Intangible Advantages Research Articles

Perceived Benefits of Mentoring in Pediatric Psychology: A Qualitative Approach

To identify tangible and intangible benefits of mentoring cited by a select group of identified mentors. Twenty frequently named mentors within pediatric psychology provided responses to open-ended questions regarding benefits they have experienced through the mentoring process. Mentors identified many personal and professional benefits of the mentoring relationship, although they did not clearly distinguish between tangible and intangible advantages to the relationship. The most commonly reported benefits included career development of the mentee, mentor's career enhancement, and a sense of giving back to the field of pediatric psychology. A bidirectional definition of mentoring more accurately describes the relationship than a more traditional unidirectional definition. These results suggest that mentors experience a wide variety of benefits that could be examined more closely within the field.

Assessing the benefits of B2B trade cycle integration: a model in the home appliances industry

PurposeThe paper aims to give a quantitative assessment of the benefits obtainable by using information and communication technologies to integrate the order‐to‐payment process involving manufacturers and specialized retailers in the home appliances industry.Design/methodology/approachStandard business processes were defined and activity base costing was applied to develop the cost model with the support, i.e. validation and data provision of most of the companies operating in the Italian home appliances market.FindingsThe bottom line is €96 per order‐to‐payment cycle in the conventional, paper‐based scenario, compared to €23 in the integrated scenario involving the exchange of structured electronic documents. The potential savings amount to about 80 per cent of the costs, almost equally shared between the retailer and the manufacturer. A significant part of the benefits comes from the reduction in the management costs of non‐conformity issues.Research limitations/implicationsThe assessment considers only tangible benefits and does not include more intangible advantages, such as cycle time reduction, compliance with regulation and easier and faster accessibility to documents.Practical implicationsThe paper measures the benefits of using trade process integration technologies and presents a methodology that can be applied to other industries and to particular supply chains. The difficulties in assessing the benefits have been claimed to be one of the main barriers to adoption.Originality/valueThe paper provides a model to assess the order‐to‐payment cycle costs, considering both the costs of the “perfect cycle” (where no errors occur) and the cost of managing non‐conformities. At present, there is no benchmark available in the literature for the order‐to‐payment cycle costs in conventional and integrated conditions that could help companies to assess the expected benefits of integration.

Production system selection for the agile manufacturing of modularly designed products

This paper provides insight into a selection method for production systems from amongst competing alternatives having varying degrees of tangible and intangible advantages and benefits. The specific production system characteristics investigated in this study are for discrete and modularly designed products: products that are designed in such a way that they can be manufactured in modules and thus support the strategy of mass customisation. These products and characteristics are core dimensions and aspects for successful agile manufacturing environment implementations. The decision environment is limited to in-family variations in the products. The Analytical Network Process (ANP) is the methodological approach applied for the production system selection.

Using a Master’s Level Course To Stimulate Creation of High Technology Enterprises

Since 2001, Manchester Science Enterprise Centre has been running a Masters course whereby a student brings a business idea from their own subject area and spends half the time working on developing the technology in their own department and the other half in learning business skills and actually setting up the idea as a live business. Approximately 1/3 of the students leave the course with a trading entity. The business ideas are generally hi-tech ideas from areas such as computing, physics, chemistry, biology and textiles where the university is working on leading edge discoveries. Since its inception in 2001, the course has produced over 30 trading entities from approximately 100 students. Many of these businesses now employ several other people and have received numerous awards and publicity in local and national media. The course has allowed the student to build up the business over the course of the year in an environment of low overheads with intangible advantages such as networking, access to experienced mentors and the academic staff and their connections. However, clearly, setting up a business from a hi-tech idea takes time, often longer than the one year that the student spends at the university, especially those businesses requiring further bench research and large amounts of further funding. It can take time to develop the technology to a workable level, to source funding, find partner companies etc. Many need to protect their intellectual property before any funding can be considered. Many ventures were in a position to apply for funding e.g. Government grants by the end of the year but where no funding was found many students opted for applying for jobs out of necessity. Several students needed to be entrepreneurial, working part time e.g. consultancy while trying to forward their business. This paper will detail what can be achieved in one year using examples as to how former students have obtained funding for their ventures from this unique start and what new strategies we have as a department to aid this process. It will also show how the companies have grown from a venture space (just a desk, computer and telephone) to a university incubator space using examples of projects that have successfully been completed from the master’s course which have either led to a successful start up company or to “knowledge transfer” between the university and an outside agency.

Intangible Assets and Firm Diversification

The purpose of the paper is to re-examine internalisation and transaction cost theories of firm FDI. The methodology is based on cross sectional multivariate regressions and the Fama-French (1998) three factor event study procedure. In addition to the key explanatory variables we introduce and model several important control variables. We find evidence consistent with the internalisation and transaction cost hypotheses. Firms classified with internalisation advantages earn event period abnormal returns of 6.84 percent above firms that are classified without such advantages. In support of transaction cost theory we find that FDIs generate an average abnormal event period return of -2.36 percent. Further, in line with transaction cost theory we find firms classified with intangible asset advantages also tend to engage in the more complex forms of foreign and industrial diversification. A limitation of the study is we have not determined if the effect linked to the possession of intangible asset advantages is temporary or permanent. The study provides new and strengthened support for internalization theory and transactions cost theory.

전송효율과 보안수준을 고려한 EDI 시스템과 VPN의 IPSec와 L2TP의 연동

Electronic Data Interchange(EDI) between a number of companies goes on increasing on the internet. Although a conventional EDI system reduces business process efforts, time, resources, etc., important information is easily and frequently exposed by well trained hackers and crackers, which inflict a severe loss on the company and even put the company under a crisis. This study integrates the conventional EDI system and Virtual Private Tet(VPN) to maximize an overall efficiency of speed and security in data transferring by the level of importance. The EDI system interfaced to IPSec and L2TP of VPN allows us to select two modes : the one focuses on a high speed with a low or a medium level security or the other does on a high level security with a low or a medium level speed. Both the company and the end users get a lot of tangible and intangible advantages by integrating the EDI system and VPN.

Clinical preventive medicine in business and industry: a rational foundation.

The individual educational and intervention emphasis of clinical preventive medicine programs is successful in reducing an employee's risk for disease and injury. Although some studies note that decreased risk is found predominantly in those with low initial risk, a critical mass of healthful lifestyles may spread to non-participants in the organization, the halo effect. Thus, the more employees there are modeling a health lifestyle, the greater likelihood others will follow. Preventive medicine programs offer intangible advantages to the employer. Such programs demonstrate an attitude of caring for the employee which has an influence on the public. Happier employees tend to increase their level of socialization within a company. The ultimate effect is decreased employee risk, improved productivity, reduced absenteeism, and improved health at reduced cost.

Marine Drilling and Well Completions from Floating Platforms

SHIELDS, C.M.; STANDARD OIL CO. OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. Abstract Floating drilling vessels and barges have been used extensively in California coastal waters for core drilling since the early 1950's. The techniques developed in these operations have recently been used for full- scale drilling operation, and some wells have been completed on the ocean floor as successful producers. The floating drilling vessel technique, although still in an early state of development, provides a method for economically exploring deep-water areas; developing marine reserves when additional platforms cannot be justified; and performing exploratory and developing drilling in remote arias. The limitation on the method are in deep diving, vessel mooring systems and high drill pipe and casing stresses caused by vessel movement. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to review the recent developments and accomplishments of the floating drilling vessel techniques, compare the relative economics of developing marine oilfields from floating and fixed platforms, and to examine the risks and intangible advantages in drilling from floating vessels. Drilling operations from floating barges may be divided into three phases. The first phase, starting shortly after World War II, was concerned with obtaining shallow cores in water depths to approximately 100 ft. For the most part cores were obtained using punch or jetting methods, although some work was done with small rotary rigs operated "over-the-side" of small vessels. During this phase over 500,000 ft. of 4 to 6 in. diameter core holes were drilled to depths of 500 ft. below the water surface. The second phase of the floating drilling operations was started about 1954. This phase was initiated with the construction of medium size, 150- to 200-ft vessels employing regular rotary drilling equipment mounted on the center line of the vessel. Ten- to 12-ft holes were cut in the vessel hulls, through which the drilling operation was performed. Operating through the center of the vessel, rather than overside, minimized the effect of vessel roll and pitch and substantially improved the over-all drilling operation. During this second phase, as many as six floating drilling vessels were in service off the California coast. Operations were conducted in water depths to 400 ft and holes drilled to 10,000 ft below the water surface. Drilling operations were also conducted in other areas with shallower water. The third phase of the floating drilling operations was started about 1958 and continues to the present time. This phase is characterized by a further refinement in the drilling technique and development of ocean-bottom drilling equipment, by which wells have been completed on the ocean floor as successful producers. During this phase, new, large drilling vessels have been developed for operations in water depths beyond 300 ft and for drilling to 15,000 ft as efficiently as land or fixed-platform equipment. Description Of Drilling Method The procedure in drilling from a floating vessel is in many respects similar to drilling from a fixed platform or land location. The principal difference, however, is in accounting for the relative motion between the vessel and the ocean floor, caused by currents, wave motion and the inherent springing characteristics of the mooring system. Drilling methods and equipment used with floating vessels have been improved in recent years, although the basic method is essentially unchanged. As shown in Fig. 1 the ocean bottom equipment usually consists of a base plate or template, blowout preventer stack, disconnect coupling, flexible joint, riser pipe and telescopic joint. Guide lines attached to the template provide a means of re-entering the hole during the initial drilling operation. During subsequent drilling operations the riser pipe is used for guiding pipe and tools into the hole as well as providing a conduit for drilling fluid returns. The flexible member and telescopic joint are required to accommodate the lateral and vertical motion of the moored vessel. Disconnect couplings as shown in Fig. 1 are installed above and below the blowout preventers. The upper disconnect joint will permit the riser and associated equipment to be removed for repairs and replacement without disturbing the blowout- preventer assembly. This connection may also be disengaged when operations are secured because of storms and sea conditions. JPT P. 605ˆ

Application of the Principle of Maximum Effect

A REMARK by Mr. M. B. Donald on p. 298 of NATURE of March 11 could usefully be extended. The validity of the application of minimization and minimization to determine optima is not confined to chemistry or to branches of descriptive science and technology. Politicians balance intangible advantages qualitatively; but if the state of a material can be expressed in terms of numbers, a quantitative balance can. usually be made by equating disadvantages. This can often be done arithmetically.