Inside the Corporate Veil: The Character and Consequences of Executives’ Duties

This paper is based on a keynote address to the 2006 annual workshop of the Australian Corporate Law Teachers\u27 Association on The Pathology of Corporate Law. The paper\u27s thesis is that fuller understanding of many corporate malfunctions requires examination of organizational structures and patterns of interaction below the level of the board within a corporation\u27s hierarchy. The paper argues that there is merit to mandating duties of skill and care at the executive level, drawing on examples of executive conduct in recent corporate fiascos. The paper also explores the application of the business judgment rule to officers. As conventionally formulated, the rule\u27s prototypical subject appears to be a board of directors that, exercising original and undelegated power, makes discrete decisions about particular transactions or other matters. The paper questions the rule\u27s applicability to the work done by officers, many of whom may be appointed on the basis of a reasonable belief that they will diligently bring relevant skills to bear in an ordinarily careful manner

Maxwell-compensated design of asymmetric gradient waveforms for tensor-valued diffusion encoding

Purpose: Asymmetric gradient waveforms are attractive for diffusion encoding due to their superior efficiency, however, the asymmetry may cause a residual gradient moment at the end of the encoding. Depending on the experiment setup, this residual moment may cause significant signal bias and image artifacts. The purpose of this study was to develop an asymmetric gradient waveform design for tensor-valued diffusion encoding that is not affected by concomitant gradient. Methods: The Maxwell index was proposed as a scalar invariant that captures the effect of concomitant gradients and was constrained in the numerical optimization to 100 (mT/m)$^2$ms to yield Maxwell-compensated waveforms. The efficacy of this design was tested in an oil phantom, and in a healthy human brain. For reference, waveforms from literature were included in the analysis. Simulations were performed to investigate if the design was valid for a wide range of experiments and if it could predict the signal bias. Results: Maxwell-compensated waveforms showed no signal bias in oil or in the brain. By contrast, several waveforms from literature showed gross signal bias. In the brain, the bias was large enough to markedly affect both signal and parameter maps, and the bias could be accurately predicted by theory. Conclusion: Constraining the Maxwell index in the optimization of asymmetric gradient waveforms yields efficient tensor-valued encoding with concomitant gradients that have a negligible effect on the signal. This waveform design is especially relevant in combination with strong gradients, long encoding times, thick slices, simultaneous multi-slice acquisition and large/oblique FOVs

Forecasting Swedish Stock Market Volatility and Value-at-Risk: A Comparison of EWMA and GARCH Models

In this study we compare different volatility models on their ability to forecast one day ahead volatility and value-at-risk (VaR). We compare five different GARCH specifications: GARCH, IGARCH, GJR-GARCH, EGARCH and APARCH, as well as EWMA, each paired with six different conditional distributions. These models are used to forecast volatility and VaR one day ahead using daily return data from the Swedish stock market index OMXS30. The forecasts are then compared using the model confidence set procedure of Peter Reinhard Hansen, Asger Lunde, and James M Nason (2011). “The model confidence set.” In: Econometrica 79.2, pp. 453–497. We find the APARCH models best for forecasting volatility, while for forecasting VaR the best models are either APARCH, GJR-GARCH or EGARCH—depending on which level of VaR we use—paired with conditional distributions that take skewness and excess kurtosis into account. EWMA, GARCH and IGARCH specifications cannot be recommended either for forecasting volatility or for forecasting VaR

Best Interest of a Minor Theist: An American and Religiously Informed Response to Canada’s A.C. v. Manitoba

AbstractObjective The objective of this study was to examine the prevalence of self-reported experiences of potential childhood traumas and polytraumatization, and to find cut-off values for different kinds of potential traumatic events in a national representative sample of adults in Sweden. In addition, to analyse the association between polytraumatization and both psychological distress and global self-esteem. Method A web-based survey - containing SCL-25 and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Linköping Difficult Life Events Scale - Adult - was sent out to a nationally reprative sample and 5062 people chose to participate in the study. Results Results showed that almost everyone (97%) has experienced at least one potential traumatic event and that polytraumatization (the 10% of the participants with most reported traumas) was significantly (Z = 12.57, P < 0.001, r = 0.18) associated with psychological distress and global self-esteem. Gender differences were significant (Z = 8.44, P < 0.001, r = 0.12), in that men experience more noninterpersonal traumas but women report more symptoms. The effect sizes regarding the impact of potential trauma on self-esteem were largest for women with experience of polytraumatization in the age group 18–25 (r = 0.48). There was almost linear increase in psychological distress and linear decrease in self-esteem with increasing number of traumatic events experienced. Conclusion Experience of polytrauma can be considered an important factor to take into account in psychiatric settings as well

On Strategy and Manufacturing Flexibility

The era when customers bought what companies produced is long gone. The situation is now reversed and companies must produce what customers want; while the customers' preferences are, furthermore, becoming increasingly diverse. This has forced companies to adopt a new mode of thinking in order to survive. The strategy, by necessity, has become to manufacture flexibly. This thesis focuses on strategy and manufacturing flexibility. It includes a frame of reference and eight papers appended in full, reporting findings in four broad areas: • Manufacturing flexibility, • Manufacturing strategy, • Strategic flexibility, • Strategic manufacturing flexibility. The overall purpose of this study is to conceptualise the strategic role of manufacturing flexibility in the continuous realignment between the organisation and its environment. The guiding principle of the methodology applied in this thesis is to use the most appropriate paradigm and methodology given the individual problem at hand. The results of the studies in manufacturing flexibility are used firstly to provide elucidation of the understanding of managers' perceptions of manufacturing flexibility. Secondly, a framework for manufacturing flexibility is deduced which illustrates how to obtain consistency from manufacturing strategy to the resource characteristics in the production system. Thirdly, a method for the evaluation of flexibility in manufacturing, the capital-back method, is developed and analysed. The results of the study in manufacturing strategy are presented as a case, indicating how flexibility of the manufacturing function can be utilised in order to gain competitive advantage in an uncertain and dynamic market. A combination methodology, using both a top-down, grand strategy approach and a bottom-up, grounded methodology is developed and used in the study, and is shown to provide a sound basis for understanding external as well as internal factors impinging upon the company. Furthermore, Porter's (1980) taxonomy of generic strategies is scrutinised and the difficulties of classifying the strategy of a real company into one, and only one, of the deduced taxa are illustrated. Strategic flexibility is a broad area of research. Consequently, the study of this area embraces only a minor part of the field, namely a meta-analysis of the literature on strategic alliances. The analysis confirms, among other things, that the literature is overoptimistic towards strategic alliances. Finally, regarding strategic manufacturing flexibility, a suggestion for research is presented which involves the synchronisation of three continuous processes within the company, concerning manufacturing flexibility, manufacturing strategy and strategic flexibility. Three major suggestions concerning research in the field of strategic manufacturing flexibility are presented. Firstly, an integrative perspective on the competitive priorities - cost, quality, flexibility and dependability - is advocated due to synergistic effects. Secondly, since the concept appears to transcend disciplinary boundaries, a multi-disciplinary perspective is also advocated. Thirdly, due to the multi-dimensionality of the concept of strategy as well as flexibility, a multi-methodological approach appears to be advantageous in the pursuit of research within this field

Evaluation and Management of Manufacturing Flexibility

5 articles on Flexibility especially in manufacturin

Teaching Manufacturing Operations and Strategies in Higher Education

Students at higher technical educations e.g., bachelors and masters, are traditionally taught in software programming and factory automation. Students at higher economical and management schools are exposed to different strategies and their economical impacts. However, in many education programs, the larger perspective, of how to combine the technical and the economical aspects is not highlighted. Technology Management is a unique program at Lund University Sweden, where a selected number of students from the school of economics and management and from the engineering faculty are taught together during their last year of study. Their views on problems and challenges in todays industry often complement each other. The course Technology, Strategies and Structures includes e.g. projects done in collaboration with industries. This paper includes a discussion about how knowledge about Manufacturing Operations and Strategies, can be incorporated in higher technical and economical studies, and it describes some industry projects done by students