25, 741–747. Lonsdale, C. , Hodge, K. , and Rose, E. , (2009). Athlete burnout in elite sport: A self determination perspective. J Sports Sci; 27(8): 785-95. Morgan, W. P. (2000). Psychological factors associated with distance running and the marathon. In D. T. Pedloe (Ed. ), Marathon medicine (pp. 293–310). London: The Royal Society of Medicine Press. Tenenbaum, G. , Jones, C. M. , K

Critical Appriciation of the Two Minuets Hate in 1984

Write a critical appreciation of pages 16-18 â€Å"in its second†¦ uttering a prayer†. How does the two minutes hate contribute to your understanding of the nightmare world in which Winston lives? The two minutes hate is almost a celebration of a cult, a sort of gathering of religious fanatics to honour their ruler, Big Brother. Orwell uses it to show the expressions of anarchy amongst the ‘leaping and shouting' people and how this would be their only chance to express their human feelings in the nightmare society in which they are forced to live. Winston's dystopian world is displayed in Orwell's unsympathetic parody of the two minutes silence in commemoration of WWII and epitomises the ‘frenzy' of emotions, the terror and violent culture that Winston has to tolerate. His elaborate view of religious or political fanatics scrutinises these kinds of obsessions and demonstrates how it can over-power a person's life. Control is one of the main components of the two minutes hate. The people are helpless, they are ‘like that of a landed fish' in the robotic machine that is Big Brother. They cannot escape from ‘the voice' that ‘continued inexorably' and there is no escapism to be had in the ‘frenzy' of voices yelling at the screen. This reflects a nightmare that is inescapable until we awake. Winston longs to awaken in a society capable of love, without suffering, but it seems he knows that can never arise. The world for Winston is a steady destruction of all good virtues and basic human rights that they are so cruelly being denied, which is shown so clearly through this extract. Winston finds it ‘impossible to avoid joining in'. This reflects the lack of control he has in all elements of his nightmarish life. The sheer violence of the episode overwhelms Winston's mentality and creates an isolation of his mind to the rest of the ‘sheep' and is inescapable. He has the power to rebel, although he submits to a ‘hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer'. This juxtaposition of hideousness and ecstasy shows Winston's abhorrence is all towards the party and Big Brother instead of the loathed Goldstein. In Winston's conscious mind he changes into a ‘grimacing, screaming lunatic' and is capable of switching his hate ‘from one object to another'. These images are distinctive of a dystopian novel and relates to the time of obsession and paranoia that was experienced during World War II, when the novel was written. Winston's hate develops into an ‘inescapable' sexual lust for ‘the black haired girl'. He describes his desire to ‘flog her to death' and how it would be a ‘beautiful' sight. This contradiction is Winston's flicker of rebellion against the ‘sinister enchanter' that is Big Brother. This introduces the theme of love versus hate, which is explored throughout the rest of the novel. The pointlessness of the hate strikes Winston as we see Winston's weakness; he has a perplexed mind that cannot comprehend the point to the rage inflicted upon Goldstein. The fickleness of the Party members distresses Winston ‘the sandy haired woman shouting what sounded like â€Å"my Saviour†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ as he seems to realise the stupidity of the ‘frenzy'. Orwell contradicts the whole of the Party's endeavour to create a ‘perfect' world and stamp out all feelings, as ‘his heart went out to the lonely, derided, heretic on the screen'. Winston is conveying how he is himself a ‘heretic' and rebelling against the beloved Big Brother which we see later in the novel also as Winston recognizes his rebellious potential. This shows his refusal of living ‘in a world of lies'. This ‘world' epitomises the depression of Winston's nightmare and the society he exists in and at this point, Winston becomes ‘at one with the people about him', his mind is distorted ‘and all that was said of Goldstein seemed to him to be true'. Winston's seemingly only flaw it that subconsciously he switches his thoughts from one side to another and it is only ‘the black haired girl' who lays bare his real personality and sets him straight. The two minutes hate represents Orwell's character and his novel as a whole as we see his hate for the outward expression of human feelings and his ultimate desire for control. We find his detestation of religious extremists on course throughout the novel, which replicates its dark and dystopian themes. He has channelled his hate in to his work and through what may indeed be a representation of the author himself, Winston's Character. Every element of hope is lost for Winston during the two minutes hate. This raises our understanding of an embodiment of a nightmare world that hopelessly celebrates a religious cult and its inescapable anarchy, which will ultimately have its revenge on Winston's mutinous mind.