Fifty Years Forward With Ford

50 year retrospective of the Ford Motor Company from 1903-1953.https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/swoda-windsor-region/1010/thumbnail.jp

Ford Graphic. Royal Visit to Ford, Monday, October 15, 1951

Souvenir Edition: October 15th, 1951; Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit Ford Motor Company of Canadahttps://scholar.uwindsor.ca/swoda-windsor-region/1031/thumbnail.jp

Ford News, November 1919

News about Ford Motor Company of Canada.https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/swoda-windsor-region/1032/thumbnail.jp

Ford Graphic. Ford Golden Jubilee, 1904-1954

Vol. 7: no. 15 (1954: Aug. 17); 50 years of progress; history of the Ford Motor Company of Canada; a newspaper for the employees of Ford Motor Company Of Canada Limitedhttps://scholar.uwindsor.ca/swoda-windsor-region/1030/thumbnail.jp

Location Preferences of Family Firms: Strategic Decision Making or “Home Sweet Home”?

Selecting a business location is among the most important strategic decisions for family firms. Yet the separate demands of the family and the business often prove difficult to balance. A comparison of location preferences in family and nonfamily firms provides insight into the family influence on strategic decision making.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67069/2/10_1111_j_1741-6248_1992_00271_x.pd

The financialization of the non‐financial corporation. A critique to the financial turn of accumulation hypothesis

One aspect in which non-financial corporations (NFCs) are said to be financialized is that they have been increasingly engaged in financial accumulation from which they derive a growing proportion of financial income. This is what we call the financial turn of accumulation hypothesis. In this article, we show that the evidence used to sustain it, in the U.S. setting, has to be reconsidered. Our findings show that, contrary to the financial turn of accumulation hypothesis, financial income averages 2.5% of NFCs’ total income since the 1980s, oscillating since the beginnings of the 1990s until 2005 and then declining. In terms of assets, some of the alleged financial assets might actually reflect other activities in which NFCs have been increasingly engaged, such as tax avoidance, internationalization of production, activities refocusing and M&As

Comment letters to the National Commission on Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting, 1987 (Treadway Commission) Vol. 1

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_sop/1661/thumbnail.jp

A systems perspective on the death of a car company

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to understand how large and apparently successful organizations enter spirals of decline that are very difficult to reverse. The paper examines the case of Rover, once one of the largest car producers in the world, which collapsed in 2005. An analysis of strategic and operational choices made over a period of 40 years investigates the reasons for, and consequences of, a growing mismatch between the context faced by the company (industry dynamics, market conditions) and its operational capabilities, a mismatch that ultimately brought about the company's demise. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on interviews with 32 people, including senior managers (including four chief executives), government ministers and union officials who were key decision makers within, or close to, the company during the period 1968 and 2005. Secondary sources and documentary evidence (e.g. production and sales data) are used to build up a historical picture of the company and to depict its deteriorating financial and market position from 1968 onwards. Findings – The company was formed from a multitude of previously independent firms as part of a government‐sponsored agenda to build a UK National Champion in the car industry. The merged company failed due to several factors including poor product development processes, poor manufacturing performance, difficult labour relations, a very wide product portfolio and a lack of financial control. Although strenuous efforts were made to address those issues, including periods of whole or part ownership by British Aerospace, Honda and BMW, the company's position deteriorated until eventually production volumes were too low for viable operation. Practical implications – The case of Rover highlights the importance of what has been termed “the management unit” in complex systems. The management unit comprises processes and routines to deal with challenges such as managing product portfolios, connecting strategic and operational choices, and scanning and responding to the environment. In the case of Rover, a number of factors taken together generated excessive load on a management unit frequently operating under conditions of resource scarcity. We conclude that viewing corporate failure from a systems perspective, rather than in terms of shortcomings in specific subsystems, such as manufacturing or product development, yields insights often absent in the operations management literature. Originality/value – The paper is of value by showing corporate failure from a systems perspective, rather than in terms of shortcomings in specific subsystems, such as manufacturing or product development; and yields insights often absent in the operations management literature. The Rover case featured in the paper demonstrates the usefulness of systems ideas to understanding at least some types of failure, not as an alterative to capability‐based approaches, but in addition to them

Assessment of an in vitro whole cigarette smoke exposure system: The Borgwaldt RM20S 8-syringe smoking machine

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There have been many recent developments of <it>in vitro </it>cigarette smoke systems closely replicating <it>in vivo </it>exposures. The Borgwaldt RM20S smoking machine (RM20S) enables the serial dilution and delivery of cigarette smoke to exposure chambers for <it>in vitro </it>analyses. In this study we have demonstrated reliability and robustness testing of the RM20S in delivering smoke to <it>in vitro </it>cultures using an in-house designed whole smoke exposure chamber.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The syringe precision and accuracy of smoke dose generated by the RM20S was assessed using a methane gas standard and resulted in a repeatability error of ≤9%. Differential electrical mobility particle spectrometry (DMS) measured smoke particles generated from reference 3R4F cigarettes at points along the RM20S. 53% ± 5.9% of particles by mass reached the chamber, the remainder deposited in the syringe or connecting tubing and ~16% deposited in the chamber. Spectrofluorometric quantification of particle deposition within chambers indicated a positive correlation between smoke concentration and particle deposition. <it>In vitro </it>air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures (H292 lung epithelial cells), exposed to whole smoke (1:60 dilution (smoke:air, equivalent to ~5 μg/cm²)) demonstrated uniform smoke delivery within the chamber.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest this smoke exposure system is a reliable and repeatable method of generating and exposing ALI <it>in vitro </it>cultures to cigarette smoke. This system will enable the evaluation of future tobacco products and individual components of cigarette smoke and may be used as an alternative <it>in vitro </it>tool for evaluating other aerosols and gaseous mixtures such as air pollutants, inhaled pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.</p