MODERNIZATION AND PROCESS IMPROVEMENT TO THE MARINE CORPS SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OFFICER’S TRAINING CURRICULUM

In the wake of Force Design 2030 and the resulting widespread restructuring of the Marine Corps to better align with the challenges of the future, the requirement to address and modernize military occupational specialty training has become increasingly apparent. We sought to assess entry-level and follow-on training for supply officers and how they affect operational performance in the Fleet Marine Force. This thesis asks: Does structural misalignment of training content for ground supply officers lead to suboptimization of operational performance and lower retention rates? To adequately address this question, we employed mixed-methodology research, utilizing both quantitative data analysis of audit results from units throughout the Marine Corps, and objective data gathered through use of questionnaire responses from company-grade supply officers who have recently completed or are currently completing their first operational tour. After analyzing the data, we identified shortfalls in current financial and procurement performance in both the quantitative and qualitative fields. Consequently, we provide recommendations and examples for improving the current process of training supply officers and identify potential additional training opportunities available to facilitate continuous improvement.Outstanding ThesisCaptain, United States Marine CorpsCaptain, United States Marine CorpsCaptain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

International experience and FDI location choices of Chinese firms: The moderating effects of home country government support and host country institutions

We examine the extent to which Chinese government support of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects and host country institutional environments interact with prior entry experience by Chinese firms, and how this interrelationship affects FDI undertaken by Chinese firms. We hypothesize that home country government support and well-established host country institutions enhance organizational capabilities to take risks in FDI. As such, they reduce the need to accumulate experiential knowledge and capabilities relating to entering host countries based on prior entry experience in a particular country when undertaking follow-up investment projects. Using a unique, hand-collected panel data set of Chinese publicly listed firms during 2002–2009, we find that home government support and well-developed host country institutions reduce the importance of prior entry experience and significantly increase the likelihood of FDI entry into a host country. Further, from our subsample analyses we identify differences between entering developed and developing host countries in terms of the impact of home country government support and quality of host country institutions. Our findings help explain the puzzle concerning why emerging economy firms have rapidly internationalized in a short period of time and do not follow the pattern predicted by classical IB theories

Threshold effect of foreign direct investment on environmental degradation

The aim of this paper is to investigate the threshold effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental degradation. In empirical analysis, FDI and environmental degradation are jointly determined under the given threshold variable and other exogenous variables. Using carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita as a proxy for environmental degradation, the results show that increasing FDI worsens CO2 emissions after a threshold level of corruption has been reached. Our results demonstrate that increasing FDI will increase CO2 emissions when the degree of corruptibility is relatively high. The study suggests that further FDI and improved environmental quality are competing rather than compatible objectives in high-corruption countries and are compatible rather than competing objectives in low-corruption countries. Higher trade liberalization in low-corruption countries could contribute to negative environmental consequences because of the increased output or economic activity which results from increased trade. The robustness estimation confirms the evidence that pollution and economic development increase together up to a certain income level, after which the trend reverses.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The impact of foreign direct investment on the productivity of China’s automotive industry

• This study contributes to the existing literature by empirically investigating the effect of FDI inflows on the aggregate labour productivity of China's automotive industry. • A production function model is developed using a panel data set at sub-sector level. Two statistical models: pooled ordinary least squares model (POLS) and fixed effects model (FES) were used to estimate the influence of foreign direct investment on aggregate labour productivity in the industry

Association between Food Insecurity and Procurement Methods among People Living with HIV in a High Resource Setting

Objective: People living with HIV in high-resource settings suffer severe levels of food insecurity; however, limited evidence exists regarding dietary intake and sub-components that characterize food insecurity (i.e. food quantity, quality, safety or procurement) in this population. We examined the prevalence and characteristics of food insecurity among people living with HIV across British Columbia, Canada. Design: This cross-sectional analysis was conducted within a national community-based research initiative. Methods: Food security was measured using the Health Canada Household Food Security Scale Module. Logistic regression was used to determine key independent predictors of food insecurity, controlling for potential confounders. Results: Of 262 participants, 192 (73%) reported food insecurity. Sub-components associated with food insecurity in bivariate analysis included: < RDI consumption of protein (p = 0.046); being sick from spoiled/unsafe food in the past six months (p = 0.010); and procurement of food using non-traditional methods (p <0.05). In multivariable analyses, factors significantly associated with food insecurity included: procurement of food using non-traditional methods [AOR = 11.11, 95% CI: 4.79–25.68, p = <0.001]; younger age [AOR = 0.92, 95% CI: 0.86–0.96, p = <0.001]; unstable housing [AOR = 4.46, 95% CI: 1.15–17.36, p = 0.031]; household gross annual income [AOR = 4.49, 95% CI: 1.74–11.60, p = 0.002]; and symptoms of depression [AOR = 2.73, 95% CI: 1.25–5.96, p = 0.012]. Conclusions: Food insecurity among people living with HIV in British Columbia is characterized by poor dietary quality and food procurement methods. Notably, participants who reported procuring in non-traditional manners were over 10 times more likely to be food insecure. These findings suggest a need for tailored food security and social support interventions in this setting

A retrospective and agenda for future research on Chinese outward foreign direct investment

Our original paper “The determinants of Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investment” was the first theoretically based empirical analysis of the phenomenon. It utilised internalisation theory to show that Chinese state-owned firms reacted to home country market imperfections to surmount barriers to foreign entry arising from naivety and the lack of obvious ownership advantages, leveraging institutional factors including favourable policy stimuli. This special theory explained outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) but provided surprises. These included the apparent appetite for risk evinced by these early investors, causing us to conjecture that domestic market imperfections, particularly in the domestic capital market, might be responsible. The article stimulated a massive subsequent, largely successful, research effort on emerging country multinationals. In this Retrospective article we review some of the main strands of research that ensued, for the insight they offer for the theme of our commentary. Our theme is that theoretical development can only come through embracing yet more challenging, different, and new contexts, and we make suggestions for future research directions

Relations between hinterland and foreland shortening: Sevier orogeny, central North American Cordillera

This is the published version. Copyright 2000 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.The tectonic relations between foreland and hinterland deformation in noncollisional orogens are critical to understanding the overall development of orogens. The classic central Cordilleran foreland fold-and-thrust belt in the United States (Late Jurassic to early Tertiary Sevier belt) and the more internal zones to the west (central Nevada thrust belt) provide data critical to understanding the development of internal and external parts of orogens. The Garden Valley thrust system, part of the central Nevada thrust belt, crops out in south-central Nevada within a region generally considered to be the hinterland of the Jurassic to Eocene Sevier thrust belt. The thrust system consists of at least four principal thrust plates composed of strata as young as Pennsylvanian in age that are unconformably overlain by rocks as old as Oligocene, suggesting that contraction occurred between those times. New U/Pb dates on intrusions that postdate contraction, combined with new paleomagnetic data showing significant tilting of one area prior to intrusion, suggest that regionally these thrusts were active before ∼85–100 Ma. The thrust faults are characterized by long, relatively steeply dipping ramps and associated folds that are broad and open to close, upright and overturned. Although now fragmented by Cenozoic crustal extension, individual thrusts can be correlated from range to range for tens to hundreds of kilometers along strike. We correlate the structurally lowest thrust of the Garden Valley thrust system, the Golden Gate-Mount Irish thrust, southward with the Gass Peak thrust of southern Nevada. This correlation carries the following regional implications. At least some of the slip across Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous foreland thrusts in southern Nevada continues northward along the central Nevada thrust belt rather than northeastward into Utah. This continuation is consistent with age relations, which indicate that thrusts in the type Sevier belt in central Utah are synchronous with or younger than the youngest thrusts in southern Nevada. This in turn implies that geometrically similar Sevier belt thrusts in Utah must die out southward before they reach Nevada, that slip along the southern Nevada thrusts is partitioned between central Nevada and Utah thrusts, or that the Utah thrusts persist into southeastern Nevada but are located east of the longitude of the central Nevada thrust belt. As a result of overall cratonward migration of thrusting, the central Nevada thrust belt probably formed the Cordilleran foreland fold-thrust belt early in the shortening event but later lay in the hinterland of the Sevier fold-thrust belt of Idaho-Wyoming-Utah

Corporate boards and the performance of Asian firms: A meta-analysis

The prevalence of ownership concentration in Asian firms presents a challenge to the influential agency theory-based understanding of the role of corporate boards. In this paper we develop and test hypotheses about board attributes and firm performance that reflect Asian institutional conditions. We present the first meta-analysis of the relationship between board attributes and performance of Asian firms using a varied set of meta-analytical techniques on a database of 86 studies covering nine Asian countries. First, we find that board structure and composition preferences are influenced by the identity of the concentrated owner. Second, consistent with US data, we find very limited evidence of a direct relationship between board attributes and firm financial performance in the Asian context. Third, we find that the relationship between board structure and composition and firm performance is mediated by the revealed strategic preferences of Asian firms specifically by the level of R&D investment