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The purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors that influence price adaptation in export markets.

The conceptual model was tested empirically using data collected by mail questionnaire in a sample survey of 140 firms. The results were analysed using structural equation modelling and the method of estimation was maximum likelihood (ML). Various statistical tests show that the results were reliable and valid.

The results reported here suggest that while controlling for the size of the firm, the degree of price adaptation is strongly influenced and conditioned by the degree of product, promotion, and distribution adaptation as well as by the differences that exist between the home and the foreign market.

Despite calls for research on the adaptation of pricing in export markets little headway has been made in understanding the issue in the literature. This study adds to the limited empirical research work done in this area. Although past research points to a link between product adaptation and price adaptation and between distribution adaptation and price adaptation, empirical research that includes simultaneously the link between the three elements of the marketing mix (product, promotion, and distribution adaptation) and price adaptation is largely missing in the literature. These relationships have been tested in this paper and found to be relevant to the understanding of pricing in international markets.

A corrosion research laboratory that introduces important new means of accurately determining the corrosion rate on all metals was recently opened by The Carpenter Steel Co., Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The new laboratory enables the company to predict more precisely the area of usefulness of stainless and other corrosion‐resisting steels. In addition, it permits thorough examination of titanium, zirconium and nickel base alloys.

A dense urban structure cuts down traffic emissions. It also promotes waste heat use and storage possibilities as a form of district heating. However, quality elements associated with detached houses, such as tranquillity and self-expression possibilities, may be lost. Better building quality and alternatives to private car use can enable these elements in smaller spaces, which is assessed here. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A technology set for an imaginary high-quality (HQ) apartment house is discussed by assessing increased embedded energy of the building structure, due to the HQ measures. HQ solutions include visual barriers, increased sound insulation, roof terraces, large windows, apartment adaptability, bike sheds, electrical cargo bikes and advanced energy solutions.

The increased construction and heating energy use in HQ buildings can be offset if car use is reduced by 10-15 per cent. There is a greater possibility of achieving this reduction if HQ housing can make urban densification more readily acceptable by demonstrating, that good quality housing can exist both in smaller building lots as well as in smaller apartments.

The quality issue brings a novel perspective to estimating the environmental impacts of built environment solutions. The approach here is quite simple, but the issue can be discussed more. That is, how much total resource input can be decreased, if the target is not to produce square metres but rather the necessary elements to have a good quality of life.

Rockwell Automation's Allen-Bradley division was considering how to deal with the threat posed by national distributors in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) business for its industrial automation products. National distributors were consolidating the MRO distribution channel, offering national account customers an integrated multichannel solution for their MRO needs. Allen-Bradley had traditionally served its customers through high-touch, high-value-added local distributors, but this channel was inadequate for the demands of large MRO customers. An effort by Allen-Bradley and other manufacturers to create an industry-wide electronic sourcing consortium called SourceAlliance.com had failed. Now the company had to choose between redesigning its traditional channel by creating a virtual network of local distributors, striking an alliance with a national distributor, or withdrawing from the MRO market. It had to contend with difficult channel conflict issues in choosing a channel strategy.

To analyze the competitive strategy of a company serving the MRO market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of capital structure using a dataset of firms in Malaysia.

This paper carries out a panel data analysis of 8,270 observations from 827 listed non-financial firms on the Malaysia stock market over the period 2008–2017. To estimate the model and analyse the data collected from the DataStream and World Bank databases, the authors use static panel estimation techniques as well as two-step difference and system dynamic GMM estimator.

The results show that profitability, growth opportunity, tax-shield, liquidity and cash flow volatility have a negative and significant impact on debt measures. However, the effects of collateral, non-debt tax and earnings volatility on measures of debt are positive and significant. In addition, firm size, firm age, inflation rate and interest rate are important determinants of the present value of debt. The results also show a significant inverse U-shaped relationship between the firm's age and its capital structure. In general, the results support the proposition advocated by the pecking order and trade-off theories.

The results of this study necessitate formulation of various policy measures that can counter the effects of debt on firms.

The present study is among the earliest to use both the book and market value measures of capital structure. It also uses three proxies for each: total debt, long-term debt and short-term debt. It incorporates earning volatility and cash flow volatility as new independent variables in the model. These variables have not previously been used together with both book and market value measures of capital structure. The study also examines the non-monotonic relationship between firm's age and capital structure using a quadratic regression method. It applies both static panel techniques and dynamic GMM estimation techniques to analyse the data.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the inability of the Japanese higher education system to adapt to widespread unexpected disruption. The limited metrics available to assess Japanese higher education’s response in the wake of the pandemic indicate several areas where the system needs to be strengthened. This paper aims to harness the ecological perspective to explore the procedures by which higher education in Japan can mitigate extant digital shortcomings.

Leveraging Zhao and Frank’s ecological perspective as its theoretical model, this paper proposes practical solutions to remedy deficiencies highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic rooted in existing literature both within and outside of Japanese higher education research.

The paper suggests pragmatic ideas to embolden each of the three strata encompassing the educational “ecosystem”: institutions, faculty and students. The paper identifies measures for strengthening institutions to become more adaptive and improve leadership capacity. At the faculty level, meanwhile, an increase in professional development opportunities and the bolstering of support systems may function to bridge an intergenerational digital divide. Finally, for students, the authors argue for mobile-assisted language learning in an effort to cultivate stronger learner outcomes, and prescribe how to integrate this method into formal IT platforms.

The current paper is among a select few that use the ecological perspective in the field of educational research in Japan. The authors contend that the model, while effective, offers an incomplete view of education, suggesting that the ecological perspective must be expanded to include students as a distinct species.

The purpose of this paper is to explore theoretical connections between the cognitive consequences of power on self-perception and the behaviours of leaders.

A systematic literature review was carried out to investigate the psychological consequences of power in terms of self-perception, perspective taking abilities, emotions and behaviours. The literature reviewed is further integrated in a theoretical model, and a series of propositions suggesting a relation between power, perspective taking, self-construal and leadership are introduced.

This paper argues that power creates both temporary and enduring cognitive changes that transform the way individuals assimilate and differentiate their self from others. This transforms the way individuals in power behave as leaders, as well as followers. Individuals’ self-construal and perspective taking seem to play a mediating role in determining the behaviours of powerful and powerless individuals. This relation is moderated by organizational culture and structure, as well as personality traits.

Further research is needed to test these propositions, including the existence of cross-cultural differences in the power – self-construal relation, and the consequences of holding different types of power on an individual's self-construal. For employees and consultants working in organizational development and organizational change, understanding the potential consequences of power in terms of self-perception will improve the understanding of promoting individuals to higher positions. The present research also bears implications for scholars interested in understanding cross-cultural and gender differences in leadership.

This conceptualization of self-construal as an interface between power and leadership reconcile the individual dynamics of trait theories of leadership and the environmental positions of situational theories of leadership. The paper discusses elements considered critical for design of leadership programs in the workplace, professional development and programs to shape the design of leadership.