Corporate entrepreneurship: Linking strategic roles to multiple dimensions of performance

Using data from a large European financial services firm which engaged in an entrepreneurial initiative to enhance its competitiveness, this paper explores the strategic role of middle managers in the context of corporate entrepreneurship and its link to multiple dimensions of performance. The findings indicate that middle managers’ role can be decomposed along four reliable and stable dimensions that are consistent with those suggested by the literature. Building on a stakeholder approach, the paper relates the identified roles to multiple dimensions of performance, namely to financial performance, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. Canonical correlation analysis –a useful and powerful method to explore relations among multidimensional variables– indicates a significant but weak relationship.corporate entrepreneurship; strategic roles; middle managers;

Framing and stakes: A survey study of decisions under uncertainty

Using a survey study of 261 decisions under uncertainty, we explore the factors that explain risk taking behavior and those that predict the importance of a decision. We also examine the relationship between framing and status quo, the similarity between monetary and non-monetary decisions, as well as the similarities and differences among our three subject groups (Undergraduates, MBAs and Executives). We find that framing, domain, and probability of success have a strong influence on the probability of taking risks. Other factors, such as group, importance of a decision, and whether the consequences are monetary or not, do not seem to influence risk attitudes. Our analysis of importance of a decision highlights the frequency with which a decision is taken as a key variable. Our results suggest that the cumulative effects of unimportant and frequent decisions are greater than the cumulative effects of very important and infrequent decisions.Decision making under uncertainty; Framing; Importance and frequency of decisions;

Study Regarding the Order of Psychological Processes and the Importance of the Psychological Factors of High Performance for the Sports Branch Karate

AbstractThis paper constitutes an observational study conducted between February and March, 2011, on 20 coaches from various Romanian clubs. The study aimed to observe the importance of psychological factors for the karate training. We used as a research method a questionnaire with 10 questions, on which each coach had to choose one answer. The answers were analyzed and presented as charts. The analysis of the results we obtained from the questionnaire has emphasized multiple aspects showi ng the opinion of the karate coaches regarding one of the components of the training process, namely the psychological training

Marqueurs indicatifs d'acte de réfutation: les pro-phrases.

Sin resume

Lattice structure and magnetization of LaCoO3 thin films

We investigate the structure and magnetic properties of thin films of the LaCoO$_{3}$ compound. Thin films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition on various substrates in order to tune the strain from compressive to tensile. Single-phase (001) oriented LaCoO$_{3}$ layers were grown on all substrates despite large misfits. The tetragonal distortion of the films covers a wide range from -2% to 2.8%. Our LaCoO$_{3}$ films are ferromagnetic with Curie temperature around 85 K, contrary to the bulk. The total magnetic moment is below $1\mu_{B}$/Co$^{3+}$, a value relatively small for an exited spin-state of the Co$^{3+}$ ions, but comparable to values reported in literature. A correlation of strain states and magnetic moment of Co$^{3+}$ ions in LaCoO$_{3}$ thin films is observed.Comment: submitted tu European Phys. J.

What is a knowledge-rich curriculum?

A well-designed curriculum creates a knowledge-rich one. The application of the Curriculum Design Coherence Model (CDC Model) in the international Knowledge-Rich School Project is discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Model as a design tool. It achieves coherence by connecting the three forms of subject knowledge: generalising concepts, materialised content and applied competencies. Concepts’ generalisability creates knowledge’s internal logic – the source of understanding (learning). Students only develop deep understanding when they work with generalising concepts. Thinking (learning) doesn’t occur in a vacuum – one must think with something (concepts). And students also need to think about something (content). The article explains why it is essential to connect concepts and content. Such connection overcomes the limitations of both a ‘big ideas’ or concepts-only approach and a content-list approach. The CDC Model’s connection of generalising concepts, materialised content and applied competencies also reveals why New Zealand’s current competency-centred curriculum is inadequate. Two examples show how the CDC Model is used – a Physical Education topic ‘Exercise’ and a Social Studies topic, ‘The History of Ngati Kuri.’ Topics designed in the Knowledge-Rich School Project are mentioned

Early Physical Therapy Intervention in Infant Hip Dysplasia

AbstractThe hip dysplasia represents a dysplasic syndrome, characterized by anomalies of articular and periarticular structures, and, as concerns the biomecanic part, reveals the hip instability, capsular laxity, and abnormal acetabulum. An important percent of our country's new-born children suffer from hip dysplasia, and most of their parents don’t know that the role of the physical therapist in this disorder's recovery is as important as the role of the physician. The research hypothesis: By precocious physical therapy intervention, individually applied and structured in accordance with the identified deficit, the nurseling's hip functionality increases and the risks of ulterior complications are eliminated. The action viewed a group of seven newborn babies, immediately after the diagnosis settlement, beginning with the physical therapy intervention. First, the newborn was evaluated, then the physical therapy intervention was structured in accordance with the initial results, which revealed the functional diagnosis. The number of sessions were 3 per week; they were realized by the physical therapist; andin the other days the patient exercised at home. As shown in the tests which were used in the initial evaluation, we can affirm that the newborns, at the end of the therapy, presented a qualitative spontaneous motility, in accordance with the stadium of development specific to the chronological age. Motility was symmetrical on both hips and pelvis in ventral and dorsal decubitus, the weight centre in ventral decubitus position being lowered, to xiphoid appendix, a fact that proves a greater stability of hips, but also an adequate support on forearms. Analysing the child's evolution, it can be seen that the effects of physical therapy weren’t just locale, but they formed a complex of beneficial factors, which contributed to a general muscular equilibration, a fact that was reflected by a general development specific to the chronological age, qualitatively. The parent is the key-element as concerns the identification of the functional limits, since the first days, but also in the ulterior intervention, becoming a member of the work-team, besides the doctor and the physical therapist