A Comparative Analysis of the American and Romanian Business Education Programs

The purpose of this paper is to present a comparative analysis of the business education programs offered by Auburn University's College of Business, Alabama, U.S.A. and Faculty of Business Administration, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest Romania. This comparative analysis is conceived in a larger perspective of the two different cultures and traditions in developing business education programs. The analysis is performed taking into consideration several dimensions, from the curriculum structure to the academic work with honesty and integrity.business education, higher education, university programs.

Board composition, process, and activism: evidence within American firms

This study provided an empirical test of the effects of compositional and process variables on board activism. The attributes examined were functional area knowledge, independence, duality, and effort norms. The findings from this study provided support for the positive relationships between both functional area knowledge and effort norms and board activism. The strong relationship between effort norms and activism indicates the importance of process variables in board research and the need for additional research using process variables in a board context giving further insight into board activism and governance. Additionally, the relationship between functional area knowledge and board activism highlights how boards ability to meet cognitive demands is critical in board performance. These results as well as future research directions are examined in the discussion.board activism, board governance, board attributes, strategic management.

The Evolving Linking Law in South Korea: \u3ci\u3eChuing\u3c/i\u3e it over

South Korean hyperlink copyright law is vague and inconsistent. Given that South Korea has the fastest internet speeds in the world, and that it has the highest internet usage penetration in Asia, sophisticated development of its hyperlink copyright law must occur—with specific attention to criminal aiding and abetting and civil tortfeasor laws. This article seeks to remedy a patchwork quilt of legal precedents as well as Korean statutory norms, and provides a comparative analysis of U.S. and EU law

Fit and Organizational Turnaround: An Examination of the Performance Implications of Strategy Content and Process Fit and Strategy and Cause of Decline Fit.

Generally, extant turnaround research has been inductively based and has limited its conceptualization of strategy to strategy content. This study builds on past research by incorporating strategy process and theoretically deriving the causes of decline. In general terms, this study posits that fit (consistency) between strategy process and content is critical to an organization\u27s ability to recover from poor performance. Specifically, the following are considered consistent responses: (1) an entrepreneurial strategy with decentralized decision making and expanded information usage; and, (2) an efficiency strategy with centralized decision making and constricted information usage. Additionally, organizations need to fit their strategy to the cause of decline to have superior turnaround performance. This study examined the implications of strategy content/process fit and strategy/cause of decline fit in the hospital industry. Specifically, archival data for the years 1987-1994 was collected for the 131 Columbia/HCA hospitals identified as in decline during 1988-1991. Primary data was collected via questionnaire from 66 of these hospitals. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the reliability, variance extracted, and discriminant validity of the measures collected by survey. Moderated multiple regression failed to support the positive performance implications of either type of fit. Potential explanations for the lack of support for the positive performance implications of fit were offered. These explanations include: (1) the choice of strategy is not crucial to turnaround performance; (2) the two types of fit are necessary but not sufficient for enhanced performance; (3) turnaround processes are too idiosyncratic to generalize; and, (4) a conceptualization of fit other than the one posited in this study is more appropriate. The limitations of this study include the number of respondents per organization, limited statistical power, limited generalizability of results, untested feedback loops, and potential retrospective and survival biases. This study concludes with suggestions for future research. These suggestions involve the role of the environment, organizational resources, and other strategy processes in organizational turnaround

Small Business Manager Scanning Emphases and the Dominant Logic of the Business-level Strategy

Normative prescription dictates that the pursuit of a business-level strategy can be best achieved when strategic decision makers focus their attention on those functions and activities most relevant to that particular strategy (Porter, 1980; 1985). We examine two elemental research questions for strategic management: 1) what is the connection, if any, between business-level strategies and the sectors managers scan most in their external environments; and 2) are business-level strategies associated with specific internal firm characteristics and capabilities managers attend to most? We evaluate these questions using a field survey in which small business managers identify differences in the external environmental sectors and internal firm attributes they scan most when pursuing different strategies. Results demonstrate some connections between the strategy being pursued and external and internal scanning emphases. Importantly, we conclude that this "scanning connection" should not be taken for granted and we offer suggestions for how managers should be deliberate about their scanning behavior

System for Centering a Turbofan in a Nacelle During Tests

A feedback position-control system has been developed for maintaining the concentricity of a turbofan with respect to a nacelle during acoustic and flow tests in a wind tunnel. The system is needed for the following reasons: Thermal and thrust loads can displace the fan relative to the nacelle; In the particular test apparatus (see Figure 1), denoted as a rotor-only nacelle (RAN), the struts, vanes, and other stator components of a turbofan engine that ordinarily maintain the required concentricity in the face of thermal and thrust loads are not present; and The struts and stator components are not present because it is necessary to provide a flow path that is acoustically clean in the sense that the measured noise can be attributed to the fan alone. The system is depicted schematically in Figure 2. The nacelle is supported by two struts attached to a two-axis traverse table located outside the wind-tunnel wall. Two servomotors acting through 100:1 gearboxes drive the table along the Y and Z axes, which are perpendicular to the axis of rotation. The Y and Z components of the deviation from concentricity are measured by four laser displacement sensors mounted on the nacelle and aimed at reflective targets on the center body, which is part of the fan assembly. The outputs of the laser displacement sensors are digitized and processed through a personal computer programmed with control software. The control output of the computer commands the servomotors to move the table as needed to restore concentricity. Numerous software and hardware travel limits and alarms are provided to maximize safety. A highly ablative rub strip in the nacelle minimizes the probability of damage in the event that a deviation from concentricity exceeds the radial clearance [<0.004 in. (<0.1 mm)] between the inner surface of the nacelle and the tips of the fan blades. To be able to prevent an excursion in excess of the tip clearance, the system must be accurate enough to control X and Y displacements to within 0.001 in. (.0.025 mm). One characteristic essential to such accuracy is sufficient rigidity in the mechanical components of the system to prevent excitation of vibrations in the strut/ nacelle subsystem. The need for such a high degree of accuracy prompted a comprehensive analysis of sources of measurement and control errors, followed by rigorous design efforts to minimize these errors. As a result, the design of the system incorporates numerous improvements in hardware, software, and operational procedures

Development of the Prairie Hydrology Design and Analysis Product (PHyDAP)

Global Water Futures, Environment and Climate Change CanadaCurrently, there are no tools which account for the complexities of prairie hydrology and hydrography available to hydrological practitioners for calculating return-period flows and flooding at small scales on the Canadian Prairies. The need for such tools is especially great due to non-stationarity from the effects of climate change and surface drainage. The Prairie Hydrology Design and Analysis Product (PHyDAP) uses the research results of the Global Water Futures Prairie Water Project to produce a spatial dataset which will allow practitioners to determine return-period flows and flooded areas in a scientifically defensible manner, while incorporating changes in the local climate and land use

Characterization of Cre recombinase models for the study of adipose tissue

The study of adipose tissue in vivo has been significantly advanced through the use of genetic mouse models. While the aP2-CreBI and aP2-CreSalk lines have been widely used to target adipose tissue, the specificity of these lines for adipocytes has recently been questioned. Here we characterize Cre recombinase activity in multiple cell populations of the major adipose tissue depots of these and other Cre lines using the membrane-Tomato/membrane-GFP (mT/mG) dual fluorescent reporter. We find that the aP2-CreBI and aP2-CreSalk lines lack specificity for adipocytes within adipose tissue, and that the aP2-CreBI line does not efficiently target adipocytes in white adipose depots. Alternatively, the Adiponectin-CreERT line shows high efficiency and specificity for adipocytes, while the PdgfRα-CreERUCL and PdgfRα-CreERJHU lines do not efficiently target adipocyte precursor cells in the major adipose depots. Instead, we show that the PdgfRα-Cre line is preferable for studies targeting adipocyte precursor cells in vivo

Development of a Snowmelt Runoff Model for the Lower Smoky River

Prepared for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, Edmonton.Non-Peer ReviewedThe Smoky River tributary of the Peace River has an ungauged (in real-time) basin area of 23,769 km2, corresponding to 46% of its basin area of 51,839 km2 . The purpose of this study was to develop a model to simulate the daily spring ungauged flows of the Smoky River and its main tributary, the Little Smoky River for recent periods using measured meteorological data and forecast periods using the outputs of a numerical weather forecast model. A physically-based model of the ungauged local flows contributing to the Smoky River at Watino and the Little Smoky River at Guy, the Lower Smoky River Model (LSRM), was developed using the CRHM platform. The model was deployed to 26 ungauged sub-basins, from which discharges were routed and accumulated to produce the ungauged discharges at Guy and Watino. The LSRM modelled discharge was evaluated to estimate the discharge of the Smoky River and Little Smoky River in an operational setting with measured meteorological observations. Results from this comparison were very good with a high degree of hydrograph predictability, small bias in flow estimation, and very good prediction of peak daily discharge and excellent prediction of the timing of peak daily discharge. The results were somewhat better for the Smoky River than for the Little Smoky River, showing the effect of increasing basin size in compensating for inadequate precipitation observation density and/or errors in model structure or parameterization. The model has not yet been tested in an operational setting during a spring snowmelt event and its full capabilities and usefulness cannot be assessed until it has been tested in such a setting