Getting to the Real Story: What Vietnamese business people wish foreigners understood about doing business in emerging and transition countries like Vietnam – BEFORE they start

Knowledge sharing typically examines organizational transfer of knowledge, often from headquarters to subsidiaries, from developed country sites to emerging country sites, or from host to local employees. Yes, recent research, such as Prahalad’s Bottom of the Pyramid, raises the question of reverse transfer of knowledge, or whether knowledge could and should be transferred from local sites to home country sites within an organization. As several emerging economies build their capabilities in knowledge, research and development, marketing, and the like, it only makes sense to consider what type of knowledge and how to transfer it in reverse or bi-directional manners. This paper takes one step back in the process. Rather than focusing on what knowledge transfer may make sense within an organization, we consider what types of knowledge are important for foreigners to know at the initial stages of engagement abroad as they consider whether to do business in an emerging country.

Employment discrimination against transgender people and self-esteem.

The evocation of gender identity in company anti-discrimination policies is still very rare. This observation is also true forscientific studies. Very few researches have focused exclusively on transgender employees. Transgender are neither sick nor lesscompetent, and yet, the feeling of being strongly discriminated is shared by many transgender people. Such discrimination and thetype of causal attribution do not remain without any effect on the well-being of the concerned individuals. According to Crocker &Quinn (1998), the attribution of the discrimination to the existing prejudices may be a way to protect one-self from the negativeimpact on self-esteem. In this theoretical scope, the "rejection-identification" model (Branscombe, Schmitt & Harvey, 1999) has beenhighly mobilized. It emphasizes the importance of ingroup identification in the causal relationship between perceived discriminationsituation and well-being. Previous studies which did test this model show that the identification to a certain group can counteract thenegative effects on well-being. Following this theoretical frame, the presented study examines the impact of different types of causalattributions on self-esteem: internal causes (e.g. lack of skills), external causes (e.g. economic crisis), and gender identity relatedissues. For that purpose, an online survey has been created and fulfilled by 110 transgender people. Different scales were used to testthe model: the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, a causal attribution scale, the perceived discrimination of the transgender population inthe workplace scale and a group identification scale. The results show that transgender people feel still highly stigmatized today andattribute, significantly, the causes of their situation to the prejudices they are victim of. Also, in accordance with the “rejectionidentification”model, three links are observed: (1) a negative link between perceived discrimination and self-esteem; (2) a positivelink between perceived discrimination and ingroup identification; and (3) a positive link between ingroup identification and selfesteem.This situation reflects a lack in diversity considerations. Nevertheless, the attribution made to group stigmatization seems toplay a protective role towards transgender people self-esteem.

Variations of chlorophyll-a in the northeastern Indian Ocean after the 2004 South Asian tsunami

Analysis of satellite remote sensing data has revealed changes in distribution of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and sea surface temperature (SST) in the Indian Ocean during the South Asian tsunami in December 2004. Chl-a data derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Sea-viewing Wide Field-ofview Sensor (SeaWiFS) images were examined for the period from 1998 to 2005. Around the epicentre of the Sumatra earthquake, the Chl-a concentrationwas found to increase prior to the main event on 26 December 2004 and then decrease during the tsunami event, while a high SST (~30-31°C) was observed in and around the epicentral region. Chl-a concentrations in the coastal waters of the Southeast Asian countries were remarkably low during and after the tsunami. Similar but relatively small variations inChl-a and SST were observed during the second earthquake on 28 March 2005. Analysis of Chl-a, SST, wind and upwelling water has provided information for understanding the changes in Chl-a concentration during the tsunami. A very large offshore phytoplankton bloom (~300 km2) appeared to the southeast of Sri Lanka about 3 weeks after the tsunami; this might have been caused by a tropical storm that could be responsible for the enhancement of nutrients. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.