Detective stories Essay

The Sherlock Holmes stories are the work of Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes first appeared in the story ‘The Study of Scarlet’, which was published in the magazine ‘Beetons Christmas Annual of 1887†². Over the 40 years that followed Holmes appeared in 5 collections of short stories, and 3 other novels. Holmes’ popularity was partly due to the fact that his books were the detective fiction books ever to be published. These books are still read today all over the world, because of the brilliant way in which they are written. The Sherlock Holmes books are written from the point of view of his sidekick Watson. Many modern day detective fiction books and television programmes follow the pattern of a detective and sidekick. The stories of Sherlock Holmes caused him to become a national hero. In all the Sherlock Holmes stories we are given a detailed description of what he looks like, that is a tall gaunt person with long thin legs, a thin hawk like nose a square chin, and of course a pipe and deerstalker hat. The first story I read of Sherlock Holmes was ‘The Red Headed League’. In this story the reader is immedietely introduced to problematic situation, where a pawnbroker has come for advice. The pawnbroker goes on to tell Holmes and Watson his situation. Whilst the man is in the company of Holmes, Holmes begins to deduce things from just looking at the ware and tare of the mans body and clothes. From a very early point in the story we begin to see characteristics in Holmes, such as habits when he id thinking, ‘†¦ relapsing into his armchair, and putting his finger-tips together, as was his custom when in judicial moods. ‘ I was are given the impression that Holmes is the type of person who tries to treat people with respect, but his tolerance level for people who are not as intellectual as him is very low. Holmes becomes agitated at people’s incompetence to understand his complex ideas. I think Holmes pretends to expect every one to be as clever as him to make him look more intelligent and therefore superior. So in that respect I see Holmes as quite an ignorant person. However he does not treat Watson this way, I think he treats Watson more like a younger brother. I think that Holmes would like Watson to be like Holmes. From ‘he Red Headed League’ we can see that Holmes has a short temper, for example when he is in the cellar of the bank and Mr. Merryweather struck rather loudly his stick upon the flags which lined the floor, ‘ I must really ask you to be a little more quiet†¦ You have already imperilled the whole of our expedition. ‘

A Resource-Based View of International Human Resources: Toward a Framework of Integrative and Creative Capabilities

Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) CAHRS Working Paper Series Cornell University ILR School Year 2005 A Resource-Based View Of International Human Resources: Toward A Framework of Integrative and Creative Capabilities Shad S. Morris Cornell University Scott A. Snell Cornell University Patrick M. Wright Cornell University This paper is posted at [email  protected] http://digitalcommons. ilr. cornell. edu/cahrswp/284 CAHRS at Cornell University 187 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 USA Tel. 607 255-9358 www. ilr. cornell. edu/CAHRS WORKING PAPER SERIES A Resource-Based View of International Human Resources: Toward a Framework of Integrative and Creative Capabilities Shad S. Morris Scott A. Snell Patrick M. Wright Working Paper 05 – 16 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 A Resource-Based View Of International Human Resources: Toward A Framework of Integrative and Creative Capabilities Shad S. Morris Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations 393 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-7622 [email  protected] edu Scott A. Snell Cornell University Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) 393 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-4112 scott. [email  protected] edu Patrick M. Wright Cornell University Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) 393 Ives Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3429 [email  protected] edu http://www. ilr. cornell. edu/cahrs This paper has not undergone formal review or approval of the faculty of the ILR School. It is intended to make results of Center research av ailable to others interested in preliminary form to encourage discussion and suggestions. Most (if not all) of the CAHRS Working Papers are available for reading at the Catherwood Library. For information on what’s available link to the Cornell Library Catalog: http://catalog. library. cornell. edu if you wish. Page 2 International Human Resources Abstract CAHRS WP05-16 Drawing on organizational learning and MNC perspectives, we extend the resourcebased view to address how international human resource management provides sustainable competitive advantage. We develop a framework that emphasizes and extends traditional assumptions of the resource-based view by identifying the learning capabilities necessary for a complex and changing global environment. These capabilities address how MNCs might both create new HR practices in response to local environments and integrate existing HR practices from other parts of the firm (affiliates, regional headquarters, and global headquarters). In an effort to understand the nature of such capabilities, we discuss aspects of human capital, social capital, and organizational capital that might be linked to their development. Page 3 International Human Resources Introduction CAHRS WP05-16 Few will argue against the importance of international human resource management (IHRM) in today’s multinational corporation (MNC). A wide range of issues—that varies from global sourcing and off-shoring to regional trade agreements and labor standards to strategic alliances and innovation—all point to the vital nature of IHRM in today’s global economy. In fact, some observers have suggested that how firms manage their work forces is among the strongest predictors of successful versus unsuccessful MNCs (cf. , Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1989; Doz & Prahalad, 1986; Hedlund, 1986). Researchers have adopted a number of different theoretical approaches for studying IHRM. Not surprisingly, the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has emerged as perhaps the predominant perspective (Wright, Dunford, and Snell, 2002). RBV is particularly attractive to IHRM researchers in that it focuses directly on the potential value of a firm’s internal asset stocks for conceiving and executing various strategies. This perspective departs from traditional I/O economic models of competitive advantage that focus on the structure of markets as the primary determinant of firm performance (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984). Also in contrast with I/O economic models, the RBV is based on the assumption that resources are (1) distributed heterogeneously across firms and (2) remain imperfectly mobile over time. Because these asset stocks are unequal, there is the potential for comparative advantage. And when the resources are immobile, that advantage may be difficult to appropriate or imitate, thereby conferring a sustainable advantage In the context of MNCs, the premises of resource heterogeneity and immobility have particular relevance. While the RBV typically focuses on resource heterogeneity across firms, MNCs are unique in that they possess heterogeneity within their asset stocks as well. Because they operate in multiple environments, MNCs are likely to possess variations in both their people and practices that reflect local requirements, laws, and cultures. This variation is a potential source of advantage at a local level, and can provide a global advantage to the MNC as a whole if the knowledge, skills, and capabilities can be leveraged appropriately. Page 4 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 However, while heterogeneous resources are potentially immobile across firms, they may also be immobile within firms (MNCs). Given that scholars have consistently noted the difficulties of integrating people and practices within MNCs (e. g. , Szulanski, 1996; McWilliams, Van Fleet, & Wright, 2001), the challenge of integration remains one of the more perplexing organizational and strategic issues. It is therefore somewhat surprising that IHRM researchers have not addressed this issue more directly. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize the literature on RBV and IHRM by addressing the ways in which resource heterogeneity and immobility provide potential advantages to MNCs. However, we also hope to extend the RBV in this context by addressing some of the primary challenges of—and capabilities needed to—create resources and integrate them across business units within the MNC. In this sense, we draw upon the knowledge-based view of the firm (KBV) and organizational learning perspectives to look at how practices are created and integrated on a global scale (Grant, 1996; Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997). To organize this discussion, we break the chapter down into three parts: First, we review how the RBV has been applied to IHRM issues to date and discuss the underlying assumptions of this research. Second, we extend the RBV logic to more appropriately deal with issues of practice integration and creation within a globally dynamic environment by turning focus to aspects of learning capabilities. Finally, we discuss the implications for future research and where this extended view of RBV might improve research on a firm’s human resources. IHM, People, Practices, And Competitive Advantage Discussions of IHRM within the RBV framework focus on both the workforce (i. e. , the people) as well as the HR function (i. e. , the structures, policies and practices) (e. g. , Evans, Pucik, & Basoux, 2002; Fey & Bjorkman, 2001; MacDuffie, 1995; Schuler, Dowling, & De Cieri, 1993). To have a sustainable competitive advantage a firm must first possess people with different and better skills and knowledge than its competitors or it must possess HR practices that allow for differentiation from competitors. Second, these practices or skills and abilities should not be easy for competitors to duplicate or imitate (Wright, Dunford, & Snell, 2001). Page 5 International Human Resources Managing Global Workforces CAHRS WP05-16 Building on the assumptions of heterogeneity and immobility, scholars systematically stress the strategic contributions of people’s knowledge and skills to the performance of firms and sustained competitive advantage (Boxall, 1996). In fact, Barney (1991) developed a model to show how specific assets can be strategically identified to lead to sustainable competitive advantage. Building on this model, McWilliams, Van Fleet, and Wright (2001) argue that human resources, defined as the entire pool of employees, present a unique source of advantage in comparison to domestic labor pools in terms of value, rarity, inimitability, and nonsubstitutability (VRIN). Given the VRIN framework, McWilliams et al. (2001) argued that firms can benefit from a global workforce in two ways: (1) capitalizing on the global labor pools, and (2) exploiting the cultural synergies of a diverse workforce. First, global (heterogeneous) labor pools potentially provide superior human capital. This is because firms can draw from different labor pools to match the different needs of the firm (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1989). For example, some labor pools may have workers who, on average, have higher cognitive ability or have had greater access to education and training. An MNC could potentially draw from the highest quality labor pools for those functions that require high cognitive ability and education and training (McWilliams et al. , 2001). Second, the use of heterogeneous labor pools potentially increases the quality of global business decision making. When an MNC draws from its multiple labor pools it has the potential to a build diverse and flexible cadre of managers that are better able to bring different perspectives to a decision than a management group based solely from the parent country (Ricks, 1993). That diversity also enables management to be flexible in applying their skills throughout the different parts of the firm. Wright and Snell (1998) discussed theses advantages in terms of resource flexibility and coordination flexibility. While McWilliams et al. (2001) highlighted the benefits of human resource heterogeneity and immobility; they also point out the difficulty in transferring and integrating these resources Page 6 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 within the MNC. Drawing on Szulanski’s (1996) concept of stickiness, they note that the exchanges are made more difficult by â€Å"the lack of absorptive capacity of the recipient, causal ambiguity, and an arduous relationship between the source and the recipient† (Szulanski, 1996: 36). Yet, little research exists discussing how internal stickiness can be overcome in order to maximize the benefits of a global workforce while overcoming the challenges of integration and coordination. Managing Global HR Functions Placing people as the source of sustainable competitive advantage moves us to the dilemma of how best to manage their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Within the RBV literature, issues of resource heterogeneity and immobility underlie the inevitable tension between local responsiveness and global integration in MNCs (cf. Bae & Lawler, 2000; Brewster, 1999; Fey & Bjorkman, 2001; Sparrow, Schuler & Jackson, 1994). Local responsiveness and the value derived from customization implies variation—i. e. , heterogeneity—within the MNC. Global efficiency, on the other hand, requires integration across business units. However, given the assumption of resource immobility, this integration is not always easy to achieve. Schuler et al. (1993) captured the e ssence of these tradeoffs by highlighting the relationships between internal operations and interunit linkages. From the standpoint of internal operations, each overseas affiliate must operate as effectively as possible relative to the competitive strategy of the MNC. This means that these affiliates can offer advantages to the MNC by recognizing and developing HR practices that are appropriate for their local markets, employment laws, cultural traditions, and the like. While internal operations at the local level are important, the MNC must also establish interunit linkages to gain efficiencies of scale and scope across several different countries. This suggests that while overseas affiliates can generate advantages locally, there are also substantial advantages that can be gained globally through integrated HR practices. Each is important, but each carries with it a different set of organizational requirements. These requirements point directly to issues relevant for HRM. Page 7 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 Extending these ideas, Taylor, Beechler, and Napier (1996) describe how MNCs might develop a more integrative approach to HRM. The objective of this strategy is to share best practices from all parts of the firm (not just corporate) to create a worldwide system. While there are allowances for local differentiation, the focus is on substantial global integration. Differentiation provides both the potential for local response and customization, as well as the variety of ideas and practices needed for innovation at the global level. However, integration through coordination, communication, and learning is not always easily achieved in this context. Ironically, the very characteristics that provide resource-based advantage at the local level actually complicate integration at the global level. The ability of firms to gain efficiencies of scope and scale at a global level is made more difficult by resource heterogeneity, and this challenge is exacerbated by resource immobility. The challenge then for the transnational firm is to identify how firms can preserve variety (and local customization) while simultaneously establishing a foundation for integration and efficiency. As mentioned by McWilliams et al. (2001) very few scholars have addressed the â€Å"stickiness† issue involved in balancing the global and local tension. Taylor et al. 1996) allude to such integration difficulties when they note: â€Å"The reason firms move toward an exportive rather than an integrative SIHRM orientation†¦is that the mechanism to identify and transfer the best HRM practices in their overseas affiliates are not in place. Such mechanisms as having regional or global meetings of affiliate HR directors, transferring HRM materials (e. g. , performance appraisal forms to affiliates) or posting of the HR director of the affiliates to the HQs of the firm were not developed†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p. 972). These same capability issues are raised by McWilliams et al. 2001) when they discuss the major causes of internal stickiness being lack of absorptive capacity, causal ambiguity, and arduous relationships between the source and recipient. In both examples, barriers to global practice integration are raised and discussed, but not resolved. This issue is addressed more fully below. Page 8 International Human Resources IHM And Capabilities CAHRS WP05-16 Given the importance—and difficulty—of integrating human resources at a global level, while preserving the uniqueness and heterogeneity at the local level, it seems reasonable to discuss these issues in the context of competitive capabilities. Based on the knowledge based view (KBV) of firms, that emphasizes the need to acquire and integrate knowledge, we suggest two such capabilities (see Figure 1). First, knowledge integration capability refers to a firm’s ability to transfer and coordinate human resources across affiliates in a way that utilizes economies of scale and scope while allowing and promoting responsiveness to the local environment. Second, knowledge creation capability refers to a firms’ ability to create new and potentially innovative practices at the local level. Figure 1 IHRM: People, Practices, and Capabilities Focus Theories RBV: Focus on individual resources of knowledge, skills, and abilities RBV and Competencies: Focus on combined resources of HR practices Strategic Question Workforce: What are the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are heterogeneous and immobile? HR Practices and Systems: What are the HR practices and systems that are heterogeneous and immobile? Learning Capabilities: How can HR practices and systems be created and integrated to preserve heterogeneity and immobility? Sources McWilliams, Van Fleet, & Wright, 2001 People Practices Taylor, Beechler, & Napier, 1996 KBV and Organizational Capabilities: Capabilities Focus on learning processes and capabilities Chadwick & Cappelli, 1999 Knowledge Integration Capability Ironically, while learning capability is one of the key dimensions of the Bartlett and Ghoshal (1989) framework of transnational organizations, most IHRM researchers have made only passing mention of how firms share and integrate best practice within the MNC. Snell, Youndt, and Wright (1996) argued that, particularly in dynamic environments, organizational learning may be the only way to ensure that resources sustain their value and uniqueness over Page 9 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 time. In essence, the capability to integrate HR practices better than competitors may be a key source of sustainable competitive advantage (cf. , Kogut & Zander, 1992). In the sections below, we frame the key factors underlying knowledge integration capability in terms of organizational capital, social capital, and human capital. Organizational Capital. Youndt, Subramaniam, and Snell (2004) define organizational capital as the institutionalized knowledge and codified experiences residing within an organization. Artifacts of organizational capital include an organization’s reliance on manuals and databases to preserve knowledge, along with the establishment of structures, processes, and routines that encourage repeated use of this knowledge (Hansen, Hohria, & Tierney, 1999). As an integration mechanism, organizational capital allows the firm to preserve knowledge as incoming employees replace those leaving. An example of such an artifact might be a â€Å"lessons learned† database to ensure that lessons learned by one group can be made accessible for all groups. Based on MNC research, in order to improve the integration of knowledge within an MNC relative to the speed of its diffusion or imitation by competitors, firms invest in ways to make knowledge explicit by encoding its use and replicating it in rules and documentation (Kogut & Zander, 1993). Other forms of organizational capital are likely to represent detailed, company-wide routines on how new HR practices should be integrated by all affiliates. These routines may detail how practices should be shared to reduce the variance and time it takes to implement each new approach, and thereby, improve the overall efficiency of knowledge integration (March, 1991). Similarly, organizations typically implement information systems to provide affiliates with a common platform for HR processes and practices (Snell, Stueber & Lepak, 2002). These systems, processes, and routines ensure that: (1) practices are implemented routinely through established data collection procedures and (2) practices are rapidly disseminated throughout the entire MNC with minimal costs (Daft & Weick, 1984). In terms of integration capability, then, organizational capital provides a basis for sharing and Page 10 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 institutionalizing knowledge across affiliates. However, it may work against efforts to preserve heterogeneity at the sub-unit level. Social Capital. Social capital—defined as the knowledge embedded within social networks—also plays a potentially valuable role in the integration capability of MNCs (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 1998). For example, Szulanski (1995) found that one of the biggest obstacles to transfer knowledge in MNCs is the poor relationship between sources and recipients of information. Along this line, Ghoshal and Bartlett (1989) empirically showed that knowledge sharing and integration could not occur without the existence of strong social connections. The importance of social capital for integration capability is found in research by Kostova and Roth (2002), who concluded that successful practice adoption is largely dependent upon relationships based on trust and shared identity. Trust provides the motive to interact with others, while shared identity provides an overlapping understanding of what is important to share. Both of these elements of social capital would seem vital for integration capability. And importantly, neither of them would de facto require the loss of local autonomy. Human Capital. While organizational and social capital are both potentially important resources underlying a firm’s integration capability, Teece (1977) argued that one of the principle obstacles to transfer and integration is lack of prior experience and knowledge (i. e. , human capital). Research by Szulanski (1996) and Tsai (2002), for example, has shown that knowledge sharing and integration is facilitated when respective parties have the absorptive capacity or prior experience to understand related ideas (Szulansk, 1996; Tsai, 2002). In the context of MNCs, Haas (2004) showed that groups with large amounts of international experience are more likely to integrate knowledge from other parts of the organization than those that do not. Similarly, Gregersen and Black (1992) found that not only is international experience important for integration, but when it is coupled with experience in corporate headquarters affiliates are more likely to maintain allegiance to the overall goals of the firm. These international and corporate skills and knowledge are often gained through transfers and rotational assignments that enable the HR function to develop a more complex Page 11 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 and global orientation. This provides them with the ability to more systematically manage the integration process (Kedia & Bhagat, 1988). Such forms of human capital can also correct any tendency of HR subunits to assume that the situation in the host country is unique; thus avoiding the not-invented-here syndrome. The upshot of this discussion s is that a firm’s integration capability likely depends on a combination of human, social, and organizational capital. Social and organizational capital are alternative—and potentially complementary—resources for knowledge and practice sharing. Human capital, in turn, is important for absorbing or acquiring that knowledge. As firms develop the capability to integrate existing practices they potentially can achieve economies of scale and scope through HRM. And when these integrative mechanisms preserve resource heterogeneity at a local level, it may lead to a more rapid response to a global environment and greater potential for competitive advantage. Figure 2 Capabilities: Creative and Integrative Focus Market Assumption Value Proposition Sources Integrative Capabilities Stable Market: Resources must be combined and integrated to maintain an advantage Combining resources in ways that others cannot copy creates benefits arising from scarcity Taylor, Beechler, & Napier, 1996; McWilliams, Van Fleet, & Wright, 2001 Creative Capabilities Dynamic Market: Resources must be reconfigured and created to maintain an advantage Developing new resources that competitors don’t yet have creates benefits arising from innovation Chadwick & Cappelli, 1999; Snell, Youndt, and Wright; 1996 Page 12 International Human Resources Knowledge Creation Capability CAHRS WP05-16 In the context of organizational learning and the KBV, it is important to distinguish knowledge integration capability from knowledge creation capability. Just because a firm is able to integrate practices across affiliates does not mean that it will be able to create new practices as well (See Figure 2). Creation capabilities allow the MNC to develop new practices that lead to resource heterogeneity in the first place. While few HRM researchers have mentioned the importance of integration mechanisms, fewer still have discussed the importance of creation mechanisms that renew a firm’s stock of HR practices. This is despite the fact that as firms continually integrate practices, it is imperative that new practices are created and developed that allows for innovation and continuous improvement in a changing environment. Therefore, in global environments characterized by rapid change and increasing competition, static concepts of heterogeneity may no longer be sufficient to explain (and sustain) a competitive advantage. An ongoing debate in strategy is whether any static view of resources can really explain a competitive advantage that is sustainable over time (Lippman & Rumelt, 1982). For example, Grant (1996) argues that idiosyncratic advantages naturally erode over time. This debate is especially relevant in the global environment where what might create a competitive advantage at one point in time or in one location, may not at another point in time or location. Hence, it is vital that MNCs develop the capability to create and renew HR practices in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Ghoshal & Bartlett (1988) stated that MNCs â€Å"create† new products, practices, or systems locally, using specific mechanisms to respond to local circumstances. Creating local HR practices lies at the heart of an MNC’s capability to be responsive to the unique and changing opportunities of different environments. Below, we discuss how human capital, social capital, and organizational capital might influence the knowledge creation capability of new HR practices. (See Figure 3 for an overview of mechanisms that influence knowledge integration and creation capabilities). Page 13 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 Figure 3 Capabilities: Human Capital, Social Capital, Organizational Capital Human Capital Social Capital Organizational Capital Creative Capability †¢In-depth local experience †¢International experience outside of corporate †¢Broad internal network range †¢Broad external network range †¢Local Market Relationships †¢Localized routines †¢Creative processes and systems †¢Norms of informality †¢Overarching principles or guidelines Increasing Influence on Creative Capability Integrative Capability Increasing Influence on Integrative Capability †¢Absorptive capacity †¢International and corporate experience †¢Internal Social connections †¢Shared perceptions and identity †¢Internal Trust †¢Company-wide rules and routines †¢Corporate culture of sharing †¢Interactive technologies †¢Data collection system Human Capital. The knowledge and experience—i. e. , human capital—of the people within the HR function is a key factor in new HR practice creation—whether of new practice ideas, or of improvements in the practices (Lepak & Snell, 1999). For example, HR functions possessing large amounts of local knowledge and experience should be able to effectively create practices on their own in response to the various, changing environments. This localized experience helps them to understand the needs of local clients and suppliers, which allows them to develop practices that are unique to each region or country, and hence, heterogeneous across the firm. Page 14 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 International experiences are also important for creating new HR practices. For example, because international experience is often highly valued in MNCs (e. g. , Mendenhall & Stahl, 2000), people with international skills and knowledge are more likely to be seen by others as being confident and willing to share divergent opinions and advocate for their own position (Stasser, Stewart, & Wittenbaum, 1995). Moreover, Gregersen & Black (1992) showed that people with strong experience in many international settings and limited experience in corporate are more likely to make changes based on local demands rather than pressures from central parts of the firm. This is most likely due to the people’s array of international experiences that have detached them from an allegiance with the company as a whole. Social Capital. Specific aspects of social capital have been argued to play a role in knowledge creation. For example, while Hansen (2002) argued that social networks provide an important conduit for the sharing of knowledge, he also argued that such networks play a role in knowledge creation because they inform network members about the existence, location, and significance of new knowledge. Burt (1982) found that networks comprising a broader range of contacts will have a more heterogeneous base of information and knowledge to draw from. While such wide networks may not always facilitate a deep flow of knowledge, they offer different reference points for HR members to make comparisons and explore new ideas. A firm’s ability to find new opportunities is likely to be a function of multiple local contacts. HR affiliates often have critical links with local vendors and, perhaps, competing HR groups that allow them to pursue local opportunities (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1989; Hedlund, 1986). Birkinshaw (1997) refers to these as relationships within the ‘local market’. Within the local market an affiliate is likely to be embedded in different types of relationships (Ghoshal & Bartlett, 1990; Ghoshal & Nohria, 1989). McEvily and Zaheer (1999) argue that because each part of the MNC maintains different local patterns of network linkages, they are exposed to new knowledge, ideas, and opportunities. Organizational Capital. In many cases, organizational capital may actually hinder knowledge creation capability. The formalized processes, systems, structures, etc. ave a Page 15 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 tendency to reinforce existing routines and obviate against variation and change that engender creativity. However, in some instances, organizational capital may facilitate flexibility in the course of actions that allow a firm to attend to environmental cues. This is especially true when employees are encouraged to take action that supersede compan y-wide, standardized routines in favor of localized response that allows knowledge assimilation from the local environment (Daft & Weick, 1984). For example, parts of the firm may develop creative processes and systems to identify problems, develop hypotheses, communicate ideas to others, and contradict what would normally be expected (Torrence, 1988). Grant (1996) argued that such creative routines and processes offer an efficient framework for people to create new, situation-specific practices by utilizing local perspectives in developing practices for the firm. Though potentially problematic for the integrative capability, localized routines and creative processes help affiliates relate better with local vendors, clients, and competitors by providing a set of expectations and processes that encourage HR groups to turn to the surrounding environment. For example, an HR affiliate may have developed a simple manual or informal norm of what to do when developing a new practice. Such a routine is likely to leave many gaps in exact steps to follow, but provide an overview or value to help the HR group be innovative. This simple routine allows the local HR group to assimilate knowledge more quickly from its employees and develop practices to meet their needs. In summary, these aspects of human capital, social capital, and organizational capital help us identify how the knowledge integration and creation capabilities might occur within an MNC. Some of these forms of capital are more useful depending upon the capability it is supporting, and ironically, some of these mechanisms that influence integration might actually hinder knowledge creation and vice versa. For example, firms heavy in local knowledge and experiences and weak in international experiences might have a negative affect on a firm’s ability to integrate practices across the various parts of the firm. Such strong human capital is likely to promote the not-invented-here syndrome through the affiliate’s strong belief and experience base dealing exclusively with the local environment. Similarly, rigid forms of Page 16 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 organizational capital, in terms of standardized routines and shared electronic databases, might deter the various parts of HR to develop and create practices on their own. This could largely stem from the fact that so much structure and support for integration is in place that HR groups fail to find time to bring about new practices or adapt existing practices to the local environment. Implications For Research And Theory The unique complexities and challenges faced by today’s global firms present different implications for the RBV and its application to strategic IHRM. For example, because a large amount of the international management literature focuses on variances in cultural, geographical, and institutional pressures; the implications for applying the RBV become more complex. As MNCs struggle to create and integrate their practices across borders, they are faced with unique challenges that either push for global efficiency or local responsiveness. These challenges open the discussion for ways to actually manage both the creation and integration of knowledge on a global scale. This means that the questions typically asked by strategic IHRM scholars (e. g. , HR practices and performance) should be augmented with questions of how HR practices are created and integrated in ways that lead toward resource heterogeneity and immobility. To create a sustainable competitive advantage firms must not only be able to respond to their local environments or standardize their practices across the firm. They must be able to balance a tension of practice heterogeneity through local practice creation and immobility of those practices through their integration across the firm. One theoretical implication of this discussion calls for a greater understanding of the rents found through the creation and integration of HR practices. As Chadwick and Dabu (2004) explain, a marriage of rent concepts with theories of the firm (i. e. RBV) is essential to describing firm’s competitive advantages and particularly in understanding how actors within firms can take conscious steps to toward a sustainable competitive advantage. The current strategic IHRM literature strongly alludes to the importance of integration and being able to Page 17 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 organize heterogeneous resources in a way that is diff icult for competitors to imitate. The assumption here is that heterogeneity and immobility of resources creates greater performance or rents arising from scarcity—Ricardian rents (cf. , Carpenter, Sanders, Gregersen, 2001). In essence, Ricardian rents can be rooted in the cross-border integration of various HR practices. The integration of such practices not only assures that some of them will be unique to the firm, but that they will be difficult for others to imitate—making them scarce in the market. The advantages that come from constant creation of HR practices operates under a different principle than traditional resources leading to Ricardian rents. Rather than rents arising from scarcity, the creation capability perspective emphasizes rents arising from market discontinuities—Schumpeterian rents (cf. Carpenter et al. , 2001). Schumpeterian rents derive from a firm’s ability to exploit or leverage resources to address changing environments (Teece et al. , 1997; Amit & Schoemaker, 1993). Based on Schumpeterian rents, a focus on the continuous creation of resources can enable a firm to achieve competitive advantage on a sustainable basis by developing new practices that lead to practice heterogeneity across a complex and ambiguous global network. Hence, as mentioned by Lado and Wilson (1994) and Teece et al. 1997), turning to these dynamic capabilities as an extended approach to the RBV offers a closer understanding of the actual sources of competitive advantage in a changing global environment. While we discuss the main mechanisms driving knowledge creation and integration (Grant, 1996), aspects of integration tend to focus on a broad array of learning processes, including knowledge sharing, transfer, codification, adoption, and/or institutionalization. Further research should look at how different aspects of the integration process might be influenced by specific human, social, and organizational capital mechanisms. For example, Hansen and Haas (2001) showed that many firms have little difficulty in sharing knowledge across various units of the firm, but that the actual application or institutionalization of this knowledge is a completely different matter. While other scholars such as Kogut and Zander (1992) and Schulz (2001) have theoretically separated integration to include transfer and integration (or combination), very Page 18 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 little practical research has been done on what factors might influence the transfer and what factors might influence the integration of knowledge. Clearly, there must be differences since research such as Hansen and Haas’ (2001) notice the disparity in knowledge that is shared and knowledge that is actually applied. Also, while the ideas presented in this chapter are rooted in theory, empirical research is needed to determine the impact of human, social,, and organizational capital on knowledge creation and integration capabilities. While theory suggests that aspects of all three of these factors will influence both capabilities, it is most probable that aspects of human capital will more strongly influence the creative capability. This is largely due to the fact that people and their knowledge and skills are what allows the different HR affiliates the ability to develop local practices on their own, without interference or supervision from regional or corporate headquarters. Similarly, social and organizational capital should have their strongest influences on the integrative capability. This is due, in part, to the conduits and repositories created from aspects of social capital and organizational capital, respectively. In fact, as we mentioned earlier, some aspects of organizational capital might have a negative effect on the firm’s ability to create new practices (knowledge), while some aspects of human capital may have a negative effect on the firm’s ability to integrate those practices across affiliates. Conclusion The purpose of this chapter has been to summarize the literature on RBV and IHRM in multinational firms by addressing the ways in which resource heterogeneity and immobility provide potential advantages to MNCs. However, we have also attempted to extend the RBV in this context by addressing some of the primary challenges of—and capabilities needed to— integrate resources across business units within the MNC. The solution frequently used by firms has been to standardize HR practices and policies at a global level, but this solves the integration problem while destroying the advantages of local Page 19 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 variety. The challenge as we see it is identifying how firms can preserve variety (and local customization) while simultaneously establishing a foundation for integration and efficiency. The ability for HR managers to balance this tension lies in the development of capabilities to create and integrate practices across the global HR function. We extended traditional views of RBV to include aspects of practice integration and creation. Such capabilities allow firms to constantly renew their HR practices in a way that allows them to respond to multiple external pressures while being coordinated and integrated to ensure that these practices drive the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage. Page 20 International Human Resources References CAHRS WP05-16 Amit, R. , & Schoemaker, P. J. H. 993. Strategic assets and organizational rent. Strategic Management Journal, 14: 33-46. Bae, J. , & Lawler, J. J. 2000. Organizational and HRM strategies in Korea: Impact on firm performance in an emerging economy. Academy of Management Journal, 43: 502-517. Barney, J. B. 1991. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17: 99-120. Barney, J. B. , & Hoskisson, R. 1989. Strategic groups: Untested assertions and research proposals. Managerial and Decision Economics, 11: 187-198. Bartlett C. A. , & Ghoshal, S. 1989. Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution. Hutchinson Business Books. Birkinshaw, J. 1997. Entrepreneurship in multinational corporations: The characteristics of subsidiary initiatives. Strategic Management Journal, 18: 207-229. Boxall, P. 1996. The strategic HRM debate and the resource-based view of the firm. Human Resource Management Journal, 6: 59-75. Burt, R. S. 1982. Toward a structural theory of action. New York: Academic Press. Carpenter, M. , Sanders, Wm. G. , & Gregersen, H. B. 2001. Bundling human capital with organizational context: The impact of international assignment experience on multinational firm performance and CEO pay. Academy of Management Journal, 44: 493-511. Chadwick, C. , & Cappelli, P. 1999. Alternatives to generic strategy typologies in strategic human resource management. In L. D. Dyer, P. M. Wright, J. W. Boudreau, and G. T. Milkovich’s (eds. ) Strategic Human Resource Management in the Twenty-First Century. Stamford, CT: JAI Press. Chadwick, C. , & Dabu, A. 2004. Rent theories, human assets, human resource management, and competitive advantage. Working Papar. Daft, R. L. , & Weick, K. E. 1984. Toward a model of organizations as interpretation systems. Academy of Management Review, 9: 284-295. Doz, Y. & Prahalad, C. K. 1986. Controlled variety: A challenge for human resource management in the MNC. Human Resource Management, 25: 55-72. Evans, P. A. L. , & Doz, Y. 1992. Dualities: A paradigm for human resource and organizational development in complex multinationals. In V. Pucik, N. M. Tichy, & C. K. Barnett’s (eds. ) Globalizing Management: Creating and Leading the Competitive Organization. New York: Wiley. Evan, P. , Pucik, V. , & Barsoux, J-L. 2002. The global challenge: Frameworks for international human resource management. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Fey, C. F. , & Bjorkman, I. 2001. The effect of human resource management practices on MNC subsidiary performance in Russia. Journal of International Business Studies, 32: 59-75. Page 21 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 Ghoshal, S. , & Bartlett, C. A. 1988. Creation, adoption, and diffusion of innovation by subsidiaries of multinational corporations. Journal of International Business Studies, 19: 365388. Ghoshal, S. , & Bartlett, C. A. 1990. The multinational corporation as an interorganizational network. Academy of Management Review, 15: 603-625. Grant, R. M. 1996. Toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17(S2): 109-122. Gregersen, H. B. , & Black, J. S. 1992. Antecedents to commitment to a parent company and a foreign operation. Academy of Management Journal, 35: 65-91. Haas, M. R. 2004. Cosmopolitans and locals: Knowledge gathering and project quality in international teams. Working Paper. Hansen, M. T. 2002. Knowledge networks: Explaining effective knowledge sharing in multiunit companies. Organization Science, 13: 290-302. Hansen, M. T. , & Haas, M. R. 2001. Compteting for attention in knowledge markets: Electronic document dissemination in a management consulting company. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46: 1-28. Hedlund, G. 1986. The hypermodern MNC: A heterarchy? Human Resource Management, 25: 9-35. Kogut, B. , & Zander, U. 1992. Knowledge of the firm, combination capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organization Science, 7: 502-518. Kogut, B. , & Zander, U. 1993. Knowledge of the firm and the evolutionary theory of the multinational corporation. Journal of International Business Studies, 24: 625-645. Kostova, T. , & Roth, K. 2002. Adoption of an organizational practice by subsidiaries of multinational corporations: Institutional and relational effects. Academy of Management Journal, 45: 215-233. Lado, A. A. , & Wilson, M. C. 1994. Human resource systems and sustained competitive advantage: A competency-based perspective. Academy of Management Review, 19: 699-727. Lepak, D. P. , & Snell, S. A. 1999. The human resource architecture: Toward a theory of human capital allocation and development. Academy of Management Review, 24: 31-48. Lippman, S. , & Rumelt, R. 1982. Uncertain imitability: An analysis of interfirm differences in efficiency under competition. Bell Journal of Economics, 13: 418-438. MacDuffie, J. P. 1995. Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance: Organizational logic and flexible production systems in the world auto industry. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 48: 197-221. March, J. G. 1991. Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science, 2: 71-87. Page 22 International Human Resources CAHRS WP05-16 McEvily, B. , & Zaheer, A. 1999. Bridging ties: A source of firm heterogeneity in competitive capabilities. Strategic Management Journal, 20: 1133-1145. McWilliams, A. , Van Fleet, D. D. , & Wright, P. M. 2001. Strategic management of human resources for global competitive advantage. Journal of Business Strategies, 18: 1-23. Mendenhall, M. E. , & Stahl, G. K. 2000. Expatriate training and development: Where do we go from here? Human Resource Management, 39: 251-266. Nahapiet, J. , & Ghoshal, S. 1998. Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23: 242-266. Ricks, D. 1993. Blunders in international business. Cambridge: Blackwell Business. Schuler, R. S. , Dowling, P. J. , & DeCieri, H. 1993. An integrative framework of strategic international human resource management. Journal of Management, 19: 419-460. Schulz, M. 2001. The uncertain relevance of newness: Organizational learning and knowledge flows. Academy of Management Journal, 44: 661-681. Snell, S. A. , Snow, C. C. , Canney Davison, S. & Hambrick, D. C. 1998. Designing and supporting transnational teams: The human resource agenda. Human Resource Management, 37(2): 147-158. Snell, S. A. , Stueber, D. & Lepak, D. P. 2002. Virtual HR departments: Getting out of the middle. In R. L. Heneman and D. B. Greenberger (eds. ) Human resource management in virtual organizations, Information Age Publishing. Snell, S. A. , Youndt, M. A. & Wright, P. M. 1996. Establishing a framework for research in strategic human resource management: Merging resource theory and organizational learning. Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management, 14: 61-90. Sparrow, P. , Schuler, R. S. , & Jackson, S. E. 1994. Convergence or divergence: Human resource practices and policies for competitive advantage worldwide. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5: 267-299. Stasser, G. , Stewart, D. D. , & Wittenbaum, G. M. 1995. Export roles and information exchange during discussion: The importance of knowing who knows what. 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Poverty in American Cities - Essay Example During the late nineteenth century, white Democrats in the urban areas had established legal infrastructures that were not favorable for industrial development and business ventures, especially by the private sector. The banking industry was still at its infancy, while credit facilities and services had not taken foot. Significance of the nineteenth century poverty in American cities The late nineteenth century poverty in the cities was significant, because it would define the long-standing policies that various urban planners were to set up to mitigate the problem or any recurrence in future; these include housing projects, sanitation, sewers, garbage dumps and structured construction of buildings in the urban areas. Meanwhile, Tardanico (2008) indicates the towns concentrated more on agricultural businesses. Additionally, the period witnessed a high population influx in the urban areas, following the industrialization efforts. Law-making bodies were opposed to business and the buil ding of a contemporary society. For instance, Alabama upheld a seven decade refusal to engage in redistrict measures, long after it had experienced major demographic transformations and economic drifts to towns. For a long period of time Birmingham city generated the bulk of the state’s revenue, but received a meager infrastructural development and services, thus leading to poverty (Lassonde, 1996). In the sunset years of nineteenth century, Texas swiftly increased its railroad coverage, building a link of major urban areas through a radial program and extended to the Galveston harbor (Riis, 2011). According to Bolland et al (2007), in an effort to improve the industrial sector was met with apparent job boycotts and labor instability among the town residents, who took home peanuts, despite their heavy toil. In 1885 Texas was among the top ten of the 40 states in which employee unrest took the toll on major industries in the town; within half a decade, it occupied the fifteent h position. More than 70 percent of labor unrest cases, mainly interstate instabilities such as telegraph workers and railway employees, took place in 1886. By 1890 Dallas developed to the biggest township in Texas (Bolland et al, 2007). The 1900 witnessed the town having a population exceeding 42,000; but by 1910, the population had immensely increased to 92,000 (Tardanico, 2008). Dallas transformed into world’s harness-making centre and a region of other manufacturing industries. As an illustration of the town’s ambitions, in late 1800s, Dallas set up the Praetorian Building, a fifteen storey edifice, the tallest on the western side of the Mississippi. Subsequently, others were soon built. Texas was completely changed by a rail transport line network connecting five significant cities, including Houston and Galveston, a nearby harbor; others include Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso, and Fort Worth. It is notable that each experienced a remarkable increase in population w ith more than 50,000 within less than two decades (Riis, 2011). In the five decades from 1870, the population of Americans residing in the country’s major towns increased to 54 million, up five times. Into the late nineteenth century, American townships developed in terms of demographics and extended in area by encompassing nearby villages. For instance, New York City consumed Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens, regions that appeared as politically carved

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Personal Investment in the UK Is It Science or Matter of Good Fortune - Essay Example In United Kingdom people tend to invest or conduct their personal savings through the use of different tools like investing in mortgage funds, investing on pension or other insurance related funds, depositing money in banks or in securities issued by different financial institutions. Further people also tend to invest their money in many asset related or commercial funds apart from investing in agricultural and national savings deposits. The major part of the personal savings owes to funds related to pension and insurance other than mortgage or housing properties (Banks and Blundell, 1994, p.67). Types of Personal Investment in United Kingdom and Popularity of UseIn United Kingdom the aspect of personal savings and investment gains attention in regards to categories like pension funds and other insurance related sectors. However other than the pension and insurance related funds the personal investment activities of the people also centre on deposits made in banks. Investment is agai n made by the people in funds created for the housing societies. Moreover other than the listed areas the people also tend to invest largely in sectors such as shares and dividend mainly equity based issued by registered companies operating in United Kingdom. In other types of personal investment practices the people also tend to invest largely in different types of asset funds bearing interest gains and in other savings fund issued by the national government.

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Topic Clinical Reflection on competency - Essay Example I was approaching the patient with an intention that I would assess the patient's condition, and if necessary, following assessment I would provide her some analgesic medication. The staff nurse told me not to give any more pain medication, "she had had enough." It was very evident that there was difference of opinion between me and the staff nurse. From my academic learning, I knew that pain assessment is an important parameter of nursing care, and accurate assessment patient's pain status is important. Current evidence suggests that pain assessment and rating of pain would guide adequacy of pain medication. In such cases of differences of opinion, there is a fair chance that nurses' assessment would be guided by personal beliefs. Literature suggests that in many cases clinical decisions are taken by the healthcare professional based on traditional practice which may not have any evidence. This is specially applicable in case of pain management in the clinical setting by the nurses. There is also evidence that nurses are guided by their own beliefs on pain assessment, and in many cases the experienced nurses underestimate the intensity of pain. Pain is regarded as a subjective sensation, and hence there is a high tendency that painful conditions are stigmatised in that high intensity pain is regarded as a ploy to get more pain medication, while nurses feel that the intensity of pain is not worth intervening (Clark et al., 2006). With the background that I will graduate into a registered nurse, it was an opportunity for me to reflect on the situation to examine whether I have enough competencies to deal with such situations. It was an ideal situation where research could be utilised to improve practice so the outcome of care is better leading to better patient satisfaction. I immediately took the opportunity to discuss the scenario with the staff nurse and convinced her that I would look into evidence from studies to decide what we needed to do. There was internet connection available in the unit, and in the available database, I ran a search for relevant literature on the key words "nursing" and "pain management" (Rustoen et al., 2009). Since meta-analyses provide maximal analyses of research, conclusion and discussion of some if these literatures provided the guideline. The basics of the guidelines were that whenever in doubt regarding the adequacy of pain medication, the pain medicine consultation should b e used and adequate dosage of analgesic medications should be decided, while the patient remains under strict monitoring and surveillance for any signs of respiratory depression. I remember, I also told in that discussion that the hospital policy guidelines also indicate this. When I found evidence, I immediately showed the findings from the literature to all staff present there, and highlighted that this would improve the patient outcome (ANMC, 2006), since pain symptoms delays discharge and increases hospital stay. I was a little hesitant in saying this since I was just a student and my experiences were just nominal. However, the strength of the evidence was so compelling that ultimately these findings could be used to change and improve practice. Another concern was that I did not know this patient's history totally, and therefore, there was a fair chance

Qusetions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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The effects of Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 on the accounting profession Research Paper

The effects of Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 on the accounting profession - Research Paper Example Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 was one such measure intended to set standards to guarantee the accuracy of financial reports published by organizations irrespective of big or small. This paper briefly explains the impacts of Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 on accounting profession. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 (SOX) mandates creation of an internal control structure, and assessment of its effectiveness. This control structure involves controls on internal financing reporting and auditing (Bergen, 2005). Many companies have reported that the introduction of SOX and the increased internal control structure was more expensive than anticipated. The external costs have been increased a lot for many companies because of SOX and this increase especially at in a period of recession was too difficult for the companies to handle. At the same time, most of the costs needed to strengthen the internal control were one-time expenses only and the corporate and the investor public would be beneficial from that in the long run. Section 409 of SOX mandates that a company must disclose to the public any information that is of material value that affects the organizations financial condition or operations. This section was a real challenge for the accounting professionals since most of the companies used Excel spreadsheets for keeping much of their financial data and linking these data in a timely manner with the financial reporting systems were too much difficult. The non compatibility of ordinary Excel spreadsheets with the other financial reporting systems forced the companies to change their accounting software to the much advanced and expensive software like SAP and Oracle or to incorporate new technologies such as off the shelf applications and spreadsheet templates with macros to convert data into a format that can be readily integrated into the organization’s financial reporting system (Jyoti, 2005). Earlier some of

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Software Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Software Design - Essay Example The software architecture in place will determine the easiness of change. In as much these â€Å"forgotten problems† are crucial to be addressed, the software development principles have other factors that also need to be addressed. These are the performance, availability, maintainability, security, costs, benefits and schedule. Thus, it is more valuable to achieve a balance rather than focus on only one aspect which in the â€Å"forgotten problems† is the usability factor. The Software architecture is the representation of the software development. It lists all the key modules, their responsibilities, and interactions. It has various representations. It is essential as a good architecture would reduce development time, maintenance costs and improve the quality of product. How does software architecture interact with usability? This can be understood via enumerating all the phases in software development. These are; system formulation, requirement definition, architecture design, detailed design, implementation, system test and deployment. Each of these chapters is critical, and there exist a high level of interactions. The development cycle in place will dictate the level of interactions between these phases. These methodologies are; waterfall cycle, spiral circle, extreme programming and HCI cycle. The feedback mechanisms in these methodologies will show how effective a method is. (Smith & Williams, 2003). The idea is to come up with an architectural pattern that best achieves usability factors. Various patterns can be applied. The Model view controller displays the module responsibilities and their interactions. A good model view controller shows productive interactions. It hides the unwanted aspects of the user interface from the remainder of the application. It provides a means of buffering changes in the user interface from the remainder of the application. It localizes the â€Å"screen-deep† changes to either the

Corporate Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Corporate Strategy - Essay Example These strategies are very workable for any company in need of expansion to adopt. The intensive strategy used by an organization can improve its market share and the revenue benefits it acquires. It is a strategy of aggregation and strategy where benefits come through expansion of the business. The business can expand its product’s range and market with the view of deeper market penetration. Market development for a business means introducing a new product in the market to achieve an increased profit margin. It also aims at reducing the total cost of produce but increase the average cost of the output (Lamb, 2011:453). Market development of a company makes a company enjoy the economies of scale and a diverse spread of the business risks. However, market development is different from product development but is more often than not confused. Product development helps the current product achieve more revenue under a new strategy. A business may improve its products that are presen tly in the market or replace it with a new product. For example, the Toyota Company always seeks for new technology to increase its vehicle fuel efficiency hence making it to be more competitive than others do. Therefore, the Toyota Company gains more sales by selling the hybrid vehicles that help reduce pollution to the environment as well (Mullins, Walker and Boyd, 2010:45). Integration strategies can be forward either backward, or horizontal. Forward integration is where a firm grows by taking over it functions forward in the chain value previously provided by manufacturers, distributors, or retailers. This takes more control over the final product and distribution strategies. Backward integration means that growth of a company may take functions that were earlier in the chain as provided by suppliers and other organizations. For example, the Toyota may make agreements with suppliers who wish to meet the JIT processing. This is a win-win deal where the company may increase its co ntrol powers over the suppliers and hence increase revenue and profit (Thomas, 2001:276). Horizontal integration is a strategy that seeks the ownership to increase control over the firm’s competitors. This form of integration increases control power of the company over the firm’s competitor and encourage mergers and takeovers by the enhanced transfer of resources and competitiveness (Armstrong and Kotler, 2002:267). Diversification strategy is also another from of cooperate strategy that seeks to increase the profitability of a company through greater sales obtained from new products and new markets. Diversification of the business can be at unit level or at the cooperate level. Diversification can be concentric, conglomerate, or horizontal. Concentric diversification focuses on portfolio creation with business relation. Conglomerate diversification refers to diversification on matters that relate to the current line of business. It aims at improving the profitability and achieving proper marketing. The case study analyses the growth strategies of the of Toyota industry in the era of currency fluctuations and the new needs of the market. The Toyota industry, founded in 1926 by the Sakichi Toyoda, manufactures and sells the automatic looms, which he had invented and perfected. Since then the Toyota Company

A Classification Of Residential Neighbourhoods Essay Example for Free

A Classification Of Residential Neighbourhoods Essay Without customers, any business will fail so before setting up any firm we must be sure that there is sufficient demand on the market to keep the firm running. There are many ways of finding out about potential customers. One of these is to look at how many people there are living in the area of Stockbridge. This is useful because it would be convenient for the residents of that area to often have a quick snack or meal from a fast food restaurant. By using the Census Report of 2003, I have found that approximately 6,954 people live in the area with the postcode beginning with EH4, which is the Stockbridge area. This number of residents gives a promising outlook on the number of local potential customers. Stockbridge is an area near to the main part of Edinburgh so many businessmen will work in the local area so would visit Stockbridge at lunch for a quick meal. I feel those people would be the main type of consumer which the product is aimed at. This is because many of those young professionals want a fast lunch so that they can get back to their busy work and they also will want something healthy because young professionals are known to eat and exercise well to keep in shape. One lunchtime on a working day, I went out to Stockbridge and inspected the number of young people wearing a suit. The results were as expected as a lot of the people I saw were dressed in this way so we can assume they are young professionals. The main target market will, therefore, be young professionals. The ACORN (A Classification Of Residential Neighbourhoods) group performs vast amounts of research into different aspects of area, some of these include attitudes, housing, socio-economic profiles and media aspects. One of the pieces of data stated that the number of microwave purchases was low, this could mean either two things: people eat out often or people do not use the microwave to prepare meals. It also states that eating out is extremely popular in Stockbridge, particularly in the evenings, and all cuisines are popular except English. These two pieces of data are very useful because they show that many people do not eat at home but go out to restaurants. A Subway branch has potential to be one of these restaurants that people go out to eat at. The number of households in the area with two or more cars is rated high by the ACORN profile. This could mean that incomes may be fairly high and couples live together. If there are two cars then each one will probably be for each person in the couple, so at least one person in the relationship will work because they need two cars because they will be doing two different things at the same time. This will mean that there is at least one professional in each household and they will most likely be a young professional because 47. 6% of people in Stockbridge are 20-49 years of age. The socio-economic profile for the area is the population is well educated and there are nearly three times the amounts of professionals in Stockbridge than the national average. Young professionals are the target market for the Subway restaurant so this information is very promising in constructing a customer base. Attitudes are very important in every day life. They can determine what we buy, where we go and what we do. ACORN tells that there is a 60% greater chance of someone being a vegetarian in Stockbridge than the national average. This may be the cause for the low meat consumption in the area. The most popular grocery products are ground coffee, dog food, mineral water, fresh fish and fresh fruit. Subway provides its customers with a range of fresh products and almost all sandwiches bought have salad and other vegetables in them. It seems that people in Stockbridge enjoy fresh foods and do not eat much meat. Because of the customisability of the sandwiches, the customers can choose what they would like on their sandwich so if they do not want meat, it will not be added to their sandwich. Unfortunately, winter holidays are 73% more popular and long holidays are 2. 7 times more popular than the national average so sales may be expected to decrease in the winter and on holiday occasions. Many of the young professionals will not travel though because they will be hard working and want to spend lots of time on their job so may not want to travel far away, such as abroad. Stockbridge is a very affluent area with 3. 5 times more people earning i 40,000 per annum than the national average. This will mean there is more professionals in the area than in other places. Professionals take their jobs very seriously and do not have long lunch breaks so fast service is very important along with the healthy lifestyle the majority of people now lead. Leisure activities are very popular in the area as people are very active. According to ACORN, they do lots of sports so probably live by the attitude of a healthy body is a healthy mind. One part of having a healthy body is the food they eat, eating at Francos (an unhealthy restaurant in Stockbridge) would not be a common option for healthy eaters, instead they would probably prefer a healthy sandwich. The results of my survey indicated that most people questioned in my random sample were between the ages of 20 to 39 as shown in the below distribution graph. These ages are also the type of age which most commonly care about their general health, so it is very promising when these are the sorts of people the target market for the sandwich restaurant would be. Most of the people in the survey turned out to live in the area. Each person who answered that they would visit the restaurant if one were to open in Stockbridge and also said they lived in the area may become regular customers due to the ease of being able to reach the restaurant and they also expressed an interest in visiting the store. Repeat customers are vital to the success of a business and make up most of the total number of sales a business will receive. This market seems to have vast amounts of young professionals in it which are the main target market. The healthy choice Subway provides would well suit the healthy attitude that most of the people of Stockbridge seem to live on so therefore there is a fairly high demand for healthy fast-food but there is no supply. A niche has been found in the market.

Black America Essay Example for Free

Black America Essay I. Introduction A. One significant problem faced among the judicial system is the injustice involving African Americans with sentencing and racial profiling. Not only will the individual and society response be discussed but the expert’s theories and alternative solutions will be included. II. African Americans facing injustice within the judicial system. A. Sentencing for crimes committed compared to other races. 1. Marissa Alexander, a black mother, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after shooting a warning shot to scare her abusive husband. No one was injured in her choice to shoot the warning shoot but Amber Cummings, a 32 year old mother, did not face any jail time for killing her husband who was said to be a white supremacists. 2. Judge Jean Boyd sentenced a young white male, Ethan Couch, after killing 4 individuals while driving drunk, to 10 years of probation and sentence a 14 year old black male to 10 years of prison after punching and killing a man. Ethan Couch prior to the incidents, stole from a store and alcohol level was three times the limit. Neither young men where mentally ill or had justification on the crimes they committed but sentencing was harsher for the young black male. 3. John McNeil, a black father of two, was sentenced to seven years in prison and 13 years of probation in 2005 for murdering a white male that threaten to stab his sons after trespassing on their property while Joe Horn, an elderly white male shot and killed two men that was breaking and entering into his neighbor’s home one night. Horn took it upon himself, even after the 911 operator repeatedly informed him not to interfere in the situation because the cops were on the way, to murder the two men. 2 B. Racial Profiling of African American individuals. 1 Trayvon Martin was a young black teen walking through a neighborhood with a black hoodie and was murdered by George Zimmerman because he believe the young teen was going to commit a crime. George Zimmerman did not serve any jail-time for the murder. 4. African Americans have a higher chance of being stop by police officers when driving and frisking than a White American. Research has found that â€Å"in investigatory stops, a black man age twenty-five or younger has a 28 percent chance of being stopped for an investigatory reason over the course of an year; a similar young white man has 12. 5 percent chance and a similar young white woman has only a 7 percent chance†. (Epp Maynard, 2014, p. 15) 5. African Americans also has a higher chance of being stalked or watched closely in department stores. For example: Barneys, a high-in department store is now under fire for its practices when facing minorities. Two young African Americans have come forward with their issues faced when shopping in Barneys. One young man, Trayon Christian was put in handcuffs after an employee of Barneys called the police to report a fraudulent credit card used by the African American male and later found out the credit card was real. Kayla Philips purchased a 2300. 00 pursed and was later stop by the police upon leaving the store. (Harris, 2013, p. 1) III. Expert’s Opinion on the problem. A. Both David Harris and Randall Kennedy have research and exam research on the topic of racial profiling. 1 David Harris is a law professor at University of Pittsburg School of Law and has found that in 2003, many of the traffic vehicle stops resulted in illegal substances and goods being found by police officers. When Harris calculated the traffic vehicle stops he came across that White Black America vs. the Criminal Justice SystemPage 2 of 8 3 Americans contributed to most of the stops and that â€Å"that racial profiling is a counterproductive law enforcement strategy as well as a controversial one. † (Collica, 2012, chp. 4. 3). 2 Randall Kennedy wrote an article in 2011 title, â€Å"Race and the Administration of Criminal Justice in the United States. In 2006 he research racial profiling in New York City and found that â€Å"55% of African Americans were stopped by the police and that number is twice the representation of Blacks in the local population. † (Collica, 2012, chp. 4. 3) IV. Society response on the problem. A. Citizens are coming together to form rallies for Justice. 1. Ferguson, Missouri citizens have rallied and protest since the death of Michael Brown, a young African American male who was gunned down by a police officer. 2. Many cities, states and countries rallied after the disappointing verdict of the Trayvon Martin case. V. The public policies in place to rectify the problem. A. In May of 2013, Congress put into play the End Racial Profiling Act. 1. This act was set in place to end racial profiling among law enforcement agencies by: Black America vs. the Criminal Justice SystemPage 3 of 8 4 a. â€Å"Grants the United States or an individual injured by racial profiling the right to obtain declaratory or injunctive relief. † (â€Å"End of Racial Profiling,† 2013). b. â€Å"Requires federal law enforcement agencies to maintain adequate policies and procedures to eliminate racial profiling and to cease existing practices that permit racial profiling. † (â€Å"End of Racial Profiling,† 2013) VI. Alternative solutions that can assist with the issue. A. Every police office should have a camera inside of their vehicles or a camera on their bodies at all times. If the rules cannot be followed then the police officer should face disciplinary actions. 1. If the police force use the camera in the car and on themselves at all times this will help minimize police brutality. Police Officers will make sure to use proper force in every situation and will not overuse their power as authority figures. B. If a citizen decides to use deadly force against an individual and that individual is killed, that citizen should face jail time, unless that individual posed a threat to their life or others. 1. Citizens find that they can shoot anyone for anything. Unless this person is trying to cause physical harm to them, citizens should not have the authority to use deadly force against anyone. 2. If someone is in a domestic violence situation and the police is called the individual causing harm should automatically be arrested and charges should be placed on that individual. No more allowing the victim the ability to agree or disagree to these charges. Not only will this allow the abuse to get out of the situation, this will also help with future violence†¦including murder. Black America vs. the Criminal Justice SystemPage 4 of 8 5 C. Police Officers should always use a stun gun or pepper spray whenever they come across an irate individual. 1. Police officers should always use their pepper spray or stun guns when taking down or taking in an unarm individual. Especially if there is more than one officer at the scene of the crime. If someone is resisting arrest use the stun gun or pepper spray to subdue the individual. Let’s stop violence with using more force than necessary. VII. Conclusion A. It has slightly change throughout the years with African American men and women having the right to vote and sit peacefully in a restaurant without being bothered or called names but in all fairness, African American people will always have it hard. Yes, we have an African American president but that does not stop the high numbers of frisking or being stop by the police after purchasing a high dollar amount item because someone believes you could possibly be a thief. Yes, the statistics throughout the years to come might dwindled down but the Black race will be looked down upon and will called criminals because of a few bad apples. The Black race will still continue to be murdered in the streets, unarmed or surrendering with no proper justice because, like the saying, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Black America vs. the Criminal Justice SystemPage 5 of 8 6 References Collica, K. Furst, G. (2012). Crime and Society. San Diego CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. It explains criminology and how society responds to crime. It breaks down crime through age, gender, race, education and living conditions. It shows statistics of crime and types of crime and explains how the statistics are measured. Epp, C. , Maynard-Moody, S. (2014). Driving While Black. Washington Monthly, 46(1/2), 14- 16. Retrieved from http://eds. a. ebscohost. com. proxy- library. ashford. edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? sid=212adf44-d029-44a2-9c35- b2a2e0dc1f07%40sessionmgr4002vid=6hid=4203. This article discussed the statistics involving driving and frisking among all races. It breaks down the measurements through race, age, sex, education and living conditions. It discuss how the African American race will always be prejudice upon. Gabbidon, S. L. , Jordan, K. L. , Penn, E. B. , Higgins, G. E. (2014). Black Supporters of the No-Discrimination Thesis in Criminal Justice: A Portrait of an Understudied Segment of the Black Community. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 25(5), 637. Retrieved from http://cjp. sagepub. com. proxy-library. ashford. edu/content/25/5/637. full. pdf+html This article explains the different methods used to measure the African American response to the criminal justice system. Six hundred African American individuals were surveyed and only 26% believes that the criminal justice system is not prejudice against one race. The measurements are broken down into age, education and living conditions. The older generation of African Americans made up most of the 26 percentage. Harris, D. (2013). Shopping While Black. World News with Diane Sawyer, 1. Retrieved from Black America vs. the Criminal Justice SystemPage 6 of 8 7 http://eds. b. ebscohost. com. proxy-library. ashford. edu/eds/detail/detail? vid=1sid=e32d3682- cdb2-48b8-8a38- a2f84927e979%40sessionmgr198hid=104bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU. %3d#db=bwhAN=91694591 This article not only discussed certain African American individuals views and experience with the high in department store Barney’s but also questions a high profile celebrity on his involvement with the company. They question his beliefs and how he feels about the controversy surrounding the company. Rosich, K. J. (2007). Race, Ethnicity, and the Criminal Justice System. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. Retrieved from http://www. asanet. org/images/press/docs/pdf/ASARaceCrime. pdf This article explains the many statistics and research data performed on racism and race relations issues. Statistics are measured through, race, gender, age, education, employment, living conditions and other factors. S-1038 – End Racial Profiling Act of 2013. (2013). Retrieved October 26, 2014, from https://www. congress. gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/1038? q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B %22end+racial+profiling+act+2014%22%5D%7D This article discuss and explains what the End Racial Profiling Act of 2013 is. This act was introduced in May of 2013 with every action that has taken place with voting, amendments and other act created based off it is documented. Black America vs. the Criminal Justice SystemPage 7 of 8.

Adaptive User Interface Framework: Android Mobile Platform

Adaptive User Interface Framework: Android Mobile Platform Mr. Tulip Das Abstract—Adapting a graphical interface (GUI) to a range of resources with completely different capabilities is exciting topic of mobile computer. The user interface created for an application ought to modification its layout and parts to the user need and changes for every user. We propose a framework for mobile applications to form the user interfaces adaptable for user. This identifies an appropriate expertise level to a user by learning his/her history of interaction. Dynamic App Shortcut is to be provided on Mobile Devices serving to user to swipe the screen many times to search out the required app. The prediction model utilizes multiple options together with recency, frequency, duration, time distribution and app sequence launch. Keywords—HCI in Mobile; AI and expert systems; Adaptive user interface framework; k-means algorithm; dynamic shortcuts; mobile app usage; personalization.) I. Introduction An adaptive user interface (also known as AUI) is a user interface (UI) which adapts, that is changes, its layout and elements to the needs of the user or context and is similarly alterable by each user. These mutually reciprocal qualities of both adapting and being adaptable are, in a true AUI, also innate to elements that comprise the interfaces components; portions of the interface might adapt to and affect other portions of the interface. The user adaptation is often a negotiated process, as an adaptive user interfaces designers ignore where user interface components ought to go while affording a means by which both the designers and the user can determine their placement, often (though not always) in a semi-automated, if not fully automated manner. An AUI is primarily created based on the features of the system, and the knowledge levels of the users that will utilize it. Figure 1: Adaptive Graphical User Interface The advantages of an adaptive user interface are found within its ability to conform to a user’s needs. The properties of an AUI allow showing only relevant information based on the current user. This creates less confusion for less experienced users and provides ease of access throughout a system. Depending on the task, we can increase the stability of a system. An adaptive user interface can be implemented in various ways. These implementations can differ between the amount of information available to certain users, or how users utilize the application. Adaptive presentation: The goal behind adaptive presentation is to display certain information based on the current user. This may mean that users with only basic knowledge of a system will only be shown minimal information. Conversely, a user with advanced knowledge will have access to more detailed information and capabilities. A way that the AUI can achieve this differentiation could be to hide information to be presented based on the users experience level. Another possibility is to control the amount of links to relevant sources on the page. Adaptive navigation: Adaptive navigation intends to guide a user to their specific goal within the system by altering the way the system is navigated based on certain factors of the user. These factors can include the user’s expertise level with the system/subject, the current goal within the system, and other relevant factors. Examples of adaptive navigation can be achieved in many ways, similar to adaptive presentation. These can include examples such as providing links to help achieve a user’s specific goal, giving reference on a page to where a user is, or altering the resources available to the user. II. MOTIVATION In the last few years, an ecosystem of devices and heterogeneous services has emerged with a huge variety of capacities and characteristics. These new devices, along with applications and services, must be used to enhance the quality of life, making the users daily activities easier, as well as increasing their personal autonomy. User interfaces in mobile applications are complex since they need to provide sufficient features to variety of users in a restricted space where a small number of components are available. When user acquires expertise in the system they expect user interfaces which satisfy their unique needs. Therefore, user interfaces in mobile applications should be adapted to different users. Since this problem exists in various applications a general solution is required to make user interfaces adaptive using user context history. Figure 2: Different Mobile Devices In this sense, there is a clear need for creating interfaces that adapt themselves taking into account characteristics of the user, context, application and device. One of the aspects to consider when adapting interfaces is the set of preferences of the user. When using different applications or devices, each user has different preferences, mainly related to their limitations. III. Problem Statement Using mobile and its application is a personalized experience. Each user has different preferences, mainly related to their limitations. Hence it is quite essential to account characteristics of the user, context, application and device while designing a Graphical User Interface for mobile platform. It is quite difficult to manage when there are many applications (apps) installed on a mobile device, the simple task of launching an app could become inconvenient, as the user may need to swipe the screen several times to and the desired app. Hence an adaptive user interface solution for mobile devices, which uses dynamic shortcuts to facilitate app launching is needed. In this context, personalization of applications, i.e. applications that adapt themselves to users capacities and limitations is essential. IV. Problem Modeling A. Overview Rather than providing adaptive user interfaces for a specific mobile application, it is more valuable if it would be a common solution to make any UI adaptive. So it is encouraged to provide a framework which can give a common solution which can be used by all developers to create applications which provide adaptive user interfaces. This framework provides Adaptive User Interfaces based on users experience level. The experience levels are classified by Inference Engine which is explained in the subsection Inference Engine. The system will learn the user experience level based on user actions performed on each component of the application with the algorithm. Figure 2: Concept of Adaptive User Interface Figure 3: Module diagram for the system with Adaptive User Interface B. Components of Solution The proposed adaptive user interface is mainly focused on hiding group of unwanted components for corresponding experience level of user on that application. The framework consists of three main phases such as 1. Data preprocessing step 2. Learning step 3. Execution and rendering step Data preprocessing step 1. Location Data: One of the factors to adapt the UI is the location of the user. This is based on the premise that the type of applications a user is expected to access when at home is different from the type of applications accessed when the user is at work. The location is determined by means of the GPS sensor on the mobile device. 2. Device Data: Output of other sensors on the device including the ambient light sensor (to infer whether the user is indoors or outdoors), accelerometer and gyroscope (to say if the user is stationary or moving) can also be used to derive additional contextual information in order to better predict the users chosen application and modify the UI appropriately. 3. App usage Data: Logs of the past application usage, the frequency at which the particular app was accessed and the user actions and interactions while using the app can act as another source of contextual information. 4. Time Data: The type of applications accessed on weekdays might be different from the applications accessed on a weekend or on holidays. Similarly, in the morning the user may access different apps than the ones they do at night. A logging service running in the device would have to log the types of apps accessed at specific times of day or day or the week, and use it to make the appropriate UI modifications. C. Learning step The main purpose of inference engine is to collect the data provided by the data-preprocessing module and provide an experience level of the user according to the current user context. To infer the experience level of the user, the inference engine should behave as an intelligent system which should be trained by data related to user experience level and user interactions between the applications. Figure 4: A High level architecture of adaptive user interface framework Execution and rendering step K-means clustering engine is capable of setting the number of clusters needed. When the number of clusters is set, the engine can cluster the dataset when the squared error becomes minimized. This will give each clusters center points as output. Once the cluster centers are found these cluster centers will be delivered to user type selector. User type selector will appoint each experience level to each center sent by K-means clustering engine. Currently we have manually appointed the experience level for identified centers using natural knowledge. As mentioned earlier who masters the system can suggest these levels for each cluster values. Current user context data will be feed into the User type selector and user type selector will infer a suitable experience level which is closest. This final output will be delivered to the execution and rendering step. D. Implementation In order to practically show the behavior of the framework a proof of concept (POC) application will be developed. A simple application which can be used as an online ticket reservation system for aircrafts will be developed as the application. This application was developed in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript. Android platform has given enough features and Application Programming Interfaces (API) to create an Android application using HTML and JavaScript. Android web application can be created by converting a HTML page to an Android web application using WebView class. Currently there are many third party frameworks and plug-ins are available to convert HTML and JavaScript pages to Android application. This application will be connected to adaptive UI framework using a component called UIhooks. UIhooks are some methods which can be used by the developer during the application development. For example these methods can be used when some events are fired on UI components. When UIhooks are called they are developed in a way to measure the user actions performed on corresponding UI component and store them. For example when a UIhook method is called on a button on click event, the Uihooks is implemented to measure how many time the button was clicked and what is the recent time it was used. If UIhook method is called on a textbox on submit event the Uihook can inspect and store the value submitted and the count of submit action performed. This application is sent to a user study to collect training data. This is elaborated more in User study section. The collected data were organized and feed to inference engine as the training dataset. Inference engine learned the data as elaborated b efore and gave the suitable experience level. Once the experience level is feed to the rendering engine it finds the related rendering logics inside the UI clusters. For example if the experience level is provided as intermediate it checks for the corresponding rendering logics and UI clusters. If it is said as If user Type is intermediate render cluster2 it will build a new UI using what is mentioned in cluster2. Then it renders it to the user. When the user is provided with new adaptive UI a question will be provided to the user asking whether they are satisfied with the new UI or they want to go back to the earlier stage. This is to measure their satisfactory level and the accuracy of the algorithm predictions. V. Mathematical Modeling Let s (be a main set of) ≠¡ {SDB, LDB, C, A, S, MR, AO} where, SDB is the copy of the server database. This database is responsible for storing user information related to cloud interactions. LDB is a set of local database that a user owns. It consists of data tables having data items related to the products and their sales transactions. C is a set of all clients using the server database and mining services from the server. And (c1 , c2 , c3, cn) à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ C. A is a set of algorithms applied on the input data to get mining results. S is the server component of the system. The server is responsible for registering, authenticating and providing associations to the end user. MR is a set of mining rules that are applied on the input dataset provided by the client from his LDB. And (mr1 , mr2 , mr3, mrn) à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ MR AO is a set of associations that are extracted from the input and a form the output of the system. Functionalities : SDB = RegisterUser(uid, password, fullname, address, country, contact, email); password = SHA1(input_password); U = AuthenticateUser(uid, password, SDB); LDB1 = ManageProducts(pid, product name, cost); LDB2 = ManageBilling(transactions, items); LDB = LDB1 + LDB2 ED(Encoded data) = EncodeTransactions(LDB2, EncodingAlgorithm(EA)); UPLOAD(ED); AO = Apply Mining(ED); Results = Decode(Download(AO)) VI. Results Expected Figure 5: Dynamic Shortcuts Figure 6: Adaptive UI VII. Conclusion The aim of our study was to propose a high level architecture for a framework to provide adaptive user interface for mobile applications. This framework includes data preprocessing step, learning step and execution and rendering step to deliver a  suitable user interface. The learning is done by an intelligent system which is unsupervised and trained using user context data. This delivers k number of experience levels by clustering the collected data set using K-means and ANN algorithm. It will also allow dynamic shortcuts to facilitate app launching. Some other options to enhance the proposed dynamic shortcuts solution such as gesture based control will also be explored in the future. VIII. References Aztiria, A. ; Castillejo, E. ; Almeida, A. ; Lopez-de-Ipia, D.Adapting User Interfaces Based on User Preferences and Habits, Intelligent Environments (IE), 2014 International Conference on DOI: 10.1109/IE.2014.9 Publication Year: 2014 , Page(s): 9 – 15 Nivethika, M. ; Vithiya, I. ; Anntharshika, S. ; Deegalla, S.Personalized and adaptive user interface framework for mobile application, Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI), 2013 International Conference on DOI: 10.1109/ICACCI.2013.6637474, Publication Year: 2013 , Page(s): 1913- 1918 Jain, R. ; Bose, J. ; Arif, T. Contextual adaptive user interface for Android devices, India Conference (INDICON), 2013 Annual IEEE DOI: 10.1109/INDCON.2013.6726014 Publication Year: 2013 , Page(s): 1- 5 Ye Xu et al. Preference, Context and Communities: A Multi-faceted approach to Predicting Smartphone App Usage Patterns, In the 17th International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC 2013). Zurich, Switzerland. Mejia-Figueroa, A. ; Juarez-Ramirez, R. Towards a User Model for the Design of Adaptive Interfaces for Autistic Users, Computer Software and Applications Conference Workshops (COMPSACW), 2014 IEEE 38th International DOI: 10.1109/COMPSACW.2014.47 Publication Year: 2014 , Page(s): 264 – 269 Leichtenstern, K. ; Andre, E. 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Ueno, Automatic mobile menu customization based on user operation history, 11th International Conference on HCI with Mobile Devices and Services. J. Brooke, SUS: a quick and dirty usability scale. In P. W. Jordan, B. Thomas, B. A. Weerdmeester, A. L. McClelland (Eds.), Usability Evaluation in Industry (S. 189 -194). London: Taylor and Francis,1996.