Policing the Pirates: Digital Models for Music Distribution

According to the entertainment industry, the digital revolution is usurping its product and undermining its profit. Internet Service Providers have shown reluctance to interfere in the private domain of their users so at the behest of Hollywood, Congress in 1998 passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  Nonetheless, the Recording Industry Association of America alleges that rampant Net piracy has precipitated a five percent worldwide decline of music sales in both 2000 and 2001.  The personal computer has become an expedient means of downloading songs from peer-to-peer file-sharing services or “burning” CD copies onto a blank disk. To ensure compliance with the Act, some record labels have embraced technology that distorts the error correction codes on illegally copied CDs.  However, this copy control solution is beset with various problems, including consumer aversion and technical fallibility.  After examining the dialectical tension between business cost and consumer choice, this paper proposes some other options

The Rush To Outsource: The Interplay Of Location And Dislocation

In their quest for economic efficiency, American firms are increasingly outsourcing their processes as well as their products.  Companies may outsource operations themselves or use the services of special outsource firms such as contract manufacturers and external service providers (ESPs).  The present study focuses on evolving dynamics within these intermediaries, particularly their accelerated move to offshore operations.  This paper examines the causes and effects of this trend.  The first casualties register in the American workforce.  Though U.S. firms and consumers enjoy some near-term benefit from this job transfer, long-term implications are ominous.  By broadening their geographic locus and hiring local professionals, ESPs unwittingly expedite the emergence of an indigenous labor pool to replace them.  Already domestic providers are encountering local ventures that offer value-added technology in “upstream” areas like architecture, development and integration.  If such firms continue to gain recognition in high-end activity, they may credibly lay claim to the commodity work of product assembly and transaction processes.  American firms are targeting these same areas, especially the nascent realm of business process outsourcing (BPO).  As U.S. outsourcers rush relentlessly “downstream” and transplant their backend support services to overseas locations, they may be outsourcing their own future.  The paper will give three case study examples at each end of this labor food chain.  As domestic examples we include a domestic contract manufacturer and a BPO provider.  Both firms have established an overseas presence.  Lastly, we examine an overseas competitor leveraging its upstream success in high-value IT services to secure a beachhead in BPO

Financial Performance Of Wide-Moat Companies

Morningstar has identified 85 companies with wide economic moats.  According to Morningstar these firms enjoy structural advantages that create shareholder value.  This paper confirms the historical outperformance of these companies

Cinematic Perspectives On Organizational Mentoring

Properly conceived and conducted, organizational mentoring can bestow benefits on the suppliant, the mentor and the firm.  If prospective protégés assess the context of a mentoring relationship before they enter into one, they can enjoy a bonding experience that facilitates psychological satisfaction and furthers professional advancement.  The movie medium is an educative means of appreciating and attaining these positive outcomes.  The instructive lens of drama can complement traditional curricular materials in courses on behavioral dynamics.  Over the past seven years, the author has assigned a film project in his Leadership classes at the undergraduate and MBA level.  Of the 120 films chosen for students projects, five compellingly capture functional and dysfunctional aspects of protégé-protector linkages.  After analyzing these films, the paper proposes ten precepts that will enhance the mentoring experience for workplace aspirants

Dodging Dysfunctional Dynamics In Power Exchange

In today’s organizations, the impetus for employee empowerment remains strong.  By developing an internal talent base, companies increase the likelihood of comprehensive contributions and also engender loyalty within the ranks.  A proclivity for power dispersion is evident among many pundits, with some even decreeing it an ethical mandate.  Yet, if rashly executed, empowerment can result in dire outcomes for the individual and dysfunctional consequences for the firm.  Through reference to the medium of film, this paper portrays four situations where empowerment efforts have gone awry, accentuating employee estrangement and eroding corporate ethics.  Because the behavioral dynamics of film are frozen in time and thus susceptible to recursive scrutiny, students can glean institutional insights that will facilitate career advancement.  Just as important, they will confront value conflicts that impel them to clarify their own ethical stance.&nbsp

Stewardship As A Factor In The Financial Performance Of Mutual Funds

Morningstar has assigned a Stewardship grade to 1165 mutual funds.  This comprehensive construct can showcase funds that serve as stewards of investor capital and therefore warrant public trust.  This study suggests that such funds may also preserve and augment shareholder return.&nbsp

Stewardship And Financial Performance In Wide-Moat Firms

Previous research has shown that the historical appreciation of Morningstar wide-moat companies exceeds that of benchmark indices.  In the case of mutual funds, prior work has also demonstrated the significance of Morningstar’s stewardship grade in partially explaining such out performance.  The present study examines 181 wide-moat companies and assesses whether stewardship has a comparable influence on the financial performance of individual firms

Quantum channels in nonlinear optical processes

Quantum electrodynamics furnishes a new type of representation for the characterisation of nonlinear optical processes. The treatment elicits the detailed role and interplay of specific quantum channels, information that is not afforded by other methods. Following an illustrative application to the case of Rayleigh scattering, the method is applied to second and third harmonic generation. Derivations are given of parameters that quantify the various quantum channels and their interferences; the results are illustrated graphically. With given examples, it is shown in some systems that optical nonlinearity owes its origin to an isolated channel, or a small group of channels. © 2009 World Scientific Publishing Company

Who Succeeds In The Murky Middle?

This exploratory study examines technically educated middle managers performing ad hoc projects in flat organizations and develops a typology for examining the behavioral patterns associated with their effectiveness. Initial findings indicate the greatest success was achieved by “Type 1” managers (the Leaders) who were able to integrate collaborative selling skills and technical expertise within a web of both formal and informal interactions. Moderate success accrued to “Type 2” managers (the Learners) who used collaborative selling skills to develop social networks that allowed them to expand their own technical expertise. “Type 3” managers (the Leapers) primarily relied upon technical expertise as the tool for interacting with others and enjoyed only modest success. Although “Type 4” managers (the Laggards) had the requisite technical knowledge base, they were the least successful because their lack of collaborative selling skills made it difficult to utilize a compensatory social network. Suggestions are provided for leaders seeking to leverage and direct the abilities of key staff