The determinants of the quality of Sales-Marketing Interface in a Multinational Customer Brand Focused Company: The Latin American Branches

Customer evolution and changes in consumers, determine the fact that the quality of the interface between marketing and sales may represent a true competitive advantage for the firm. Building on multidimensional theoretical and empirical models developed in Europe and on social network analysis, the organizational interface between the marketing and sales departments of a multinational high-growth company with operations in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay is studied. Both, attitudinal and social network measures of information exchange are used to make operational the nature and quality of the interface and its impact on performance. Results show the existence of a positive relationship of formalization, joint planning, teamwork, trust and information transfer on interface quality, as well as a positive relationship between interface quality and business performance. We conclude that efficient design and organizational management of the exchange network are essential for the successful performance of consumer goods companies that seek to develop distinctive capabilities to adapt to markets that experience vertiginous change

Systematic Characterization of Gas Phase Binary Pre-Nucleation Complexes Containing H2SO4 + X, [ X = NH3, (CH3)NH2, (CH3)2NH, (CH3)3N, H2O, (CH3)OH, (CH3)2O, HF, CH3F, PH3, (CH3)PH2, (CH3)2PH, (CH3)3P, H2S, (CH3)SH, (CH3)2S, HCl, (CH3)Cl)]. A Computational Study

A systematic characterization of gas phase binary prenucleation complexes between H2SO4 (SA) and other molecules present in the atmosphere (NH3, (CH3)NH2, (CH3)2NH, (CH3)3N, H2O, (CH3)OH, (CH3)2O, HF, CH3 F, PH3, (CH3)PH2, (CH3)2PH, (CH3)3P, H2S, (CH3)SH, (CH3)2S, HCl, (CH3)Cl) has been carried out using the ωB97X-D/6-311++(2d,2p) method at the DFT level of theory. A relationship between the energy gap of the SA's LUMO and the partner molecule's HOMO, and the increasing number of methyl groups -CH3 in the SA's partner molecule is provided. The binding energies of the bimolecular complexes are found to be related to the electron density in the hydrogen bond critical point, the HOMO-LUMO energy gap, the nature of the hydrogen acceptor atom, and the frequencies shift of acid OH bonds. The results show how the frontier orbital compatibility determines the binding energy and that the properties of SA's OH bond which remains free of interactions are affected by the bimolecular adduct formation.Fil: Sebastianelli, Paolo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Cometto, Pablo Marcelo. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa; ArgentinaFil: Pereyra, Rodolfo Guillermo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentin

Adolescent opinions on the Asking for Help Program : Assessing participant outcomes

This study examined the effectiveness of a school-based intervention, the Asking for Help Program. Participants were 50 at-risk adolescents, aged 14 to 19 years old (M = 15.98, SD = 1.30), who completed pre- and post-questionnaires to assess perceived barriers to help seeking, attitudes towards seeking professional help, and actual help seeking. Qualitative data was also collected using focus group interviews. Qualitative findings detected significant gains in participants\u27 perceptions of barriers pertaining to knowledge and social stigmas as well as suggested that participants\u27 attitudes towards seeking help improved. Findings are discussed within the context of participants\u27 perceived and actual change as well as participants\u27 suggestions for how the intervention could be improved

Factors predicting adolescents\u27 and parents\u27 help seeking behaviour

Adolescents\u27 perceptions and responses to mental health problems have been shown to have significant implications for their future competence, coping skills, well-being, and subsequent life choices; yet, as few as 25 percent of young Canadians with mental health problems seek help (Bergeron, Poirier, Fournier, Roberge, & Barrette, 2005). The purpose of this study was to examine the stages of adolescent help seeking (i.e., recognizing the problem, deciding to seek professional help, and seeking professional help ) to better understand why some adolescents seek help and others do not. Specific predisposing, enabling, and need factors were examined as predictors of adolescents\u27 and parents\u27 behaviour across the three stages of help seeking. Participants completed on-line questionnaires assessing help-seeking stages, barriers to help seeking, help-seeking attitudes, family functioning, parental stress, and symptomatology. After data screening procedures, the sample consisted of 175 adolescents and 95 parents from the Windsor-Essex community; of these participants, 21 parent-adolescent dyads were formed. Regression analyses showed that being female and perceiving mental health problems to be severe significantly improved the likelihood that an adolescent would recognize their mental health problem (Stage 1). Further, higher perceptions of problem severity and prior professional help seeking significantly improved the likelihood that an adolescent would decide to help seek (Stage 2) and actually seek professional help (Stage 3). These findings are consistent with the study\u27s hypotheses. With regards to parental help seeking, parents\u27 worry and concern for adolescents with mental health problems significantly improved the likelihood that a parent would recognize adolescent mental health problems (Stage 1) and decide to seek professional help for the adolescent (Stage 2). Finally, parent-reported prior family professional help seeking significantly improved the likelihood of parents actually seeking professional help for adolescent mental health problems (Stage 3). Given the limited number of parent-adolescent dyads, the researcher was limited with regards to statistical analyses that could be performed; however, the results lend support to the idea that an adolescent and parent from the same family are likely to be in similar stages of help seeking. The results suggest that family cohesion, flexibility, and communication may have an indirect effect on adolescent help seeking by contributing to an adolescent being more or less vulnerable to mental health problems. Implications for increasing adolescent help seeking and improving adolescents\u27 and parents\u27 access to professional resources are discussed

Descriptors for terpene esters from chromatographic and partition measurements: Estimation of human odor detection thresholds

We have used gas chromatographic retention data together with other data to obtain Abraham descriptors for 30 terpene esters. These include the air-water partition coefficient, as log Kw, for which no experimental values are available for any terpene ester. The other descriptors are the ester dipolarity, S, the hydrogen bond basicity, B, (the ester hydrogen bond acidity is zero for the esters studied), and L the logarithm of the air-hexadecane partition coefficient. Both S and B are larger than those for simple aliphatic esters, as expected from the terpene ester structures that include ring systems and ethylenic double bonds. These descriptors can then be used to obtain a large number of physicochemical and environmental properties of terpene esters. We have analyzed experimental results on human odor detection thresholds and have constructed another equation for the calculation of these thresholds, to go with a previous equation that we have reported. Then the descriptors for terpene esters can be used to estimate the important odor detection thresholds

Drivers of Innovation Deployment Affecting the Marketing and Sales Relationship

This study investigates the antecedents of information management and its effect on formalization and joint planning as drivers of the marketing-sales functions perceived relationship effectiveness during the formalized process of new product deployment (NPD). We examine the effect of communication as perceived by the marketing and sales functions based on two components: communication amount/frequency (CA) and communication quality (CQ). Finally, we investigate how process formalization and joint planning affect the perceived relationship effectiveness of marketing and sales during the NPD process. The quantitative study uses 152 matched responses from top-level managers, responsible for the innovation deployment of six South American subsidiaries of a global consumer packaged goods company. The qualitative research, via in-depth interviews, confirms the importance of various behaviors of sales and marketing staff during the process of new product launches in the market. While numerous studies have researched the drivers of innovation process, this is the first chapter that studies the NPD implementation process based on the cross-functional relationship between marketing and sales. These drivers can help managers implement effective team processes to enhance innovation deployment results

Developing the health workforce for universal health coverage

Optimizing the management of the health workforce is necessary for the progressive realization of universal health coverage. Here we discuss the six main action fields in health workforce management as identified by the Human Resources for Health Action Framework: leadership; finance; policy; education; partnership; and human resources management systems. We also identify and describe examples of effective practices in the development of the health workforce, highlighting the breadth of issues that policy-makers and planners should consider. Achieving success in these action fields is not possible by pursuing them in isolation. Rather, they are interlinked functions that depend on a strong capacity for effective stewardship of health workforce policy. This stewardship capacity can be best understood as a pyramid of tools and factors that encompass the individual, organizational, institutional and health system levels, with each level depending on capacity at the level below and enabling actions at the level above. We focus on action fields covered by the organizational or system-wide levels that relate to health workforce development. We consider that an analysis of the policy and governance environment and of mechanisms for health workforce policy development and implementation is required, and should guide the identification of the most relevant and appropriate levels and interventions to strengthen the capacity of health workforce stewardship and leadership. Although these action fields are relevant in all countries, there are no best practices that can simply be replicated across countries and each country must design its own responses to the challenges raised by these fields.publishersversionpublishe

Life on top: cryptoendolithic ascomycetes and microalgae isolated from over 6000 m altitude

Rocks are among the oldest terrestrial niches hosting a multiplicity of life forms, of which diversity has been only partially uncovered. Endolithic metacommunities comprise all major groups of microorganisms, such as chemo-organotrophic, chemo-lithotrophic and phototrophic, represented by bacteria, microalgae and microfungi. Their diversity is often difficult to describe and may remain underestimated. Furthermore, knowledge about the diversity of microorganisms colonizing rocks in peculiar niches is even poorer due to the difficulty to retrieve environmental specimens. Here, we report the phylogenetic and phenotypic characterization of a few endolithic fungi and algae isolated from rock fragments collected at high elevation, i.e., on the top of two mountains over 6000 m altitude, Muztagh Ata (China) and Cerro Mercendario (Argentina). The identity of the strains was confirmed by sequencing the nuclear ITS and LSU, the plastidial rbcL loci and by morphological analysis. Three fungal strains belonging to the class Dothideomycetes and one algal strain belonging to the genus Trebouxia were isolated from Muztagh Ata, while six fungal strains belonging to the order Chaetothyriales and four algal strains belonging to the genus Myrmecia were isolated from Cerro Mercedario. The detected species diversity is discussed in an evolutionary and ecological context

Marketing and Sales organization in a “Brand-Focused Professional” multinational

This article tests a multidimensional model of the marketing and sales organizational interface, based on a previous one tested for European companies (Homburg et al., 2008), in a specific taxonomical configuration: a brand focused professional multinational, in three successful Latin American branches. Factor reliability and hypotheses were studied through a confirmatory factor analysis. Results show the existence of a positive relationship between formalization, joint planning, teamwork, information sharing, trust and interface quality. Interface quality and business performance show also a positive relationship. This empirical study contributes to the knowledge of the organizational enhancement of interactions in emerging market