Management strategies in small businesses: evidence from the printing and soft drinks industries

This thesis is a study of management strategy in small businesses. The principal concern of the research involves an examination of the interrelationship of economic and social processes of small business management. Evidence presented in the thesis is based on in -depth observations of management behaviour in a sample of small printing firms and soft drinks manufacturers. These two industries were chosen because of their contrasting technologies and environ- ments for small firms, and they present a variety of insights into the dynamics of small company behaviour which would not have been possible through a more generalised approach to the analysis.The study involves the construction of a model of small company dynamics as the basis for examining manage- ment strategy in the sample of small printing firms and soft drinks manufacturers. The model is derived from a critical examination of various perspectives to the study of business enterprises, and their relevance to an under- standing of the dynamics of small companies. The model is examined through a series of interviews of managing directors and senior executives in small businesses. The interviews incorporated both structured and unstructured techniques, and were designed to identify management strategies for future company development and processes underlying the adoption of particular policies to achieve the desired strategic objective.The thesis presents a detailed examination of manage- ment behaviour and small company performance in the print- ing and soft drinks industries. These separate studies are then synthesised into more generalisable idealisations of company behaviour, which are related to specific con- figurations of management and company characteristics. The ideal types of small company identified by our research provide a broad framework with which to analyse small company behaviour and performance. Our evidence links the social process of ownership and executive -control in small firms to the widely varying levels of small company performance. In broad terms, our analysis suggests that older, family- managed firms tend to be the least efficient in a particular industry, and that this process is linked to the strategies adopted by managers in response to market and technological change. Our research also identifies situations of small company demise in which owner- managers sought to liquidate company assets, as opposed to demise through financial failure. The interactive nature of social processes of small business management and economic trends within a particular industry provide important insights into the functioning of the small business sector within the UK economy.The final part of the thesis broadens the discussion of current conclusions to present a more theoretical analysis of processes of small business management, and an examination of the future role of small businesses in the UK economy. This discussion refines and extends previous analyses of small company growth and decline to provide a more comprehensive model of small company dynamics. These discussions suggest several implications for Government and institutional policy, which are reviewed in the final chapter

The Radio Recovery of SN 1970G: The Continuing Radio Evolution of SN 1970G

Using the Very Large Array, we have detected radio emission from the site of SN 1970G in the Sc galaxy M101. These observations are 31 years after the supernova event, making SN 1970G the longest monitored radio supernova. With flux densities of 0.12 +/- 0.020 mJy at 6 cm and 0.16 +/- 0.015 mJy at 20 cm, the spectral index of -0.24 +/- 0.20 appears to have flattened somewhat when compared with the previously reported value of -0.56 +/- 0.11, taken in 1990. The radio emission at 20 cm has decayed since the 1990 observations with a power-law index of beta_20cm = -0.28 +/- 0.13. We discuss the radio properties of this source and compare them to those of other Type II radio supernovae.Comment: 11 pages, 1 table and 2 figures; To appear in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Roost Use and Movements of Northern Long-Eared Bats in a Southeast Nebraska Agricultural Landscape

Bats are important bio-indicators of ecosystem health and provide a number of ecosystem services. White-nose Syndrome and habitat loss have led to the decline of many bat species in eastern North America, including the federally threatened northern long-eared bat, Myotis septentrionalis. White-nose Syndrome was only recently found in Nebraska, which lies on the western extent of this species geographic range. To better understand how this forest-dependent species persists in an agriculturally dominated landscape amid a growing number of pressures, we investigated the roosting habits of this bat at the Homestead National Monument of America, located in southeast Nebraska. We mist-netted bats on eight nights in 2019 (16 August–26 August) and caught 55 bats across five species, including five juvenile northern long-eared bats. We located five unique roosts between two juvenile radio-tracked bats; most of the female roosts were in anthropogenic structures and tree cavities within 0.23 km of capture, while most of the male roosts were in snags and tree cavities as far as 2.73 km from the capture site. Fence cavities were also used by other undocumented northern long-eared bats. We recorded three radio-tagged bats that commuted between roosting sites and capture sites within hours after sunset. Our results provide evidence that at the distributional edge for this species, wooded areas, riparian zones, and human-built structures in an intensively managed agricultural landscape are used by this imperiled species

Necklace-Type Transmitter Attachment Method for Ruffed Grouse Chicks

Although methodologies to obtain cause-specific mortality and survival information for adult ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) are well documented, procedures for determining similar parameters are lacking for grouse chicks. Mortality among grouse chicks is believed highest during the first few weeks posthatch. During 1999-2002, we equipped ruffed grouse chicks (n = 97) from 33 separate broods, ≤ 4-days-old with radio transmitters to assess the efficacy of transmitters and to examine survival/mortality. Further, we observed that grouse chicks retained transmitters (100%) until recapture or mortality. Handling time was limited because transmitter attachment took only a few minutes per brood. We observed mortality fates for 91% of radio-collared chicks. Therefore, because of the non-intrusive nature, field application, and retention of necklace-style transmitters employed in this study, this method may provide a desirable alternative to assessing survival/mortality among ruffed grouse chicks

Ice-sheet bed 3-D tomography

This is the published version. Copyright 2010 International Glaciological SocietyInformation on bed topography and basal conditions is essential to developing the next-generation ice-sheet models needed to generate a more accurate estimate of ice-sheet contribution to sea-level rise. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of the ice–bed can be analyzed to obtain information on bed topography and basal conditions. We developed a wideband SAR, which was used during July 2005 to perform measurements over a series of tracks between the GISP2 and GRIP cores near Summit Camp, Greenland. The wideband SAR included an eight-element receive-antenna array with multiple-phase centers. We applied the MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm, which estimates direction of arrival signals, to single-pass multichannel data collected as part of this experiment to obtain fine-resolution bed topography. This information is used for producing fine-resolution estimates of bed topography over a large swath of 1600m, with a 25m posting and a relative accuracy of approximately 10m. The algorithm-derived estimate of ice thickness is within 10m of the GRIP ice-core length. Data collected on two parallel tracks separated by 500m and a perpendicular track are compared and found to have difference standard deviations of 9.1 and 10.3m for the parallel and perpendicular tracks, respectively

Near-tubular fiber bundle segmentation for diffusion weighted imaging: Segmentation through frame reorientation

This paper proposes a methodology to segment near-tubular fiber bundles from diffusion weighted magnetic resonance images (DW-MRI). Segmentation is simplified by locally reorienting diffusion information based on large-scale fiber bundle geometry. Segmentation is achieved through simple global statistical modeling of diffusion orientation. Utilizing a modification of a recent segmentation approach by Bresson et al. allows for a convex optimization formulation of the segmentation problem, combining orientation statistics and spatial regularization. The approach compares favorably with segmentation by full-brain streamline tractography