Los valores culturales y su correlación con las estrategias del metadiscurso interaccional en las páginas web de negocios españolas y estadounidenses

The present paper explores the way in which the cultural dimension of individualism is reflected in the interactional discourse of Spanish and us business websites. This cultural dimension is concerned with the way individuals from a particular culture define their own identity and their relationship with other people. Considering the scores of Spain and the US on the individualism index, the objective of this study is twofold: (a) to analyse the type of interactional metadiscourse strategies used on the presentation pages of Spanish and us toy company websites, and (b) to determine whether the individualism index scores of Spaniards and North Americans are reflected in different interactional metadiscourse strategies when companies establish a social relationship and persuade a potential customer to purchase their products. The results obtained confirm that there are important differences in the interactional discourse of this digital genre, which may be a valuable source of information for export companies that wish to introduce their products abroad by means of their business websites.En este estudio se explora en qué medida la dimensión cultural del individualismo se refleja en el discurso interaccional de páginas web de negocios españolas y estadounidenses. Esta dimensión se relaciona con el modo en que los miembros de una cultura conciben su identidad y su relación social con otras personas. Según el índice de valores culturales con que España y los Estados Unidos de América responden a la dimensión cultural del individualismo, en este estudio intento alcanzar dos objetivos: (a) analizar el tipo de estrategias metadiscursivas interaccionales que se emplean en la página de presentación de la empresa en páginas web de negocios españolas y estadounidenses y (b) examinar si el índice de valores culturales individualistas de España y de los Estados Unidos de América se muestra en estrategias metadiscursivas diferentes en el momento de establecer una relación social y persuadir a un posible cliente a comprar los productos de la empresa. Los resultados obtenidos confirman diferencias en el discurso interaccional de este género digital, que pueden ser útiles para empresas exportadoras que desean introducir sus productos en países extranjeros a través de sus webs de negocios

How can Spanish toy manufacturers achieve intercultural competence in English? A contrastive study of Spanish and U.S. business websites

The general purpose of this paper is to study the way in which context dependence (Hall 1976) and the individualism index (Hofstede 1991) influence the communicative strategies used by U.S. and Spanish toy manufacturers to express information and to establish a social relationship with the consumer in their business websites. Consequently, we will try to achieve two specific aims: (a) to analyze how the cultural orientations held by Spaniards and North Americans towards both cultural dimensions are reflected in the communication strategies used in their business websites to describe and promote the product and (b) to determine what kind of communicative strategies should be considered appropriate to improve the intercultural competence of Spanish translators, in English, when designing and translating web sites targeting the U.S. market.La meta general de este estudio consiste en examinar el modo en que la dependencia contextual (Hall 1976) y el índice de individualismo (Hofstede 1991) influyen en las estrategias comunicativas que emplean empresarios jugueteros españoles y estadounidenses para expresar la información y establecer una relación social con el consumidor en sus páginas web de negocios. Por lo tanto, intentaremos alcanzar dos objetivos concretos: (a) analizar el modo en que las orientaciones culturales con que españoles y estadounidenses responden a dichas dimensiones culturales se reflejan en las estrategias de comunicación con que describen y promocionan el producto en sus webs de negocios y (b) determinar qué tipo de estrategias comunicativas se deben poner en práctica para mejorar la competencia intercultural en inglés de los traductores españoles en el diseño y traducción de páginas web de negocios destinadas al mercado estadounidense

Cultural Values and Impolite Behaviour. The Case of Spaniards and North-Americans

This paper explores the influence of the individualism index (Hofstede 1991) of Spaniards and North-Americans on verbal impoliteness behaviour following Kaul de Marlangeon’s (2008) taxonomy of impolite acts. The level of social distance and affect between the interlocutors are considered as potential factors impacting on the use of impoliteness types and strategies. The corpus consists of scripts from a small sample of six movies (three from Spain and three from the US) and we follow an observational and a quantitative analysis. The findings reveal remarkable statistical differences as a result of the impact of cultural values on the verbal impoliteness behaviour of speakers from each country.En este trabajo exploramos la influencia del índice de individualismo de españoles peninsulares y norteamericanos (Hofstede 1991) en el comportamiento verbal descortés siguiendo la taxonomía de actos descorteses establecida por Kaul de Marlangeon (2008). El grado de distancia social y afecto existente entre los interlocutores se consideran posibles factores que influyen en el uso de distintos tipos y estrategias de descortesía lingüística. El corpus se compone de guiones procedentesde una muestra reducida de seis películas (tres de España y tres de Estados Unidos) y el análisis que seguimos es observacional y cuantitativo. Los resultados arrojan diferencias estadísticas notables como resultado del impacto de los valores culturales en el comportamiento verbal descortés de los hablantes de cada nacionalidad

Effects of the Tax on Retail Sales of Some Fuels on a regional economy: a computable general equilibrium approach

This paper simulates the effects on the economy of Extremadura that are produced by a new tax on retail sales of some fuels. A computable general equilibrium model involving various labour market scenarios is employed as a modelling framework. Model parameters are obtained by calibration, using a social accounting matrix for Extremadura updated to the year 2000. Further, we also include an additional simulation in which a hypothetical regional tax rate, to finance environmental policies, is considered. This second simulation assumes constant fiscal revenues. The results of the first simulation show that the effects of this tax are modest. The simulation shows household welfare losses, decreasing activity levels and generalised price reductions, except in production sectors more directly linked to the oil products sector. In addition, we also observe that this hypothetical additional regional fuel tax rate would reinforce the effects produced by the national tax rate.Tax on retail sales of some fuels, computable general equilibrium models, social accounting matrices, fiscal policy.

Analysis and Modeling of New and Emerging Occupational Risks in the Context of Advanced Manufacturing Processes

Besides traditional occupational risks, advanced manufacturing processes (AMP) can generate other risks described by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) as “new and emerging risks” (NER) to occupational safety and health. Several studies have been carried out by the EU-OSHA in order to identify all these risks. However, the direct use of this set of NER in identification procedures of occupational risks, generally applied in labour processes and particularly in AMP, may result in the identification of traditional occupational risks rather than NER, mainly because they have been defined without following a risk reference model. To solve this problem a risk model has been developed that improves and complements the NER definition of EU-OSHA, from which a second model has been developed to analyze the structure of the considered set of NER. It is observed that with the results obtained, the current descriptions of these NER do not explain their quality of “new and “emerging”

Structural and Technological Features of the Emerging Occupational Hazard in Manufacturing Environments

En los entornos de fabricación pueden existir riesgos denominados por la Agencia Europea para la Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo como riesgos nuevos y emergentes. Con el presente trabajo se han analizado las características estructurales y tecnológicas de dichos riesgos aplicando recientes modelos. De los resultados obtenidos se desprende como principal conclusión que las descripciones de estos riesgos no permiten comprender sus cualidades nuevas y emergentes. No obstante, ha sido posible identificar entre dichos riesgos un conjunto de aspectos tecnológicos con el que establecer un punto de partida en materia de riesgos nuevos y emergentes en entornos de fabricación.In manufacturing environments there can be risks described by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work as “new and emerging risks”. In this paper, structural and technological characteristics of these risks have been analyzed by applying new models. The main apparent conclusion from the results is that from the descriptions of those risks it is not possible to understand its new and emerging qualities. However, it has been possible to identify among those risks a set of technological aspects with which a starting point in the field of new and emerging risks in manufacturing environments can be established

Analysis of Open Resources from INSHT for Application to University Teaching of Industrial Safety Technology

This work is developed in the teaching context of the subject “Technological Aspects of Safety” (ATS) as part of the University Master's Degree in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) of the National University of Distance Education (UNED). A classification of Industrial Safety Technologies, grouped in ATS, has been developed that links basic rules applicable to the technical guides (TG) and Technical Notes Prevention (NTP) of the National Institute of Safety and Health at Work (INSHT). The TG are essential tools for the technical interpretation of associated regulations, as their updates are generally adequate, not so for the NTP, especially considering that 54% of those analyzed predate 1997 (beginning of basic regulatory development). However, the characteristics of the classification aids the design of teaching activities, focused on the analysis and knowledge of the industrial safety technologies

Boletín de Problemas de Metodología y Tecnología de la Programación

IS04: Metodologia i Tecnologia de la Programació. Curs: 2006/200