Impacto de la estrategia de diversificación en la expansión a mercados exteriores sobre los resultados

El propósito de este trabajo consiste en examinar los determinantes de los resultados empresariales, derivados de la estrategia de diversificación en la expansión a mercados exteriores, en términos de los factores del mercado, del producto y de la empresa. Como novedad, la metodología aplicada utiliza el estudio del suceso ("event-study") para estimar los excesos de rentabilidad de las acciones generados en la Bolsa por una muestra de 35 noticias de expansión a mercados exteriores correspondientes a 11 empresas españolas diversificadas; así como el análisis de regresión para examinar el impacto de los factores del mercado, del producto y de la empresa sobre dichos excesos de rentabilidad. La aplicación empírica realizada en nuestro país permite detectar que, en promedio, el impacto de dichas noticias sobre la rentabilidad de las acciones es positivo, siendo sus determinantes la especialización del producto y el grado de desarrollo del país de destino.

Reputations, self-concepts and coping strategies of volatile solvent users

Data pertaining to the reputations, self-concepts and coping strategies of thirty-one secondary school Volatile Solvent Users (VSUs), forty-four ex-VSUs, and forty-eight non-VSUs in the Perth Metropolitan area of Western Australia were obtained using the High School Student Activity Questionnaire. Findings revealed that significant differences between current VSUs, ex-VSUs, and non-VSUs were more attributable to factors of reputation enhancement than to factors of either self-concept or coping strategies. Current VSUs identified themselves as both having and wanting to have a more non-confronting reputation, and as admiring drug-related activities significantly more than both ex-VSUs and non-VSUs. Two coping variables were also found to be significant indicating that females use more nonproductive coping strategies and external coping strategies than males. No interaction effects were identified. The implications for drug education and further research are discussed.

A semantic approach for learning objects repositories with knowledge reuse

In this paper we discuss how the inclusion of semantic functionalities in a Learning Objects Repository allows a better characterization of the learning materials enclosed and improves their retrieval through the adoption of some query expansion strategies. Thus, we started to regard the use of ontologies to automatically suggest additional concepts when users are filling some metadata fields and add new terms to the ones initially provided when users specify the keywords with interest in a query. Dealing with different domain areas and having considered impractical the development of many different ontologies, we adopted some strategies for reusing ontologies in order to have the knowledge necessary in our institutional repository. In this paper we make a review of the area of knowledge reuse and discuss our approach.

Exploration de l'expérience de la violence homophobe chez des hommes homosexuels

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Identification de facteurs nucléaires modifiant l'activité des cellules souches hématopoïétiques

Les cellules souches hématopoïétiques (CSH) sont rares, mais indispensables pour soutenir la production des cellules matures du sang, un tissu en constant renouvellement. Deux caractéristiques principales les définissent; la propriété d’auto-renouvellement (AR), ou la capacité de préserver leur identité cellulaire suivant une division, et la multipotence, ce potentiel de différentiation leur permettant de générer toutes les lignée hématopoïétiques. De par leurs attributs, les CSH sont utilisée en thérapie cellulaire dans le domaine de la transplantation. Une organisation tissulaire hiérarchique est aussi préservée dans la leucémie, ou cancer du sang, une masse tumorale hétérogène devant être maintenue par une fraction de cellules au potentiel prolifératif illimité, les cellules souches leucémiques (CSL). Les travaux présentés dans ce manuscrit visent à explorer les bases moléculaires de l’AR, encore mal définies. Certains membres de la famille des facteurs de transcription à homéodomaine HOX sont impliqués dans la régulation de l’hématopoïèse normale, et leur dérégulation peut contribuer à la transformation leucémique. En particulier, la surexpression du gène Hoxb4 dans les CSH influence leur destin cellulaire, favorisant des divisions d’auto-renouvellement et leur expansion en culture et in vivo. En général, les CSH s’épuisent rapidement lorsque maintenue hors de leur niche ex vivo. Différents facteurs interagissent avec les HOX et modulent leur liaison à l’ADN, dont la famille des protéines TALE (Three Amino acid Loop Extension), comme MEIS1 et PBX1. En utilisant une stratégie de surexpression combinée de Hoxb4 et d’un anti-sens de Pbx1 dans les CSH, générant ainsi des cellules Hoxb4hiPbx1lo, il est possible de majorer encore d’avantage leur potentiel d’AR et leur expansion in vitro. Les CSH Hoxb4hiPbx1lo demeurent fonctionnellement intactes malgré une modulation extrême de leur destin cellulaire en culture. Les niveaux d’expressions de facteurs nucléaires, seules ou en combinaison, peuvent donc s’avérer des déterminants majeurs du destin des CSH. Afin d’identifier d’autres facteurs nucléaires potentiellement impliqués dans le processus d’AR des CSH, une stratégie permettant d’évaluer simultanément plusieurs gènes candidats a été élaborée. Les progrès réalisés en termes de purification des CSH et de leur culture en micro-puits ont facilité la mise au point d’un crible en RNAi (interférence de l’ARN), mesurant l’impact fonctionnel d’une diminution des niveaux de transcrits d’un gène cible sur l’activité des CSH. Les candidats sélectionnés pour cette étude font partie du grand groupe des modificateurs de la chromatine, plus précisément la famille des histones déméthylases (HDM) contenant un domaine catalytique Jumonji. Ce choix repose sur la fonction régulatrice de plusieurs membres de complexes méthyl-transférases sur l’AR des CSH, dont l’histone méthyl-transférases MLL (Mixed Lineage Leukemia). Cette stratégie a aussi été utilisée dans le laboratoire pour étudier le rôle de facteurs d’asymétrie sur le destin des CSH, en collaboration. Ces études ont permis d’identifier à la fois des régulateurs positifs et négatifs de l’activité des CSH. Entre autre, une diminution de l’expression du gène codant pour JARID1B, une HDM de la lysine 4 de l’histone H3 (H3K4), augmente l’activité des CSH et s’accompagne d’une activation des gènes Hox. En conclusion, divers déterminants nucléaires, dont les facteurs de transcription et les modificateurs de la chromatine peuvent influencer le destin des CSH. Les mécanismes sous-jacents et l’identification d’autres modulateurs de l’AR demeurent des voies à explorer, pouvant contribuer éventuellement aux stratégies d’expansion des CSH ex vivo, et l’identification de cibles thérapeutiques contre les CSL. Mots-clés : cellules souches hématopoïétiques, Hoxb4, Pbx1, auto-renouvellement, histone déméthylases, RNAi

Expression des histones déméthylases dans les cellules hématopoïétiques humaines et les leucémies aiguës

L’importance des modificateurs de la chromatine dans la régulation de l’hématopoïèse et des hémopathies malignes est illustrée par l’histone méthyltransférase Mixed-Lineage Leukemia (MLL) qui est essentielle au maintien des cellules souches hématopoïétiques (CSH) et dont le gène correspondant, MLL, est réarrangé dans plus de 70% des leucémies du nourrisson. Les histones déméthylases (HDM), récemment découvertes, sont aussi impliquées dans le destin des CSH et des hémopathies malignes. Le but de ce projet est d’étudier l’expression des HDM dans les cellules hématopoïétiques normales et leucémiques afin d’identifier de potentiels régulateurs de leur destin. Nous avons réalisé un profil d'expression génique des HDM par qRT-PCR et par séquençage du transcriptome (RNA-seq) dans des cellules de sang de cordon (cellules CD34+ enrichies en CSH et cellules différenciées) et des cellules de leucémie aiguë myéloïde (LAM) avec réarrangement MLL. Les deux techniques montrent une expression différentielle des HDM entre les populations cellulaires. KDM5B et KDM1A sont surexprimés dans les cellules CD34+ par rapport aux cellules différenciées. De plus, KDM4A et PADI2 sont surexprimés dans les cellules leucémiques par rapport aux cellules normales. Des études fonctionnelles permettront de déterminer si la modulation de ces candidats peut être utilisée dans des stratégies d’expansion des CSH, ou comme cible thérapeutique anti-leucémique. Nous avons aussi développé et validé un nouveau test diagnostique pour détecter les mutations de GATA2 qui code pour un facteur de transcription clé de l’hématopoïèse impliqué dans les LAM. Ces travaux soulignent l’importance des facteurs nucléaires dans la régulation de l’hématopoïèse normale et leucémique.

Análise do modo de expansão recente das multinacionais no Brasil sob a ótica da teoria dos ativos complementares

O presente estudo analisa o modo de expansão das multinacionais no Brasil, país emergente e de dimensões continentais que apresenta enormes desigualdades regionais. Assim, foram analisadas as estratégias de expansão dos dez maiores grupos estadunidenses no Brasil entre 2004 e 2013, sob a ótica das teorias tradicionais de internacionalização e da teoria dos ativos complementares de Hennart. Verificou-se que as diferentes características regionais brasileiras levam as multinacionais a realizarem aquisições quando iniciam atividades em novas regiões. Ademais, foi constatado que outros fatores, como dificuldades intrínsecas aos setores de atuação e a entrada do grupo multinacional em novas atividades que não a sua predominante, afetam o modo de expansão das multinacionais, levando-as a realizar aquisições e joint ventures. Tais aquisições e joint ventures são explicadas pela dificuldade das multinacionais em acessar ativos complementares locais, em conformidade à teoria de Hennart. Por outro lado, e em contrariedade às teorias tradicionais, foi verificado que a experiência das multinacionais no Brasil nem sempre influencia o seu comprometimento nos países hospedeiros, levando ao estabelecimento de subsidiárias integrais.

As transformações fundiárias da comunidade de sibaúma-rn com o advento do turismo

The genesis of the research emerges from reflection about the space dynamics of the capital and to the capital. The expansion and the incorporation of territory for capital reveal, in part, strategies of the capitalism production way, which shows the search for accumulation conditions, expanding the alternatives of territory use that is, nowadays, selective and uneven. The present work verified the mechanisms where the capital imposes its practices through the agrarian structure and the valuation of land market, meaning, in our knowledge, that the reproduction of inequalities is showed, many times, by the wide land speculation and the fast land valuation. For this, the snip space will be the Sibaúma community, belonging to Tibau do Sul district, located in Rio Grande do Norte state. It‟s a rural area that has, gradually, changing through the advent of urban characteristics, given the association of public and private investments, both domestic and international. Through the empirical observations, inside the Sibaúma community, it was found expansion strategies, incorporation and appropriation of territory by capital. As a result of this practice, it‟s occurring the land valuation and the presence of a process of socio-spatial segregation, through the encouraging the opening of new subdivisions, mainly for construction of second homes and tourism enterprises in order to meet the demand of a higher socioeconomic level. The areas still available in Sibaúma, constitute into a reserve of value for the achievement of capitalist rent, being a mechanism of capital reproduction. In this way, to studying the socio-spatial transformations, caused by spatial valuation, we turn to the project of social space designed by Santos(2006), from the perspective of capitalist production of space, by understanding the historical process of formation, the mechanisms and the actions of social actors that produce and consume space

Investigation of the Network Construction Behaviour on Social Networking Sites

By enabling connections between individuals, Social Networking Sites, such as Facebook, promise to create significant individual as well as social value. Encouraging connections between users is also crucial for service providers who increasingly rely on social advertising and viral marketing campaigns as important sources of their revenue. Consequently, understanding user’s network construction behavior becomes critical. However, previous studies offer only few scattered insights into this research question. In order to fill this gap, we employ Grounded Theory methodology to derive a comprehensive model of network construction behavior on social networking sites. In the following step we assess two Structural Equation Models to gain refined insights into the motivation to send and accept friendship requests – two network expansion strategies. Based on our findings, we offer recommendations for social network providers.

SONIA REGINA PRADO

A dissertação teve como objetivo principal estudar como uma Instituição de Ensino Superior Privada (IES) atuante no Brasil tem crescido pós Lei de Diretrizes e Bases (LDB) de 1996 até 2015, por meio da análise do curso de bacharelado em Administração de Empresas, nas modalidades: presencial, EAD e Flex (semipresencial). Para este fim, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória, de caráter qualitativo baseada no método do estudo de caso. Para coleta de evidências foram analisados relatórios corporativos (Annual Report, Relatórios Internos e outros documentos), entrevistas baseadas em roteiro semiestruturado com gestores da IES privada e observações. Dentre os principais achados, verificou-se que as principais estratégicas de crescimento da IES privada estudada se basearam em fusões e aquisições de outras IES, abertura de novos polos de EAD, na abertura de novas unidades próprias, bem como em inovações em várias dimensões da organização. Os programas governamentais de financiamento aos alunos também são fortes contribuintes para este crescimento, como o Fundo de Financiamento ao Estudante do Ensino Superior (FIES) e o Programa Universidade para Todos (Prouni). Com essa nova realidade, o ensino superior privado recebeu incentivo e facilitação para o seu crescimento, a um ritmo acelerado. Consequentemente pode-se concluir que a IES privada estudada adotou as seguintes estratégias de crescimento: Expansão orgânica com fusões/ aquisições de Instituições menores, com desenvolvimento de planos para todos os campi Brasil; Greenfield (por meio de solicitação de autorização de novas unidades e/ou cursos) em cidades sem possibilidades de aquisições/fusões, e aumentando o número de vagas/ matriculas nas unidades já existentes, aderiu aos programas do governo e também cuidou da evasão por meio de: Seguro educacional; gestão preparada para atender necessidades do discente; Sistema de Ensino com currículos integrados nacionalmente; Intercâmbio de alunos e professores entre as diversas unidades em todas as regiões do país e padronização dos processos.

ESTRATÉGIAS DE EXPANSÃO DE INSTITUIÇÕES DE ENSINO SUPERIOR PRIVADAS NO BRASIL: ESTUDO DE CASO DO CURSO DE BACHARELADO EM ADMINISTRAÇÃO

A dissertação teve como objetivo principal estudar como uma Instituição de Ensino Superior Privada (IES) atuante no Brasil tem crescido pós Lei de Diretrizes e Bases (LDB) de 1996 até 2015, por meio da análise do curso de bacharelado em Administração de Empresas, nas modalidades: presencial, EAD e Flex (semipresencial). Para este fim, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratória, de caráter qualitativo baseada no método do estudo de caso. Para coleta de evidências foram analisados relatórios corporativos (Annual Report, Relatórios Internos e outros documentos), entrevistas baseadas em roteiro semiestruturado com gestores da IES privada e observações. Dentre os principais achados, verificou-se que as principais estratégicas de crescimento da IES privada estudada se basearam em fusões e aquisições de outras IES, abertura de novos polos de EAD, na abertura de novas unidades próprias, bem como em inovações em várias dimensões da organização. Os programas governamentais de financiamento aos alunos também são fortes contribuintes para este crescimento, como o Fundo de Financiamento ao Estudante do Ensino Superior (FIES) e o Programa Universidade para Todos (Prouni). Com essa nova realidade, o ensino superior privado recebeu incentivo e facilitação para o seu crescimento, a um ritmo acelerado. Consequentemente pode-se concluir que a IES privada estudada adotou as seguintes estratégias de crescimento: Expansão orgânica com fusões/ aquisições de Instituições menores, com desenvolvimento de planos para todos os campi Brasil; Greenfield (por meio de solicitação de autorização de novas unidades e/ou cursos) em cidades sem possibilidades de aquisições/fusões, e aumentando o número de vagas/ matriculas nas unidades já existentes, aderiu aos programas do governo e também cuidou da evasão por meio de: Seguro educacional; gestão preparada para atender necessidades do discente; Sistema de Ensino com currículos integrados nacionalmente; Intercâmbio de alunos e professores entre as diversas unidades em todas as regiões do país e padronização dos processos.

Mergers and acquisitions as strategies of business expansion in the pharmaceutical industry

Introduction: The present paper deals with the issue of the increasing usage of corporation mergers and acquisitions strategies within pharmaceutical industry environment. The aim is to identify the triggers of such business phenomenon and the immediate impact on the financial outcome of two powerful biopharmaceutical corporations: Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, which have been sampled due to their successful approach of the tactics in question. Materials and Methods: In order to create an overview of the development steps through mergers and acquisitions, the historical data of the two corporations has been consulted, from their official websites. The most relevant events were then associated with adequate information from the financial reports and statements of the two corporations indulged by web-based financial data providers. Results and Discussions: In the past few decades Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have purchased or merged with various companies in order to monopolize new markets, diversify products and services portfolios, survive and surpass competitors. The consequences proved to be positive although this approach implies certain capital availability. Conclusions: Results reveal the fact that, as far as the two sampled companies are concerned, acquisitions and mergers are reactions at the pressure of the highly competitive environment. Moreover, the continuous diversification of the market’s needs is also a consistent motive. However, the prevalence and the eminence of mergers and acquisition strategies are conditioned by the tender offer, the announcer’s caliber, research and development status and further other factors determined by the internal and external actors of the market.

Movement-related potentials in Parkinson's disease: External cues and attentional strategies

Hypokinetic movement can be greatly improved in Parkinson's disease patients by the provision of external cues to guide movement. It has recently been reported, however, that movement performance in parkinsonian patients can be similarly improved in the absence of external cues by using attentional strategies, whereby patients are instructed to consciously attend to particular aspects of the movement which would normally be controlled automatically. To study the neurophysiological basis of such improvements in performance associated with the use of attentional strategies, movement-related cortical potentials were examined in Parkinson's disease and control subjects using a reaction time paradigm. One group of subjects were explicitly instructed to concentrate on internally timed responses to anticipate the presentation of a predictably timed go signal. Other subjects were given no such instruction regarding attentional strategies. Early-stage premovement activity of movement-related potentials was significantly increased in amplitude and reaction times were significantly faster for Parkinson's disease subjects when instructed to direct their attention toward internally generating responses rather than relying on external cues. It is therefore suggested that the use of attentional strategies may allow movement to be mediated by less automatic and more conscious attentional motor control processes which may be less impaired by basal ganglia dysfunction, and thereby improve movement performance in Parkinson's disease.

Staffing strategies in SME's: determinants of external recruitment and internal promotion

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of use internal or external labour market to fill a firm vacancy in SME’s taking into account the differences existing among blue and white collar jobs. Following different theories we can identify three main reasons for use internal candidates rather than external ones‐ firm specific knowledge, adverse selection problems and motivation‐. However, there are others factors that might affect this choice but the last theories don’t take into account. In this paper we try to shed some light on what are these other factors that may affect firm decision to use internal or external labour market. Particularly we analyses the relationship among new technologies, innovation activity and firm location on the staffing strategy. The results shows difference behaviour on the decision to fill a vacancy using internal or external labour markets between manufacturing and service firms, and this decision depends not only on firm internal characteristics, like technological complexity or innovation activity, but also on firm location. The results also support the hypothesis of ports of entry especially in the manufacturing sector.

STRATEGIES TO SURPASS THE VULNERABILITY OF THE SMALL ISLAND STATES WITH FEW RESOURCES: THE CASE OF CAPE VERDE

The problem of small Island Developing States (SIDS) is quite recent, end of the 80s and 90s, still looking for a theoretical consolidation. SIDS, as small states in development, formed by one or several islands geographically dispersed, present reduced population, market, territory, natural resources, including drinkable water, and, in great number of the cases, low level of economic activity, factors that together, hinder the gathering of scale economies. To these diseconomies they come to join the more elevated costs in transports and communications which, allies to lower productivities, to a smaller quality and diversification of its productions, which difficult its integration in the world economy. In some SIDS these factors are not dissociating of the few investments in infrastructures, in the formation of human resources and in productive investments, just as it happens in most of the developing countries. In ecological terms, many of them with shortage of natural resources, but integrating important ecosystems in national and world terms, but with great fragility relatively to the pollution action, of excessive fishing, of uncontrolled development of tourism, factors that, conjugated and associated to the stove effect, condition the climate and the slope of the medium level of the sea water and therefore could put in cause the own survival of some of them. The drive to the awareness of the international community towards its problems summed up with the accomplishment by the United Nations in the Barbados’s Conference, 1994 where the right to the development was emphasized, through the going up the appropriate strategies and the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of the SIDS. The orientation of the regional and international cooperation in that sense, sharing technology (namely clean technology and control and administration environmental technology), information and creation of capacity-building, supplying means, including financial resources, creating non discriminatory and just trade rules, it would drive to the establishment of a world system economically more equal, in which the production, the consumption, the pollution levels, the demographic politics were guided towards the sustainability. It constituted an important step for the recognition for the international community on the specificities of those states and it allowed the definition of a group of norms and politics to implement at the national, regional and international level and it was important that they continued in the sense of the sustainable development. But this Conference had in its origin previous summits: the Summit of Rio de Janeiro about Environment and Development, accomplished in 1992, which left an important document - the Agenda 21, in the Conference of Stockholm at 1972 and even in the Conference of Ramsar, 1971 about “Wetlands.” CENTRO DE ESTUDOS AFRICANOS Occasional Papers © CEA - Centro de Estudos Africanos 4 Later, the Valletta Declaration, Malta, 1998, the Forum of Small States, 2002, get the international community's attention for the problems of SIDS again, in the sense that they act to increase its resilience. If the definition of “vulnerability” was the inability of the countries to resist economical, ecological and socially to the external shocks and “resilience” as the potential for them to absorb and minimize the impact of those shocks, presenting a structure that allows them to be little affected by them, a part of the available studies, dated of the 90s, indicate that the SIDS are more vulnerable than the other developing countries. The vulnerability of SIDS results from the fact the they present an assemblage of characteristics that turns them less capable of resisting or they advance strategies that allow a larger resilience to the external shocks, either anthropogenic (economical, financial, environmental) or even natural, connected with the vicissitudes of the nature. If these vulnerability factors were grouped with the expansion of the economic capitalist system at world level, the economic and financial globalisation, the incessant search of growing profits on the part of the multinational enterprises, the technological accelerated evolution drives to a situation of disfavour of the more poor. The creation of the resilience to the external shocks, to the process of globalisation, demands from SIDS and of many other developing countries the endogen definition of strategies and solid but flexible programs of integrated development. These must be assumed by the instituted power, but also by the other stakeholders, including companies and organizations of the civil society and for the population in general. But that demands strong investment in the formation of human resources, in infrastructures, in investigation centres; it demands the creation capacity not only to produce, but also to produce differently and do international marketing. It demands institutional capacity. Cape Verde is on its way to this stage.