Operating models for a multi-polar world: balancing global integration and local responsiveness

Purpose – Multinationals have always needed an operating model that works – an effective plan for executing their most important activities at the right levels of their organization, whether globally, regionally or locally. The choices involved in these decisions have never been obvious, since international firms have consistently faced trade‐offs between tailoring approaches for diverse local markets and leveraging their global scale. This paper seeks a more in‐depth understanding of how successful firms manage the global‐local trade‐off in a multipolar world. Design methodology/approach – This paper utilizes a case study approach based on in‐depth senior executive interviews at several telecommunications companies including Tata Communications. The interviews probed the operating models of the companies we studied, focusing on their approaches to organization structure, management processes, management technologies (including information technology (IT)) and people/talent. Findings – Successful companies balance global‐local trade‐offs by taking a flexible and tailored approach toward their operating‐model decisions. The paper finds that successful companies, including Tata Communications, which is profiled in‐depth, are breaking up the global‐local conundrum into a set of more manageable strategic problems – what the authors call “pressure points” – which they identify by assessing their most important activities and capabilities and determining the global and local challenges associated with them. They then design a different operating model solution for each pressure point, and repeat this process as new strategic developments emerge. By doing so they not only enhance their agility, but they also continually calibrate that crucial balance between global efficiency and local responsiveness. Originality/value – This paper takes a unique approach to operating model design, finding that an operating model is better viewed as several distinct solutions to specific “pressure points” rather than a single and inflexible model that addresses all challenges equally. Now more than ever, developing the right operating model is at the top of multinational executives' priorities, and an area of increasing concern; the international business arena has changed drastically, requiring thoughtfulness and flexibility instead of standard formulas for operating internationally. Old adages like “think global and act local” no longer provide the universal guidance they once seemed to.

Bond graph models of DC-DC converters operating in both CCM and DCM

In this paper, Bond Graphs are employed to develop a novel mathematical model of conventional switched-mode DC-DC converters valid for both continuous and discontinuous conduction modes. A unique causality bond graph model of hybrid models is suggested with the operation of the switch and the diode to be represented by a Modulated Transformer with a binary input and a resistor with fixed conductance causality. The operation of the diode is controlled using an if-then function within the model. The extracted hybrid model is implemented on a Boost and Buck converter with their operations to change from CCM to DCM and to return to CCM. The vector fields of the models show validity in a wide operation area and comparison with the simulation of the converters using PSPICE reveals high accuracy of the proposed model, with the Normalised Root Means Square Error and the Maximum Absolute Error remaining adequately low. The model is also experimentally tested on a Buck topology.

The subsidiaries of multinational enterprises operate regionally, not globally

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of home-region strategy of the multinational subsidiary and the impact of such a strategy on its performance. The author draws upon new internalization theory to develop a theory-driven model and empirically tests the simultaneous relationships between home-region strategy and performance of the subsidiary. Design/methodology/approach – The author tests the model using a simultaneous equation statistical technique on an original, new data set of publicly listed multinational subsidiaries operating in the ASEAN region, with parent firms’ headquarters across the broad triad. Findings – There are three significant findings. The first finding is that subsidiary-level downstream knowledge (marketing advantages), and the geographic location of the subsidiary in the same home region as of the parent firm are key antecedents of a subsidiary’s home-region strategy. The second finding is that a subsidiary’s profitability reduces home-region orientation; however, home-region strategy has an insignificant effect on performance. The third finding is that these subsidiaries generate on average 92 per cent of their total sales in the home region (the Asia Pacific). Originality/value – The author advances the existing literature on the regional nature of parent-level multinational enterprises by demonstrating that their quasi-autonomous subsidiaries also operate mainly on a home-region basis.

A methodology to measure the environmental impact of ICT operating systems across different device platforms

Abstract: A new methodology was created to measure the energy consumption and related green house gas (GHG) emissions of a computer operating system (OS) across different device platforms. The methodology involved the direct power measurement of devices under different activity states. In order to include all aspects of an OS, the methodology included measurements in various OS modes, whilst uniquely, also incorporating measurements when running an array of defined software activities, so as to include OS application management features. The methodology was demonstrated on a laptop and phone that could each run multiple OSs, results confirmed that OS can significantly impact the energy consumption of devices. In particular, the new versions of the Microsoft Windows OS were tested and highlighted significant differences between the OS versions on the same hardware. The developed methodology could enable a greater awareness of energy consumption, during both the software development and software marketing processes.

Effects of let-7 microRNA on Cell Growth and Differentiation of Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common endocrine malignancy and RET/PTC rearrangements represent key genetic events frequently associated to this cancer, enhancing proliferation and dedifferentiation by activation of the RET/PTC-RAS-BRAF-mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Recently, let-7 microRNA was found to reduce RAS levels in lung cancer, acting as a tumor suppressor gene. Here, we report that RET/PTC3 oncogenic activation in PCCL3 rat thyroid cells markedly reduces let-7f expression. Moreover, stable transfection of let-7 microRNA in TPC-1 cells, which harbor RET/PTC1 rearrangement, inhibits MAPK activation. As a result, let-7f was capable of reducing TPC-1 cell growth, and this might be explained, at least in part, by decreased messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of cell cycle stimulators such as MYC and CCND1 (cyclin D1) and increased P21 cell cycle inhibitor mRNA. In addition, let-7 enhanced transcriptional expression of molecular markers of thyroid differentiation such as TITF1 and TG. Thus, reduced expression of let-7f might be an essential molecular event in RET/PTC malignant transformation. Moreover, let-7f effects on thyroid growth and differentiation might attenuate neoplastic process of RET/PTC papillary thyroid oncogenesis through impairment of MAPK signaling pathway activation. This is the first functional demonstration of an association of let-7 with thyroid cancer cell growth and differentiation.

Två vampyrer, två filmklippare : En undersökning i hur karaktärer framställs genom klippning i filmerna Låt den rätte komma in och Let me in

Kan klippningen i en film påverka hur en karaktär framställs och uppfattas av tittaren? Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att analysera och jämföra två utvalda scener från filmen Låt den rätte komma in och de två motsvarande scenerna i remaken Let me in. Detta för att se huruvida klippningen kan påverka hur karaktärerna upplevs och vilka skillnader det finns när det gäller vilken klippteknik som använts i de båda filmerna. Med hjälp av Jens Eders analysmodell Karaktärsklockan som används vid analys av karaktärer och Roger Crittendens teorier om filmklippning, undersöker uppsatsen hur karaktärerna framställs och upplevs genom användandet av olika klipptekniker. Resultatet visar på att det går att fastställa att klippningen har haft stor påverkan hur karaktärerna i Låt den rätte komma in och Let me in uppfattas av tittaren. Det är även väldigt tydligt att klippningen och valet av olika klipptekniker skiljer sig åt mellan de två scenerna och karaktärerna har således framställts på olika sätt.

Swedish translation and psychometric testing of the safety attitudes questionnaire (operating room version)

Background: Tens of millions of patients worldwide suffer from avoidable disabling injuries and death every year. Measuring the safety climate in health care is an important step in improving patient safety. The most commonly used instrument to measure safety climate is the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). The aim of the present study was to establish the validity and reliability of the translated version of the SAQ. Methods: The SAQ was translated and adapted to the Swedish context. The survey was then carried out with 374 respondents in the operating room (OR) setting. Data was received from three hospitals, a total of 237 responses. Cronbach's alpha and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the instrument. Results: The Cronbach's alpha values for each of the factors of the SAQ ranged between 0.59 and 0.83. The CFA and its goodness-of-fit indices (SRMR 0.055, RMSEA 0.043, CFI 0.98) showed good model fit. Intercorrelations between the factors safety climate, teamwork climate, job satisfaction, perceptions of management, and working conditions showed moderate to high correlation with each other. The factor stress recognition had no significant correlation with teamwork climate, perception of management, or job satisfaction. Conclusions: Therefore, the Swedish translation and psychometric testing of the SAQ (OR version) has good construct validity. However, the reliability analysis suggested that some of the items need further refinement to establish sound internal consistency. As suggested by previous research, the SAQ is potentially a useful tool for evaluating safety climate. However, further psychometric testing is required with larger samples to establish the psychometric properties of the instrument for use in Sweden.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Women

Writing this collection of journalistic nonfiction has come at an appropriate time for me as I head out into the world on my own. I still don’t know if or where I’ll be working. I don’t know if I’ll be an intern or employee or if I want to go to graduate school in the future. The world is wide open before me, and that is a scary thing. However, these women have been assuring and guiding me. Meeting and interviewing them has taught me that life is subjective. They have shown me that everything we own can be lost in an instant, that life—family, freedom, happiness—is more precious and more fragile than we may think. These women are not superficial; they are sincere and wise. I would consider myself blessed to have a fraction of their strength, and, indeed, it is their characters to which I aspire. Each woman has suffered loss, but each woman has also gained a new, deeper perspective on life. They are the ones who, from my point of view, are flying high and clinging tight—with views from the crown of the forest.

Risco de abandono de relacionamento

This paper presents a study carried out with customers with credit card of a large retailer to measure the risk of abandonment of a relationship, when this has already purchase history. Two activities are the most important in this study: the theoretical and methodological procedures. The first step was to the understanding of the problem, the importance of theme and the definition of search methods. The study brings a bibliographic survey comprising several authors and shows that the loyalty of customers is the basis that gives sustainability and profitability for organizations of various market segments, examines the satisfaction as the key to success for achievement and specially for the loyalty of customers. To perform this study were adjusted logistic-linear models and through the test Kolmogorov - Smirnov (KS) and the curve Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) selected the best model. Had been used cadastral and transactional data of 100,000 customers of credit card issuer, the software used was SPSS which is a modern system of data manipulation, statistical analysis and presentation graphics. In research, we identify the risk of each customer leave the product through a score.

Sistemas de contabilidade de custos em instituições financeiras

O objetivo deste estudo é identificar e descrever uma amostra dos sistemas de custos bancários existentes e em operação no País, inferindo por este meio o grau de desenvolvimento destes sistemas. O assunto foi tratado através de e utilização pesquisa de campo, dividida em três fases, distintas e diferenciadas. Na primeira etapa foram enviados questionários pelo correio a 54 bancos nacionais. Destinavam-se a formar um quadro geral do estágio de desenvolvimento dos sistemas de custos em instituições financeiras. A primeira fase da pesquisa forneceu resultados modestos, basicamente quantitativos e poucas conclusões firmes. Dessa abordagem genérica, o trabalho evoluiu para as outras fases. A segunda fase consistiu em 5 entrevistas levadas a efeito em bancos com experiências diferenciadas na área de custos. A terceira fase, também sob a forma de entrevistas pessoais, foi efetivada a partir da constatação de diversas questões que haviam ficado em aberto a partir da abordagem dada ao assunto na segunda fase. Estas duas últimas fases particularizaram e melhoraram os resultados obtidos, formando um quadro representativo da situação dos sistemas de custos em instituições financeiras. Este quadro indicou uma grande preferência por sistemas de custeio direto, com alocação de "overhead", em detrimento de sistemas de custeio-padrão. Informações de rentabilidade,particularmente em relação aos clientes, estão entre os objetivos mais citados. A pesquisa evidenciou os problemas enfrentados na operacionalização dos sistemas, basicamente na coleta de dados físicos e nos diversos critérios de aproximação que são utilizados. Observou-se que as soluções que melhoram a qualidade da informação gerada pelo sistema passam necessariamente pela otimização da coleta e atualização dos dados físicos. Observouse, ainda, que todos os sistemas estudados tem restrições de ordem metodológica, apontando-se a ampla discussão dos problemas como alternativa para o seu constante aperfeiçoamento.

Corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability: classification of the initiatives of the FMCG companies operating in Brazil

Este trabalho tem como objetivo fornecer uma análise detalhada do cenário da sustentabilidade ambiental e iniciativas de responsabilidade social corporativa nas empresas que operam no mercado de bens de consumo brasileiro. Para alcançar este objetivo as dez maiores empresas do mercado-alvo presente no Brasil foram analisadas por meio da classificação das suas iniciativas em três perspectivas amplas. Com esta classificação o cenário do mercado pode ser visto. As perspectivas utilizadas para a elaboração do trabalho são: (1) iniciativa ambiental ou social; (2) o foco interno ou externo e (3) a marca ou o custo como motivador. Depois de classificar todas as iniciativas, foi possível ver que as empresas similares, que operam em mercados semelhantes, têm estratégias que são muito parecidos entre si. Além disso, ficou claro que a estratégia de negócios da empresa influencia as suas políticas ambientais e sociais, em particular os objetivos que estas políticas procuram obter.Embora este trabalho apresente um panorama abrangente do setor de bens de consumo em relação a políticas de comportamento responsável das empresas, ele tem algumas limitações. A limitação mais significativa diz respeito a metodologia. As iniciativas foram avaliadas pela quantidade e a abrangência dos benefícios do impacto positivo não foram avaliados, impossibilitando assim a comparação do tamanho do impacto de cada empresa. Uma vez que pode haver um projeto de uma empresa que tem maior impacto do que vários outros feitos por alguma outra empresa. A metodologia foi baseada em clusters de categorias, no entanto, as iniciativas não são completamente uma coisa ou outra, ou seja, uma iniciativa pode ter diferentes impactos, drivers ou foco, nesses casos, os aspectos mais relevantes foram a escolhidos para classificá-los.

Impacto dos investimentos em tecnologia de informação no desempenho financeiro das indústrias brasileiras

Os resultados obtidos possibilitam afirmar que as indústrias que mais investiram em Tecnologia de Informação (TI), no período de 2001 a 2011, obtiveram maior crescimento da sua receita operacional e resultados operacionais mais eficazes, comparadas com as indústrias que investiram menos no período. De acordo com o modelo proposto, para as empresas estudadas foi possível encontrar, no prazo de dois anos, um crescimento de 7% no resultado operacional para cada 1% a mais de investimentos em TI. Destaca-se o objetivo da pesquisa de identificar e analisar os impactos dos gastos e investimentos em tecnologia de informação no desempenho financeiro das indústrias brasileiras, para alcançá-lo, adotou-se um modelo de pesquisa que utilizou métricas contábeis-financeiras e indicadores de uso TI, bem como a combinação de técnicas estatísticas para as análises. O trabalho aprofunda e amplia as discussões existentes sobre a avaliação dos investimentos em TI e como aferir o impacto desta sobre o desempenho organizacional. O universo do estudo foi composto pelas companhias brasileiras, de capital aberto, do ramo industrial, com ações ativas na BOVESPA, totalizando 119 companhias. Por meio de uma survey obteve-se os dados complementares referentes aos gastos e investimentos em TI; os questionários semiestruturados foram encaminhados diretamente ao Gerente de TI (Chief Information Officer). Estes esforços na coleta de dados primários possibilitaram a obtenção de uma amostra bastante significativa, com 63 indústrias, ou seja, 53% da população estudada. Após coleta, a análise dos dados foi desenvolvida em três etapas: (1) Análise Fatorial (AF) para seleção de fatores de desempenho que resultou no final do processo em doze variáveis para o modelo da pesquisa; (2) Análise de Cluster (AC) que evidenciou três agrupamentos distintos de indústrias por suas características e desempenho e (3) Regressão Múltipla que adotou um modelo econométrico dinâmico, estimado pelo Método dos Momentos Generalizado (GMM), satisfazendo as condições do modelo de Arellano-Bond (1991). Salienta-se que o modelo proposto permitiu tratar de forma adequada metodologicamente as correlações espúrias, possibilitando identificar que os gastos e investimentos em TI, (IGTI t-2), de dois períodos anteriores impactaram no Resultado Operacional Atual, (ROPt), evidenciando o efeito tardio, ou lag effect. Além disso, foi constatado que outras variáveis de rentabilidade e liquidez impactam neste resultado, também adotando defasagem das variáveis. A principal variável de TI da pesquisa, o IGTI, é calculada pela soma de gastos e investimentos em TI anuais (OPEX/CAPEX), dividida pela Receita Operacional Líquida anual. Para pesquisas futuras, há a possibilidade de buscar medidas de avaliação por tipos (categorias) de investimento em TI, visando ao aprofundamento da análise destes impactos no desempenho setorizado (ligado a cada investimento) e da análise de clusters, adotando o modelo de análise da pesquisa.

The sources of spinoff equity gains: takeover premiums or operating gains

Although the existence of spinoff equity gains is well documented, their source remains controversial. Arnong many potential causes, the literature suggests that spinoff equity gains could arise from expected tax benefits, expected takeover premia, operating performance improvement or from refocusing benefits. This paper investigates the link between spinoff announcement and post completion equity gains and post spinoff operating performance changes, takeover activity and refocusing benefits. The results indicate that spinoff announcement retums reflect anticipated takeover premiums as well as expected operating performance gains and refocusing benefits unrelated to operating performance. However, only the parent's operating performance gains are anticipated at the spinoff announcement. We find that post spinoff equity gains are driven mostly by operating performance changes for both parents and spun off subsidiaries. Takeover activity and unrelatedness of business lines between parent and subsidiary expIain littIe of post spinoff equity gains. OveralI, the data suggests that spinoffs equity gains mostly reflect anticipated real economic gains in terms of improved operating performance, and to a lesser extent takeover premium and refocusing benefit.

Determinantes de rentabilidade de empresas apoiadas pelo Programa BNDES de Desenvolvimento da Indústria de Software - BNDES PROSOFT Empresa

Este estudo objetiva analisar fatores que impactam a lucratividade de companhias beneficiadas com o Programa para Desenvolvimento da Indústria Nacional de Software e Serviços de TI – BNDES PROSOFT. A análise da lucratividade permeia diversos estudos no país e no exterior e é de suma importância para a realização de políticas públicas de qualidade. Para a avaliação, foram elencados diferentes aspectos microeconômicos, incluindo informações contábeis, de emprego, localização da empresa, segmento de atuação, entre outros, utilizando a metodologia de dados em painel. Dentre os resultados obtidos, pode-se destacar o impacto positivo do nível da escolaridade da equipe, lucratividade observada no exercício anterior, maior retorno das empresas menores frente às de maior porte. Houve penalidade no lucro daquelas companhias voltadas para fabricação de hardware, com equipes maiores. Constatou-se, também, um decréscimo no lucro de empresas no ano em que contrataram financiamentos com o BNDES, estas que foram posteriormente beneficiadas, no momento da implantação do projeto.