The Impact of Alternative Market Orientation Strategies on Firm Performance: Customer versus Competitor Orientation

Research studies have differed over the importance of the relative emphasis of a customer versus competitor orientation in the development of a market orientation (Slater and Narver, 1994; Tajeddini, 2010). In this study, we assess whether the emphasis of one component over another of a market orientation is an important determinant of firm performance within the Illinois beef industry, specifically the cow-calf sector. Using a series of OLS regressions, we examine the importance of a market orientation, relative emphasis, learning, innovativeness, and a cost focus on firm performance. Our results suggest that a market orientation is an important determinant of firm performance while the relative emphasis of customer versus competitor orientation is not statistically significant, corroborating the findings of Slater and Narver (1994). Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.Agriculture, innovation, market orientation, relative emphasis, value discipline strategies, Marketing,

An Imprint of Molecular Cloud Magnetization in the Morphology of the Dust Polarized Emission

We describe a morphological imprint of magnetization found when considering the relative orientation of the magnetic field direction with respect to the density structures in simulated turbulent molecular clouds. This imprint was found using the Histogram of Relative Orientations (HRO): a new technique that utilizes the gradient to characterize the directionality of density and column density structures on multiple scales. We present results of the HRO analysis in three models of molecular clouds in which the initial magnetic field strength is varied, but an identical initial turbulent velocity field is introduced, which subsequently decays. The HRO analysis was applied to the simulated data cubes and mock-observations of the simulations produced by integrating the data cube along particular lines of sight. In the 3D analysis we describe the relative orientation of the magnetic field $\mathbf{B}$ with respect to the density structures, showing that: 1.The magnetic field shows a preferential orientation parallel to most of the density structures in the three simulated cubes. 2.The relative orientation changes from parallel to perpendicular in regions with density over a critical density $n_{T}$ in the highest magnetization case. 3.The change of relative orientation is largest for the highest magnetization and decreases in lower magnetization cases. This change in the relative orientation is also present in the projected maps. In conjunction with simulations HROs can be used to establish a link between the observed morphology in polarization maps and the physics included in simulations of molecular clouds.Comment: (16 pages, 11 figures, submitted to ApJ 05MAR2013, accepted 07JUL2013

Perception and reconstruction of two-dimensional, simulated ego-motion trajectories from optic flow.

A veridical percept of ego-motion is normally derived from a combination of visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive signals. In a previous study, blindfolded subjects could accurately perceive passively travelled straight or curved trajectories provided that the orientation of the head remained constant along the trajectory. When they were turned (whole-body, head-fixed) relative to the trajectory, errors occurred. We ask here whether vision allows for better path perception in similar tasks, to correct or complement vestibular perception. Seated, stationary subjects wore a head mounted display showing optic flow stimuli which simulated linear or curvilinear 2D trajectories over a horizontal ground plane. The observer's orientation was either fixed in space, fixed relative to the path, or changed relative to both. After presentation, subjects reproduced the perceived movement with a model vehicle, of which position and orientation were recorded. They tended to correctly perceive ego-rotation (yaw), but they perceived orientation as fixed relative to trajectory or (unlike in the vestibular study) to space. This caused trajectory misperception when body rotation was wrongly attributed to a rotation of the path. Visual perception was very similar to vestibular perception

Stability of liquid bridges between twisted elliptical disks

The influence in the stability of long liquid bridges supported between two elliptical-shaped disks of their main axis relative orientation is investigated. A numerical continuation method capable of finding equilibrium shapes, both stable and unstable, is used to calculate a series of equilibrium shapes supported by disks of increasing eccentricity for different relative orientation of the disks axis. The stable or unstable character of each of the shapes is calculated to determine the position of the stability limit and its characte

QQˉQ\bar Q potential from AdS-CFT relation at T≥0T\geq 0: Dependence on orientation in internal space and higher curvature corrections

Within the classical approximation we calculate the static $Q\bar Q$ potential via the AdS/CFT relation for nonzero temperature and arbitrary internal orientation of the quarks. We use a higher order curvature corrected target space background. For timelike Wilson loops there arises a critical line in the orientation-distance plane which is shifted to larger distances relative to the calculation with uncorrected background. Beyond that line there is no $Q\bar Q$-force. The overall vanishing of the force for antipodal orientation known from zero tempera ture remains valid. The spacelike Wilson loops yield a string tension for a (2+1)-dimensional gauge theory, independent of the relative internal orientation, but sensitive to the background correction.Comment: Used background has been adapted to hep-th/9808126 and revised version of hep-th/9805156, slightly changed comment on 1/L ter

Preliminary results of the determination of the orientation of Interkosmos-17 AUOS

An algorithm for determining the orientation of the Interkosmos-17 automatic multipurpose orbital station is discussed. The graphs provided show variations of the satellite's orientation, relative to a given orientation in an orbital system of coordinates