The effect of operational flexibility on decisions to withdraw from foreign production locations

Research on international divestment has identified a variety of factors that influence the closure of individual subsidiaries. Drawing on the concept of operational flexibility, this paper investigates the flexibility characteristics of an international production network to predict divestments of elements of this network. The analysis of 596 production locations of 189 German manufacturing firms reveals that the decision to divest a foreign location due to rising and uncertain labor costs is moderated by the ease of dismissing workers and the opportunity to shift production to locations with opposite labor cost developments. Furthermore, the results suggest that the costs of increasing production output moderate the influence of labor cost developments in the remaining locations of the network on the decision to withdraw from a location.     

Development and government policies of the shrimp farming industry in Thailand in relation to mangrove ecosystems

Intensive shrimp farming arrived in Thailand during the 1980s and developed virtually unregulated until 1987. Subsidised by the government, it quickly became an important export industry and Thailand has been the world's largest producer of tiger shrimp since 1991. However, the development of the shrimp farming industry in Thailand over the last 20 years in relation to its use of mangrove ecosystems is an example of sequential exploitation of natural resources witnessed through the shift in farm development from one region to another. This sequential exploitation has caused widespread degradation of mangrove ecosystems, and the benefits of the industry may be less than perceived as a result of subsidies and environmental and social impacts. This study follows the development of shrimp farming in Thailand from the 1940s to 1997 and studies national legislation and associated government policy as examples of driving forces behind this development. From our findings it appears that the development of legislation has not followed the same pace as the development of the industry, neither temporally, nor in content nor implementation, and contradictory policies have arisen.     

Sensitivity and specificity of the Mini-Mental State Examination in the Mexican population

The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a rapid, easy-to-administer test for the assessment of cognition functions. It is widely used in clinical practice and in applied research. In this study, we aimed to establish a standard for the Mexican population similar to the ones produced for other relevant populations. We also analysed the effects of demographic variables which regularly induce bias in responses on performance tests, and then, on the basis of the results, implemented a series of corrections to the MMSE to compensate for the usual effects of age and years of formal education. We thus generated a new scale, the adjusted MMSE (AMMSE). We established the maximum sensitivity point to discriminate between the normal population and subjects diagnosed with dementia (vascular and Alzheimer’s). The study provides sensitivity and specificity estimates of this subject-standardized tool in order to reduce the probability of false positives and negatives in the Mexican population.     

Women caring for pre-school children in the USA*

Les mesures prises aux USA pour les enfants d'âge préscolaire et leurs parents, surtout les mères, font l'objet de cette étude. Les mesures sociales, pédagogiques et fiscales qui ont été, soit débattues, soit développées par le gouvernement fédéral dans les deux dernières décennies, y sont discutées. Elles montrent les présomptions qui étayent la politique de l'état vis-à-vis des femmes dans une société capitaliste avancée. La division sexuelle et sociale du travail, qui est une des clefs de l'économie capitaliste, se voit renforcée par des mesures en faveur de la ‘famille’ et en particulier des femmes qui doivent s'occuper d'enfants d'âge préscolaire. Néanmoins, à tout moment, les femmes peuvent se voir attribuer différents rôles, à la fois au sein du système économique et â la maison, selon les besoins en main-d'?uvre de l'économie. Elles peuvent donc être encouragées à prendre un travail rémunéré, ou au contraire sanctionnées. Durant la période étudiée, les femmes des classes moyennes étaient pourvues, mais celles de la classe ouvrière, et surtout les mères seules, sans source de support financier, ont été forcées de trouver du travail. En même temps, les femmes sont restées les gardiennes principales des enfants d'âge préscolaire.     

Innovationskommunikation 2.0 — Das Beispiel Apple iPhone

Zusammenfassung  Das iPhone ist laut TIME Magazine die Innovation des Jahres 2007. über das innovative Telefon wurde intensiv in den digitalen und analogen Medien berichtet. Apple schaffte es im Gegensatz zu vielen Konkurrenten durch eine gezielte Innovationskommunikation bei potenziellen K?ufern bereits weit vor der offiziellen Markteinführung Wissen über den Namen, das Design und die Funktionalit?ten des iPhones aufzubauen.