Reasons for Rejecting Extranet Technology in Channel Relationships: A Study of White Goods Retailers in Germany

Extranets are the third wave of Internet technology. In business-to-business relationships more and more companies offer Extranets that – while maintaining privacy and confidentiality – make internal information available to business partners and offer process integration via the World Wide Web. Especially for small companies an Extranet is an appealing alternative to EDI technology. Despite all the potential benefits, a large number of companies do not use or outright reject Extranet technology. The purpose of this exploratory study is to find out the reasons of non-use/rejection. A questionnaire-based mail survey was conducted in March 2001 among 2080 German retailers, all of them customers of a large manufacturer of white goods with access to the supplier’s Extranet system. Roughly 1/3 of the respondents do not use the Extranet. Responses to open questions provide qualitative data that is analysed by cut-and-sort technique and content analysis. The findings show that information quality and design quality of the Extranet system are relevant factors for the acceptance/rejection of an Extranet system. However, this is not the main reason. The quality of the traditional channel tremendously reduces the willingness of adapting that new technology. Especially the need for interpersonal contact is the main reason for system non-use among small retailers. Retailers who have frequent transactions with the supplier prefer face-to-face price negotiations. Larger retailers are more concerned about the lack of process integration of the Extranet channel. Two managerial implications are deducted from the findings. First, companies should be very careful in deciding and implementing a channel strategy. Potential cost savings and service improvements is not of much value if the established communication with customers breaks down. Second, companies have to identify the differing customer expectations and communication profiles before choosing a strategy

GRID : una xarxa europea per a la bona pràctica en l'ensenyament de les ciències

Presentació del projecte GRID, per a identificar i promoure la innovació en l'educació de les ciències a Europa

Sociology in Germany

This open access book traces the development of sociology in Germany from the late 19th century to the present day, providing a concise overview of the main actors, institutional processes, theories, methods, topics and controversies. Throughout the book, the author relates the discipline’s history to its historical, economic, political and cultural contexts. The book begins with sociology in the German Reich, the Weimar Republic, National Socialism and exile, before exploring sociology after 1945 as a ‘key discipline’ of the young Federal Republic of Germany, and reconstructing the periods from 1945 to 1968 and from 1968 to 1990. The final chapters are devoted to sociology in the German Democratic Republic and the period from 1990 to the present day. This work will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, and to a general readership interested in the history of Germany

The mean ionic charge of silicon in 3HE-rich solar flares

Mean ionic charge of iron in 3He-rich solar flares and the average mean charge of Silicon for 23 #He-rich periods during the time interval from September 1978 to October 1979 were determined. It is indicated that the value of the mean charge state of Silicon is higher than the normal flare average by approximately 3 units and in perticular it is higher then the value predicted by resonant heating models for 3He-rich solar flares

Commemorative Bodies: (Un)Making Racial Order and Cuban White Supremacy in Little Havana\u27s Heritage District

This dissertation unearths memory- and place-making practices, processes and “racializing regimes of representation” in Little Havana’s heritage district, now a major tourism destination in Miami, Florida. It draws on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and consultations of various archives that span decades back to the 1960s and trace the origins of the district in plans for a “Latin Quarter.” My analyses borrow from and combine various bodies of scholarly work to examine and deconstruct the use of always multi-vocal “commemorative bodies” for the production of racial narratives that are embedded in--and give shape to--acts of memorialization and commemoration. By examining the intimate relationship existing between the development of the district from the 1960s on, and the repeated narrative of Cuban success, this ethnohistorical study reveals how Cuban emigre civic elites and militant anti-Castro groups have been using the district (including its Cuban Memorial Park) to assert white dominance and build Anglo-Cuban solidarity while reifying “Cuban culture” as a colorblind entity that accommodates everyone. I argue that the commemoration of “exceptional” blacks like General Antonio Maceo and Celia Cruz, alongside policing and surveillance tactics that publicly humiliate and exclude criminalized black people from the 1980 Mariel boatlift, also protect the Cuban success narrative by diverting attention away from the documented history of Cuban emigre terrorism in South Florida and beyond. This dissertation also uncovers the numerous ways Cuban and non-Cuban Afrodescendants have been intervening in the district with their own memory- and place-making practices, subverting dominant narratives that denigrate and marginalize blackness. It relocates South Florida practices within some of the webs of transnational and transcultural connections that make the greater Miami what it is