Tiering Effects in Third-party Logistics: A First-tier Buyer Perspective

This doctoral dissertation takes a buy side perspective to third-party logistics (3PL) providers’ service tiering by applying a linear serial dyadic view to transactions. It takes its point of departure not only from the unalterable focus on the dyad levels as units of analysis and how to manage them, but also the characteristics both creating and determining purposeful conditions for a longer duration. A conceptual framework is proposed and evaluated on its ability to capture logistics service buyers’ perceptions of service tiering. The problem discussed is in the theoretical context of logistics and reflects value appropriation, power dependencies, visibility in linear serial dyads, a movement towards the more market governed modes of transactions (i.e. service tiering) and buyers’ risk perception of broader utilisation of the logistics services market. Service tiering, in a supply chain setting, with the lack of multilateral agreements between supply chain members, is new. The deductive research approach applied, in which theoretically based propositions are empirically tested with quantitative and qualitative data, provides new insight into (contractual) transactions in 3PL. The study findings imply that the understanding of power dependencies and supply chain dynamics in a 3PL context is still in its infancy. The issues found include separation of service responsibilities, supply chain visibility, price-making behaviour and supply chain strategies under changing circumstances or influence of non-immediate supply chain actors. Understanding (or failing to understand) these issues may mean remarkable implications for the industry. Thus, the contingencies may trigger more open-book policies, larger liability scope of 3PL service providers or insourcing of critical logistics activities from the first-tier buyer core business and customer service perspectives. In addition, a sufficient understanding of the issues surrounding service tiering enables proactive responses to devise appropriate supply chain strategies. The author concludes that qualitative research designs, facilitating data collection on multiple supply chain actors, may capture and increase understanding of the impact of broader supply chain strategies. This would enable pattern-matching through an examination of two or more sides of exchange transactions to measure relational symmetries across linear serial dyads. Indeed, the performance of the firm depends not only on how efficiently it cooperates with its partners, but also on how well exchange partners cooperate with an organisation’s own business.

Sensemaking in the Third Space - Essays on French-Finnish Bicultural Experiences in Organizations and Their Narratives (summary section only)

Research on cross-cultural and intercultural aspects in organizations has been traditionally conducted from an objectivist, functionalist perspective, with culture treated as an independent variable, and often the key explanatory factor. In order to do justice to the ontological relativity of the phenomena studied, more subjectivist research on intercultural interactions, and especially on their relationships with the dynamics of cultural identity construction, is needed. The present research seeks to address this gap by focusing on bicultural interactions in organizations, as they are experienced by the involved individuals. It is argued that such bicultural situations see the emergence of a space of hybridity, which is here called a ‘third space’, and which can be understood as providing ‘occasions for sensemaking’: it is this individual sensemaking that is of particular interest in the empirical narrative study. A first overall aim of the study is to reach an understanding of the dynamics of bicultural interactions in organizations; an understanding not only of the potential for learning and emancipatory sensemaking, but also of the possibility of conflict and alienatory ordering (this is mainly addressed in the theoretical essays 1 and 2). Further, a second overall aim of the study is to analyze the reflexive identity construction of four young French expatriates involved in such bicultural interactions in organizations in Finland, in order to examine the extent to which their expatriation experiences have allowed for an emancipatory opportunity in their cases (in essays 3 and 4). The primary theoretical contribution in this study lies in its new articulation of the dynamics of bicultural interactions in organizations. The ways in which the empirical material is analyzed bring about methodological contributions: since the expatriates’ accounts are bound to be some kind of construction, the analysis is made from angles that point to how the self-narratives construct reality. There are two such angles here: a ‘performative’ one and a ‘spatial’ one. The most important empirical contributions lie in the analysis of, on the one hand, the alternative uses that the young expatriates made of the notion of ‘national culture’ in their self-narratives, and, on the other hand, their ‘narrative practices of the third space’: their politics of escape or stabilization, their exploration of space or search for place, their emancipation from their origin or return to home as only horizon.

Third Polymorph of Phenylacetylene

A third polymorph of phenylacetylene (Z' = 6), which is obtained by quenching the liquid, shows some similarities to the two earlier known forms, and the adoption of a high Z' value in this crystal form is discussed.

Head-on infall of two compact objects: Third post-Newtonian energy flux

Head-on infall of two compact objects with arbitrary mass ratio is investigated using the multipolar post-Minkowskian approximation method. At the third post-Newtonian order the energy flux, in addition to the instantaneous contributions, also includes hereditary contributions consisting of the gravitational-wave tails, tails-of-tails, and the tail-squared terms. The results are given both for infall from infinity and also for infall from a finite distance. These analytical expressions should be useful for the comparison with the high accuracy numerical relativity results within the limit in which post-Newtonian approximations are valid.

Professional non-neutrality: criticising the third party in psychotherapy

Using audio-recorded data from cognitive-constructivist psychotherapy, the article shows a particular institutional context in which successful professional action does not adhere to the pattern of affective neutrality which Parsons saw as an inherent component of medicine and psychotherapy. In our data, the professional’s non-neutrality functions as a tool for achieving institutional goals. The analysis focuses on the psychotherapist’s actions that convey a critical stance towards a third party with whom the patient has experienced problems. The data analysis revealed two practices of this kind of critique: (1) the therapist can confirm the critique that the patient has expressed or (2) return to the critique from which the patient has focused away. These actions are shown to build grounds for the therapist’s further actions that challenge the patient’s dysfunctional beliefs. The article suggests that in the case of psychotherapy, actions that as such might be seen as apparent lapses from the neutral professional role can in their specific context perform the task of the institution at hand.

Third harmonic generation through shaped superconductors

This paper describes a methodology of obtaining only third harmonic along with the fundamental using shaped superconductors. It also indicates how one can design a nonlinear superconducting resistor with the required current versus resistance variation.

Singularity structure of third-order dynamical systems .2

The singularity structure of the solutions of a general third-order system, with polynomial right-hand sides of degree less than or equal to two, is studied about a movable singular point, An algorithm for transforming the given third-order system to a third-order Briot-Bouquet system is presented, The dominant behavior of a solution of the given system near a movable singularity is used to construct a transformation that changes the given system directly to a third-order Briot-Bouquet system. The results of Horn for the third-order Briot-Bouquet system are exploited to give the complete form of the series solutions of the given third-order system; convergence of these series in a deleted neighborhood of the singularity is ensured, This algorithm is used to study the singularity structure of the solutions of the Lorenz system, the Rikitake system, the three-wave interaction problem, the Rabinovich system, the Lotka-Volterra system, and the May-Leonard system for different sets of parameter values. The proposed approach goes far beyond the ARS algorithm.

Novel phase-transition behavior near liquid/liquid critical points of aqueous solutions: Formation of a third phase at the interface

We report a novel phase behavior in aqueous solutions of simple organic solutes near their liquid/liquid critical points, where a solid-like third phase appears at the liquid/liquid interface. The phenomenon has been found in three different laboratories. It appears in many aqueous systems of organic solutes and becomes enhanced upon the addition of salt to these solutions.

The standard enthalpy and entropy of formation of Rh2O3 - A third-law optimization

The standard Gibbs energy of formation of Rh203 at high temperature has been determined recently with high precision. The new data are significantly different from those given in thermodynamic compilations.Accurate values for enthalpy and entropy of formation at 298.15 K could not be evaluated from the new data,because reliable values for heat capacity of Rh2O3 were not available. In this article, a new measurement of the high temperature heat capacity of Rh2O3 using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is presented.The new values for heat capacity also differ significantly from those given in compilations. The information on heat capacity is coupled with standard Gibbs energy of formation to evaluate values for standard enthalpy and entropy of formation at 289.15 K using a multivariate analysis. The results suggest a major revision in thermodynamic data for Rh2O3. For example, it is recommended that the standard entropy of Rh203 at 298.15 K be changed from 106.27 J mol-' K-'given in the compilations of Barin and Knacke et al. to 75.69 J mol-' K". The recommended revision in the standard enthalpy of formation is from -355.64 kJ mol-'to -405.53 kJ mol".