tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21857622350194946122024-03-13T09:09:54.653-07:00Read college essaysWriting College Essayrosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-18226227625714317142020-08-27T17:04:00.001-07:002020-08-27T17:04:11.129-07:00Proposing an Hris System free essay sampleArranging the eventual fate of the association will require preparing, and tutoring from key representatives. The current Human Resource Information System doesn't bolster the data that is required to finish the task. The executives is proposing to actualize another Human Resource Information System. Human Resource Information System is an electronic framework intended to unite data for vital arranging, operational, and, authoritative. The most time spent in Human Resource is regulatory administration. Human Resource Information System is intended to improve effectiveness and help with smoothing out desk work. There are five significant classes in a business that the Human Resource Information System bolsters. Work relations in the HRIS will bolster Union arrangement, representative data, and reviewing records. Human Resource Planning and Analysis bolsters hierarchical diagrams, participation investigation, expected set of responsibilities following, staffing, enrolling, and turnover examination. Remuneration and advantages, compensation, advantages, excursion, and pay structures. Consistence guidelines are likewise upheld by HRIS; Equal Opportunity Employment, workforce use, and candidate following. We will compose a custom exposition test on Proposing a Hris System or then again any comparative theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Wellbeing and preparing improvement are additionally upheld by the HRIS programming. HRIS programming is accessible by a wide range of programming organizations; coming up next are only a couple HRIS programming that are accessible. Bamboo Human Resource Software, Employee Connect Software, Human Resources Microsystems, J. D. Edwards Enterprise One, and Employee Connect. The product must be good with the associations present place of employment costing framework and will require the reports to correspond. This should be a redone highlight and will require a custom-made programming. The product recorded above is accessible to with no guarantees and won't bolster our activity cost programming. The board might want to actualize another Human Resource Information System before the new monetary year. The new monetary year starts in April 2013. The principal procedure will post a Request for valuing from numerous pre-qualified Human Resource Information System Software organizations. The calendar will just permit a limit of one month to choose a last merchant to start the way toward fitting the product. The worries that administration have are a portion of the authoritative variables, for example, work power, organization spending plans, awful arranging, and rivalry. Work power is down because of spending slices and the progress to new programming will require additional time and potentially recruiting transitory assistance for information passage. The current organization spending plan doesn't have the benefit to help a considerable increment in extra work. The arranging plan for another Human Resource Information System should be observed intently. The executives is worried about the chance of going over timetable and expanding the work cost more than more than what is in the financial plan. The board has concocted a financial plan of forty-5,000 dollars. This spending plan incorporates the expense of programming, work power, and new hardware to help the new Human Resource Information System. The arrival on speculation for the new programming and hardware that administration seeks after will be worth more than the expense. The advantages of having a Human Resource Information System that produces reports for pay, downtime, and work needs. The new Human Resource Information System will likewise enable our association to be serious in catching work patterns and needs. Making arrangements for the fate of the association will likewise be a colossal advantage factor. The time and cost that will be spared after some time will pay for the overhaul in under two years. At the point when the framework is going administration predicts that four full-time positions should be dispensed with because of the productivity and absence of work for the four specialists. References Chauhan, A. , Sharma, S. , amp; Tyagi, T. (2011). Job of HRIS in Improving Modern HR Operations. Survey Of Management, 1(2), 58-70. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-10799546796777758592020-08-22T12:36:00.001-07:002020-08-22T12:36:06.858-07:00Essay --Concerning a couple of stars, talk about the manners by which they exemplify a star picture. Draw on applicable scholastic perusing so as to outline your answer and build up your contention. Christian Bale is progressively turning into the greatest star in Hollywood from his wonderful interpretation of DCââ¬â¢s caped crusader or by depicting a man that hasnââ¬â¢t rested for a year in Brad Andersonââ¬â¢s The Machinist. Notwithstanding, Bale isn't just standing out enough to be noticed through his depiction of these notable characters yet he is additionally being discussed because of his extraordinary weight reduction for The Machinist and his tirade on set of Terminator Salvation which he again plays a reboot of a notable character John Connor. Christian Bale having the option to epitomize a specific character and change truly just to get into a section is the thing that I will investigate inside this paper. Christian Bale was conceived in Pembrokeshire, Wales on January 30th 1974 and discovered notoriety at 13 years old in the wake of getting the part in Steven Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun. Despite the fact that being conceived and raised in the United Kingdom, practically all of Baleââ¬â¢s jobs are American Characters. Because of this, inside Baleââ¬â¢s films he utilizes a sensible American inflection to effectively depict his characters and to make the job as reasonable as could be expected under the circumstances. Parcel clarifies that Bruce Wayne/Batman is a notable American figure so enthusiasts of the establishment may make some hard memories understanding why he is talking with an English articulation in interviews; so for Batman interviews he just uses anà American emphasize. His pledge to his jobs makes him stay in character continually during the recording procedure and goes the extent that utilizing whatever complement he is utilizing for that specific film in his meetings. Doing this makes him totally epitomize ... ...ts himself that during the tirade he was ââ¬Å"half John Connorâ⬠and ââ¬Å"half Christian Baleâ⬠indicating the degree of how he gets in to characters for his movies in any case, this is an away from of how isn't generally something worth being thankful for. Parcel won his absolute first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the wake of playing Dicky Eklund the sibling and mentor to fighter ââ¬Å"Irishâ⬠Mickey Ward in David O. Russellââ¬â¢s The Fighter. The Oscar was gotten after Bale again dropped a colossal measure of weight to assume the job accepting both commendation and analysis for his regularly changing load as pundits allude to it as his ââ¬Å"trademark weight lossâ⬠. Be that as it may, Bale hit back at pundits outlining that the weight reduction is an essential piece of the shooting procedure as he is attempting to typify the character of a rocks junkie saying ââ¬Å"I donââ¬â¢t think about you, however Iââ¬â¢ve never observed a welterweight with any fat on him - or a break headâ⬠. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-43621214229549922172020-08-21T10:18:00.001-07:002020-08-21T10:18:04.541-07:00Essay Writing About Illness - How to Write a Successful Essay About IllnessEssay Writing About Illness - How to Write a Successful Essay About IllnessMost medical doctors write medicine essays as a way to help their readers, patients and colleagues better understand the care they provide. The basic premise of this type of essay is that your medical expertise should be known and appreciated before the readers and patients develop an attachment to you and become your clients. A well written essay does not only reflect your expertise but also reinforces the value of your services.Writing an essay on this topic can be somewhat daunting for those who have no formal training in medical writing. But with a little thought, practice and information you can prepare an informative essay that will engage your audience and present your professional expertise well. The best approach is to create a theme around a particular diagnosis or disease. Then using that theme as a guiding light, begin to develop the essay.In a separate article I have offered some advice on writing about many different types of health topics. For example, here are some general advice tips for how to prepare a great essay about your own expertise. Some tips may be applicable to essay writing about diseases or symptoms as well.There are many situations where medical professionals must deal with a wide range of patients. Each person presents different challenges and needs and a well-written essay will clearly indicate how the professional can best help each patient. To make your essay about illness, it is essential to first think about what your expertise is and then write about your specific area of expertise.Take the time to research your topic in a unique way. This means being specific about your disease and illness. Although you are writing as a healthcare professional, there is still a lot of information that you must know about this topic. Be careful to avoid oversimplifying or omitting details because if a reader encounters inaccurate information or wrong facts, you will be met with a blank stare or a confused look.Your topic must be interesting to readers in order to keep them reading. To do this, you must organize the information you are providing so that it makes sense. The information you provide must make sense to your readers.You must highlight the positives of your abilities while you work hard to improve on areas where you must improve. Your efforts should be seen as efforts that are directed toward improving and being successful. The advice above is vital to engaging readers in your essay about illness.Do you see your writing as an opportunity to share your expertise in a way that would help other people? Then create an essay about illness that will generate interest in your audience. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-83460397671692645412020-05-26T00:15:00.001-07:002020-05-26T00:15:03.847-07:00Dorothy Day, Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement Dorothy Day was a writer and editor who founded the Catholic Worker, a penny newspaper that grew into a voice for the poor during the Great Depression. As the driving force in what became a movement, Days unwavering advocacy for charity and pacifism made her controversial at times. Yet her work among the poorest of the poor also made her an admired example of a deeply spiritual person actively engaged in addressing societys problems. When Pope Francis addressed the U.S. Congress in September 2015, he focused much of his speech onà four Americans he found particularly inspiring: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. Days name was no doubt unfamiliar to millions watching the Popes speech on television. But his effusive praise of her indicated how influential her lifes work with the Catholic Worker Movement was to the Popes own thoughts about social justice. Fast Facts: Dorothy Day Born: November 8, 1897, New York City.Died: November 29, 1980, New York City.Founder of the Catholic Worker, a small newspaper published in the Depression which became a social movement.Named by Pope Francis in his 2015 speech to Congress as one of his four most admired Americans.Is widely expected to be declared a saint in the Catholic Church. During her lifetime, Day could seem out of step with mainstream Catholics in America. She operated at the fringe of organized Catholicism, never seeking permission or official endorsement for any of her projects. Day came late to the faith, converting to Catholicism as an adult in the 1920s. At the time of her conversion, she was an unmarried mother with a complicated past that included life as a bohemian writer in Greenwich Village, unhappy love affairs, and an abortion that rendered her emotionally devastated. A movement to have Dorothy Day canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church began in the 1990s. Days own family members have said she would have scoffed at the idea. Yet it seems likely that she will one day be an officially recognized saint of the Catholic Church. Early Life Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 8, 1897. She was the third of five children born to John and Grace Day. Her father was a journalist who bounced from job to job, which kept the family moving between New York City neighborhoods and then onward to other cities. When her father was offered a job in San Francisco in 1903, the Days moved westward. Economic disruption caused by the San Francisco earthquake three years later cost her father his job, and the family moved on to Chicago. By the age of 17, Dorothy had already completed two years of study at the University of Illinois. But she abandoned her education in 1916à when she and her family moved back to New York City. In New York, she began writing articles for socialist newspapers. With her modest earnings, she moved into a small apartment on the Lower East Side. She became fascinated by the vibrant yet difficultà lives of impoverished immigrant communities, and Day became an obsessive walker, ferreting out stories in the citys poorest neighborhoods. She was hired as a reporter by the New York Call, a socialist newspaper, and began contributing articles to a revolutionary magazine, The Masses. Bohemian Years As America entered World War I and a patriotic wave swept the country, Day found herself immersed in a life filled with politically radical, orà simply offbeat, characters in Greenwich Village. She became a Village resident, living in a succession of cheap apartments and spending time in tearooms and saloons frequented by writers, painters, actors, and political activists. Day began a platonic friendship with playwright Eugene ONeill, and for a period during World War I, she entered a training program to become a nurse. After leaving the nursing program at the wars end, she became romantically involved with a journalist, Lionel Moise. Her affair with Moise ended after she had an abortion, an experience that sent her into a period of depression and intense inner turmoil. She met Forster Batterham through literary friends in New York and began living with him in a rustic cabin near the beach on Staten Island (which, in the early 1920s, was still rural). They had a daughter, Tamar, and after the birth of her child Day began to feel a sense of religious awakening. Though neither Day or Batterham were Catholic, Day took Tamar to a Catholic church on Staten Island and had the child baptized. The relationship with Batterham became difficult and the two often separated. Day, who had published a novel based on her Greenwich Village years, was able to purchase a modest cottage on Staten Island and she created a life for herself and Tamar. To escape the winter weather along the Staten Island shore, Day and her daughter would live in sublet apartments in Greenwich Village during the coldest months. On December 27, 1927, Day took a life-changing step by riding aà ferry back to Staten Island, visiting the Catholic church she knew, and having herself baptized. She later said she felt no great joy in the action, but rather regarded it as something she had to do. Finding Purpose Day continued writing and taking jobs as a researcher for publishers. A play she had written hadnt been produced, but somehow came to the attention of a Hollywood movie studio, which offered her a writing contract. In 1929 she and Tamar took a train to California, where she joined the staff of Pathà © Studios. Days Hollywood career was short. She found the studio not terribly interested in her contributions. And when the stock market crash in October 1929 hit the movie industry hard, her contract was not renewed. In a car she had purchased with her studio earnings, she and Tamar relocated to Mexico City. She returned to New York the following year. And after a trip to Florida to visit her parents, she and Tamar settled in a small apartment on 15th Street, not far from Union Square, where sidewalk speakers advocated solutions to the misery of the Great Depression. In December 1932 Day, returning to journalism, traveled to Washington, D.C. to cover a march against hunger for Catholic publications. While in Washington she visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, the Catholic Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception.à She later recalled she had been losing her faith in the Catholic Church over its apparent indifference to the poor. Yet as she prayed at the shrine she began to sense a purpose to her life. Afterà returning to New York City, an eccentric character turned up in Days life, someone she regarded as a teacher who may have been sent by the Virgin Mary. Peter Maurin was a French immigrant who worked as a laborer in America though he had taught at schools run by the Christian Brothers in France. He was a frequent speaker in Union Square, where he would advocate novel, if not radical, solutions for societys ills. Founding of the Catholic Worker Maurin soughtà out Dorothy Day after reading some of her articles about social justice. They began spending time together, talking and arguing. Maurin suggested Day should start her own newspaper. She said she had doubts about finding the money to get a paper printed, but Maurin encouraged her, saying they needed to have faith that the funds would appear. Within months, they did manage to raise enough money to print their newspaper. On May 1, 1933, a gigantic May Day demonstration was held at Union Square in New York. Day, Maurin, and a group of friends hawked the first copies of the Catholic Worker. The four-page newspaper cost a penny. The New York Times described the crowdà in Union Square that day as being filled with communists, socialists, and assorted other radicals. The newspaper noted the presence of banners denouncing sweatshops, Hitler, and the Scottsboro case. In that setting, a newspaper focused on helping the poor and achieving social justice was a hit. Every copy sold. Thatà first issue of the Catholic Worker contained a column by Dorothy Day which outlined its purpose. It began: For those who are sitting on park benches in the warm spring sunlight.For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain.For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for work.For those who think that there is no hope for the future, no recognition of their plight ââ¬â this little paper is addressed.It is printed to call their attention to the fact that the Catholic Church has a social program ââ¬â to let them know that there are men of God who are working not only for their spiritual, but for their material welfare. The success of the newspaper continued. In a lively and informal office, Day, Maurin, and what became a regular cast of dedicated souls labored to produce an issue every month. Within a few years, the circulation reached 100,000, with copies being mailed to all regions of America.à Dorothy Day wrote a column in each issue, and her contributions continued for nearly 50 years, until her death in 1980. The archive of her columns represents a remarkable view of modern American history, as she began commenting on the plight of the poor in the Depression and moved on to the violence of the world at war, the Cold War, and protests of the 1960s. Dorothy Day addressing a protest against the Vietnam War. à Getty Images Prominence and Controversy Beginning with her youthful writings for socialist newspapers, Dorothy Day was often been out of step with mainstream America. She was arrested for the first time in 1917, while picketing the White House with suffragists demanding that women have the right to vote. In prison, at the age of 20, she was beaten by the police, and the experience made her even more sympathetic to the oppressed and powerless in society. Within years of its 1933 founding as a small newspaper, the Catholic Worker evolved into being a social movement. Again with Peter Maurins influence, Day and her supporters opened soup kitchens in New York City. The feeding of the poor continued for years, and the Catholic Worker also opened houses of hospitality offering places to stay for the homeless. For years the Catholic Worker also operated a communal farm near Easton, Pennsylvania. Besides writing for the Catholic Worker newspaper, Day traveled extensively, giving talks on social justice and meeting activists, both inside and outside the Catholic Church. She was at times suspected of holding subversive political views, but in a sense she operated outside of politics. When followers of the Catholic Worker Movement refused to participate in Cold War fallout shelter drills, Day and others were arrested. She was later arrested while protesting with union farm workers in California. She remained active until her death, in her room at a Catholic Worker residence in New York City, on November 29, 1980. She was buried on Staten Island, near the site of her conversion. Legacy of Dorothy Day In the decades since her death, the influence of Dorothy Day has grown. A number of books have been written about her, and several anthologies of her writings have been published. The Catholic Worker community continues to flourish, and the newspaper which first sold for a penny in Union Square still publishes seven times a year in a print edition. An extensive archive, including all of Dorothy Days columns is available for free online. More than 200 Catholic Worker communities exist in the United States and other countries. Perhaps the most noteworthy tribute to Dorothy Day was, of course, the comments by Pope Francis in his address to Congress on September 24, 2015. He said:à In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints. Near the end of his speech, the Pope again spoke of Days striving for justice: A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to dream of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton. With the leaders of the Catholic Church praising her work, and others continually discovering her writings, the legacy of Dorothy Day, who found her purpose editing a penny newspaper for the poor, seems assured. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-9264805494618983592020-05-15T06:50:00.001-07:002020-05-15T06:50:06.050-07:00The Power Of Myth Debuted On Pbs - 2126 Words In 1988 Bill Moyers THE POWER OF MYTH debuted on PBS. This six-part series of conversations with renowned scholar Joseph Campbell explored the enduring, universal themes expressed in mankind s oldest stories and examined their relevance for the modern world. Far from being lifeless, timeworn tales, Campbell told viewers, the ancient myths remain clues to the spiritual potentialities of human life. Eighteen years later, with FAITH REASON, Moyers and his guests continue to mine those potentialities, turning a fresh eye to the illuminative and transformative power of myths, biblical tales, and other literature of faith. Contemporary writers owe a great deal to the fecundity of such stories, not only as treasure troves of plot andâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦Still, many fiction writers will tell you, man is rarely a reasonable creature. He is complicated. He is consumed by irrational passions and uncontrollable urges, as well as by reason and logic. He is weak one moment and strong the next. He can be confused, villainous, heroic and kind at once. And it is in our ancient myths that many writers find the core of the human struggle to make sense of the world and to find one s role ââ¬â in short, a roadmap to the human psyche. Margaret Atwood: Myths lay out pretty clearly what is on the human smorgasbord: what we want, what we fear, what we would like to have, what we would very much not like to have. Those human fears and human desires really have not changed, and they re reflected in the myths that have been with us for a long time. Anne Provoost: Through mythology we are trying to define ourselves as humans next to this big concept-call it God-that we don t understand. The thunder, the lightening, the floods, the fires. We are, through history, bringing ourselves more and more to the foreground. So mythology is really about finding your own spot in your perception next to the gods. Jeanette Winterson: I look [at myths] to arrive at truth about the human condition, about myself, about how people live and die, about how they betray, about how they have sex, children, how they love their country, love others. You know, when youShow MoreRelatedThe Representation of Women, Men, and Sexuality in Music Videos9715 Words à |à 39 Pageswithout knowing its video to knowing both the song and the video. MEDIA EDUCATION FOUNDATION | www.MEDIAED.org This study guide may be reproduced for educational, non-profit uses only. 4 à © 2007 INTRODUCTION (3:40) KEY POINTS * Since MTV debuted in 1981 music videos have become a central part of our popular culture. They are now found on multiple television channels, in many different media, and across most genres of music. The images and stylistic conventions of music video have influenced rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-77611941553773336182020-05-06T16:16:00.001-07:002020-05-06T16:16:03.495-07:00Nursing Theorists - 1749 Words Nursing Theorist Timothy Mack University of Phoenix Theories and Models of Nursing Practice NUR/403 Judith Mc Leod July 25, 2010 Nursing Theorist The theorist that I have chosen is Dorothea Orem. This theory describes the role of nursing in helping a patientââ¬â¢s who can no longer care for themselves (Mosby, 2009). The theory is divided into three parts; universal, developmental, and health deviation. Oremââ¬â¢s Theory The universal portion of Oremââ¬â¢s theory consists of the self care that a patient needs to meet their physiologic and psychosocial need. The developmental portion of the theory covers the care when coping through developmental stages, and the health deviation, which cover the care a patient need when theory health hasâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦Orem believed that the individual would in good health when they are functionally or structurally sound or whole. The belief that a sound or while person is free from signs and symptoms of disease, Orem believed that a personââ¬â¢s physical, physiological, interpersonal, and social aspects of health are inseparable, Orem believed that a personââ¬â¢s health is what makes them a human and that health operates with the psycho physiological, and physiological mechanisms in the relation to other human beings. Orem believed that it is the responsibility of society to promote health for its members (Hanucharunkul, 1989). | For nursing p ractice our goal is to help to promote health for the whole patient. We must remember that our goal is to get them back to a level where they are functional in the environment. Not all patient will get to the point that they are free from disease but we must help them get back to the level in which they can care for themselves and be as sound as possible for them. Our practice would involve teaching in this aspect in order to help the patient maximize the health that they either have or to help them reach the level that they want to achieve. | In the nursing education the student should be helped to appreciate that not all patients are going to leave the hospital disease free, and that as nurses there is a need to learn that we need to help them in any way we can to achieve their maximum amountShow MoreRelatedNursing Theorists979 Words à |à 4 Pageshead: Nursing Theorists Nusing theorists Abstract ââ¬Å"Nursing theorists are the men and women in the nursing field who develop models of nursing. Often, they dont set out to develop a nursing theory, instead, they simply want to help improve nursing care for their patients, and the theory develops as a result. Once a method is established as a theory or model of nursing, it is integrated into the practice of nursing, as well as added to the study of nursing.â⬠Nursing Theorists Nursing theoryRead MoreNursing Theorists1257 Words à |à 6 PagesA BRIEF STUDY OF NURSING THEORIES ACCORDING TO FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, JEAN WATSON AND MADELEINE LEININGER TOLULOPE ADEDIWURA MINOT STATE UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT Nursing as a profession is based on concrete (scientific, philosophical, behavioral, social, and humanities among others), concepts and theories by past and current nursing theorists. These theorists have helped shape the profession from 19th century till date. 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This is definedRead MoreNursing Theorist Assignment1789 Words à |à 8 PagesNursing Theorist Assignment Allison M Wood, RN NUR/403 March 12, 2012 Shoni Davis, RN DNSc Nursing Theorist Assignment Sister Callista Roy developed the Adaptation Model of Nursing in 1976 after becoming concerned of the importance of relating the characteristics of nursing to the community. This interest encouraged her to begin developing the model with the purpose of nursing being to support adaptation. Roy began organizing her nursing theory as she developed curriculum for nursing studentsRead MoreBetty Neum Nursing Theorist1587 Words à |à 7 PagesBetty Neuman: Nursing Theorist Beth Anne Bonetti NSG 301 October 7, 2014 Summer Huntley-Dale MSN, RN Betty Neuman: Nursing Theorist Development of the Neuman Systems Model Betty Neuman received her nursing diploma from Peoples Hospital School of Nursing in Akron, Ohio in 1947. After earning her RN, she moved to California and gained experience in a number of different nursing positions including staff nurse, head nurse, school nurse, industrial nurse, and clinical instructor at the University rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-22192960568612695202020-05-05T18:58:00.001-07:002020-05-05T18:58:03.052-07:00Angels around us Essay Example For Students Angels around us Essay Song: Remember Me This Way or Ill RememberIt wasnt until I started to write this testimony that I realized that there are two special angels in my life. One in heaven and one on Earth. I had the general reasoning of any teenager: run to your closest friends, boyfriend, girlfriend, family, teachers for solutions to your problems, or for guidance, but thats not always so. Sure, some good friends and family are close enough to relate to, but its the people that can read your face like a book that I am speaking of. The people that always bring a smile to your face even when youre in your deepest turmoil. These are your angels. Adam has been and always will be my angel. He was my salvation when I was weak, my shoulder to weep on, a joker, and an all around nice guy. If if it werent for him I probably wouldnt have auditioned for Juilliard a few weeks back. I owe so much to him, but the biggest thanks I could ever give would be his persistent manner in getting me to audition for the drama plays. I have always had a passion for drama but didnt want to pursue it in St. Paul. I was so depressed about leaving all my friends behind at Whittier, that when I came here I didnt even give up- I just didnt start at all. It wasnt until my first week of school that I met Adam, the boy who smiled from ear to ear Little did I know that he would be the best friend I would make at St. Paul, and the first to leave me behind. Over the next two years we had gotten incredibly close. We went out for weekends, celebrated his 15th birthday with Andrea and Crystal, and Miguelhis closest friends. We helped each other with our relation ship problems, family problems, school mishaps We were each others alter egos when we went out. We had a conversation over the Internet a week before he died. He was so mad that I hadnt auditioned for the musical that he forced me to join crew (which a few weeks previous I had). That night we were talking about all these pranks we would play on the cast and crew, and the cast party to be had, and all the fun He told me about all the traditions that go on backstage and it was going to be the best time, he said.He told me that I had to make it up to him, that in our junior year we would both go out for the fall play. He hadnt told anyone that he wanted to do that. He really wasnt sure whether he was going to do drama or football He wanted to do both but it just wasnt possible. So I promised to keep him happy. On April 23rd, the night of Sadies, I dont think anyone saw it coming, not even Adam, but it was that night that he was physically gone forever. That week, life as I knew it had ended and I was just lost. It was Adam who re-established my faith and got my agnostic self into church again. It was Adam who got me to audition for Drama, and yay for me I succeeded in getting lead roles. It was Adam who inspired me Freshmen year to take on the Leadership class, and it was Adam who opened me up and got me to wear colors instead of black all the time. Life was a burnt out candle before Adam stepped into my life, and for the short period that I had him on Earth, life was bright again. I didnt know how hard it would be without him. I didnt realize that I had to prepare myself for tragedy. I didnt know how dark the sunniest April afternoon could be. How sad a comedy musical could seem. Or how solemn school could sound after he departed for Home. I know that Adam still watches over me each day. In fact, this is the second time Im writing out this testimony because my original has mysteriously disappeared There isnt a rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-73461811451753737802020-04-12T17:47:00.001-07:002020-04-12T17:47:02.159-07:00The Welfare And Development Of Todays Student-athlete Is Central To Th The welfare and development of today's student-athlete is central to the administration of Big Ten Conference intercollegiate athletics. Providing opportunity for young men and women to mature in a wholesome and healthy way is critically important to our universities. A commitment exists at all levels of our universities to providing the resources to support the welfare of Big Ten student-athletes. At the 1996 NCAA Convention, the Division I membership debated a number of issues related to financial assistance for student-athletes. Limitations on Pell Grants, stipends awarded by the federal government for educational purposes, were removed. Discussions took place, and continue to occur, on ways to liberalize rules on how student-athletes can earn money from work done during the off-season. Around the same time, the NCAA Executive Committee increased the annual funding of the special assistance fund from $3 million to $10 million. Big Ten institutions provide more than 6,400 young men and women opportunities to play on 250 intercollegiate teams. These young people receive more than $42 million annually from Big Ten institutions in grants-in-aid (tuition, room and board, books). While receiving the opportunity for a world-class education, they compete with and against some of the finest amateur athletes in the country. Needy student-athletes in the Big Ten may receive up to $2,000 annually above the value of their grant-in-aid via federal aid and are eligible for cash payments from the special assistance fund for items like clothing, emergency trips home and other special needs. Big Ten universities also assist student-athletes in identifying summer employment opportunities, career placement and catastrophic-injury insurance plans. They also assist with a $1 million insurance plan that financially protects student-athletes with professional sports aspirations in the event they suffer a disabling injury. Today, the system that served so many so well and for so long is being called into question by the media, the public and even by some coaches and student-athletes. They assert that some student-athletes in football and basketball should be paid for their participation. They believe that the market forces that drive professional sports, or any other private-sector activity, should provide the controlling principle for the relationship between the student-athlete and the university. This issue of financial assistance for student-athletes is critical to defining and examining the relationship between intercollegiate athletics and higher education as we approach the 21st century. While we must be open to novel approaches and new ideas, paying student-athletes to play is not supportable within the context of Big Ten intercollegiate athletics -- now or in the future. In my view, revenues derived from intercollegiate athletics are the sole property of the institution and should be expended in support of the broadest array of men's and women's educational and athletics opportunities. Thus, revenues are earned in private-sector activity and spent within the confines of the university for appropriate educational purposes. Some critics of college athletics cite the economic and educational exploitation of the student-athletes who participate in our major revenue sports as a major flaw in the system. We believe the educational and the lifetime economic benefits associated with a university education are the appropriate quid pro quo for any Big Ten student-athlete, regardless of the sport. For many decades, Big Ten intercollegiate athletics has been funded largely by revenues from men's basketball and football programs. This situation is not likely to change in the foreseeable future. Our institutions have sponsored sports programs that enabled outstanding athletes such as Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Red Grange, Archie Griffin, John Havlicek and Dick Butkus (the list is endless) to obtain an education and play their sport, in turn providing resources for educational and athletics opportunities for such people as Suzy Favor, Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz and Jack Nicklaus. Under this system, people like John Wooden and Gerald Ford played alongside student-athletes much less famous, but equally deserving of an intercollegiate athletics experience. Intercollegiate athletics has provided, and will continue to provide, opportunities for social mobility through education for future generations of young men and women. We must ensure that all young people admitted to our universities are prepared to compete academically so that the overall student-athlete academic outcomes are compatible with their peers within the general student population. Recent efforts to raise NCAA initial-eligibility standards are attempts to counter the argument that unprepared rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-43538479804263778312020-03-11T00:35:00.001-07:002020-03-11T00:35:02.998-07:00Henry Ford - BiographyHenry Ford - Biography Who Was Henry Ford? assembly line Dates: July 30, 1863 April 7, 1947 Henry Fords Childhood Ford, the Tinkerer Steam Engines It was during this time that Henry met Clara Bryant. When they married in 1888, Henrys father gave him a large piece of land on which Henry built a small house, a sawmill, and a shop to tinker in. Fords Quadricycle Founding the Ford Motor Company Believing that publicity would encourage people to by cars, Henry started building and driving his own racecars. It was at racetracks that Henry Fords name first became well known. However, the average person didnt need a racecar, they wanted something reliable. While Ford worked on designing a reliable car, investors organized a factory. It was this third attempt at a company to make automobiles, the Ford Motor Company, that succeeded. On July 15, 1903, the Ford Motor Company sold its first car, a Model A, to Dr. E. Pfennig, a dentist, for $850. Ford continually worked to improve the cars design and soon created Models B, C, and F. The Model T Since the Model T quickly became so popular that it was selling faster than Ford could manufacture them, Ford began looking for ways to speed up the manufacturing. In 1913, Ford added a motorized assembly line in the plant. The motorized conveyor belts moved the car to the workers, who would now each add one part to the car as the car passed them. The motorized assembly line significantly cut the time, and thus cost, of manufacturing each car. Ford passed on this savings to the customer. Although the first Model T was sold for $850, the price eventually dropped to under $300. Ford produced the Model T from 1908 until 1927, building 15 million cars. Ford Advocates for His Workers Henry Ford Ford also created a sociological department in the factory that would examine workers lives and try to make it better. Since he believed he knew what was best for his workers, Henry was very much against unions. Anti-Semitism Dearborn Independent The Death of Henry Ford For decades, Henry Ford and his only child, Edsel, worked together at the Ford Motor Company. However, friction between them steadily grew, based nearly entirely on differences of opinion over how the Ford Motor Company should be run. In the end, Edsel died from stomach cancer in 1943, at age 49. In 1938 and again in 1941, Henry Ford suffered strokes. On April 7, 1947, four years after Edsels death, Henry Ford passed away at age 83. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-18753722743460174622020-02-23T15:00:00.001-08:002020-02-23T15:00:03.075-08:00Invasion of Privacy in the UK Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 wordsInvasion of Privacy in the UK - Coursework Example Remedies for the invasion of privacy are limited to informational privacy against private parties and broadly against public authorities.à It, therefore, follows that invasion of privacy is not a well-developed remedy in British law as it is restricted as this paper demonstrates.à An examination of the interpretation of Article 8 of ECHR demonstrates that the right to protection from governmental invasion is limited. Moreover, remedies for invasion of privacy under the Data Protection Act are of little use to the ordinary citizen.à Thus there is a need for the Supreme Court to declare a tort of invasion of privacy in the same manner as a right for infringement of other Convention rights can be claimed in tort. The law of privacy is not as developed in the UK as it is in the US.à However, there are remedies for invasion of privacy in the UK against government officials. The Younger Committee first recommended a tort for invasion of privacy in 1972. But the recommendation was rejected primarily on the grounds that imposing a tort for protection against invasion of privacy was difficult when balancing personal privacy against the wider public interest in protecting freedom of expression and the free exchange of information.à However, it is suggested that in a private situation, the free exchange of information and freedom of expression has little public utility as the value obtained from invading the privacy of an individual in private settings is limited. For instance, if an individual takes a photograph of his neighbor without his neighborââ¬â¢s permission for his own personal use, there is no public benefit for the public and thus, there is no need to balance free expression with the protection of personal privacy.à rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-7623010253056150942020-02-07T07:47:00.001-08:002020-02-07T07:47:02.290-08:00Bipolar Disorder Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1Bipolar Disorder - Research Paper Example Also throwing tantrums, high level of restlessness and hyperactivity is seen but the worst part is that at times people facing Bipolar Disorder tend to do harmful things to themselves or others around them. This can be quite straining and affects their families too. Over 10 million people in America have bipolar disorder, and the illness affects men and women equally (Duckworth). The worst scenario is when the person goes through a mixed state. During a mixed state depressed mood accompanies manic activation(Ken Duckworth, MD, 2006).In this state a person might feel a rush to do different things. From driving rashly, smoking up, this eventually leads to Suicide. From using drugs to cutting themselves, they try to relieve the symptoms of stress, pain, anxiety etc. They also lose understanding of what is happening in their surroundings and stay confused a lot. Insecurity usually kicks in and they put themselves in isolation to protect themselves. Danielle Steel states in her writing re cognized as His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina, states a complete narrative regarding the way her son spends his life while he was experiencing bipolar disorder. In the narrative she informs that during the age of adolescence, her son suffered from ADD even recognized as Attention Deficit Disorder. She even states that when an individual suffer from this disorder, individual tends to loose control over his/her impulse and indulge in activities that have negative consequences. Her son was later during his life was diagnosed with the disorder of bipolar and the symptoms exhibited by him were recognized as Manic Depressive symptoms (Ryan). Bipolar disorder is usually found in people from the age group of 15-25 and it usually occurs in families who have a history of bipolar disorder. There are three different types of bipolar disorder. Type 1, (Major Depression), a state in which a person is sad, uneasy and angry. Type 2, in which people experience various periods of high energy which is not as extreme as mania (called hypomania). These periods alternate with episodes of depression. Lastly Type 3 (Cyclothymia) involves less severe mood swings. In this peopleââ¬â¢s behavior vary between hypomania and mild depression. (A.D.A.M, Medical Encyclopedia). The cause of Bipolar disorder varies from person to person. The major reason is that it might be due to the disorder already being in the genes of the families.But it is not necessary that someone born in a family, who has showed signs of this disease, would end up having it. Normally the case is due to being in an environment where there is a lot of negativity, problems or stress, would interact with the underlying genetic or biological vulnerability to produce the disorder. (Duckworth). But itââ¬â¢s not necessary that these might be the only things which might trigger the disorder. Smith and Segal have figured out that the episodes experienced by individuals suffering from bipolar disorder are triggered due to usage of antidepressants as a medication for depression, these trigger may even lead an individual to suffer from continuous changes in mood, lack of sleep and mania. The triggers can increase the level of symptoms that already exist or result in new sessions of mania. But it is not necessary that episodes experienced due to bipolar disorder are dependant on triggers (Smith&Segal). Though many people are diagnosed with this rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-13785897883981346452020-01-29T06:14:00.001-08:002020-01-29T06:14:02.439-08:00Visiting Forces Agreement Essay Example for Free Visiting Forces Agreement Essay Thesis Statement: The Philippines should consider terminating its Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States before itââ¬â¢s too late for the government to overcome its unexpected dilemma. I.What is the RPââ¬âUS Visiting Forces Agreement? a.A bilateral agreement between the between the Philippines and the United States consisting of two separate agreement documents. a.Balikatan as VFA-1 b.Balikatan as VFA-2 or the Counterpart Agreement II.There are several negative effects of ââ¬Å"Balikatanâ⬠in the country. 1.Balikatan exercises threatened our environment and ecological resources. a.In the past Balikatan exercises, war and combat simulations which involved maneuverings and live fire exercises have caused coral reef destruction and ecological pollution. b.Dumping of toxic wastes and nuclear-powered submarines are very dangerous to the health. 2.Balikatan exercises can affect the peace and order situation in the country. a.Danger to life, honor, safety, and peace of the citizens, like what happened to Nicole (Subic Bay rape victim) and to the other Filipinos threatened since the VFA was signed. 3.Balikatan exercises can affect the industrial and agricultural sector. a.During the dangerous exercises, farmers, fisher folk and indigenous people are banned from attending crops or fishing at the seas, thus, does it affect their livelihood. III.What are other alternatives aside from recent visiting forces agreement? a.Improved the facilities and human forces by setting the international standard in military tactics. b.A new refined and version of visiting forces agreement with the US or other countries that protects the Philippine and international laws on the protection and preservation of the environment. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-25846682854462035822020-01-21T02:38:00.001-08:002020-01-21T02:38:02.264-08:00Foils :: Essays PapersFoils 1 When sitting down and reading Hamlet by William Shakespeare, it made me think back to when I read the play in high school. I tried to remember as much as I could. By reading the play earlier in high school, it made me understand the play a lot more. When asked to go through the play and explain the foils of Hamlet, I find it kind of hard to come up with the foils. When coming up with foils, I guess the first foil I can come up with is Hamlet and the King. Looking at another one, I guess it would have to be the Queen and Ophelia. These are the only two foils that I can come up with that have some similarities and some differences, but still think it is kind of difficult to determine which characters in Hamlet are foils. [SS - 1] [Definition of foils?] 2 To start off, we must look at two of the main characters in the play. They would be Hamlet and the King. When looking at them [both?] as foils, we look at their similarities and their differences. We will first look at these twoââ¬â¢s differences. We look at Hamlet and the King[,] and we see that they are different in a couple of ways. First, one is a King[,] while the other is the son of the ex-King. Another would be that Hamlet didnââ¬â¢t know really how his father was killed until his ghost told him, while the King knew how he was killed because he murdered him. Looking at another difference, we would have to say that these two were different in their actions. Hamlet was trying to act like he was insane, while the King was trying to act like a King and that he really cared that something was wrong with Hamlet. These would be some differences of Hamlet and the King. [Beginning with the differences and then moving to the similarities reflects a major misunderstanding of comparison / contrast thinking. The similarities need to be established first, as justification for looking at the differences.] 3 Going on to look at the similarities of Hamlet and the King, we first have to start off with that they both loved the Queen. We can see this in that the King murdered Hamletââ¬â¢s father because he loved his wife, in [Delete "in. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-32379718324683546902020-01-12T23:02:00.004-08:002020-01-12T23:03:38.227-08:00Distinctive Marketing, IT Capabilities, and Strategic Types: A Cross-National InvestigationDistinctive Marketing and Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types: A Cross-National Investigation ABSTRACT Keywords: strategic typology, firm capabilities, cross-national, Japan, China The authors examine the relationship between strategic type and development of distinctive marketing, market-linking, technology, and information technology (IT) capabilities to implement innovation strategy. They hypothesize that prospectors must build technical and IT capabilities, whereas defenders develop market-linking and marketing capabilities. The authors collect data from 709 firms across the United States, Japan, and China.They find support for their capability hypotheses, as well as for some of their cross-national hypotheses that are based on cultural and business environment differences among the three countries. In particular, they find support for the hypotheses that Japanese firms have greater technology and IT capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Th ey conclude with implications for management. The strategic typology of Miles and Snow (1978) has received much attention in the marketing and management literature over the past two decades (e. g. Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Griffin and Hauser 1996; Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon 1986; McDaniel and Kolari 1987; McKee, Varadarajan, and Pride 1989; Parry and Song 1993, 1994; Ruekert and Walker 1987; Song and Xie 2000; Walker et al. 2003). Almost 30 years after its initial appearance in the literature, their typology is viewed widely as having stood the test of time and is still the most popular and commonly accepted model of strategic types in the management literature, having been applied in many different industry settings (DeSarbo et al. 005; DeSarbo et al. 2006; Hambrick 2003). Miles and Snow envision strategy as the patterns in the decisions by which a strategic business unit (SBU) aligns itself with its environment, and they categorize SBUs according to these patterns. The critical underlying variable in their typology is the rate of change in an SBUââ¬â¢s products or markets. Using an exploratory empirical study, Miles and Snow propose four strategic typesââ¬âprospectors, analyzers, defenders, and reactorsââ¬âand suggest that each of the first three types chooses a different competitive strategy ith respect to products and/or markets: Prospectors will innovate technologically and seek out new markets, analyzers will prefer a ââ¬Å"second-but-betterâ⬠strategy, and defenders will focus on maintaining a secure niche in a relatively stable Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto Journal of International Marketing à © 2008, American Marketing Association Vol. 16, No. 1, 2008, pp. 4ââ¬â38 ISSN 1069-031X (print) 1547-7215 (electronic) 4 product or service area.Miles and Snow suggest that all three of these strategic types can be successful if the SBU matches its strategy to the competitive en vironment and develops and deploys appropriate capabilities. Capabilities have been broadly defined as ââ¬Å"complex bundles of skills and accumulated knowledge that enable firms [or SBUs] to coordinate activities and make use of their assetsâ⬠(Day 1990, p. 38). In this article, we examine the relationship between Miles and Snowââ¬â¢s (1978) strategic type and four capability constructs: technology, market linking, marketing, and information technology (IT).Day (1994) suggests that both technology and market-linking capabilities (or ââ¬Å"insideoutâ⬠and ââ¬Å"outside-inâ⬠capabilities, respectively) are critical to sustained competitive advantage and superior performance (see also Day 1990; Day and Wensley 1988). Technology capabilities, which enable the organization to improve production process efficiencies and ultimately reduce its costs and increase its competitiveness, include financial management, cost control, technology development, logistics, manufact uring, and other processes with an internal emphasis.Market-linking capabilities, which enable the organization to use its technology capabilities to exploit marketplace opportunities, include market sensing, channel bonding, customer linking, technology monitoring, and spanning processes such as purchasing and new product development (Day 1994). Marketing capabilities, such as customer and competitive knowledge, skill in market segmentation and targeting, and effective marketing program design, should also be related to an organizationââ¬â¢s performance. In a ioneering study, Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) link marketing capabilities to the four strategic types and find that prospectors are superior in marketing capabilities. The marketing literature suggests that obtaining market and competitive information and diffusing it throughout the organization lead to better market orientation, better performance, and sustainable competitive advantage (Day 1994; Jaworski and Kohl i 1993). The literature also suggests that IT capabilities are increasingly important means to these ends.Research in both the marketing and new product streams has recognized the difficulty of communication across functional boundaries and has identified ways to improve both the quantity and quality of information (Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Griffin and Hauser 1992, 1993, 1996; Montoya-Weiss and Calantone 1994; Parry and Song 1993, 1994; Ruekert and Walker 1987; Song, Thieme, and Xie 1998; Song and Xie 2000; Swink and Song 2007). All four capability constructs include significant marketing processes. The original, exploratory Miles and Snow (1978) research finds relationships between firm capabilities andInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 5 strategic types in a limited number of industries. A subsequent study in this research stream empirically examines the relationships between marketing capabilities and strategic types and also validates a scale for assessing a business unitââ¬â¢s strategic type (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990). Two recent studies by DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006) propose and empirically test models that include a range of capabilities in addition to marketing capabilities.DeSarbo and colleagues (2005) use SBU data from three countries (the United States, China, and Japan) to derive a descriptive strategic typology that improves on the Miles and Snow typology in terms of explanatory power; this study is extended by DeSarbo and colleagues (2006) to a predictive model that examines causalities between strategic capabilities and SBU performance. The first objective of the current study is to examine the relationships between an SBUââ¬â¢s strategic type and its development of the four distinctive organizational capabilities technology, market linking, marketing, and IT). This research extends the previously mentioned research stream (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; DeSarbo et al. 2005; DeSarbo et al. 200 6) in that we seek to quantify and to better understand these relationships. The second objective is to build and test hypotheses regarding cross-national differences and their effects on the relationships between strategic type selection and the capabilities, a topic in which no empirical work has been conducted so far. We gather empirical data from three countries: the United States, China, and Japan.As China and Japan are the two largest East Asian economies, and together with the United States make up the three largest economies worldwide as measured by purchasing power (World Bank 2000), it is important to examine how firms from these countries compare with respect to their capabilities and strategies. Although DeSarbo and colleagues (2005) use a three-country database to build their descriptive typology, the research does not use the extant international marketing and management literature to build or test hypotheses of cross-national differences.We believe that the cross-nati onal hypothesis testing constitutes a clear extension to the work of Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) and DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006). We first propose a set of four hypotheses relating an SBUââ¬â¢s relative capabilities to its selection of strategic type, as well as four additional hypotheses expressing expected crossnational differences in the magnitudes of the capabilities. We then test these hypotheses using a data set of 709 managers from the United States, Japan, and China. Our empirical results largely confirm these hypotheses. We conclude by 6 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C.Anthony Di Benedetto providing theoretical implications and some possible prescriptions for managers seeking to improve their organizationââ¬â¢s strategy selection. In this section, we define the Miles and Snow (1978) typology and discuss the implication of the strategic selection. We then define the four capability constructs and develop four hypotheses relating the capability co nstructs to strategic type. The Miles and Snow (1978) strategic types differ in the rate at which they change products or markets in response to environmental change. According to Miles and Snow, prospectors are the leaders of change in their industry.They operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997). They value being ââ¬Å"first inâ⬠in new product and market areas as market pioneers even if not all these efforts prove to be highly profitable (Robinson and Fornell 1985; Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992). They often need to respond rapidly to early signals involving areas of opportunity, and these responses often lead to a new round of competitive actions. Nevertheless, prospectors may not maintain market strength in all the areas they enter.They compete principally through launching new products and meeting new marketplace opportunities. Consequently, they devote significant res ources to new product development, market research, and other marketing expenses (Hambrick 1983; McDaniel and Kolari 1987; Shortell and Zajac 1990; Walker et al. 2003). Prospectors also rely on close ties with the channel of distribution to anticipate customer needs and environmental changes (Walker et al. 2003). Sonyââ¬â¢s audio products SBU, which is responsible for innovations such as the Walkman, is an example of a typical prospector organization.Defenders attempt to locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area. They are less risk oriented than prospectors; typically they do not look outside well-defined product-market domains for new opportunities (McDaniel and Kolari 1987; Shortell and Zajac 1990). Rather than invest time in new product or market development, they tend to offer a more limited range of products or services than their competitors, and they focus on resource efficiency and cost-cutting process improvements to try to protect their domain by offering higher quality, superior service, lower prices, and so forth (Hambrick 1983).Defenders are normally not at the forefront of developments in the industry. Walker and colleagues (2003) distinguish between two defender strategies: price cutting and competitive differentiation. Unlike Sonyââ¬â¢s audio SBU, Matsushitaââ¬â¢s audio division, a typical defender organization, is likely to focus not on developing products but rather on cutting manufacturing costs (Lieberman and Montgomery 1988). HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT The Miles and Snow Strategic Typology Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 7 Analyzers show qualities of both defenders and prospectors.They attempt to maintain a stable, limited line of products or services, while moving out quickly to follow a carefully selected set of the more promising new developments in the industry (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997). Analyzers are seldom ââ¬Å"first inâ⬠with new products or services. However, by carefully monitoring the actions of major competitors in areas compatible with their stable product-market base, they are frequently ââ¬Å"second inâ⬠with a more cost-efficient product or service (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997).For example, they might develop a new product in a stable market domain or sell established products in new geographic markets or through new distribution channels. They can operate in different domains, perhaps one stable and one more turbulent (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Miles and Snow (1978, p. 73) characterize analyzers as ââ¬Å"avid followers of change,â⬠always ready to pursue a promising, emerging product or market with a later-entrant, ââ¬Å"second-but-betterâ⬠strategy (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992).They can initiate product and/or market development, but less often than prospectors; at the same time, they can focus on stability and efficiency, but to a lesser extent than defenders (Hambrick 1983). Reactors typically lack long-term plans and any consistent strategy, instead reacting to environmental pressures as necessary (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Empirical study has suggested that prospectors, analyzers, and defenders all perform well (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Miles and Snow 1978) and generally outperform reactors.We are interested primarily in the relative capabilities of the three potentially successful archetypal strategic types, so we do not explicitly include reactors in our hypotheses. We have gathered data from reactor organizations, however, and included them in our analysis section. To create economic value, sustain competitive advantage, and achieve superior profitability, an organization requires a wide range of capabilities. Although it would be impossible to list them all, certain categories of capabilities common to many organizations have been identified and used in prior research (e. . , Day 1994; DeSarbo et al. 2006). Technology capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as financial management, cost control, technology development, and logisticsââ¬âenable an organization to keep costs down and to differentiate its offerings from those of competitors. Market-linking capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as sensing market trends, channel and customer linking, and technology monitoringââ¬âenable an organization to be responsive to changing customer needs and to use its technical capabilities effectively to exploit external possibilities (Day 1994). Marketing capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as skill in segmentation,Organizational Capabilities 8 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto targeting, pricing, and advertisingââ¬âenable the organization to take advantage of its market-sensing and technological capabilities and to implement effective marketing programs (Song and Parry 1997a, 1997b). Finally, IT capabilities enable the organization to diffuse market information effectively across all rel evant functional areas so that it can direct new product development. Not all organizations will have all of these capabilities (Day and Nedungadi 1994; Day and Wensley 1988).Furthermore, organizations will solidify and even develop their particular capabilities through time according to their strategic type, as Miles and Snowââ¬â¢s (1978) classification posits. For example, prospectors tend to compete by anticipating new product or marketplace opportunities and by implementing technological innovation; continued, successful prospecting will have the effect of strengthening inside-out and IT capabilities. The subsequent sections explore the hypothesized relationships between strategic type and organizational capabilities.Market-linking and -sensing capabilities enable the organization to compete by sensing market changes effectively, anticipating shifts in the market environment, creating and retaining durable links with customers, and creating strong bonds with channel members s uch as wholesalers and retailers. These capabilities enable the organization to sense marketplace requirements before competitors and to connect its other capabilities to the external environment (Day 1994). Organizations of all strategic types need well-developed market-linking capabilities.For defenders, however, such capabilities are particularly critical because these organizations must correctly and quickly anticipate changes in the market and their customersââ¬â¢ needs if they are to maintain their prominence within their existing product-market domain (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990). Because defenders attempt to locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area, they tend to offer a more limited range of products or services than their competitors, and they try to protect their domain by offering higher quality, superior service, lower prices, and so forth.To be effective in achieving these objectives, defenders must possess a high lev el of market-linking capabilities. Walker and colleagues (2003) also note that tracking changes in customer needs and competitive behavior is especially important to a differentiated defender strategy. They note that defenders should be strongest in business functions related to their competitive strategy, such as market sensing and linking. Although prospectors should also have good market-linking capabilities, their ability to sustain competitive advantage is more closely tied to the development of new products, markets, and technologies.Therefore, although Market-Linking Capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 9 market-linking capabilities are important to prospectors and analyzers, defenders will need them most. Our expectations about organizational strategy types and market-linking capabilities (relative to competitors) can be summarized as follows: H1: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the least rel ative marketlinking capabilities, nd defenders have the greatest. Technical capabilities involve the manufacturing processes, technology, new product development, production facilities, and forecasting of technological change in the industry. They are contained within the organization and activated by market, competitor, and external challenges and opportunities. By increasing efficiency in the production process, they can reduce costs and improve consistency in delivery and, therefore, competitiveness (Day 1994).Although technical capabilities are likely to be important for all strategic types, they should be most important to prospectors, which prosper in unstable, changing environments, especially those marked by rapid technological change such as biotechnology, medical care, and aerospace (Walker et al. 2003). Because prospectors use a first-to-market strategy and typically operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992), they must be able to develop new technologies, products, and markets rapidly (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; McDaniel and Kolari 1987).Walker and colleagues (2003) note that prospectors require strength in product research and development (R&D) and product engineering, and they perform best when the amount spent on product R&D is high. Because defenders typically locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area, they tend to be less interested in developing new products and technologies and therefore will depend less on technical capabilities. Formally, H2: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the greatest relative technical capabilities, and defenders have the least.Marketing capabilities include knowledge of the competition and of customers and skill in segmenting and targeting markets, in advertising and pricing, and in integrating marketing activity. Conant, Mokwa, and Varadaraj an (1990) find that prospector firms have distinctive competencies in marketing planning, allocation of marketing resources, revenue forecasting, and control of marketing activities. However, although both prospectors and defenders require skills in Technical Capabilities Marketing Capabilities 10 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto arketing and market research to succeed (Song and Parry 1997a, b), certain marketing capabilities will be of most importance to defender firms because they are most concerned about protecting products and retaining customers (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Walker and colleagues (2003) note that differentiated defenders must be able to communicate their productsââ¬â¢ unique advantages so as to sustain customer satisfaction and loyalty. Low-cost defenders must be able to standardize effective marketing programs across all customer segments so as to reduce overall marketing costs.Thus, because both differentiated and low-cost defenders rely on marketing capabilities, they should develop them to a greater degree than should other strategic types. H3: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the lowest relative marketing capabilities, and defenders have the greatest. A firm active in product development must be able to gather technical and market information effectively and disseminate it throughout the organization (Jaworski and Kohli 1993; Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Narver and Slater 1990).These IT capabilities facilitate internal communication and cross-functional integration (Song et al. 2007). Better IT is associated with greater strategic flexibility and, ultimately, with better performance and greater organizational success (Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj, and Konsynski 1999; Swanson 1994). Day (1994) notes that more creative use of IT should lead to better firm performance, and other researchers have found that better information transmission across functional areas leads to m ore successful new products (Griffin and Hauser 1992, 1993, 1996; Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon 1986; Moenaert and Souder 1996).As we discussed previously, prospectors typically operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition. They also rely on the rapid development of new products and new markets (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992). Therefore, prospectors need relatively high IT skills to respond rapidly to early signals involving areas of opportunity. Miles and Snow (1978) note that prospectors tend to have the most complex coordination and communication mechanisms.Because of the technologically advanced nature of the products they develop, prospectors are also more likely to encounter conflicts among marketing, R&D, engineering, and possibly other functional areas (Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Walker et al. 2003). This makes even more critical prospectorsââ¬â¢ ability to communicate as effectively as possible and to ensure the free flow of informati on throughout the organization. In addition, prospectors might need greater strategic flexibility than other strategic types because they must constantly monitor and target emerging technology IT CapabilitiesInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 11 and product opportunities; better IT contributes to greater strategic flexibility (Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj, and Konsynski 1999). Formally, we propose the following: H4: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the greatest relative IT capabilities, and defenders have the lowest. CROSS-NATIONAL HYPOTHESES The cultural differences among Japan, China, and the United States are well documented in the literature (Hofstede 1980; Tse et al. 1988). Japanese and Chinese cultures are collectivistic and long-term oriented, whereas the U.S. culture is individualistic and short-term oriented. Japan and China emphasize group harmony and cohesiveness, whereas the United States values freedom of c hoice and competition (Hofstede 1980). The business environments in both Japan and China reflect these cultural tendencies. In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) encourages investment in key technologies and fierce competition among Japanese firms in selected industries (Kagono et al. 1985). These policies have helped strengthen Japanââ¬â¢s competitiveness in the global marketplace. In addition, METIââ¬â¢s olicies have recently encouraged new initiatives, such as growth in IT and support for environmentally friendly products (Elder 2000). The keiretsu, or interorganizational business groups, also strongly support technology development in Japan (Lai 1999; Lincoln, Gerlach, and Ahmadjian 1996; Miwa and Ramseyer 2002). A major manufacturer might work cooperatively with its suppliers and distributors (vertical keiretsu) or with other manufacturers (horizontal keiretsu) to perfect a new technology; consider, for example, the consortium of Japanese firms tha t worked with Sony in the development of the global positioning system (Campbell 1999).In addition to technology and IT capabilities, Japanese firms in many industries possess formidable marketing and marketlinking capabilities. Their cultural predilection toward group harmony and cohesiveness has led Japanese firms to value long-term relationships with their suppliers, distributors, and customers (Kagono et al. 1985; Kotabe et al. 1991; Smith, Peterson, and Wang 1996; Tse et al. 1988). These relationships enable Japanese manufacturers to link with their customer markets effectively and to develop appropriate marketing strategies and programs.Since the end of World War II, Japanese firms have closed the gap between themselves and their U. S. competitors in terms of marketing capabilities, in some industries surpassing them. As an example, Japanese carmakers are renowned for their excellence in customer research. Use of observational research techniques has enabled Toyota, Nissan, an d Honda to develop cars that are 12 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto ideally suited to the unique demands of the U. S. marketplace (Shirouzu 2001).Japanese carmakers were also among the first to use Quality Function Deployment techniques (e. g. , the House of Quality; see Hauser and Clausing 1988), which ensure that market needs drive all the subsequent steps in product development and manufacturing processes, including product engineering, process planning, and production (Griffin 1992). It was the U. S. carmakers that had to learn these techniques from Japanese carmakers to catch up (Dyer 1996). This literature suggests that Japanese firms are at least equal to their U. S. ompetitors in terms of marketing capabilities and, because of their cultural tendency toward group harmony and cohesiveness, could possess even stronger market-linking capabilities. The Chinese business environment differs from that of Japan, though the two countries share some cultural traits. Despite recent economic reforms, many Chinese firms remain state-owned enterprises, characterized by shared government and firm authority (Schermerhorn and Nyaw 1991). Since the 1970s, investment in technology and innovation has been supported strongly by government policy to stimulate Chinese economic growth and to boost global competitiveness.As decentralization has occurred, stateowned enterprises have increased their decision-making authority on issues such as products and prices (Henley and Nyaw 1986; Laaksonen 1988; Schermerhorn and Nyaw 1991), and smaller collective enterprises with even less government control have become more prevalent (Parry and Song 1994). Nevertheless, Chinese government policy continues to prioritize technology capability investment. However, our review of the literature on Chinese state-owned enterprises reveals little evidence that the Chinese government has prioritized or funded marketing, market-linking, or IT capabilities.In summary, the l iterature suggests that Japanese government and keiretsu policy favor technology and IT capability development, whereas Chinese government policy favors technology development. In addition, the marketing and marketlinking capabilities of Japanese firms are well established, whereas Chinese governmental policy has not supported the development of these capabilities On the basis of this evidence, we propose the following: H5: Japanese firms have greater market-linking capabilities than U. S. and Chinese firms of the same strategic type.H6: Japanese and Chinese firms have greater technology capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 13 H7: Japanese and U. S. firms have greater marketing capabilities than Chinese firms of the same strategic type. H8: Japanese firms have greater IT capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Note that H5ââ¬âH8 can be tested for each of the four strategic types separa telyââ¬âthus the qualifier ââ¬Å"of the same strategic type. â⬠RESEARCH DESIGNInstrument Development and Cross-Cultural Validation Process Our constructs are defined using competitive capability theory (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Day 1994) and must be operationalized using valid, reliable measures (Churchill 1979). We used a four-step instrument development procedure to develop new scales for market-linking, technical, marketing, and IT capabilities and to ensure crosscultural validity. (For a fuller discussion of the instrument development procedure, see DeSarbo et al. 2005. ) Step 1: Measurement Items for Each Capability Type.We identified relevant measurement scales from the marketing literature. We grouped the scale items derived from these scales into the four capability types. To this initial pool of items for each capability type, we added new items in instances in which we believed that not all the dimensions of the construct had been sufficiently covere d. To ensure content validity and appropriateness of items, we refined the scales through in-depth focus interviews in two SBUs. Managers at these SBUs were asked their opinions about salient issues in SBU capabilities.They were also asked to evaluate whether the theoretical model described their own experiences adequately. Next, managers commented on their perceptions of the relevance and completeness of the scale items drawn from the literature review and previous case studies. Finally, we tested and validated the Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) strategic typology scale. Step 2: Scale Development. Following Churchill (1979), we assessed construct validity of the scales being developed and corrected any scale items that might still be ambiguous.Seven judges (two professors and five doctoral students with background in measurement development) sorted the items from the first step into the four capability scales, following Davisââ¬â¢s (1986) procedure. Construct convergence and divergence were examined by assessing interrater reliability (for assessment statistics, see DeSarbo et al. 2005). Step 3: Instrument Pretesting. Using the judgesââ¬â¢ comments, we reexamined all scale items and eliminated inappropriate or ambiguous items or any that were inconsistently classified.We then combined the four scales into an overall instrument 14 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto for additional pretesting. We distributed the instrument to 32 managers in the two SBUs to further assess scale reliability and validity; two problematic items were deleted. Then, the instrument was distributed to 41 executive MBA students taking a new product development class. We subjected the results to factor analysis and assessment of reliability. (Factor loadings and reliability test results are available on request. We deleted two more items, which resulted in a questionnaire including all items judged to have high consistency and face validity. Step 4: Cr oss-Cultural Validation of the Research Instrument. To ensure that the translation was accurate and that the question meanings were not altered, we used a double-translation method to translate the questionnaire into Japanese and Chinese (Adler 1983; Douglas and Craig 2006; Sekaran 1983). After translation, we conducted field research in six Japanese firms and two Chinese firms in which we examined SBU capabilities and innovation strategies.The purposes of the field research were to establish the content validity of the concepts and the hypothesized relationships among the constructs; to establish equivalence of the constructs, concepts, measures, and samples; and to assess the possibility of cultural bias and response format bias (Douglas and Craig 2006). The field research studies were conducted over a ninemonth period with multiple visits to the companies. The field research studies were important for several reasons. First, they facilitated an assessment of construct (conceptual , functional, and category) equivalence.Second, they indicated that the measurement scales were appropriate for studying capability and strategic types in Japanese and Chinese context. Third, the field research results suggested that it is more appropriate to ask the respondents to rate their SBU on each of the capability scale items relative to their major competitors (for exact wording, see Appendix A). Appendix A provides a list of the final measure measurement items and the response format employed in the questionnaire. The following sections briefly summarize the four scales.Market-Linking Capabilities. We measured market-linking capabilities using several scale items derived from Day (1994). The items measure relative capability in creating and managing durable customer relationships, creating durable relationships with suppliers, retaining customers, and bonding with channel members. Technical Capabilities. We also measured technical capabilities according to a set of scale i tems derived from Day (1994). These items measure relative capabilities in the prediction ofInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 15 technological change, technology and new product development, manufacturing processes, and production facilities. Marketing Capabilities. We measured marketing capabilities using a set of scale items derived from Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990). These items measure knowledge of customers, knowledge of competitors, integration of marketing activities, skills in segmentation and targeting, and effectiveness of pricing and advertising programs. IT Capabilities.We defined IT capabilities as the relative capabilities that help an organization create technical and market knowledge and facilitate intraorganizational communication flow. We developed items to measure the possession of IT systems for new product development, cross-functional integration, technology and market knowledge creation, and internal communication. We subjected th ese items to the measurement development procedure described previously. We obtained the data from a large-scale mail survey of the companies listed in Wardââ¬â¢s Business Directory, the Directory of Corporate Affiliations, and the World Marketing Directory.We drew a proportionate-stratified random sample of 800 firms from each country, using each industry as a stratum. The data collection consisted of three stages: presurvey, data collection on SBU strategies, and data collection on relative capabilities. In the first stage, we sent a one-page survey and an introductory letter requesting participation to all the selected firms and offered a list of available research reports to participating firms. The letter requested each firm to select an SBU/division for participation and provide a contact person in that SBU/division.Of the 2400 firms contacted, 392 in the United States, 429 in Japan, and 414 in China agreed to participate and provided the necessary contacts at the SBU/divis ion level. In the second stage, on strategic types, we contacted the designated SBU managers directly and mailed a questionnaire and personalized letter to each manager. We employed a three-wave mailing on the basis of the recommendations of Dillman (1978). We received data on the multi-item measures of the strategic types from 308 firms in the United States, 354 firms in Japan, and 352 firms in China.Two items at the end of the instrument assessed respondentsââ¬â¢ confidence in their ability to answer the questions. Respondents with a low level of confidence (less than 6) were excluded from the final sample. In the third stage, on the four capabilities, we sent another questionnaire to the SBU managers, followed again by a three-wave mailing. This time, we received data on the rela- Data 16 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto tive capabilities from 216 U. S. firms, 248 Japanese firms, and 245 Chinese firms.These sample sizes represent response rates of 27. 0% in the United States, 31. 0% in Japan, and 30. 6% in China. The final sample includes the following industries: computer-related products; electronics; electric equipment and household appliances; pharmaceuticals, drugs, and medicines; machinery; telecommunications equipment; instruments and related products; air conditioning; chemicals and related products; and transportation equipment. The majority of participating SBUs/divisions had annual sales of $11 millionââ¬â$750 million and 100ââ¬â12,500 employees.Appendix A presents all of the measures used in this study. We asked respondents to rate their SBU on each of the capability scale items relative to their major competitors. We used an 11-point scale to elicit levels of agreement, with values ranging from 0 (ââ¬Å"much worse than our competitorsâ⬠) to 10 (ââ¬Å"much better than our competitorsâ⬠). We used the data collected in the second phase of the collection process to classify the SBU/division into the four strategic types. We adopted the 11-item scale from Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990).We classified the SBUââ¬â¢s strategic type (prospector, analyzer, defender, or reactor) using the ââ¬Å"majority-rule decision structureâ⬠(for details, see Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990) with the following modification: For an SBU to be classified as a prospector or a defender, it must have at least seven ââ¬Å"correctâ⬠answers. Before testing our hypotheses, we performed principal factor analyses with Varimax rotation on all the variables measuring the four relative capabilities for all three countries. To assess measurement invariance, we examined factor structure similarity (Mullen 1995).We retained variables using the following criteria: (1) Each factor must contain the same scale items across all three countries, (2) each itemââ¬â¢s factor loading must be comparable across all three countries, and (3) for each factor, the factor loading must exceed . 40. This procedure produced four factors and reduced the total number of variables to 21. We made comparisons among the factor structures of the three countries using visual inspection, the salient similarity index, and Pearson correlation of the factor loadings across the three countries. The factor loadings appear in Table 1.As indicated, all factors are distinguishable and well defined for all three countries. The percentage of the variance explained by the four factors is 72% for the United States, 71% for Japan, and 69% for China. The examination of the diagonal of the factor score covariance matrix indicates that all factors for the three Measures ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Factor Analysis of the Capability Scales Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 17 Table 1. Principal Component Factor Analysis: Rotated Factor Patterns United States Market-Linking Capabilities Market-sensing capabilities Customer-linking (i. e. creating and managing durable customer relationships) capab ilities Capabilities of creating durable relationships with our suppliers Ability to retain customers Channel-bonding capabilities (creating durable relationships with channel members such as wholesalers, retailers) Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor Technical Capabilities Manufacturing processes Technology development capabilities Ability of predicting technological changes in the industry Production facilities New product development capabilities Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor Marketing Capabilities Knowledge of competitors Effectiveness of advertising programs Integration of marketing activities Skill to segment and target markets Effectiveness of pricing programs Knowledge of customers Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor IT Capabilities IT systems for facilitating crossfunctional integration IT systems for new product development projects IT systems for internal communication (e. g. , across diff erent departments, levels of the organization) IT systems for facilitating technology knowledge creation IT systems for facilitating market knowledge creation Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor . 71 . 80 . 90 . 58 . 86 . 85 . 62 . 89 4. 22 20. 1 . 97 . 93 . 90 . 92 . 91 6. 10 29. 1 . 85 Japan .81 China .88 .80 . 81 . 79 .77 . 71 . 57 .79 . 66 . 70 .65 3. 04 14. 4 .44 1. 68 8. 0 .67 2. 64 12. 6 .79 . 78 . 78 . 77 . 71 2. 51 12. 0 70 . 81 . 69 . 73 . 78 4. 36 20. 7 .95 . 95 . 94 . 95 . 90 . 86 5. 69 27. 1 .95 . 86 . 94 . 93 . 83 . 83 5. 39 25. 7 .90 . 89 .83 . 80 .75 . 66 . 74 1. 66 7. 9 .85 . 65 . 57 5. 08 24. 2 .46 . 67 . 63 1. 75 8. 3 18 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto countries are internally consistent and well defined by the measurement items. We provide the final set of included measurement items in Appendix A and the construct reliabilities (as measured by Cronbachââ¬â¢s ? ) and item-to-total correlations in Appendix B. All 12 construct reliabilities (three countries ? four constructs) exceeded the . 70 level that Peter (1979) recommends.To test H1ââ¬âH4 in each of the three country settings, we performed multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) to compare the scores on each of the four multi-item relative capability scales across all four strategic types using SAS general linear model procedure. For each capability scale, we obtained a multiple-item scale by a simple average of the items. As Table 2 shows, the MANOVA F-statistic was significant for all four relative capabilities and in all three countries, so we computed pairwise comparisons to examine the nature of the differences in relative capabilities among the four strategic types. We also include the t-test results of the pairwise comparisons in Table 2.The results in Table 2 provide support for H1ââ¬âH4 in all three countries. (A hypothesis is supported if at least one pairwise comparison is significant and the direction is in t he hypothesized direction. ) As H1 hypothesized, the relative marketlinking capabilities of defenders and analyzers are significantly greater than those of prospectors in all three countries, though the difference between defenders and analyzers is not significant. For example, in the United States, mean scores on market-linking capabilities are 2. 69, 2. 35, and 1. 67 for defenders, analyzers, and prospectors, respectively. The F-statistic from the analysis of variance is 3. 52, which is significant at p < . 05.T-tests of the paired comparisons showed that both the defender mean and the analyzer mean were significantly larger than the prospector mean (D > P; A > P) at the p < . 05 level. We obtained similar results for the Japanese and Chinese samples. These findings are consistent with H1. Prospectors have lower market-linking capabilities than defenders and analyzers because the latter two strategic types rely primarily on their market-sensing and -linking abilities to serve thei r current markets with their current products and technologies. The results also support H2 (prospectors have greater technical capabilities than defenders) in all three countries.For the United States, the prospector and defender means were 3. 42 and 2. 25, respectively, significantly different at p < . 05. Both prospectorsââ¬â¢ and analyzersââ¬â¢ technical capabilities are greater than those of defenders in Japan. The means for prospector, analyzer, and defender were 8. 75, 8. 47, and 7. 84, respectively; both prospector and analyzer means were significantly Tests of H1ââ¬âH4: Possession of Capabilities by Different Strategic Types Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 19 20 Table 2. Analysis of Variance Results: Relative Capabilities and Strategic Types Strategic Type Prospector 1. 67 (1. 67) 3. 42 (2. 70) 1. 75 (1. 50) 7. 5 (1. 49) 6. 72 (1. 79) 5. 48 (1. 09) 5. 05 (1. 72) 2. 37 (1. 75) 3. 26 (1. 99) 1. 98 (2. 38) 2. 78 (2. 46) 2. 25 (2. 59) 2. 46 (2. 90) 2. 16* 7. 47** 31. 96** 2. 35 (1. 82) 2. 69 (1. 79) 2. 46 (2. 01) 3. 52** Univariate Defender Reactor F-Value Paired Comparisons Hypothesis (t-Tests)a D > P; A > P P>D D > A; D > P; D > R; A > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R Countries/Relative Capabilities Analyzer Supportedb Yes Yes Yes Yes United States Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Japan 1. 03 (. 91) 8. 75 (1. 23) 3. 58 (2. 36) 9. 48 (. 87) 9. 00 (1. 01) 3. 9 (2. 88) 8. 47 (1. 20) 7. 84 (1. 35) 3. 68 (2. 73) 8. 72 (1. 09) 1. 96 (1. 12) 2. 07 (1. 19) 2. 51 (1. 56) 7. 42 (1. 42) 4. 82 (2. 29) 8. 46 (1. 28) 19. 17** 12. 02** 2. 24* 11. 28** D > P; A > P; R > D; R > A; R > P P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R R > D; R > A; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > R Yes Yes No Yes Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto IT capabilities Strategic Type Prospector 1. 21 (1. 28) 8. 53 (1. 27) 2. 9 2 (2. 20) 8. 96 (1. 10) 8. 58 (1. 13) 7. 94 (1. 33) 7. 59 (1. 60) 13. 38** 3. 37 (2. 52) 3. 9 (2. 82) 4. 13 (2. 45) 2. 30* 7. 81 (1. 28) 7. 43 (1. 19) 6. 79 (1. 85) 15. 69** 2. 17 (1. 52) 2. 22 (1. 49) 2. 71 (1. 74) 11. 21** Univariate Defender Reactor F-Value Paired Comparisons Hypothesis (t-Tests)a D > P; A > P; R > A; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > R; D > R D > P; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R Countries/Relative Capabilities Analyzer Supportedb Yes Yes Yes Yes China Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types *p < . 10. **p < . 05. aSignificant differences at p < . 0 are reported. bA hypothesis is supported if at least one pair is significantly different in the hypothesized direction. Notes: Each cell shows the mean; standard deviations are in parentheses. P = prospector, A = analyzer, D = defender, and R = reactor. Table 2. Continued 21 higher than the defender mean at p < . 05. In China, prospectors scored higher than analyzers and defenders on this capability (prospector, analyzer, and defender means were 8. 53, 7. 81, and 7. 43, respectively; the prospector mean was significantly higher than the other two means at p < . 05). H3 was supported in the United States and China samples. For the U. S. ample, defenders had significantly greater marketing capabilities than analyzers, and analyzers had significantly greater marketing capabilities than prospectors. The defender, analyzer, and prospector means on relative marketing capabilities in the United States were 3. 26, 2. 37, and 1. 75, respectively, all significantly different from one another at p < . 05 according to the pairwise t-tests. For the Chinese sample, the only differences are the pair between defenders and prospectors and the pair between reactors and prospectors. However, for the Japanese samples, the hypothesis was not supported. The three ââ¬Å"archetypalâ⬠strategic types we re insignificantly different and, notably, rather low.The reactors had significantly greater marketing capabilities than all other three strategic types. Finally, H4 was also supported in all three countries. Almost without exception, prospectors had greater IT capabilities than analyzers, which in turn had greater IT capabilities than defenders. For example, in the U. S. sample, the relative IT capabilities for prospectors, analyzers, and defenders were 7. 95, 6. 72, and 5. 48, respectively, all significantly different from one another at p < . 05. Similar results were found in Japan and China. In summary, our expectations, expressed in our hypotheses, were that prospectors would be strongest in technical and IT capabilities and defenders in market-linking and marketing capabilities.We find support for all these hypotheses in all three countries, and all significant findings were in the hypothesized directions. The next set of hypotheses involves expected cross-national differences in terms of the relationship between capabilities and strategic types due to cultural or business environment differences. Before discussing the direct empirical testing of these hypotheses, however, we explain some preliminary findings regarding cross-national differences using data from Table 2. Market-Linking Capabilities. Reactors had significantly greater relative market-linking capabilities than did other strategic types in both Japan and China, but not in the United States. Market-linking capability = 2. 51 and 2. 71 in Japan and China, respectively; in each case, this is the highest capability mean. ) Miles and Snow (1978) find that reactors Tests of H5ââ¬âH8: Cross-National Similarities and Differences 22 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto did not implement strategies consistently and therefore did not fully develop internal capabilities that would enable them to compete successfully. Our results suggest that this expectation is not borne out in Japan or China, possibly because some firms in these countries have well-developed market-linking capabilities but choose to compete as reactors rather than defenders.That is, superior market-sensing skills enable these firms to act successfully as prospectors in certain markets and as adapters or defenders in others. This finding appears to be supported by the H3 results, at least for Japanese firms. Reactors in Japan have significantly greater relative marketing capabilities than all other strategic types. Leaders of a multinational organization doing business against a Japanese competitor should keep in mind that a firm apparently lacking a consistent strategy (i. e. , displaying reactive behavior) may be nonetheless highly skilled in marketing and market linking and, therefore, a surprisingly formidable opponent. Technical Capabilities.Although H2 was largely supported, it is worthwhile to note that across all four strategic types, managers from U. S. firms rated their technica l capabilities (relative to competitors) substantially lower than did their Japanese or Chinese counterparts. The means for the United States were 2. 2ââ¬â3. 4 on a ten-point scale, and comparable means in Japan and China were 7ââ¬â9. This finding suggests that in Japan and China, all strategic types (including defenders and reactors) have well-developed relative technical capabilities. Again, a U. S. firm in competition against, for example, a Japanese defender should not infer low technical capabilities from its competitorââ¬â¢s defensive posture. Marketing Capabilities.Finally, it was surprising to note that H3, which involves relative marketing capabilities, was not supported in Japan and only partially supported in China. As we noted previously, Japanese reactor firms have the greatest relative marketing capabilities; all other firms are insignificantly different on this capability. In China, defenders rate significantly higher than prospectors in this (as hypothesiz ed), but we found no other significant differences among the archetypal strategic types. Cross-National Differences. To test the cross-national hypotheses (H5ââ¬âH8), we performed additional analyses to compare the means on each relative capability construct across countries for each of the four strategic types using SAS general linear model procedure.We used the same procedure described previously: a MANOVA followed by a series of pairwise t-tests to identify significant differences. As Table 3 shows, the F-statistic was significant for 13 of the 16 possible comparisons. Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 23 Consider first the technology and IT capability hypotheses (H6 and H8). Table 3 shows that across all four strategic types, Japanese and Chinese SBUs rate significantly higher than U. S. SBUs in relative technical capabilities. As an example, technical capabilities for prospectors were rated as 8. 75, 8. 53, and 3. 42 for Japan, China, and the United St ates, respectively (significant at p < . 05).This is directly supportive of H6. Japanese and Chinese SBUs also rated significantly higher than their U. S. counterparts in relative IT capabilities across all four strategic types; therefore, we find only partial support for H8. For prospectors, IT capabilities were 9. 48, 8. 96, and 7. 95 for Japan, China, and the United States, respectively (significant at p < . 05). High relative IT capability among Japanese SBUs was expected according to H8, but the high relative IT capability among Chinese SBUs was unanticipated and is worthy of further research. We found less support for the market-linking and marketing capability hypotheses (H5 and H7).Cross-national differences are not very pronounced in the case of relative marketlinking capabilities. As Table 3 shows, U. S. prospector SBUs rate significantly higher than their Japanese and Chinese counterparts, and U. S. defenders rate significantly higher than their Japanese counterparts. The se findings are contradictory to the expectations of H5. Given the evidence of Japanese market-linking expertise, it is surprising that Japanese SBUs rate significantly higher than U. S. or Chinese competitors in market linking only in the case of reactors. In addition, H7 is only partially supported. Japanese and Chinese prospectors and analyzers rate significantly higher than their U. S. ounterparts on relative marketing capabilities. For example, in the case of prospectors, marketing capabilities are rated as 4. 58, 2. 92, and 1. 75 for Japan, China, and the United States, respectively (significant at p < . 05). Although we expected high relative marketing capability for Japan, we did not expect the significantly lower marketing capabilities among U. S. SBUs. Nevertheless, consistent patterns appear with respect to the cross-national hypotheses and suggest directions for further research. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION According to the Miles and Snow (1978) typology, organizations ado pt certain mechanisms to respond to environmental changes.That is, they choose to be pioneers in product or market development or to protect existing positions within their niches, or they seek some kind of intermediate position between these two extremes. As a result, firms exhibit relatively consistent strategies, or patterns of product-market innovation decisions, in response to environmental shifts. Furthermore, a firm that pursues a given strategy develops certain capabilities that help it implement that strategy, thus increasing the likelihood that it will continue to use the same strategy in response to future environmental shifts. As Ham- 24 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di BenedettoStrategic Types/ Relative Capabilities United States 1. 67 3. 42 1. 75 7. 95 9. 48 8. 96 33. 14** 3. 58 2. 92 13. 91** 8. 75 8. 53 202. 00** 1. 03 1. 21 4. 74** Country Japan China Univariate F-Value Cross-Country Comparisonsa U. S. > China; U. S. > Japan Japan > U. S. ; China > U . S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Prospectors Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Analyzers 2. 35 2. 78 2. 37 6. 72 9. 00 8. 58 3. 59 3. 37 8. 47 7. 81 230. 38** 5. 46** 58. 07** 1. 96 2. 17 1. 16n. s. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. China > U. S. Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Defenders 2. 69 2. 25 3. 26 5. 48 8. 72 3. 68 3. 69 7. 94 7. 84 7. 43 2. 07 2. 22 2. 70* 163. 99** . 54n. s. 121. 94** U. S. > Japan Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types IT capabilities Table 3. Analysis of Variance Results: Cross-National Comparisons 25 26 Table 3.Continued Country Un ited States 2. 46 2. 46 1. 98 5. 05 8. 46 7. 59 4. 81 4. 13 7. 42 6. 79 2. 51 2. 71 . 17n. s. 38. 68** 7. 99** 28. 82** Strategic Types/ Relative Capabilities Japan China Univariate F-Value Cross-Country Comparisonsa Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Reactors Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto *p < . 10. **p < . 05. aSignificant differences at p < . 10 are reported. Notes: n. s. = not significant. brick (1983, p. ) notes, ââ¬Å"prospectors tend to want to continue prospecting; defenders tend to want to continue defending. â⬠Among the capabilities Miles and Snow investigate are technology, structure, management processes, and power distribution. As we noted previously, the Miles and Snow (1978) typology is, above all, a typology of innovation strategies. In this study, we mapped four ca pabilities of interest to innovating firms (market-linking, technical, marketing, and IT capabilities) onto the Miles and Snow strategic typologies. We hypothesized (in H1ââ¬âH4) that prospectors, which typically pursue a first-mover strategy through product-market innovation, would need to build up technical and IT capabilities.Similarly, defenders, which are most concerned with preserving protected market segments with existing technology, must develop market-linking and marketing capabilities. We found supporting evidence for all these hypotheses in firms from all three countries. We then developed and tested a set of cross-national hypotheses (H5ââ¬âH8), based on cultural and business environment differences existing among the United States, Japan, and China. Our development and empirical testing of these hypotheses represent a significant advance of the literature beyond the contributions of DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006). We found clear support for one of the four hypotheses (H6), partial support for two others (H7 and H8), and no support for the last (H5).In general, the cultural and business environment prevalent in Japan and China has given SBUs in those countries relative advantages in technology and IT capabilities (H6 and H8), yet we did not observe anticipated advantages in market-linking and marketing capabilities (H5 and H7). This study has some implications for theory development and further research. In general, the results support the hypotheses that relative to other organizations, prospectors develop greater technical and IT capabilities so that they can pursue first-to-market initiatives and that defenders develop greater market-linking and marketing capabilities so that they can respond effectively to marketplace changes.These findings lend support to the Miles and Snow (1978) typology and to the contention that organizations tend to respond in certain, consistent ways to environmental change. Therefore, our findings can be i nterpreted as further empirical support of the Miles and Snow typology, originally conceived after an exploratory study of a limited number of industries but empirically supported in other settings (Hambrick 2003). Our findings are also consistent with Hambrickââ¬â¢s (1983) contention that prospectors want to keep prospecting and consequently develop the capabilities most closely related to Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 27 prospecting more than do other firms. Because IT has evolved only in the past few years, further research should explore the impact of IT on strategic choices.Because no existing theories are sufficient to enable us to predict a priori the nature of cross-national differences in the relationship between the four capabilities and strategic types, further research also should examine further our preliminary results regarding cross-national differences in relative capabilities. In addition, note that our model provides evidence of the val idity of Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajanââ¬â¢s (1990) 11-item scale for assessing strategic type in both Japan and China. We believe that this is the first application of this scale in China and one of the first in Japan (for an earlier Japanese application, see Dyer and Song 1997). There are several notable managerial implications. The Miles and Snow (1978) typology suggests that organizations must do a sincere internal and external assessment when planning strategic moves for future competition.The external assessment should include analysis not only of likely opportunities or developments in product, market, and technology but also of past moves by primary competitors classified by strategic type. In the internal assessment, the organizationââ¬â¢s leaders must identify honestly the firmââ¬â¢s strengths and recognize its weaknesses in light of external challenges. They must then choose a strategic stance, deciding how it can best capitalize on the strengths and overcome th e weaknesses. Although this recommendation is hardly new, it is important in this context to recognize that there is a mutually complementary relationship between capabilities and strategies.Relative strengths in technology and IT capabilities might suggest that a prospector (or even an analyzer) strategy could be a more appropriate choice than a defender strategy. Consistent, successful pursuit of a prospector strategy over time should help a firm develop these relative strengths and enable it to retain its competitive advantage. This implicitly suggests also that a firm that recognizes itself as a reactor type should use its internal assessment to decide which ââ¬Å"archetypalâ⬠strategic type it should strive to become. Cross-national differences in strategic type also carry managerial implications. Previously, we noted several rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-87074158405346151242020-01-12T23:02:00.003-08:002020-01-12T23:02:09.988-08:00Distinctive Marketing, IT Capabilities, and Strategic Types: A Cross-National InvestigationDistinctive Marketing and Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types: A Cross-National Investigation ABSTRACT Keywords: strategic typology, firm capabilities, cross-national, Japan, China The authors examine the relationship between strategic type and development of distinctive marketing, market-linking, technology, and information technology (IT) capabilities to implement innovation strategy. They hypothesize that prospectors must build technical and IT capabilities, whereas defenders develop market-linking and marketing capabilities. The authors collect data from 709 firms across the United States, Japan, and China.They find support for their capability hypotheses, as well as for some of their cross-national hypotheses that are based on cultural and business environment differences among the three countries. In particular, they find support for the hypotheses that Japanese firms have greater technology and IT capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Th ey conclude with implications for management. The strategic typology of Miles and Snow (1978) has received much attention in the marketing and management literature over the past two decades (e. g. Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Griffin and Hauser 1996; Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon 1986; McDaniel and Kolari 1987; McKee, Varadarajan, and Pride 1989; Parry and Song 1993, 1994; Ruekert and Walker 1987; Song and Xie 2000; Walker et al. 2003). Almost 30 years after its initial appearance in the literature, their typology is viewed widely as having stood the test of time and is still the most popular and commonly accepted model of strategic types in the management literature, having been applied in many different industry settings (DeSarbo et al. 005; DeSarbo et al. 2006; Hambrick 2003). Miles and Snow envision strategy as the patterns in the decisions by which a strategic business unit (SBU) aligns itself with its environment, and they categorize SBUs according to these patterns. The critical underlying variable in their typology is the rate of change in an SBUââ¬â¢s products or markets. Using an exploratory empirical study, Miles and Snow propose four strategic typesââ¬âprospectors, analyzers, defenders, and reactorsââ¬âand suggest that each of the first three types chooses a different competitive strategy ith respect to products and/or markets: Prospectors will innovate technologically and seek out new markets, analyzers will prefer a ââ¬Å"second-but-betterâ⬠strategy, and defenders will focus on maintaining a secure niche in a relatively stable Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto Journal of International Marketing à © 2008, American Marketing Association Vol. 16, No. 1, 2008, pp. 4ââ¬â38 ISSN 1069-031X (print) 1547-7215 (electronic) 4 product or service area.Miles and Snow suggest that all three of these strategic types can be successful if the SBU matches its strategy to the competitive en vironment and develops and deploys appropriate capabilities. Capabilities have been broadly defined as ââ¬Å"complex bundles of skills and accumulated knowledge that enable firms [or SBUs] to coordinate activities and make use of their assetsâ⬠(Day 1990, p. 38). In this article, we examine the relationship between Miles and Snowââ¬â¢s (1978) strategic type and four capability constructs: technology, market linking, marketing, and information technology (IT).Day (1994) suggests that both technology and market-linking capabilities (or ââ¬Å"insideoutâ⬠and ââ¬Å"outside-inâ⬠capabilities, respectively) are critical to sustained competitive advantage and superior performance (see also Day 1990; Day and Wensley 1988). Technology capabilities, which enable the organization to improve production process efficiencies and ultimately reduce its costs and increase its competitiveness, include financial management, cost control, technology development, logistics, manufact uring, and other processes with an internal emphasis.Market-linking capabilities, which enable the organization to use its technology capabilities to exploit marketplace opportunities, include market sensing, channel bonding, customer linking, technology monitoring, and spanning processes such as purchasing and new product development (Day 1994). Marketing capabilities, such as customer and competitive knowledge, skill in market segmentation and targeting, and effective marketing program design, should also be related to an organizationââ¬â¢s performance. In a ioneering study, Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) link marketing capabilities to the four strategic types and find that prospectors are superior in marketing capabilities. The marketing literature suggests that obtaining market and competitive information and diffusing it throughout the organization lead to better market orientation, better performance, and sustainable competitive advantage (Day 1994; Jaworski and Kohl i 1993). The literature also suggests that IT capabilities are increasingly important means to these ends.Research in both the marketing and new product streams has recognized the difficulty of communication across functional boundaries and has identified ways to improve both the quantity and quality of information (Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Griffin and Hauser 1992, 1993, 1996; Montoya-Weiss and Calantone 1994; Parry and Song 1993, 1994; Ruekert and Walker 1987; Song, Thieme, and Xie 1998; Song and Xie 2000; Swink and Song 2007). All four capability constructs include significant marketing processes. The original, exploratory Miles and Snow (1978) research finds relationships between firm capabilities andInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 5 strategic types in a limited number of industries. A subsequent study in this research stream empirically examines the relationships between marketing capabilities and strategic types and also validates a scale for assessing a business unitââ¬â¢s strategic type (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990). Two recent studies by DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006) propose and empirically test models that include a range of capabilities in addition to marketing capabilities.DeSarbo and colleagues (2005) use SBU data from three countries (the United States, China, and Japan) to derive a descriptive strategic typology that improves on the Miles and Snow typology in terms of explanatory power; this study is extended by DeSarbo and colleagues (2006) to a predictive model that examines causalities between strategic capabilities and SBU performance. The first objective of the current study is to examine the relationships between an SBUââ¬â¢s strategic type and its development of the four distinctive organizational capabilities technology, market linking, marketing, and IT). This research extends the previously mentioned research stream (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; DeSarbo et al. 2005; DeSarbo et al. 200 6) in that we seek to quantify and to better understand these relationships. The second objective is to build and test hypotheses regarding cross-national differences and their effects on the relationships between strategic type selection and the capabilities, a topic in which no empirical work has been conducted so far. We gather empirical data from three countries: the United States, China, and Japan.As China and Japan are the two largest East Asian economies, and together with the United States make up the three largest economies worldwide as measured by purchasing power (World Bank 2000), it is important to examine how firms from these countries compare with respect to their capabilities and strategies. Although DeSarbo and colleagues (2005) use a three-country database to build their descriptive typology, the research does not use the extant international marketing and management literature to build or test hypotheses of cross-national differences.We believe that the cross-nati onal hypothesis testing constitutes a clear extension to the work of Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) and DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006). We first propose a set of four hypotheses relating an SBUââ¬â¢s relative capabilities to its selection of strategic type, as well as four additional hypotheses expressing expected crossnational differences in the magnitudes of the capabilities. We then test these hypotheses using a data set of 709 managers from the United States, Japan, and China. Our empirical results largely confirm these hypotheses. We conclude by 6 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C.Anthony Di Benedetto providing theoretical implications and some possible prescriptions for managers seeking to improve their organizationââ¬â¢s strategy selection. In this section, we define the Miles and Snow (1978) typology and discuss the implication of the strategic selection. We then define the four capability constructs and develop four hypotheses relating the capability co nstructs to strategic type. The Miles and Snow (1978) strategic types differ in the rate at which they change products or markets in response to environmental change. According to Miles and Snow, prospectors are the leaders of change in their industry.They operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997). They value being ââ¬Å"first inâ⬠in new product and market areas as market pioneers even if not all these efforts prove to be highly profitable (Robinson and Fornell 1985; Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992). They often need to respond rapidly to early signals involving areas of opportunity, and these responses often lead to a new round of competitive actions. Nevertheless, prospectors may not maintain market strength in all the areas they enter.They compete principally through launching new products and meeting new marketplace opportunities. Consequently, they devote significant res ources to new product development, market research, and other marketing expenses (Hambrick 1983; McDaniel and Kolari 1987; Shortell and Zajac 1990; Walker et al. 2003). Prospectors also rely on close ties with the channel of distribution to anticipate customer needs and environmental changes (Walker et al. 2003). Sonyââ¬â¢s audio products SBU, which is responsible for innovations such as the Walkman, is an example of a typical prospector organization.Defenders attempt to locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area. They are less risk oriented than prospectors; typically they do not look outside well-defined product-market domains for new opportunities (McDaniel and Kolari 1987; Shortell and Zajac 1990). Rather than invest time in new product or market development, they tend to offer a more limited range of products or services than their competitors, and they focus on resource efficiency and cost-cutting process improvements to try to protect their domain by offering higher quality, superior service, lower prices, and so forth (Hambrick 1983).Defenders are normally not at the forefront of developments in the industry. Walker and colleagues (2003) distinguish between two defender strategies: price cutting and competitive differentiation. Unlike Sonyââ¬â¢s audio SBU, Matsushitaââ¬â¢s audio division, a typical defender organization, is likely to focus not on developing products but rather on cutting manufacturing costs (Lieberman and Montgomery 1988). HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT The Miles and Snow Strategic Typology Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 7 Analyzers show qualities of both defenders and prospectors.They attempt to maintain a stable, limited line of products or services, while moving out quickly to follow a carefully selected set of the more promising new developments in the industry (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997). Analyzers are seldom ââ¬Å"first inâ⬠with new products or services. However, by carefully monitoring the actions of major competitors in areas compatible with their stable product-market base, they are frequently ââ¬Å"second inâ⬠with a more cost-efficient product or service (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997).For example, they might develop a new product in a stable market domain or sell established products in new geographic markets or through new distribution channels. They can operate in different domains, perhaps one stable and one more turbulent (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Miles and Snow (1978, p. 73) characterize analyzers as ââ¬Å"avid followers of change,â⬠always ready to pursue a promising, emerging product or market with a later-entrant, ââ¬Å"second-but-betterâ⬠strategy (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992).They can initiate product and/or market development, but less often than prospectors; at the same time, they can focus on stability and efficiency, but to a lesser extent than defenders (Hambrick 1983). Reactors typically lack long-term plans and any consistent strategy, instead reacting to environmental pressures as necessary (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Empirical study has suggested that prospectors, analyzers, and defenders all perform well (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Miles and Snow 1978) and generally outperform reactors.We are interested primarily in the relative capabilities of the three potentially successful archetypal strategic types, so we do not explicitly include reactors in our hypotheses. We have gathered data from reactor organizations, however, and included them in our analysis section. To create economic value, sustain competitive advantage, and achieve superior profitability, an organization requires a wide range of capabilities. Although it would be impossible to list them all, certain categories of capabilities common to many organizations have been identified and used in prior research (e. . , Day 1994; DeSarbo et al. 2006). Technology capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as financial management, cost control, technology development, and logisticsââ¬âenable an organization to keep costs down and to differentiate its offerings from those of competitors. Market-linking capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as sensing market trends, channel and customer linking, and technology monitoringââ¬âenable an organization to be responsive to changing customer needs and to use its technical capabilities effectively to exploit external possibilities (Day 1994). Marketing capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as skill in segmentation,Organizational Capabilities 8 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto targeting, pricing, and advertisingââ¬âenable the organization to take advantage of its market-sensing and technological capabilities and to implement effective marketing programs (Song and Parry 1997a, 1997b). Finally, IT capabilities enable the organization to diffuse market information effectively across all rel evant functional areas so that it can direct new product development. Not all organizations will have all of these capabilities (Day and Nedungadi 1994; Day and Wensley 1988).Furthermore, organizations will solidify and even develop their particular capabilities through time according to their strategic type, as Miles and Snowââ¬â¢s (1978) classification posits. For example, prospectors tend to compete by anticipating new product or marketplace opportunities and by implementing technological innovation; continued, successful prospecting will have the effect of strengthening inside-out and IT capabilities. The subsequent sections explore the hypothesized relationships between strategic type and organizational capabilities.Market-linking and -sensing capabilities enable the organization to compete by sensing market changes effectively, anticipating shifts in the market environment, creating and retaining durable links with customers, and creating strong bonds with channel members s uch as wholesalers and retailers. These capabilities enable the organization to sense marketplace requirements before competitors and to connect its other capabilities to the external environment (Day 1994). Organizations of all strategic types need well-developed market-linking capabilities.For defenders, however, such capabilities are particularly critical because these organizations must correctly and quickly anticipate changes in the market and their customersââ¬â¢ needs if they are to maintain their prominence within their existing product-market domain (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990). Because defenders attempt to locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area, they tend to offer a more limited range of products or services than their competitors, and they try to protect their domain by offering higher quality, superior service, lower prices, and so forth.To be effective in achieving these objectives, defenders must possess a high lev el of market-linking capabilities. Walker and colleagues (2003) also note that tracking changes in customer needs and competitive behavior is especially important to a differentiated defender strategy. They note that defenders should be strongest in business functions related to their competitive strategy, such as market sensing and linking. Although prospectors should also have good market-linking capabilities, their ability to sustain competitive advantage is more closely tied to the development of new products, markets, and technologies.Therefore, although Market-Linking Capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 9 market-linking capabilities are important to prospectors and analyzers, defenders will need them most. Our expectations about organizational strategy types and market-linking capabilities (relative to competitors) can be summarized as follows: H1: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the least rel ative marketlinking capabilities, nd defenders have the greatest. Technical capabilities involve the manufacturing processes, technology, new product development, production facilities, and forecasting of technological change in the industry. They are contained within the organization and activated by market, competitor, and external challenges and opportunities. By increasing efficiency in the production process, they can reduce costs and improve consistency in delivery and, therefore, competitiveness (Day 1994).Although technical capabilities are likely to be important for all strategic types, they should be most important to prospectors, which prosper in unstable, changing environments, especially those marked by rapid technological change such as biotechnology, medical care, and aerospace (Walker et al. 2003). Because prospectors use a first-to-market strategy and typically operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992), they must be able to develop new technologies, products, and markets rapidly (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; McDaniel and Kolari 1987).Walker and colleagues (2003) note that prospectors require strength in product research and development (R&D) and product engineering, and they perform best when the amount spent on product R&D is high. Because defenders typically locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area, they tend to be less interested in developing new products and technologies and therefore will depend less on technical capabilities. Formally, H2: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the greatest relative technical capabilities, and defenders have the least.Marketing capabilities include knowledge of the competition and of customers and skill in segmenting and targeting markets, in advertising and pricing, and in integrating marketing activity. Conant, Mokwa, and Varadaraj an (1990) find that prospector firms have distinctive competencies in marketing planning, allocation of marketing resources, revenue forecasting, and control of marketing activities. However, although both prospectors and defenders require skills in Technical Capabilities Marketing Capabilities 10 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto arketing and market research to succeed (Song and Parry 1997a, b), certain marketing capabilities will be of most importance to defender firms because they are most concerned about protecting products and retaining customers (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Walker and colleagues (2003) note that differentiated defenders must be able to communicate their productsââ¬â¢ unique advantages so as to sustain customer satisfaction and loyalty. Low-cost defenders must be able to standardize effective marketing programs across all customer segments so as to reduce overall marketing costs.Thus, because both differentiated and low-cost defenders rely on marketing capabilities, they should develop them to a greater degree than should other strategic types. H3: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the lowest relative marketing capabilities, and defenders have the greatest. A firm active in product development must be able to gather technical and market information effectively and disseminate it throughout the organization (Jaworski and Kohli 1993; Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Narver and Slater 1990).These IT capabilities facilitate internal communication and cross-functional integration (Song et al. 2007). Better IT is associated with greater strategic flexibility and, ultimately, with better performance and greater organizational success (Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj, and Konsynski 1999; Swanson 1994). Day (1994) notes that more creative use of IT should lead to better firm performance, and other researchers have found that better information transmission across functional areas leads to m ore successful new products (Griffin and Hauser 1992, 1993, 1996; Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon 1986; Moenaert and Souder 1996).As we discussed previously, prospectors typically operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition. They also rely on the rapid development of new products and new markets (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992). Therefore, prospectors need relatively high IT skills to respond rapidly to early signals involving areas of opportunity. Miles and Snow (1978) note that prospectors tend to have the most complex coordination and communication mechanisms.Because of the technologically advanced nature of the products they develop, prospectors are also more likely to encounter conflicts among marketing, R&D, engineering, and possibly other functional areas (Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Walker et al. 2003). This makes even more critical prospectorsââ¬â¢ ability to communicate as effectively as possible and to ensure the free flow of informati on throughout the organization. In addition, prospectors might need greater strategic flexibility than other strategic types because they must constantly monitor and target emerging technology IT CapabilitiesInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 11 and product opportunities; better IT contributes to greater strategic flexibility (Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj, and Konsynski 1999). Formally, we propose the following: H4: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the greatest relative IT capabilities, and defenders have the lowest. CROSS-NATIONAL HYPOTHESES The cultural differences among Japan, China, and the United States are well documented in the literature (Hofstede 1980; Tse et al. 1988). Japanese and Chinese cultures are collectivistic and long-term oriented, whereas the U.S. culture is individualistic and short-term oriented. Japan and China emphasize group harmony and cohesiveness, whereas the United States values freedom of c hoice and competition (Hofstede 1980). The business environments in both Japan and China reflect these cultural tendencies. In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) encourages investment in key technologies and fierce competition among Japanese firms in selected industries (Kagono et al. 1985). These policies have helped strengthen Japanââ¬â¢s competitiveness in the global marketplace. In addition, METIââ¬â¢s olicies have recently encouraged new initiatives, such as growth in IT and support for environmentally friendly products (Elder 2000). The keiretsu, or interorganizational business groups, also strongly support technology development in Japan (Lai 1999; Lincoln, Gerlach, and Ahmadjian 1996; Miwa and Ramseyer 2002). A major manufacturer might work cooperatively with its suppliers and distributors (vertical keiretsu) or with other manufacturers (horizontal keiretsu) to perfect a new technology; consider, for example, the consortium of Japanese firms tha t worked with Sony in the development of the global positioning system (Campbell 1999).In addition to technology and IT capabilities, Japanese firms in many industries possess formidable marketing and marketlinking capabilities. Their cultural predilection toward group harmony and cohesiveness has led Japanese firms to value long-term relationships with their suppliers, distributors, and customers (Kagono et al. 1985; Kotabe et al. 1991; Smith, Peterson, and Wang 1996; Tse et al. 1988). These relationships enable Japanese manufacturers to link with their customer markets effectively and to develop appropriate marketing strategies and programs.Since the end of World War II, Japanese firms have closed the gap between themselves and their U. S. competitors in terms of marketing capabilities, in some industries surpassing them. As an example, Japanese carmakers are renowned for their excellence in customer research. Use of observational research techniques has enabled Toyota, Nissan, an d Honda to develop cars that are 12 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto ideally suited to the unique demands of the U. S. marketplace (Shirouzu 2001).Japanese carmakers were also among the first to use Quality Function Deployment techniques (e. g. , the House of Quality; see Hauser and Clausing 1988), which ensure that market needs drive all the subsequent steps in product development and manufacturing processes, including product engineering, process planning, and production (Griffin 1992). It was the U. S. carmakers that had to learn these techniques from Japanese carmakers to catch up (Dyer 1996). This literature suggests that Japanese firms are at least equal to their U. S. ompetitors in terms of marketing capabilities and, because of their cultural tendency toward group harmony and cohesiveness, could possess even stronger market-linking capabilities. The Chinese business environment differs from that of Japan, though the two countries share some cultural traits. Despite recent economic reforms, many Chinese firms remain state-owned enterprises, characterized by shared government and firm authority (Schermerhorn and Nyaw 1991). Since the 1970s, investment in technology and innovation has been supported strongly by government policy to stimulate Chinese economic growth and to boost global competitiveness.As decentralization has occurred, stateowned enterprises have increased their decision-making authority on issues such as products and prices (Henley and Nyaw 1986; Laaksonen 1988; Schermerhorn and Nyaw 1991), and smaller collective enterprises with even less government control have become more prevalent (Parry and Song 1994). Nevertheless, Chinese government policy continues to prioritize technology capability investment. However, our review of the literature on Chinese state-owned enterprises reveals little evidence that the Chinese government has prioritized or funded marketing, market-linking, or IT capabilities.In summary, the l iterature suggests that Japanese government and keiretsu policy favor technology and IT capability development, whereas Chinese government policy favors technology development. In addition, the marketing and marketlinking capabilities of Japanese firms are well established, whereas Chinese governmental policy has not supported the development of these capabilities On the basis of this evidence, we propose the following: H5: Japanese firms have greater market-linking capabilities than U. S. and Chinese firms of the same strategic type.H6: Japanese and Chinese firms have greater technology capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 13 H7: Japanese and U. S. firms have greater marketing capabilities than Chinese firms of the same strategic type. H8: Japanese firms have greater IT capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Note that H5ââ¬âH8 can be tested for each of the four strategic types separa telyââ¬âthus the qualifier ââ¬Å"of the same strategic type. â⬠RESEARCH DESIGNInstrument Development and Cross-Cultural Validation Process Our constructs are defined using competitive capability theory (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Day 1994) and must be operationalized using valid, reliable measures (Churchill 1979). We used a four-step instrument development procedure to develop new scales for market-linking, technical, marketing, and IT capabilities and to ensure crosscultural validity. (For a fuller discussion of the instrument development procedure, see DeSarbo et al. 2005. ) Step 1: Measurement Items for Each Capability Type.We identified relevant measurement scales from the marketing literature. We grouped the scale items derived from these scales into the four capability types. To this initial pool of items for each capability type, we added new items in instances in which we believed that not all the dimensions of the construct had been sufficiently covere d. To ensure content validity and appropriateness of items, we refined the scales through in-depth focus interviews in two SBUs. Managers at these SBUs were asked their opinions about salient issues in SBU capabilities.They were also asked to evaluate whether the theoretical model described their own experiences adequately. Next, managers commented on their perceptions of the relevance and completeness of the scale items drawn from the literature review and previous case studies. Finally, we tested and validated the Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) strategic typology scale. Step 2: Scale Development. Following Churchill (1979), we assessed construct validity of the scales being developed and corrected any scale items that might still be ambiguous.Seven judges (two professors and five doctoral students with background in measurement development) sorted the items from the first step into the four capability scales, following Davisââ¬â¢s (1986) procedure. Construct convergence and divergence were examined by assessing interrater reliability (for assessment statistics, see DeSarbo et al. 2005). Step 3: Instrument Pretesting. Using the judgesââ¬â¢ comments, we reexamined all scale items and eliminated inappropriate or ambiguous items or any that were inconsistently classified.We then combined the four scales into an overall instrument 14 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto for additional pretesting. We distributed the instrument to 32 managers in the two SBUs to further assess scale reliability and validity; two problematic items were deleted. Then, the instrument was distributed to 41 executive MBA students taking a new product development class. We subjected the results to factor analysis and assessment of reliability. (Factor loadings and reliability test results are available on request. We deleted two more items, which resulted in a questionnaire including all items judged to have high consistency and face validity. Step 4: Cr oss-Cultural Validation of the Research Instrument. To ensure that the translation was accurate and that the question meanings were not altered, we used a double-translation method to translate the questionnaire into Japanese and Chinese (Adler 1983; Douglas and Craig 2006; Sekaran 1983). After translation, we conducted field research in six Japanese firms and two Chinese firms in which we examined SBU capabilities and innovation strategies.The purposes of the field research were to establish the content validity of the concepts and the hypothesized relationships among the constructs; to establish equivalence of the constructs, concepts, measures, and samples; and to assess the possibility of cultural bias and response format bias (Douglas and Craig 2006). The field research studies were conducted over a ninemonth period with multiple visits to the companies. The field research studies were important for several reasons. First, they facilitated an assessment of construct (conceptual , functional, and category) equivalence.Second, they indicated that the measurement scales were appropriate for studying capability and strategic types in Japanese and Chinese context. Third, the field research results suggested that it is more appropriate to ask the respondents to rate their SBU on each of the capability scale items relative to their major competitors (for exact wording, see Appendix A). Appendix A provides a list of the final measure measurement items and the response format employed in the questionnaire. The following sections briefly summarize the four scales.Market-Linking Capabilities. We measured market-linking capabilities using several scale items derived from Day (1994). The items measure relative capability in creating and managing durable customer relationships, creating durable relationships with suppliers, retaining customers, and bonding with channel members. Technical Capabilities. We also measured technical capabilities according to a set of scale i tems derived from Day (1994). These items measure relative capabilities in the prediction ofInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 15 technological change, technology and new product development, manufacturing processes, and production facilities. Marketing Capabilities. We measured marketing capabilities using a set of scale items derived from Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990). These items measure knowledge of customers, knowledge of competitors, integration of marketing activities, skills in segmentation and targeting, and effectiveness of pricing and advertising programs. IT Capabilities.We defined IT capabilities as the relative capabilities that help an organization create technical and market knowledge and facilitate intraorganizational communication flow. We developed items to measure the possession of IT systems for new product development, cross-functional integration, technology and market knowledge creation, and internal communication. We subjected th ese items to the measurement development procedure described previously. We obtained the data from a large-scale mail survey of the companies listed in Wardââ¬â¢s Business Directory, the Directory of Corporate Affiliations, and the World Marketing Directory.We drew a proportionate-stratified random sample of 800 firms from each country, using each industry as a stratum. The data collection consisted of three stages: presurvey, data collection on SBU strategies, and data collection on relative capabilities. In the first stage, we sent a one-page survey and an introductory letter requesting participation to all the selected firms and offered a list of available research reports to participating firms. The letter requested each firm to select an SBU/division for participation and provide a contact person in that SBU/division.Of the 2400 firms contacted, 392 in the United States, 429 in Japan, and 414 in China agreed to participate and provided the necessary contacts at the SBU/divis ion level. In the second stage, on strategic types, we contacted the designated SBU managers directly and mailed a questionnaire and personalized letter to each manager. We employed a three-wave mailing on the basis of the recommendations of Dillman (1978). We received data on the multi-item measures of the strategic types from 308 firms in the United States, 354 firms in Japan, and 352 firms in China.Two items at the end of the instrument assessed respondentsââ¬â¢ confidence in their ability to answer the questions. Respondents with a low level of confidence (less than 6) were excluded from the final sample. In the third stage, on the four capabilities, we sent another questionnaire to the SBU managers, followed again by a three-wave mailing. This time, we received data on the rela- Data 16 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto tive capabilities from 216 U. S. firms, 248 Japanese firms, and 245 Chinese firms.These sample sizes represent response rates of 27. 0% in the United States, 31. 0% in Japan, and 30. 6% in China. The final sample includes the following industries: computer-related products; electronics; electric equipment and household appliances; pharmaceuticals, drugs, and medicines; machinery; telecommunications equipment; instruments and related products; air conditioning; chemicals and related products; and transportation equipment. The majority of participating SBUs/divisions had annual sales of $11 millionââ¬â$750 million and 100ââ¬â12,500 employees.Appendix A presents all of the measures used in this study. We asked respondents to rate their SBU on each of the capability scale items relative to their major competitors. We used an 11-point scale to elicit levels of agreement, with values ranging from 0 (ââ¬Å"much worse than our competitorsâ⬠) to 10 (ââ¬Å"much better than our competitorsâ⬠). We used the data collected in the second phase of the collection process to classify the SBU/division into the four strategic types. We adopted the 11-item scale from Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990).We classified the SBUââ¬â¢s strategic type (prospector, analyzer, defender, or reactor) using the ââ¬Å"majority-rule decision structureâ⬠(for details, see Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990) with the following modification: For an SBU to be classified as a prospector or a defender, it must have at least seven ââ¬Å"correctâ⬠answers. Before testing our hypotheses, we performed principal factor analyses with Varimax rotation on all the variables measuring the four relative capabilities for all three countries. To assess measurement invariance, we examined factor structure similarity (Mullen 1995).We retained variables using the following criteria: (1) Each factor must contain the same scale items across all three countries, (2) each itemââ¬â¢s factor loading must be comparable across all three countries, and (3) for each factor, the factor loading must exceed . 40. This procedure produced four factors and reduced the total number of variables to 21. We made comparisons among the factor structures of the three countries using visual inspection, the salient similarity index, and Pearson correlation of the factor loadings across the three countries. The factor loadings appear in Table 1.As indicated, all factors are distinguishable and well defined for all three countries. The percentage of the variance explained by the four factors is 72% for the United States, 71% for Japan, and 69% for China. The examination of the diagonal of the factor score covariance matrix indicates that all factors for the three Measures ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Factor Analysis of the Capability Scales Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 17 Table 1. Principal Component Factor Analysis: Rotated Factor Patterns United States Market-Linking Capabilities Market-sensing capabilities Customer-linking (i. e. creating and managing durable customer relationships) capab ilities Capabilities of creating durable relationships with our suppliers Ability to retain customers Channel-bonding capabilities (creating durable relationships with channel members such as wholesalers, retailers) Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor Technical Capabilities Manufacturing processes Technology development capabilities Ability of predicting technological changes in the industry Production facilities New product development capabilities Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor Marketing Capabilities Knowledge of competitors Effectiveness of advertising programs Integration of marketing activities Skill to segment and target markets Effectiveness of pricing programs Knowledge of customers Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor IT Capabilities IT systems for facilitating crossfunctional integration IT systems for new product development projects IT systems for internal communication (e. g. , across diff erent departments, levels of the organization) IT systems for facilitating technology knowledge creation IT systems for facilitating market knowledge creation Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor . 71 . 80 . 90 . 58 . 86 . 85 . 62 . 89 4. 22 20. 1 . 97 . 93 . 90 . 92 . 91 6. 10 29. 1 . 85 Japan .81 China .88 .80 . 81 . 79 .77 . 71 . 57 .79 . 66 . 70 .65 3. 04 14. 4 .44 1. 68 8. 0 .67 2. 64 12. 6 .79 . 78 . 78 . 77 . 71 2. 51 12. 0 70 . 81 . 69 . 73 . 78 4. 36 20. 7 .95 . 95 . 94 . 95 . 90 . 86 5. 69 27. 1 .95 . 86 . 94 . 93 . 83 . 83 5. 39 25. 7 .90 . 89 .83 . 80 .75 . 66 . 74 1. 66 7. 9 .85 . 65 . 57 5. 08 24. 2 .46 . 67 . 63 1. 75 8. 3 18 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto countries are internally consistent and well defined by the measurement items. We provide the final set of included measurement items in Appendix A and the construct reliabilities (as measured by Cronbachââ¬â¢s ? ) and item-to-total correlations in Appendix B. All 12 construct reliabilities (three countries ? four constructs) exceeded the . 70 level that Peter (1979) recommends.To test H1ââ¬âH4 in each of the three country settings, we performed multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) to compare the scores on each of the four multi-item relative capability scales across all four strategic types using SAS general linear model procedure. For each capability scale, we obtained a multiple-item scale by a simple average of the items. As Table 2 shows, the MANOVA F-statistic was significant for all four relative capabilities and in all three countries, so we computed pairwise comparisons to examine the nature of the differences in relative capabilities among the four strategic types. We also include the t-test results of the pairwise comparisons in Table 2.The results in Table 2 provide support for H1ââ¬âH4 in all three countries. (A hypothesis is supported if at least one pairwise comparison is significant and the direction is in t he hypothesized direction. ) As H1 hypothesized, the relative marketlinking capabilities of defenders and analyzers are significantly greater than those of prospectors in all three countries, though the difference between defenders and analyzers is not significant. For example, in the United States, mean scores on market-linking capabilities are 2. 69, 2. 35, and 1. 67 for defenders, analyzers, and prospectors, respectively. The F-statistic from the analysis of variance is 3. 52, which is significant at p < . 05.T-tests of the paired comparisons showed that both the defender mean and the analyzer mean were significantly larger than the prospector mean (D > P; A > P) at the p < . 05 level. We obtained similar results for the Japanese and Chinese samples. These findings are consistent with H1. Prospectors have lower market-linking capabilities than defenders and analyzers because the latter two strategic types rely primarily on their market-sensing and -linking abilities to serve thei r current markets with their current products and technologies. The results also support H2 (prospectors have greater technical capabilities than defenders) in all three countries.For the United States, the prospector and defender means were 3. 42 and 2. 25, respectively, significantly different at p < . 05. Both prospectorsââ¬â¢ and analyzersââ¬â¢ technical capabilities are greater than those of defenders in Japan. The means for prospector, analyzer, and defender were 8. 75, 8. 47, and 7. 84, respectively; both prospector and analyzer means were significantly Tests of H1ââ¬âH4: Possession of Capabilities by Different Strategic Types Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 19 20 Table 2. Analysis of Variance Results: Relative Capabilities and Strategic Types Strategic Type Prospector 1. 67 (1. 67) 3. 42 (2. 70) 1. 75 (1. 50) 7. 5 (1. 49) 6. 72 (1. 79) 5. 48 (1. 09) 5. 05 (1. 72) 2. 37 (1. 75) 3. 26 (1. 99) 1. 98 (2. 38) 2. 78 (2. 46) 2. 25 (2. 59) 2. 46 (2. 90) 2. 16* 7. 47** 31. 96** 2. 35 (1. 82) 2. 69 (1. 79) 2. 46 (2. 01) 3. 52** Univariate Defender Reactor F-Value Paired Comparisons Hypothesis (t-Tests)a D > P; A > P P>D D > A; D > P; D > R; A > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R Countries/Relative Capabilities Analyzer Supportedb Yes Yes Yes Yes United States Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Japan 1. 03 (. 91) 8. 75 (1. 23) 3. 58 (2. 36) 9. 48 (. 87) 9. 00 (1. 01) 3. 9 (2. 88) 8. 47 (1. 20) 7. 84 (1. 35) 3. 68 (2. 73) 8. 72 (1. 09) 1. 96 (1. 12) 2. 07 (1. 19) 2. 51 (1. 56) 7. 42 (1. 42) 4. 82 (2. 29) 8. 46 (1. 28) 19. 17** 12. 02** 2. 24* 11. 28** D > P; A > P; R > D; R > A; R > P P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R R > D; R > A; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > R Yes Yes No Yes Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto IT capabilities Strategic Type Prospector 1. 21 (1. 28) 8. 53 (1. 27) 2. 9 2 (2. 20) 8. 96 (1. 10) 8. 58 (1. 13) 7. 94 (1. 33) 7. 59 (1. 60) 13. 38** 3. 37 (2. 52) 3. 9 (2. 82) 4. 13 (2. 45) 2. 30* 7. 81 (1. 28) 7. 43 (1. 19) 6. 79 (1. 85) 15. 69** 2. 17 (1. 52) 2. 22 (1. 49) 2. 71 (1. 74) 11. 21** Univariate Defender Reactor F-Value Paired Comparisons Hypothesis (t-Tests)a D > P; A > P; R > A; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > R; D > R D > P; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R Countries/Relative Capabilities Analyzer Supportedb Yes Yes Yes Yes China Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types *p < . 10. **p < . 05. aSignificant differences at p < . 0 are reported. bA hypothesis is supported if at least one pair is significantly different in the hypothesized direction. Notes: Each cell shows the mean; standard deviations are in parentheses. P = prospector, A = analyzer, D = defender, and R = reactor. Table 2. Continued 21 higher than the defender mean at p < . 05. In China, prospectors scored higher than analyzers and defenders on this capability (prospector, analyzer, and defender means were 8. 53, 7. 81, and 7. 43, respectively; the prospector mean was significantly higher than the other two means at p < . 05). H3 was supported in the United States and China samples. For the U. S. ample, defenders had significantly greater marketing capabilities than analyzers, and analyzers had significantly greater marketing capabilities than prospectors. The defender, analyzer, and prospector means on relative marketing capabilities in the United States were 3. 26, 2. 37, and 1. 75, respectively, all significantly different from one another at p < . 05 according to the pairwise t-tests. For the Chinese sample, the only differences are the pair between defenders and prospectors and the pair between reactors and prospectors. However, for the Japanese samples, the hypothesis was not supported. The three ââ¬Å"archetypalâ⬠strategic types we re insignificantly different and, notably, rather low.The reactors had significantly greater marketing capabilities than all other three strategic types. Finally, H4 was also supported in all three countries. Almost without exception, prospectors had greater IT capabilities than analyzers, which in turn had greater IT capabilities than defenders. For example, in the U. S. sample, the relative IT capabilities for prospectors, analyzers, and defenders were 7. 95, 6. 72, and 5. 48, respectively, all significantly different from one another at p < . 05. Similar results were found in Japan and China. In summary, our expectations, expressed in our hypotheses, were that prospectors would be strongest in technical and IT capabilities and defenders in market-linking and marketing capabilities.We find support for all these hypotheses in all three countries, and all significant findings were in the hypothesized directions. The next set of hypotheses involves expected cross-national differences in terms of the relationship between capabilities and strategic types due to cultural or business environment differences. Before discussing the direct empirical testing of these hypotheses, however, we explain some preliminary findings regarding cross-national differences using data from Table 2. Market-Linking Capabilities. Reactors had significantly greater relative market-linking capabilities than did other strategic types in both Japan and China, but not in the United States. Market-linking capability = 2. 51 and 2. 71 in Japan and China, respectively; in each case, this is the highest capability mean. ) Miles and Snow (1978) find that reactors Tests of H5ââ¬âH8: Cross-National Similarities and Differences 22 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto did not implement strategies consistently and therefore did not fully develop internal capabilities that would enable them to compete successfully. Our results suggest that this expectation is not borne out in Japan or China, possibly because some firms in these countries have well-developed market-linking capabilities but choose to compete as reactors rather than defenders.That is, superior market-sensing skills enable these firms to act successfully as prospectors in certain markets and as adapters or defenders in others. This finding appears to be supported by the H3 results, at least for Japanese firms. Reactors in Japan have significantly greater relative marketing capabilities than all other strategic types. Leaders of a multinational organization doing business against a Japanese competitor should keep in mind that a firm apparently lacking a consistent strategy (i. e. , displaying reactive behavior) may be nonetheless highly skilled in marketing and market linking and, therefore, a surprisingly formidable opponent. Technical Capabilities.Although H2 was largely supported, it is worthwhile to note that across all four strategic types, managers from U. S. firms rated their technica l capabilities (relative to competitors) substantially lower than did their Japanese or Chinese counterparts. The means for the United States were 2. 2ââ¬â3. 4 on a ten-point scale, and comparable means in Japan and China were 7ââ¬â9. This finding suggests that in Japan and China, all strategic types (including defenders and reactors) have well-developed relative technical capabilities. Again, a U. S. firm in competition against, for example, a Japanese defender should not infer low technical capabilities from its competitorââ¬â¢s defensive posture. Marketing Capabilities.Finally, it was surprising to note that H3, which involves relative marketing capabilities, was not supported in Japan and only partially supported in China. As we noted previously, Japanese reactor firms have the greatest relative marketing capabilities; all other firms are insignificantly different on this capability. In China, defenders rate significantly higher than prospectors in this (as hypothesiz ed), but we found no other significant differences among the archetypal strategic types. Cross-National Differences. To test the cross-national hypotheses (H5ââ¬âH8), we performed additional analyses to compare the means on each relative capability construct across countries for each of the four strategic types using SAS general linear model procedure.We used the same procedure described previously: a MANOVA followed by a series of pairwise t-tests to identify significant differences. As Table 3 shows, the F-statistic was significant for 13 of the 16 possible comparisons. Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 23 Consider first the technology and IT capability hypotheses (H6 and H8). Table 3 shows that across all four strategic types, Japanese and Chinese SBUs rate significantly higher than U. S. SBUs in relative technical capabilities. As an example, technical capabilities for prospectors were rated as 8. 75, 8. 53, and 3. 42 for Japan, China, and the United St ates, respectively (significant at p < . 05).This is directly supportive of H6. Japanese and Chinese SBUs also rated significantly higher than their U. S. counterparts in relative IT capabilities across all four strategic types; therefore, we find only partial support for H8. For prospectors, IT capabilities were 9. 48, 8. 96, and 7. 95 for Japan, China, and the United States, respectively (significant at p < . 05). High relative IT capability among Japanese SBUs was expected according to H8, but the high relative IT capability among Chinese SBUs was unanticipated and is worthy of further research. We found less support for the market-linking and marketing capability hypotheses (H5 and H7).Cross-national differences are not very pronounced in the case of relative marketlinking capabilities. As Table 3 shows, U. S. prospector SBUs rate significantly higher than their Japanese and Chinese counterparts, and U. S. defenders rate significantly higher than their Japanese counterparts. The se findings are contradictory to the expectations of H5. Given the evidence of Japanese market-linking expertise, it is surprising that Japanese SBUs rate significantly higher than U. S. or Chinese competitors in market linking only in the case of reactors. In addition, H7 is only partially supported. Japanese and Chinese prospectors and analyzers rate significantly higher than their U. S. ounterparts on relative marketing capabilities. For example, in the case of prospectors, marketing capabilities are rated as 4. 58, 2. 92, and 1. 75 for Japan, China, and the United States, respectively (significant at p < . 05). Although we expected high relative marketing capability for Japan, we did not expect the significantly lower marketing capabilities among U. S. SBUs. Nevertheless, consistent patterns appear with respect to the cross-national hypotheses and suggest directions for further research. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION According to the Miles and Snow (1978) typology, organizations ado pt certain mechanisms to respond to environmental changes.That is, they choose to be pioneers in product or market development or to protect existing positions within their niches, or they seek some kind of intermediate position between these two extremes. As a result, firms exhibit relatively consistent strategies, or patterns of product-market innovation decisions, in response to environmental shifts. Furthermore, a firm that pursues a given strategy develops certain capabilities that help it implement that strategy, thus increasing the likelihood that it will continue to use the same strategy in response to future environmental shifts. As Ham- 24 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di BenedettoStrategic Types/ Relative Capabilities United States 1. 67 3. 42 1. 75 7. 95 9. 48 8. 96 33. 14** 3. 58 2. 92 13. 91** 8. 75 8. 53 202. 00** 1. 03 1. 21 4. 74** Country Japan China Univariate F-Value Cross-Country Comparisonsa U. S. > China; U. S. > Japan Japan > U. S. ; China > U . S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Prospectors Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Analyzers 2. 35 2. 78 2. 37 6. 72 9. 00 8. 58 3. 59 3. 37 8. 47 7. 81 230. 38** 5. 46** 58. 07** 1. 96 2. 17 1. 16n. s. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. China > U. S. Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Defenders 2. 69 2. 25 3. 26 5. 48 8. 72 3. 68 3. 69 7. 94 7. 84 7. 43 2. 07 2. 22 2. 70* 163. 99** . 54n. s. 121. 94** U. S. > Japan Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types IT capabilities Table 3. Analysis of Variance Results: Cross-National Comparisons 25 26 Table 3.Continued Country Un ited States 2. 46 2. 46 1. 98 5. 05 8. 46 7. 59 4. 81 4. 13 7. 42 6. 79 2. 51 2. 71 . 17n. s. 38. 68** 7. 99** 28. 82** Strategic Types/ Relative Capabilities Japan China Univariate F-Value Cross-Country Comparisonsa Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Reactors Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto *p < . 10. **p < . 05. aSignificant differences at p < . 10 are reported. Notes: n. s. = not significant. brick (1983, p. ) notes, ââ¬Å"prospectors tend to want to continue prospecting; defenders tend to want to continue defending. â⬠Among the capabilities Miles and Snow investigate are technology, structure, management processes, and power distribution. As we noted previously, the Miles and Snow (1978) typology is, above all, a typology of innovation strategies. In this study, we mapped four ca pabilities of interest to innovating firms (market-linking, technical, marketing, and IT capabilities) onto the Miles and Snow strategic typologies. We hypothesized (in H1ââ¬âH4) that prospectors, which typically pursue a first-mover strategy through product-market innovation, would need to build up technical and IT capabilities.Similarly, defenders, which are most concerned with preserving protected market segments with existing technology, must develop market-linking and marketing capabilities. We found supporting evidence for all these hypotheses in firms from all three countries. We then developed and tested a set of cross-national hypotheses (H5ââ¬âH8), based on cultural and business environment differences existing among the United States, Japan, and China. Our development and empirical testing of these hypotheses represent a significant advance of the literature beyond the contributions of DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006). We found clear support for one of the four hypotheses (H6), partial support for two others (H7 and H8), and no support for the last (H5).In general, the cultural and business environment prevalent in Japan and China has given SBUs in those countries relative advantages in technology and IT capabilities (H6 and H8), yet we did not observe anticipated advantages in market-linking and marketing capabilities (H5 and H7). This study has some implications for theory development and further research. In general, the results support the hypotheses that relative to other organizations, prospectors develop greater technical and IT capabilities so that they can pursue first-to-market initiatives and that defenders develop greater market-linking and marketing capabilities so that they can respond effectively to marketplace changes.These findings lend support to the Miles and Snow (1978) typology and to the contention that organizations tend to respond in certain, consistent ways to environmental change. Therefore, our findings can be i nterpreted as further empirical support of the Miles and Snow typology, originally conceived after an exploratory study of a limited number of industries but empirically supported in other settings (Hambrick 2003). Our findings are also consistent with Hambrickââ¬â¢s (1983) contention that prospectors want to keep prospecting and consequently develop the capabilities most closely related to Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 27 prospecting more than do other firms. Because IT has evolved only in the past few years, further research should explore the impact of IT on strategic choices.Because no existing theories are sufficient to enable us to predict a priori the nature of cross-national differences in the relationship between the four capabilities and strategic types, further research also should examine further our preliminary results regarding cross-national differences in relative capabilities. In addition, note that our model provides evidence of the val idity of Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajanââ¬â¢s (1990) 11-item scale for assessing strategic type in both Japan and China. We believe that this is the first application of this scale in China and one of the first in Japan (for an earlier Japanese application, see Dyer and Song 1997). There are several notable managerial implications. The Miles and Snow (1978) typology suggests that organizations must do a sincere internal and external assessment when planning strategic moves for future competition.The external assessment should include analysis not only of likely opportunities or developments in product, market, and technology but also of past moves by primary competitors classified by strategic type. In the internal assessment, the organizationââ¬â¢s leaders must identify honestly the firmââ¬â¢s strengths and recognize its weaknesses in light of external challenges. They must then choose a strategic stance, deciding how it can best capitalize on the strengths and overcome th e weaknesses. Although this recommendation is hardly new, it is important in this context to recognize that there is a mutually complementary relationship between capabilities and strategies.Relative strengths in technology and IT capabilities might suggest that a prospector (or even an analyzer) strategy could be a more appropriate choice than a defender strategy. Consistent, successful pursuit of a prospector strategy over time should help a firm develop these relative strengths and enable it to retain its competitive advantage. This implicitly suggests also that a firm that recognizes itself as a reactor type should use its internal assessment to decide which ââ¬Å"archetypalâ⬠strategic type it should strive to become. Cross-national differences in strategic type also carry managerial implications. Previously, we noted several rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-9075387613038243302020-01-12T23:02:00.001-08:002020-01-12T23:02:09.318-08:00Distinctive Marketing, IT Capabilities, and Strategic Types: A Cross-National InvestigationDistinctive Marketing and Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types: A Cross-National Investigation ABSTRACT Keywords: strategic typology, firm capabilities, cross-national, Japan, China The authors examine the relationship between strategic type and development of distinctive marketing, market-linking, technology, and information technology (IT) capabilities to implement innovation strategy. They hypothesize that prospectors must build technical and IT capabilities, whereas defenders develop market-linking and marketing capabilities. The authors collect data from 709 firms across the United States, Japan, and China.They find support for their capability hypotheses, as well as for some of their cross-national hypotheses that are based on cultural and business environment differences among the three countries. In particular, they find support for the hypotheses that Japanese firms have greater technology and IT capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Th ey conclude with implications for management. The strategic typology of Miles and Snow (1978) has received much attention in the marketing and management literature over the past two decades (e. g. Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Griffin and Hauser 1996; Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon 1986; McDaniel and Kolari 1987; McKee, Varadarajan, and Pride 1989; Parry and Song 1993, 1994; Ruekert and Walker 1987; Song and Xie 2000; Walker et al. 2003). Almost 30 years after its initial appearance in the literature, their typology is viewed widely as having stood the test of time and is still the most popular and commonly accepted model of strategic types in the management literature, having been applied in many different industry settings (DeSarbo et al. 005; DeSarbo et al. 2006; Hambrick 2003). Miles and Snow envision strategy as the patterns in the decisions by which a strategic business unit (SBU) aligns itself with its environment, and they categorize SBUs according to these patterns. The critical underlying variable in their typology is the rate of change in an SBUââ¬â¢s products or markets. Using an exploratory empirical study, Miles and Snow propose four strategic typesââ¬âprospectors, analyzers, defenders, and reactorsââ¬âand suggest that each of the first three types chooses a different competitive strategy ith respect to products and/or markets: Prospectors will innovate technologically and seek out new markets, analyzers will prefer a ââ¬Å"second-but-betterâ⬠strategy, and defenders will focus on maintaining a secure niche in a relatively stable Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto Journal of International Marketing à © 2008, American Marketing Association Vol. 16, No. 1, 2008, pp. 4ââ¬â38 ISSN 1069-031X (print) 1547-7215 (electronic) 4 product or service area.Miles and Snow suggest that all three of these strategic types can be successful if the SBU matches its strategy to the competitive en vironment and develops and deploys appropriate capabilities. Capabilities have been broadly defined as ââ¬Å"complex bundles of skills and accumulated knowledge that enable firms [or SBUs] to coordinate activities and make use of their assetsâ⬠(Day 1990, p. 38). In this article, we examine the relationship between Miles and Snowââ¬â¢s (1978) strategic type and four capability constructs: technology, market linking, marketing, and information technology (IT).Day (1994) suggests that both technology and market-linking capabilities (or ââ¬Å"insideoutâ⬠and ââ¬Å"outside-inâ⬠capabilities, respectively) are critical to sustained competitive advantage and superior performance (see also Day 1990; Day and Wensley 1988). Technology capabilities, which enable the organization to improve production process efficiencies and ultimately reduce its costs and increase its competitiveness, include financial management, cost control, technology development, logistics, manufact uring, and other processes with an internal emphasis.Market-linking capabilities, which enable the organization to use its technology capabilities to exploit marketplace opportunities, include market sensing, channel bonding, customer linking, technology monitoring, and spanning processes such as purchasing and new product development (Day 1994). Marketing capabilities, such as customer and competitive knowledge, skill in market segmentation and targeting, and effective marketing program design, should also be related to an organizationââ¬â¢s performance. In a ioneering study, Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) link marketing capabilities to the four strategic types and find that prospectors are superior in marketing capabilities. The marketing literature suggests that obtaining market and competitive information and diffusing it throughout the organization lead to better market orientation, better performance, and sustainable competitive advantage (Day 1994; Jaworski and Kohl i 1993). The literature also suggests that IT capabilities are increasingly important means to these ends.Research in both the marketing and new product streams has recognized the difficulty of communication across functional boundaries and has identified ways to improve both the quantity and quality of information (Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Griffin and Hauser 1992, 1993, 1996; Montoya-Weiss and Calantone 1994; Parry and Song 1993, 1994; Ruekert and Walker 1987; Song, Thieme, and Xie 1998; Song and Xie 2000; Swink and Song 2007). All four capability constructs include significant marketing processes. The original, exploratory Miles and Snow (1978) research finds relationships between firm capabilities andInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 5 strategic types in a limited number of industries. A subsequent study in this research stream empirically examines the relationships between marketing capabilities and strategic types and also validates a scale for assessing a business unitââ¬â¢s strategic type (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990). Two recent studies by DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006) propose and empirically test models that include a range of capabilities in addition to marketing capabilities.DeSarbo and colleagues (2005) use SBU data from three countries (the United States, China, and Japan) to derive a descriptive strategic typology that improves on the Miles and Snow typology in terms of explanatory power; this study is extended by DeSarbo and colleagues (2006) to a predictive model that examines causalities between strategic capabilities and SBU performance. The first objective of the current study is to examine the relationships between an SBUââ¬â¢s strategic type and its development of the four distinctive organizational capabilities technology, market linking, marketing, and IT). This research extends the previously mentioned research stream (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; DeSarbo et al. 2005; DeSarbo et al. 200 6) in that we seek to quantify and to better understand these relationships. The second objective is to build and test hypotheses regarding cross-national differences and their effects on the relationships between strategic type selection and the capabilities, a topic in which no empirical work has been conducted so far. We gather empirical data from three countries: the United States, China, and Japan.As China and Japan are the two largest East Asian economies, and together with the United States make up the three largest economies worldwide as measured by purchasing power (World Bank 2000), it is important to examine how firms from these countries compare with respect to their capabilities and strategies. Although DeSarbo and colleagues (2005) use a three-country database to build their descriptive typology, the research does not use the extant international marketing and management literature to build or test hypotheses of cross-national differences.We believe that the cross-nati onal hypothesis testing constitutes a clear extension to the work of Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) and DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006). We first propose a set of four hypotheses relating an SBUââ¬â¢s relative capabilities to its selection of strategic type, as well as four additional hypotheses expressing expected crossnational differences in the magnitudes of the capabilities. We then test these hypotheses using a data set of 709 managers from the United States, Japan, and China. Our empirical results largely confirm these hypotheses. We conclude by 6 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C.Anthony Di Benedetto providing theoretical implications and some possible prescriptions for managers seeking to improve their organizationââ¬â¢s strategy selection. In this section, we define the Miles and Snow (1978) typology and discuss the implication of the strategic selection. We then define the four capability constructs and develop four hypotheses relating the capability co nstructs to strategic type. The Miles and Snow (1978) strategic types differ in the rate at which they change products or markets in response to environmental change. According to Miles and Snow, prospectors are the leaders of change in their industry.They operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997). They value being ââ¬Å"first inâ⬠in new product and market areas as market pioneers even if not all these efforts prove to be highly profitable (Robinson and Fornell 1985; Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992). They often need to respond rapidly to early signals involving areas of opportunity, and these responses often lead to a new round of competitive actions. Nevertheless, prospectors may not maintain market strength in all the areas they enter.They compete principally through launching new products and meeting new marketplace opportunities. Consequently, they devote significant res ources to new product development, market research, and other marketing expenses (Hambrick 1983; McDaniel and Kolari 1987; Shortell and Zajac 1990; Walker et al. 2003). Prospectors also rely on close ties with the channel of distribution to anticipate customer needs and environmental changes (Walker et al. 2003). Sonyââ¬â¢s audio products SBU, which is responsible for innovations such as the Walkman, is an example of a typical prospector organization.Defenders attempt to locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area. They are less risk oriented than prospectors; typically they do not look outside well-defined product-market domains for new opportunities (McDaniel and Kolari 1987; Shortell and Zajac 1990). Rather than invest time in new product or market development, they tend to offer a more limited range of products or services than their competitors, and they focus on resource efficiency and cost-cutting process improvements to try to protect their domain by offering higher quality, superior service, lower prices, and so forth (Hambrick 1983).Defenders are normally not at the forefront of developments in the industry. Walker and colleagues (2003) distinguish between two defender strategies: price cutting and competitive differentiation. Unlike Sonyââ¬â¢s audio SBU, Matsushitaââ¬â¢s audio division, a typical defender organization, is likely to focus not on developing products but rather on cutting manufacturing costs (Lieberman and Montgomery 1988). HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT The Miles and Snow Strategic Typology Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 7 Analyzers show qualities of both defenders and prospectors.They attempt to maintain a stable, limited line of products or services, while moving out quickly to follow a carefully selected set of the more promising new developments in the industry (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997). Analyzers are seldom ââ¬Å"first inâ⬠with new products or services. However, by carefully monitoring the actions of major competitors in areas compatible with their stable product-market base, they are frequently ââ¬Å"second inâ⬠with a more cost-efficient product or service (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Dyer and Song 1997).For example, they might develop a new product in a stable market domain or sell established products in new geographic markets or through new distribution channels. They can operate in different domains, perhaps one stable and one more turbulent (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Miles and Snow (1978, p. 73) characterize analyzers as ââ¬Å"avid followers of change,â⬠always ready to pursue a promising, emerging product or market with a later-entrant, ââ¬Å"second-but-betterâ⬠strategy (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992).They can initiate product and/or market development, but less often than prospectors; at the same time, they can focus on stability and efficiency, but to a lesser extent than defenders (Hambrick 1983). Reactors typically lack long-term plans and any consistent strategy, instead reacting to environmental pressures as necessary (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Empirical study has suggested that prospectors, analyzers, and defenders all perform well (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Miles and Snow 1978) and generally outperform reactors.We are interested primarily in the relative capabilities of the three potentially successful archetypal strategic types, so we do not explicitly include reactors in our hypotheses. We have gathered data from reactor organizations, however, and included them in our analysis section. To create economic value, sustain competitive advantage, and achieve superior profitability, an organization requires a wide range of capabilities. Although it would be impossible to list them all, certain categories of capabilities common to many organizations have been identified and used in prior research (e. . , Day 1994; DeSarbo et al. 2006). Technology capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as financial management, cost control, technology development, and logisticsââ¬âenable an organization to keep costs down and to differentiate its offerings from those of competitors. Market-linking capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as sensing market trends, channel and customer linking, and technology monitoringââ¬âenable an organization to be responsive to changing customer needs and to use its technical capabilities effectively to exploit external possibilities (Day 1994). Marketing capabilitiesââ¬âsuch as skill in segmentation,Organizational Capabilities 8 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto targeting, pricing, and advertisingââ¬âenable the organization to take advantage of its market-sensing and technological capabilities and to implement effective marketing programs (Song and Parry 1997a, 1997b). Finally, IT capabilities enable the organization to diffuse market information effectively across all rel evant functional areas so that it can direct new product development. Not all organizations will have all of these capabilities (Day and Nedungadi 1994; Day and Wensley 1988).Furthermore, organizations will solidify and even develop their particular capabilities through time according to their strategic type, as Miles and Snowââ¬â¢s (1978) classification posits. For example, prospectors tend to compete by anticipating new product or marketplace opportunities and by implementing technological innovation; continued, successful prospecting will have the effect of strengthening inside-out and IT capabilities. The subsequent sections explore the hypothesized relationships between strategic type and organizational capabilities.Market-linking and -sensing capabilities enable the organization to compete by sensing market changes effectively, anticipating shifts in the market environment, creating and retaining durable links with customers, and creating strong bonds with channel members s uch as wholesalers and retailers. These capabilities enable the organization to sense marketplace requirements before competitors and to connect its other capabilities to the external environment (Day 1994). Organizations of all strategic types need well-developed market-linking capabilities.For defenders, however, such capabilities are particularly critical because these organizations must correctly and quickly anticipate changes in the market and their customersââ¬â¢ needs if they are to maintain their prominence within their existing product-market domain (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990). Because defenders attempt to locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area, they tend to offer a more limited range of products or services than their competitors, and they try to protect their domain by offering higher quality, superior service, lower prices, and so forth.To be effective in achieving these objectives, defenders must possess a high lev el of market-linking capabilities. Walker and colleagues (2003) also note that tracking changes in customer needs and competitive behavior is especially important to a differentiated defender strategy. They note that defenders should be strongest in business functions related to their competitive strategy, such as market sensing and linking. Although prospectors should also have good market-linking capabilities, their ability to sustain competitive advantage is more closely tied to the development of new products, markets, and technologies.Therefore, although Market-Linking Capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 9 market-linking capabilities are important to prospectors and analyzers, defenders will need them most. Our expectations about organizational strategy types and market-linking capabilities (relative to competitors) can be summarized as follows: H1: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the least rel ative marketlinking capabilities, nd defenders have the greatest. Technical capabilities involve the manufacturing processes, technology, new product development, production facilities, and forecasting of technological change in the industry. They are contained within the organization and activated by market, competitor, and external challenges and opportunities. By increasing efficiency in the production process, they can reduce costs and improve consistency in delivery and, therefore, competitiveness (Day 1994).Although technical capabilities are likely to be important for all strategic types, they should be most important to prospectors, which prosper in unstable, changing environments, especially those marked by rapid technological change such as biotechnology, medical care, and aerospace (Walker et al. 2003). Because prospectors use a first-to-market strategy and typically operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992), they must be able to develop new technologies, products, and markets rapidly (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; McDaniel and Kolari 1987).Walker and colleagues (2003) note that prospectors require strength in product research and development (R&D) and product engineering, and they perform best when the amount spent on product R&D is high. Because defenders typically locate and maintain a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area, they tend to be less interested in developing new products and technologies and therefore will depend less on technical capabilities. Formally, H2: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the greatest relative technical capabilities, and defenders have the least.Marketing capabilities include knowledge of the competition and of customers and skill in segmenting and targeting markets, in advertising and pricing, and in integrating marketing activity. Conant, Mokwa, and Varadaraj an (1990) find that prospector firms have distinctive competencies in marketing planning, allocation of marketing resources, revenue forecasting, and control of marketing activities. However, although both prospectors and defenders require skills in Technical Capabilities Marketing Capabilities 10 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto arketing and market research to succeed (Song and Parry 1997a, b), certain marketing capabilities will be of most importance to defender firms because they are most concerned about protecting products and retaining customers (McDaniel and Kolari 1987). Walker and colleagues (2003) note that differentiated defenders must be able to communicate their productsââ¬â¢ unique advantages so as to sustain customer satisfaction and loyalty. Low-cost defenders must be able to standardize effective marketing programs across all customer segments so as to reduce overall marketing costs.Thus, because both differentiated and low-cost defenders rely on marketing capabilities, they should develop them to a greater degree than should other strategic types. H3: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the lowest relative marketing capabilities, and defenders have the greatest. A firm active in product development must be able to gather technical and market information effectively and disseminate it throughout the organization (Jaworski and Kohli 1993; Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Narver and Slater 1990).These IT capabilities facilitate internal communication and cross-functional integration (Song et al. 2007). Better IT is associated with greater strategic flexibility and, ultimately, with better performance and greater organizational success (Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj, and Konsynski 1999; Swanson 1994). Day (1994) notes that more creative use of IT should lead to better firm performance, and other researchers have found that better information transmission across functional areas leads to m ore successful new products (Griffin and Hauser 1992, 1993, 1996; Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon 1986; Moenaert and Souder 1996).As we discussed previously, prospectors typically operate within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition. They also rely on the rapid development of new products and new markets (Robinson, Fornell, and Sullivan 1992). Therefore, prospectors need relatively high IT skills to respond rapidly to early signals involving areas of opportunity. Miles and Snow (1978) note that prospectors tend to have the most complex coordination and communication mechanisms.Because of the technologically advanced nature of the products they develop, prospectors are also more likely to encounter conflicts among marketing, R&D, engineering, and possibly other functional areas (Dyer and Song 1997, 1998; Walker et al. 2003). This makes even more critical prospectorsââ¬â¢ ability to communicate as effectively as possible and to ensure the free flow of informati on throughout the organization. In addition, prospectors might need greater strategic flexibility than other strategic types because they must constantly monitor and target emerging technology IT CapabilitiesInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 11 and product opportunities; better IT contributes to greater strategic flexibility (Bharadwaj, Bharadwaj, and Konsynski 1999). Formally, we propose the following: H4: Along the prospectorsââ¬âanalyzersââ¬âdefenders continuum, prospectors have the greatest relative IT capabilities, and defenders have the lowest. CROSS-NATIONAL HYPOTHESES The cultural differences among Japan, China, and the United States are well documented in the literature (Hofstede 1980; Tse et al. 1988). Japanese and Chinese cultures are collectivistic and long-term oriented, whereas the U.S. culture is individualistic and short-term oriented. Japan and China emphasize group harmony and cohesiveness, whereas the United States values freedom of c hoice and competition (Hofstede 1980). The business environments in both Japan and China reflect these cultural tendencies. In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) encourages investment in key technologies and fierce competition among Japanese firms in selected industries (Kagono et al. 1985). These policies have helped strengthen Japanââ¬â¢s competitiveness in the global marketplace. In addition, METIââ¬â¢s olicies have recently encouraged new initiatives, such as growth in IT and support for environmentally friendly products (Elder 2000). The keiretsu, or interorganizational business groups, also strongly support technology development in Japan (Lai 1999; Lincoln, Gerlach, and Ahmadjian 1996; Miwa and Ramseyer 2002). A major manufacturer might work cooperatively with its suppliers and distributors (vertical keiretsu) or with other manufacturers (horizontal keiretsu) to perfect a new technology; consider, for example, the consortium of Japanese firms tha t worked with Sony in the development of the global positioning system (Campbell 1999).In addition to technology and IT capabilities, Japanese firms in many industries possess formidable marketing and marketlinking capabilities. Their cultural predilection toward group harmony and cohesiveness has led Japanese firms to value long-term relationships with their suppliers, distributors, and customers (Kagono et al. 1985; Kotabe et al. 1991; Smith, Peterson, and Wang 1996; Tse et al. 1988). These relationships enable Japanese manufacturers to link with their customer markets effectively and to develop appropriate marketing strategies and programs.Since the end of World War II, Japanese firms have closed the gap between themselves and their U. S. competitors in terms of marketing capabilities, in some industries surpassing them. As an example, Japanese carmakers are renowned for their excellence in customer research. Use of observational research techniques has enabled Toyota, Nissan, an d Honda to develop cars that are 12 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto ideally suited to the unique demands of the U. S. marketplace (Shirouzu 2001).Japanese carmakers were also among the first to use Quality Function Deployment techniques (e. g. , the House of Quality; see Hauser and Clausing 1988), which ensure that market needs drive all the subsequent steps in product development and manufacturing processes, including product engineering, process planning, and production (Griffin 1992). It was the U. S. carmakers that had to learn these techniques from Japanese carmakers to catch up (Dyer 1996). This literature suggests that Japanese firms are at least equal to their U. S. ompetitors in terms of marketing capabilities and, because of their cultural tendency toward group harmony and cohesiveness, could possess even stronger market-linking capabilities. The Chinese business environment differs from that of Japan, though the two countries share some cultural traits. Despite recent economic reforms, many Chinese firms remain state-owned enterprises, characterized by shared government and firm authority (Schermerhorn and Nyaw 1991). Since the 1970s, investment in technology and innovation has been supported strongly by government policy to stimulate Chinese economic growth and to boost global competitiveness.As decentralization has occurred, stateowned enterprises have increased their decision-making authority on issues such as products and prices (Henley and Nyaw 1986; Laaksonen 1988; Schermerhorn and Nyaw 1991), and smaller collective enterprises with even less government control have become more prevalent (Parry and Song 1994). Nevertheless, Chinese government policy continues to prioritize technology capability investment. However, our review of the literature on Chinese state-owned enterprises reveals little evidence that the Chinese government has prioritized or funded marketing, market-linking, or IT capabilities.In summary, the l iterature suggests that Japanese government and keiretsu policy favor technology and IT capability development, whereas Chinese government policy favors technology development. In addition, the marketing and marketlinking capabilities of Japanese firms are well established, whereas Chinese governmental policy has not supported the development of these capabilities On the basis of this evidence, we propose the following: H5: Japanese firms have greater market-linking capabilities than U. S. and Chinese firms of the same strategic type.H6: Japanese and Chinese firms have greater technology capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 13 H7: Japanese and U. S. firms have greater marketing capabilities than Chinese firms of the same strategic type. H8: Japanese firms have greater IT capabilities than U. S. firms of the same strategic type. Note that H5ââ¬âH8 can be tested for each of the four strategic types separa telyââ¬âthus the qualifier ââ¬Å"of the same strategic type. â⬠RESEARCH DESIGNInstrument Development and Cross-Cultural Validation Process Our constructs are defined using competitive capability theory (Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990; Day 1994) and must be operationalized using valid, reliable measures (Churchill 1979). We used a four-step instrument development procedure to develop new scales for market-linking, technical, marketing, and IT capabilities and to ensure crosscultural validity. (For a fuller discussion of the instrument development procedure, see DeSarbo et al. 2005. ) Step 1: Measurement Items for Each Capability Type.We identified relevant measurement scales from the marketing literature. We grouped the scale items derived from these scales into the four capability types. To this initial pool of items for each capability type, we added new items in instances in which we believed that not all the dimensions of the construct had been sufficiently covere d. To ensure content validity and appropriateness of items, we refined the scales through in-depth focus interviews in two SBUs. Managers at these SBUs were asked their opinions about salient issues in SBU capabilities.They were also asked to evaluate whether the theoretical model described their own experiences adequately. Next, managers commented on their perceptions of the relevance and completeness of the scale items drawn from the literature review and previous case studies. Finally, we tested and validated the Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990) strategic typology scale. Step 2: Scale Development. Following Churchill (1979), we assessed construct validity of the scales being developed and corrected any scale items that might still be ambiguous.Seven judges (two professors and five doctoral students with background in measurement development) sorted the items from the first step into the four capability scales, following Davisââ¬â¢s (1986) procedure. Construct convergence and divergence were examined by assessing interrater reliability (for assessment statistics, see DeSarbo et al. 2005). Step 3: Instrument Pretesting. Using the judgesââ¬â¢ comments, we reexamined all scale items and eliminated inappropriate or ambiguous items or any that were inconsistently classified.We then combined the four scales into an overall instrument 14 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto for additional pretesting. We distributed the instrument to 32 managers in the two SBUs to further assess scale reliability and validity; two problematic items were deleted. Then, the instrument was distributed to 41 executive MBA students taking a new product development class. We subjected the results to factor analysis and assessment of reliability. (Factor loadings and reliability test results are available on request. We deleted two more items, which resulted in a questionnaire including all items judged to have high consistency and face validity. Step 4: Cr oss-Cultural Validation of the Research Instrument. To ensure that the translation was accurate and that the question meanings were not altered, we used a double-translation method to translate the questionnaire into Japanese and Chinese (Adler 1983; Douglas and Craig 2006; Sekaran 1983). After translation, we conducted field research in six Japanese firms and two Chinese firms in which we examined SBU capabilities and innovation strategies.The purposes of the field research were to establish the content validity of the concepts and the hypothesized relationships among the constructs; to establish equivalence of the constructs, concepts, measures, and samples; and to assess the possibility of cultural bias and response format bias (Douglas and Craig 2006). The field research studies were conducted over a ninemonth period with multiple visits to the companies. The field research studies were important for several reasons. First, they facilitated an assessment of construct (conceptual , functional, and category) equivalence.Second, they indicated that the measurement scales were appropriate for studying capability and strategic types in Japanese and Chinese context. Third, the field research results suggested that it is more appropriate to ask the respondents to rate their SBU on each of the capability scale items relative to their major competitors (for exact wording, see Appendix A). Appendix A provides a list of the final measure measurement items and the response format employed in the questionnaire. The following sections briefly summarize the four scales.Market-Linking Capabilities. We measured market-linking capabilities using several scale items derived from Day (1994). The items measure relative capability in creating and managing durable customer relationships, creating durable relationships with suppliers, retaining customers, and bonding with channel members. Technical Capabilities. We also measured technical capabilities according to a set of scale i tems derived from Day (1994). These items measure relative capabilities in the prediction ofInformation Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 15 technological change, technology and new product development, manufacturing processes, and production facilities. Marketing Capabilities. We measured marketing capabilities using a set of scale items derived from Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990). These items measure knowledge of customers, knowledge of competitors, integration of marketing activities, skills in segmentation and targeting, and effectiveness of pricing and advertising programs. IT Capabilities.We defined IT capabilities as the relative capabilities that help an organization create technical and market knowledge and facilitate intraorganizational communication flow. We developed items to measure the possession of IT systems for new product development, cross-functional integration, technology and market knowledge creation, and internal communication. We subjected th ese items to the measurement development procedure described previously. We obtained the data from a large-scale mail survey of the companies listed in Wardââ¬â¢s Business Directory, the Directory of Corporate Affiliations, and the World Marketing Directory.We drew a proportionate-stratified random sample of 800 firms from each country, using each industry as a stratum. The data collection consisted of three stages: presurvey, data collection on SBU strategies, and data collection on relative capabilities. In the first stage, we sent a one-page survey and an introductory letter requesting participation to all the selected firms and offered a list of available research reports to participating firms. The letter requested each firm to select an SBU/division for participation and provide a contact person in that SBU/division.Of the 2400 firms contacted, 392 in the United States, 429 in Japan, and 414 in China agreed to participate and provided the necessary contacts at the SBU/divis ion level. In the second stage, on strategic types, we contacted the designated SBU managers directly and mailed a questionnaire and personalized letter to each manager. We employed a three-wave mailing on the basis of the recommendations of Dillman (1978). We received data on the multi-item measures of the strategic types from 308 firms in the United States, 354 firms in Japan, and 352 firms in China.Two items at the end of the instrument assessed respondentsââ¬â¢ confidence in their ability to answer the questions. Respondents with a low level of confidence (less than 6) were excluded from the final sample. In the third stage, on the four capabilities, we sent another questionnaire to the SBU managers, followed again by a three-wave mailing. This time, we received data on the rela- Data 16 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto tive capabilities from 216 U. S. firms, 248 Japanese firms, and 245 Chinese firms.These sample sizes represent response rates of 27. 0% in the United States, 31. 0% in Japan, and 30. 6% in China. The final sample includes the following industries: computer-related products; electronics; electric equipment and household appliances; pharmaceuticals, drugs, and medicines; machinery; telecommunications equipment; instruments and related products; air conditioning; chemicals and related products; and transportation equipment. The majority of participating SBUs/divisions had annual sales of $11 millionââ¬â$750 million and 100ââ¬â12,500 employees.Appendix A presents all of the measures used in this study. We asked respondents to rate their SBU on each of the capability scale items relative to their major competitors. We used an 11-point scale to elicit levels of agreement, with values ranging from 0 (ââ¬Å"much worse than our competitorsâ⬠) to 10 (ââ¬Å"much better than our competitorsâ⬠). We used the data collected in the second phase of the collection process to classify the SBU/division into the four strategic types. We adopted the 11-item scale from Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan (1990).We classified the SBUââ¬â¢s strategic type (prospector, analyzer, defender, or reactor) using the ââ¬Å"majority-rule decision structureâ⬠(for details, see Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajan 1990) with the following modification: For an SBU to be classified as a prospector or a defender, it must have at least seven ââ¬Å"correctâ⬠answers. Before testing our hypotheses, we performed principal factor analyses with Varimax rotation on all the variables measuring the four relative capabilities for all three countries. To assess measurement invariance, we examined factor structure similarity (Mullen 1995).We retained variables using the following criteria: (1) Each factor must contain the same scale items across all three countries, (2) each itemââ¬â¢s factor loading must be comparable across all three countries, and (3) for each factor, the factor loading must exceed . 40. This procedure produced four factors and reduced the total number of variables to 21. We made comparisons among the factor structures of the three countries using visual inspection, the salient similarity index, and Pearson correlation of the factor loadings across the three countries. The factor loadings appear in Table 1.As indicated, all factors are distinguishable and well defined for all three countries. The percentage of the variance explained by the four factors is 72% for the United States, 71% for Japan, and 69% for China. The examination of the diagonal of the factor score covariance matrix indicates that all factors for the three Measures ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Factor Analysis of the Capability Scales Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 17 Table 1. Principal Component Factor Analysis: Rotated Factor Patterns United States Market-Linking Capabilities Market-sensing capabilities Customer-linking (i. e. creating and managing durable customer relationships) capab ilities Capabilities of creating durable relationships with our suppliers Ability to retain customers Channel-bonding capabilities (creating durable relationships with channel members such as wholesalers, retailers) Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor Technical Capabilities Manufacturing processes Technology development capabilities Ability of predicting technological changes in the industry Production facilities New product development capabilities Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor Marketing Capabilities Knowledge of competitors Effectiveness of advertising programs Integration of marketing activities Skill to segment and target markets Effectiveness of pricing programs Knowledge of customers Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor IT Capabilities IT systems for facilitating crossfunctional integration IT systems for new product development projects IT systems for internal communication (e. g. , across diff erent departments, levels of the organization) IT systems for facilitating technology knowledge creation IT systems for facilitating market knowledge creation Eigenvalue of this factor % variance explained by this factor . 71 . 80 . 90 . 58 . 86 . 85 . 62 . 89 4. 22 20. 1 . 97 . 93 . 90 . 92 . 91 6. 10 29. 1 . 85 Japan .81 China .88 .80 . 81 . 79 .77 . 71 . 57 .79 . 66 . 70 .65 3. 04 14. 4 .44 1. 68 8. 0 .67 2. 64 12. 6 .79 . 78 . 78 . 77 . 71 2. 51 12. 0 70 . 81 . 69 . 73 . 78 4. 36 20. 7 .95 . 95 . 94 . 95 . 90 . 86 5. 69 27. 1 .95 . 86 . 94 . 93 . 83 . 83 5. 39 25. 7 .90 . 89 .83 . 80 .75 . 66 . 74 1. 66 7. 9 .85 . 65 . 57 5. 08 24. 2 .46 . 67 . 63 1. 75 8. 3 18 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto countries are internally consistent and well defined by the measurement items. We provide the final set of included measurement items in Appendix A and the construct reliabilities (as measured by Cronbachââ¬â¢s ? ) and item-to-total correlations in Appendix B. All 12 construct reliabilities (three countries ? four constructs) exceeded the . 70 level that Peter (1979) recommends.To test H1ââ¬âH4 in each of the three country settings, we performed multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) to compare the scores on each of the four multi-item relative capability scales across all four strategic types using SAS general linear model procedure. For each capability scale, we obtained a multiple-item scale by a simple average of the items. As Table 2 shows, the MANOVA F-statistic was significant for all four relative capabilities and in all three countries, so we computed pairwise comparisons to examine the nature of the differences in relative capabilities among the four strategic types. We also include the t-test results of the pairwise comparisons in Table 2.The results in Table 2 provide support for H1ââ¬âH4 in all three countries. (A hypothesis is supported if at least one pairwise comparison is significant and the direction is in t he hypothesized direction. ) As H1 hypothesized, the relative marketlinking capabilities of defenders and analyzers are significantly greater than those of prospectors in all three countries, though the difference between defenders and analyzers is not significant. For example, in the United States, mean scores on market-linking capabilities are 2. 69, 2. 35, and 1. 67 for defenders, analyzers, and prospectors, respectively. The F-statistic from the analysis of variance is 3. 52, which is significant at p < . 05.T-tests of the paired comparisons showed that both the defender mean and the analyzer mean were significantly larger than the prospector mean (D > P; A > P) at the p < . 05 level. We obtained similar results for the Japanese and Chinese samples. These findings are consistent with H1. Prospectors have lower market-linking capabilities than defenders and analyzers because the latter two strategic types rely primarily on their market-sensing and -linking abilities to serve thei r current markets with their current products and technologies. The results also support H2 (prospectors have greater technical capabilities than defenders) in all three countries.For the United States, the prospector and defender means were 3. 42 and 2. 25, respectively, significantly different at p < . 05. Both prospectorsââ¬â¢ and analyzersââ¬â¢ technical capabilities are greater than those of defenders in Japan. The means for prospector, analyzer, and defender were 8. 75, 8. 47, and 7. 84, respectively; both prospector and analyzer means were significantly Tests of H1ââ¬âH4: Possession of Capabilities by Different Strategic Types Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 19 20 Table 2. Analysis of Variance Results: Relative Capabilities and Strategic Types Strategic Type Prospector 1. 67 (1. 67) 3. 42 (2. 70) 1. 75 (1. 50) 7. 5 (1. 49) 6. 72 (1. 79) 5. 48 (1. 09) 5. 05 (1. 72) 2. 37 (1. 75) 3. 26 (1. 99) 1. 98 (2. 38) 2. 78 (2. 46) 2. 25 (2. 59) 2. 46 (2. 90) 2. 16* 7. 47** 31. 96** 2. 35 (1. 82) 2. 69 (1. 79) 2. 46 (2. 01) 3. 52** Univariate Defender Reactor F-Value Paired Comparisons Hypothesis (t-Tests)a D > P; A > P P>D D > A; D > P; D > R; A > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R Countries/Relative Capabilities Analyzer Supportedb Yes Yes Yes Yes United States Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Japan 1. 03 (. 91) 8. 75 (1. 23) 3. 58 (2. 36) 9. 48 (. 87) 9. 00 (1. 01) 3. 9 (2. 88) 8. 47 (1. 20) 7. 84 (1. 35) 3. 68 (2. 73) 8. 72 (1. 09) 1. 96 (1. 12) 2. 07 (1. 19) 2. 51 (1. 56) 7. 42 (1. 42) 4. 82 (2. 29) 8. 46 (1. 28) 19. 17** 12. 02** 2. 24* 11. 28** D > P; A > P; R > D; R > A; R > P P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R R > D; R > A; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > R Yes Yes No Yes Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto IT capabilities Strategic Type Prospector 1. 21 (1. 28) 8. 53 (1. 27) 2. 9 2 (2. 20) 8. 96 (1. 10) 8. 58 (1. 13) 7. 94 (1. 33) 7. 59 (1. 60) 13. 38** 3. 37 (2. 52) 3. 9 (2. 82) 4. 13 (2. 45) 2. 30* 7. 81 (1. 28) 7. 43 (1. 19) 6. 79 (1. 85) 15. 69** 2. 17 (1. 52) 2. 22 (1. 49) 2. 71 (1. 74) 11. 21** Univariate Defender Reactor F-Value Paired Comparisons Hypothesis (t-Tests)a D > P; A > P; R > A; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > R; D > R D > P; R > P P > A; P > D; P > R; A > D; A > R Countries/Relative Capabilities Analyzer Supportedb Yes Yes Yes Yes China Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types *p < . 10. **p < . 05. aSignificant differences at p < . 0 are reported. bA hypothesis is supported if at least one pair is significantly different in the hypothesized direction. Notes: Each cell shows the mean; standard deviations are in parentheses. P = prospector, A = analyzer, D = defender, and R = reactor. Table 2. Continued 21 higher than the defender mean at p < . 05. In China, prospectors scored higher than analyzers and defenders on this capability (prospector, analyzer, and defender means were 8. 53, 7. 81, and 7. 43, respectively; the prospector mean was significantly higher than the other two means at p < . 05). H3 was supported in the United States and China samples. For the U. S. ample, defenders had significantly greater marketing capabilities than analyzers, and analyzers had significantly greater marketing capabilities than prospectors. The defender, analyzer, and prospector means on relative marketing capabilities in the United States were 3. 26, 2. 37, and 1. 75, respectively, all significantly different from one another at p < . 05 according to the pairwise t-tests. For the Chinese sample, the only differences are the pair between defenders and prospectors and the pair between reactors and prospectors. However, for the Japanese samples, the hypothesis was not supported. The three ââ¬Å"archetypalâ⬠strategic types we re insignificantly different and, notably, rather low.The reactors had significantly greater marketing capabilities than all other three strategic types. Finally, H4 was also supported in all three countries. Almost without exception, prospectors had greater IT capabilities than analyzers, which in turn had greater IT capabilities than defenders. For example, in the U. S. sample, the relative IT capabilities for prospectors, analyzers, and defenders were 7. 95, 6. 72, and 5. 48, respectively, all significantly different from one another at p < . 05. Similar results were found in Japan and China. In summary, our expectations, expressed in our hypotheses, were that prospectors would be strongest in technical and IT capabilities and defenders in market-linking and marketing capabilities.We find support for all these hypotheses in all three countries, and all significant findings were in the hypothesized directions. The next set of hypotheses involves expected cross-national differences in terms of the relationship between capabilities and strategic types due to cultural or business environment differences. Before discussing the direct empirical testing of these hypotheses, however, we explain some preliminary findings regarding cross-national differences using data from Table 2. Market-Linking Capabilities. Reactors had significantly greater relative market-linking capabilities than did other strategic types in both Japan and China, but not in the United States. Market-linking capability = 2. 51 and 2. 71 in Japan and China, respectively; in each case, this is the highest capability mean. ) Miles and Snow (1978) find that reactors Tests of H5ââ¬âH8: Cross-National Similarities and Differences 22 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto did not implement strategies consistently and therefore did not fully develop internal capabilities that would enable them to compete successfully. Our results suggest that this expectation is not borne out in Japan or China, possibly because some firms in these countries have well-developed market-linking capabilities but choose to compete as reactors rather than defenders.That is, superior market-sensing skills enable these firms to act successfully as prospectors in certain markets and as adapters or defenders in others. This finding appears to be supported by the H3 results, at least for Japanese firms. Reactors in Japan have significantly greater relative marketing capabilities than all other strategic types. Leaders of a multinational organization doing business against a Japanese competitor should keep in mind that a firm apparently lacking a consistent strategy (i. e. , displaying reactive behavior) may be nonetheless highly skilled in marketing and market linking and, therefore, a surprisingly formidable opponent. Technical Capabilities.Although H2 was largely supported, it is worthwhile to note that across all four strategic types, managers from U. S. firms rated their technica l capabilities (relative to competitors) substantially lower than did their Japanese or Chinese counterparts. The means for the United States were 2. 2ââ¬â3. 4 on a ten-point scale, and comparable means in Japan and China were 7ââ¬â9. This finding suggests that in Japan and China, all strategic types (including defenders and reactors) have well-developed relative technical capabilities. Again, a U. S. firm in competition against, for example, a Japanese defender should not infer low technical capabilities from its competitorââ¬â¢s defensive posture. Marketing Capabilities.Finally, it was surprising to note that H3, which involves relative marketing capabilities, was not supported in Japan and only partially supported in China. As we noted previously, Japanese reactor firms have the greatest relative marketing capabilities; all other firms are insignificantly different on this capability. In China, defenders rate significantly higher than prospectors in this (as hypothesiz ed), but we found no other significant differences among the archetypal strategic types. Cross-National Differences. To test the cross-national hypotheses (H5ââ¬âH8), we performed additional analyses to compare the means on each relative capability construct across countries for each of the four strategic types using SAS general linear model procedure.We used the same procedure described previously: a MANOVA followed by a series of pairwise t-tests to identify significant differences. As Table 3 shows, the F-statistic was significant for 13 of the 16 possible comparisons. Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 23 Consider first the technology and IT capability hypotheses (H6 and H8). Table 3 shows that across all four strategic types, Japanese and Chinese SBUs rate significantly higher than U. S. SBUs in relative technical capabilities. As an example, technical capabilities for prospectors were rated as 8. 75, 8. 53, and 3. 42 for Japan, China, and the United St ates, respectively (significant at p < . 05).This is directly supportive of H6. Japanese and Chinese SBUs also rated significantly higher than their U. S. counterparts in relative IT capabilities across all four strategic types; therefore, we find only partial support for H8. For prospectors, IT capabilities were 9. 48, 8. 96, and 7. 95 for Japan, China, and the United States, respectively (significant at p < . 05). High relative IT capability among Japanese SBUs was expected according to H8, but the high relative IT capability among Chinese SBUs was unanticipated and is worthy of further research. We found less support for the market-linking and marketing capability hypotheses (H5 and H7).Cross-national differences are not very pronounced in the case of relative marketlinking capabilities. As Table 3 shows, U. S. prospector SBUs rate significantly higher than their Japanese and Chinese counterparts, and U. S. defenders rate significantly higher than their Japanese counterparts. The se findings are contradictory to the expectations of H5. Given the evidence of Japanese market-linking expertise, it is surprising that Japanese SBUs rate significantly higher than U. S. or Chinese competitors in market linking only in the case of reactors. In addition, H7 is only partially supported. Japanese and Chinese prospectors and analyzers rate significantly higher than their U. S. ounterparts on relative marketing capabilities. For example, in the case of prospectors, marketing capabilities are rated as 4. 58, 2. 92, and 1. 75 for Japan, China, and the United States, respectively (significant at p < . 05). Although we expected high relative marketing capability for Japan, we did not expect the significantly lower marketing capabilities among U. S. SBUs. Nevertheless, consistent patterns appear with respect to the cross-national hypotheses and suggest directions for further research. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION According to the Miles and Snow (1978) typology, organizations ado pt certain mechanisms to respond to environmental changes.That is, they choose to be pioneers in product or market development or to protect existing positions within their niches, or they seek some kind of intermediate position between these two extremes. As a result, firms exhibit relatively consistent strategies, or patterns of product-market innovation decisions, in response to environmental shifts. Furthermore, a firm that pursues a given strategy develops certain capabilities that help it implement that strategy, thus increasing the likelihood that it will continue to use the same strategy in response to future environmental shifts. As Ham- 24 Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di BenedettoStrategic Types/ Relative Capabilities United States 1. 67 3. 42 1. 75 7. 95 9. 48 8. 96 33. 14** 3. 58 2. 92 13. 91** 8. 75 8. 53 202. 00** 1. 03 1. 21 4. 74** Country Japan China Univariate F-Value Cross-Country Comparisonsa U. S. > China; U. S. > Japan Japan > U. S. ; China > U . S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Prospectors Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Analyzers 2. 35 2. 78 2. 37 6. 72 9. 00 8. 58 3. 59 3. 37 8. 47 7. 81 230. 38** 5. 46** 58. 07** 1. 96 2. 17 1. 16n. s. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. China > U. S. Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Defenders 2. 69 2. 25 3. 26 5. 48 8. 72 3. 68 3. 69 7. 94 7. 84 7. 43 2. 07 2. 22 2. 70* 163. 99** . 54n. s. 121. 94** U. S. > Japan Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types IT capabilities Table 3. Analysis of Variance Results: Cross-National Comparisons 25 26 Table 3.Continued Country Un ited States 2. 46 2. 46 1. 98 5. 05 8. 46 7. 59 4. 81 4. 13 7. 42 6. 79 2. 51 2. 71 . 17n. s. 38. 68** 7. 99** 28. 82** Strategic Types/ Relative Capabilities Japan China Univariate F-Value Cross-Country Comparisonsa Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. ââ¬â Japan > China; Japan > U. S. ; China > U. S. Reactors Market-linking capabilities Technical capabilities Marketing capabilities IT capabilities Michael Song, Robert W. Nason, and C. Anthony Di Benedetto *p < . 10. **p < . 05. aSignificant differences at p < . 10 are reported. Notes: n. s. = not significant. brick (1983, p. ) notes, ââ¬Å"prospectors tend to want to continue prospecting; defenders tend to want to continue defending. â⬠Among the capabilities Miles and Snow investigate are technology, structure, management processes, and power distribution. As we noted previously, the Miles and Snow (1978) typology is, above all, a typology of innovation strategies. In this study, we mapped four ca pabilities of interest to innovating firms (market-linking, technical, marketing, and IT capabilities) onto the Miles and Snow strategic typologies. We hypothesized (in H1ââ¬âH4) that prospectors, which typically pursue a first-mover strategy through product-market innovation, would need to build up technical and IT capabilities.Similarly, defenders, which are most concerned with preserving protected market segments with existing technology, must develop market-linking and marketing capabilities. We found supporting evidence for all these hypotheses in firms from all three countries. We then developed and tested a set of cross-national hypotheses (H5ââ¬âH8), based on cultural and business environment differences existing among the United States, Japan, and China. Our development and empirical testing of these hypotheses represent a significant advance of the literature beyond the contributions of DeSarbo and colleagues (2005, 2006). We found clear support for one of the four hypotheses (H6), partial support for two others (H7 and H8), and no support for the last (H5).In general, the cultural and business environment prevalent in Japan and China has given SBUs in those countries relative advantages in technology and IT capabilities (H6 and H8), yet we did not observe anticipated advantages in market-linking and marketing capabilities (H5 and H7). This study has some implications for theory development and further research. In general, the results support the hypotheses that relative to other organizations, prospectors develop greater technical and IT capabilities so that they can pursue first-to-market initiatives and that defenders develop greater market-linking and marketing capabilities so that they can respond effectively to marketplace changes.These findings lend support to the Miles and Snow (1978) typology and to the contention that organizations tend to respond in certain, consistent ways to environmental change. Therefore, our findings can be i nterpreted as further empirical support of the Miles and Snow typology, originally conceived after an exploratory study of a limited number of industries but empirically supported in other settings (Hambrick 2003). Our findings are also consistent with Hambrickââ¬â¢s (1983) contention that prospectors want to keep prospecting and consequently develop the capabilities most closely related to Information Technology Capabilities and Strategic Types 27 prospecting more than do other firms. Because IT has evolved only in the past few years, further research should explore the impact of IT on strategic choices.Because no existing theories are sufficient to enable us to predict a priori the nature of cross-national differences in the relationship between the four capabilities and strategic types, further research also should examine further our preliminary results regarding cross-national differences in relative capabilities. In addition, note that our model provides evidence of the val idity of Conant, Mokwa, and Varadarajanââ¬â¢s (1990) 11-item scale for assessing strategic type in both Japan and China. We believe that this is the first application of this scale in China and one of the first in Japan (for an earlier Japanese application, see Dyer and Song 1997). There are several notable managerial implications. The Miles and Snow (1978) typology suggests that organizations must do a sincere internal and external assessment when planning strategic moves for future competition.The external assessment should include analysis not only of likely opportunities or developments in product, market, and technology but also of past moves by primary competitors classified by strategic type. In the internal assessment, the organizationââ¬â¢s leaders must identify honestly the firmââ¬â¢s strengths and recognize its weaknesses in light of external challenges. They must then choose a strategic stance, deciding how it can best capitalize on the strengths and overcome th e weaknesses. Although this recommendation is hardly new, it is important in this context to recognize that there is a mutually complementary relationship between capabilities and strategies.Relative strengths in technology and IT capabilities might suggest that a prospector (or even an analyzer) strategy could be a more appropriate choice than a defender strategy. Consistent, successful pursuit of a prospector strategy over time should help a firm develop these relative strengths and enable it to retain its competitive advantage. This implicitly suggests also that a firm that recognizes itself as a reactor type should use its internal assessment to decide which ââ¬Å"archetypalâ⬠strategic type it should strive to become. Cross-national differences in strategic type also carry managerial implications. Previously, we noted several rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-65698292931219170732020-01-04T19:24:00.001-08:002020-01-04T19:24:04.200-08:00Image Compression Using Hybrid Svd Wdr And Svd Aswdr Image Compression Using Hybrid SVD-WDR and SVD-ASWDR: A comparative analysis Kanchan Bala (Research Scholar) Computer Science andEngineering Dept. Punjab Technical University Jalandhar, India kanchukashyap@gmail.com Er. Deepinder Kaur (Assistant professor) Computer Science and Engineering Dept. Punjab Technical University Jalandhar, India deepinderkaur.bhullar@gmail.com Abstract---In this paper new image compression techniques are presented by using existing techniques such as Singular value decomposition, wavelet difference reduction (WDR) and Adaptive wavelet difference reduction (ASWDR). The SVD has been taken as a standard technique to hybrid with WDR and ASWDR. Firstly SVD is combined with WDR (SVD-WDR) and after that it is combined with its advance version that is ASWDR (SVD-ASWDR) in order to achieve better image quality and higher compression rate. These two techniques are implemented or tested on several images and results are compared in terms of PSNR, MSE and CR. IndexTerms---Compression rate (CR), Peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), Mean square error (MSE), Joint photographic expert group (JPEG2000), Singular value decomposition (SVD), Wavelet Difference Reduction (WDR). I. INTRODUCTION One of the applications of DIP is transmission and encoding. The very first image that was transmitted over the wire was from London to New York through the medium of a submarine cable. The picture that was evacuated took three hours to grasp from one place to another. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-51979660934343255402019-12-27T15:50:00.001-08:002019-12-27T15:50:02.925-08:00Wildlife Conservation and Biology Essay - 1571 Words There are 6.5 million species of land mammals. Wildlife biologists get the privilege of studying and spending time with these animals as their everyday life. I should be a wildlife biologist so I can study land mammals. Wildlife biology is a field of biology in which land animals are studied. It deals with all animals with backbones and studies individual species of wildlife, their habitats, and surrounding ecosystems (Fitzgerald). It also studies how animals may interact with their ecosystem. Without wildlife biology we would not have extensive knowledge of other animal species, and how they could be linked to humans. Wildlife conservation in the United States has been based on the Public Trust Doctrine where in wildlife andâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦The first national park, Yellow Stone National Park, was established in 1872 by Ulysses S. Grant (Brown). This was one of the last explored areas in the west. This establishing of a national park led to more wildlife conservation national movements. In 1887 President Roosevelt gathered a group of influential American hunters in New York to form the Boome and Crockett Club with a mission of preserving big game in North America (Brown). In the 1930ââ¬â¢s management of wildlife resources began in earnest. Funds were mostly provided by levies on hunters (Brown). The 1930s were also the beginning of wildlife research in the United States. The leader of this effort was Aldo Leopold (Brown). Wildlife biologists need many years of schooling and hands on experience to become experts at their jobs. 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Genetic diversity also affords different organisms to change with the ever-changing environment around them. Environmental variation, over time, is known as natural or historic rangeRead MoreThe Impact of Sea Otters on Marine Ecology Essay1217 Words à |à 5 Pagesincluded in the Wildlife Management Endangered Species list to protect them from further deterioration. It is only through widespread co nservative measures that sea otters can be saved and their optimal populations restored. This would in turn lead to the preservation of coastal marine ecology and biodiversity through the preservation of kelp communities. Implications of including sea otters in the endangered list Considering the impact of sea otters on marine ecology, their conservation under theRead MoreEssay about Impact of Sea Otters on Community Ecology1487 Words à |à 6 Pageskelp. Within a year of incursion of sea otters, the area became mostly free of sea urchins and beds of giant kelp Macrocystis and other seaweeds were abundant (ââ¬Å"Interaction with kelps and sea ottersâ⬠). Sea otters must be included in the Wildlife Management Endangered Species list to protect them from further deterioration. It is only through widespread conservative measures that sea otters can be saved and their optimal populations restored. This would in Read MoreThe Importance Of Leniency On Permit Requirements1263 Words à |à 6 Pages The FWC states that it is ââ¬Å"a popular mythâ⬠that an animal can be easily relocated (ââ¬Å"Relocating Wildlifeâ⬠, n.d.). Relocating wildlife can cause stress (and thus compromise their immune system), expose them to an area where they have no experience, expose them up to territory disputes, expose them to the risk that recipient sites may not be completely suitable, and spread disease (ââ¬Å"Relocating Wildlifeâ⬠, n.d.). ââ¬Å"Although RRT [Relocation, Repatriation, and Translocation] programs may work under certainRead MoreHuman Involvement And Human Intervention1225 Words à |à 5 Pagesof a variety of factors, such as lack of genetic diversity and human conflict, there are only three free-ranging bison herds in the US. These include Yellowstone Park, Henryââ¬â¢s mountains and Book Cliff herds in Southern Utah (NWF 1). The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is working to return wild bison to their homes in Montana. In figure 1, one can see how a bison herd is thriving in its environment by feeding on grass and shrubs, in Montana. This shows how a particular species fits into a certain rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-4344923234343653582019-12-19T11:38:00.001-08:002019-12-19T11:38:04.039-08:00The Trolley Problem - 1420 Words 1 Explain the Trolley Driver, Bystander at the Switch, Fat Man, Transplant, Hospital scenarios discussed in the The Trolley Problem reading. In doing so, address what the ethical issue(s) are in each of these scenarios. The trolley problem can be expanded to discuss a number of related ethical dilemmas, all referring to the conflicts inherent in utilitarianism and consequentialist ethics. The problem with the trolley driver scenario is that the driver is faced with a choice of whether to infringe on the rights of one man (the man on the tracks) or whether to allow the trolley to crash, thereby killing the five people on board. The driver is stuck between two equally unfortunate situations, and the issue calls into question whether it is more ethical to save five lives than it is to refrain from infringing on the life on an innocent man. Inherent to the problem is the fact that it is impossible to know whether the diversion of the trolley will in fact save the five lives. In the alternative scenario involving the Bystander at the Switch, the actor in question is not the driver but a person who has the ability to pull the lever that will divert the trolley towards one workman, versus the five workmen that will be killed if no action is taken. The dilemma is only slightly different from the original involving the onus on the driver. Either way points to the fundamental ethic of killing one to save five, and whether to do so would be the ethical choice. The differenceShow MoreRelatedThe Trolley Problem, by Judith Jarvis Thomson768 Words à |à 4 PagesThe Bystander at the Switch case is a fundamental part of Thomsonââ¬â¢s argument in ââ¬Å"Trolley Problem.â⬠The basis of her paper is to explain the moral difference between this case, which she deems morally permissible (1398), and the Transplant case, which she deems morally impermissible (1396). In the Bystander at the Switch case, a bystander sees a trolley hurtling towards five workers on th e track and has the option of throwing a switch to divert the trolleyââ¬â¢s path towards only one worker. Thomson findsRead MoreWhat Is And Isn t Owned. Thomson And The Trolley Problem973 Words à |à 4 PagesWhat is and isnââ¬â¢t owned Thomson and the Trolley Problem Most people think that killing is worse than letting die. The latter is a fact. Throughout her essay, Thomson explores this idea and comes to the surprising conclusion that it is sometimes permissible to kill instead of letting die. This along with the famous Trolley Problem, first introduced by Philippa Foot, as well as a few other examples and variations, leave the reader with ambiguity on the subject: exactly under which circumstances isRead MoreThe Trolley Problems875 Words à |à 4 PagesThe Trolley problems are unique in that the two cases are two morally different ways of presenting the same dilemma. The key difference between the switch case and the platform case is the directness of the consequences of oneââ¬â¢s actions. I will argue using Kantââ¬â¢s deontological ethical theory why one should pull the lever but not push the backpacker because of the different affects on morality that arises with the change in role you play in each scenario. When presented with the switch case a utilitarianistRead MoreThe Trolley Dilemma By Philippa Foot812 Words à |à 4 PagesThe trolley dilemma was first created by Philippa Foot The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect in 1967 as a thought experiment on ethics, it then evolutionized into what we know today. Making us question human morality, write books annually and hold worldwide presentations. I will explain the trolley dilemma and how Millââ¬â¢s Theory of Utility is the best way to approach this problem, helping us attain the answer with the best moral outcome. The questionRead MoreThe Trolley Problem Essay2004 Words à |à 9 PagesThe Trolley Problem is set up in two parts. The first part of this problem puts the reader in a passive position to choose between shoving a large person onto the track causing one person to die to save the five other people and refraining and doing nothing would allow the five to die and the one person to live. The second part of this scenario would put Frank in a very personal position to choose to do something about the situation at hand, or to let five people die; or deliberately push a largeRead MoreWhat does Utilitarianism Has to do with a Surgeon1566 Words à |à 7 Pagessaved (Degrees of clarity, n.d.). Considering the situation, then it will result into a one-to-five cost-to-advantage ratio, which is not just preponderance, but only weightily so. Here it is important to discuss about Footââ¬â¢s views as he avoids the problem by saying that the doctrine of doing as well as allowing draws more moral distinction specifically between the actions which we wilfully execute and also the ones we which we allow to take place. In this case, it can be said that it is morally soundRead MoreThe Trolley Problem Of The Monist1624 Words à |à 7 PagesJudith Jarvis Thomson presents an ethical dilemma entitled The Trolley Problem in The Monist. The problem describes a situation in which a trolley car is moving quickly and out of control on a train track towards five people who are tied to the tracks; you have the power to pull a lever, change the direction of the trolley car and save those five people ââ¬â at the expense of the life of one person who is on the track the car was diverted to (Thomson 1397). The choice to be made is not just aboutRead MoreThe Doctrine of Double Effect2090 Words à |à 8 Pagesserious problems with app lying these tests in the real world. In the real world, people can lie about their intentions and they may not even realize what they are intending. People do not actually act with a knowledge of what effects will be caused by their actions. These standards can easily be manipulated by a person attempting to justify their actions and this has been done in many instances. A scenario commonly used to explain the Doctrine of Double Effect is called the ââ¬Å"trolley problem.â⬠In thisRead MoreEthics Course : The Trolley Problem1487 Words à |à 6 Pagesthought experiment that we were given is known as the ââ¬Å"Trolley Problemâ⬠and it is split into two parts. In the first part of the problem we have an empty out of control trolley going down the rail track. If the trolley continues to go down the track it will run over and kill 5 unfortunate people who are tied down to the tracks. You are too far away to get to the track but you do have the power to flip a lever that will change the route of the trolley to a second track. This second track has a single personRead MoreEthical Issues Of The Trolley Problem1932 Words à |à 8 Pagesthe wheels are: Trolley problem debated The majors concern of any automobile companies and even the passengers is safety. There has being many ethical debates concerning how the safety of the driverless cars will be engineer. This typical question lead to trolley problem. The scholars debated that how will car deal with the issue of ethical dilemma, how will it be engineer to decide. For instance, an experiment was discussed where a decision need to be made on a runaway trolley, speeding down a rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-12050277671564568882019-12-11T08:21:00.001-08:002019-12-11T08:21:03.332-08:00John Updike and his novel ââ¬ËThe Centaurââ¬â¢ free essay sample American novelist, poet, essayist and playwright, John Updike belongs to the post-war generation of writers the U. S. They came to literature with university degree and having philological training. The object of his image always was a life of intellectuals; he was well familiar with life and habits of the upper-middle-class. One of the most famous and significant novels of Updike is Centaur. Centaur is a book where for the first time, in English literature originated reception semantic complexity. 1 This novel has a two-dimensional structure: the common level and the mythological level. But mythological plots and characters are not just borrowed by writer, but he also creatively reworked them. John Updike appealed to mythology to emphasize the depth and scope of tasks solved by it. John Updike aggressively sought new ways of adapting of myth to the eternal problems of modernity. The main theme of Centaur is impoverishment and degeneration of public and private life. Updike talks about a crisis of ideas, values, moral concepts, spiritual aspirations. The author chose centaur from a rich artistic history of Greek mythology to express the idea of the duality of human nature, in which the spiritual beginning and physiological eternally confront each other. Mythological imagery is constantly present in the narrative and it is the cause of deep generalization. Centaur a novel-imagination, in which myth and reality intertwined. Almost every character has its prototype in the Greek myth. In myth, Chiron is wise and benevolent mentor for famous heroes Theseus and Jason. George Caldwell is Chiron. In the class he sees wild teens whose interests do not extend beyond basketball and mockery of teacher, who desperately tries to talk to them about the origin of life and the essence of man. Zimmerman, director of the school is Zeus. According to legend, Zeus is omnipotent and majestic god. But Zimmerman retained from this mythological prototype only his sense of unlimited power over subordinates, lust which turned into obsession of nasty old man, and willfulness official, who is not under control. Blacksmith Hephaestus on Olympus was an equal among equals is mechanic Hammel with gold hands. He is barely making ends meet and do not withstand competition from well-established firms. Aphrodite always was a symbol of beauty for humanity, and physical education teacher Vera even for Caldwell who is in love with her, no more than a dream. In the dream, animal passion drowns out voice of reason. And Prometheus, who appeared on the pages of a novel in the guise of Peter Caldwell. He is suffering from the sense of social exclusion, and from the inability to adapt itself to the mores of the environment. Finally, He is suffering from the skin disease. It can be perceived only as a tragicomic decline legend. 2 All the action of the novel, takes place in the imagination of the protagonist Peter Caldwell, who is the prototype of John Updike. So we can say that this is the autobiographical novel. The narrative of the novel is in the first person, Peter acts as the narrator, which is logical, as he recalls the events of his life. He is priori subjective. In his imagination he tries to understand his father, mother and other people. He tries to find the answer, find himself. Peter is type of diegetic narrator, it is present not only in the narrative, but also he is a part of the narrated story. And despite the fact that everything is happening in his mind, he does not have absolute knowledge. He is limited in it. Peter just gives us his view of the world; his point of view on things allows us to better understand him as a person. It is through the prism of the Peters attitude to his father; we understand how similar they are. Eventually, Peter himself comes to this conclusion. He realizes that he is just like his father, he is his continuation. Considering that Peter Caldwell is a prototype Updike, we can say that some of the thoughts set by the author of this character, peculiar to the author himself. It is also worth noting that Peter is an example of an explicit image of the narrator. Despite the lack of self-presentation and the fact that we learn his name only in the second chapter, the constant use of the pronoun I indicates this. But in that novel there are two of the narrators. In several chapters of the novel, where describes imaginary mythical scenes involving George Caldwell, the explicit narrator is absent. Instead there is an objective narrator. He is dissolved in the text, he is impersonal, and he has no name. He is omnipresent. Precisely it is closest to the author, because, despite the fact that the narrator is not involved in the story, he is the author of evaluative judgments about the characters. For example, wondering about George Caldwell, he says that George was professional in his field and gives him other flattering epithets. Another example, when he described the body of Caldwell as tall and handsome. From this we can judge about the authors positive attitude to this character. We should also talk about the time of the narrative. Artistic time is a sequence of events in the specification. Different types of mismatch temporal order of the narrative with a temporary order of story is called anachronism according to Gerard Genette. There are two types of anachrony, but in the novel is only present analepsis. Genette called so any mention backdating events are preceding the point in history in which we are. For example, in the first chapter the narrator says: à «Until they had moved ten miles out of town, the Caldwells had done without a car. They could walk everywhere in Olinger and take the trolley to Alton. But when they bought back the old Kramer place they needed a car. Hummel had put them on to a ââ¬Ë36 Buick for only $375. à »3 Anyway, it is very difficult to judge the time in this novel, given that all the action takes place in the imagination of the hero, while he is lying in bed with his mistress. In the novel Centaur the action goes as if at the same time and in the mythical Greece, and in a small town in the United States. Episodes just flow like one from the other that can be called a scenic narration. All episodes are mapped and linked in a complex manner. The narrator is only used in the chapters are devoted to father of the main character. That allows you to look at this character more objectively, without the prejudice protagonist Peter Caldwell. Advantageously, this novel was written from the face of narrator. There are just a few chapters in third person. Bearing in mind that it is autobiographical novel, we can suggests that using a narrator, the author tried to make the story more real and more fully reveal the inner world of the character, through his inner monologues and attitude towards the world. One of the main features of this work is that every word hides a multitude of meanings and it allows each time interpreted episodes of the novel in many ways. For example, we can take an episode from the beginning of the second chapter. It is here that it becomes clear that everything that happens in novel, it is just a figment of the imagination of Peter Caldwell, who is lying in bed with his mistress. The impression is that he tells her memories of her childhood. Here Updike masterfully connects two realities with help dream of adult Peter (last night I dreamt that Hitler, a white-haired crazy man with a protruding tongue, was found alive in Argentina) and the dream from that time when he was fifteen. This dream can be interpreted as a kind of reminder of Peter from his unconscious that an evil and good live in him. Hitler is evil, destructive force, and the a white-haired crazy man with a protruding tongue reminds me of Einstein and he is associated with a good, a creative force in man. In dream of Peter of fifteen age, he feels yourself like a tree. It reminds him that he is part of the universe. The tree, ingrown deeply rooted in the land is a metaphor for the idea that the people belong to the earth. Perhaps it is also a metaphor for what a person is attached to their roots; you are the continuation of someone else. Dream contrasts with reality, where fifteen years Peter tries to isolate itself from the outside world, like and his father. But this is not the only thing that combines Peter and George Caldwell. They both feel a live poisonous lump, but only one perceives it as fear, and the other, like a disease. The epithet which uses Updike suggests the idea about tangle of snakes, and according to Christian tradition, snakes is the evil that lives in man and he should to beat it. In this case, evil is the pride of personages. Peter rebels against his father, trying to find himself. And George isolates himself from the outside world, removed from his family and wants to die. It is a selfish act of tired man. Senior Caldwell complains constantly, trying to get sympathy, and when gets it begins to be stubborn and capricious. After all, technically, if he is terminally ill, George is the walking dead and he is no longer a part of this world. In other words, he has every right to arbitrarily delete itself from the universe. Until he has a pride, he will strive to loneliness and death. That feeling is his lump of snakes. Each page of the novel can be analyzed. Reader can found hundreds of meanings, but, nevertheless, the authors intention is often not completely understood. Since the first works, Updike developed typical motifs of the slow but irreversible degeneration of personality, decline and impoverishment of its spiritual potential, a crisis of faith, a substitute indifference or nihilism. Most often, these motives are related to the fate of ordinary people who have achieved material prosperity , but they are persecuted vague sense of aimlessness of his outwardly sustainable life and seeking to diversify everydayness through all sorts of surrogates of intense and vivid existence. The combination of satirical colors with a nostalgic tone, that creates unconcealed sympathy of the author for his characters, helped Updike create a multifaceted picture of the life of the average American 1950-70es4. In conclusion, one can say that Updike remains one of the most visible figures in American letters, a perennial candidate for the Nobel Prize, and the rare writer who can combine literary merit with popular success. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-6149074909565244412019-12-03T20:02:00.001-08:002019-12-03T20:02:03.242-08:00With Its Long Slender Body The Snakes Probably The Funniest Shaped C E With it's long slender body the snake's probably the funniest shaped creature you will ever encounter. There are many points about this wonderful Reptile that make it a high asset to the world. It has been said that people are always afraid of what's different, afraid of what they don't know. Well, in less than 10 min, I promise you will know all the answers to all the questions that you have ever had about snakes. From questions like what is a Thamnophis sirtalis, to were the butt is located. First of all, let's dispel any of the rumors that are around about these guys. Despite popular belief, the snake does not swallow there young to protect them from harm the stomach would start to digest them. Snakes do not milk cows (thank goodness for the cow snakes teeth are sharp). This one came around from fear and adrenaline, but snake cannot crawl faster than a human can run. The tongue of the snake is not a stinger (though they do tickle). And, snakes are not slimy, Now that we have started uncovering the truth about these reptiles we can start at the top. In the world today there are about 2,500 known species of snakes belonging to more than 10 families. In the U.S. there are about 127 species, with 38 species found within Kansas (with 5 venomous ones). Most people wonder what will happen to them if they do happen to encounter a snake. Will I get bitten, is it venomous, will I die, is someone going to have to suck the poison out of there, is it trying to kill me, should I try to kill him? Allot of things are happening at this point, well more than likely the snake is just trying to defend himself. And he has all the right to do so. First of all you disrupted the snake, it did not disrupt you. How would you feel if A 5 to 6 foot thing with two legs and hair growing on it almost stepped on you and you were a only a half foot off the ground, you would be pretty scared to. More than likely the snake is a harmless one. If by chance the snake is a venomous or dangerous snake just simply stop, and walk slowly away from it. Do not threaten it or try to kill it, just back away. With all this talk about confrontation and how to avoid the snake, I would be good if I mentioned the size of what to stay on the look out for. Snakes come in all sizes from super small and sleek to large and cumbersome. Most snakes on the other hand are an average of two to eight feet. Snake have been recorded to having reached up to 36.5 feet. And there are certain breeds that are found to only grow to 1 to 1.5 feet. The diversity of snakes is almost comparable to none. The size of A snake effects the number of vertebrae that it would have. All snakes have A minimum of 100 vertebrae, some up to 400. The human body only has 32. With the ribs of a snake attached through ligaments and muscles the snake has much more allowance for movement and expandability of the ribcage. The human body is less flexible because our bones are directly connected one another. Above Right: the skeleton of a snake. Left: A snake starting it's shedding, it does this by rubbing its nose against a rock or another rough surface. Some people believe that the snake is a slimy creature. This could not be any farther from the truth! "The snake's skin is made out of a hard, dry material called keratin"(num. 2/A). "Depending on the snake, it can shed every 20 days to once a year"(3). The reason for this is. The skin of a snake can not expand and grow with the snake as it is maturing. When they outgrow themselves they form a new skin layer and shed the old one off. Snake's do put wear and tear on the skin to at times to. So they may shed a layer even after the snake is done growing. If you look closely at a snake that rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-41692565514388420192019-11-27T18:41:00.001-08:002019-11-27T18:41:03.636-08:00Whole Foods description and generic strategy Whole Foods was established in 1980 after the merger between Safeway store and Clarksville Natural Grocery. The companyââ¬â¢s expansion strategy began in 1984 when it started acquiring other existing food chains.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Whole Foods description and generic strategy specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In 2004, the company managed to enter the United Kingdom market and consequently acquired quite a good number of food chains. Before the close of 2008, Whole Foods established more food chains although some of them were closed down after a short duration. It is worth to mention that Whole Foods is one the leading organic and natural foods supermarkets across the globe. The high performance level of the company is linked to the companyââ¬â¢s mission statement which entails the provision of products that enhance the overall wellbeing and vitality of its customers. The latter has been att ained by ensuring that customers are supplied with the highest quality products. The aspiration of the company is to achieve international recognition by producing unique organic and natural foods and also increasing its retail outlets. The companyââ¬â¢s expansion strategy The expansion strategy of the company focuses on increasing supply in order to help the company meet the growing demand for both the natural and organic foods. The increasing demand is attributed to the entry of new buyers in the marketplace. In order to achieve the desired level of expansion, the company has continued to invest substantial level of resources in different areas especially in political reforms. This is due to the current regulations from the government that restricts the quantity of organic farming. Moreover, the level of research and development that focuses on the production of staple organic products has also been intensified. The company also puts a lot of emphasis on the placement as an exp ansion technique. Whole Foods targets customers with income levels that are above average and also ensures that its stores are placed in areas where almost half the residents have at least some college education. The company believes that such a population is in a vantage position to support healthy, environmental, and nutritional values. The current number of distribution stores and retails outlets is an indication that the company is performing considerably well in its operations. In order for the company to achieve the desired growth levels, there is great need to continue investing in both sales and financial research. This is based on the fact that any given company should not merely focus on education level and income when expanding its operations. Whole Foodââ¬â¢s key strength or weakness, opportunity or threat, that justifies why the expansion strategy should be continued A major strength lies in the companyââ¬â¢s ability to provide quality and high standard products. Customers who purchase natural and organic foods from the company are guaranteed high levels of satisfaction. In addition, the company enjoys a strong company management equipped with economic value and improved systems for providing employees with incentives. These strengths are very helpful to the company as it undertakes its expansion strategy.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Giving incentives to employees serves as one way of motivating them since it increases their participation in expanding the companyââ¬â¢s operations. However, it is vital to note that the companyââ¬â¢s effort to expand is likely to be hindered due to the high prices charged on some of the products. In order to overcome this weakness, the management should explain why some of the products are more expensive than others. This will make customers to remain loyal to the company. The expansion of Whole Foods is also justified based due to the fact that the company has a very attractive market share and also holds a strong position within the targeted market. This implies that it is capable of realizing a more profitable and stronger position by expanding to new markets. The companyââ¬â¢s key opportunities include increased recognition within the organic or health food industry, and brand image enhancement within the surrounding community. By continuing the expansion strategy, Whole Foods can increase the level of its sales and increase demand for its products by attracting new customers. In addition, the company finds it easy to promote the organic foods while enhancing the brand loyalty and image. It is highly likely that Whole Foods will continue to expand in other areas and consequently increase its profitability and market share. On the other hand, Whole Foods faces key threats such as increased supply of organic food substitutes from the local grocers and high pri ces on some of the companyââ¬â¢s products. This means that it is necessary for the company to come up with appropriate strategies that may help it to retain its current customers and attract new ones. By so doing, it will be possible for the company to continue with its expansion programs. In my view, I believe that Whole Foods is justified to continue with its current expansion strategy since it enjoys significant strengths and opportunities that give it a competitive power over other players in the same industry. However, the company should address the key weaknesses and threats that are likely to affect its expansion strategy. For instance, Whole Foods can gain significantly by reducing the price of some of its products alongside improving quality. This prevents customers from shifting their interests to other competitors. This case study on Whole Foods description and generic strategy was written and submitted by user Tate D. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here. rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-55910923680868438662019-11-24T02:16:00.001-08:002019-11-24T02:16:04.544-08:00Barnes Noble Nook EssaysBarnes Noble Nook Essays Barnes Noble Nook Essay Barnes Noble Nook Essay Marketing Strategy Strategic Situation Summary: Market Target(s) Description: Barnes Noble Nook 1. Market Segments Identified- Middle-Upper Class, educated, moderate- high income, heavy internet user 2. Primary Market- Business travelers Percent More Likely Than Average U. S. Adult toâ⬠¦. Have accessed the Internet outside the home via WiFi or wireless connection (in last 30 days): 199% Have household income of $100,000 or more annually: 87% Have accessed the Internet with a cell phone or other mobile device (in last 30 days): 154% Be a Heavy Internet User: 116% Have a Bachelorââ¬â¢s or Post-Graduate Degree: 111% Be between the ages of 35-54: 20% Be male: 16% 3. Secondary Market- Education- High School students, College Undergraduates 4. Market Characteristics a. Geographic- Suburban ââ¬â travel to cities for work or school b. Demographic- The following is a survey conducted for Nook Ownersââ¬â¢ age distribution from 111 Nook owners 7. 21% Nook Owners between 10 and 19 à 8 out of 111. 21. 62% Nook owners between 20-29 ââ¬â 24à out of 111. 17. 11% of Nook owners between 30-39 ââ¬â 19à out of 111. 22. 52% of Nook owners are between 40-49 ââ¬â 25 out of 111. 18. 1% of Nook owners are betweenà 50-59 ââ¬â 20à out of 111. 11. 71% of Nook owners are between 60-69 ââ¬â 13à out of 111. Just 1 nook owner between 70-79. Just 1 nook owner between 80-89. c. Psychographic- Personality: Values: Primary Motivation: Ideals: Self-expression: Resources: d. Behavioral- User-status: Usage-rate: Purchase-occasion: Benefits sought: Objectives for the Market Target(s): Marketing Program Positioning Strategy: A. Product Strategy a. New Products b. Product Improvements: Incremental I nnovation NOOKstudy i. It will allow the student instant downloads for academic ebooks. It will allow students to search for keywords in lecture notes, syllabuses and more. ii. Its a desktop app that will work on Macs and PCs. When installed, it provides students with access to a wide library of textbooks for less than standard books. iii. Furthermore, the app will enable students to highlight and take notes that are searchable and customizable, and provide students access to all of their materials ââ¬â eTextbooks, lecture notes, syllabi, slides, images, and other course-related documents ââ¬â all in one place. Their digital library will be able to go from home, to the library, and to the classroom. B. Distribution Strategy C. Price Strategy: a. Of the 181 million US consumers who are online, 14%, or 25 million consumers, say that eReaders priced at $199 or higher - the current price range for eReaders - are expensive, but theyââ¬â¢d still consider them for purchase at that price point. What this means: The maximum addressable market for eReaders as they are currently priced is substantial, but to reach the largest market possible, the prices will need to come down. Still, they have phenomenal social and economic impact as they catalyze a new behavior of digital reading across multiple devices. Weââ¬â¢re just at the beginning of this revolution. [pic] D. Promotion Strategy a. Advertising i. Banner ads inside books. The average U. S. adult reads four books a year; with a population of 250 million you get 1 billion books digested annually. At 200 pages per book, thats 200 billion potential ad impressions if just one ad was placed at the bottom of each page. Now, charge a $20 CPM for such premium placement and you have just unlocked a $4 billion advertising market. This concept can extend to college textbooks with coupons for partners, such as Starbucks Coffee. ii. Readers give advertisers more consumer attention because readers cannot easily surf away to other websites. Advertisers would win higher response rates because the ads are much more noticeable and could be contextually targeted to content and the users personal information disclosed by their book purchases. b. Publicity c. Internet d. Personal Selling e. Sales Promotion i. Visit any Barnes Noble store and show y our NOOK or mobile device to one of our booksellers, and receive a voucher for the FREE eBook. The voucher will require recipients to enter an online code to receive the free eBook. This will create more movement to the website and to promote other product offerings. E. Marketing Research F. Coordination with Other Business Functions [pic] Mediamark says there are approximately 2. 1 million US adults who own eReaders. Available this week, the new Nook WiFi device is priced at just US$149. The price on the existing Nook 3G, meanwhile, was slashed from $259 to $199, making it the first under-$200 dedicated e-reader with both free 3G wireless and WiFi, according to the company. Barnes Noble now offers all Nook users complimentary access to ATTs (NYSE: T) entire nationwide WiFi network. Its eBookstore now boasts more than one million e-books, periodicals and other digital content, the company said. Under-$200 is always a new product categorys sweet spot, and BN is probably selling the Nook at a slim margin or even a loss in order to gain market share and brand share in the digital book distribution world. Price, meanwhile, is a very important factor in that competition particularly the sub-$200 price point, which is psychologically very important for consumer adoption, she asserted. Any time you deflate the margin on a product by merely adjusting price, it has consequences to the bottom line, he explained. Another option to just dropping price would have been to add a coupon for up to $50 worth of content; this would have fulfilled the urge to drop price however would have kept topline revenue flat. Style: The Nook has a color menu, whereas the entire Kindle display is focused on black and white, he explained. The Nook is lighter. The Nook is now cheaper and the Nook is a little more aesthetically appealing. Potential Target Markets Specifically, individuals interested in a very focused reading experience are one; the education market is another, she pointed out. If device manufacturers and educational and professional publishers are successful at getting that constituency, we think e-readers will be able to hold their own against media tablets, Kevorkian said noting, however, that while theres great potential, it has yet to be realized. A total of 7. 6 million media tablets, including the iPad, will ship worldwide in 2010, growing to 46. 7 million units in 2014, IDC has forecast. The e-reader category, on the other hand including both connected e-readers and USB-enabled ones will ship 6. million worldwide this year, the company predicted, increasing to just over 9 million in 2012 before declining to 7. 9 million in 2014, Kevorkian noted. NOOK for Android-based smartphones and device s. The new application offers those with devices using Android OS 1. 6 and higher the ability to shop Barnes Nobles expansive eBookstore of more than one million eBooks The new Android app is also the first eReader software to feature Barnes Nobles new NOOK-centric branding, leveraging the strength of the companys NOOK brand across its entire eReading offering. The new eReader software branding aligns with the companys current NOOK offering NOOK 3G and NOOK Wi-Fi eBook Readers, and the recently announced NOOKstudy online study platform and software solution for higher education. NOOK for Android will soon be followed by an updated NOOK for iPhone, NOOK for iPad, and others in the coming months, the company noted. Barnes Noble is diving deeper into the education market with an expected August release of NOOKstudy which will run on Macs and PCs and not require a NOOK or any other mobile device. NOOKstudy will act as a hub for eTextbook, class notes, syllabi, scanned handouts, and even non-educational eBooks. It will allow students to take notes as well as highlight passages in eTextbooks. Users will also be able to tag items for easy retrieval using common terms like: for the final exam. It will provide full searches of anything, in the eTextbooks or your notes, and link into Google or Dictionary. com to look up terms. Multiple eTextbooks can be opened at the same time, or two pages from ifferent sources can be simultaneously displayed. The program is currently being piloted at Penn State, University of Nevada, Queensborough Community College, and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Barnes Nobleââ¬â¢s ability to market the Nook through its bricks-and-mortar stores, along with the comparative newness of the device, were keys to that competitive edge. Under the terms of the Best Buy agreement, the Nookââ¬â¢s e-reader software will come pre-loaded on a number of PCs and smartphones sold through the retailer. Both Barnes Noble and Amazon have focused on porting e-reader applications onto a number of devices, including ostensible rival iPad, in a bid to increase the potential audience for their proprietary e-books. Barnes Noble announced a software update for its Nook e-reader, including a Web browser and Android-based games, on April 23. Another feature, ââ¬Å"Read In Store,â⬠allows Nook users to browse the retailerââ¬â¢s e-books for free at any Barnes Noble bookstore, with the entirety of each book accessible for an hour. NOOK Wi-Fi eBook Reader marries innovative technology and sleek minimalist design with Wi-Fi connectivity. This latest addition to the NOOK family gives customers the opportunity to take advantage of the proliferation of both in-home and public Wi-Fi hotspots, where they can browse the Web and shop the Barnes Noble eBookstore of more than one million eBooks, periodicals and other digital content. With its latest software update for all NOOK devices (now available at www. nook. com/update), Barnes Noble is offering all NOOK customers complimentary access to ATTs entire nationwide Wi-Fi network, including Barnes Noble bookstores which have previously been available to NOOK customers. As part of the NOOK eBook Reader family, NOOK Wi-Fi features Barnes Nobleââ¬â¢s breakthrough LendMe technology, enabling customers to share eBooks with friends for up to 14 days. NOOK Wi-Fi also offers the same great in-store features like Read In Store to browse complete eBooks in Barnes Noble stores at no cost, and More In Store, offering free, exclusive content and special promotions. http://floridaresearchgroup. wordpress. com/2010/02/16/demographics-of-kindle-a rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2185762235019494612.post-805519181628081272019-11-21T06:22:00.001-08:002019-11-21T06:22:11.468-08:00By studying the particular situation in somalia,illustrate how poverty Essay - 1By studying the particular situation in somalia,illustrate how poverty links with conflict and vice versa ,and suggest ways in which international organisations can help realistically and effectively - Essay Example This led to a period when the country underwent a form of decentralization as independent regional governments were formed in the North by different groups (Thomashausen, 2002). The war against the ruling Somali government began near the end of the 1970s when the then socialist government began seeking out individuals suspected of taking part in the attempted coup dà ©tat of 1978 and executing them. Though the government captured many of these individuals who were military and government officials, a number of them managed to escape and flee the country (Degu, 2007). These ex officials began to form the first dissident groups that were determined to see Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, the leader of the government removed from power even if it meant the use of force. The demise of the ruling government and its army was the source of a power vacuum that was left as a result, and the main cause for the civil war that ensued thereafter as the different factions that had fought together to oust the Major general now fought with one another as each tried to assume control of essential regions most notably, the countryââ¬â¢s capital (Thomashausen, 2002). Groups that had once been allies turned into foes as they failed to see eye to eye and agree over who should assume control from the fallen general leading to bloody clashes in which countless of innocent lives were lost in the process as they were caught up in between the warring factions. Though the conflict existed before this time, the main focus will be on the war from 1991 onwards for the purpose of this essay. In the year 1992, the United Nations decided to become involved in the civil war through helping those who were affected by it via providing human relief to those who were affected as well as help restore order in the country. One of the ways in which the UN strived to achieve these objectives was rosestewar73http://www.blogger.com/profile/16753440248002553892noreply@blogger.com0