Decisions about entry modes for telecom companies into digital music business: An empirical case study

The digital music market offers an opportunity for telecom companies to furnish value-added services. However, little effort has been made to study empirically how to make a decision about entry modes for telecom companies into digital music business. This study therefore investigates various strategies that telecom companies may implement to enter the digital music industry. The results of a series of expert surveys reveal that the preference ranking of entry modes is acquisition, joint venture, and contractual agreement, respectively. Moreover, the leading key factors in selecting entry modes are complementary capabilities, hostility of environment, relational risk between firms as partners, commitment of resources, and availability of expertise. Furthermore, an importance-performance analysis was conducted to understand the different aspects that are of different performances and importance in each entry mode. The implications of the findings are also discussed. --Telecom companies,Digital music business,Entry modes,Value added

Evaluating Sustainable Development from a Child's Perspective - A Proposal of Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)

In Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA), the UNEP guideline proposes the five stakeholder groups to investigate the corresponding social issues from a whole-population perspective. Despite the relevance of children in inheriting and forming the society in the context of sustainable development, children are neglected as a relevant stakeholder group. To consider children's interests and influence in SLCA from a top-down perspective, a literature review is conducted to identify relevant topics and gaps related to the assessment of child development. The results categorize the main aspects of child development into six themes: health, education, safety, material condition, relationship, participation, and a newly proposed theme environmental aspect. Furthermore, to address the existing gaps, the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) is proposed to consider relevant aspects of children development on an outcome and a context level, with regard to newly-proposed environmental aspects

New Limit for the Half-Life of 2K(2neutrino)-Capture Decay Mode of 78Kr

Features of data accumulated at 1817 hours in the experimental search for 2K(2 \nu)-capture decay mode of Kr-78 are discussed. The new limit for this decay half-life is found to be T_{1/2} > 2.3 *10^{20} yr. (90% C.L.).Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. of Atom. Nuc

Use of Oral Anticoagulant for Secondary Prevention of Stroke in Very Elderly Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: An Observational Study

SummaryBackgroundOral anticoagulant (OAC) is proven to be more effective than antiplatelet therapy in the secondary prevention of ischemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The objective of this study was to determine the effect of age on the prescription of OAC and its actual use by neurologists for secondary prevention among the very elderly patients with AF hospitalized for ischemic stroke.MethodsIn this prospective observational study, data from patients with first-ever ischemic stroke and AF were included. We reviewed the use of antithrombotic agents before stroke onset and at discharge in patients with AF who were aged 80 years or older. We analyzed the trends of oral anticoagulation as secondary prevention in very elderly patients and identify the reasons why anticoagulant was not prescribed at discharge.ResultsA total of 152 patients with AF experienced first-ever ischemic stroke. Of these, 51 patients (33.6%) were ≥80 years of age, and 101 were <80 years of age. Thirteen patients died during the acute stroke and thus were excluded from the analysis. Of 139 ischemic stroke survivors at discharge, 45 were ≥80 years of age and 94 were <80 years of age. For those aged ≥80 years, 62.2% received neither antiplatelet nor anticoagulant agents before stroke onset. Surprisingly, only one patient (2.2%) was treated with OAC. At discharge, only 12 patients (26.7%) aged ≥80 years were treated with OAC compared with those aged <80 years (48/94 [51.1%]).ConclusionThis study suggests that OAC is underused in most of the very elderly patients despite its proven efficacy. A history of stroke did alter the trend of use of antithrombotic agents in this age group

Screening indicators for the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI)

Since children are the key stakeholders supporting and being affected by sustainable development, the framework for the Sustainable Child Development Index (SCDI) was proposed. It addresses social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development by considering seven relevant themes of child development, i.e., health, education, safety, economic status, relationship, environmental aspects and participation. However, an indicator set for initiating the SCDI is still missing. In this study, indicators for the themes, subthemes and criteria of SCDI are identified from literature and then analyzed regarding data availability. Sixty-six indicators with statistical data covering at least 100 countries are selected as the indicator set for the SCDI. The results indicate that data availability is best for indicators describing the themes of health and education, and worst for indicators addressing the themes of relationship and participation. Furthermore, 21 subthemes and 50 criteria described by indicators with limited data availability are identified for future indicator and data development. By providing an initial indicator set and screening the indicators with regard to data availability, the practicality of the SCDI framework is expected. Furthermore, the indicator set can serve as a potential indicator pool for other child and sustainable development related studies.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität Berli