The cool chain, which has been developing rapidly in the produce sector over the past two years, allows products to be harvested at optimum maturity and taken through to…
Abstract
The cool chain, which has been developing rapidly in the produce sector over the past two years, allows products to be harvested at optimum maturity and taken through to supermarket shelves under controlled core temperatures. This is an abridged version of the paper presented by John Saphir to the IGD Convention on physical distribution at Stratford‐on‐Avon in September.
Earlier in the year, during the national steel industry strike, the House of Lords overturned a judgment of Lord Denning, MR, that sections of the industry unaffected by the trade…
Abstract
Earlier in the year, during the national steel industry strike, the House of Lords overturned a judgment of Lord Denning, MR, that sections of the industry unaffected by the trade dispute could be regarded as outside the Act and its amendments and that unions could be restrained in their application of immune activities to those firms. The decision apart, their Lordships in delivering judgment reaffirmed that only Parliament had power to make the Law; it was not the function of Judges to do this, their's to interpret and apply the Law. In strict legal terms and applying to statutes and statutory instruments, this is true; but in the widest sense, judges have been making law for centuries. Otherwise, from whence cometh the Common Law, one of the wonders of the world, if not from the mouths of H.M. Judges. Much of it is now enshrined in statute form, especially Criminal Law, but initially it was all judge‐made. In most systems of human control and function, complete separation is rarely possible and when attempted the results have not been conspicuously successful.
The transformation of Manders plc from a paints, property and printing inks company to a leading world player in printing inks began in January 1994 when it sold its decorative…
Abstract
The transformation of Manders plc from a paints, property and printing inks company to a leading world player in printing inks began in January 1994 when it sold its decorative paints business to Johnstone's Paints plc (part of the Total group) for £52 million. It then acquired the inks and coatings business from Croda for £27 million and sold Croda its industrial coatings business. This deal included the new state‐of‐the‐art water‐based liquid ink plant in Winschoten, The Netherlands. In June 1994 this was followed by the £38 million purchase of Premier Inks in 's‐Gravenzande and Deurne, The Netherlands. The result has been to make Manders plc the fastest growing ‘ink company in the world, according to chief executive Roger Akers, and Manders Premier the European market leader in the technology, of heatset inks. Pigment & Resin Technology's technical editor, John Bean, recently visited the 's‐Gravenzande factory and R&D centre to bring back this report.
Benoît Freyens and Marguerite Martin
Training multimedia projects often face identical knowledge‐transfer obstacles that partly originate in the multidisciplinarity of the project team. The purpose of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
Training multimedia projects often face identical knowledge‐transfer obstacles that partly originate in the multidisciplinarity of the project team. The purpose of this paper is to describe these difficulties and the tools used to overcome them. In particular, the aim is to show how elements of cognitive psychology theory (concept maps, semantic networks) and instructional theory (the Gagné taxonomy) combined with mainstream epistemological research help formalise and transmit industrial knowledge through the design of training multimedia.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports on action research spanning over ten years, taking stock of the experience gathered through 15 training multimedia projects in three large European organisations and their subsidiaries. Knowledge formalisation and transfer methods are illustrated with various examples and industrial applications.
Findings
Provided certain conditions and criteria are respected, these tools help unlock various knowledge transfer barriers specific to multidisciplinary training multimedia projects, not only by contributing to tacit knowledge elicitation and codification into the training multimedia resource, but also by providing an interdisciplinary communication vector.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is not concerned with issues such as collaborative use or multidisciplinary support for remote learning platforms, which offer a possible way to extend the analysis.
Practical implications
The knowledge formalisation methods presented in this paper can be applied to any form of project aimed at transferring intra‐disciplinary industrial knowledge within an organisation. In addition, education and training professionals (ETPs) constitute the pivotal element in this process and as such are indispensable to the successful implementation of training multimedia projects.
Originality/value
There is little existing research on knowledge transfer problems intrinsic to multidisciplinary team working in training multimedia projects. The article sheds light on these issues by putting together hitherto unconnected elements of conceptual analysis, which arose from fieldwork.
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At every period of time marked by years, the seasons by turns and twists in history, among country folk especially, the years of great storms and hard winters; in law enforcement…
Abstract
At every period of time marked by years, the seasons by turns and twists in history, among country folk especially, the years of great storms and hard winters; in law enforcement, the passing of some far‐reaching, profound statutory measure, there is this almost universal tendency to look back—over your shoulder‐assessing changes, progressive or otherwise, discerning trends and assaying prospects. We are about to emerge from the seventies—battered but unbowed!—into the new decade of the eighties, perhaps with a feeling that things can only get better.
The construction programmes of developing countries have constituted a significant part of the international construction market. However, while international contractors seek to…
Abstract
The construction programmes of developing countries have constituted a significant part of the international construction market. However, while international contractors seek to exploit these opportunities, the host nations also wish to develop their construction industries over time. This paper shows how conflicting objectives of international contractors and host countries can be correlated for mutual benefit. It outlines strategies adopted by international construction enterprises and contrasts the approaches they adopt in industrialised countries with those in developing ones. It then compares the objectives of international construction enterprises to those of host countries. It uses Singapore's experience to illustrate likely future developments in the construction industries of emerging countries. Finally, it offers suitable approaches that international and local construction enterprises, and governments, should adopt at various stages of development of host countries' construction industries.
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A. Al‐Zu'bi, G. Crowther and G. Worsdale
Based on father‐child dyadic responses, this paper is aimed at revising and validating the scales of fathers' communication structures, identifying Jordanian fathers'…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on father‐child dyadic responses, this paper is aimed at revising and validating the scales of fathers' communication structures, identifying Jordanian fathers' communication structures and patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on two different studies, group interviews face‐to‐face, self‐administered questionnaires and drop‐off self‐administered questionnaires were respectively employed to solicit young children's and fathers' responses. While the first study (n=100) depended on convenience sampling procedures, proportionate stratified random sampling technique that relied on young children of ages 8‐12 was conducted to select the participants of the second study (n=916). Fathers' consent on the participation of their young children in the group interviews was obtained before collecting data.
Findings
Children of ages 8‐12 can precisely perceive family communication patterns (FCP) as adolescents and mothers. The influence of culture on fathers' communication structures and patterns is not clear. Jordanian fathers are principally classified as pluralistic fathers in their communication related to consumption issues and there is significant association between fathers' consumer socialisation goals and their communication structures and patterns.
Research limitations/implications
The development of fathers' communication dimensions was based on a single‐country study and the two research samples were restricted to the public schools of Amman metropolitan.
Practical implications
Marketers can directly target Jordanian children in their advertising campaigns since children are more likely to make their own purchasing decisions. The marketers may focus on young children in their promotion campaigns to influence the family decision making related to products and services since their fathers adopt concept‐oriented communication structures.
Originality/value
An important contribution of this study is that neither fathers' communication structures nor young children's perceptions were previously used in revising and validating the scales of family communication structures and patterns at the level of collectivistic or individualistic cultures.
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Torgeir Aleti, Linda Brennan and Lukas Parker
This paper aims to offer an interrogation for the purposes of theoretical clarity, precision and validity. Family communication patterns (FCPs) about consumption is a commonly…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to offer an interrogation for the purposes of theoretical clarity, precision and validity. Family communication patterns (FCPs) about consumption is a commonly used measure in consumer socialisation. However, it has not been properly assessed for validity in marketing since it was developed in the 1970s. Previously developed and commonly used scales were used to examine communication styles and communication quality to test whether these older measures were still valid and applicable to the modern consumer context.
Design/methodology/approach
Critique of extant measures suggested the need for a more precise and contemporary conceptualisation of family communication about consumption. A new conceptualisation was then empirically tested using a psychometric theory approach to scale development. By using a dyadic design, family communication between parents and young adult children in 180 families was examined.
Findings
The early concepts are now outdated and do not readily translate into current language and family interaction styles. The terms “socio-” and “concept-orientation” no longer convey the essence of family communication. Contemporary families perceive “socio-oriented” communication as controlling and negative, while “concept-orientation” is seen as encouraging and positive. Thus, the dimensions are more purposefully labelled as encouraging and controlling family communication. A new typology of family communication styles (FCSs) was developed.
Originality/value
A new, empirically tested, four-quadrant matrix of FCSs based on consumer socialisation theories is put forward. This includes four distinct communication styles within families, namely permissive (low encouraging and low controlling), prohibitive (low encouraging and high controlling), pluralistic (high encouraging and low controlling) and protective (high encouraging and high controlling) FCSs.
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Rohit Pradhan and Robert Weech-Maldonado
Private equity has acquired multiple large nursing home chains within the past few years; by 2007, it owned 6 of the 10 largest chains. Despite widespread public and policy…
Abstract
Private equity has acquired multiple large nursing home chains within the past few years; by 2007, it owned 6 of the 10 largest chains. Despite widespread public and policy interest, evidence on the purported impact of private equity on nursing home performance is limited. In our review, we begin by briefly reviewing the organizational and environmental changes in the nursing home industry that facilitated private equity investments. We offer a conceptual framework to hypothesize the relationship between private equity ownership and nursing home performance. Finally, we offer a research agenda focused on the important parameters of nursing home performance: financial performance, and quality of care.
At the request of the French Air Force and in order to meet urgent operational needs, the Matra Defense company recently received the first production contract for the DDM missile…
Abstract
At the request of the French Air Force and in order to meet urgent operational needs, the Matra Defense company recently received the first production contract for the DDM missile warning receiver (Détecteur de Départ de Missiles). This infrared warning receiver system SAMIR (Système d'Alerte Missile InfraRouge), a world premiere, will be mounted on the French Air Force's Mirage 2000 aircraft as of the spring 1995.