How culture influences the way entrepreneurs deal with uncertainty in inter-organizational relationships: the case of returnee versus local entrepreneurs in China

Entrepreneurship is widely associated with uncertainty that stems from inter-organizational relationships. The concept of uncertainty, however, has mostly been analyzed as a uni-variate variable that addresses perceived environmental uncertainty. In this conceptual paper we analyze the concept of uncertainty stemming from inter-organizational relationships in the entrepreneurial context as a multivariate concept, utilizing Milliken's framework, which examines uncertainty by differentiating between state, effect and response uncertainty. Cultural influences are critical in determining how entrepreneurs perceive, analyze and deal with uncertainty in inter-organizational situations. By using illustrative cases of returnee versus local entrepreneurs in China, we propose that entrepreneurs influenced by Western cultures tend to treat state uncertainty as a focal change event, whereas entrepreneurs from Eastern cultures are more likely to consider the contextual factors; entrepreneurs influenced by Western cultures tend to limit effect uncertainty in the professional work setting by looking at cause-effect in an analytical way, whereas entrepreneurs from Eastern cultures are more likely to look at effect uncertainty beyond work; and entrepreneurs influenced by Western cultures tend to respond to perceived uncertainty by analytical-strategic thinking, whereas entrepreneurs from Eastern cultures are more likely to connect multiple factors holistically and to react to uncertainty by engaging the wider community. We argue that in a globalizing world it is pertinent for entrepreneurs who operate in the international environment to have a better understanding of the various facets of uncertainty and how these are related to culture when dealing with inter-organizational relationships

Motivacions i barreres en la població de Canovelles de 65 a 84 anys al Complex Esportiu Municipal Thalassa

Curs 2013-2014El present estudi s’emmarca en una investigació centrada en les persones grans de 65 a 84 anys del municipi de Canovelles. L’objectiu d’aquesta recerca és conèixer les principals motivacions i barreres d’aquest col·lectiu a l’hora d’anar al Complex Esportiu Municipal – Thalassa. Lligat amb els objectius marcats, la finalitat és relacionar els resultats amb possibles propostes de millora, per tal de minimitzar les barreres i potenciar les motivacions. Per obtenir els resultats s’ha passat un qüestionari a 40 persones demanant les raons per les quals van o no al complex. Un cop analitzats podem extreure, a tall de conclusions, que la principal motivació va relacionada amb temes de salut i la principal barrera amb temes econòmic, el cost mensual de la instal·lació per un abonat.The present study examines an investigation focused on elderly population within the range of 65 and 84 years of age in the town of Canovelles. The aim of this study is a better understanding of the main motivations and barriers of this elderly group when attending Complex Esportiu Municipal – Thalassa. Connected to the established goals, the purpose is to correlate the results with possible proposals of improvement so that the barriers are minimized and the motivations are strengthened. In order to obtain the results, a questionnaire was administered to 40 different people asking for the reasons for which they decide to go or not to the complex. Once analyzed, we could conclude that the main motivation is related to health benefits and that the main barrier is related to the monthly membership fees of the establishment

Estudi comparatiu de combinacions de dosis fixes enfront a dosis lliures en el control de la tensió arterial, factors que determinen el seu ús i impacte assistencial sanitari

Es tracta d'un estudi de cohorts prospectiu històric que pretén comparar l'ús de combinacions de dosis lliures enfront a les combinacions de dosis fixes en el control de la tensió arterial pel que fa a eficàcia i assoliment dels objectius terapèutics per al tractament d'aquesta patologia tan prevalent a les societats desenvolupades, així com comparar l'impacte econòmico-sanitari que comporten una i altra pel que fa a número de visites mèdiques, d'infermeria i número d'analítiques que es requereixen en cada estratègia. L'estudi també pretén analitzar els factors que determinen l'ús d'unes o altres en el tractament de la hipertensió arterial

Utilitat del holter de 72 hores a la pràctica clínica habitual

Objectiu: Estudiar les diferències d'augmentar el temps de registre de 24 a 72 hores en holters Material i mètodes: Estudi de cohorts retrospectiu. S'analitzen les dades de 56 pacients consecutius de març del 2009 fins al desembre del 2011. Resultats i Conclusions: Allargar el temps de registre fins les 72 hores augmenta el nombre de diagnòstics en un 17,8%. En la sospita de fibril·lació auricular allargar el temps de registre resulta útil en un 42,9% dels estudis; en el mareig en un 20% i en la síncope en un 14,3%. Els nous diagnòstics detectats són potencialment greu

Tecnomatix: A Born Global Company

In the beginning of 2004, Tecnomatix Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: TCNO), the driving force in Manufacturing Process Management (MPM), announced a global agreement with Ford, a major automotive manufacturer. The agreement to implement Tecnomatix MPM solutions throughout the customer's manufacturing operations worldwide represented an expansion of an existing relationship with this manufacturer and was expected to generate total revenues in excess of US$50 million over the next four years. At the beginning of 2004 Tecnomatix, an Israel-based high-tech company, held a staggering 70% market share (over 2,000 clients) in the MPM market together with its strategic partner, EDS. Although the company reported a net loss in 2003, it had sufficient cash reserves that would allow it to continue operations without needing external funding for the down period

Scitex: A Company At A Crossroads

Scitex is one of the first Israeli high tech firms that succeeded internationally and it was an Israeli pioneer regarding the floatation of the firm on NASDEQ.  Scitex made an international name for itself in the 1980’s by selling prepress systems to major publishers worldwide.  The prepress system developed by Scitex allowed printers to prepare material for print in a digital way, thereby expanding printing options and allowing accurate printing of color pictures.  While Scitex was very successful during the late 1980’s and the beginning of the 1990’s, its financial ratios had declined during the 1990’s and stockholders had shown their dissatisfaction. During the 1990’s, Israel had become a leading force in the high-tech world; the country had become part of the “New Economy” in which “Exposing Value” was the motto.  The Board of Directors demanded that Scitex adapt itself to the rules of the new economy in its plans for the future.  Rimon Ben-Shaul, Chairman of the Board, contemplated his response to the request of the Board, which would soon demand an answer. At the end of this case study, the students are required to make recommendations to the Scitex Board of Directors in late 1999 on how to continue “unveiling the company’s value”, in light of the reining “New Economy” business models and expectations.  Several options are raised in the text – (1) issuing stock for each SBU separately; (2) uniting functions and operations where possible between the SBU’s; (3) M&A with another player in the digital printing industry.  The students may choose one of the options, a different option not mentioned in the text, or any combinations of the above-mentioned options.  Without the benefit of hindsight, this dilemma has no right or wrong answers.  The students are asked to justify one or more of these strategic alternatives.  Their justification should be based on solid evidence presented in the case or on additional data collected on the Internet for from others resources.  They should consider the advantages and disadvantages of their alternatives and conceive a plan that will minimize the apparent risks, while taking full advantage of the alternatives’ growth and profit potential, as well as pleasing the company’s stockholders, which were to be a key consideration in deciding upon the company’s future. The case study allows for a SBU analysis of the core unit, as well as an analysis of the corporate strategy and portfolio management of the company.  It allows students to discuss the different strategic options open to management and recommend one of them.  The case study is suitable for MBA students who study business strategy, corporate strategy, or international business.  Teaching notes can be requested form the author

Enhancement and suppression effects resulting from information structuring in sentences

Information structuring through the use of cleft sentences increases the processing efficiency of references to elements within the scope of focus. Furthermore, there is evidence that putting certain types of emphasis on individual words not only enhances their subsequent processing, but also protects these words from becoming suppressed in the wake of subsequent information, suggesting mechanisms of enhancement and suppression. In Experiment 1, we showed that clefted constructions facilitate the integration of subsequent sentences that make reference to elements within the scope of focus, and that they decrease the efficiency with reference to elements outside of the scope of focus. In Experiment 2, using an auditory text-change-detection paradigm, we showed that focus has similar effects on the strength of memory representations. These results add to the evidence for enhancement and suppression as mechanisms of sentence processing and clarify that the effects occur within sentences having a marked focus structure

Agentive linguistic framing affects responsibility assignments toward AIs and their creators

Tech companies often use agentive language to describe their AIs (e.g., The Google Blog claims that, “Gemini can understand, explain and generate high-quality code,”). Psycholinguistic research has shown that violating animacy hierarchies by putting a nonhuman in this agentive subject position (i.e., grammatical metaphor) influences readers to perceive it as a causal agent. However, it is not yet known how this affects readers’ responsibility assignments toward AIs or the companies that make them. Furthermore, it is not known whether this effect relies on psychological anthropomorphism, or a more limited set of linguistic causal schemas. We investigated these questions by having participants read a short vignette in which “Dr. AI” gave dangerous health advice in one of two framing conditions (AI as Agent vs. AI as Instrument). Participants then rated how responsible the AI, the company, and the patients were for the outcome, and their own AI experience. We predicted that participants would assign more responsibility to the AI in the Agent condition, and that lower AI experience participants would assign higher responsibility to the AI because they would be more likely to anthropomorphize it. The results confirmed these predictions; we found an interaction between linguistic framing condition and AI experience such that lower AI experience participants assigned higher responsibility to the AI in the Agent condition than in the Instrument condition (z = 2.13, p = 0.032) while higher AI experience participants did not. Our findings suggest that the effects of agentive linguistic framing toward non-humans are decreased by domain experience because it decreases anthropomorphism

La pareja: Proyecto de exposición

[ES] El presente trabajo es un proyecto de exposición con el tema de la pareja como eje fundamental y la pintura, la escultura y la fotografía como medios. El proyecto expositivo analiza la relación de pareja desde el punto de vista de la compatibilidad, la complicidad, la convivencia, la cotidianeidad, la complementariedad, la compañía, los sentimientos, el romanticismo, la atracción, la pasión y los conflictos entre dos personas adultas. El principal objetivo de este proyecto es de tipo práctico: producir una serie de obras dentro de un proyecto personal de exposición, con la finalidad de elaborar un material susceptible de ser presentado a espacios o galerías. Tenemos la intención de realizar una exposición individual, de una serie de pinturas, esculturas y fotografías relacionadas con el tema de la relación de pareja.[EN] The present work is an exhibition project with the theme of the couple as the fundamental axis and painting, sculpture and photography as media. The exhibition project analyzes the couple's relationship from the point of view of compatibility, complicity, coexistence, daily life, complementarity, company, feelings, romanticism, attraction, passion and conflicts between two adults. . The main objective of this project is of a practical nature: to produce a series of works within a personal exhibition project, in order to elaborate a material that can be presented to spaces or galleries. We intend to make a solo exhibition of a series of paintings, sculptures and photographs related to the theme of the couple relationship.Almor Llopis, C. (2021). La pareja: Proyecto de exposición. Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/170920TFG