Key factors for effective succession in the family business - the successor's view

Elektroniskā versija nesatur pielikumusIn search of success factors that might support the effectiveness of succession in family businesses this study has shed light on the perspective of the successor. Based on the framework of systems theory and following a sequential exploratory research strategy, problem-centered interviews with 13 effective cases of family businesses have been conducted and an online-survey with 65 respondents has been used to evaluate the findings. In the sense of triangulation, the findings further have been assessed and strengthened by an expert round. As a result, this work provides insights on diverse complex succession cases, offers a variety of conclusions for the managerial practice on the basis of 14 key factors and summarizes the findings in an innovative management model for effective succession. Key words: effective succession, family busines

The determinants of the performance of dairy smallholders in Malawi

Milk production in Malawi is stagnating although neighbouring countries steadily increase outputs. In this paper, we explored the determinants of the performance of dairy smallholders. As indicators of on-farm performance we used annual milk yield, calving intervals, and annual dairy income. Regression models revealed that milk yield was negatively related with farmer’s age, female farmer, and household size, but positively influenced by farmers’ experience. Calving intervals were strongly associated with labour costs and breeding method. Income from dairying was only associated with farmers’ education but varied strongly with region. Regional effects existed for all performance indicators which may partly be rooted in land scarcity in the south and the efforts of development agencies to promote dairying in the northern and central regions. Results also revealed a tendency for pure breeds to produce higher outputs, but crossbreeds due to lower costs provided better income. Thus, we recommend that experienced farmers become involved in extension programs to provide comprehensive services that help farmers make more efficient use of their scarce assets, and thus realise more of the animals’ genetic potential with regard to the three observed performance indicators

A Novel Design Science Approach for Integrating Chinese User-Generated Content in Non-Chinese Market Intelligence

Market research has long relied on reactive means of data gathering, such as questionnaires or focus groups. With the wide-spread use of social media, millions of comments about customer opinions and feedback regarding products and brands are available. However, before using this ‘wisdom of the crowd’ as a source for marketing research, several challenges have to be tackled: the sheer volume of posts, their unstructured format, and the dozens of different languages used on the internet. All of them make automated usage of this data challenging. In this paper, we draw on dashboard design principles and follow a design science research approach to develop a framework for search, integration, and analysis of cross-language user-generated content. With ‘MarketMiner’, we implement the framework in the automotive industry by analyzing Chinese auto forums. The results are promising in that MarketMiner can dramatically improve utilization of foreign-language social media content for market intelligence purposes

Epidermal anti-Inflammatory properties of 5,11,14 20:3: Effects on mouse ear edema, PGE(2 )levels in cultured keratinocytes, and PPAR activation

BACKGROUND: 5,11,14 20:3 is similar to 20:4n-6 but lacks the internal Δ8 double bond essential for prostaglandin and eicosanoid synthesis. When previously fed to laboratory animals as a gymnosperm seed oil component it has shown anti-inflammatory properties. RESULTS: Herein, topically applied Podocarpus nagi methyl esters (containing 26% 5,11,14 20:3) were incorporated into mouse ear phospholipids, reduced 20:4n-6, and reduced 20:4n-6- and TPA-induced mouse ear edema. Purified 5,11,14 20:3 was taken up by cultured human skin keratinocytes, reduced 20:4n-6, and reduced PGE(2 )levels dramatically. Purified 5,11,14 20:3 did not affect PPARα, PPARγ, or PPARδ transactivation. CONCLUSIONS: Topical application of 5,11,14 20:3 to skin surfaces can thus reduce inflammatory processes, most likely by displacing 20:4n-6 from phospholipid pools and reducing downstream inflammatory products derived from 20:4n-6 such as PGE(2 )and leukotrienes. It could have potential use in treating clinical skin disorders resulting from overproduction of 20:4n-6-derived eicosanoid products

Welche Unterrichtsprinzipien sollten für den Aufbau von Kompetenzen zum Experimentieren Beachtung finden? Eine Ableitung auf Basis multiperspektivisch begründeter Unterrichtsziele

Dem Experimentieren kommt als Methode zum Erkenntnisgewinn eine große Bedeutung zu. Diese wird auf curricularer Ebene durch entsprechende Kompetenzformulierungen in den Bildungsstandards aufgegriffen. Aber nicht nur fachlich-disziplinäre und curriculare Begründungen weisen das Experimentieren als wichtige Erkenntnismethode für Lernende und daher als expliziten Unterrichtsgegenstand aus. Auch aus den Perspektiven der Bildungs- und Lerntheorie, die in diesem Artikel bei der Ableitung von Unterrichtsprinzipien zusätzlich zu den fachlich-disziplinären und curricularen Perspektiven Beachtung finden, bildet Experimentieren einen wichtigen Lerngegenstand. Entsprechend kommt der Frage des Vorgehens beim Unterrichten, d. h. der Methodik, große Relevanz zu. Für das Unterrichten sind Maßstäbe zur methodischen Orientierung wichtig: dies sind Unterrichtsprinzipien. Unterrichtsprinzipien sind didaktische Grundsätze, welche das Unterrichtsplanen und -handeln leiten sowie Bezugspunkte für die didaktische Forschung darstellen. Die multiperspektivische Begründung des Experimentierens bildet den ersten Schritt bei der Formulierung von Lehr-Lern-Zielen. Aus den Zielen werden danach Unterrichtsprinzipien abgeleitet. Als Unterrichtsprinzipien [P] werden identifiziert: (P1) ‚Teilprozesse des Experimentierens berücksichtigen‘, (P2) ,Experimentieren als expliziter Unterrichtsgegenstand‘, (P3) ‚Experimentieren üben‘, (P4) ‚Experimentieren zum Problemlösen einsetzen‘, (P5) ‚Prozessreflektierend experimentieren‘, (P6) ‚Grenzen von Experimenten ansprechen‘, (P7) ‚wissenschaftliche Strenge walten lassen‘ und (P8) ‚Selbsttätigkeit der Lernenden beim Experimentieren‘

Informatik 2000. Workshopforum Praxis des Freundeskreises der Fakultät für Informatik, Würzbach/Schwarzwald 1993

Das Workshopforum PRAXIS des Freundeskreises der Fakultaet fuer Informatik der Universitaet Karlsruhe (FFI) hat das Ziel, den Austausch zwischen Studenten der Fakultaet und ehemaligen Fakultaetsangehoerigen voranzutreiben. In diesem Jahr stand die erstmalig durchgefuehrte Veranstaltung unter dem Motto "Informatik 2000". Dabei wurden Zukunftsperspektiven des Hochschul infomatikers in verschiedenen Berufsbilder vor dem Hintergrund aktueller und prognostizierter Zukunftstendenzen der Informatik beleuchtet. Zudem wurde die Rueckwirkung dieser Tendenzen und der durch sie verursachten Aenderungen in den beruflichen Anforderungen auf die universitaere Lehre untersucht. Zentrales Vehikel der Veranstaltung war die Gruppenarbeit in Berufsbild-- bzw. Lehre-spezifischen Workshops. Diese Arbeit wurde durch Vortraege eingeleitet, die Entwicklungs trends aus verschiedenen Blickwinkel betrachteten. Den Abschluss fand die Veranstaltung in einer Podiumsdiskussion mit Professoren der Fakultaet ueber die zukuenftige Entwicklung der universitaeren Lehre in der Informatik. Begleitend fand ein auflockerndes Rahmenprogramm statt, um das Schliessen und Festigen von persoenlichen Kontakten zwischen Studenten und Ehemaligen zu foerdern. Die Abfassung dieses Berichts beruht in den Workshop-spezifischen Teilen weitgehend auf Berichten der Worskhop-Teilnehmer. Dabei sei speziell Carsten Brockmann, Hilmar Brunn, FrankHeil, Eva Pawlowski und Guido Zuelch gedankt

Rare Occurrence of Classical Hodgkin's Disease as a T Cell Lymphoma

Recent work identified Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (H/RS) cells in classical Hodgkin's disease (cHD) as clonal progeny of mature B cells. Therefore, it is generally assumed that cHD homogenously represents a B cell lymphoma. In a subset of cHD, however, H/RS cells expressing T cell–associated proteins may be candidates for alternative lineage derivation. Single H/RS cells with cytotoxic T cell phenotype were micromanipulated from three cases of cHD and analyzed by single cell polymerase chain reaction for immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) and light chain (IgL) gene rearrangements, T cell receptor (TCR)-β gene rearrangements, and germline configuration of the IgH and TCR-β loci. H/RS cells from two cases of cHD harbored clonal, somatically mutated Ig gene rearrangements, whereas TCR-β loci were in germline configuration. In contrast, H/RS cells from an additional case harbored clonal TCR-β variable/diversity/joining (VDJ) and DJ gene rearrangements, whereas the IgH locus was in germline configuration on both alleles. Thus, in two cases of cHD with H/RS cells expressing cytotoxic T cell molecules, the tumor cells are derived from mature B cells that aberrantly express T cell markers. In a third case, however, H/RS cells were derived from a T cell, demonstrating that cHD can also occur as a T cell lymphoma

TGF-β1 As Possible Link between Loss of Bone Mineral Density and Chronic Inflammation

and their possible role in bone homeostasis in primary human osteoblasts. application.

Assessment of Two Commonly used Dermal Regeneration Templates in a Swine Model without Skin Grafting †

In the medical care of partial and full-thickness wounds, autologous skin grafting is still the gold standard of dermal replacement. In contrast to spontaneous reepithelializing of superficial wounds, deep dermal wounds often lead to disturbing scarring, with cosmetically or functionally unsatisfactory results. However, modern wound dressings offer promising approaches to surface reconstruction. Against the background of our future aim to develop an innovative skin substitute, we investigated the behavior of two established dermal substitutes, a crosslinked and a non-crosslinked collagen biomatrix. The products were applied topically on a total of 18 full-thickness skin defects paravertebrally on the back of female Göttingen Minipigs—six control wounds remained untreated. The evaluation was carried out planimetrically (wound closure time) and histologically (neoepidermal cell number and epidermis thickness). Both treatment groups demonstrated significantly faster reepithelialization than the controls. The histologic examination verified the highest epidermal thickness in the crosslinked biomatrix-treated wounds, whereas the non-crosslinked biomatrix-treated wounds showed a higher cell density. Our data presented a positive influence on epidermal regeneration with the chosen dermis substitutes even without additional skin transplantation and, thus, without additional donor site morbidity. Therefore, it can be stated that the single biomatrix application might be used in a clinical routine with small wounds, which needs to be investigated further in a clinical setting to determine the size and depths of a suitable wound bed. Nevertheless, currently available products cannot solely achieve wound healing that is equal to or superior to autologous tissue. Thus, the overarching aim still is the development of an innovative skin substitute to manage surface reconstruction without additional skin grafting

Defining Criteria for Guiding Cancer Patients to Find a Reputable Complementary Medicine Provider: Results of a Literature Review and a Consensus Procedure

Purpose: Even in cases of positive evidence for complementary medicine (CM) therapies, it is still difficult for cancer patients to identify reputable providers. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a criteria list to provide guidance to cancer patients seeking a reputable CM provider. Methods: The design combined a literature review, an expert consensus procedure (n=15) and an assessment from three stakeholder perspectives (patients (n=18), CM providers (n=26) and oncology physicians (n=20)). Results: A total of 30 existing CM criteria were extracted from the literature, and 12 more were added by the experts. The main challenge was to define criteria that could easily be applied by the patients. A final comprehensive list of 8 criteria guiding cancer patients to find a reputable CM provider was developed. Conclusion: Health professionals and cancer information services might find the criteria list helpful when aiming to strengthen patients' awareness of quality-related factors associated with CM providers. The criteria developed might be helpful when standards are established for quality assurance in CM in oncology