Entry modes of European firms in Vietnam

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to explore the entry modes of EU firms setting up operations in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach: we use a case study approach on Haymarket, Cadbury, Creative Education, Fairchild, Aventis and Artemisinin and Farming International using interviews from managerial professionals in Vietnam. Findings: Despite the fact that Vietnam has been opening up for more than 20 years, licensing is the preferred entry mode because of the risks involved in venturing with local firms; that preference signals a low level commitment and a high perception of risk and state interference. In line with Vietnam transition to state - rather than private market - capitalism, a foreign company opting for a joint-venture will do so with a state-owned rather than privately-owned company. The choice of a subsidiary can be explained by the lack of trust in partners and institutions, not by improvement in the socio-political environment.Limitations: In determining the entry mode strategy, the paper focuses on the Uppsala school’s “psychic distance” (e.g. cultural distance, lack of trust) rather than on firm-specific advantages (Rugman, 1980; 2006).Key-words: international entry mode; emerging markets; subsidiary; joint-venture; India; Vietna

Applicant Faking on Personality Tests: Good or Bad and Why Should We Care?

The unitarian understanding of construct validity holds that deliberate response distortion in completing self-report personality tests (i.e., faking) threatens trait-based inferences drawn from test scores. This “faking-is-bad” (FIB) perspective is being challenged by an emerging “faking-is-good” (FIG) position that condones or favors faking and its underlying attributes (e.g., social skill, ATIC) to the degree they contribute to predictor–criterion correlations and are job relevant. Based on the unitarian model of validity and relevant empirical evidence, we argue the FIG perspective is psychometrically flawed and counterproductive to personality-based selection targeting trait-based fit. Carrying forward both positions leads to variously dark futures for self-report personality tests as selection tools. Projections under FIG, we suggest, are particularly serious. FIB offers a more optimistic future but only to the degree faking can be mitigated. Evidence suggesting increasing applicant faking rates and other alarming trends makes the FIB versus FIG debate a timely if not urgent matter

Agencification, policy reversal and the reforms of the French health care system

Purpose – Often linked to the New Public Management (NPM) doctrines, agencification has been on the priority list of policy makers for over two decades. This article proposes an analysis of the role of agencies in the French health system and the impact of government agency reform on physicians and the public. Design/methodology/approach – The research analyzes the perceived implementation of a re-concentration of decision-making powers within public agencies as the declared goal of agencification at the French health care system, specifically primary care providers and hospitals. The assessment relies on secondary sources from ministerial bodies such as the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, the Social Security and the General Accounting Office, and specialized French technical agencies. Findings – Decentralization in France and the subsequent rise of public health care agencies had outcomes below expectations. Hence, a re-concentration of decision-making powers within the larger Regional Health Agencies; a streamlining of the public administration; and a re-appropriation of decision-making powers by the Ministry of Health are needed. The monitoring of health providers allows central health authorities to govern at a distance. Originality/value – The analysis of health care agencies in France and of their use of efficiency-enhancing techniques may trigger a change of values within the medical profession

Protection and Custody of Children in United States Immigration Court Proceedings

The grave consequences to an individual of an order expelling him or her from the United States has long been recognized. Deportation has been described by the Supreme Court as a drastic measure and at times the equivalent of banishment or exile

Développer le pouvoir d’apprendre : pour une critique de la transmission en éducation et en formation

Researchers of the TAO Research Programs and the Centre de Recherche sur le Travail et le Développement (Research Center on Work and Development) at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, illustrate critical reflections on education and training. These collected papers, stemming from different disciplinary frameworks and approaches, share the theoretical work and the epistemological orientation. With particular reference to the teachings of Weber, Vygotskij and Bakhtin, they focus on learning, conceived as social action, on the development of learning activity, and on the development of thought in professional dialogues. Along this line, the idea according to which education and training realize the “transmission” of knowledge, capacity, competence, values, practices, gestures, etc., is questioned and discussed

Spatiotemporal Mapping and Monitoring of Mangrove Forests Changes From 1990 to 2019 in the Northern Emirates, UAE Using Random Forest, Kernel Logistic Regression and Naive Bayes Tree Models

© Copyright © 2020 Elmahdy, Ali, Mohamed, Howari, Abouleish and Simonet. Mangrove forests are acting as a green lung for the coastal cities of the United Arab Emirates, providing a habitat for wildlife, storing blue carbon in sediment and protecting shoreline. Thus, the first step toward conservation and a better understanding of the ecological setting of mangroves is mapping and monitoring mangrove extent over multiple spatial scales. This study aims to develop a novel low-cost remote sensing approach for spatiotemporal mapping and monitoring mangrove forest extent in the northern part of the United Arab Emirates. The approach was developed based on random forest (RF), Kernel logistic regression (KLR), and Naive Bayes Tree machine learning algorithms which use multitemporal Landsat images. Our results of accuracy metrics include accuracy, precision, and recall, F1 score revealed that RF outperformed the KLR and NB with an F1 score of more than 0.90. Each pair of produced mangrove maps (1990–2000, 2000–2010, 2010–2019, and 1990–2019) was used to image difference algorithm to monitor mangrove extent by applying a threshold ranges from +1 to −1. Our results are of great importance to the ecological and research community. The new maps presented in this study will be a good reference and a useful source for the coastal management organization

Cable tension estimation by means of vibration response and moving mass technique

Early damage detection on structures plays a very important role for ensuring safety and reliability. This paper provides an efficient method based on wavelet transforms in order to detect and localize damage on structures subjected to moving loads such as beams and bridges. A numerical model based on the experimental test-rig utilized in this study is developed by using a finite element commercial software. Different types of damage on the bridge of the numerical model are simulated and transient analyses are performed by incorporating a load which moves constantly along the beam nodes. Continuous wavelet transform diagrams using the vertical acceleration responses show that damage can be identified and localized even with significant percentages of noise. Nevertheless, the method is improved by filtering the signals, removing the border effects, and calculating the total wavelet energy of the beam from the coefficients along the selected range of scales. Thus, the accumulation of wavelet energy could indicate the presence of damage. Finally, laboratory experiments are conducted to validate this work and a good agreement between numerical and experimental results is obtaine

The impact of New Public Management on efficiency : an analysis of Madrid’s hospitals.

Madrid has recently become the site of one the most controversial cases of public healthcare reform in the European Union. Despite the fact that the introduction of New Public Management (NPM) into Madrid hospitals has been vigorous, little scholarship has been done to test whether NPM actually led to technical efficiency. This paper is one of the first attempts to do so. We deploy a bootstrapped Data Envelopment Analysis to compare efficiency scores in traditionally managed hospitals and those operating with new management formulas. We do not find evidence that NPM hospitals are more efficient than traditionally managed ones. Moreover, our results suggest that what actually matters may be the management itself, rather than the management model