A Case Study Approach for Managing Risks & Challenges When Expanding to Emerging Markets

Globalization created new opportunities and many companies decide to expand to take advantage of these opportunities to improve their competitiveness. The present study, using a case study methodology, examines the expansion of three large companies (IKEA, Coca Cola and Kellogg's) in emerging markets. Through a critical literature review and review of corporate reports, the study analyzes companies’ adopted strategies and practices, influential factors and risks when expanding abroad, providing the rationale behind their strategic choices. The study findings, applying theory into practice, indicate the factors and practices that are important to be considered by companies operating in a foreign environment in order to address business risks, and concludes that in order to be successful they have to incorporate into their strategy effective risk management policies to mitigate risks and turn challenges into opportunities. The study bridges risk management and strategy development

Defence spending and economic growth: a case study of Greece and comparison with Spain and Portugal (1960-1996).

This thesis provides a case study of the economic effects of military expenditure in Greece and a comparison with two other similar countries. Portugal and Spain. Greece provides a particularly valuable focus for empirical investigation since tor many years it has been allocating a relatively high proportion of its national income to defence, much higher than other countries in NATO and EU. It is also situated in a complex geostrategic environment (the Balkans) and has many security concerns. in particular the confrontation with Turkey. At the same time. the Greek economy has gone through periods of high economic growth as well as periods of stagnation and has been the poorest member of the EU for the last two decades. Lick of a concensus on the economic effects of defence spending as well as the limited amount of research on the issue in newly industrialised economies intrigued the author and led to this research on whether high military expenditure has contributed to this poor economic performance. In this way the thesis contributes to an ongoing debate in the literature and provides a valuable additional case study. It provides a further contribution by comparing the results of the analysis for Greece with two similar economies, Spain and Portugal, giving insights into the transferability of results across countries. In undertaking this analysis, a systematic empirical approach is taken which employs three different methodologies: a Granger causality analysis, a supply-side analysis and a demand and supply analysis, all enriched with advanced econometric techniques. Overall, the results for Greece suggest that the high military burden has been harmful to economic performance and has made a significant contribution to- the backwardness of the economy. While the results for Portugal and Spain show some differences, they do not contradict the overall conclusion for Greece. Portugal shows a clear negative effect of military burden awhile the results for Spain are much less clearcut.

Military Spending and Economic Growth in Greece, Portugal and Spain

Analysing the relationship between military spending and growth has been an important area of empirical research. Early studies focussed on large cross sections of countries, but criticisms of these led to a focus on case studies of individual countries and studies of groups of relatively homogeneous countries. Granger causality methods have also become common techniques for such analyses, both as single equation analyses and more recently, within a cointegrating VAR framework. This paper does two things. First it provides an empirical analysis of three of the EU’s poorest, peripheral economies, namely Greece, Portugal and Spain. It also considers the range of available Granger causality techniques and compares their results. It finds that the results differ across the methods used, indicating the problems with earlier studies, and across the countries, indicating the problems of drawing inferences across even relatively homogeneous economies.

Defence Spending and Economic Growth in the EU15

Over the last 30 years there has been an impressive amount of empirical work on the defence-growth nexus, using different methodologies, models and econometric techniques and focusing on individual case studies, cross-country studies or panel data studies. Despite the number and the variety of studies, the evidence on the defence-growth relationship is still far from conclusive. Rather surprisingly, very limited work has been published in the relevant literature for the European Union despite the continuous discussions for a Common European Defence Policy that would require an assessment of the economic effects of defence in this region. To fill in the gap in the literature, this paper employs an augmented Solow-Swan model and estimates it both with panel and time series methods to provide empirical evidence on the economic effects of defence spending in the EU15 over the period 1961-2007. Overall, evidence derived from both panel and time series methods is consistent and suggests that military burden does not promote economic growth in this region.Defence Spending, Economic Growth, Panel data, time series, EU15

Multiple Ways of Processing in Questionnaires

In social sciences when questionnaires are used, there is a new tool, the bar instead of Likert scale. The bar has been suggested by Vougiouklis & Vougiouklis in 2008, who have proposed the replacement of Likert scales, usually used in questionnaires, with bar. This new tool, gives the opportunity to researchers to elaborate the questionnaires in different ways, depending on the filled questionnaires and of course on the problem. Moreover, we improve the procedure of the filling the questionnaires, using the bar instead ofLikert scale, on computers where we write down automatically the results, so they are ready for research. This new kind of elaboration is being applied on data obtained by a survey, studying the new results. The  hyperstructure theory is being related with questionnaires and we study the obtained hyperstructures,which are used as an organized device of the problem and we focus on special problems

The Evolution of Fantastical Storyworlds: A Study of Tabletop Role-Playing Settings

Landscapes evolve. Forests turn into cities, rivers change course and even mountains slowly erode. Perhaps it stands to reason then, that the landscapes of the fantastic evolve as well. In recent times, the evolution of the imaginary worlds found in speculative works of fiction appears to favour diversity and inclusiveness, keeping in touch with wider societal trends. This transition in fantastic chronotopes is extensively chronicled in the genre of Tabletop Role-Playing Games, or TRPGs for short. The present paper aims to examine the evolution of fantastical landscapes within the very influential TRPG genre through the combined framework of narrative and cultural theories. The settings of the most successful TRPGs, Dungeons and Dragons and World of Darkness, will serve as examples. The results will provide valuable insights into how and why the worlds of speculative fiction change over time, often in response to wider societal change

The Use of Activity Theory in Literacy Research: Working and developing a vocational portfolio and the interaction of the two activities

In this paper, I show the relevance of using Activity Theory in the study of situated literacy. In order to do that, I draw on ethnographic data collected during a six-month period that focuses on the literacy practices of a warehouse administrator who studies on a work-basis for the completion of a National Vocational Qualification in the UK. The employee’s work context and the process of studying for a qualification are examined here as two distinct activity systems, within which various literacy events are enacted and literacy practices are developed. The result is a detailed study of the interaction of these two activity systems, and it becomes clear that work practices and qualification practices are connected in many ways. One of the most important connecting factors is the vocational portfolio, which acts as a boundary object between the two distinct yet highly recontextualising activity systems

Investigation of the role of Rho GTPase signalling in cell shape changes during Drosophila morphogenesis

Morphogenesis, the generation of the shape of an organism, requires several cellular processes including cell migration, cell division and cell shape changes. These processes are mainly mediated by the cell cytoskeleton, which is regulated in part by Rho family of small GTPases. One activator of Rho that is known to be important in morphogenetic cell shape change is RhoGEF2. RhoGEF2 is itself activated by Folded gastrulation and Concertina during gastrulation. Genetic interactions between folded gastrulation or concertina and RhoGEF2 were apparent in developmental processes other than gastrulation, showing conservation of a signalling pathway that activates cell shape change. Protein Kinase N and Serum Response Factor, both known targets of Rho signalling, interact, presumably indirectly, with RhoGEF2. Alleles of ten putative novel Rho signalling pathway components also interact with RhoGEF2, indicating the existence of other proteins involved in regulation of cell shape change in morphogenesis. Signalling through Rho results in many diverse outcomes. One major question in the field relates to the mechanism used by this single protein to select a particular outcome. The hypothesis tested here is that the individual guanine nucleotide exchange factor that activates Rho participates in the selection. If this is the case, activation of the exchange factor would be expected always to result in the same outcome. From a series of experiments it is shown that RhoGEF2 promotes shape changes and epithelial folding in all tissues studied, but has no observed effect on any other Rho-mediated processes studied. The cellular and molecular function of RhoGEF2 was analysed during gastrulation. Time-lapse monitoring of the dynamic process of gastrulation in wild type embryos revealed features that have not been observed in fixed tissues. RhoGEF2 appears to be important in the accumulation of myosin, presumably for apical cellular constriction. RhoGEF2 possibly receives several signals during gastrulation, one of which is likely to be from the FGF receptor Heartless. If this is the case, it explains many unanswered questions regarding the regulation of cell shape change in Drosophila gastrulation

The Lie-Santilli admissible hyperalgebras of type An

The largest class of hyperstructures is the one which satisfy the weak properties. These are called H v -structures introduced in 1990 and they proved to have a lot of applications on several applied sciences. In this paper we present a construction of the hyperstructures used in the Lie-Santilli admissible theory on square matrices

Attentional Bias in Internet Users with Problematic Use of Social Networking Sites

Background and aims: Evidence from the field of addictive disorders suggests that attentional bias for stimuli related to a substance or activity of abuse (e.g., gambling) exacerbates the addictive behavior. However, evidence regarding attentional bias in PIU is sparse. This study aims to investigate whether individuals who express problematic tendencies toward social networking sites (SNS), a subtype of PIU, show attentional bias for stimuli associated with social media. Methods: Sixty-five participants performed Visual Dot-Probe and Pleasantness Rating Tasks containing SNS-related and matched control images during eye movements were recorded, providing a direct measure of attention. Participants were assessed on their levels of SNS Internet use (ranging from problematic to non-problematic) and their levels of urges to be online (high vs. low). Results: Problematic SNS users and, in particular, a subgroup expressing higher levels of urges to be online showed an attentional bias for SNS-related images compared to control images. Conclusion: These results suggest that attentional bias is a common mechanism associated with problematic Internet use as well as other addictive disorders