Paolo Sarpi's vow of obedience : Catholic political thought in early seventeenth-century Venice

Paolo Sarpi, Catholic political thought, Venice, papacy, obediencePeer reviewe

Dying Prepared in Medieval and Early Modern Northern Europe. Edited by Anu Lahtinen and Mia Korpiola. Leiden: Brill, 2018 [Book review]

Bokrecension. Recenserat verk: Dying Prepared in Medieval and Early Modern Northern Europe / edited by Anu Lahtinen and Mia Korpiola.Non peer reviewe

Effects of agricultural crisis on Estonian farming : Summary of the dissertation submitted for the degree of dr. agr. at Tartu University 1938

Digiteeritud Euroopa Regionaalarengu Fondi rahastusel, projekti "Eesti teadus- ja õppekirjandus" (2014-2020.12.03.21-0848) raames.https://www.ester.ee/record=b1767191*es

Operational Consequences of Private Equity Buyouts in Finland: Changes in operational efficiency and working capital investment after acquisitions

Empirical evidence from the 1980s is constant about private equity practitioner's ability to enhance the operational profitability of their portfolio companies, while more recent findings do not show the same consistency in the results. Overall, there is a substantial amount of inconsistent evidence of the subject, and a lack of evidence about the role of working capital management behind the obtained results. This is a clear shortcoming in the earlier research, as a company can operate more efficiently by releasing capital tied up in its working capital, especially in working capital-intensive industries. This research contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the changes in operational profitability and productivity indicators of portfolio companies during the two-year post buyout period. Moreover, the research provides new evidence about the role of working capital management behind the obtained results. In Finland, the research has been led by the Finnish Venture Capital Association, which uses non-publicly available private equity databases as a source in their research. In 2013, the association began to collect a list of private equity investments from publicly available sources. This list was submitted to the author of this research, and based on this listing, the research examines 84 Finnish buyout targets and the changes in their key operational figures between the years 2014 and 2019. To explore the effect of private equity, all the figures are compared with their respective peer groups. This reveals the impact of private equity behind the obtained results and removes the erroneous conclusions that could be drawn if there is a general up- or downswing within the industry. Results show that buyout targets are growing faster in sales and employees than their peers. However, the targets are not able to maintain their operational profitability during the expansion, and the cost related to growth drive operational profitability growth to negative. Although operational profitability is not increased on average, the study finds significant improvements in working capital efficiency during the period under review. The main driver of enhanced working capital efficiency is the decrease in the receivables to sales ratio, while the research shows no evidence of increased use of trade financing or enhanced inventory turnover ratio during the reference period. Yet, the study does not find a statistical relationship between improved working capital efficiency and a firm’s operational profitability, where the main driver of abnormal operational profitability seems to be the improved employee productivity, monitored with the ratio between companywide personnel costs and sales.Empiirinen tutkimus 1980-luvulta on osoittanut pääomasijoittajien kasvattavan sijoituksen kohteena olevien yrityksien arvoa tehostamalla näiden operatiivista toimintaa. Tuoreempi tutkimus ei kuitenkaan johdonmukaisesti tue näitä löydöksiä. Vaikka aiheesta on olemassa huomattava määrä epäjohdonmukaisia tutkimustuloksia, ei käyttöpääoman hallintaa tutkimustulosten takana ole juurikaan analysoitu. Tämä on selkeä puute aiemmassa tutkimuksessa, sillä yhtiön toimintaa voidaan tehostaa vapauttamalla käyttöpääomaan sitoutunutta pääomaa, etenkin käyttöpääomaintensiivisillä toimialoilla. Tämä tutkimus tukee aikaisempaa empiiristä tutkimusta analysoimalla kohdeyhtiöiden operatiivisen kannattavuuden ja tuottavuuden tunnuslukuja. Lisäksi tutkimus tuottaa uutta tietoa kohdeyhtiöiden käyttöpääoman hallinnasta yritysostojen jälkeisen tarkasteluajanjakson aikana. Suomessa toimialan tutkimusta on johtanut Suomen Pääomasijoitusyhdistys ry, joka käyttää tutkimuksissaan lähteinä pääomasijoitustietokantoja, joiden dataa yhdistyksellä ei ole oikeutta jakaa. Yhdistys alkoi kuitenkin vuonna 2013 tekemään julkisista lähteistä kerättyä listaa pääomasijoitusyhtiöiden tekemistä sijoituksista, joka toimitettiin tämän tutkimuksen tekijälle. Tässä tutkimuksessa käsitellään 84 suomalaista pääomasijoituksen saanutta kohdeyritystä ja näiden tunnuslukujen muutosta vuosien 2014 ja 2019 välillä. Kohdeyrityksien muutosta tunnusluvuissa verrataan samalla toimialalla toimivien verrokkiyrityksien tunnuslukuihin, jonka avulla selvitetään pääomasijoituksen vaikutus yrityksen operatiiviseen toimintaan, sekä poistetaan nousu- ja laskusuhdanteiden rooli tutkimustuloksien taustalla. Tutkimus osoittaa kohdeyrityksien kasvavan liikevaihdollisesti ja työntekijämääriltään selvästi nopeammin kuin heidän verrokkinsa. Tutkimus ei tue aikaisempaa näyttöä pääomasijoittajien kyvystä kasvattaa kohdeyrityksien operatiivista kannattavuutta. Vaikka operatiivinen kannattavuus ei ole keskimäärin noussut, pääomasijoittajat ovat pystyneet tehostamaan kohdeyhtiöiden käyttöpääoman tehokkuutta tarkasteluajanjakson aikana. Tätä ei olla saavutettu lisäämällä ostovelkojen määrää tai lyhentämällä varastojen kiertoaikaa, vaan pääsääntöisesti lyhentämällä myyntisaamisten kiertoaikaa. Tutkimus ei kuitenkaan löydä tilastollista riippuvuutta tehostuneen käyttöpääoman ja yrityksen operatiivisen kannattavuuden välillä. Tutkimuksen mukaan tärkein tekijä kohdeyrityksien operatiivisen kannattavuuden kasvun taustalla on ollut henkilöstön tuottavuuden tehostuminen, jota seurattiin vertaamalla yrityksien henkilöstökustannuksien suhdetta yrityksen myynteihin

Detailed Structural and Stratigraphic Analysis of the Salt-Sediment Interactions on Top of the Wheeler Dome Salt Tongue, Mississippi Canyon Area, Gulf of Mexico

The Mississippi Canyon is in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, south of the state of Mississippi. In this area, there are many different salt structures present including salt canopies, diapirs, and salt pillows. The Callovian aged Louann Salt covers this area and is the cause of many of the salt structures and structures of the overlying formations seen in Gulf of Mexico today. Salt is mobile when subjected to stress from overlying sediment and gravity. Stress will force the salt to not only move upward, but to also move down slope deeper into adjacent basins through the process of halokenesis. Salt movement may commence as early as when deposition has been completed and may trigger the formation of structural features such as faults, rafts, and displacement of the overlying formations. By careful analysis of 3-D seismic data in combination with available sea floor imaging, these subsurface structures were mapped and interpreted. This study involves the mapping of salt structures and surrounding features affected by salt movement to detail the tops of the Louann Salt using structure maps created within the study area. These maps were used along with other structural data to reconstruct the salt canopy through time. A detailed reconstruction of the study area has produced a model that demonstrated salt migration over time and showed how gravity and the overlying formations were affected by it over time. As the salt moved downslope into adjacent basins, the formations on top of the salt faulted and moved due to the additional stress. The salt movement also caused nearby formations to separate and attach to the salt moving down dip into the basin, thus separating it from the rest of the formation. These faults also caused some rotation of the layers along the fault

Insuldiõdede roll ja selle kujunemine Eestis

Eesti Arst 2017; 96(9):558–55

THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN COMMUNICATION AND BRANDING

        Searching for information on products and services combined with the growing interest in social media make them important channels of marketing communication and more and more companies see their advertising potential. In order to demonstrate the role of social media in shaping the corporate image and branding the paper discusses the reasons for companies’ interest in this form of communication, its application in the internal communication system as well as the benefits and risks of a brand engagement in social media. According to the research presented in the literature and our own study social marketing has become an important and desirable channel for image building and brand promotion

The utility of media-delivered information for Generation Z travelers from Poland in the Covid-19 pandemic

Motivation: Information and knowledge are economic goods that sustain economic development, including the tourism industry, today. In the past, the tourism sector was affected by various crises, but none of them was as extensive and impacted tourism on a global scale as it has happened now — during the Covid-19 pandemic. Generation Z, which is a cohort of extremely active travelers, mostly rely on digitally-delivered information. New media like the Internet, including social media, enable tourism entities to reach not only local, but also global markets. However, in the studies published so far, social media and the Internet have usually been analyzed as one category, which in the era of changing technologies and the new emerging behaviors of young tourists seems insufficient. Therefore, there is a need to verify the current state of research and determine the new media utility on the tourism market. Aim: The study aims to investigate the capability of new media to meet the information needs of potential Gen Z tourists during the pandemic and to identify the characteristics of useful media information Results: The study involved a desk research and a diagnostic survey method, including the online survey technique. The collected material was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. 374 responses were received to the questionnaire. The study was conducted in October 2020. Additionally, an observation, carried out in thematic groups in social media, was used as a complementary technique. The conducted research made it possible to verify the utility of online sources of information used by Gen Z respondents during the pandemic. The study determined the relationships between Gen Z travel frequency, average daily time spent in front of the computer, the amount of tourism expenditure and the utility of new media. The main contribution of this study is the identification of the features of useful media-delivered information about tourism products and services as perceived by Gen Z representatives, which contributes to filling the existing research gap