Information Technology: Departmental Leadership Crucial to Success of Investment Reforms at Interior

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of the Interior is responsible for diverse and complex missions ranging from managing America's public lands, mineral and water resources, and wildlife to providing satellite data to the military and scientific communities. To fulfill these responsibilities, Interior invests over $850 million annually--about 6 percent of its total annual budget--in communications and computing projects and systems. Interior's Office of the Secretary and its Chief Information Officer (CIO) are responsible for overseeing processes for managing these investments to ensure that funds are expended in the most cost-effective way in support of the agency's mission needs. GAO was asked to evaluate (1) departmental capabilities for managing the agency's information technology (IT) investments and (2) the department's actions and plans to improve these capabilities.

Ownership strategies in post-financial crisis Southeast Asia: The case of Japanese firms

Existing research on entry mode determinants is firmly grounded in the transaction cost and resource-based literature while location-and institution-specific characteristics lack attention. The primary goal of this article is to address the determinants of entry mode by Japanese manufacturing firms in Southeast Asia after the financial crisis on the basis of a theoretical framework that integrates firm-specific, industry-specific, location-and institution-specific factors. Results show that locational factors make significant contributions to the understanding of the entry mode selection of MNEs and partly override the effect of firm-specific factors. --entry mode,transaction costs,resource commitment,location factors,country risk,Japanese manufacturing firms,Southeast Asia

Information Technology: INS Needs to Strengthen Its Investment Management Capability

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) invests hundreds of millions of dollars each year in information technology (IT) to help (1) prevent aliens from entering the United States illegally and remove aliens who succeed in doing so and (2) provide services or benefits to facilitate entry, residence, employment, and naturalization to legal immigrants. The Clinger-Cohen Act requires agency heads to implement a process for maximizing the value and assessing and managing the risks of its IT investments. GAO examined leading private and public sector IT management practices to determine whether INS is effectively managing its IT investments and whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) is effectively promoting, guiding, and overseeing INS' investment management activities. GAO found that INS lacks the basic capabilities upon which to build IT investment management maturity. Furthermore, INS is not managing IT investments as a complete portfolio. By managing its IT investments as individual projects, INS will not be able to determine which investments contribute most to the agency mission. GAO also found that DOJ is not guiding and overseeing INS' investment management approach.

Small-Scale Mining on Mt. Balabag: Examining Class Dynamics and Socioeconomic Mobility

Mt. Balabag in the province of Zamboanga del Sur (Mindanao, Philippines) was the site of lucrative small-scale mining (SSM) from 1994 to 2012. This research inquires into the effect of SSM on the production of class and on capital accumulation during its operational period and beyond. The miners were a mix of indigenous Subanen and Filipino migrants who all came from rural agricultural backgrounds. There has been research implying the economic benefits of SSM to rural peoples of the Global South, and on Mt. Balabag too miners did see a significant increase in earnings relative to their previous agricultural livelihoods. However, in the long term the influx of economic capital did not translate into widespread socioeconomic mobility for the majority, or even a significant minority. When SSM came to an end in late 2012, so too did the improvements it provided to most involved

Consulting report – DSB Mobile

DSB Mobile is a small Peruvian software developing company based in Lima. DSB Mobile specializes in the development of both mobile and web applications and has worked with major companies such as Samsung, Claro & Entel. The company is composed of the General Manager, Zico Herrera, a sales manager, operations manager and both fulltime and contract based software developers that are hired based on the current demand for service. DSB Mobile has established a strong reputation and brand in Peru and is now looking to expand outside of Peru where they can introduce their software products into international markets. In their aspiration to internationalize, DSB Mobile is seeking to find out not only the most profitable markets for their company but also markets that would best align with DSB Mobiles mission. The solution to their question of expansion was to determine the best markets using a variety of both quantitative and qualitative factors. In using an IT Competitiveness report that was done by the British Software Alliance this was used as a reference point to determine the best ranked countries for IT competitiveness and the best countries to conduct business in base off of important IT indicators. Combined with software data statistics in terms of charges per project and cost of IT Consultants, this further narrowed down the scope to the most attractive, profitable and mutually beneficial market for DSB Mobile. The implementation plan proposed involved two market lines namely, the North American market line and the European Market line. The proposed solution takes into consideration different scenarios, one of them being the moderate work balance of 1 project per month, giving a total cost of $391,065 per year with a profit of$180,736. The Gantt chart outlined is intended to guide the company with the step by step implementation of this international expansion and prepare them to execute this plan in the most efficient and effective mannerDSB Mobile es una pequeña empresa peruana de desarrollo de software con sede en Lima. DSB Mobile se especializa en el desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles y web y ha trabajado con grandes empresas como Samsung, Claro y Entel. La compañía está compuesta por el Gerente General, Zico Herrera, un gerente de ventas, un gerente de operaciones y desarrolladores de software a tiempo completo y algunos que se contratan en base a la demanda actual de servicio. DSB Mobile ha establecido una fuerte reputación y marca en Perú y ahora está buscando expandirse fuera de Perú donde puedan introducir sus productos de software en los mercados internacionales. En su aspiración de internacionalización, DSB Mobile está tratando de descubrir no sólo los mercados más rentables para su empresa, sino también los mercados que mejor se alinean con la misión DSB Mobile. La solución a su problema de expansión fue determinar los mejores mercados utilizando una variedad de factores tanto cuantitativos como cualitativos. Al utilizar un informe de competitividad de TI que fue realizado por la British Software Alliance, se utilizó como punto de referencia para determinar los países mejor clasificados para la competitividad de TI y los mejores países para llevar a cabo negocios en base de importantes indicadores asociados a estos. Combinado con estadísticas de datos de software en términos de gastos por proyecto y coste de consultores en TI, esto permitió reducir aún más el alcance para obtener un mercado más atractivo, rentable y mutuamente beneficioso. El plan de implementación propuesto involucró dos líneas de mercado, a saber, la línea del mercado norteamericano y la línea del mercado europeo. La solución propuesta posee diferentes escenarios; por ejemplo, el escenario con trabajo moderado consta de 1 proyecto por mes y tiene un costo total de $391,065 por año obteniendo así una rentabilidad de$180,736. El gráfico de Gantt esbozado pretende guiar a la compañía con la implementación paso a paso de esta expansión internacional y prepararlos para ejecutar este plan de la manera más eficiente y efectivaTesi

Il neoliberismo e la riforma della formazione degli insegnanti della risposta locale: un riferimento specifico alla formazione degli insegnanti turchi

This article examines the impact of neoliberalism on teacher education in Turkey in terms of the specific teacher education reforms made in 1997. First, the article analyzes how neoliberalism influenced teacher preparation and teacher education institutions. Second, it examines the changes made for content knowl-edge in teacher education. Third, the article elicits how the teaching professions changed under the pa-tronage of neoliberalism in Turkey. To make the system more efficient and competitive, neoliberals introduced a market approach into teacher education and, as a result, teacher education became a means of preparing teacher candidates for the global market system. Neoliberalism restructured educational policies, teacher education curriculum, and the schooling and education practices, working conditions of teachers, the quality of educational facilities, and the teaching profession in general. Neoliberal education changed the nature of teacher education and teacher education has evolved from an academic discipline to a technical one

Demand for non-life insurance: Evidence from select insurance markets in Africa

The impact of insurance market activity within financial development is gaining more attention in academia, as the sector experiences growth within emerging markets. This paper aims to understand which macro-economic and social variables impact the growth or decline of the non-life insurance sector broadly across Africa, with a view to provide recommendations to drive increased penetration across the region. The study examines the explanatory factors of non-life insurance demand in Africa, using annual data from 1990 to 2013 on 28 countries. Using Fixed Effects Panel Data Regression, the study finds that: levels of income, and unemployment rates have a significant negative impact on non-life insurance demand; whilst population growth rates, and the level of private sector credit (to GDP) positively impacted non-life insurance demand. Urbanisation rates, and levels of merchandise trade had statistically insignificant effects on non-life insurance demand. Since these variables only explained about 11 % of the variation in the dependent variable, the study suggests that further research into the cultural and institutional (ie. Legal / regulatory) dynamics is required to improve our understanding of what conditions would stimulate non-life insurance demand in future

U.S. business and global barriers to entry

An exploratory view of barriers to entry in countries of significance to U.S. companies, this thesis provides a comprehensive overview of prevalent business strategies of U.S. trading partners as well as a forecast of their international business policies. Diverse macro-environmental variables, such as economy, culture, and regulations result in varying barriers to entry for U.S. based firms to conduct business in U.S trading partners’ countries. This thesis will determine how these macro-environmental factors foster or stunt growth and strategies governments employ to attract businesses