Major Commitment Research Articles

Zoltek

In 1996, the St. Louis-based manufacturer Zoltek launched a massive expansion of capacity to produce commercial-grade carbon fiber, a composite material used to produce a wide variety of end products ranging from sporting goods to windmill blades. Zoltek's goal was to become the dominant firm in a market whose growth was expected to be spectacular starting in the late 1990s. Describes Zoltek's major strategic moves in the mid-1990s and provides a possible example of the Stackelberg leadership model from oligopoly theory.To explore the economic logic of a major capacity commitment.

External Quality Assurance of the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link Business Case—Too Little, Too Late, and Too Unreliable

The external quality assurance (EQA) of the Fehmarn Belt fixed link business case commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Transport is critically analyzed regarding the New Construction Budgeting requirements as well as common practical criteria. A time line of analyses, decisions and external quality assurance activities as well as external criticism is established as a basis for analyzing the completeness, timeliness and trustworthiness of the quality assurance. Information obtained per the Public Records Act is included. It is found that the external quality assurance was grossly incomplete with limited scopes and exclusion of major elements of the project. The overall financial performance and financial uncertainty analyses were not subject to external quality assurance at all. The bulk of external quality assurance was carried out only after the decision-to-build was made, preparatory construction activities initiated or major economic commitments made, thus jeopardizing the timeliness. The trustworthiness of the external quality assurance is limited for different reasons: bad timing of activities, lack of independence of consultancies, and controversial findings of opposing analyses. The external quality assurance is found to be too little, too late, and too unreliable. The status of the project as a high-risk business case is not improved by the external quality assurance.

The Relationship Between the Transactional Leadership of the Professor Perceived by the College Students of the Physical Education for Major Satisfaction, Learning Commitment, and Employment Strategy

The Relationship Between the Transactional Leadership of the Professor Perceived by the College Students of the Physical Education for Major Satisfaction, Learning Commitment, and Employment Strategy

Zwischen drei Kulturen: Musik und Nationalitätsbildung in Triest by Matej Santi

Reviewed by: Zwischen drei Kulturen: Musik und Nationalitätsbildung in Triestby Matej Santi Steven R. Cerf Matej Santi, Zwischen drei Kulturen: Musik und Nationalitätsbildung in Triest. Studien zur Kultur, Geschichte und Theorie der Musik. Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Analyse, Theorie und Geschichte der Musik an der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien 9. Vienna: Hollitzer, 2015. 230 pp. This unique book covering the flourishing life of musical performance and its key nationalistic implications in Trieste throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and into the first two decades of the twentieth is singularly enriched by the author's fluency in the three languages—Italian, Slovene, and German—of this, the largest sea harbor of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. It also benefits from Santi's deep musicological knowledge, which allows [End Page 190]him to appraise the musical scores and the many journalistic sources under discussion. Santi's graceful translations from the Italian and the Slovene into German make the book all the more seamlessly accessible for the German-language reader. Upon opening and closing the tome, one is greeted by a vibrantly colored two-page map of 1850 focusing on the proximity of the three cultural venues featured in the study: the Teatro Verdi, standing across from the German-language Schiller Verein on the Piazza Grande, and just three avenues away, the site where the Narodni dom (the Slovene National Hall) was built between 1901 and 1904. The clear structure of the book begins with Santi's lucidly written forty-page introduction covering his critical methodology of analyzing contemporary nineteenth-and early twentieth-century journalistic articles that trace the simultaneous growth of the performing musical arts in the most prosperous Austrian-Hungarian seaport. The three major chapter blocks that follow, each between 40 and 60 pages, trace respectively the significant role of Italian opera in the city's cultural life, the growing Slovene cultural presence in Trieste's city center, and the German-language musical dominance through the relatively long-lasting Schiller Verein. Early on, Santi convincingly claims that the contemporary journalistic articles found in Trieste's magazines and newspapers that reside at the heart of his research served a double function: On the one hand, they were centripetal in manifesting a growing confidence in music as innately nationalistic, if not chauvinistic, and on the other hand, they were centrifugal in convincing the entire community of Trieste of the intrinsic value of the given musical pieces and their performances. The first chapter traces the dominance of Italian opera in Trieste from the late eighteenth century to the outbreak of World War I. Although Santi discusses the first decades of the nineteenth-century operatic life and the myriad performances of the belcanto opera, it is his thirty-page discussion of Giuseppe Verdi's operas in Trieste that gives a sense of Verdi's artistic and political importance to the growing tide of Risorgimento sentiment among the most populous segment of Trieste—the Italian-language community, numbering 65 percent of the city's population in 1910. In particular, there are three areas of Santi's Verdi discussion that are most convincing: the continually central Verdi operatic productions that served as a successful repertory lynchpin; the changing of the name of the Teatro Communale to the Teatro Verdi in 1901, Verdi's death year; and the erection of the Giuseppe Verdi statue in 1906. One major plus of this edition is the manifold visuals contained amidst the pages [End Page 191]of verbal narrative: they include a page-long program cast listing of the star-studded memorial concert for Verdi, the vocal portion of which began with his stirring nationalistic chorus of "Va pensiero" from Nabucco. Although Verdi enjoyed two premieres of earlier operas in Trieste, it was the major commitment of the opera house to his later mature operas that made him the most important of the three Risorgimento Giuseppes: unlike Garibaldi and Mazzini, the regular performances of his works themselves, with their social and psychological immediacy, manifested the composer's undying commitment to a united Italy. Santi's focus on the Narodni dom (the Slovene Town Hall) as the cultural central gathering place...

Organizational Commitment among the Employees of NGOs in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study

Committed human resource is one of the most valuable and effective assets of an organization. Meyer and Allen (1993) have documented that organizational commitment as a leading factor impacting the level of achievement in many organizations. Commitment-based organizations believe that staff’s organizational commitment contributes to workforce stability and better customer service, hence increase business performance. This study investigates the organizational commitment of NGOs employees’ in Bangladesh. It focuses on the relative importance of organizational commitment and their impact on the overall organizational success. A total number of 120 employees from three selected NGOs located at different districts in Bangladesh have been interviewed for this study purpose. Data have been collected through structured questionnaire. While tackling the issue addressed in the study relevant statistical tools and techniques were applied at appropriate places. The researchers have tried to measure the organizational commitment through recognized three major elements like-affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. The study revealed that the level of organizational commitment relating to above mentioned elements is not satisfactory. It is also exposed that demographic variables like age, gender, education and working experiences seemed to affect the commitment of employees. Another noticeable outcome of the study is that the organizational commitment has a significant impact on selected NGOs operations in Bangladesh.

Comunicación y mediación en los sistemas democráticos. La experiencia italiana

Este articulo toma como punto de partida el amplio horizonte politico que presentan los cambios introducidos en Italia para la lucha contra la criminalidad organizada y un gran empeno institucional en la educacion en la legalidad. El autor ha tratado de mostrar una sintesis de las actividades y los estudios para la legalidad que reune todo un conjunto de esfuerzos, desde diversas manifestaciones institucionales y desde diversas disciplinas (Derecho, Sociologia, Psiquiatria, Pedagogia y Antropologia). El concepto de legalidad esta presente en las diferentes experiencias de las sociedades humanas, como una categoria independiente, pero es complejo y multidimensional, entretejido con casi todos los diferentes ambitos de la vida. Entendemos que desde el amplio conocimiento del ser humano se puede crear una mas adecuada comprension de las dificultades que obstaculizan el cumplimiento de la legalidad, a nivel de las masas; al mismo tiempo necesitamos pensar nuevos modelos para mejorar nuestra legalidad y nuestras sociedades, nuestros Estados y Naciones. Junto a las consideraciones teoricas e institucionales, para ilustrar la situacion italiana, en el texto se muestran los datos de muchos estudios empiricos, como los realizados por Eurostat, Istat, Iard, y Save the Children.

Effects of educational outcomes and major commitment on employment volition of undergraduate accounting: Focused on the moderating effect of positive psychological capital

Effects of educational outcomes and major commitment on employment volition of undergraduate accounting: Focused on the moderating effect of positive psychological capital

Understanding Commitment

Various factors have shown to relate to different forms of career commitment (i.e., affective, continuance, and normative commitment). Commitment has been associated with intent to remain within a profession or organization, suggesting that commitment is an important component of career retention. Correspondingly, commitment to one’s academic major may also provide information about university retention. The current study examined fit (e.g., objective and subjective), attitudes (e.g., organizational commitment, satisfaction, involvement, and intention to quit), and demographic (e.g., semesters in major) factors that have been previously related to career commitment to investigate the construct of major commitment of undergraduate students ( N = 303). Using canonical correlation analysis, several significant relationships were found with approximately 69% and 67% of the shared variance between the three forms of major commitment and other variables for Black and White students, respectively, being explained.

The Impact of Precision Medicine in Diabetes: A Multidimensional Perspective.

In his State of the Union address on 20 January 2015, President Barack Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative. Although the concept of “precision medicine” has been present for nearly a decade, many interpretations of precision medicine exist. At its core, precision medicine is a model that proposes the custom delivery of health care, with medical practices, testing, decisions, and treatments tailored to the individual patient level (1). Diagnostic tests and therapies are selected on the basis of not only the specific ‘omics signature (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, methylomics, proteomics, methylomics) but also the specific risk factor profile and health history obtained from the electronic health record. In March 2015, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Collins established a working group to develop a plan for creating and managing a collection of 1 million volunteers to comprise a precision medicine research cohort. On 17 September 2015, Dr. Collins accepted the framework that would establish the Precision Medicine Initiative, which includes providing the support to build the infrastructure for recruitment of the cohort, collection of the health data, banking of specimens, and launching research. This initial effort for precision medicine represents a major commitment of funds from the NIH. In this regard, President Obama allocated $215 million in fiscal year 2016 to support the initiative, and $130 million alone was targeted for the research participant cohort. Clearly, the Precision Medicine Initiative ushers in a paradigm change in the way we approach patient care. Specifically, it launches a new era of research, technology, and policy in this area, one in which the participant, the health care practitioner, and research merge into an individual-level relationship focused on the maintenance of health and the prevention and treatment of common human diseases. But, given that the editorial team at Diabetes Care desires to provide the most …

International Congress of Drug Therapy in HIV Infection 23-26 October 2016, Glasgow, UK.

Scientific advances over the 35 years since AIDS was first recognized as a new disease, have put us on a clear path towards ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Scaling-up access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and HIV prevention strategies, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, could dramatically decrease HIV-related deaths and the rate of new HIV infections. Current and future scientific advances, notably in HIV vaccine and cure research, will accelerate this process. Two major directions in HIV vaccine development will be discussed: building on the results from RV 144, the clinical trial in Thailand that resulted in the first modest signal of efficacy for a HIV vaccine; and structure-based immunogen design to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies. Cure research has accelerated greatly over the past few years in two areas. The first is the prospect of eradicating the HIV reservoir altogether (i.e. a classic cure), which might involve novel latency-reversing and immunotoxic regimens and gene editing techniques to create a host cellular environment that does not allow HIV replication. The second approach involves controlling viral rebound following discontinuation of ART to achieve sustained virological remission employing strategies, such as passive transfer of broadly neutralizing antibodies and therapeutic vaccination. In 2016, the arsenal of scientifically proven interventions available, as well as the hope of others to come, offer unprecedented opportunities to make major gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS. With a major global commitment to implement these scientific advances, the end of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is now achievable.

Foreword

Exploitation of renewable and non-renewable resources from seas and oceans has underpinned the prosperity and livelihoods of many communities and nations, in some cases for millennia. Over the last century, however, the industrialization of some of these uses has extended and escalated their impacts dramatically. The consequent collapses of a number of major fisheries and the near extinction of several species has highlighted the need for better understanding and management of the use of marine resources. The impacts of land-based activities on coastal and marine resources raise similar concerns. Growing awareness of the importance of the oceans, not only for food but also for a wide range of services delivered by healthy marine ecosystems, has resulted in a much stronger global focus on a range of ocean-related issues including the conservation of marine biodiversity. The 6th IUCN World Parks Congress held in Sydney, Australia in November 2014 marked some important shifts in awareness and thinking on the importance and benefits of protected areas for human livelihoods and health, disaster risk reduction, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. The Congress included a major focus on marine protected areas (MPAs) in this broad context of ensuring the maintenance of the vital services provided by healthy ocean ecosystems. Participants at the Congress celebrated an enormous variety of inspiring ways of addressing the challenges facing our planet through protected area approaches that respect and conserve nature while benefiting human health and prosperity. This special issue of Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems contains an outstanding selection of papers from the Congress's cross-cutting theme on oceans. The Promise of Sydney – a key output from the Congress – noted that healthy oceans are critical to life on Earth and must be protected at much greater scale. This requires bold vision and concerted actions if we are to meet conservation goals and human aspirations for current and future generations. Globally, significant progress is now being made to better protect marine ecosystems but pressures from human activities are intensifying and will require global cooperation and action to reduce adverse impacts on future generations. Reflecting this imperative, in 2015 the Sustainable Development Goals were endorsed, with a specific goal for oceans. Encouragingly, the extent of marine protected areas is beginning to rise steadily, and some major country commitments are being made to greatly increase their marine protected area estates. It is vital that these initiatives are widely understood, strongly supported and adequately resourced to build the capacity needed to deliver their objectives and protect our oceans. We hope that the papers in this volume will contribute towards that end.

Explaining intermittent exporting: Exit and conditional re-entry in export markets

Intermittent exporting is something of a puzzle. In theory, exporting represents a major commitment, and is often the starting point for further internationalization. However, intermittent exporters exit and subsequently re-enter exporting, sometimes frequently. We develop a conceptual model to explain how firm characteristics and market conditions interact to affect the decision to exit and re-enter exporting, and model this process using an extensive dataset of French manufacturing firms from 1997 to 2007. As anticipated, smaller and less productive firms are more likely to exit exporting, and react more strongly to changes in both domestic and foreign markets than larger firms. Exit and re-entry are closely linked. Firms with a low exit probability also have a high likelihood of re-entry, and vice versa. However, the way in which firms react to market conditions at the time of exit matters greatly in determining the likelihood of re-entry: thus re-entry depends crucially on the strategic rationale for exit. Our analysis helps explain the opportunistic and intermittent exporting of (mainly) small firms, the demand conditions under which intermittent exporting is most likely to occur, and the firm attributes most likely to give rise to such behavior.

Religion and Social Cooperation: Results from an Experiment in Ghana

The international community recently adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Achieving these goals by 2030 will require major commitments and efforts. It will also require cooperation between multiple groups and stakeholders, both nationally and internationally. An interesting question is whether religious diversity and the evocation of religion tend to be conducive to “social cooperation” between individuals from various religious traditions. We refer here to social cooperation in a fairly broad sense, but we focus in this paper on specific measures of altruism and trustworthiness between individuals of various different religious affiliations.

Tuberculosis Biomarkers: From Diagnosis to Protection.

New approaches to control tuberculosis (TB) worldwide are needed. In particular, new tools for diagnosis and new biomarkers are required to evaluate both pathogen and host key elements of the response to infection. Non-sputum based diagnostic tests, biomarkers predictive of adequate responsiveness to treatment, and biomarkers of risk of developing active TB disease are major goals. Here, we review the current state of the field. Although reports on new candidate biomarkers are numerous, validation and independent confirmation are rare. Efforts are needed to reduce the gap between the exploratory up-stream identification of candidate biomarkers, and the validation of biomarkers against clear clinical endpoints in different populations. This will need a major commitment from both scientists and funding bodies.

Nikolaos Frangogiannis: Preventing Dangerous Remodeling After Myocardial Infarction.

Nikolaos G. Frangogiannis, MD, is the Edmond J. Safra/Republic National Bank of New York Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Frangogiannis graduated from the University of Athens School of Medicine in 1990 and two years later left his native Greece to pursue a residency in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Accepted into the Clinical Investigator Pathway, he got his first research experience in the laboratory of Mark L. Entman, MD, working with a strong group of investigators exploring myocardial inflammation in response to injury. Frangogiannis remained in Houston for 18 years, joining the faculty and establishing an independent laboratory in 1999 to expand on previous concepts on the role of inflammation in cardiac injury and repair, by probing numerous signaling pathways. The laboratory investigated whether the chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1/CCL2 was a critical regulator of myocardial infarct healing, using MCP-1 knockout mice to show that the absence of MCP-1 results in attenuated postinfarction left ventricular remodeling, but at the high cost of a prolonged inflammatory phase and delayed replacement of injured cardiomyocytes with granulation tissue.1 Using a closed-chest model of coronary infarction/reperfusion in mice, Frangogiannis’ laboratory discovered that transforming growth factor (TGF)-β/Smad3 signaling, while having antiproliferative effects, actually promotes fibrogenic actions, particularly in the infarct border zone and in the adjacent remodeling myocardium following infarction, expanding the fibrotic process into noninfarcted areas and contributing to diastolic dysfunction.2 In 2010, Frangogiannis moved to New York, where he has deployed new tools to study the cell biology of cardiac remodeling in vivo, whether following infarction or in response to other injurious stimuli, such as metabolic disease. For example, in 2013 his laboratory demonstrated that the matricellular protein thrombospondin-1 has both direct and indirect effects on the cardiac …

Just asking: How and why Northwestern University established a system of fundraiser accountability metrics

In 2011 Northwestern University (NU) began to implement a system of fundraiser accountability metrics in response to the launch of its US$3.75bn campaign. Within three years, the establishment of this system catalysed a cultural change within the university’s development office. Emphasis moved away from visit and contact activity and towards solicitations, under the philosophy that focusing officers’ energies on making major gift asks was the most effective way of ensuring major gift commitments and dollars raised, and therefore campaign success. NU’s officers exhibited less territoriality and had a more energised approach to portfolio management. Senior leadership had access to concrete data about organisational and individual progress towards campaign goals, and NU’s development office set internal records for the number and amount of major gifts raised.

Libya crisis: Wishful thinking still isn't a viable strategy

ABSTRACTDespite the recent installation of a new, so-called Unity government in Tripoli, unresolved political differences among rival factions and the violence perpetuated by Islamic extremists in Libya suggest any interim stabilization of the country may be short-lived. Declarations that the 2011 intervention in Libya was a success have long been overshadowed by a chorus of critics who argue it created more problems than it solved. Hoping for another casualty-free, short-term intervention is not a realistic option. If the U.S. and regional players wish to right Libya's course, and cement it indefinitely, it will require a major and long-term in-country commitment that few would find politically or fiscally palatable. Diving in deeply or largely staying out appear to be the only real-world choices available.

Comparison of status and predictors of academic burnout between Korean Nationality and Han Nationality nursing students

Objective To investigate the status and difference of learning burnout between Korean- Chinese nursing students and Chinese nursing students; and to compare the influencing factors of learning burnout between them. Methods A total of 307 nursing students in Yanbian University were recruited by convenience sampling method. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20.0, using descriptive statistics,t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis. Results The emotion and learning burnout of Korean- Chinese nursing students scored (3.18±0.52) points and (2.84±0.33) points, which were higher than (3.04±0.53) points and (2.69±0.36) points of Chinese nursing students (t=5.72, 4.19, allP <0.05); The significant predictors of learning burnout of Korean-Chinese nursing students were effective commitment, continuance commitment and ideality commitment; and the significant predictors of Chinese nursing students were effective commitment, continuance commitment and behavior self - efficacy. Conclusions Because of the special background of Korean-Chinese nursing students, it is suggested payed attention to improve their major commitment and learning self-efficacy, then to decrease their learning burnout. Key words: Students, Nursing; Professional commitment; Academic self-efficacy; Academic burnout

Priority needs and wisdom strategy for blood transfusion safety in developing low-resource countries

ObjectiveTo evaluate the implementation of alternative safety measures that reduce the risk of transfusion transmissible infections as an affordable measure in low resource countries. BackgroundIt is still difficult in developing countries with limited resources to mandate nucleic acid testing due to its high cost. Although NAT reduces the window period of infection, the developing countries are still in need of an efficient and effective transfusion programme before implementing the complex high cost NAT. Study Design and MethodsTwo thousand eight hundred eighty sero-negative first-time and repeat donations from Fayoum University Hospital blood bank were individually analysed by NAT for HIV, HBV and HCV. Only discriminatory-positive NAT were classified comparing the non-remunerated and family replacement donations. ResultsSignificant discriminatory-positive differences were observed for HBV NAT results, 2 remunerated donations compared to 0 non-remunerated sero-negative donations. The discriminatory positive differences were also significant for HCV NAT results, 4 remunerated donations compared to 1 non-remunerated sero-negative donation. No sero-negative, discriminatory-positive NAT HIV case was found. Seven out of 8 discriminatory positive cases were from first time donations. ConclusionIn order to ensure blood safety, the recruitment and retention of voluntary, non-remunerated repeat donors should be a major commitment for low resource countries in which NAT implementation is costly and not feasible.

The Precursor Role of Cooperation, Coordination, and Relationship Assets in a Relationship Model

ABSTRACTPurpose: The primary purpose of this study is to test the importance of activity-oriented precursors in a relationship model. This study supports the theoretical view that firms create trust and knowledge through activities and these activities make a commitment decision less risky (Johanson & Vahlne, 2009). The secondary purpose of this study is to collect and examine data from interorganizational relationships in both Sweden and the United States. By including data from two countries, results will be more generalizable. Results can also lead to several managerial implications.Methodology/approach: This study focuses on a sample of distributors from both the United States and Sweden. One hundred sixty-one usable surveys were returned from the U.S. survey, for a response rate of 27%. One hundred twenty-four usable surveys were returned from the Swedish survey, for a response rate of 21%. The PLS-SEM method was used to examine the model’s constructs.Findings: Similar to past research results show that trust and commitment have a direct positive influence on satisfaction, and that trust also has a direct positive influence on commitment. However, this study uniquely supports four out of six newly tested hypotheses. Both cooperation and relationship assets have a direct positive influence on commitment. Cooperation has a direct positive influence on trust and commitment. Relationship assets have a direct negative influence on trust but a direct positive influence on commitment. Surprisingly, two hypotheses were not supported: Coordination did not have a significant relationship with either trust or commitment.Research implications: Managers who want to achieve a satisfactory relationship based on trust and commitment need to prioritize their attention toward cooperation. They should also be aware that participation in joint activities (i.e., coordination and relationship investments) does not guarantee higher levels of trust or commitment in the relationship. It is the quality of the joint activities and the how dependent firms are on each other and not just participation in joint activities that are likely to create higher levels of trust or commitment. The quality of coordination and manageable levels of dependence may counteract the higher costs associated with joint activities compared to the costs associated with cooperation. Managers may be wise to not make major commitments to other firms unless high quality joint activities have created knowledge and trust between firms.Originality/value/contribution: The model adds the joint activity-oriented antecedents associated with collaboration which is essential to a successful relationship. Because of the high failure rate of collaboration may be due to cooperation and coordination failures and because these two constructs are underspecified in interorganizational research, this study is unique in examining activity-oriented antecedents in a trust/commitment model of relationship satisfaction in a cross-cultural context (i.e., with U.S. and Swedish samples).