Factors affecting learning effectiveness in international joint ventures (IJV): An empirical analysis of Indian IJVs

Increasing globalization of the business environment has prompted companies to form cross-border alliances. The need to form joint ventures is evident from the increase in the number of international joint ventures (IJV) in the US as well as in other nations. Researchers are also attempting to identify relationships that foster longevity in IJVs. This study contributes to the research in the field of IJVs by examining issues relating to the learning effectiveness of IJVs. Research (Harrigan, 1985; Kogut, 1998; Beamish, 1994) has shown that there are three main approaches for joint venture formation, which are transaction cost approach, strategic behavior approach, and organizational learning approach. This paper focused on the organizational learning approach. Inkpen (1995) states that learning does take place in all IJVs. It is, therefore, important to understand the variables that cultivate effective learning. This study examined learning effectiveness as being dependent on organizational culture, organizational trust, partner commitment to the IJV, age of the IJV, and cultural similarity between partners in the IJV. Literature has provided evidence that these variables are important contributors to the effectiveness of organizational learning (Fiol and Lyles, 1985; Simons, 1995; Sollman, 1995; Kramer and Tyler, 1996). This study was conducted on Indian IJVs. The data was collected from the top 1000 IJVs based on dollar sales in India (500 Asian and 500 non-Asian IJVs). The survey instrument, which consisted of a culture measure, a trust measure, a commitment measure, a learning effectiveness measure, and relevant open ended questions regarding age and cultural similarity, was administered through mail to the top Indian official in the IJV. Statistical analyses of 133 responses out of 1000 received from top-level Indian officials in Indian IJVs suggest that trust, commitment, age of the IJV, and organizational culture are all positively related to learning effectiveness in Indian IJVs. The findings also suggest differences in the level of trust and the level of commitment based on different types of organizational culture. The overall findings suggest that learning effectiveness is dependent on trust, commitment, age of the IJV, and the organizational culture of the Indian parent. This study also indicates that national cultural differences between the IJV partners do not seem to affect the level of learning that takes place in the Indian IJVs. This research will assist not only researchers in developing new theories and integrating old ones, but also help practitioners in understanding the role of organizational culture on learning effectiveness. Organizations can identify the types of culture that foster effective learning and attempt to incorporate them in order to succeed in learning from their partners. This research will also add to the literature that focuses on developing countries and encourage further research in other developing nations (e.g., Latin American nations and African nations). Finally, the study discusses the managerial implications of the findings and provides direction for future research

Treatment over objection: minds, bodies and beneficence

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily or mental and spiritual”John Stuart Mill – On Liberty1This quote from Mill highlights an important distinction for medical ethics: a distinction between bodily and mental health. In this paper, we want to look at the ways that ethics and law have addressed this distinction, especially in relation to involuntary treatment. We will claim that both philosophy and case law appear to address involuntary treatment for physical disorders in very different ways to involuntary treatment for mental disorders; and will relate these differences in analysis to different approaches to understanding the capacity to make autonomous decisions

Explicit Space-Time Codes Achieving The Diversity-Multiplexing Gain Tradeoff

A recent result of Zheng and Tse states that over a quasi-static channel, there exists a fundamental tradeoff, referred to as the diversity-multiplexing gain (D-MG) tradeoff, between the spatial multiplexing gain and the diversity gain that can be simultaneously achieved by a space-time (ST) block code. This tradeoff is precisely known in the case of i.i.d. Rayleigh-fading, for T>= n_t+n_r-1 where T is the number of time slots over which coding takes place and n_t,n_r are the number of transmit and receive antennas respectively. For T < n_t+n_r-1, only upper and lower bounds on the D-MG tradeoff are available. In this paper, we present a complete solution to the problem of explicitly constructing D-MG optimal ST codes, i.e., codes that achieve the D-MG tradeoff for any number of receive antennas. We do this by showing that for the square minimum-delay case when T=n_t=n, cyclic-division-algebra (CDA) based ST codes having the non-vanishing determinant property are D-MG optimal. While constructions of such codes were previously known for restricted values of n, we provide here a construction for such codes that is valid for all n. For the rectangular, T > n_t case, we present two general techniques for building D-MG-optimal rectangular ST codes from their square counterparts. A byproduct of our results establishes that the D-MG tradeoff for all T>= n_t is the same as that previously known to hold for T >= n_t + n_r -1.Comment: Revised submission to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Optimized Prediction of Hard Keyword Queries Over Databases

Keyword Query Interface on databases gives easy access to data, but undergo from low ranking quality, i.e., low precision and/or recall. It would be constructive to recognize queries that are likely to have low ranking quality to improve the user satisfaction. For example, the system may suggest to the user alternative queries for such difficult queries. Goal of this paper is to predict the characteristics of hard queries and propose a novel framework to measure the degree of difficulty for a keyword query over a database, allowing for both the structure and the content of the database and the results of query. There are query difficulty prediction model but results indicate that even with structured data, finding the desired answers to keyword queries is still a hard task. Further, we will use linguistic features Such as morphological features, syntactical features, and semantic features for effective prediction of difficult keyword queries over database. Due to this, Time required for predicting the difficult keywords over large dataset is minimized and process becomes robust and accurate. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15078

Study of efficacy and safety of drug eluting stent versus bare metal stent in ST elevation MI

Background: The present study was conducted with the aim of determining whether drug-elutingstents are superior to uncoated stents in the setting of primaryPCI in terms of occurrence of serious adverse cardiac events.Methods: In this prospective, single blind, randomized study, 20 to 80 years old patients with acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation with >30 minutes of chest pain and at least 1 mm of ST-segment elevation in at least two standard leads or a new LBBB or 2 mm of ST-segment elevation in at least two contiguous leads were included. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either drug eluting stent (DES) (Everolimus Eluting stent, Endevour-Medtronics) or bare metal stent (BMS, Cordis-Dx sonic) in a 1:1 ratio. During follow ups at 30 days and 12 months, all serious adverse cardiac events like death from cardiac or non-cardiac cause, recurrent MI, revascularization of target vessel, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or other intervention to target or non-target vessel etc. were recorded and compared between groups.Results: No significant differences were found between the two treatmentgroups for occurrence of adverse events during first 30 days after the intervention. At one year follow-up, trends were observed in favorof the DES group, none of the differences weresignificant.Conclusions: No significant benefit was observed with the use of Everolimus-eluting stents in primaryPCI for acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation,in comparison with baremetal stents

Size tunable visible and near-infrared photoluminescence from vertically etched silicon quantum dots

Corrugated etching techniques were used to fabricate size-tunable silicon quantum dots that luminesce under photoexcitation, tunable over the visible and near infrared. By using the fidelity of lithographic patterning and strain limited, self-terminating oxidation, uniform arrays of pillar containing stacked quantum dots as small as 2 nm were patterned. Furthermore, an array of pillars, with multiple similar sized quantum dots on each pillar, was fabricated and tested. The photoluminescence displayed a multiple, closely peaked emission spectra corresponding to quantum dots with a narrow size distribution. Similar structures can provide quantum confinement effects for future nanophotonic and nanoelectronic devices

Supercritical carbon dioxide as a green solvent for processing polymer melts:Processing aspects and applications

Supercritical carbon dioxide (CO(2)) is Well established for use as a processing solvent in polymer applications such as polymer modification, formation of polymer composites, polymer blending, microcellular foaming, particle production and polymerization. Its gas-like diffusivity and liquid-like density in the supercritical phase allow replacing conventional, often noxious, solvents with supercritical CO(2). Though only a few polymers are soluble in supercritical CO(2), it is quite soluble in many molten polymers. CO(2) dissolution in a polymer has been interpreted physically but FT-IR studies lead to an explanation in terms of weak interactions between basic and acidic sites. Various experimental methods and equations of state are available to measure or predict the solubility of CO(2). Dissolved CO(2) causes a considerable reduction in the viscosity of molten polymer, a very important property for the applications stated above. CO(2) mainly acts as a plasticizer or solvent when contacted with a polymer. Gas solubility and viscosity reduction can be predicted theoretically from pure-component properties. In this review, experimental and theoretical studies of solubility and viscosity of several polymer melts are discussed in detail. Detailed attention is also given to recently reported applications along with aspects related to polymer processing. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved