Ownership structure, customer satisfaction and brand equity

This paper studies the interaction between ownership structure, taken as a proxy for shareholders commitment, and customer satisfaction - the main driver of consumer loyalty - and their impact on a firm s brand equity. The results show that customer satisfaction has a positive direct effect on brand equity but an indirect negative one because of reductions in ownership concentration. This latter effect emerges when managers are mainly customer-oriented. Such result gives out a warning signal that highlights the perverse effect of implementing policies, focused excessively on satisfying customers at the expense of shareholders, on a firm s brand equity. The empirical analysis uses an incomplete panel data comprising 69 firms from 11 nations, for the period 2002-2005.

Customer Focus Newsletter, May-June, 2009, Vol. 6, no.3

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, July-August, 2009, Vol. 6, no.4

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, September-October, 2009, Vol. 6, no.5

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

El Misterio de la biblioteca Mil.lènium o cómo promover relaciones colaborativas desde la participación del alumnado = The Mystery of the Mil.lènium Library: How to Promote Collaborative Relationships Through Student Participation

La pedagogía crítica acentúa la falta de neutralidad de la escuela respecto a las relaciones de poder que existen en la sociedad. Su propuesta consiste en modificar las relaciones de poder en el aula en el sentido de transformar las relaciones coercitivas –las que reproducen las relaciones existentes– en relaciones colaborativas partiendo del reconocimiento y la participación de los alumnos en las actividades escolares. Desde esta perspectiva, uno de los objetivos de las actividades es que los niños produzcan «textos identitarios», entendidos como artefactos que los alumnos se pueden apropiar para promover su desarrollo cognitivo. El artículo muestra el trabajo educativo integrado desde Educación Infantil hasta 6.º de Primaria de una escuela de la provincia de Girona en la que el 97% de los alumnos es de origen extranjero y cuyo propósito es incrementar las habilidades lingüísticas orales y escritas en la lengua escolar, así como la utilización de otros lenguajes multimedia. La unidad didáctica consiste en la elaboración de un cuento a lo largo de un curso escolar por parte de todo el alumnado con la ayuda de los profesores, de dos autores y de tres ilustradores. Cada ciclo escolar decide los personajes y el escenario y explicita textualmente el transcurso de la acción. Los ilustradores producen las imágenes y los autores posibilitan la transición de aquello que ha elaborado un ciclo al producto del siguiente. La actividad basada en la participación y la utilización de procedimientos democráticos de decisión se inserta en la propuesta educativa y lingüística de la escuela, así como en sus concreciones curriculares. Los resultados muestran que los textos construidos por los niños se apoyan en sus «fondos de conocimiento» sociales y familiares y constituyen una fuente de progreso en la consecución de las competencias básicas y en la construcción de valores democráticos

Declining labor force attachment and downward trends in unemployment and participation

The US labor market witnessed two apparently unrelated secular movements in thelast 30 years: a decline in unemployment between the early 1980s and the early 2000s,and a decline in participation since the early 2000s. Using CPS micro data and a stock-flow accounting framework, we show that a substantial, and hitherto unnoticed, factorbehind both trends is a decline in the share of nonparticipants who are at the margin ofparticipation. A lower share of marginal nonparticipants implies a lower unemploymentrate, because marginal nonparticipants enter the labor force mostly through unemployment,while other nonparticipants enter the labor force mostly through employment.

Customer Focus Newsletter, January-February, 2010, Vol. 7, no.1

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, November-December, 200, Vol. 6, no.6

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Specific Silencing of the REST Target Genes in Insulin-Secreting Cells Uncovers Their Participation in Beta Cell Survival.

The absence of the transcriptional repressor RE-1 Silencing Transcription Factor (REST) in insulin-secreting beta cells is a major cue for the specific expression of a large number of genes. These REST target genes were largely ascribed to a function of neurotransmission in a neuronal context, whereas their role in pancreatic beta cells has been poorly explored. To identify their functional significance, we have generated transgenic mice expressing REST in beta cells (RIP-REST mice), and previously discovered that REST target genes are essential to insulin exocytosis. Herein we characterized a novel line of RIP-REST mice featuring diabetes. In diabetic RIP-REST mice, high levels of REST were associated with postnatal beta cell apoptosis, which resulted in gradual beta cell loss and sustained hyperglycemia in adults. Moreover, adenoviral REST transduction in INS-1E cells led to increased cell death under control conditions, and sensitized cells to death induced by cytokines. Screening for REST target genes identified several anti-apoptotic genes bearing the binding motif RE-1 that were downregulated upon REST expression in INS-1E cells, including Gjd2, Mapk8ip1, Irs2, Ptprn, and Cdk5r2. Decreased levels of Cdk5r2 in beta cells of RIP-REST mice further confirmed that it is controlled by REST, in vivo. Using siRNA-mediated knock-down in INS-1E cells, we showed that Cdk5r2 protects beta cells against cytokines and palmitate-induced apoptosis. Together, these data document that a set of REST target genes, including Cdk5r2, is important for beta cell survival.

Customer Focus Newsletter, March/April, 2009, Vol. 6, no. 2

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, March-April, 2010, Vol. 7, no.2

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, May-June, 2010, Vol. 7, no.3

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.

Customer Focus Newsletter, July-August, 2010, Vol. 7, no.4

A bi-monthly bulletin to keep the department/agency management teams of state government better informed. We hope to consolidate most of the service update messages we send throughout the month and keep you updated about the work of the Customer Councils. If yours is one of the many departments who participated in the second annual DAS customer satisfaction survey recently, we thank you for taking the time to give us this important feedback. We look forward to sharing survey results with you, and pledge to consider responses carefully as we work to determine benchmarks and set future priorities.