Downsizing implementation and financial performance

In the present study we explore the relationship between downsizing decisions and corporate financial performance after top management has decided to downsize. Our focus is on the financial consequences arising from the amount of downsizing and the use of disengagement incentives. For this purpose, we use a sample of downsizing announcements in the Spanish press from 1995 up to 2001. Although the results show that the amount of downsizing is not significantly related to post-downsizing profitability, the evidence provided supports the finding that the use of disengagement incentives (which motivate workers to leave the organization) is negatively related to firm performance. Our analysis helps to understand the role that strategic downsizing decisions play in explaining observed variance in the performance of downsized firms. Thus, it advances scholarly organizational research by reinforcing the concept that corporate performance is not only contingent on strategies, but also influenced by the means through which these strategies are implemented.Downsizing, Disengagement incentives, Corporate performance, Spanish labour market

Does downsizing improve organizational performance? An analysis of Spanish manufacturing firms

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of downsizing on corporate performance, considering a sample of manufacturing firms drawn from the Spanish Survey of Business Strategies during the 1993- 2005 period. No significant differences in post-downsizing performance arise between companies which downsize and those that do not. Likewise, we find that substantial workforce reductions through collective dismissals do not either lead to improved performance levels. Downsizing, therefore, may not be a way for managers to increase performance, particularly in a context like the Spanish one, where the labour market is characterized by a high protection of employees’ rights and substantial contract termination costs.Downsizing, Corporate performance, Spanish labour market

Further remarks on isospin breaking in charmless semileptonic B decays

We consider the isospin breaking corrections to charmless semileptonic decays of B mesons. Both, the recently measured branching ratios of exclusive decays by the CLEO Collaboration and the end-point reion of the inclusive lepton spectrum in form factor models, can be affected by these corrections. Isospin corrections can affect the determination of |V_ub| from exclusive semileptonic B decays at a level comparable to present statistical uncertainties.Comment: Latex, 7 pages, 1 .ps figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Emergent realities for social wellbeing : environmental, spatial and social pathways

This article summarises the results of an evaluation performed to the air monitoring network of Malta in 2012 where the following elements were evaluated in comparison with national and European legal requirements: the classification of zones and agglomerations in the island, the number, type and location of fixed monitoring stations, the data reporting and the reference methods used for the analysis of parameters.peer-reviewe

Star Formation in Tadpole Galaxies

Tadpole Galaxies look like a star forming head with a tail structure to the side. They are also named cometaries. In a series of recent works we have discovered a number of issues that lead us to consider them extremely interesting targets. First, from images, they are disks with a lopsided starburst. This result is firmly established with long slit spectroscopy in a nearby representative sample. They rotate with the head following the rotation pattern but displaced from the rotation center. Moreover, in a search for extremely metal poor (XMP) galaxies, we identified tadpoles as the dominant shapes in the sample- nearly 80% of the local XMP galaxies have a tadpole morphology. In addition, the spatially resolved analysis of the metallicity shows the remarkable result that there is a metallicity drop right at the position of the head. This is contrary to what intuition would say and difficult to explain if star formation has happened from gas processed in the disk. The result could however be understood if the star formation is driven by pristine gas falling into the galaxy disk. If confirmed, we could be unveiling, for the first time, cool flows in action in our nearby world. The tadpole class is relatively frequent at high redshift - 10% of resolvable galaxies in the Hubble UDF but less than 1% in the local Universe. They are systems that could track cool flows and test models of galaxy formation.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1302.435

Smart Quizzes

Standardized testing, while efficient for testing a large amount of people, is not an effective or holistic method of evaluating test takers. They fail to take into consideration factors such as stress, which can inhibit a student’s ability to perform well on a test. Our goal is to create a framework for creating tests that are dynamic, adaptive assessments, minimize stress levels, and overall improve student performance. This solution will produce in tests that even out the academic playing field while being more informative in their assessments

Aproximación histórica al origen del director de arte publicitario en Colombia

Aquest article fa part de la construcció teòrica d'un dels quatre capítols del tema de doctorat que s'està desenvolupant relacionat amb el tema de la direcció d'art a Colòmbia. Durant l'exploració conceptual es va indagar sobre l'origen històric de la figura del director d'art a Colòmbia en relació amb altres denominacions afins com el disseny gràfic i la publicitat. Aquest aspecte va permetre focalitzar l'objecte d'estudi en l'aproximació a la història del disseny gràfic a Colòmbia així com identificar l'estat dels programes de formació en llicenciatura i postgrau.This article makes  part of a  theoretical construction  that seeks to contribute to the epistemology of Colombian advertising,specially  to the understanding of advertisingart director origins. For the above, a historical overview of the evolution of art in the sixteenth century was made, together with the research of the most important aspects of the main graphic art forms and the time the art director and its relationship with advertising appears. The focus of this research is exploratory and qualitative where an analysis of literature, magazines and Internet was performed. For this stage semi-structured  interviews were not applied   to experts because they make  part of an incoming stage that belongs to  a doctoral training process and will take place in 2017. The most significant contribution of this research i refers to the identification of the first art directors in Colombia and the impulse that they gave to advertising in this field.Este artículo hace parte de la construcción teórica de uno de los cuatro capítulos del tema de doctorado que se está desarrollando relacionado con el tema de la dirección de arte en Colombia. Durante la exploración conceptual se indagó sobre el origen histórico de la figura del director de arte en Colombia en relación con otras denominaciones afines como el diseño gráfico y la publicidad. Este aspecto permitió focalizar el objeto de estudio en la aproximación a la historia del diseño gráfico en Colombia así como identificar el estado de los programas de formación en licenciatura y posgrado