Managing entrepreneurial tensions in franchise systems

This is a draft chapter / article. The final version is available in handbook of Research on Franchising, edited by Frank Hoy, Rozenn Perrigot and Andrew Terry, published in 2017, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781785364181. Under embargo until 27 April 2018. The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only.The role of entrepreneurship in franchise systems has been a complex issue. This Chapter aims to provide a better understanding on this issue by focusing on the entrepreneurial tensions that exist in franchise systems and the associated coping mechanisms for minimizing these tensions. It draws on a range of classic and emergent theoretical explanations, which are substantiated with empirical evidence. The Chapter highlights notable contributions in this research area and offers directions to guide future studies in order to provide clarity on the entrepreneurial paradoxes in franchising.Peer reviewe

The state of primate enrichment in Australasian zoos

Eleven Australasian zoos housing primates were included in a large international ‘captive mammal enrichment survey’. Individuals who directly work with, research and manage captive mammals were invited to participate in the survey which was comprised of three sections. The first section was designed to identify current enrichment practices and the factors that limit the quality and quantity of enrichment provided to captive mammals. The aim of the second section was to ascertain current methods used in the evaluation of enrichment and establish the factors that limit the frequency and quality of this evaluation. A third section was incorporated in the survey to determine respondents’ interest in potential applications of an automated enrichment system which is currently being designed to reduce many of the current limitations involved with implementing and evaluating enrichment. As expected, animals from the Primate order were most often provided with enrichment. However, the survey identified that lack of available staff time was the greatest factor limiting both the provision and evaluation of enrichment. Accordingly, the majority of survey respondents agreed that more enrichment would be provided if this was manageable. Overall, there was a very high level of interest from Australasian respondents in the applications of an automated enrichment system as a tool to provide and evaluate a greater quantity, variety and frequency of enrichment for captive mammals without requiring additional staff time

Cash flows: the gap between reported and estimated operating cash flow elements

The FASB and the IASB recently released a joint Discussion Paper “Preliminary Views on FinancialStatement Presentation” (International Accounting Standards Board 2008), which contains a major proposalrequiring companies to report operating cash flows using the direct method and it also requires that theindirect method of calculating operating cash flows be disclosed in the notes. This is a departure from currentrules and has generated considerable debate among respondents’ comment letters on the Discussion Paper.This paper adds to this debate by providing some evidence as to the size of the gap users confront when usingthe indirect method to estimate the major operating cash flow elements, such as cash collected fromcustomers and cash paid to suppliers. Using a sample of Australian companies which reported operating cashflows using the direct method, and presented the indirect method in the notes, we find significant differencesbetween reported and estimated figures for both cash collected from customers and cash paid to suppliers.These findings support the discussion paper’s proposal that companies be required to report cash flows usingboth the direct and indirect methods

Authoritarianism as the common factor in male dominance and militarism : a cross-cultural study

This thesis asserts that a very important and understudied area of war research is that of the relationship of war to aspects of male dominance. Both war and male dominance are said to be connected because they both trace back to a general tendency towards authoritarianism. Several other minor hypotheses are proposed regarding the male dominance/militarism relationship, and the historical origins of authoritarianism. The relationships of authoritarianism to male dominance and militarism were first investigated among the people of industrialised nations, utilising research on the psychometric study of authoritarianism. Evidence is given to support the notion that authoritarian attitudes are strongly related to attitudes and behaviours of militarism and attitudes and behaviours of male dominance. These relationships were then examine in a wider selection of cultures, using cross-cultural correlative research methodology and a dataset of precoded variables. There is some evidence for the notion that authoritarianism plays a part in both male dominance and war among these societies. There is also some evidence to support the notion that war is related to an increase in the "importance" or participation of males in political spheres. It proved difficult to conclusively test the idea that male absence due to war improves the position of women, although tests revealed that this theory is plausible. Support was also found for the notion that authoritarianism is related to the level of civilisation. No support was found for the notion that male participation in war increases male glorification, or the notion that aggression against the enemy and against women vary inversely according to a Freudian “drive-discharge” model. Another significant finding which emerged in the course of these tests is that authoritarian traits have a high propensity to spread geographically by a process called "cultural diffusion". This process may be largely responsible for the number of authoritarian societies in the world today

High Rate Digital Demodulator ASIC

The architecture of High Rate (600 Mega-bits per second) Digital Demodulator (HRDD) ASIC capable of demodulating BPSK and QPSK modulated data is presented in this paper. The advantages of all-digital processing include increased flexibility and reliability with reduced reproduction costs. Conventional serial digital processing would require high processing rates necessitating a hardware implementation in other than CMOS technology such as Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) which has high cost and power requirements. It is more desirable to use CMOS technology with its lower power requirements and higher gate density. However, digital demodulation of high data rates in CMOS requires parallel algorithms to process the sampled data at a rate lower than the data rate. The parallel processing algorithms described here were developed jointly by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The resulting all-digital receiver has the capability to demodulate BPSK, QPSK, OQPSK, and DQPSK at data rates in excess of 300 Mega-bits per second (Mbps) per channel. This paper will provide an overview of the parallel architecture and features of the HRDR ASIC. In addition, this paper will provide an over-view of the implementation of the hardware architectures used to create flexibility over conventional high rate analog or hybrid receivers. This flexibility includes a wide range of data rates, modulation schemes, and operating environments. In conclusion it will be shown how this high rate digital demodulator can be used with an off-the-shelf A/D and a flexible analog front end, both of which are numerically computer controlled, to produce a very flexible, low cost high rate digital receiver

Same-Sex Sexuality and the Duration of First Different-Sex Marriages

Recent research has focused on the once-married and associations between various aspects of same-sex sexuality (i.e., desire/attraction, behavior and identity) and divorce from a different-sex spouse. In this paper, we theorize that same-sex sexuality could be associated with either shorter or longer marital duration, and we use data from the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) to examine the associations between three aspects of same-sex sexuality and marital duration among those who married and divorced once (N=617). Among the once-married/divorced, same-sex sexuality substantially reduces marital duration by approximately 18-24 months, on average, net of other variables. Supplemental analyses indicate that these associations do not differ by sex/gender but do differ in nuanced ways for individuals who are bisexually attracted (identified) compared to those who report, respectively, same-sex only or different-sex only attraction (heterosexual, bisexual and lesbian/gay identity). Between-group differences in age at marriage exert a substantial influence on the associations between same-sex sexuality and marital duration documented in the supplemental analyses of bisexuality. We discuss our findings in relation to the extant literature, the limitations of available data, and directions for future research

Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis is a strong risk factor for chronic kidney disease in later life

Although unusual in western countries and in Australia in general, post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (PSGN) is still common in Australian Aboriginal children living in remote communities. Here, we evaluated whether episodes of acute PSGN increased the risk for chronic kidney disease in later life in 1519 residents of a remote Aboriginal community (85% of those age eligible), with high rates of renal and cardiovascular disease, who participated in a health screen over a 3-year period. Of these, 200 had had at least one episode of PSGN, with 27 having had multiple episodes, usually in childhood. High levels of albuminuria (albumin/creatinine ratio) with increasing age were confirmed. All PSGN episodes were associated with group A streptococcal skin infections, often related to scabies. In both genders, aged 10-39 years at screening, about one in five had such a history. Among them, PSGN (5 years or more earlier) was significantly associated with higher levels of albuminuria than those without. In women, aged 30-39 years, a history of PSGN was associated with a significantly higher frequency of estimated glomerular filtration rates < 60 ml/min. The adjusted odds ratios for an albumin/creatinine ratio over 34 g/mol (overt albuminuria) in males and females with a history of PSGN were 4.6 and 3.1, respectively, compared with those without a history. Thus, PSGN contributes to the very serious burden of chronic kidney disease in this community. Rigorous strategies to prevent scabies and Group A streptococcal infections will reduce this burden

Parallel-Processing Equalizers for Multi-Gbps Communications

Architectures have been proposed for the design of frequency-domain least-mean-square complex equalizers that would be integral parts of parallel- processing digital receivers of multi-gigahertz radio signals and other quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) or 16-quadrature-amplitude-modulation (16-QAM) of data signals at rates of multiple gigabits per second. Equalizers as used here denotes receiver subsystems that compensate for distortions in the phase and frequency responses of the broad-band radio-frequency channels typically used to convey such signals. The proposed architectures are suitable for realization in very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuitry and, in particular, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) application- specific integrated circuits (ASICs) operating at frequencies lower than modulation symbol rates. A digital receiver of the type to which the proposed architecture applies (see Figure 1) would include an analog-to-digital converter (A/D) operating at a rate, fs, of 4 samples per symbol period. To obtain the high speed necessary for sampling, the A/D and a 1:16 demultiplexer immediately following it would be constructed as GaAs integrated circuits. The parallel-processing circuitry downstream of the demultiplexer, including a demodulator followed by an equalizer, would operate at a rate of only fs/16 (in other words, at 1/4 of the symbol rate). The output from the equalizer would be four parallel streams of in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) samples