Supply Chain Adaptation of Finnish Companies in Chinese Institutional Environment

Within the last few decades of operations and supply chain management, the field has seen the rise of so called best practices, methods that will help supply chains obtain their business goals and gain a competitive edge. These methods were thought to be universal. This however is not always the case, as the surrounding business environment could have a significant impact on what will be effective in gaining competitive edge. Contingency theory states that the success of a supply chain is determined by both internal capabilities, as well as external context aligning. This creates a strategic fit, which is a major determinant of success. In order for supply chains to reach this strategic fit, they must adapt. As China has seen rapid growth and over the last few decades become one of the major economies of the world, Western companies have tried to establish themselves there, only to find that the Chinese market is extremely difficult to operate in. The aim of this thesis was to investigate from contingency theory perspective, what are the institutional factors that affect supply chain management of Finnish companies operating in China, and how do Finnish companies adapt their supply chains to better fit the Chinese institutional environment. A theoretical model was created for this thesis, in which supply chains possess resources, which can be combined in a meaningful manner to create capabilities. Both resources and capabilities are affected by the surrounding institutional environment, which forces supply chains to adapt in order to find a better strategic fit. A total of six Finnish managers from three large and three small companies operating in China were interviewed. The results indicated that the Chinese business environment is significantly different, than that of Finland or Western countries in general. Three institutional factors were identified: Confucian though, fast-paced business environment, and managing labor force. These three institutional factors made the relationship and delivery capabilities particularly important, as well as human resources, reputation, physical resources and technological resources. In conclusion, it was discovered that the Chinese institutional environment is heavily affected by Confucian thought, as well as the rapid market growth. These are the two most important institutional factors that shape the Chinese market. If supply chains wish to be successful in China, adaptation regarding these two institutional factors should yield good results.

Essays on cultural and institutional dynamics in economic development using spatial analysis

This thesis seeks to research patterns of economic growth and development from a number of perspectives often resonated in the growth literature. By addressing themes about history, geography, institutions and culture the thesis is able to bring to bear a wide range of inter-related literatures and methodologies within a single content. Additionally, by targeting different administrative levels in its research design and approach, this thesis is also able to provide a comprehensive treatment of the economic growth dilemma from both cross-national and sub-national perspectives. The three chapters herein discuss economic development from two broad dimensions. The first of these chapters takes on the economic growth inquiry by attempting to incorporate cultural geography within a cross-country formal spatial econometric growth framework. By introducing the global cultural dynamics of languages and ethnic groups as spatial network mechanisms, this chapter is able to distinguish economic growth effects accruing from own-country productive efforts from those accruing from interconnections within a global productive network chain. From this, discussions and deductions about the implications for both developed and developing countries are made as regards potentials for gains and losses from such types and levels of productive integration. The second and third chapters take a different spin to the economic development inquiry. They both focus on economic activity in Africa, tackling the relevant issues from a geo-intersected dimension involving historic regional tribal homelands and modern national and subnational administrative territories. The second chapter specifically focuses on attempting to adopt historical channels to investigate the connection between national institutional quality and economic development in demarcated tribal homelands at the fringes of national African borders. The third chapter on the other hand focuses on looking closer at the effects of demarcations on economic activity. It particularly probes how different kinds of demarcation warranted by two different but very relevant classes of politico-economic players have affected economic activity quite distinguishably within the resulting subnational regions in Africa.

In the kingdom of the blind: successfully implementing institutional repositories in the UK and the SHERPA Partnership experience

This paper takes an overview of the work of SHERPA team and the SHERPA Partnership institutions in the area of developing, populating and maintaining institutional open access repositories. Crucial to this work has been the development of mutually supporting and enabling Partnership community, something which has been now recognised as needed by institutions who lie outside of it. To this end SHERPA is involved in efforts to support the individuals and institutions across the UK and Europe whom are engaging with the open access agenda on a practical level; through setting up community networks and disseminating experience. Key in the experience of the Partnership has been the role of advocacy of open access and repositories to the institutional research community. Whilst this experience has been unique to each institution, there are many shared lessons and best practice that the Partnership has recently reflected on, and that are articulated within this paper. Finally brief coverage on some of the vital community tools developed and maintained by SHERPA, and reflections on the evolving direction of open access in the UK are made.

Museum Institutional Records: Stewardship and Advocacy, Challenges and Rewards

Presentation from the MARAC conference in Boston, MA on March 18-21, 2015. S3 - Museum Institutional Records: Stewardship and Advocacy, Challenges and Rewards

Factors associated with institutional delivery in Dangila district, North West Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Childbirth in a health institution has been shown to be associated with lower rates of maternal and neonatal mortality. However, about 85% of mothers in Ethiopia deliver at home. Objective: To assess factors associated with institutional delivery service utilization among women who gave birth within one year prior to the study in Dangila district. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from February 01-28, 2015. A total of 763 mothers were interviewed using structured questionnaire. SPSS version 20 was used for analysis. Crude and adjusted Odds ratios were computed for selected variables. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistical significant. Results: Only 18.3% of mothers gave birth at health facilities. Knowledge on danger signs [AOR=2.0, 95% CI: (1.1, 3.4)], plan to give birth at health institution [AOR=5.4, 95% CI: (3.0, 9.6)], having ANC follow up during pregnancy [AOR=12.9, 95% CI: (5.0, 33.3)] and time taken to get to a nearby health institution [AOR=5.1, 95% CI: (2.9, 9.1)] were associated with institutional delivery service utilization. Conclusion: Institutional delivery was very low. Knowledge about danger signs, having ANC visits, and time were factors associated with institutional delivery service utilization. Thus,the findings recommend repeated re-enforcement of institutional delivery service utilization through professionals. And also, the findings recommend promotion of institutional delivery service utilization through mass media.

Human resource management change: a respond to institutional autonomy

Mestrado em Ensino Superior (Erasmus Mundus)

La démocratie et ses institutions : comment les institutions perçoivent et transforment les questions de politiques publiques

Cette thèse porte sur les fondements philosophiques des institutions démocratiques canadiennes et analyse comment leur conception réelle contribue à les atteindre. Pour passer de la théorie à la pratique, la démocratie doit être institutionnalisée. Les institutions ne sont pas que de simples contraintes sur les actions du gouvernement. Elles incarnent des normes démocratiques. Cependant, les théories démocratiques contemporaines sont souvent abstraites et désincarnées. Alors qu’elles étudient les fondements normatifs de la démocratie en général, elles réfléchissent rarement sur les mécanismes permettant d’atteindre l’idéal démocratique. À l’inverse, la science politique tente de tracer l’ensemble du paysage institutionnel entourant l’action de l’État. Mais l’approche de la science politique a une faiblesse majeure : elle n’offre aucune justification épistémologique ou morale des institutions démocratiques. Cette dichotomie entre les principes et les institutions est trompeuse. Les principes de la démocratie libérale sont incarnés par les institutions. En se concentrant sur les fondements philosophiques des institutions démocratiques et libérales, cette thèse fait revivre une longue tradition d’Aristote à John Stuart Mill et réunissant des penseurs comme Montesquieu et James Madison. Actuellement, la recherche universitaire se détourne encore des questions institutionnelles, sous prétexte qu’elles ne seraient pas assez philosophiques. Cependant, le design institutionnel est une question philosophique. Cette thèse propose des améliorations pour que les institutions démocratiques remplissent leur rôle philosophique de manière plus adéquate. Le suicide médicalement assisté est utilisé comme un exemple de l’influence des institutions sur la démocratie.

Autoavaliação institucional na dimensão do SINAES comunicação com a sociedade : estudo de múltiplos casos em instituições de ensino superior do Rio Grande do Norte

This study is about the institutional self-evaluation in Dimension 4, "Communication with Society", from the National System of Higher Education Evaluation SINAES, mandatory for all universities in Brazil. A multiple cases study was conducted with three institutions from Rio Grande do Norte, and the goal was to know how this evaluation is made, describing the concept for the evaluation of communication proposed by them, identifying controllers or emancipator aspects, categorizing methodological procedures and discussing the difficulties reported in the communication evaluation process. Coordinators of the institutions Evaluating Committees were interviewed and data categorized by means of qualitative content analysis. It was noted characteristics of the current controller, emancipator and hybrid designs in the three institutions for evaluation of communication, revealing the lack of a theoretical corpus that transits in accordance with the systemic perspective and epistemology of complexity from SINAES. It was found that the most frequently reported difficulties in the evaluation processes of communication are in the preparation stage, especially in the definition of indicators and tools and awareness work. The weakness in planning makes their own activities in the sector of communication become targets of assessment, forming goals poorly related with broader organizational goals. It was also concluded that the technical evaluation cannot override the issues associated with the broader issue of the complexity surrounding the assessment paradigm proposed by SINAES because contradictions and imperfections are part of the evaluation process and several references are current in the literature to support this view. Finally, it is said that objectives such as transparency and behavioral changes can rely on methodologies and techniques for research on the question of the construction of meaning

Technological, institutional and market structure changes as evolutionary processes: the case of the Port Wine sector (1680-1974).

Doutoramento em Economia.

Inter-Institutional agreement June 1st, 2015-May 31st, 2017 between Ghent University and Universidad de Cuenca

English

Agreement for the implementation of an IUC programme in the activity years 2012 until 2016, in the framework of the Institutional University Cooperation of VLIR between the Undersigned The flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR), and the Universidad de Cuenca (UCUENCA) and the KU Leuven

English

Succession Intentions Across the Globe: The Role of Institutional Factors

While succession intentions have received increasing scholarly attention in recent years, there is a lack of knowledge about country-level antecedents and differences. Our paper aims to close this gap by investigating succession intentions of 6,360 students with family business background from 26 countries. More specifically, we blend theory of planned behavior with institutional theory and find that institutional variables such as individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and the level of corruption explain the formation of succession intentions over and above traditional theory of planned behavior elements. In addition, we reveal a U-shaped relationship between a nation's level of economic development and the strength of succession intentions. This indicates the existence of two types of succession intentions: necessity and opportunity succession. These findings add valuable insights to literature on family businesses, succession, theory of planned behavior, and practice.

Inter-institutional agreement 2016-201(21) between institutions from programme and partner countries

English

Testing the level of interactivity of institutional websites: From museums 1.0 to museums 2.0

The Internet has changed the way in which organizations communicate with their publics, and museums are not an exception. The consolidation of Web 2.0 has not only given museums access to a powerful new tool for disseminating information, but has involved significant changes in the relationship between institutions and their publics, facilitating and enhancing the interaction between them. The overall objective of this paper is to analyze the degree of interactivity implemented in the websites of major international art museums, in order to assess if museums are evolving towards more dialogic systems with relation to their publics. The results indicate that museums still have a low level of interactivity on their websites, both in the tools used to present information and the resources available for interaction with virtual visitors. But it has also observed that museums are progressively implementing interactive and dialogic sources, suggesting a clear trend towards new ways of managing these platforms in order to establish more participatory and collaborative communication systems with virtual users.

Mercosur: The Common Market of the South: Institutional Reality and Challenges

This flyer promotes a lecture by Raquel Rodriguez on Mercosur, an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Rodriguez is a renowned consultant and former Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Uruguay. This event was held on August 29,2012 at FIU Modesto A.Maidique Campus, DM163.