Everyday Trauma: Narrativizing the Self in Chris Ware’s Graphic Novels

The term “graphic novel”—that is, a book-length narrative that employs the comics medium to tell its story—has entered into the vocabulary of comics enthusiasts and readers alike. But, despite the popularity of contemporary graphic novels, many graphic novelists began their careers writing underground comics that garnered little mainstream attention

Operations manual for the plasma source ion implantation economics program

Plasma Source Ion Implantation (PSII) is a surface modification technique for metal. PSIICOSTMODEL95 is an EXCEL-based program that estimates the cost for implementing a PSII system in a manufacturing setting where the number of parts to be processed is over 5,000 parts per day and the shape of each part does not change from day to day. Overall, the manufacturing process must be very well defined and should not change. This document is a self-contained manual for PSIICOSTMODEL95. It assumes the reader has some general knowledge of the technical requirements for PSII. Configuration of the PSII process versus design is used as the methodology in PSIICOSTMODEL95. The reason behind this is twofold. First, the design process cannot be programmed into a computer when the relationships between design variables are not understood. Second, the configuration methodology reduces the number of assumptions that must be programmed into our software. Misuse of results are less likely to occur if the user has fewer assumptions to understand

The choice of insider or outsider top executives in acquired companies

There is considerable debate amongst academics and practitioners over whether top executives of acquired or merged companies should stay or go, post-deal, as studies exploring the link with organisational performance show mixed results. This may in part be due to such studies failing to recognise that there are a number of distinct post-acquisition strategies which may require the deployment of different types of top executive. This paper addresses this limitation by bringing together the longstanding Insider/Outsider debate with a post-acquisition integration framework, in order to investigate whether there is a link between top management type and post-acquisition integration strategy. Using a dual methodology of survey and cases drawing on UK M&A data, clear associations are found between top executive type and particular post-acquisition styles. Underlying these patterns, the value-creating/value-capturing distinction of the Resource-Based View appears to have a greater influence over top executive deployment than do issues of Organisational Fit. This suggests strategic intentions have ascendancy over organisational constraints in the selection of top executives for managing post-acquisition integration

Corporate governance and financial constraints on strategic turnarounds

The paper extends the Robbins and Pearce (1992) two-stage turnaround response model to include governance factors. In addition to the retrenchment and recovery, the paper proposes the addition of a realignment stage, referring specifically to the re-alignment of expectations of principal and agent groups. The realignment stage imposes a threshold that must be crossed before the retrenchment and hence recovery stage can be entered. Crossing this threshold is problematic to the extent that the interests of governance-stakeholder groups diverge in a crisis situation. The severity of the crisis impacts on the bases of strategy contingent asset valuation leading to the fragmentation of stakeholder interests. In some cases the consequence may be that management are prevented from carrying out turnarounds by governance constraints. The paper uses a case study to illustrate these dynamics, and like the Robbins and Pearce study, it focuses on the textile industry. A longitudinal approach is used to show the impact of the removal of governance constraints. The empirical evidence suggests that such financial constraints become less serious to the extent that there is a functioning market for corporate control. Building on governance research and turnaround literature, the paper also outlines the general case necessary and sufficient conditions for successful turnarounds

The Effects of Cost and Asset Retrenchment on Firm Performance: The Overlooked Role of a Firm’s Competitive Environment

When firms face declining financial performance, research suggests that cost and asset retrenchment can lead to improved performance among poorly performing firms. However, previous studies have largely focused on firms operating in mature industries. This research develops and tests arguments that cost and/or asset retrenchment strategies will have different effects on firm performance in competitive environments characterized as growing and declining. In growth industries, asset retrenchment was positively related to performance improvement while cost retrenchment was unrelated. In declining industries, cost retrenchment was positively related to improved performance while asset retrenchment had a negative effect on firm performance. Implications of these findings for turnaround strategies are discussed.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

L'effet des exportations sur la croissance est-il constant entre les pays democratiques et les autres

Rapport de rechercheNuméro de référence interne originel : a1.1 g 64

L’accessibilité au fleuve Saint-Laurent : enjeux et perspectives pour une approche intégrée

Au Canada et au Québec, l’accessibilité publique au fleuve constitue un enjeu social majeur, particulièrement dans le contexte d’une gestion intégrée du Saint-Laurent. Toutefois, si le thème fait l’objet de consensus social sur le plan de l’intention, son articulation empirique pose problème. À ce titre, le présent article apporte un éclairage sur les diverses dimensions que recouvre ce thème, soulève les difficultés de mesure et indique les éléments d’un cadre logique pour aborder ce thème dans une perspective de soutien à l’accessibilité au Saint-Laurent.In Canada and Quebec, public accessibility is a major social issue in context of an integrated management perspective applied to the St. Lawrence River. Though this thematic issue make consensus in the population at least from an intentional point of view, its empirical reality is still problematic. In response, this paper clarifies multiple dimensions involved behind the concept, discuss measurement problems, and present elements of a logical framework in order to support St. Lawrence accessibility

La gestion intégrée de l’eau : dynamique d’acteurs, de territoires et de techniques

La gestion intégrée de l’eau au Québec, qui a récemment fait l’objet d’une consultation publique, a soulevé une diversité d’enjeux qui met en question la capacité des institutions d’y faire face de manière optimale. Les préoccupations notées lors de cette consultation ont abouti à un certain nombre de constats qui avaient déjà été émis lors d’un autre exercice de consultation réalisé il y a plus de trente ans (commission Legendre en 1970, voir CEPJE, 1971) et, surtout, à une première expérimentation de gestion par bassin versant au Québec : le plan d’aménagement du bassin de la rivière Yamaska, un projet qui, pour une bonne part, a été oublié dans la foulée des multiples projets et innovations institutionnels des années 1960 et 1970. Le présent texte constitue une analyse rétrospective visant à rappeler le contexte d’émergence de la gestion intégrée de l’eau au Québec et les difficultés de mise en oeuvre d’une telle politique. On pourra dès lors établir certains parallèles avec les enjeux actuels sur le plan de la capacité d’action des acteurs institutionnels.Integrated water management in Quebec, a topic that has recently been addressed through a public consultation process, has exposed a series of issues that challenge the ability of institutions to cope effectively. The public concerns that have come forth from these consultations are very much the same as those that were raised initially some 30 years earlier (Commission Legendre in 1970, see CEPJE, 1971), more specifically Quebec’s first water basin management experiment involving the Yamaska River Basin Management Plan, an initiative which, among many others in the 1960s and 1970s, was unfortunately lost and forgotten. This article is a retrospective analysis recalling the conditions of the emergence of integrated water management and the difficulties of implementing such a policy. From this analysis, parallels could be drawn with current issues on the ability of institutions to act