The corporate governance of subsidiaries in multinational groups of companies has become increasingly important for managers and researchers, particularly through the developments around classical corporate governance in the last years. This book investigates for the first time comprehensively a topic, which research has addressed only sporadically so far. It reviews established theories and empirical findings from classical corporate governance, and applies them to subsidiaries, thereby describing and delineating the topic and deducing the availability and efficiency of governance mechanisms for subsidiaries. A dataset on multinational groups, surveyed at IMD International, is employed to test hypotheses from the theoretical analysis, and the findings are combined with those from a series of executive interviews. The core result is that mechanisms of classical corporate governance are, by and large, unavailable or inefficient for subsidiaries, and alternative solutions are employed in practice. Overall, subsidiary governance is found to be of strategic importance for multinational groups, and the book brings forward recommendations for managerial practice.

The Corporate Governance of Subsidiaries in Multinational Corporations: Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Evidence from Europe

Business & Money

Brellochs, Jochen

International

VDM Verlag Dr. Müller

Today, enterprises need more flexibility than ever before, but classic firms oftenfail this requirement. Therefore, a more flexible kind of enterprise evolved: TheVirtual Enterprise. One reason why Virtual Enterprises are that flexible is theirextensive use of IT. Yet, given the temporary character of Virtual Enterprises, existingsoftware concepts are often not applicable. Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) mayhelp to solve this problem. However, a concept that allows cooperating agents to support the management of the complete life-cycle of a Virtual Enterprise, is still amiss. This book attendsto that gap. It identifies the management tasks of the Virtual Enterprise life-cycle,determines those that may be performed by software agents, identifies preconditionsfor their successful completion, and proposes an abstract architecture. Thearchitecture defines the structure of a MAS for Virtual Enterprise life-cycle support,determines communication standards, interaction protocols and messages, and identifiesontologies, that have still to be elaborated.

Software Agent Support of the Virtual Enterprise Life-cycle: Evaluation and Concept Development

Grünert, Andreas

Computers & Technology

This study explores the differences between traditional teaching of writing as the acquisition of communicative skills, and authorship in the classroom, a pedagogy drawing on the work of Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy and grounded in transformative education. This study asks whether the use of authorship in the elementary classroom, including authoring and self publishing books, has an effect on the development of voices of students, teachers, and parents. The study also explores the need, use, and potential of assistive technology as a tool to assist in the authorship process. Using participatory research, dialogues with practicing preschool and elementary school teachers, administrators and teacher educators revealed the significant impact of authorship on student literacy and voice. It can also be used with assistive technology to help students with special needs. Authorship has an impact on the development of teachers'' own voices and teaching effectiveness. It also helps teachers understand their students and improve relationships with students'' families. Authorship unifies different aspects of literacy and expands vocabulary.

AUTHORSHIP AS A PEDAGOGICAL TOOL: TEACHERS'' PERSPECTIVES ON AUTHORSHIP TO DEVELOP VOICE

Winkley, Cheryl

Medical Books

The growing number of individuals with dementia represents a significant physical and mental health challenge not only for the health professions, but also, and even more dramatically, for the primary and secondary caregivers of dementia patients. This book contributes to a deeper understanding of dementia caregivers¿ anxiety, stress, and depression by examining the presence and extent of grief that may be a part of the experience. Further, this study identifies and examines the particular part of grief that is referred to as anticipatory grief offering support that 1.) Grief is present for dementia caregivers; 2.) anticipatory grief is part of the dementia caregiving experience, and 3.) the MM-CGI- Short Form is a reliable and valid instrument in evaluating anticipatory grief in family caregivers of dementia patients. This work suggests the need for implementing anticipatory grief assistance to caregivers and further implicates the need and potential benefits of integrating anticipatory grief assistance into existing caregiver support programs.

Dementia and Anticipatory Grief: Exploring Family Caregivers' Experiences

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Ross, Angela

Psychology & Counseling

Office buildings are one of the major assets of companies enabling them to maintain their competitive advantage. Successful and effective facility management of corporate assets means highly efficient personnel, which translates into minimum cost and maximum profit. Preventing office buildings from getting obsolete, adaptability to change and emerging technologies protects organizations from foreseeable and excessive costs. Facilities are the infrastructure that support people in realizing their goals and require ongoing management if they are to remain aligned with their intended and primary support function. All of these facts demonstrate the indisputably important role that facilities play in corporate success. Thus, in this book, the problems that corporate buildings encounter in time and solutions for these problems are analyzed through numerous cases and systematized under certain categories. Afterward, a decision-tree that is integrated on a timeline is proposed based on the previously formed categories. This study is expected to be a useful aid for corporate managers who are aware of the unique status of their corporate real estate and are willing to take one step further to inquire about their various alternatives and find the most appropriate option to preserve the value of their assets.

Ways to Prevent Office Buildings from Getting Obsolete: A Decision-Tree Approach

Civan, Isilay

Management & Leadership

High speed and Highly Accurate Tip-Scanning Atomic Force Microscope

Science & Math

Lee, Dong-Yeon

Technology

This book details an exploratory investigation into the area of academic advising and used the motivation and self-regulation literature as a theoretical backdrop. More specifically, the research presented in this book incorporated self-theory and Hirsch's (2001) multiple intervention model in its interpretation. The interview narratives suggested that students experiencing academic difficulty tend to voice more problems, to be less ready for study and to be more avoidance oriented than students not experiencing academic difficulty. The research also showed that motivation is an unstable but useful variable when considering academic achievement. Moreover, group-based study skill programmes appeared to have some impact on academic attainment, and level of choice with regard to study course options appeared to be related to intent to access individualised academic advising systems. The discussion in the book, therefore, considered the ideas of motivation, achievement and academic advising, and showed that the effectiveness of academic advising is somewhat reliant on the initial motivation of students towards their study.

Students' Motivation to Learn, Academic Achievement and Academic Advising: An Exploratory Investigation

Education & Teaching

Henning, Marcus

Higher & Continuing Education

This ground-breaking text profiles a college population often misunderstood: Transgender students. Using a broad range of self-identifying terms, "transsexual," "tranny boy," "genderqueer," "male to something else," "two spirit," "third gender" and "still defining," this study's participants gave voice to a definition and characteristics of genderism. They described a campus dictated by a binary gender system with four components: a social labeling process used to categorize all individuals into rigid male or female identities; accountability for conforming to binary gender norms with requisite rewards and punishments; privileging of non-transgender persons; and invisibility, isolation and inaccessibility of transgender identities. For university faculty, administrators and students, this unique work provides both a theoretical foundation for understanding systemic oppression related to transgender identities as well as a blue print for campus change. This study was recognized with a GLBT Knowledge Community Research Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and Scholar-Activist Award from the American Educational Research Association.

Genderism: Transgender Students, Binary Systems and Higher Education

Bilodeau, Brent

Schools & Teaching

In the last decades, the number of wind power generators added to the existing diesel generators has been increasing worldwide, and currently hybrid wind-diesel power plants represent one of the most promising, reliable, and cost-effective energy technologies available in the market. However, this hybrid source introduces several technical challenges that must be addressed if power quality standards are to be maintained. This book provides tools to analyze the dynamic behavior of wind-diesel systems through the development of a very detailed and comprehensive state-space model, which includes more than 470 equations. The small-signal and large-signal dynamic performance of the study system, for grid-connected and islanded mode of operation is evaluated. Transients caused by fault events and the subsequent accidental islanding of the wind and diesel units are investigated. Schematic diagrams of the PSCAD model are provided and the methodology used to tune the controllers is exposed. This book was especially designed for those interested in modeling power systems, power electronics, electrical machines, renewable wind-diesel energy systems, and controllers applied to power systems.

Hybrid Wind-Diesel Power Plants: Modeling and Analysis

Leonardo Garcia, Sergio

Reza Iravani, M.

Over the last couple of decades, there has been tremendous use of information technology in business. Business leaders cite training end-users to use technology as a one of the key challenges of the future. This book explores three contemporary methods in end-user training: e-learning, peer collaboration and collaborative e-learning. Drawing on the two foundational disciplines of Information Systems and Education, this book first summarizes the inconsistencies in existing literature. Next, it outlines a theoretical model that describes the effect of learning methods using the structures embedded in the technology, teams and techniques as well as the important role of faithful appropriation of learning methods on learning outcomes. Finally, drawing on the results of a 2X2 multi-period quasi-experiment, the book outlines detailed guidelines for researchers and practitioners in the area of End-user training as well as anyone else involved in the area of training.

New Approaches to End-User Training: Longitudinal Investigation of Collaborative e-learning

Gupta, Saurabh

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Books by VDM Verlag Dr. Müller