The influence of health and psychosocial resources on retirement adjustment

Although the researchers suggest that retirees’ physical health, finances, and social support are important resources for adjustment in retirement, little attention has been paid to their impacts on retirement adjustment in post-retirement. This study investigates the influence of initial status of and change in these resources on early retirement adjustment based on the resource-based dynamic model (Wang, Henkens, & van Solinge, 2011). Data of retirees from the Health and Retirement Study were analyzed with latent growth curve models and a cross-lagged model. Retirement adjustment was measured by depressive symptoms and a question asking about retirement satisfaction. The effects of retirees’ personality traits, marital status, and job satisfaction while employed were included to account for retirees’ individual differences in each resource. Retirees with better physical health, more financial resources, and higher levels of social support from their spouse reported fewer depressive symptoms and higher levels of retirement satisfaction. Changes in resources also predicted changes in post-retirement adjustment. Conscientiousness, extraversion, being married, and higher satisfaction with job while employed were related to better adjustment, whereas openness, agreeableness, and neuroticism predicted worse adjustment. Personality traits and job satisfaction were associated differently with social support according to who provided the support. The findings that retirees’ resources change after retirement and influence retirement adjustment show the importance of maintaining these resources after retirement

Who Shook Big Mac?: Panera Bread Co.

The authors identify the firm-specific core competencies that Panera Bread has relied on to achieve a competitive advantage in its business domain. The study illustrates how the company scans the dynamically changing environments and tailors their products and services in accordance with these changes

Design Lessons from Load Tests on Open- and Closed-Ended Pipe Piles

Both the driving response and static bearing capacity of open-ended piles are affected by the soil plug that forms inside the pile during pile driving. In order to investigate the effect of the soil plug on the load capacity of pipe piles in general, field pile load tests were performed on instrumented open- and closed-ended piles driven into sand. For the open-ended pile, the soil plug length was continuously measured during pile driving, allowing calculation of an incremental filling ratio, IFR for the pile. The cumulative hammer blow count for the openended pile with final IFR of 77.5% was 16% lower than for the closed-ended pile. The limit unit shaft and base resistances of the openended pile were 51% and 32% lower than the corresponding values for the closed-ended pile. It was also observed, for the open-ended pile, that the unit soil plug resistance was only about 28% of the unit annulus resistance

A Higher-Accuracy van der Waals Density Functional

We propose a second version of the van der Waals density functional (vdW-DF2) of Dion et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 246401 (2004)], employing a more accurate semilocal exchange functional and the use of a large-N asymptote gradient correction in determining the vdW kernel. The predicted binding energy, equilibrium separation, and potential-energy curve shape are close to those of accurate quantum chemical calculations on 22 duplexes. We anticipate the enabling of chemically accurate calculations in sparse materials of importance for condensed-matter, surface, chemical, and biological physics.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Exploring key service quality dimensions at a winery from an emerging market’s perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to uncover the service quality dimensions that influence satisfaction with wineries and future intentions to return among Chinese consumers. With the rapidly growing popularity of wine consumption among Chinese consumers, an increasing number of Chinese consumers are visiting wineries in Western countries. However, while substantial research about wine tourism in Western countries has been published, there is very little research available with respect to wine tourism in China and the Chinese winery visitors who visit them. Design/methodology/approach A convenience sampling method was selected. Specifically, snowball sampling was used to collect the study’s data due to the limited number of Chinese consumers who drink wine and who have been involved with wine tourism. Research assistants who speak Chinese fluently used snowball sampling to recruit Chinese consumers in Yentai region who had participated in wine tourism in the past and asked them to complete the research survey. The research assistants distributed 200 surveys through a snowball sampling and collected a total of 179 responses. Findings The study’s results suggest that wine tasting operations, such as a variety of wines at tasting room tastings, and the quality of the wines tasted, along with staff attitudes are critical components that influence Chinese wine tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty. Research limitations/implications The major contribution of this paper is that it builds on extant wine tourism literature by providing insights into the characteristics of Chinese wine tourists. The paper also illuminates the linkage between winery service quality attributes and Chinese wine tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty. Practical implications The results of the study provide a useful guide to both academics and winery operators interested in developing a competitive winery service quality strategy for Chinese wine tourists. Originality/value Given the scarcity of literature linking winery service quality attributes and Chinese wine tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty, this study is one of the few studies to explore this relationship. </jats:sec

A Successful International Joint Venture: Exploring the Critical Success Factors of Starbucks Korea

International joint venture has become a key foreign entry mode among global service firms. Scholars have devoted significant attention to the theory of international joint venture in the past three decades. However, despite growing interest from academics and practitioners alike, research that would synthesize the model of a successful international joint venture in the service industry has not been established. To close this gap, we undertook a qualitative study using Starbuck Korea case. This study investigates how Starbucks Korea, an international joint venture between the Starbucks Corporation and the Shinsegae Corporation (the Korean joint venture partner of Starbucks Korea) has been successful in the competitive Korean coffee market. Specifically, the study highlights how the partners involved in Starbucks Korea have successfully collaborated and developed mutual trust while bridging cultural, geographic and language gaps

Correction: CO2 induced phase transitions in diamine-appended metal-organic frameworks.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/C5SC01828E.]

Evaluation of New Density Functional with Account of van der Waals Forces by Use of Experimental H2 Physisorption Data on Cu(111)

Detailed experimental data for physisorption potential-energy curves of H2 on low-indexed faces of Cu challenge theory. Recently, density-functional theory has been developed to also account for nonlocal correlation effects, including van der Waals forces. We show that one functional, denoted vdW-DF2, gives a potential-energy curve promisingly close to the experiment-derived physisorptionenergy curve. The comparison also gives indications for further improvements of the functionals