Search results for "Diversification"
showing 10 items of 181 documents
Evolution of metaphors: Phylogeny of oil slick cartoons in Spanish press
2014
The main purpose of this article is to analyze the evolution of a metaphor set over time. By studying cartoons about the oil slick caused by the Prestige oil tanker in 2002 on Spanish shores and the subsequent court decision in 2013, we observe a progressive metaphor diversification and evolution, with the oil slick as an old common trait. Additionally, using basic cladistical methods, we propose a phylogenetic tree for the metaphor set, from a common ancestor to the subsequent diversification regarding news content. These results show that phylogenetic models can be very helpful in understanding the evolution of conceptual metaphors, and this method of analysis could even be a methodologi…
Microbreweries, brewpubs and beerfirms in the Sicilian craft beer industry
2019
Purpose This paper aims to illustrate the organisational and managing models characterising the craft beer producers in Sicily (Southern Italy) and the main issues of the provision of raw materials. Design/methodology/approach A direct survey involving the overall population of 41 craft breweries operating in Sicily in 2016 was carried out. Then 29 questionnaires were collected for exploratory analysis. A hierarchical cluster analysis was also performed out to group companies by similar structural, productive and economic features. Findings The findings of the survey showed a Sicilian craft beer industry characterised by a substantial dependence on the import of malts hops and yeasts and t…
Female exogamy and gene pool diversification at the transition from the final neolithic to the early Bronze Age in central Europe
2017
Human mobility has been vigorously debated as a key factor for the spread of bronze technology and profound changes in burial practices as well as material culture in central Europe at the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. However, the relevance of individual residential changes and their importance among specific age and sex groups are still poorly understood. Here, we present ancient DNA analysis, stable isotope data of oxygen, and radiogenic isotope ratios of strontium for 84 radiocarbon-dated skeletons from seven archaeological sites of the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker Complex and the Early Bronze Age from the Lech River valley in southern Bavaria, Germany. Complete mitocho…
Emotional expressiveness of 5–6 month-old infants born very premature versus full-term at initial exposure to weaning foods
2016
International audience; Facial expressions of 5-6 month-old infants born preterm and at term were compared while tasting for the first time solid foods (two fruit and two vegetable purees) given by the mother. Videotapes of facial reactions to these foods were objectively coded during the first six successive spoons of each test food using Baby FACS and subjectively rated by naive judges. Infant temperament was also assessed by the parents using the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire. Contrary to our expectations, infants born preterm expressed fewer negative emotions than infants born full-term. Naive judges rated infants born preterm as displaying more liking than their full-term counterparts…
Determinants of Banks’ Profitability: Evidence from EU 27 Banking Systems
2015
Abstract In this study we assess the main determinants of banks’ profitability in EU27 over the period 2004-2011. We split the factors that influence bank profitability in two large groups: bank-specific (internal) factors and industry specific and macroeconomic (external) factors. We consider as proxy for banks profitability the return on average assets (ROAA) and the return on average equity (ROAE). The empirical findings are consistent with the expected results. Credit and liquidity risk, management efficiency, the diversification of business, the market concentration/competition and the economic growth have influence on bank profitability, both on ROAA and ROAE. An interesting and valua…
Controlling risk through diversification in portfolio selection with non-historical information
2017
We deal with the portfolio selection problem for investors having information on the expected returns of the assets based not only on historical data. In the absence of a way of measuring the risk of non-historical information, the investor may try to adjust it through the consideration of a suitable set of diversification constraints. With this aim, we relate the concept of value of information (recently introduced by Kao and Steuer) to a qualitative subjective measure of the investor’s level of confidence in his/her non-historical information. As an illustration, we analyze the behavior of the proposed indicator in the Spanish IBEX35 index for risk, upper bound, semicontinuous variable an…
Antecedents of entry mode choice when diversifying
2009
Abstract Corporate diversification is one of the broadest investigation topics in strategic management, but there are important gaps in the literature regarding entry mode choice. Few studies have examined the extent to which pre-entry conditions influence the choice of entry mode into new businesses. Past research has focused exclusively on internal development and acquisition as ways of entering new businesses, without considering the existence of hybrid forms, such as strategic alliances, that have experienced extensive growth during the last decade. Here we present an in-depth analysis of entry mode choice that uses an integrative perspective of corporate diversification and considers s…
Three decades of subsidiary exits: Parent firm financial performance and moderators
2020
Abstract This study aimed to find important constructs and relationships among models of subsidiary divestment during the period from 1989 to 2018 using correlation matrices of 80 studies, the selection of which was based on six criteria. It revealed eight important constructs, namely firm innovativeness, environmental factors in the target country, type of experience, organizational characteristics, investment strategy, parent firm financial performance, subsidiary divestment, and the moderating effects of advertising intensity and product diversification. Furthermore, it shed light on seven relationships that should be considered in future attempts to assess parent performance related to …
The quality of websites and their impact on economic performance: The case of nurseries and gardening companies in the Italian 'Mezzogiorno' regions
2014
The aim of this paper is to examine the quality of websites and the entrepreneurial perception of the importance of the website to improve the business performance in nurseries and gardening companies adopting web-marketing strategies. On this purpose, the paper firstly analyses which structural features enable a potential website to be labelled as 'good'; the awareness of these aspects is pivotal to define effective web-marketing solutions. Secondly, it examines whether the plant nursery entrepreneurs perceive the company website as a tool of additional sales able to increase the firm turnover. The results show that the websites are well framed and with a well-groomed design, but lacking i…
Intelligent Multi-Start Methods
2018
Heuristic search procedures aimed at finding globally optimal solutions to hard combinatorial optimization problems usually require some type of diversification to overcome local optimality. One way to achieve diversification is to re-start the procedure from a new solution once a region has been explored, which constitutes a multi-start procedure. In this chapter we describe the best known multi-start methods for solving optimization problems. We also describe their connections with other metaheuristic methodologies. We propose classifying these methods in terms of their use of randomization, memory and degree of rebuild. We also present a computational comparison of these methods on solvi…