The impact of power hierarchy on fostering innovation and creativity among employees in Vietnam: A study based on East Asian Culture

Objectives: The main objective of this thesis is, firstly, to study the impact of traditional Vietnamese cultural practices, which is heavily influenced by East Asian culture, on the presence of power hierarchy in the workplace in Vietnam. Secondly, the paper seeks to identify and gauge the effects of power hierarchy and bureaucracy in Vietnamese organizations. Lastly, this study aims to explore the relationship between hierarchy of power on the creativity level among employees. Summary: This thesis relies on qualitative research method to attain its objectives mentioned above. Four in-depth interviews were conducted with top-level managers who are working in Vietnam. These interviews aim to evaluate the impact of cultural factors on the presence of power hierarchy in organizations. Also, the relationship between hierarchy of power and organizational creativity in Vietnam is examined based the participants’ perspectives. Certain insights are generated from the interview result, which provides a comprehensive study of power hierarchy and employees’ creativity in organizations from a cultural perspective. A discussion of the findings in this thesis and related arguments by previous scholars is also presented to more elaborately study how creativity is affected by organizational hierarchy. Conclusions: The findings in this research imply that the hierarchy of power is greatly influenced by the national culture of the country that the organization operates. In addition, power hierarchy has strong impacts on employees’ willingness to raise their voice, which eventually affects the development of organizational creativity. Generally, organizations in Vietnam adopt steep hierarchy of power where the gap between superiors and subordinates is significant, which might impede employees’ creativity and innovation. However, the contingency theory is also supported as this study implies that the impact of power hierarchy varies due to the uniqueness and different objectives of each organization. Certain level of hierarchy is still required to ensure effective operation and avoid chaos among employees

Social Media Marketing in Small Businesses Case: Social Media Marketing Approaches of a small company in Netherlands.

The main aims of this study are to understand what called social media, social media marketing and how small businesses nowadays are doing with this. This research is going to discover social media marketing (objectives, strategy, and tactics) for small businesses as well as a measurable tool to optimize this. The objectives of the study are to clarify the extent of social media, social media marketing, and the benefits as well as drawbacks of using social media in marketing for small businesses. The theoretical part of the study is based on literature of social media marketing as well as previous studies on social media marketing. The research method is a case study with exploratory approach. The empirical data was gathered by conducting interviews with who have responsible of managing marketing and social media activities in companies. The case study part of the research analyzed the findings of the studying concerning the links between social media and marketing in small businesses. It provides insights on how a company can use social media as marketing tool in Dutch market. More specifically, the case study part attempts to explore how a small business starts executing marketing through social media and which opportunities as well as challenges social media marketing creates for those companies. In addition, the findings will describe details these social media marketing activities in a Dutch company so that the readers can themselves perceive whether social media marketing can work effectively for small businesses or not. This part also discusses the way in which small businesses might evaluate their marketing through social media. As a result of the thesis, suggestions for social media marketing actions are introduced to these companies. As a conclusion, the case company is recommended to move forward with the suggestions for next steps in social media marketing.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

A Direct Measurement of the Mean Occupation Function of Quasars: Breaking Degeneracies between Halo Occupation Distribution Models

Recent work on quasar clustering suggests a degeneracy in the halo occupation distribution constrained from two-point correlation functions. To break this degeneracy, we make the first empirical measurement of the mean occupation function (MOF) of quasars at $z \sim 0.2$ by matching quasar positions with groups and clusters identified in the MaxBCG sample. We fit two models to the MOF, a power law and a 4-parameter model. The number distribution of quasars in host halos is close to Poisson, and the slopes of the MOF obtained from our best-fit models (for the power law case) favor a MOF that monotonically increases with halo mass. The best-fit slopes are $0.53 \pm 0.04$ and $1.03\pm 1.12$ for the power law model and the 4-parameter model, respectively. We measure the radial distribution of quasars within dark matter halos and find it to be adequately described by a power law with a slope $-2.3 \pm 0.4$. We measure the conditional luminosity function (CLF) of quasars and show that there is no evidence that quasar luminosity depends on host halo mass, similar to the inferences drawn from clustering measurements. We also measure the conditional black hole mass function (CMF) of our quasars. Although the results are consistent with no dependence on halo mass, we observe a slight indication of downsizing of the black hole mass function. The lack of halo mass dependence in the CLF and CMF shows that quasars residing in galaxy clusters have characteristic luminosity and black hole mass scales.Comment: Matches the ApJ accepted version (11 pages, 8 figures

A Practical Extension to the AB/BA Design

In this work, we take a close look at a general extension to the traditional AB/BAcrossover design that is commonly used in clinical trials to determine the effectivenessof new candidate drugs. While the traditional crossover design requires each patientin the study to be measured on both treatment A and treatment B, we consider thepossibility of additional measurements being available on each patient. This producesdesigns such as the AABB/BBAA design which has been used in previous studies.A general test statistic will be derived to test for treatment effects as well as itscorresponding power function to aid in sample size determination to aid statisticalplanning. Lastly, we explore the theoretical power of our testing procedure andcompare it to simulated power studies to verify how well sample size determinationswill work in practice

Towards a Better Understanding of Secondary Metabolite Production in Toxic Marine Algae

Roseofilum reptotaenium is a marine cyanobacteria responsible for the loss of 50% of corals worldwide due to Black Band Disease (BBD). Investigating the basis for secondary metabolite production by R. reptotaenium cultures revealed a suite of potent anti-malarial and anticancer compounds that likely include dolastatin 10 and monomethyl auristatin D (MMAD). These R. reptotaenium cultures are non-axenic (not pure monocultures) and R. reptotaenium appears to require the presence of several heterotrophic bacteria to survive. Scanning Election Microscope (SEM) images show closely associated bacteria. Preliminary metagenomic analysis indicates three dominant non-cyanobacterial phyla: Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, and Proteobacteri (?-proteobacteria accounted for \u3e50% of the entire community). We are explored the role of these bacteria with R. reptotaenium in producing the complex of dolastatin/MMAD compounds, seeking to understand the chemical ecology and genetic basis by which these compounds are produced. The potential involvement of the dolastatin-like suite of compounds in Black Band Disease in corals merits further study given the destructiveness of this disease on corals worldwide

Zooplankton from Can Giuoc River in Southern Vietnam

In this study, the variables of zooplankton and water quality were investigated in the Can Giuoc River, Southern Vietnam. Zooplankton was monitored in April and September 2015 at 5 sampling sites in the river. Some basic water quality parameters were also tested, including pH, total suspended solid (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), inorganic nitrogen (NH4+), dissolved phosphorus (PO43-), and coliform. The zooplankton biodiversity indices were applied for the water quality assessment. The results showed that pH ranged from 6.7 to 7.6 during the monitoring. The TSSs were between 34–117 mg/L. The DO and BOD5 were from 0.6 to 3.8 mg/L and from 6.3 to 13.2 mg/L, respectively. The NH4+ and PO43- concentrations ranged from 0.44 to 3.23 and from 0.08 to 1.85 mg/L, respectively. The coliform number was between 9.3x103–9.3x104 MPN/100 mL. The zooplankton analyses showed that there were 31 species of coelenterates, rotatoria, oligochaetes, cladocerans, copepods, ostracods, mysidacea, and 8 larval types. Thereof, the species of copepods were dominant in the species number. The zooplankton density ranged from 9 500 to 23 600 individuals/m3 with the main dominant species of Moina dubia (Cladocera), Thermocyclops hyalinus, Acartia clausi, Oithona similis (Copepoda), and nauplius copepods. The biodiversity index values during the monitoring were from 1.47 to 1.79 characteristic of mesotrophic conditions of the aquatic environment. Besides, the species richness positively correlated with pH, TSS, DO, BOD5, NH4+, PO43-, and coliform, while the zooplankton densities got a positive correlation with DO, BOD5, NH4+, PO43-, and coliform. The results confirmed the advantage of using zooplankton and its indices for water quality assessment